MORGAN'S MOMENT
 Just in from watching birds
       scratching for insects in our trees...
       always amazing me.
 I thought to myself what a good guy I am…
       providing respite for migrants
       without respect to sex or color.
 I don’t cut many trees
       leaving about 100 firs and oaks
       for my feathered visitors.
 Then I thought of an apartment window
       where a lady put out some seeds
       attracting birds for a visit.
 And of a couple with a small patio
       with room for a potted plant
       and bench and birdbath.
 You don’t have to have 2 acres
       to offer a resting place
       for God’s creatures in transit.
 
 Just like you don’t need a church
       or great congregation
       to be a servant to fellow humans.
— Art Morgan 
MOMENT MINISTRIES
February 16, 2001
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at  a-morgan@peak.org

THURSDAY NIGHT POTLUCK
 FEBRUARY 22 6:30
Celebrating George W’s Birthday
(The ORIGINAL George W.)
Featuring  Cherry Pie!
(Supplemented by our usual Potluck Supper)
 
Gather from 6:00 on, Eat at 6:30
Music and Community to chase Winter Away
  
SINCE LAST WE SPOKE
First, about Paul. He finally got Glenn home. He (Glenn) is recovering. Then Paul sang at a funeral in Corvallis before flying to Florida. In Florida he was invited to sing at the Sunday service of a Methodist Church. He will be back in time for our Thursday night Moment.
On the same Saturday that Paul was singing in Corvallis, Art was doing a wedding for Nancy’s son, Sean Hathaway and Shari Dority at McMenamin’s Inn at Troutdale (near Portland). A large, fun, informal wedding.  
FAITH-BASED COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
     Public debate is going on over the constitutionality of channeling public funds into faith-based institutions. The fear is that the wrong faiths will get the money, or else that the money will end up supporting evangelistic efforts. We should not suffer the illusion that this is a new thing, or that it hasn’t been going on for years and years. In California our church sponsored a 14 story high rise apartment. Whose money was behind it? The government “used” us to make one of their programs work. Lots of housing and community centers happened that way. Churches have received exemption from property taxes, presumably because they provide charitable services of benefit to society. Clergy get “parsonage allowance” exemptions from a portion of income tax. Church-related car expenses are deductible from income taxes. On and on the web goes. It may or may not be right, but it is a fact that the Faith-Community connection is not a new thing. It needs to be watched and maybe revamped, but for some church ideologues to suddenly oppose it is strangely blind to what is and hypocritical to boot. Did I mention our non-profit mailing permit, granted because we are a “religious organization?”

the back page

ON PRAYING OUTSIDE THE CLOSET

“When you pray, go into your closet and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret…
 And do not heap up empty phrases…for they think they will be heard for their many words.”
    Attributed to Jesus according to Matthew 6:5 – 7
          Just one of the embarrassments of being associated with the religion business is enduring the sight of religion on stage. We got a generous dose of it at the Presidential inauguration time. Most who watched the inauguration ceremony heard prayers by Franklin Graham, Billy’s son, and Kirbyjon Caldwell, pastor of a mega-church in Houston. 
          I missed old Billy Graham, sorry about his infirmities. It’s hard to imagine a President truly inaugurated without Billy’s blessing.
          Franklin gave it his best shot, but he’s no Billy. He prayed a long, political and unmemorable prayer that was praised by Christians for its christocentricity. Non-Christians felt excluded.
          There was lots of praying going on around DC at that time. One luncheon featured Jerry Falwell as well as Muslim Hassan Oazwini and, would you believe, Unification Church founder, Sun Myung Moon!
          The Washington National Cathedral prayer service included Eastern Orthodox Archbishop Demetrios, new Catholic Cardinal McCormick, various protestant and Episcopal ministers who are no doubt of some importance. O yes, also a rabbi.
          Still another prayer meal featured James Dobson, founder and leader of Focus on the Family, and John Kilpatrick, an Assembly of God preacher from Florida.
          I looked through all the lists of pray-ers to see a woman minister listed. I’m still looking. There must have been at least one. Was the Metropolitan Church community represented? I didn’t see any of that group listed either.
          Now, I’m not against praying. It probably doesn’t do too much harm. In fact, we’re all hoping and praying that our president – no matter which party – does well. If a majority of passengers on a plane voted against the pilot, but were forced to fly with that pilot regardless, don’t you think they would hope he did a good job?
          Praying outside the closet is most difficult. I never enjoyed doing such public prayers. For one thing most people tend to put up with them rather than get lifted up by them. At best, one keeps them short. In later years I prayed with my eyes open. It was always interesting to see how many were bowed in reverence and how many were looking around.
          The closet idea, of course, is right out of the Sermon on the Mount. The Disciples asked Jesus how to pray. He said, “Go into your closet [‘room’, in RSV] and shut the door.” Get out of sight. Don’t make a spectacle. Don’t show off. I’m pretty sure that none of the Inauguration pray-ers had such a thought in mind, but nevertheless I sort of wished they hadn’t come out of the closet to pray.
          I thought I’d try out Jesus’ suggestion. I looked around for a closet that I could fit into. In my house, if you’re going to pray in a closet you begin by putting a lot of stuff out.
          After moving out the stuff, I enter and close the door. First thing I notice is that there’s nothing to notice. It’s black dark in there. No light. I can’t read a prayer. It must come out of my head, or better, my heart. I think, if God knows what I think before I think it, what’s the point? 
          I calm myself and adjust to the fact of the darkness. I begin to notice that I’m all by myself. Just me in the dark by myself. I think I’m supposed to meet God in there. I close my eyes, which is a rather useless thing to do in the dark. I whisper (in case anyone should be near the closet door), “Are you in here, God?” Fortunately, God doesn’t speak out loud, at least not to me. In fact, if God or anybody had said anything in that closet I would have been out of there.
          What’s in the prayer closet? Darkness, loneliness and silence. I don’t know about God.
          Well, Franklin Graham prayed a prayer almost as long as the inaugural address, assuming he had God’s attention. The Old Testament talks about “patriotic prophets,” religious leaders who basked in their king’s favor. They stayed in favor by saying and praying what their king wanted to hear. That’s the problem with praying outside the closet. You tend to pray to the ears of those around you rather than to God.
          I don’t mean to belittle my esteemed clergy colleagues who had the privilege of praying the President on. I guess I’m worried when public religion becomes too public. I suspect big time trouble ahead over when and where to pray. I vote for going into the closet to create some light between a lonesome soul and the Source of all Mystery who promises presence when we are alone and in the dark.
   Art Morgan – February 2001