"Eyes to See the Visions of God"

Below is my homily from tonight's celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Since the earliest days of Christianity, there has been a sense among the followers of Jesus that Mary was more than simply the biological mother of Our Lord. As early as the third century, around 250 AD, there was a prayer used in the Coptic Orthodox liturgy for Christmas. It is known by its Latin name “Sub Tuum Presidium,” and in English the text is, “We turn to you for protection, O Holy Mother of God. Listen to our prayers, and help us in our needs, save us from every danger, O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.” And so, we find, from the earliest centuries, Christians asking Mary to pray for them, trusting that her love for her son, her love for his followers, would carry their own prayers for safety and protection. 

In the epistle reading appointed for today, we hear from the Revelation to John. In the vision, the temple in heaven is opened and the Ark of the Covenant is made visible in heaven. Then, parallel to the ark, a pregnant woman appears who is in the agony of giving birth. A dragon appears who wants to destroy the woman and her child. But as the woman gave birth, her child was snatched away and taken to God and the woman fled into the wilderness where God will protect her from the dragon. 

The Ark of the Covenant has long been associated with Mary. The Ark was the box constructed by the ancient Israelites to hold the stone fragments of the Ten Commandments. The Ark was kept in the Holy of Holies and God’s presence dwelt upon it. In the same way the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Ark of the Covenant, the Spirit overshadowed Mary so that she would give birth to the Son of God. And so she became the living shrine of God’s presence while the child Jesus grew within her. 

We are reminded in this reading from Revelation that Mary’s willingness to become the God-Bearer carried with it great threat. Not only did it bring the possibility of rumor and reproach that would come upon an unmarried young woman who finally found herself pregnant, but the dark powers of this world which seek to corrupt and destroy the creatures of God would also seek to harm and stop Mary from bringing God into this world. And, as the dragon pursues the offspring of the woman, we are reminded how the powers of this world seek to pursue and destroy the followers of Jesus today.

Even as early as the first century, when the Gospel of John was written, all of these connections between Mary and her son, between the followers of Jesus and the world, all of this was a part of the theological imagination of the church. And then, throughout the centuries, other Christians followed in the footsteps of John. Over and over again, Christians who lived in a time of threat and persecution, like John did, also saw visions of Mary that gave them hope in their own time. 

Today we celebrate the vision that occurred in December, 1531, in Mexico, the vision of Our Lady of Guadalupe. As we heard in the reading from the Nican Mopohua, Mary appeared to Juan Diego, an indigenous peasant, asking for him to request a church be built in her honor on the site. No one believed Juan, certainly not the Archbishop of Mexico City. But Mary told Juan to persist, that she, her little child, her little son, was the one she had chosen to make this request. 

He knew he would need a sign, but instead of going back to the site on December 11, Juan Diego found out that his uncle was ill and so he went to visit him and then, sure that he was near death, journeyed to find a priest to hear his confession and provide last rites. But Mary found Juan Diego on the way, she chided him gently for not asking her for help. She spoke to him in words that are inscribed above the main entrance to the Basilica of Guadalupe, saying, “Am I not here, I who am your mother?” She instructed Juan Diego to gather flowers from the summit of the hill—in the middle of December—and to take them to the archbishop. She arranged the flowers in Juan Diego’s cloak and when he opened the cloak before the archbishop, the roses fell out and an image of the virgin was revealed on the cloak itself. The archbishop believed. Juan Diego’s uncle was healed. And a small chapel was built on the hill at Tepeyac where Juan Diego’s cloak was put on display. 

In the time of John, the first Christians feared for their life under the threat of the Roman Empire. John reminded them that the mother of Jesus was their mother as well, that God would protect those Christians and that even in the wilderness God would protect Mary, would protect anyone who sought to bear Christ into this world by word and witness. In the sixteenth century, Mary appeared again to an indigenous peasant, making it clear that he also was her child, he also was a beloved child of God and a part of the church with full voice no matter what those in power said. And she provided her own miraculous image to prove this truth.

