Lutheran Logomaniac

Our congregation has been a polling station for several years now.  It is a good thing to encourage citizens to vote and to support our government and its regular processes.  One of the many blessings of our nation is the relatively peaceful process by which we handle elections.  Community and civic centers around the country serve as polling stations.  Our congregation is one of those stations.

Last week I asked my “sign guy,” Mr. Bill Dissen to put the above sign up in front of our church.  I wanted a sign that clearly was conscious of the upcoming election, but that exhorted parishioners (and others) to do something that was not endorsing a candidate or party.  Thus the sign: “Want change? Pray to end abortion.”

This morning our city clerk informed us that the sign needed to be taken down or it would be covered.  Apparently it might influence voters on how to vote.

We took the sign down.

But it has raised some very interesting questions for me as a pastor.  We are given an opportunity to confess the faith in the midst of an unbelieving world.  We can do so in a way that is not bitter or vitriolic.  But is it moral for a Church to agree to be used for what is a good, left-hand kingdom purpose (polling station) if it then limits the ability of that same church to be a prophetic voice in the world?

I am supportive of our government and its system.  I’m not sure about the wisdom of churches as polling stations, because it may limit the ability of the church to be church in the world.

What do you think?  Was the city clerk right or wrong?  Should churches agree to be polling stations, if they are told they cannot say certain things?

This has been a very different summer for me. For many of my summers over the past ten years, I spent it with Higher Things, either preparing for or recovering from our liturgical youth conferences.

But this summer was dedicated to my wife’s endeavors.

Opera ala Carte finished it’s fourth season this past weekend. I will be posting a bunch of pictures here shortly, but I wanted to reflect on it a little bit before doing so. I had a fairly minor role in one of the operas (Alcindoro in La Boheme), so I got to see all of this from the inside. That has really given me a different perspective on the whole matter. I’ve always been involved with OAC in one fashion or another, but this summer was a much greater level of involvement.

It was a special treat for me to be able to see my wife in action, doing one of the things she does best.  Now I am bias.  I freely admit it.  But my wife is truly amazing.  She put on basically five operas in two weekends.  Yes, it’s more than a little crazy.  But it was GREAT!  There were about 70 performers involved between the elementary and high school/college components, and I can’t even begin to count how many people involving in costumes, sets, programs, marketing, and heaven knows how much more that I can’t even begin to count.

I think what has struck me the most about all of this is the level of commitment that the students and young people have to doing this well.  Opera is hardly mainstream anymore.  It is viewed as elitist music that is out of touch with contemporary culture.  Bah.  What do they know?  Opera is rich music, an incredible discipline that teaches singing, acting, and I don’t even know what else.  So to see this group of young people (some of them as young as 7th grade), committing to this, well, it’s just a great thing.

I will comment on individual shows in the posts to come.

So we were/are supposed to be getting the greatest of all storms right now. Up to 20 inches they were predicting. now they are saying 10-15, but it is nasty outside.  The silly KUSD (Kenosha Unified School District) didn’t call off school this morning.  Fortunately we did.  He’s a picture from our front yard:

This one is outside our garage. you can see the downed cable line.

Backyard

You can almost see the church in the background….

So it’s crazy snow. We’ll see how bad the roads and stuff are soon.

-Lutheran Logomaniac