Annual Conference: Day 1

After day one of my first ever Annual Conference I have to say... It's really not so bad.

I'm serving in the Upper New York Annual Conference. This is a conference which was four different conferences only a few years ago, and some of those conferences didn't even bring their full membership over. On top of that a new Bishop was appointed less than a year ago so this is his first Annual Conference with the UNYAC.

Despite the turmoils that can come with merging lots of conferences, and having a new person leading the proceedings day one was pretty alright.

My day at conference started off in an impossible to hear seminar for lay members that pretty much focused on how apportionments work. After we moved so we could kind of hear everything we got some wrong information on how the whole system works. Luckily we had enough people handy who were willing to guide others through the process.

If you're not United Methodist or you have no idea what apportionments are and/or how they work here's a handy explanation:

Apportionments are paid by churches to the larger church to keep all the support pieces of the church operating that don't have an actual congregation attached to them. The actual breakdown of apportionments is based on an individual dollar put into a collection plate. Of that dollar: $0.84 stays in the church that it was given in. $0.13 goes to Jurisdictions, Annual Conferences, and Districts. $0.02 goes to the general church and $0.01 goes to other general funds like the Advance, World Service Specials, and Special Sundays.

There. Not so complicated right?

The voting today went well too. A motion to make any votes regarding human sexuality to be made by ballot and not by a show of hands was quickly approved which was a great early motion to have. And the only motion that caused any sort of stir today had to do with an amendment to how the requirement of internet for clergy in their homes would be addressed. It was rather funny after the vote was ruled as passed by the Bishop there arose a great grumbling from the crowd. So they did a recount, and the Bishop again ruled it as passed.

When the only controversy in voting stems from internet access, it's a good day I think.

So that's day one of the UNYAC .

I'll try to post a recap as we go along of each day. 

A Growing Community

For those who don't know, I have an older brother who is about to become a pastor. While he was still in undergrad he met a lot of people who were also on track to become pastors. I chalked this up by and large to him going to a very small Methodist founded college and being actively involved in one of the very few student ministries available on such a small campus. But maybe that's not why he knew so many future pastors going into Seminary. A friend of mine has made me re-examine who I know that will be future pastors.

I decided I couldn't count the people I know who will be, or are now, pastors that I met only because of my brother. That gets rid of a lot of people but not all. There are two that still count that know both of us. The first is my friend Thom who worked with my brother one summer at the Young Leaders Initiative/Motown Mission. I first met Thom because of this but as it would turn out I ended up going to CMU which was where Thom was going to school and getting to know him through our Wesley Foundation.

The other example is my friend Mark who I don't remember meeting originally. Mark went to the same small school as my brother and I surely met him there when I visited. He was also at my brother's wedding. Surely I saw him there. But then Mark and I worked and lived together last summer at the Motown Mission in Detroit.

There are some coincidences above that you might have noticed. My brother went to Albion and Thom when to CMU. They were in the same year and worked together at Motown Mission. Mark went to Albion and I went to CMU. We were in the same year and worked together at Motown Mission. Oddly enough both Thom and Mark went to the same Seminary in Atlanta too. At this point the twilight zone theme song should be playing in your head.

But Thom and Mark are just the exceptions to the rule that I can't count people I know through my brother.

At CMU I met two other people called to pastoral leadership. The first person I know that is going into it is my friend Stephen who is currently studying to be a priest. Stephen lived down the hall from me my freshman year at CMU. The other is my very good friend Taylor who is still exploring a call but is driving down to visit a seminary tomorrow. Taylor lived in the room next to Stephen, slightly less down the hall from my room freshman year.

My freshman year in college, on my floor, within 4 rooms of each other (we were all on the same side of the hall) there was: a future priest, an exploring future pastor, and a current missionary. This is at a school of over 25,000 people. What are the odds of that?

So maybe my brother didn't meet so many future pastors at his school because it was so small. Maybe when God calls you find yourself with other people figuring out what that means too. I'm certainly in a community of missionaries going through that. But even when I was an undergrad I found myself around people who were searching for what their call meant. We were all at different stages of discovery, but we were all searching.