And I wonder, if you and I have eyes to see, what might we see today. What visions might Mary want to show us of her children, of any of those under threat from the powers of this world, any of those who are ignored and pushed aside by the religious and political authorities. Mary speaks to all children of God at all times and all places, saying, “Am I not here, I who am your mother?” May we, as the followers of Jesus today, have eyes to see the visions God would give us of our lady. May we, as followers of Jesus today, have the strength to speak truth to power, just as Juan Diego did. And may we know that God’s love holds us, cares for us, and protects us, no matter the wilderness of our lives. Amen. 

O God of love, you blessed your people at Tepeyac with the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe; grant that her example of love to the poor and forsaken may stir our faith to recognize all people as members of one family. Teach us to follow in the way you have prepared for us, that we may honor one another in word and action. May we who have been marked by your image share with the Mother of our Lord your commonwealth of peace, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in glory everlasting. Amen. 

The after party of a presidential election

Below is my column in today's edition of the Grand Haven Tribune. 

In the days following November’s election, I spent some time praying and pondering how best to respond as a pastor.

My parish, St. John’s Episcopal Church, has for decades been an historically progressive faith community. And so, there were many who were shocked and disturbed by Donald Trump’s election. At the same time, our parish strives for diversity and that includes diversity of political views. And so, there were members of my church who voted for Donald Trump for reasons that meant a lot to them – and reasons they were hesitant to share given the heat of the progressive blowback.

I worried about alienating those members of the body of Christ who had more conservative views even as I worried about marginalized members of my community who feared for their safety and security given some of the promises made by Trump in the election.

Then I remembered a book a colleague had recommended at a clergy gathering not too long ago. It is called “The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics” by Curtis Chang and Nancy French. Both Curtis and French come from a conservative background and the book was clearly written with evangelical Christianity in mind, and yet I had heard that the principals of the book transcended party and tradition and were well worth reading. So, I put out information that, as we entered into the dark season of hope known as Advent, anyone who wanted could join me in reading the book and see if we could find a better way forward.

Much of the book is centered on the premise that there are basically four types of Christians when it comes to faith and politics, basing the typology on where an individual fell when it came to their level of hope and their level of humility.

The combatant is the Christian who is high in hope but lower in humility, fighting political battles with great hope but also with confidence that they absolutely know what’s right and that those who oppose them are absolutely wrong and out to do damage.

The opposite of the combatant is the person who is exhausted. Whereas the combatant is full of hope, the exhausted profile has pretty much lost all hope. They are humble, they don’t claim to have all the answers and are afraid no one can find a good way forward. So, they’ve kind of given up. They avoid conversations that are challenging, block people on social media, avoid the news, and would rather just not talk about politics at all. Surveys show this group is more widespread in our country than any other.

Also low on hope is the cynic. This person also has given up on engaging with those who are different than them, but they do it because they are also low on humility. They are certain they are right; they’re not interested in arguing about it anymore and they tend to, in the words of the authors, stew “in a spiritually degrading mix of pride and despair.”

The fourth type is what the authors call the disciple, the person who is both high and humility and high in hope. They are humble because they are able to acknowledge the complexity of the world and the issues that face us (compared to the certainty of the cynic and the combatant). And so they are eager to listen to those with whom they disagree, to discuss, and – most importantly – they think they might learn something. Unlike the exhausted, the disciple also is filled with hope because they believe that God is active in the world and will always raise up those who need to do the work that needs to be done. Like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, they believe that “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

If you want to take out the quiz from the book and see where you fall, you can do so online at https://redeemingbabel.org/hopehumilityquiz/.

It will perhaps surprise few of you who know me that I fell in the combatant territory (though, when I took the quiz, I was right on the edge of combatant and exhausted). At first that stung a little because it meant I have some work to do on humility. But then I took a deep breath, prayed, and realized the book is right. I do have some work to do on humility.

I also realized that another way to phrase that – both for myself and for others who might fall in a type that is low on humility – is to replace humility with curiosity. That’s not because I don’t need to grow in humility (I absolutely do), but because a great first step in developing more humility is to develop more curiosity.

While I (and a good amount of other people, I imagine), might find it challenging to be curious about the new administration that’s forming, particularly when that administration seems poised to act in ways that we believe will cause profound harm, perhaps we – perhaps I – can try to be curious about people who voted for this administration.

