MORGAN'S MOMENT...
“I want you guys to know
    that what I said tonight
    is considered to be heresy.”
Silence from 16-year-old grandsons
     Riding from the Christmas Eve service
     Weren’t fretting grandpa’s heresy.
I got worked up into a little sermon
     Springing from a Corvallis handout
     By a white supremacist group saying:
“We mean to cleanse our land
of all Jews, niggers, and mud races.”
If that kind of talk doesn’t terrorize you
     it’s only because you are white...
     causing me to say: 
“Let us be clear tonight
that Jesus was a Jew all his life...
and member of a ‘mud’ race.
“Let us be clear that this flyer
is contrary to the spirit of Jesus
and to core beliefs of every religion.
“Let us be clear that the best way
to bring light to darks streets
and dark homes and dark lives
is to walk by the best path we can.
“If your path is Judaism
be the best Jew that you can.
If your path is Buddhist or Hindu
Or Muslim or Mormon or Catholic
Or some spiritual value system.
Follow that path!
“Don’t fight about ft.
Don’t push ft on other people.
Don’t go to war over ft.
Don’t claim ft to be more right
than someone else’s path.
Just walk ft. Just live it. For God’s sake!”
Silence told me that my grandsons
     don’t quite get heresy...
     and neither do I.
— Art Morgan 
MOMENT MINISTRIES
January 7, 2002
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at  a-morgan@peak.org


 
MOMENT MINISTRIES 25th YEAR
    Moment Ministries began the morning of January 24, 1978 when I unexpectedly resigned as Senior Minister of First Christian Church in Corvallis. The rest, as they say, is history.
    Moment Ministries was born out of my personal wish to continue pastoral ministry without institutional boundaries. A local constituency evolved and a mailing constituency developed among friends and colleagues both in and outside
the church. Through the “blue sheet” we have been able to spin off ideas. More important, we have stayed in touch when we would otherwise have dropped out of sight. Moment Ministries has provided a way to offer many, many personal
pastoral activities of every kind during these 25 years.
    Moment Ministries has never sought funds, has no property or payrolL It does not solicit funds because we don’t “do” anything. We encourage people to do their own “moments” of ministry in the world and to spread their giving as they choose. Our publications have been funded by occasional voluntary gifts. (The newest booklet is “Christmas
Eve Prayers at the Old World Deli”)
    Moment Ministries Is more an idea than an institution. We are surprised and even embarrassed that our short-term experiment has continued so long. A more extensive statement of core ideas can be found on our web page. 
Moment Ministries Is Indebted to local folks who take time from time to time to gather to sing songs and share support, and to blue sheet readers across the country who encourage continued publication.

 
ANNIVERSARY POTLUCK MOMENT

Thursday, January 24, 2002

Gather at 6, Eat at 6:30pm

(back page)

 
WHY DID YOU RAISE YOUR VOICE?
          One Sunday I was preaching at the Unitarian Church. It’s one of the few places I’ve been invited to preach in recent years. Hmmm.
          Anyway, they have a question and answer period after the sermon. It’s something I always enjoyed. The folks often had comments and insights far beyond my own. They also had questions (if they dared trust me not to give a long answer!)
          After one of my sermons a young lady stood and said, “Why did you raise your voice when you talked about the fundamentalists?”
          She caught me. I realized at the moment during the sermon that I was more emphatic than is my usual nature. Unitarians tend to expect a more reasoned tone, but this particular thought got the best of me. What I actually said was, “Fundamentalism can kill us!”
          Yes, I did raise my voice.
          That was long before the Trade Towers got our attention. I’m not sure we can blame it all on
fundamentalism, but we got an idea about what extremist religion can do.
          Now, fundamentalism is a theological term with quite a few definitions. The more popular notion is that it represents a literal and strict interpretation of scripture and religious practice. We used to say that fundamentalists “don’t drink and they don’t chew and they don’t go with boys that do.”
          I once thought that fundamentalists believed in fundamentals. I was for that, until I found out what was on their list of fundamentals. I was once excused from participation in a local Ministerial Association because I would not sign agreement to such a list.
          Most fundamentalists aren’t extremists. They were not much of a worry until they began getting political power. I first did political battle with one over forty years ago. I was called in as a minister on a committee at the middle school where a lady wanted a book removed from the library because it contained the word “pregnant.” Her righteousness was surprising to me. She had a fundamentalist point of view that she was trying to inflict on the rest of us.
          We handled it then, but in later years the fundamentalists have become empowered. They have an agenda that has become part of national politics. In fact, it is imbedded in some of the core beliefs of some of our top elected officials.
          Hopefully, these folks won’t kill us, but my fear of long ago is no less acute. We are more likely to find some broad human values diminished in the name of a fundamentalist type doctrine.
          You still don’t get “fundamentalism?” You still don’t get why it’s dangerous? You still wonder why I raised my voice?
          In recent weeks I’ve been listening to what the Talibans have been doing in Afghanistan. This is a quasi-religio-political power system. Its declared intention was to restore true Muslim faith and practice in the country. One way to describe them is “Islamic fundamentalists.” Their extremism is not only expressed against their own people, but in suicidal rage against all of us infidels. Yes, fundamentalism can kill us.
          Or, to put it another way, Talibanism can kill us.
          If I were giving that sermon again I think I might be seeking illustrations of the appearance of the seeds of Talibanism in some of the religious “tribes” in our own country. What they would like to do with and to us is frightening. What they would like to do with our government is scary. What they would like our military to do is dangerous. Talibanism can be seen within our political system, threatening long-time constitutional protections and rights.
          Somewhere out in blue-sheet land there are still some preachers. I know it’s not nice or polite to preach against another person’s cherished religion. I always hated to say anything bad about our fundamentalist brothers and sisters. But there’s nothing wrong, I would think, in raising a voice against Talibanism. Wherever oppression begins to lean on the right of free expression, freedom of information, freedom of religion, separation of church and state, human dignity, human rights, women’s rights, insistence that we be “a Christian nation,” and withdrawal from the family of nations, we’re leaning heavily toward Talibanism. I’d like to hear some voices raised.
— Art Morgan, January 2002