Of course this doesn't even count the people I knew before college who are looking at pastoral leadership. But you sometimes you have to limit where you look to keep your point concise.

So if you find yourself surrounded by people exploring a call to ministry, maybe you should listen and find out if you have your own call. And if you don't find yourself surrounded by people exploring their own call... Well open your ears anyway. I'm not guaranteeing anything after all.

Why Supporting Equal Marriage Is Right, No Matter Your View Of Sin

Right now the Supreme Court of the United States is considering two different cases on marriage equality. The topic of marriage equality brings out a lot of anger and arguments. When debating marriage equality with those who think we shouldn't allow it I always start by conceding a single point. That point, is sin. I do this because if I didn't the debate would remain completely on two different interpretations of scripture and never move off of that. The conversation would end before we even got to marriage. Both sides of the sin argument have valid points. There are parts of the Bible that talk about homosexuality while on the other side you have the arguments of context for what the word homosexual means; it's very different today from what it meant 2000 years ago and 4000 years ago in two different languages. So I'd like to start by conceding homosexuality as a sin. I do this because it really doesn't matter what your view on sin is when it comes to marriage equality.

For gay marriage to become legal there is one thing that would need to happen. That is the government (be it state or federal) would have to recognize it as such. Note, the church does not need to recognize it. Right there the conversation should realistically be done. The church can say it's a sin? Great, we're done here now churches can continue figuring out whether they'll marry gay couples or not. As a nation we should move on. Of course the debate isn't that simple.

There is a perception among some people is that the United States of America is a Christian nation formed on Christian principles for a Christian people; give or take one or two of those depending on the person. This is simply untrue. The only mention or religion, God, or anything relating to God in the original constitution is, of course, the date ("the year of our Lord..."). The Declaration of Independence has some religious sounding language in it. However, the Declaration of Independence was: 1) a document written for foreigners, not Americans; 2) written before the government was established with the constitution; and 3) includes the most famous phrase "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness". Or to put in another way, we believe that everybody has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and it is the job of the government to make sure we can all pursue these rights. To deny marriage equality is to deny somebody these rights which our government is not supposed to do. Therefore it is the right of the people to alter our government, to pass new laws that protect these rights.

But we're getting away from the religion side of things. People will still think we're a Christian nation. I've heard many arguments declaring it. One of these is that our laws are based on the 10 commandments. Now there are a few different ways to count the 10 commandments but let's look at federal law compared to them. If you can be guilty of breaking a federal for going against a commandment it counts. (I'm going to use the Philonic numbering system starting with the intro)

Intro- "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." Not a felony to disagree

1- "You shall have no other gods before Me." Not a crime to have other gods

2-  "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God,visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." Not a crime to create idols

3- "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." Not a crime

4- "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Not a crime

5- "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you." Not a crime (oh boy we're through have of them with no felonies).

6- "You shall not murder." Can be a federal crime! We found one

7- "You shall not commit adultery." Not a crime on the federal level (is a crime in 22 states)

8- "You shall not steal." Can be a federal crime!

9- "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." A federal crime for sure

10- "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's." Not only is this not a crime. This behavior is encouraged in America.

There you go. Out of 10 commandments, you can only break federal law by breaking 3 of them. Out of the remaining 7 only one of them is a crime on any state level. At best you're looking at following 40% of the commandments in any given state. The nation only holds 30% of them to be true. And not murdering, stealing, or committing perjury aren't really things that are purely Christian or Jewish ideals. The 10 commandments, realistically, had zero sway on our nations laws.

"BUT!" (you might say) "Marriage is an institution that comes from God right? And God says "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh." - Genesis 2:24. It doesn't say two men or two women. It says one man and one woman!"

