Christian Mythbusters Fr. Jared C. Cramer

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. The local PAC, “Ottawa Impact” which is currently trying to take over our school boards,  has listed as one of their core values, “A boy is a boy. A girl is a girl.” On its face, this might seem to be an innocuous statement. But it is not. It carries with it an agenda. And it is, quite literally, deadly. So, this week in Christian Mythbusters, I’d like to talk a little about gender identity, including from the perspective of the Christian faith.The problem with claiming gender is as simple as a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl is that this seeks to erase the reality of any person who does not fit within the gender binary. It literally seeks to pretend that the trans community doesn’t exist—and thus only continues the marginalization and discrimination towards those who identify as anything other than cisgender (this is the term for those whose sense of gender identity corresponds with the sex they were assigned at birth). First, just from a scientific and realistic standpoint, the idea that “a boy is a boy, and a girl is a girl” ignores the reality of people who are intersex. That is, those who are born with ambiguous g******s, or genitals that do not clearly match their chromosomal gender identity due to a variety of scientifically identified conditions. Most scientists believe that somewhere between .02% or as many as 1.7% of births fall under this identification. Yes, these adults (and children) are real. And to pretend they do not exist is to participate in the culture of stigmatization and discrimination that has led to the high rates of infanticide and abandonment these people experience within their own families. Second, the true attack of this claim, I imagine, is not on the intersex community (I’m willing to allow that people may be ignorant and unaware of that scientific reality). Rather, it is directed at those who might have a clear biological gender externally but who cannot identify with that gender internally. This could be someone born as a boy who identifies as a girl, someone born as a girl who identifies as a boy, or someone who is nonbinary and does not identify as either male or female. The Mayo Clinic (clearly not a secrete cabal of liberalism) even has a helpful article for parents entitled “Children and Gender Identity: Supporting Your Child.” In that article, the staff of the Mayo Clinic stress that it is common for children to go through periods of gender exploration when it comes to clothes and toys and even the roles they adopt in play. For some kids, however, as they get older this sense that they identify as a different gender persists. They encourage parents, “Listen to your children's feelings about gender identity. Talk to your child and ask questions without judgment.” People can become aware and able to articulate their gender identity at any age. In a non-discriminatory environment, many adults who identify as transgender can point to an awareness of that reality as young as even seven years old. Some can identify it even younger. For others, they may live for years with a vague sense that they don’t really fit in and it’s not until later in life they realize it is because of their gender identity. The reality of children and adolescents who don’t fall into the “boy/girl” categories of cisgender is an essentialreality for educators and school board members to recognize. The American Psychological Association advises “Parents of gender-nonconforming children may need to work with schools and other institutions to address their children’s particular needs and ensure their children’s safety.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. We are at challenging point in the life of our country, in the experience of the church in America, and in many local communities, including mine here in Grand Haven, Michigan. It seems as though for the past several years we've been caught in an endless downward spiral of divisive rhetoric and polemic, increasingly unable to hear the perspective of those who disagree with us and increasingly willing to paint the opposition with a broad brush.I want to be honest with you that I'm not sure at times how best to handle that reality. I mean, I look around me and I see the erosion of women's rights, the continued marginalization of the LGBTQIA+ community, people who use the phrase “parents’ rights” as code for the attempts some parents to control the schooling of all other children, the conversion of the immigrant and refugee community into pawns that are moved around the country for political ends… I see all of this and it’s hard not to speak up, to try to say something against this kind of corruption and injustice.And it's hard, it's so hard, not to appear strident when human rights seem to be at stake. I know don't always do a good job, but I hope you know I'm trying.Earlier this week someone sent me a message in response to some of the criticisms I have publicly levied against current school board candidates in our own community who are trying to unseat our good and faithful incumbents. One member of the community told me that I'm a bully for the things I've said and the criticisms I have raised.As much passion as I have for these questions of human rights and dignity, I don’t want to come off as a bully. And so, I thought about it. I thought about it really hard. And I thought this week I