Can you go home again?

I note this week a quote from the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river, and it's not the same man." It came to mind since Connie and I spent time in Florida visiting my parents and friends I've known for forty years. Another less ancient maxim declares, "Wherever you go, there you are." So which is it - can you go home again or not?

I lived in Florida from 1966 to 1978, only twelve years, yet last week when we needed to cross town for dinner, I showed off by driving a short cut. I get lost today traversing familiar Virginian routes where I've lived for thirty years. Perhpas it has something to do with brain development (or lack thereof). I lived in Orlando from twelve till twentyfour. Scientists have observed it's much easier to learn a foreign language before you're twelve due to the way brain chemistry changes as you age. At dinner, my best friend Dave, recalled a bad joke I employed during a speech in high school on the John Birch Society; something about a 'son of a birch.' Gee, some interests don't change, I reckon, bad puns and bad politics.

Thomas Wolfe wrote, "You can't go home again. Your childhood is lost. The friends of youth are gone. Your present is slipping away from you. Nothing is ever the same." I went home last week. The friends of my youth are there. We took my pop to a spring training baseball game and remembered when he took me to my first game to see Mickey Mantle at Yankee Stadium. Connie and I took in the same Winter Park Art Festival where Dave and I had embarrassed ourselves singing "Let the Sunshine In," sitting crosslegged in the park in 1968. Yet some things have changed. Open land in the old neighborhood is so scarce most old homes have been torn down and replaced on the spot by 're-builds.' I also note that every housing development built in the last fifteen years is a gated development.

What does that say about a town, then and now? Is it simply a matter of harsher times? A great deal of my studies are devoted to what it means to live well in times of great change just as St. Augustine pondered when the Barbarians were closing in on the Roman Empire. What are the old values that should carry over even as we open ourselves to new things? What does it mean to be a liberal with a strong conservative bias? Does that define a traditional progressive Episcopalian?

I once heard a neighbor say it was impossible to be a liberal and a Christian. I don't accept it (I am it) but still ponder the unyielding divisiveness her comment portends. This morning there was a short editorial in the local rag about George Allen's appointment as a 'Ronald Reagan Ranch Scholar.' The writer wondered if name-calling his recent political opponent a pornographer during the campaign was consistent with what could be called the conservative values of "civility and common decency." I've wondered too since after the election I heard former Senator Allen on a radio show prognosticating football picks. He was easy going, soft spoken and charming. Was it the real George Allen on the campaign trail or a product his handlers determined would sell best, and why do they think 'mean' appeals better than 'nice'?

There are nice people living in those gated communities. There are nice people attending St. Margaret's Anglican. Is there any larger connection to make between those parishoners and a March 22nd article in a Nigerian newspaper about the impact of the government of Nigeria's signature on an international anti-genocide protcol on the pending national legislation to imprison gays. The article states, "It is certain that if those who signed the general convention knew the definition of genocide is so elastic that it also protects lesbians and homosexuals, they would have hesitated before signing."

Of course, without a doubt, no one in St. Margaret's Anglican would countenance the sentitments in this horrific piece. Yet, how is it that they, or the nice people of The Falls Church, or Truro, or the other Virginia break-away parishes, or Martyn Minns, can countenance the legislation through their silence, or even, by supporting unchallenged, those who overtly rationalize it on geo-political or religious grounds, such as the author of the piece who concluded, "Some of our cousins in the West have gone so overboard in their identification with Satan that we who still have the gospel have a responsbility to educate them to toe the path of morality and right standing by God."

To continue as the secessionists have, in silence, in association with Nigerian and CANA Archbishop Akinola, is to countenance, by default, the legislation, the resultant dehumanization of people, and to offer them up to imprisonment and violence. There is no way around it, no justication, no rationalization, as if you were isolated in a gated parish, from the dire consequences to the gay people of Niegera if the legislation if enacted by the end of March. The only way out is to proclaim a full unhesitating public denunciation. Short of that lies complicity and responsibility, even for very nice people who may take little or no notice of events far away from their church and homes. It is not yet too late.

I note the stark contrast included in the TEC House of Bishops response this week to the Dar es Salaam communique, "Finally, we believe the leaders of the Church must always hold basic human rights and the dignity of every human being as fundamental concerns in our witness for Christ. We were, therefore, concerned that while the communique focuses on homosexuality, it ignores the pressing issues of violence against gay and lesbian people around the world, and the criminalization of homosexaual behavior in many nations of the world."

I note the word, 'finally," for I've been impatient. I've worried about the response of our own Bishop to events since 2003, yet he has come through. I fretted about Bishop Katharine when she signed the communique, yet, she, and the House of Bishops, have come through. I feel like trusting again. I feel like going home to the Episcopal Church. I feel like almost saying for certain that the rug won't be pulled out from under again and that now, finally, progress towards full inclusion of all God's children will continue unabated.

The Greek playright Aristophenes wrote, "a man's homeland is wherever he prospers." In the end, perhaps home isn't so much a matter of an endlessly flowing river slipping away. It's returning again and again to the lasting waters of unconditional love, embracing and claiming His sacrifice on behalf of others, rather than sacrificing others in His name under banners of Authority, traditionalism or anti-culturalism. It's a love that's eternally true and that prospers; this love symbolized by Jesus on the Cross, and His resurrection. It's Easter. Time to go home.