Well actually it doesn't say one man and one woman. It says a man is united to his wife and they become one flesh. Marriage in the Bible doesn't actually look like the "traditional" marriage we like to talk about. If we look at the founder of the monotheistic faiths what do we see? Well Abraham had a wife Sarah. Sarah gave her slave, Hagar (which are illegal now), to Abraham so he could have sex with her. Hagar became his concubine, or his "lesser-wife". Jacob, also known as Israel the founder of the Jewish nation, had 2 wives given to him by his uncle and 2 wives given to him by his first two wives, so 4 in total. The great King David, a man after God's own heart, had 8 wives (one of whom he slept with while she was married to another man). King David's son, King Solomon, the wisest man, is listed in the Bible as having 700 wives and 300 concubines (again, lesser-wives) totally 1,000. A thousand wives. See, the traditional marriage found in the Bible is one man and multiple wives, with no limit on how many he may have. Any idea that God has ordained marriage to be one man and one woman is wrong.

Jesus never talked about homosexuality. What he did talk about was divorce, which he said "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery." -Matthew 19:8-9. Despite Jesus calling remarrying after a divorce adultery (breaking a commandment remember), we allow divorce in this country for reasons other than sexual immorality. If we're such a Christian nation and we can't let our marriage laws go against God's word how can we stand by with divorce being ok?

My favorite part of that Matthew scripture happens to be the disciples reaction to it. They say "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry." -Matthew 19:10. Good old silly disciples. Jesus says you're not allowed to divorce and they get all nervous and say they'd rather just not marry so they don't risk it! Ha!

Turns out this is hugely important. Because while I've shown Old Testament beliefs on marriage it is arguable that by Jesus' time it was one man and one woman (which I think is true but I'm not sure). But let's assume it's true. That's still at least 2000 years of tradition. But Jesus says no divorce, the disciples say they'd rather not marry if they can't divorce and Jesus comes back with some more "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it." -Matthew 19:11-12. So what does that mean? Jesus says if you can live without ever getting married, you should do it. That's right, the Lord himself actively encourages you to not get married at all. He doesn't bar marriage but he doesn't really want you to do it if you don't have to.

These words from Jesus impacted Paul, the author of most of the New Testament. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7 that he wishes everybody could be like him and not get married. He concedes that some people can't help themselves so marriage is allowable and sex in marriage is allowable but you should only have sex as infrequently as possible so you can focus on your prayers instead. Seriously. Look "But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer." - 1 Corinthians 7:2-5.

But Paul doesn't stop there "Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." - 1 Corinthians 7:8-9. There it is. The most recent words the Bible has on marriage is to stay unmarried. Pardon my vernacular but the only reason to get married according to Paul is if you can't keep it in your pants. And then once you're married you should pray a lot and only succumb to your desires as rarely as possible. 

That is the most recent word on marriage in the Bible. If you are a Christian and married, Paul is disappointed in you and Jesus wishes you would have been able to stay unwed. 

Not really the way we look at marriage in this country right? But I almost forgot the part about marriage being ordained by God and God alone. It's His institution not the governments.

Well that's just wrong. In fact if we want to say that only marriages that the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob has ordained are legitimate in this country than nobody that is a Hindu, or a Jain, or a Buddhist, or an Atheist, etc. may marry legally in this country. If that is the case then the fight for marriage equality isn't for gay people it's for all non-Christians. But of course that's not the case. All of those marriages are legally recognized. Atheists can get married without ever stepping foot in a church. So why can't gay people? Marriage in this country has two forms. The state level where a state recognizes a marriage and the church level where a priest or pastor or religious leader of some variety oversees a ceremony and two people are joined in the eyes of God (or gods) and people. The state recognizing a marriage doesn't mean the church has to.  

And that comes to the last point. The argument that religious leaders will be sued for refusing to marry gay people. If that were anywhere close to the case than an atheist couple could go to a Catholic church and sue them when they refused to marry them. The church is allowed certain discriminations concerning religion without fear of retaliation. A church that says being gay is a sin has no fear of being retaliated against for refusing to marry a couple, at least from the government. People might be upset about it.