After all, it was not a small group of far-right extremists who voted for another Trump administration. It was a majority of our country (or, more accurately, a majority of those who showed up and voted). Even as Ottawa Impact lost its hold on our county, the county also still went for Trump by 68 percent. And so that means I need to get curious about my neighbors, my friends, and my parishioners.

It also means that if I don’t think I know people who voted for Trump, it’s likely that some of those close to me have given up on talking to me about some of the important issues facing us. Either that, or I have built a social circle that is simply an echo chamber of my own views.

I’m also grateful that each chapter of the book is clear that it’s not suggesting we are all going to be disciples, super high on hope, humility, and curiosity. In fact, each of the other groups (combatant, exhausted, and cynic) have gifts to bring to the conversation. The body of Christ is diverse, and each sort of person is needed. For people like me, the book says what is essential is remembering that my true battle is not against those who disagree, but against powers that seek to harm God’s children. If I can fight that battle, while being curious about those who are caught up by those powers, I’m heading in a good direction.

No one truly knows what the next four years will bring (except that we all probably agree there is going to be some upheaval.). But we must keep talking to one another if we want the next four years to move us forward as a people. I’m going to try harder on my end to do this better. I hope you’ll join me.

The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at www.sjegh.com.

Ottawa Impact is not done with us (Tribune Version)

I posted the original version of this column several weeks ago. Here is the version the Tribune ran in their print version today, with several updates and revisions. 

As I was working on my absentee ballot for (today’s) election, I was surprised when I hit the school board section and saw some familiar names. Some familiar Ottawa Impact and Ottawa Impact-adjacent names.

Tommy VanHill had previously run as an unabashed Ottawa Impact candidate and lost, and is on the ballot once more as an official Ottawa Impact candidate. Joshua T. Spurr and David Olthof have been endorsed by the chair of the Ottawa Impact-run Ottawa County Republican Party.

Olthof’s social media shows regular posts from the far-right group Restoring Ottawa, which has been behind repeated attacks on our public school system. In his answers to the ONTRAC questionnaire that was sent to all candidates, he is clear that he homeschools his own children.

Spurr’s social media includes a video from May 2023 that has him shooting at Bud Light cans, presumably part of the far-right protest of Bud Light’s brief promotion with transgender TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney. Spurr heard of my concerns, and, to his credit, he reached to me personally. He confirmed that he did indeed post the video shooting cans because of Bud Light’s partnership with Dylan, something that, in his words “was meant to be a funny video.” He said he is not opposed to transgender people in general, just Dylan in particular.

I asked Spurr if he thought that the parent of a trans teenager in our school system would think that was a funny video. He declined to answer, simply saying that “a company protest does not translate into me not treating all kids unequally.” We ended the conversation cordially, with me letting him know I still have concerns and him saying he appreciated keeping lines of communication open.

Though not endorsed by the Ottawa County GOP chair, two other candidates still concerned me as well. Helen Brinkman made news in 2023 as an attorney in Kent County that sought to ban books in school libraries that her clients deemed unsuitable, part of a continued pattern of attacks on books with LGBTQIA+ characters and storylines. She also represented Marlena Pavlos-Hackney, the restaurant owner who refused to follow health department guidelines during the pandemic. One only needs to read the news articles to see the ways that her efforts are part of the larger attacks on the LGBTQIA+ population. In her answers to the ONTRAC questionnaire, she expresses her own support of Ottawa Impact and says she would welcome their endorsement.

Steve Skodack has repeatedly denied his connections to Ottawa Impact and yet his views tend to align with those of the movement. Skodack lost his bid to get on the Grand Haven City Council and apparently now is trying this route of school board candidate instead. However, he has no campaign website and his candidacy page on Facebook still, with only a few days to go before the election (as this column was being written), names him as a City Council candidate, so it’s rather difficult to suss out why he is running for this position.

I was reminded that though Ottawa Impact did indeed lose ground in the recent primary election, that group and those who support their far-right views are far from done with Ottawa County – and that includes Grand Haven.

This is perhaps also a helpful time to remind everyone that the waste, corruption and vengeful governing tactics of Ottawa Impact were not an aberration or something that only happened in our neck of the woods. Ottawa Impact is only one manifestation of a national movement by Christian nationalists seeking to seize local control of counties and school boards.