might try to parse some of the difference between disagreeing with passion and disagreeing as a bully. At the basic textbook definition, a bully is someone who seeks to harm, intimidate, or otherwise coerce someone who is vulnerable (or someone who is perceived as vulnerable). And that is the first and key point I want to make right there. Bullies are those who seek to intimidate and coerce the vulnerable.What is unfortunate is that some people in our society, people who are actually trying to intimidate vulnerable populations like queer kids or refugees, these people call those who disagree with them bullies. It is an excellent example of some kind of cognitive dissonance, of doing something bad but then turning and saying it’s really your opponent that is doing the bad thing.To call out marginalization, to point out the harm of policies that are being advocated for in our schools and our country, to make it clear the ways that these policies and approaches will have a devastating impact upon vulnerable communities, this is not to be a bully. To say it another way, for one person to stand up and tell a bully to stop punching a vulnerable person, to tell them they are doing damage, that is not bullying. You can tell it is not bullying because the person being called out is someone with power and the person being impacted and hurt is someone who is vulnerable. The history of the Hebrew Scriptures is filled with the condemnation of false prophets who proclaimed everything was okay in society, despite rampant sin and corruption, despite the marginalization of those who did not have a voice. These were prophets who only sought to make the comfortable and powerful more content with the status quo, knowing that upsetting the status quo might threaten their own comfort.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. The mourning and funeral for Queen Elizabeth II last month was watched around the globe. The longest-serving monarch that England has ever known, the preparations for marking her death and committing her to God were carefully done  far in advance and likely touched even those more skeptical about the essentiality of the monarch to twenty-first century England. Of the many roles the Queen had, one of them is actually connected to my own denomination, The Episcopal Church. For the past five hundred years or so, the monarch has been known as Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. That means that Elizabeth II was also the highest-ranking lay person in the Anglican Communion, choosing the Archbishop of Canterbury, for instance, who serves as the spiritual leader of our Communion. As I watched the carefully orchestrated funeral last Monday morning, I was reminded of something my friend Chuck Wibert used to say when it came to funerals. Chuck was what is known as a verger in our congregation, basically a Master of Ceremonies. And Chuck would tell everyone before a funeral that the approach we take—one with careful liturgy and music, and with a pall covering the casket so you cannot see the wealth or importance of the person being buried—we do all of this to make it clear that at death we are honored for what is truly most important: that we are a beloved baptized child of God. “When the Queen of England dies,” Chuck used to say, “She’ll get the same treatment you do as a Christian because we are all equal before God.”Now, of course, the queen clearly did not get exactly same treatment as your average Episcopalian funeral, but the underlying principle and point Chuck was trying to make holds. And so, this week I’d like to break the myth that pomp and circumstance is just for the death of a queen. It is available for you as well, because you matter that much.Part of the difficulty with funerals is that our culture—and our various religious traditions—have jumbled together all sorts of customs and services done when somebody dies. Traditionally, there would be a time for preparation of the body and visitation with the family. Then, at the funeral liturgy, the deceased would be commended to God. Finally, at a wake, memories would be shared and the person’s life toasted.These days, however, the ubiquitous “Celebration of Life” tries to accomplish all three at the same time—time with the family, prayers and religious customs, and remembering the person who died. And, by trying to cram so much into one service, none of it can be done terribly well.But if we tease the central part out of that gordian knot of customs and look only at the heart of what the funeral liturgy is meant to do, we will discover that holding that piece well can be profoundly more meaningful than a smushed-together cultural cluster.At its heart, the funeral is the gathering of the faith community to commend someone to God. What matters, at the end, is not how successful they were, whether they were a saint or a scoundrel. In the end, what matters is that God’s love, through baptism, has claimed you. And so, as I said, the casket or urn is covered with pall, a piece of heavy and embroidered fabric that is a symbol of baptism. And everyone, no matter how loved or how hated, how rich or how poor, gets that same baptismal pall. For God loves and embraces us all equally out of God’s mercy.In our tradition, we also don’t have numerous arrangements of flowers, photos, or other memorabilia.

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. 

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith.