Pickles and Morons..

In June of 2007, supported by the United States Government, Palestinians held elections in Gaza to determine which group would govern them – Hamas, a globally famous organization, infamous among Western governments for it’s militant opposition to all things Israeli, or Fatah, the favorite of Western governments. In the name of freedom and democracy, elections were held, (celebrated by the American president!) elections were monitored, and votes were counted.

Then, to the great dismay of all governments Western, results determined that free people in Gaza had freely elected Hamas to be their governors.

Hamas! What shall the freedom-advocating global civilization do? We insured their ability to make the free choice we so prize! And they chose what we did not. Do we honor the process we created on their behalf and the choice they made within the process, or do we force an outcome we prefer? What a pickle!

Closer to home, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has made much news since August of 2009, when (among many things) it voted by significant margins to approve non-heterosexual humans who happen to also be committed into same-gender, lifelong, publicly accountable relationships to become clergy in parishes who wished to “call” such individuals. (Churchspeak translation: The ELCA let some practicing gays preach.)

What does the election of Hamas in 2007 and the National Assembly of the ELCA in August 2009 share? Three things: Freedom and voting, two prized American values. – and they share the same pickle.

What happens when you let people vote?
Well, you personally release control of the outcome into the hands of everyone else who joins you at the polls. To allow a vote is to occasionally allow an antithetical option to the one you prefer! We Americans allow the dangerous option because we believe that the society we share together is resilient due to our ability to grant disharmony voice and (if elected) authority. Freedom and elections enable the risk taking and dissonance necessary for long-term systemic adaptive change- and this capacity for change fuels our nation, our culture and our economy.

Of course, your fellow citizens may be morons who don’t deserve to vote. What then? Perhaps they should be prevented from frequenting the polls. We might do well to consider who ought to make the decisions for us! The ancient Greeks had a working system: only male landowners of significant financial means had a voice in politics. All others were disposable.

The Greek empire was overthrown.

Our system allows disposable morons like me and you to vote.

We should not vote, and should not call ourselves freedom-loving if we cannot release the outcomes of our votes. If the voting cannot go your way without jumping to conspiracy theories, you may not really have much interest in freedom and democracy at all. Mull that over.

Our American civilization is losing it’s freedom- but not due to the work of one or another political party- we’re losing our freedom to disenfranchised conspiracy theorists who will not allow voting to be voting. When we cannot trust freedom and voting any longer, and we won’t live peacefully with outcomes we dislike, we have violence as our future. Hamas is the Old-Testament word for violence- Look it up.

Back to the ELCA as I wind down:
A noisy minority within the ELCA are “disenchanted” now with the churchwide organization. As I listen closely, I hear conspiracy theory lurking underneath a significant body of the disenchantment. Rather than believing that the cumulative free votes of the church-wide assemblies over the last decades have led the Evangelical Lutheran Church into systemic adaptive change that differs from their personal preferences, many dissenters believe that the churchwide office in Chicago has manipulated votes to drive a liberal agenda; then they withhold funding to "punish" the institution.

Withheld funding cripples local mission-start congregations, disaster relief, seminary funding, mission-redevelopment internship sites, and many other vulnerable growing edges of the faith. Withheld funding "punishes" mission and misses the real target: voting.

Should the church allow regularly scheduled representative votes and elections, or should the Evangelical Lutheran Church realign with the Papacy? Should the ELCA become a separate Papacy? Is participatory, accountable, systemic adaptive change part of the resilient long term health and story of the Christian faith- and if so, should it continue? Is voting a church function?

Should the people in Gaza, Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo, Sudan, Pakistan, California, Oregon. Iowa, Delaware. . . be allowed regularly scheduled representative votes and elections, or . . mmmmmm. . . ???

Pickles!!