Much of this movement can be traced to Mike Flynn, who served as Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor for a whopping 22 days until he resigned after it was revealed that he had lied about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador. He pleaded guilty to a felony count of making false statement to the FBI. Before he was sentenced, he was pardoned by Donald Trump.

During the Great Lie, as Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Flynn encouraged the president to silence the press, suspend the Constitution and hold a new election run by the military. When he was deposed about the insurrection on January 6, Mike Flynn repeatedly pleaded the fifth.

After the failure of the insurrection, though, Flynn took to calling for a different approach to seizing control of government. Claiming danger from everything from Critical Race Theory to LGBTQIA+ rights, Flynn began urging Christians around the country to take over their school boards and county commissions in order to stop the “woke” infiltration of these bodies.

As the Associated Press has reported, “Flynn’s movement envisions Christianity as the basis of American life and institutions; where the right to bear arms is paramount; where abortion is illegal; where concepts such as systemic racism and gay or transgender rights have no place in the schools; and where people who disagree are called ‘Marxists,’ or perverts, and are excluded from American civic life.” Sound familiar?

Make no mistake, Mike Flynn and those who share his views will not rest in their attempt to take over local boards and governments. As Ottawa Impact’s brand continues its downward spiral into toxicity, it will become harder to identify candidates who are a part of this attempted far-right takeover of our community.

Naturally, all of the candidates I have identified above whose views concern me don’t share all of Flynn’s views. But voters must dig deep and do their research to know how far-right a candidate’s views swing.

Thankfully, groups like the League of Women Voters help out from a non-partisan perspective (though Olthof, Brinkman and Skodack declined to participate in that forum on Oct. 15). And, we also have the gift of Organize Ottawa, an organization that has carefully vetted all candidates and is working to keep extremist control out of our schools and government. You can access their information at organizeottawa.com.

Because, conservative or liberal, independent or progressive, there are lots of followers of Jesus out there who do not believe in the hateful rhetoric against queer people, who believe families and households of all shapes and beliefs should have equal access and rights in schools and the broader community, and who are more interested in showing love than banning books and using terms like “Marxist” so that you don’t have to engage in actual conversation with others. It is those followers of Jesus who must continue to stand against these far-right misrepresentations of his life and teachings.

After all, protecting the marginalized from religious extremism, that’s the sort of thing Jesus actually did do.

The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer, Tribune community columnist, serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at www.sjegh.com. The views in this column are his alone as a Grand Haven resident and parent of a student in Grand Haven schools and do not necessarily reflect the views of his congregation.

Ottawa Impact (and Christian Nationalism) is Not Done with Us

Below is the column I submitted a week ago to the Grand Haven Tribune for my October column. To date, they have not yet printed it—however, with absentee ballots being turned in, I'm publishing it on my own platform so that those voting in our local election (or any local election) can be aware of the dangers posed by those extremists across the country trying to infiltrate local government. Don't let what happened to Ottawa County government happen to you, your county, or your school board. 

As I was working on my absentee ballot for the upcoming election, I was surprised when I hit the school board section and saw some familiar names. Some familiar Ottawa Impact and Ottawa Impact adjacent names. 

Tommy VanHill had previously run as an unabashed Ottawa Impact candidate and lost and is on the ballot once more as an official Ottawa Impact candidate. That lawsuit was dismissed. Joshua T. Spurr and David Olthof have been endorsed by the chair of the Ottawa Impact-run County Republican party, so one assume they also fall in line with the other candidates. And one doesn’t have to dig very hard to see that is indeed the case. Olthof’s social media shows regular posts from the far-right group Restoring Ottawa, which has been behind repeated attacks on our public school system. Spurr’s socia media includes a video from May of 2023 that has him shooting at Bud Light bottles, likely a part of the far-right protest of that business for their brief promotion with transgender TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney.

Though not endorsed by the Ottawa County GOP chair, two other candidates gave me grave concern. Helen Brinkman made news in 2023 as an attorney in Kent County that sought to ban books in school libraries that it deemed unsuitable. One only needs to read the news articles to see the ways that her efforts are part of the larger attacks on the LGBTQIA+ population. Steve Skodack has repeatedly denied his connections to Ottawa Impact and yet his views continually align with those of the movement, especially homophobic and transphobic criticisms of the Grand Haven Pride Festival. He lost his bid to get on the Grand Haven City Council and apparently now thinks that the school board is an easier way to get power. However, he has no campaign website and his candidacy page on Facebook still names him as a city council candidate. 

