Man in Overalls
My blog will be a bit quiet this week due to Thanksgiving festivities and family in town. As my North American readers head to the grocery stores this week to buy food from across the world for their Thanksgiving dinner, I thought I’d give a shout out to my friend Nathan in Tallahassee.
Nathan, whose blog Man in Overalls is a fun read, is a local treasure. He plants gardens in Tallahassee — at churches, schools, or just your yard. Not only that, he’s good at it. Check out his site and enjoy the video below. Or head on over to his Facebook page here. And whether in Tallahassee or elsewhere, remember supporting the local food movement helps the environment, the local economy, and even your waistline.
Too Taxing to be Accurate?
Scott Simon, in his essay “A Simpler Tax Code” last week on NPR put it well: “the U.S. tax code is 67,204 pages long — about as long as 112 copies of James Joyce’s Ulysses. And just about as comprehensible.”
I’ve spoken to several of my brightest friends. These folks hold masters degrees, preach inspiring sermons, consistently find their children on the playground, and haven’t lost their keys for several days. We are all in agreement: we are far from certain our taxes are 100% accurate.
I did my taxes — or got a good start — last weekend. I didn’t have many chauffeurs this cycle, so I’m still waiting for that call from Obama. But heck, taxes are complicated. Way too complicated.
Megan and I have income from several states, run our own “writing businesses” (in other states, of course) give a fair amount away, and earn interest on a piece of swampland in Florida that someone sold us a few years back. When I do my taxes I think, “Come on, self, you got an A+ in your college math class.” And then I stare at the blank boxes for another five minutes (ok, the math course was “Math 101″ in a summer term at the University of Hawaii; I think I was the only student who showed up every day…and cared at all.)
And don’t even get me started on minister’s taxes. A tax professional told me recently that, when ordained, I’d have to seek out a tax professional who specialized in pastor’s taxes. Wait?! They’re so complicated that even tax professionals can’t do them? Yikes!
So I have a little sympathy for Tom Daschle (and Timothy Geithner and Nancy Killefer). Just a little for Tom, though, as I don’t think any unseated senator should earn $5 million from a lobbying law firm while claiming he’s neither a lobbyist or practicing law.
I better stop there. And to any blogging IRS agents, you’d be wasting your time with an audit. We don’t make much, and I’m pretty sure we over pay.
image by Linda Long
Are You an Urbanist? Thoughts on Rural Ministry
Good for Time Magazine and David Van Biema for drawing attention to the state of the rural church and farming community in “Rural Churches Grapple with a Pastor Exodus.” Such questions are very much at hand for me these days as I look for a first call. As my classmates and I are finding out, there are many congregations in rural areas seeking pastors, but few congregations seeking in urban areas. To seminarians with significant debt, the salaries most rural congregations offer may barely cover the hundreds a month required for loan repayment. And, even worse, there’s a functioning fallacy in most seminaries that their best students should be called to cities. As Daniel Wolpert, a pastor in rural Minnesota, says, a professor once told him: “Don’t go [to a rural call], you’re too creative for that.” If you ask me that’s ridiculous small-minded urbanism.
All this is very close to my heart since Megan is from a town of 50 in northeastern North Dakota. (In fact, her Lutheran congregation is searching for a pastor if you’re interested.) In any case, let’s take, for example, the presbytery that Megan’s house is in, the Presbytery of the Northern Plains. It is comprised of 66 churches, 75% of which are under 100 members. Just as the population of North Dakota is declining, so is the population of the church. It doesn’t take long clicking through the Presbyterian website with such information to find several congregations in North Dakota with membership numbers under 10.
Call me naive or excitable, but doesn’t this call, then, not for hand-wringing and remembering the good ole days, but for our most creative, gifted, pastoral leaders to head to the midwest (or rural wherever)? If Frederick Buechner is right, and call is where “the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet” more of us need to seriously consider the great rural needs of this generation. And, dare I say it?, should thriving wealthy urban churches give part of their resources to supporting rural congregations?