And this is why it doesn't matter what your view on sin is. Because the government marrying two people together doesn't mean you have to accept it in your church. You can have your view and call it a sin but the government doesn't deal in sins. The government is supposed to treat all people equal. Justice is supposed to be blind in our country. And blind justice doesn't care if you're gay or straight.

Finally, there is one more argument that follows the slippery slope logical fallacy. It goes like this "if we let gay people marry then we have to let people marry objects and animals and children too because of equality". In a few words, no it doesn't. Objects, animals, and children do not have the cognitive functions required to make a commitment like marriage. Consenting adults are completely different from any of those things. This is one of the worst arguments out there and if I never hear it again it will have been too soon.

Connecting The Church In Mission

I recently spent five days in Columbus, Georgia at Pierce Chapel United Methodist Church with 13 other "missionary units" as we each spoke about our call to mission, the work that we are doing now, and how their church could walk along side us. I was sought out and invited by one of the pastors at Pierce Chapel who previously served as a US-2. I went down to Georgia (I wasn't looking for a soul to steal) with some pre-conceived notions in my head. Primarily, I thought I'd be there with 13 other missionaries from the General Board of Global Ministries. Instead, I found out that out of all the missionary units there were only 3 of us connected to the board. This was very educational to me for I had assumed that in the United Methodist Church that missionary meant Global Ministries. Pierce Chapel showed me that missionary could also mean "mission society" (won't get into the history of the board and them but we're all nice and friendly now and that's what matters), it could mean "mission on the move", it could mean the local church decided to act, and most importantly, it could mean people who serve without any formal title of missionary in the first place.

While the General Board of Global Ministries is the official agency for sending out United Methodist missionaries it is not the only one. And while the board's slogan is "connecting the church in mission" I really think that should be adopted to the whole church (maybe replace the word "church" with "world" in the slogan". See what I learned at this event was just how connected we all are. Let me explain these connections in some detail (if you don't like hearing how awesome the church is at connecting us then you should skip down to the end. I'll put some "!" down there so you know to start reading again).

The first missionary I met at Pierce Chapel was sent out by his local church to serve the youth of the Navajo Nation. He liked to talk about how the closest Walmart to him is almost 100 miles away in Farmington, New Mexico. As it should so happen one of my fellow US-2s works with the women of the Navajo Nation in Farmington. In fact she lives right by that very Walmart. Two United Methodist missionaries have been serving the Navajo and, at times, been fairly close to one another without every knowing it.

One of the Global Ministries missionaries serves as the regional auditor for Central America which means she works in a lot of countries overseeing lots of missions. But she lives in Costa Rica. While I was in Georgia I saw that my home church back in Michigan was sending a team down to Costa Rica. I told her this and she knew they'd be going to one of two places in the country. She was right of course since she is the one overseeing these ministries.

The other person connected to Global Ministries is a deaconess who works for UMCOR. I asked her if she knew the deaconess that works with us young adult missionaries and of course she knows her even if one is in NYC and one is in Louisiana.

Two missionaries, a husband and wife, that I met will be heading off to India on July 1st where they will live out the rest of their lives. I thought I had heard all the best bits of their story by the fourth night of being in Georgia when I found out I was completely wrong. It turns out that the husband had previously been to Ghana, which if you don't know I have been to as well. After his talk I went up to him and the conversation went something like this:
Me: "You went to Ghana!? I went to Ghana too! Where were you at?"
Him: "I spent my time in both Accra and Kumasi"
Me: "That's where I was! When did you go?"
Him: "I was there in 2007"
Me: " I was there in 2007! When exactly were you there?"
Him: "I was there for the month of May"
Me: "I missed you by two weeks. I arrived in the middle of June."

