Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

My friends at Church at the Park are doing two things – (a) doing good work in the community for those in need, including homeless persons, and (b) writing about their work in a newsletter sent all around our community.

Here is the headline of the most recent newsletter, a very good message for today, especially given what is happening in Washington, D.C.

“The reading for this week is the story of Jesus delivering his first official message.  You could call it his inaugural message.  He quotes from Isaiah and says,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,       because he has anointed me        to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives    and recovery of sight to the blind,        to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

“One key interpretive question to ask of a text, is “For whom are these words good news?”  Here, the answer seems straightforward:  This is good news for the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed.

“Our mission statement at Church at The Park is taken from another passage in that same story — Luke 14:  To create a banquet of love and acceptance for those who need it most.  

“Everyone needs love and acceptance, but there are those in our community who do not experience belonging simply because of where they sleep, or because of the color of their skin, or because something about them does not sit well with the majority culture.  

“For us, we participate in the work of building shalom by eating meals and walking alongside the marginalized, not because we consider ourselves to be holy or righteous, but because God asks us to.  And because that is where the peace and the presence of God are most visible.  

“Additionally, it is worth saying that sometimes shalom means helping and standing with those who are in need and sometimes it means confronting the systems that are driving people into poverty and homelessness.”

Good words!

The fact is that God asks us, as Christians, to be about the business of doing “good works,” not to earn a way to God, but, in the way one of friends described it, “as a result of our salvation.”

Church at the Park does this well, serving as a model for other communities.

I hope it – and another solid organization in the Salem area, Salem for Refugees – survives in the current political marketplace.

And, in that marketplace, another fact is that Donald Trump knows nothing about what the Bible says about “loving your neighbor.”

Here’s what the Bible says:

“A basic scriptural admonition to care for others is ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ found in Leviticus 19:18, which essentially instructs people to treat others with the same kindness and compassion they would want for themselves.”

So, in conclusion, I accept and value this inaugural message, not the other one.