The eCrozier

Not long after Francis, Bishop of Rome, left the United States a media frenzy broke out. It seems while he was at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., he met with a number of people those serving at the Embassy had arranged for him to meet. He greeted them, encouraged them in their faith, and then was whisked off to New York to continue his visit there. Among those whom he greeted that day was none other than Ms. Kim Davis, the now well-known County Clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky. As you may recall, she was willing to go to jail rather than issue marriage licenses (just one part of her job) to homosexual couples who desired to be legally married.

Once this meeting became known in the media, the outrage started. It seemed Francis, who many on the political left had embraced as being “on their side,” had met with “the enemy.” The bewildered cries of “how could he?” arose. Many felt he had betrayed them or their particular cause. Others said that they knew all along he was “that way.” Some, trying to explain this apparent aberration, said staff at the Vatican Embassy must have bamboozled him. There was no way he could have known about everyone with whom he met that day. Surely he never would have knowingly met with her? They had hoped Francis would be loyal to their political tribe. Of course, other political tribes, those that support Ms. Davis’ position, were beside themselves with joy, smugness, and relief. Meeting with her proved Francis was really loyal to their tribe after all.

Most folk want (or need?) to put Francis in a particular political box. But he, to my great delight, doesn’t care whether he satisfies the needs of political tribalism. He is, after all, serious about following Jesus. That means he is less concerned about partisan politics and the culture wars in which we wallow and more focused on living in the world in a way that reflects the claims of Jesus on his life. All this media drama showed was how little most people know about what it means to follow Jesus, who in his earthly ministry never cared about what others thought of him when he met or hung out with the mixed-bag characters we read about in the Gospels.

The late Dom Helder Camara was the Roman Church’s Bishop of Recife in Brazil from 1964 to 1985. During his episcopacy a brutal military dictatorship ruled the country. While bishop, he wrote:  Let no one be scandalized if I frequent those who are considered unworthy or sinful. Who is not a sinner? Let no one be alarmed if I am seen with compromised or dangerous people, on the left or the right. Let no one bind me to a group. My door, my heart, must be open to everyone, absolutely everyone. In writing this, the bishop was not shrinking back one bit from his long-standing prophetic witness against the dictatorship in his country. The dictators of Brazil in his day consistently labeled him a Communist. They, too, needed a political box in which to place him. Yet he, like Francis, was merely seeking to follow Jesus, always and everywhere.

We should expect nothing less from those who call us to follow Jesus in his Church, whether they be the Bishop of Rome, the Bishop of Recife, or if he is somehow up to it, the current person who is the Bishop of Georgia.

+Scott