Sunday morning they had George Howard, the new Deputy General Secretary for Mission and Evangelism of the General Board of Global Ministries (whew, what a title) give the sermon. Now, the way I like to phrase it is that George is my new bosses, bosses, boss at the board. So it was nice for me to get to meet him since he only came on four months ago. But what was more was George told his history in mission and before he came to the board he had done a lot of awesome things. Most recently he helped start a church in Columbus, Ohio called The Church For All People. My ears perked up at that point because I knew one of my fellow young adult missionaries came out of that church. Unfortunately I wasn't able to talk to George after the service and he had to fly back to New York. Fortunately (for me), George wasn't able to leave that night and instead had to leave early the next morning. We were driven to the airport together. So I decided to ask George if he knew Brittany. I said "Do you..." at which point he started to smile at softly laugh "know Brittany?" Of course George knows Brittany. He knew the question before I even asked it.

While I was in Georgia I stayed with a lovely family who treated me excellently. The two boys in the family have both been to Red Bird Mission in Kentucky which I have been to on three occasions. I asked them if they knew my friend Bob. They didn't remember names so I pulled up a picture of Bob and showed them. They definitely know Bob as I thought they would. It was awesome to stay in the house of people who start off as strangers and find out that you know some of the same people.

Another missionary I met works with Henderson Settlement, a part of the Red Bird Mission in Kentucky. While I have been to the main campus of Red Bird I have never been to the Henderson Settlement. But I knew that my home church has sent teams to Henderson so I decided to ask her if she remembered anybody from my church. This is where things get a little bit crazy. There were two stories she really liked to tell to show how spending a week at Henderson could really change the lives of the kids she serves. The first story was about work that Pierce Chapel youth had done with her kids. But her other story was about a church that taught her kids financial management skills. Things they never learn otherwise including how to order off of a menu at a restaurant. When I told her that my home church was the First United Methodist Church of Birmingham Michigan her eyes got big and she said "that's the church I've been talking about!" Seems that my church back home has been able to provide the kids at the Henderson Settlement with real life changing experiences that get shared with other churches. I just happened to be in the audience to hear about the great work my church is doing.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So now that we've covered the connectionism of the church let's get to the coolest part of my time in Georgia.

On Sunday night Pierce Chapel held a worship service that they call their "life commitment service". It was a touching service in general but at the end of it the congregation filled out these cards that let them check off some options. There were a number of options and when you filled it out you were to bring it to the front and place it in one of two bowls. However, if you had checked off "feeling a call to service but you still need to discern what that call is" or if you checked off "feeling called to full-time missionary service" you were to hand your card to the senior pastor. After everybody had come forward the senior pastor called up each person who had handed him a card. Over a dozen people had checked off one of these two options. Half of them were college-aged or younger.

These kids were incredible. From the 7th grader still going through confirmation to the college students figuring out where they want to take their lives. From one of my host families kids to the PK who came forward to the 15 year old who would be moving to Kenya right this moment if he only had a plane ticket. This church was full of young people who want to be in mission. And as the youngest missionary there, who was there to show the youth that the church has space for them to serve, it was an incredible sight to see.

One last thought. Shortly before I went to Georgia I preached at a church in Albany. I preached about the importance, and the Biblical nature of doubt when God calls and how I think we as the Church like to encourage a vision that discourages those who doubt from following their call. While at Pierce Chapel the missionaries repeatedly told the congregation one thing. "We are nothing special". We are super-people being called by God. We're the same as anybody else. So when I was meeting with the youth group Saturday night and a member of the youth raised her hand and asked "Do you ever doubt what you do?" I could unashamedly tell her "all the time". A young person was brave enough to ask about doubt because even in a church where mission is held up so high and a five day event is put on to show off mission and how you could indeed be a missionary too, there was still a question of whether or not doubt was ok. So take with you that to be a missionary you don't have to be anything special, you don't have to be 100% confident. You can doubt and drag your feet but what ultimately matters is that you say yes, even in the midst of doubt. And when you do you'll find that you can travel 1000 miles away to meet complete strangers and learn that they aren't really strangers after all.

Amen.

Felines And Minimum Wage

First and foremost, I got a cat this weekend. I'm super pumped about it. Don't judge me. How could you judge me for loving her?

