Quick Things of Beauty

 Friends, 

I have two things to share with you today. 

 

First, throughout this month for our Sunday morning Introit, the St. Mark Quartet has been singing a beautiful song by Eric Whitacre entitled, Sing Gently. In 2020, 17,572 singers from 129 countries gathered virtually to sing the song, including our own Carissa Huntting and Emilio Lópex Felix. The recordings were captured and compiled into a stunning YouTube video that you can find here. It is mesmerizing and a lovely way to lose oneself a time of holy reverie, just as the song intends. We had every intention to show the video this weekend in worship, but due to copyright restrictions we are unable to embed it into our keynote presentations. Instead, I strongly urge you to take the time to listen, watch, and let your heart be lifted up by watching this video. 

 

Finally, I have been out of pocket this week, enjoying a time of study leave surrounded by the beauty of the Eastern Sierras in Mammoth. Since it is not skiing season, I have been spending the mornings writing, and the late afternoons taking hikes, riding a gondola to the highest peak, walking around lakes, and getting lost in wonder. Wow, talk about mesmerizing and a lovely way to lose oneself! I look forward to returning on Saturday morning and seeing you all in worship this weekend. In addition to the weekly joy of worship, we have our monthly “Meet me at Muldoon’s” on Saturday evening, a baptism on Sunday, and SueJeanne Koh bringing our message. 

 

See you in worship,

Mark of St. Mark

 

IRS Ruling, pt. 2

 Friends, 

 

I wrote some reflections last week on the new IRS ruling allowing churches to endorse candidates from the pulpit without endangering their tax exemption status. That particular ruling is narrowly focused on churches, not all 501c3 organizations. It has been framed as a “free speech” matter, but I suspect there is more to it than that. For example, in this ABC news report, Ellen Aprill, a professor emerita of tax law at Loyola Marymount University Law School, says the new regulation could open the door to political campaigns channeling money through churches to take advantage of their tax-exempt status and lower application and reporting requirements. Aprill even expressed concern that this new ruling “will encourage the creation of fraudulent churches who want to be able to get tax deductible money to engage in opposing or supporting candidates … so they don't have to disclose any other campaign intervention activities.”  

 

When I was the chair of The Interfaith Alliance of Iowa (TIAI), I sat down at a meeting with Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who at that time was the chair of the National Democratic Party. The Christian Coalition was in full swing at that time, and TIAI was begun when a long-time school board member was outed and ousted from office by Christian conservatives for being gay. Because TIAI strongly opposed discrimination based on sexual orientation and tried to change the rhetoric in the public square from addressing queer persons with demeaning language, one Des Moines Register opinion columnist consistently referred to TIAI as “the Christian Coalition of the Left.” We did not like that depiction, but apparently, Congresswoman Schultz thought that was accurate and arranged this meeting to urge us to use our churches, synagogues, and mosques to support a particular Democratic slate of candidates. We responded, “While we may personally support these candidates and agree with all of your reasons for doing so, we will not endorse any candidate from the pulpit, nor will we encourage other houses of worship to do so.” The meeting closed pretty quickly.  

 

The line between “politics and justice” or “politics and faithfulness” will always be gray, malleable, and debatable. The Des Moines Register opinion writer did not appreciate that gray area, supposing that any faith group that was in solidarity with gay and lesbian persons was taking a “political” position. Likewise, the writers of Project 2025 tried to establish a rhetoric that attempts to ensure Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (D.E.I.) are purely political and should be condemned as “woke.” More accurately, a Christian perspective can argue that Diversity, if you look at the expanse of creation, is part of God’s very design; Equity, if you look at biblical laws regarding access to food and shelter, is a moral imperative; and Inclusion, if you look at Jesus’ table manners, is a Christian value. How to establish diversity, equity, and inclusion is an ongoing conversation with many valid perspectives, but simply dismissing D.E.I. efforts generally as “woke” is politically and religiously cynical. 

 

The Presbyterian Church (USA) should strive to be faithful in reflecting God’s diversity, pursuing equity, and practicing inclusion. But we cannot do so by wagging our fingers at others. As we proclaim truth, we must likewise confess our failures and complicities in discriminatory practices. As I pointed out in my sermon last week, the list that our Book of Order says should be protected from discrimination is long, because the list of groups who have suffered discrimination in our church’s history is long. Ironically, the only way a church can exercise a courageous, prophetic voice for justice is by starting with auditing our own failures with fear and trembling. That’s how the paradox of gaining life by losing it, being first by being last, or following Christ by taking up the cross works. 

 

Churches automatically qualify for tax exemption and do not have to file 990 forms disclosing the kind of financial information that other 501 c3 organizations do. Because political donations have been identified lately as exercises of free speech, I share Ellen Aprill’s concerns that the new IRS ruling will not only embolden preachers to explicitly endorse candidates but also allow churches to become unaccountable privileged channels for campaign finances. And we all know that money can be as ruinous and compromising for houses of faith as it is for politics. May God guide us into better light.

 

Mark of St. Mark

The IRS New Ruling

 Friends, 

The IRS issued a ruling this week that allows churches to endorse candidates for political office, without endangering their tax-exempt status. It seems to me that some churches have been openly endorsing candidates, parties, policies, or issuing “voter guides” for quite some time, and the IRS has largely turned a blind eye. 

 

Today I want to offer a few personal perspectives on this new ruling issued by the IRS. I do not feel that being the pastor who preaches regularly at St. Mark puts me in any position of authority to speak to this issue. Rather, I feel that being the pastor who preaches regularly at St. Mark obligates me to clarify my own approach to an issue that can have many valid perspectives. Here goes.