I was reminded by these candidates that though Ottawa Impact did indeed lose ground in the recent primary election, that group and those who support their far-right views are far from done with Ottawa County… and that includes Grand Haven. 

For those who want to ensure they don’t accidentally vote for Christian nationalists and far-right extremists in the election, you can go to groups like Organize Ottawa who have vetted all candidates and is working to keep extremist control out of our schools and government. You can access their information at https://organizeottawa.com. 

This is perhaps also a helpful time to remind everyone that the waste, corruption, and vengeful governing tactics of Ottawa Impact were not an aberration or something that only happened in our neck of the woods. Ottawa Impact is only one manifestation of a national movement by Christian nationalists seeking to seize local control of counties and school boards. 

Much of this movement can be traced to Mike Flynn, who served as Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor for a whopping twenty-two days until he resigned after it was revealed that he had lied about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador. He pled guilty to a felony count of making false statement to the FBI. Before he was sentenced he was pardoned by Donald Trump. 

During the Great Lie, as Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Flynn encouraged the president to silence the press, suspend the constitution, and hold a new election run by the military. When he was deposed about the insurrection on January 6, Mike Flynn repeatedly pleaded the fifth. 

After the failure of the insurrection, though, Flynn took to calling for a different approach to seizing control of government. Claiming danger from everything from Critical Race Theory to LGBTQIA+ rights, Flynn began urging Christians around the country to take over their school boards and county commissions in order to stop the “woke” infiltration of these bodies. 

As the Associated Press has reported, “Flynn’s movement envisions Christianity as the basis of American life and institutions; where the right to bear arms is paramount; where abortion is illegal; where concepts such as systemic racism and gay or transgender rights have no place in the schools; and where people who disagree are called ‘Marxists,’ or perverts, and are excluded from American civic life.” Sound familiar? 

Make no mistake, Mike Flynn and those who share his extreme, hateful, and undemocratic views will not rest in their attempt to take over local boards and governments. As Ottawa Impact’s brand continues its downward spiral into toxicity, it will become harder to identify candidates who a part of this attempted far-right takeover of our community. I’m grateful groups like Organize Ottawa are helping the average voter out. 

Because, conservative or liberal, independent or progressive, there are lots of followers of Jesus out there who do not believe in the hateful rhetoric against queer people, who believe families and households of all shapes and beliefs should have equal access and rights in schools and the broader community, and who are more interested in showing love than banning books and using terms like “Marxist” so that you don’t have to engage in actual conversation with others. It is those followers of Jesus that must continue to stand against these far-right misrepresentations of his life and teachings. 

After all, protecting the marginalized from religious extremism, that’s the sort of thing Jesus actually did do. 

The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer, Tribune community columnist, serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at www.sjegh.com. 

Turn from hypocrisy— be who God created you to be

Below is my column in today's edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.

Of the many arguments Jesus had with the religious leaders during his ministry, one constant thread was his repudiation of their hypocrisy.

For those who attend churches that follow the Revised Common Lectionary (and who also went to church this past Labor Day weekend), they heard from Mark 7, where Jesus upbraids the religious leaders, calling them hypocrites, because they “abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” Specifically, they clung to the traditions of ritual washing – even though many of these traditions were never commanded in Scripture for all people to follow – and yet abandoned the greater commandments of God. As we know from elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus saw this particularly in the failure to faithfully love God and your neighbor.

The religious leaders in the time of Jesus may keep the traditions and ritual, but the way they treat other people is not good, loving, or just. And so, he told them that they cannot think they can treat another human poorly but still claim holiness, at least not a holiness that comes from God. To act as though they were ritually holy despite the word and actions that flowed from their hearts, this was hypocrisy.

