Consuming media justly
Do wise comments spoken years ago ever keep you thinking even now? It must have been about 2004 that I heard Marva Dawn explain why she doesn’t read newspapers or stay up-to-date on current events. (Marva Dawn, by the way, is an incredibly gifted theologian and teacher who can blow you away with her orthodoxy in one sentence and her crazy-out-there ideas in the next.) Anyway, Dawn’s comment has stuck with me and still bothers me today, especially when I get sucked into the 24/7 news cycle and media-driven ridiculousness that feeds our culture of instant gratification. What’s the best way to consume news?
Dawn’s point, if I remember correctly, was that our moral imperative (for her, most definitely the Christian imperative) is for us to work for justice and peace at all times. Getting hung up on each day’s top stories and media ratings games pushes us off course. We get stuck in the trees of the hour’s headlines and miss the forest of God’s goodness, justice, holiness, and peace.
She wouldn’t have put it this way, but Dawn was speaking in favor of a TIME magazine print edition way of living as opposed to a Drudge Report approach. The TIME dead tree edition comes out weekly and has a more penetrating and expansive view of news — partly due to higher word counts, partly due to the timeliness of the news. But if you go to TIME’s blogs, or the Drudge Report, you get many updates each day on both the minutiae and the detritus of the hour. (Or you could use the analogy of The New Yorker vs. Huffington Post, or Harper’s vs. USA Today Online, take your pick.)
Each week, I read hundreds of blog posts, dozens of NY Times articles, check in at CNN.com scores of time. For local news I read the Grand Forks Herald and Kittson County Enterprise. Most weeks I’ll also read Newsweek, Time, The Presbyterian Outlook, and The Christian Century. Of course, I’ll keep up on current events through Twitter links and RSS feeds. Oh, and then there’s the hours of NPR listening and a few other podcasts thrown in to boot. And so I wonder, how do my media choices affect my view of the world?
Part of me wants to experiment and, for a week or two, try to avoid anything current events related. I might not get bogged down each week in articles or issues that are more adiaphora than anything. I wouldn’t hear reports of Apple’s iPod event in real time, nor would I read dozens of perspectives on the Ground Zero Mosque (that isn’t a mosque or at ground zero, by the way). But, on the other hand, I do think all the little articles add up to a fuller picture of the world. Sure, I may read some details about how Sen. Murkowski lost the Alaska Republican primary that really don’t matter, but I might also get a glimpse of the sentiments that are driving the Minnesotans and North Dakotans with whom I interact on a daily basis.
Either way you live, though, Dawn’s larger point is the most important. Do you seek justice and love in all your interactions and in all world affairs? For Marva Dawn, it’s easier for her to do this faithfully without reading the daily newspaper. I don’t know if she would grant that it could be, for me, easier to be faithful while keeping up on current events. My takeaway is this: whether one reads TIME dead tree edition or checks RSS news feeds hourly, the lens with which you read and live in the world is key. Do you live with a lens for social justice or do you live with a lens for social stories gone wild?
image by Gerhard Höllisch
GA BLOG: Wrap Up & Pack Up
(This post will go up soon on The Outlook website, but I’m traveling so can’t link there immediately. Feel free to read and comment here, but also check out all the awesome General Assembly coverage over at The Presbyterian Outlook.)
And Friday night, at the General Assembly, the commissioners were tired, the energy level was low, and the most controversial items had already been considered. So, first a few funny recollections from the week:
- The Stated Clerk, Gradye Parson, has a suave-looking John Calvin bobble-head on his desk. I covet.
- Moderator Cynthia Bolbach’s fun sense of humor kept the assembly in good spirits throughout the week. Perhaps her best crack cams during the moderator election when she, and elder said, “Ministers going on tangents…who knew?”
- The chairs in the assembly hall, when scooted back or forth, sound like vuvuzelas. It’s hilarious.
More seriously, my read of the assembly is that it was a perfectly fine one, one that wrestled with tough issues conscientiously and sought the Spirit in its work. Many hugely important changes are proposed to the PC(USA) constitution, including the addition of the Belhar Confession to our Book of Confessions.
But, as I prepare to go back home, I’m also struck with a questioning sense about whether this formal, costly, somewhat unwieldy church structure is the most faithful way of conducting business at a national level. At 27, I’m too young to be a hardened cynic, but many times this week I thought, after a beautiful policy statement or theological document passed the assembly, “How much did we spend per word to make that document? And, how many Presbyterians – let alone others – will ever read it?” When I closed my eyes and listened to debate on the plenary floor, I wondered how much —really, how little— the basic way we govern ourselves has changed in fifty years. … Continue Reading
What? My phone has an off button!
I’m not a huge multi-tasker, but my skills for doing one thing at a time are slipping fast.
Though I don’t tend to talk on the phone, chat online, listen to the radio, etc. at one time — mostly because I’m just not very good at it — I find my attention span shortening. I read for shorter spells. I check emails or facebook when I might be writing. I tend to value responding to an email quickly more than working hard while my inbox fills.
I am not alone. The solution, many are saying, it to get an iPad. Their clean interface and lack of ability to do more than one thing at once forces users to focus on one task. Just read. Just email. Just tweet rather than doing all at once.
I find the iPad solution wishful thinking, wishful both because, sure, I’d love an iPad and because of the certainty that the technology will allow multitasking in the future.
As I ponder this trend, I recall students who claim they “studied for four hours straight” but whose studying was constantly interrupted by text messages and phone calls. In truth, they studied maybe 3 hours total, and never more than 15 minutes consecutively.