 

1. When we have a stewardship drive or call for the offering, we never appeal to tax advantages. We speak of our “debt of gratitude,” and begin with the claim that the earth and everything in it belongs to God. It seems crass to appeal to making an offering to God as a matter of economic advantage. Still, that deduction is something that we all take for granted. My guess is that tax advantages is a part of the equation in church giving, but I have no idea how significant it is and I hope it is quite small.   

 

2. Someone who is called to preach the Word of God needs to ask theological questions, moderating their words by what God requires far more than a fear of losing their tax exemption. There are theological reasons for preachers to observe the difference between the Christian message and a partisan political stance and here are a few that shape the way I try to speak the Word of God, even when it involves issues that have been politicized: 

 

- “God alone is Lord of the conscience,” which sets the individual conscience free from the dictates of any religious or secular authority.

- “The Christian conscience is captive to the Word of God” – remember Repentance means “change the way you think about everything!” 

- “Sin is radical and universal” – radical in the sense that there is no aspect of our being that is unaffected by it, including our opinions; universal in the sense that no religious or political opinion is exempt from the taint of sin. 

- “We are the church reformed, always being reformed,” by which we mean the living God whose Spirit is among us is ever at work transforming our hearts, renewing our minds, and challenging us with the possibilities of new life. 

- “The church is a prophetic community,” which is my own summation of how Presbyterians view the story of the Day of Pentecost and its meaning for us today. That story takes the power of prophecy, the call to speak truth to power, and pours it out on all the people of God. 

- In addition to worship and fellowship, the church of Jesus Christ is called to peacemaking, the right administration of justice, liberative preference for the poor, caring for creation, upholding the dignity and value of all persons, and demanding accountability of those in leadership, among other things. In order for these commitments to be more than just pious rhetoric, they require study, encouragement, organization, advocacy, and action.

- When we proclaim the Living God, who loves “the world,” and for whom justice matters, we cannot reduce the gospel to what Jesus did once upon a time or reduce salvation to a purely personal matter. A living God is far more disruptive of our ways than that. 

 

3. In “the separation of church and state,” the line of demarcation between church and state is always elusive. Is something like ‘advocating for immigration justice’ an act of Christian conscience or is it ‘political’? If an issue of justice is politicized, how do we speak to it as an issue of justice and escape the claim that we’re being political? 

 

I don’t think it is possible for the church to be squeaky clean in separating matters of justice from matters of politics, when the purpose of politics is to ensure justice. So, when it comes to what we proclaim, it seems to me that the issue of tax exemption should matter much less to us than keeping our theological convictions. 

 

That’s me just thinking aloud this morning,

Mark of St. Mark

 

 

Bread for the World

Friends, 

Happy 4^th of July. Today I will find time to honor my annual habit of reading Frederick Douglass’ astounding reflection, “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?” You can watch a powerful recitation of that speech by Douglass’ great-great-great-great grandchildren here. It will be time well spent and that speech continues to offer prophetic power. 

 

Speaking of offering prophetic power, on the weekend of June 1 we commissioned one of our youth, Collette Anderson, and one of our deacons, Angie Vazirian, to attend a Bread for the World conference. Here is Collette’s response and report of that event for us. Wow, she speaks truth. 

 

Mark of St. Mark

 

I am so grateful for the opportunity to participate in the 2025 Bread for The World Advocacy Summit. Bread for the World is a bipartisan Christian organization with a focus on solving world hunger. In times like these making your voice heard is very important and this summit allowed me to do so. I met so many incredible people and learned so much about advocacy and the right ways to do it. Having meetings on the hill and knowing that I am doing everything I can to make a difference is such a great feeling. This experience taught me so much about the importance of the voice of the people. It was inspiring to see so many people of all ages coming together for such a great cause. Everyone I met was so driven and had such an amazing heart. On the last day of the summit, we had meetings in the offices of our representatives on Capitol Hill. Some people met with the representatives themselves, in my case, I met with the staffers. We approached the meetings with the “ask” of protecting SNAP, WIC, and international food aid programs. My representatives have all been openly and loudly supportive of these programs so our focus was on asking how they were planning on getting the support of their colleagues across the aisle. Meetings like these are important because they give the representatives stories to sway their colleagues. I was told that by speaking to representatives with your same opinion you are “arming members with an arsenal of anecdotes”. It is also very impactful to send your representatives emails and letters and call their offices directly.

 

If there's ANY form of legislation or policy you are passionate about, reach out to your representatives. Your voice is important, now more than ever. There are so many issues in need of addressing and anything you care about is worth expressing. Whether it be by email, physical letter or even scheduling a meeting with their office make your voice heard. This summit specifically focused on urging representatives against passing the Big Beautiful Bill which will cause $290 billion in budget cuts over the next 10 years. So although there are other concerns I would have liked to address as well, we focused specifically on this bill. As an organization voicing concerns for world hunger, we focused on the issues that the bill will cause on people who rely on programs such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and WIC (Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) as well as international hunger aid programs. SNAP is a federal program that provides financial assistance to low-income individuals and families to purchase food. It operates through an Electronic Benefit Transfer card, which can be used at authorized retailers to buy food items. WIC is a federally funded program that provides supplemental food, nutrition education, and health care referrals to low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women, as well as infants and children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk. These programs are relied on by over 45 million Americans and are a large part of solving the hunger problem in the U.S. The budget cuts in this bill will strip millions of families of this support leaving them hungry. If this is something you are passionate about you can use this link to send a pre-written email to your representatives that can be modified in any way to fit your specific views or any personal stories.https://go.bread.org/page/82476/action/1?locale=en-, You can use this link to contact your senators about any matter important to you: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm US No matter what it is you are passionate about and no matter what your opinion is I strongly urge you to reach out to your representatives because your voice can and will make a difference. Advocacy is important. There is no way for a representative to know what the people want unless we tell them. We are the people.

 

Collette Anderson