You can't. I rest my case. This picture is from the first time she came out from under the bed while somebody was around her. Last night she finally was comfortable enough to come see what was so cool about the top of my bed while I was sitting on it. She's quite the scaredy cat but she's getting more comfortable every day and I can't wait to go home today and see if she's spending more time out from under the bed (even with her exploration, it is short lived and she quickly goes back to her fort). Anyway, I'll leave this topic just after one more picture.

This morning I was on the bus coming to work when craziness started to happen. The bus kept having more and more people get on. Way more people than normal and all of them wearing suits. Now last week there was a class of kids from the College of Saint Rose who got on my bus in the morning and none of whom, the professor included, knew how the bus works, but that was one group. These were people at different stops, dressed the same, and in large numbers. Now I saw the effects of this last week when trying to go home where busses were so overloaded that I wasn't let on, but I hadn't seen it in the morning until today. All of these new people that didn't exist before are now here for one reason. Congress. Last week the legislature kicked off its new session in Albany so right now every member of congress and the entirety of their staffs are in town. Now I've lived here for nearly 5 months and never saw the effect of legislatures being in town on public transportation. This leads me to believe one thing, these people aren't sticking around for very long. I'm not really sure what that means for the democratic process when it takes 5 months before I could realize that the people running New York aren't actually ever at the capital in anywhere close to a complete capacity during most of the year. I understand the importance of the members of congress going back to their districts to talk to the people they represent. But has there been nothing noteworthy voted on since before I arrived? Does anybody show up to session ever? Or do I only have to deal with staffers on the busses for a couple of weeks in the new year? Time will tell but it's looking like the last option will be the right one. 

Now, while surrounded by staffers this morning my mind wandered over to a topic for who knows what reason, the minimum wage. Now the Federal Minimum Wage is set at $7.25/hour. My home state has a higher minimum wage of $7.40 (Whoot so high!), and New York just keeps the Federal minimum wage requirements. Putting minimum wage in different terms, minimum wage for somebody that works full time year round is $15,080. Now this is technically a wage that is livable (I survive on less than this and it's above the Federal poverty level for a single person). That being said I'm not sure how many people can get a full time, minimum wage job. If a person needs a car to commute to their job then this is unfeasible to survive off of, insurance alone would destroy a bank account let alone maintenance and other car issues. 

So if we aren't employing people 40 hours a week in minimum wage jobs then our minimum wage isn't providing people with wages that are livable. 

When adjusted for inflation our minimum waged peaked in the 1960s when it was worth about $10/hour in todays money. That would put people at $20,800 a year working full time. People would only have to work 29 hours a week to reach what our current minimum wage gets people for working 40 hours a week. This is better, but still not perfect.

Now, I understand that if you raise the minimum wage it therefore becomes more expensive to operate your business. I also understand that some business probably cannot afford a higher minimum wage (you can always argue that you can not pay higher-ups as much but you also need to pay them enough to attract the type of talent you want and in some cases the higher-ups is the single owner and that is it and if a company is barely making a profit raising the minimum wage would literrally kill the business or force layoffs and shorter hours or lead the business owner to work even longer. These will usually just be start ups). 

But I have a solution to these problems. A new company has x (let's say 10) years to operate on the federal (or state if it's higher) minimum wage level. This gives the company a chance to keep costs of labor low and grow as fast as possible. After that, or for any company older than 10 years, your net profits for the last x (let's say 3) years are averaged. If your a company of x (say 50 or less) employees and you average a certain amount in profits your minimum wage requirements go up to a higher level. Essentially you tier minimum wage with a floor (we can use the current $7.25) that goes up to a ceiling (there does have to be a limit, we are still talking about unskilled labor mostly). This encourages companies to to increase their profit margins even more than we currently do but without cutting the cost of labor. Companies with bigger profits must pay employees more, and that means more people want to work for them. If you are stuck in the $7.25 minimum wage category you're the last place people want to work. It is in your best interest to make yourself more marketable to potential employees to attract better employees. 

