Confession Litany

(On "safety protocol" that closed the sweat lodges at the Native American Cultural Center where I work, the Sotomayor hearings, PANA's closure, health care town halls, and more of my friends being hurt by their "Christian" family members...)

I am sorry that narrow interpretations of Jesus' life and ministry lead my people to sacrifice sacrifice, that instead of seeing Jesus' work as an example to be followed of self-emptying on behalf of the community, some Christians consider Jesus' death a once-and-for-all event that abnegates our neighborly responsibilities. For the ways poor communities, communities of color, the elderly and youth are being sacrificed on the altars of financial melt-down: forgive us. For the ways already-marginalized individuals are being 'put on the spot' or 'pitted against each other' while structures of privilege and domination wash their hands of culpability: forgive us. For those of us who can afford, literally, to stop having conversations about justice and therefore stop listening: forgive us. For not participating in the struggles for social and economic equality because we consider ourselves 'separate' from the suffering of "others": forgive us. For the ways some Christians in the U.S. are currently blocking the advancement of health and health care by promoting fear-mongering and scape-goating: forgive us.

I am sorry that the idolatry of power-over masculinity and historic, contemporary, individual and institutional closeting of same-sex eroticism has produced a religion full of hyper-vigilant homophobia and virulent womyn-hating, that the externalized rhetoric of hate (masking internal undealt with realities of desire) has caused divisions between society, families, individuals and churches.. For the ways bodies are marginalized, condemned, denied and objectified: forgive us. For the way limiting roles get constructed and how those roles stifle personal and relational eros: forgive us. For the way oppressive social structures like slave-model marriage and the silencing of children get employed in order to downplay the vulnerabilities of authentic relationship: forgive us. For the ways true love, relational creativity and sexual freedom get blocked and shamed in the name of "God," for the ways our bible gets used as a weapon, our churches used for exclusion, our leaders used for upkeep of the status quo: forgive us.

May the hurt we've caused be the face of G-d beckoning us out of our dead places. Amen.