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to idealize rural ministry. It’s not for everyone. If you ask me –and hell, what do I know– it’s more challenging than urban ministry, more diverse than college ministry, more lonely and at the same time more people-oriented than youth ministry. And, perhaps, more rewarding as well. Rural ministry is particularly challenging for pastors’ spouses seeking employment, and for young folks seeking peer groups. It ain’t for everyone. No way. But there’s something in me that thinks it’s for more than we’re giving it credit. And boy, the opportunities for smart, faithful, and innovative use of technology abound.
This is all to say, read this Time article. Think on these rural ministry things. Check out Carol’s fantastic post here (and the great comments). And, if you’re at all churchy, think about how we urbanites can expand our vision to include all God’s children, even those from towns with a population of 50.
image by Renaude Hatsedakis
Praying (or not?), "O God of Our Many Understandings"
image by Dez Pain
Thanks to Mary and TellingSecrets, I paste below Bishop Gene Robinson’s prayer at the inaugural festivities yesterday. He did, as he said, and prayed to the “God of our many understandings.” I respect Bishop Robinson for many a personal trait and a theological stance, but I differ with him on this decision.
From my point of view, Bishop Robinson, an Episcopal priest, was asked to pray because of who is he is: a religious figure, yes, but one particularly of the Episcopal tradition. This tradition brings with it certain theological claims, like, um, “Jesus is Lord” and “God is Triune.” It’s a tradition that leaves plenty of room for the Spirit to reveal to us more knowledge of God and God’s work in the world, but it’s a tradition that has clear creeds, makes clear claims about God who we understand in a particular way.
I’m from the school of thought — and, I confess, at a seminary that tends to lean towards this school — that inter-religious dialogue is cheapened when we try to make God into a common denominator like “God of our many understandings.” Instead, coming to the inter-religious table knowing much about your own faith, making clear claims about the God in whom you believe, I think, leads to richer, deeper, more honest conversation. Instead of some fluffy unknown unrevealed God, we can address the God we know and understand, tell others about that God, and our faith may be deepened and our knowledge expanded by the conversations that follow.
On his blog, Robinson writes, “I have received a lot of critical email since announcing that my prayer would not be overtly or aggressively Christian, as most of the inaugural prayers of the last 30 years have been. My plan is to address this prayer to the “God of our many understandings,” acknowledging that no one Christian denomination nor no one faith tradition knows all there is to know about God. Each of us is privy to a piece of God, as experienced in our faith tradition. My hope is to pray a prayer that ALL people of faith can join me in.”
What if my “understanding of God” is that God only helps those who help themselves, or hates people with blue eyes, or damns those who fail to recycle? Did Bishop Robinson lead me in prayer too? I guess so.
I don’t understand how one can have such an open-ended address to God, and then pray for so many particular things. It seems to me that if one is consistent about such a stance one would need to just leave a time of silence for everyone to lift up their own particular understandings of what the prayer should include. As soon as you start to make everyone happy in a prayer, or invite all to join, you’re surely leaving out others by the very nature of that invitation in the first place.
I’ll put the full prayer up below. I’ll definitely give him props for the line, “our new president is a human being, not a messiah” and the two-fold nature of the prayer for big-picture justice and then for Obama in particular is nice. Inter-religious stuff is HARD to do with integrity and I’m totally not looking forward to my first experiences. But, when I have them, I’ll bring to the table who I am, what I believe in, and testify to the God in whom I trust.
Bishop Gene Robinson’s Prayer:
O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.
Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.
And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.
Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
AMEN.
Starbucked?
Anybody out there read “Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture” by Taylor Clark? I ask — and will add it to my wish list — because it seems to examine the sorts of questions behind Starbucks that I’ve wondered about. Here’s a few assertions of mine, I wonder if Clark backs up.
- A Starbucks coming to your community is a boon to business of other (local) coffee shops. I’ve read articles asserting this claim, and it just makes sense. When a Starbucks opens, people just “think coffee” more often and if your local shop has a good product and atmosphere, they’ll come.
- Starbucks, through its Ethos Water campaign has done a lot of good in the world, given millions to water projects in Africa.
- If we can get Starbucks to use more fairtrade, shade-grown beans, the world will be a better place more quickly than if we buy Folgers at home and just feel guilty about how their beans are grown.