But doesn't this hurt start ups? Yes and no. There are enough good employees looking for work and only a limited number of spots available, even in higher paying minimum wage jobs. So you could still get good talent. That, and it encourages employers to train their employees to be good employees. You're not going to fire your entire staff and start anew with every new tier. You want the people you already have to be worth the extra you have to pay them as you advance up the system. So you train them to be better at their jobs and teach them good work habits and ethics. In the end the economy grows and people can afford to survive. 

I welcome thoughts on this as it's something I hadn't thought of before and can't find anybody else talking about any similar ideas after a quick google search.

Melting Down

As I sat down to write this blog post as a follow up to my earlier Advent post I clicked over to the Huffington Post website as I would be referencing an article I had read off of their website. I had thought about bookmarking the religion section previously but I hadn't done that yet so I went to the homepage where I saw this image:

This was not what I wanted to see. Twenty seven dead. We now know that there were twenty children in that count not 18. Twenty eight total were killed that day, including the gunman.

If there is every anything that could shake a person to the core, this is it. There is no way to explain this tragedy. No words that can ease the pain of these families. As I rode the bus home the day of the shooting a woman was finding out about what had happened over the phone and all she could say was "oh no. Oh no."

The very first comment I read from a non-journalist as details of the shooting still emerged was "I never understood "Gun-free" zones. It's absolute madness." This was the first comment I read. I can't stress that enough. If there is something that could make me more upset when learning about a mass shooting is the argument that schools and other places should have more guns not less so that people can stop those who go on a rampage quickly. The shooters identity wasn't even speculated yet. The number of kids dead wasn't known. And the first thought that jumped into that persons mind was "this is why we need more guns". It is truly horrifying. To complicate matters for myself and the people I know, the night before the shooting my homestate's congress passed a law to allow concealed weapons into churches, stadiums, and yes, schools. 

I would go on to read a comment off of a pastors post explaining how ridiculous this notion is "Well... if that Kindergarten teacher had a gun in her purse..." This shooting is such an insane and incomprehensible occurrence. A Kindergarten classroom. All the victims that were children were either 6 or 7 years old. There shouldn't need to be any sort of threat to the safety of these kids. It is just unfathomable. The last thing a Kindergarten classroom needs is a gun in it.

Children are naturally curious. They don't yet understand societal rules or what consequences actions can have. If you introduce guns into that classroom all that would need to happen is to have one child find the gun owned by the teacher and a stupid, horrible tragedy could occur that should have never happened. In truth school shootings are incredibly rare. Adding more guns to schools does not have any chance of lowering the risk of a school shooting, it only raises the risk.  

This shooting can, in no way, be used to justify guns in schools. That sentence is just a crazy one inherently. Guns in schools? What are we teaching our kids by allowing that? We sow the seeds of inherent distrust of all, we suppose that each new person we meet is trying to kill us, and we teach all of this at school where teachers walk around carrying pistols. People have accused video games and movies and music of teaching kids violent behaviors. What about when we start teaching them violence in school as part of the law? What do we teach them when the ones educating them are ready to take a life?

I took out an examination of the second amendment to the constitution out of this post. While I believe fully that gun-ownership is not a protected right in the bill of rights that argument is for a different time and place. However, it is the time and place for is changing the laws in this country. 

The Wall Street Journal tracked homicides from 2000-2010 in the United States. Here's what they found: 2/3rds of all homicides in the US were caused by guns. over 111,000 of them in that 11 year span. Over 10,000 people killed by guns every year. That's over 27 people a day. See that is ultimately what is so awful and disgusting about this shooting in Newtown. Every single day Newtown is happening. It doesn't usually happen in one location, but everyday 27 people are being killed by guns. That's not just me adjusting the numbers to reflect the Newtown shooting. 10000/365=27.397. And that's me rounding down, not up.

Guns have one purpose and only one purpose. To kill. And they kill over 27 people every day. Newtown was not the exception to the rule. It was the rule, spelled out in a way that we can easily see. I don't know if there's a stronger argument against guns. 