The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word for an actor, someone who is pretending to be someone they are not. As one scholar notes, “hypocrisy is a negation of authentic life: it is life acted out to fool others, a role that we take on and pretend to be, that is not really us.” It’s described as well in the first chapter of James, where he says those of us who hear the word of God but don’t actually do it are like those who look at themselves in a mirror, see who they truly are, and then forget the second they walk away.

Perhaps the best way I’ve ever heard this described, comes from the novel “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. In a scene early in the book, the wretched Fyodor Pavlovich – the patriarch of the Karamazov family and a man who is licentious, a compulsive liar, sensualist, and a buffoon – is always making a great deal about how he doesn’t care about what others think of him. He has gathered with his sons in the cell of the great elder Father Zosima. The miserable person of father, Fyodor Pavlovich, asks Father Zosima what he must do to inherit eternal life (a question he clearly does not actually care about for he is simply putting on a show). But Father Zosima responds, anyway, telling him to turn from his obviously wicked and sensual ways.

Then, Father Zosima goes even further, saying, “And, above all – don’t lie. Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures.”

Above all, don’t lie to yourself. I think that might be the heart of the hypocrisy that Jesus warned about, the hypocrisy that lies close at hand to any one of us. That’s certainly how James describes it as well, saying that if you think you are religious but you don’t bridle your tongue, you are simply deceiving your own heart, that your religion is worthless.

Now, I want to be quite clear. Neither Jesus nor James nor Father Zosima are saying you must be perfect. No, they are saying you must be honest. When you fall short, don’t think your ritual or superior perspective on religion will save you. That’s simply not true and you are deceiving yourself. All of us are saved by gracious love, and that is all.

But, on the other hand, certainly don’t think that you can let evil or hateful words come from your heart and still be who God calls you to be. Indeed, this is why so many have turned away from Christianity entirely. They see people who claim to follow God but who speak and act in hateful ways towards those who are different from them, those with whom they disagree, those who see God differently.

They see what comes from the hearts of Christians and, in the eyes of unbelievers, these Christians are just as defiled as were the religious leaders in the time of Jesus. And when those religious Christians claim they are actually superior… well, the hypocrisy is obvious.

In that same first chapter of James, he describes true and pure religion as this: care for the orphans and widows (that is, whoever the marginalized are in your society) and live differently than the world around you. So, if you want to follow Jesus, don’t think you can ignore the marginalized and be who God calls you to be. When you live a self-centered life, as though you are what is most important, you deceive yourself about what love actually demands of you, you forget that your worth is not in yourself, but that you are called to offer yourself to others.

As the theologian Robert Cummings Neville once articulated it, “the human condition of sin is ontological self-contradiction, or being divided against oneself in one’s very being.” Sin is deceiving yourself about who you truly are. It is a form of lying to yourself. And so, I think all of us could stand to take Father Zosima’s words to heart. (Including this Christian priest writing this column.)

Don’t lie to yourself. You were created for God, you were created for good, you were created to be a force for love in this world.

Don’t believe the lies others may have told about you, especially religious people who have condemned you while claiming their own righteousness.

Don’t believe the dark thoughts that linger when no one else is around. You are so much more than that.

Ensure that what comes out of you, what comes out of your mouth, what comes out in your interactions with others, in the way you live your life, in all the ways you impact the world, ensure that what comes out of you is true to the good and loving person God created you to be, that what comes out of you makes holiness, makes goodness, and makes justice.

Because it is only then you will be who you truly are.

The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer, Tribune community columnist, serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at www.sjegh.com.

None are free until all are free

Below is my column in today's edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the meaning and importance of freedom in the days leading up to this year’s Independence Day celebration.

July fourth is, at its root, a celebration of the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the document signed 248 years ago whereby the 13 British colonies declared their independence from the rule of King George III. The document itself is stunning in its prose, argument and ideals, and it inspired other movements around the world.

The intellectuals and revolutionaries in France were inspired to begin their own French Revolution in 1789, eventually forming the French Consulate and solidifying many of the principles of a liberal democracy. Our nascent democracy maintained a principle of neutrality (a story told memorably in the musical “Hamilton”), but that stance created sharp divisions and was one of the political realities that created the first two-party system in our country.