Now these are mostly uniformed assertions, and I’d be interested in reading Clark’s book. I know these things are really complicated and don’t pretend to understand much of anything about the ethics of multi-national corporations. But heck, in the back of my mind these days is the knowledge that Starbucks has good insurance benefits — much better than what I have now — and they’re not too proud to hire workers with masters degrees. Mostly, though, I frequent many (and I mean MANY) a local coffee shop in Decatur. Cheers.
Wireless Hot Spot for Buddhist Monks
Talk about a technology vacation. Not only am I visiting Megan’s family in rural North Dakota where dial-up internet is alive and well and a free wireless hotspot is unheard of, but I forgot my cell phone! Not that anybody really calls me these days anyways, but texting is handy.
So being the responsible, thoughtful, adult person I am, at the airport upon realizing my cell phone was still on my bedside table, I promptly hyper-ventilated and sprinted directly to the airport chapel (when else are those things used) for some quick hail marys and pay phone calls to the overnight delivery service. When I came to, however, I decided to use the experience as a way to train my patience and quell my addiction to technology. No twitter for me in North Dakota, no facebook refreshes, not even a cell phone. Look at me, boy can I sacrifice. I’m practically becoming a monk.
In college, I studied abroad on St. Olaf’s Global Semester program during which I traveled around the world, taking local courses in five countries along the way. When we were in Hong Kong, we toured a famous enormous statue of Buddha (I’m sure it has more significance than that). But what I took away from the Buddha trip wasn’t a religious experience or a history lesson, but a cultural picture embedded in my minds eye forever.
At the top of that enormous statue–the tallest outside of India, if my memory serves me–two Buddhist monks were playing. In their early twenties, these monks sported the shaved head and yellow robes required of their vows, but there, on the top of the steps of the Buddha tucked away between several mountains the monks stood, each holding, in his right hand, a cell phone.
I’ll try to make the best of my time away from my phone, but I won’t feel too bad if I don’t make it permanent. Some sacrifices aren’t for everyone.
image by Tosaporn Boonyarangkul
Newsweek's Lisa Miller on Gay Marriage
I don’t usually read Newsweek, but Lisa Miller’s essay/article, “Our Mutual Joy” in this week’s edition sparked my interest. Since I’m not particularly familiar with the magazine and haven’t seen a dead tree edition, I’m not sure how the article is billed in print. It reads, however, as an opinion piece against the claim of some that theirs is a “Biblical understanding of marriage” and that the Bible explicitly excludes gay marriage from a 21st century society.
It’s a well-written, thoughtful, and pretty biblically-based argument considering she’s writing for a popular news and culture magazine. She suggests, as have many before her, that many people’s negative reaction to gay marriage has more to do with homophobia than biblical literacy. Certainly, I take her point that the Bible never defines marriage at all, especially not between one man and one woman. In fact, it assumes cultural mores that looked nothing like what most of us understand as healthy marriages today.
After pushing back against any proof-texting Miller turns towards how she thinks one should read the Bible:
We cannot look to the Bible as a marriage manual, but we can read it for universal truths as we struggle toward a more just future. The Bible offers inspiration and warning on the subjects of love, marriage, family and community. It speaks eloquently of the crucial role of families in a fair society and the risks we incur to ourselves and our children should we cease trying to bind ourselves together in loving pairs.
I appreciated the quote by Walter Brueggemann (ok, more for the joy of seeing the name my one-day alma mater in Newsweek), though she does quote Brueggemann on Paul (and a misquote of Paul, actually)….but whatever.
I wish Miller would have delved a bit deeper, though, for it’s easy to write-off James Dobson as way out there in terms of such questions without struggling with the many moderate mainline Christians who read their Bible in very different ways from Dobson, but still conclude gay marriage is not God’s will. My experience in the Presbyterian Church regarding such questions is that the real difficulties, our biggest challenges as brothers and sisters in Christ, come not because we read the Bible so differently, but because we read the Bible in faithful ways and come to very different conclusions.
Overall, I’m still a bit fuzzy about Miller’s genre: was she going for op-ed (if so, she could push further), or informational (if so, she pushed too far), or a hybrid so she could keep her job as editor of occasional religion issues? I’m not clear at all, but I appreciated the piece and I hope it sparks some healthy conversations.
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