There have been many insightful posts after this tragedy to explain how this was evil, how the God of creation mourns with us, how this should never happen. And there have been some less than insightful things said about how this is "justice" for such atrocities as letting people marry other people who love them. I won't even touch that because 1) I can't hope to do a better job than the insightful people who have already posted and 2) I won't even waste my time tearing down words meant only to inflame.

Instead let us look ahead to the future:

"Many people will come and say 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths. The law will go out from Zion, the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation nor will they train for war anymore.'" -Isaiah 2:3-4 

I await the day when we melt down our weapons and repurpose them as tools to feed our children.

Lord, forgive us for the times when we let the broken people slip through the cracks. Forgive us for the times when we sit idly by because we assume that another tragedy can't happen again. Not again. Forgive us for not loving each other enough to beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Be with the people of Newtown, CT as we continue to mourn because of this tragedy and may your light shine through in this darkest time. We remember oh Lord that a mere 11 days after this tragedy we will remember the birth of our savior. We are in advent now Lord and we must rely on the small candles we light to bring us hope as we prepare for your Word. 

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was god. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it." -John 1:1-5

Amen

Advent

As I sit down to write this blog post it is currently 50 degrees outside. Remember I live in upper New York. It's December 10th. Outside doesn't really look a lot like Christmas. But it is almost Christmas and we're two weeks into the Advent season. Often times people complain about Christmas music because it seems to start so early and seemingly never ends. And I must admit that I have spent time in this camp. However, my opinion has changed (sort of).

Classical Christmas music and hymns are some of my favorite musical selections. Nearly every song in Church this Sunday was singing about Emmanuel, including one of my all time favorites: Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel. As I write I put on Pandora to Classical Christmas music and got treated to Carol of the Bells right off the bat and then Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. I have favorite hymns that aren't about Christmas but how many Christmas hymns are among your all time favorites?

Now, I could do without Santa Baby, and the Hippopotamus song. I could live a healthier life if those never existed even. But in my mind there's nothing better than traditional Christmas music. And why should there be? Christmas may not be the most important holiday on the Christian calendar but is there a better holiday for inspiring music? Easter is triumphant and full of hope but first and foremost you have to get past Good Friday. And even then the most famous hymn from the Easter season is the Hallelujah Chorus which is always sung in the Easter service but is actually not about Easter. The Hallelujah Chorus is only the 44th part out of 53 of Handel's "Messiah". And the Hallelujah Chorus takes its inspiration from the book of Revelation. Parts 22-35 are about Christ's passion, death, resurrection, and ascension but those never get sung.

As hopeful and amazing as Christ's resurrection is we have always been much more inspired by Christ's birth than His death. Not to say that that's a bad thing. We draw inspiration from God sending a savior to us to fulfill a promise made long ago. Truly this is a joyous time. There is plenty to take inspiration from and to be thankful for. And I am thankful.

However, there is still suffering in the world that we cannot ignore. AUMS has an annual toy program for the children of our neighborhood. We rely heavily on the Marine Corps Toys 4 Tots program to make sure that we can serve the children in our area. We have already been told that demand for toys is up and donations are down. In this season we know that it's not the gifts and the toys that matter most. However, the children of our area, like so many children around the country and world, don't really have much to call their own. They don't get new toys all the time. Children need to be allowed to be children. Toys for deserving kids should never be something that is taken away. And yet here we are. We keep signing up children on the hope and prayer that a Christmas miracle will happen. That we can rally support and provide for the over 200 children that we have signed up for toys.

If you would like to help us out with a financial gift you can donate online at aumsny.org/donate.html or you can send a check to PO Box 6896, Albany, NY 12206. If you want to earmark your gift for toys be sure to add special instructions to the online donation or write it in the memo of your check.

Together we can bring a smile to the children of the West Hill neighborhood. God Bless you in this Advent season.


EDIT: This article was written early and scheduled to be posted today. I have kept it in its original form but would like to add that this morning we received word that Toys 4 Tots has approved our request.