As a part of that revolution, leaders in the French Enlightenment drafted the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.” As in our own declaration, the French declaration declared a belief in the natural rights of each person. We had declared belief in the unalienable rights of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The French declared that all “men are born and remain free and equal in rights” and, furthermore, that there was a right to liberty, private property, the inviolability of the person and resistance to oppression.

Just two years after this document was published, slaves in the French colony of St. Domingue joined with free people of color (often mixed-race individuals of both African and French descent who had less rights than the white colonialists) and revolted. Within 10 days, the slaves took control of the entire Northern Province and within a year they controlled a third of St. Domingue. The battle would continue, though, for more than a decade. After achieving complete independence, they published the Haitian Declaration of Independence in 1804.

What we can see in the relationship between these three movements for independence is how freedom was variously understood and then applied in each context. Our own Declaration of Independence, of course, spoke of the inherent freedom of all men, a phrase that is often assumed to refer to humanity. And yet, the rights declared in the Declaration were not even given to all men in 1776. Slaves were clearly not understood to have an inherent right to freedom – though many people do not know that the original draft of the Declaration of Independence included a clause about slavery.

In the initial draft, Thomas Jefferson’s list of grievances against King George III included the king’s role in both creating and perpetuating the transatlantic chattel slave trade, writing, “he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.” He went on to describe slavery as “piratical warfare,” “execrable commerce” and an “assemblage of horrors.”

However, one-third of those who would go on to sign the declaration were enslavers (as was Thomas Jefferson himself!), so it is no surprise that this clause did not remain in the final form of the draft. Too many people depended upon the traffic of enslaved Africans for the economic prosperity to call out and condemn the trade so clearly. In Jefferson’s autobiography, he blamed the removal of the slaves on South Carolina and Georgia, noting that while his own state of Virginia had sought to restrict the trade, those states wished it to continue.

All of this underscores the fact that freedom, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, was at that time a dream yet to be realized. Much of the story of our country in the years that follow is how freedom advanced, as more and more people claimed the freedom promised to them in 1776. And so we ended slavery, but then quickly the Jim Crow south kept African Americans from having equal rights. In many ways, the battle for equal rights for African Americans continues, as Black bodies are still not valued at the same level of white bodies in our culture.

Women were given the right to vote in 1920 with the 19th Amendment, but that right was not extended to all women as prohibiting any denial of the right to vote on the basis of sex did not prohibit discrimination in other ways, And so Native-American, Asian-American, Latinx and African-American suffragists have all had to continue to fight for their own rights long after ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Furthermore, the 19th Amendment spoke only of the right to vote. In 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment was placed before state legislatures for ratification, stating, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” Within a year, 30 states ratified the amendment, but the ratification stalled, and the seven-year deadline included in the legislation passed. While numerous attempts have been made to finish its ratification, they have not yet been successful.

The need for it is still clear. Women didn’t have the right to open a bank account without their husband’s signature until 1974. Marital rape was also legal before the 1970s – and though it was made a crime nationwide by 1993, married women are still treated differently than non-married women in rape cases quite differently in several states. With the current assaults on the rights of women to have control over their bodies, true freedom remains elusive. And not just women, many of those on the right who still oppose the Equal Rights Amendment do so because they fear an expansion of rights to queer and trans people.

And so, on tomorrow’s Independence Day holiday, absolutely celebrate the freedoms you have – but also perhaps consider those in our country whose freedoms are still limited, still circumscribed, by those with power and privilege. Recommit to working toward freedom for all people. Because, as Maya Angelou said, “The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.”

About the writer: The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer, Tribune community columnist, serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at www.sjegh.com.

Love will stand against attacks on Pride

 Below is my column in today's edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.

Last month, someone forwarded me the May newsletter from the Ottawa County GOP.

They began straightaway saying that while normally they would focus on Memorial Day (and rightfully so), they chose instead to focus on the upcoming Grand Haven Pride Festival. They wrote, “Because what happened last year was devastating to the Grand Haven community and Ottawa County at large, we feel a responsibility to inform the public of what took place and are asking our responsible citizenry to please spread awareness.”

“Devastating” I asked myself, thinking about the numerous news reports and videos that showed thousands celebrating joyfully and safely last year. How could it be seen as devastating? As I read on, my heart sank to read the baseless, discriminatory, false, and transphobic words from the official entity for Republicans in Ottawa County. They attacked me personally for my work as the sponsorship lead. They falsely claimed that our festival was a “stunning debacle of soliciting children in a public space in broad daylight.”

And so, here we are, just like last year, beginning Pride Month needing to counter hate with love and truth, all because certain people in our community are simply incapable of seeing queer people in public and not immediately moving to dark and disturbing places.

First, these attacks cut to the heart of why Pride Month exists in the first place. The very first pride parade was on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots of 1969, riots in which drag queens played a central role due to the harassing and violent treatment of police in New York. Ever since then, drag queens have played a significant role in the Pride movement, raising millions to help AIDS patients in the eighties, for instance, while the rest of the country turned a blind eye to the death of millions upon millions of people.

The GOP newsletter posted pictures at our festival of kids giving tips to the drag performers, performers who were dressed like so many other musical and entertainment acts that perform at Waterfront Stadium every summer without complaint from the Ottawa County GOP. I’ve yet to see the Ottawa County GOP argue that Grand Haven State Park is sexualizing children because people are allowed to wear bathing suits that they feel confident in (and Lord knows there’s more skin on those beaches than at a drag performance, as the pictures the GOP posted will quickly demonstrate).

Each summer, buskers bless our streets with music and performance in exchange for a few dollar bills in a case, and no one bats an eye. That is because tipping drag performers is just as customary as tipping street performers. To compare tipping queens to tipping strippers misses the key distinction: queens are not taking off their clothes! They are working incredibly hard, dancing, displaying amazing physical strength and, most importantly, are confidently claiming an identity they truly own to the core. Tipping an artist is teaching children that art is of value.

Queens are not soliciting children, and to say that just demonstrates the depth of bigotry and prejudice that exists in the hearts of some people. (And in case you are wondering, a 2023 report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue has found a clear linkage between attacks on the drag community and QAnon conspiracy theories that claim to be about protecting children but really are about spreading false narratives). Furthermore, language like this is why violence against trans people continues to increase (even though many drag performers are actually cisgender!), with one study in Britain finding that 80 percent of respondents in the trans community had experienced a hate crime at some point in their life.

This is not OK. And for those who claim to be followers of Jesus to participate in this is shameful.

When I met with a local candidate for public office last year, they suggested that the drag performances should be behind closed doors. I asked why, why would men dressed as women need to be behind closed doors … I was met with an unsure response.

Because those who would attack drag are the same who want LGBTQI+ people to go back in the closet. But the closet is deadly to queer people and Pride Month is about telling people that they don’t need to hide there anymore, that they are safe to be who they are. They are not merely tolerated; they are celebrated by their community and allies. If they are attracted to someone of the same sex, or if they know in their soul that their gender identity is different than their birth gender, or if they just feel better dressed in clothes normally associated with a different gender, all of that is OK. Love is love. You are who God created you to be. And that is fabulous.

Sure, I know there are people in our community who are opposed to Pride. I hope, though, that they will respect the rights and support the safety of those who want to gather to celebrate. As one of my parishioners, Angie Slater, said last year when she spoke to city council, “We even have a kite festival. I’m not a member of the kite-flying community. I don’t even understand flying kites. But I’m thankful to live in a place where I have the freedom to choose to attend or not to attend celebrating people who fly kites.”

If you’re one of those members of our community who, like me, felt anger at the bigotry and transphobia present in the attacks on Grand Haven Pride, know you are not alone. Love will always stand against hate. We’ll stand together at Grand Haven Pride this Saturday, June 8. We’ve doubled the private security at the festival to ensure everyone is safe. My own church will host the fourth annual Community Pride Worship service at 10 a.m. on Saturday, this year joined by two other affirming churches in Grand Haven.

And, if you’ve ever wondered how to respond to Christians who attack the queer community, I’m leading a workshop whose tickets will be donated in their entirety to support the work of Grand Haven Pride. It will be Thursday, June 27 from 5:30–7 p.m. and is entitled “God, Bible, Gender, and Sexuality.” Join me as we talk about what Scripture and Christian theology might actually say to these questions. You might be surprised. Details and tickets are online at http://unifyingchristians.com/lgbtqfaith.

The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at www.sjegh.com.