This is all quite problematic, because every technology that interrupts my tasks has an easy way to be turned off. I can leave Twitter alone. I can close my email program. I can silence my phone and leave it in another room. The world would go on, I’m sure. And I, likely, would be more productive.
But it’s very hard to turn off. Extremely difficult. I’m of two minds about the reason for that. Either, I can’t turn off because of the alluring (even sinful) human tendency to be led away from what’s best for ourselves and the world. Call it pride, sin, stupidity, lack-of-focus, whatever but it certainly could be that simple: I should turn off and its just a poor decision, a moral misjudgment when I don’t. Or, perhaps I can’t turn off because of what those peeps and tweets and emails mean: human connection. Maybe what’s keeping me away from the “quit” button is that I don’t want to quit people and the connections made through technology.
Quit Facebook Day was supposed to occur recently. If you didn’t hear about it don’t feel bad. You didn’t miss much. It was a flop. Perhaps that’s because in a world where we long for human connections, quitting facebook would feel like dumping one’s friends, family, and community. People didn’t quit because ultimately they love what facebook does for them: connect them one to another.
Sure, it’s not as easy as that. Virtual connections are a bit different than others. Fine. But, at the end of the day, I think virtual communities are a net positive and that’s part of the reason they are so hard to turn off, even for an hour.
What do you think? How do you turn off your technological connections for a time? Surely I am not alone.
image by Jakub Krechowicz
Presbyterians Issue Statement on AZ Immigration Law
Strangely, the immigration issue has floated off my radar after my move to Grand Forks. Whereas I used to encounter immigrants often in my aspects of my daily life, I don’t anymore (well, not counting the 3rd & 4th generation Scandinavian immigrants that makeup 80% of our congregation). Fargo has a growing new immigrant community, and is making a name for itself as a welcoming place for immigrants, especially those (often refugees) from Africa. And even on our side of Kittson County, I am not aware of too many immigrant issues — I think things may be a bit different on the east side of the county, though I confess I don’t know enough on this yet.
Anyways, I thought I’d post the recent statement from PC(USA) leaders in response to the AZ immigration law, SB 1070. I’ll post the text here, though there’s some good discussion (so far, at least) going on at Bruce’s blog here. As always, statements such as these beg two questions: (1) what of the folks in the PC(USA) who disagree with our denominational position statements on immigration and (2) who really cares about a statement from the PC(USA) these days? I’ll be addressing more of these types of questions this summer when I’ll be blogging our General Assembly for The Presbyterian Outlook, but if folks would like to get the discussion going now I’m game. Without further ado, here it is:
April 29, 2010
Dear Members of Congress,
We write to express our conviction that you must enact comprehensive immigration reform this year. As people of faith and the leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), we are keenly aware of the devastating effects our broken immigration system has on the lives of individuals, immigrant and non-immigrant families, and our communities. The bigotry, trauma, and fear that will result from the recent new law enacted in Arizona, SB 1070, which criminalizes those who are found “with” undocumented persons and requires law enforcement officers to identify and detain such persons, serves to underscore the necessity of action at the federal level.
Churches are on the front lines of caring for families being ripped apart by our broken immigration system. Traumatized citizen children left behind when parents are deported are but one example of the ways the current system destroys the fabric of community life, the integrity of healthy families, and the safety of individual persons. Church workers are also at the forefront of offering relief and services to immigrants, regardless of documentation status. Arizona’s new law will put at risk those workers and others who are called simply to offer the most basic of humanitarian assistance. As Christians, we cannot stand by idly while our brothers and sisters die on our borders from exposure and thirst or languish in poorly equipped detention facilities, nor should we be required to do so by any law.
The new Arizona law also puts in jeopardy the public safety of immigrant communities, already wary of law enforcement for fear of deportation. Instead of new laws that induce fear and distrust, immigrants should be encouraged to participate with law enforcement, reporting crimes when they are victims and offering testimony when they are witnesses. Such trust and participation is impossible if local law enforcement is tasked with enforcement of federal immigration laws. SB 1070 will only foster more fear among immigrant communities, regardless of documentation status. Comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level is essential to override and counteract the damage done in Arizona by this new law.
In the Scriptures of Christians and Jews, we are commanded, “When an immigrant resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the immigrant. The immigrant who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the immigrant as yourself for you were immigrants in the land of Egypt” (Lev. 19:33-34). The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) therefore supports congressional action in 2010 on comprehensive immigration reform that creates a process for undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to earn their legal status; reduces waiting periods and upholds family unity; protects workers from exploitation; and provides efficient channels of entry for new migrant workers.
Sincerely,
Bruce Reyes-Chow
Moderator, 218th General Assembly (2008)Gradye Parsons
Stated Clerk of the General AssemblyLinda Bryant Valentine
Executive Director, General Assembly Mission Council
Chronos Management
I know I excel at some things, like sleeping. At others this, I know I struggle….like remembering names. Managing time, though, is beyond me. It’s not beyond me in that I know I can’t do it. In fact, I very well might be quite good at time management. It’s just hard to tell.
I had an interesting conversation with a pastor friend last week in which he said something like, “Everyone assumes I’m so busy, but I’m not. I have a lot of time to do anything I want. My congregation just runs itself.” I do know, for certain, I am not like this pastor. Yes, our congregation could function perfectly well without me, but I do feel really busy. And I’m pretty certain it’s more than just a feeling. I am busy.
So the question: how, if possible, might I improve my time management? What tips do you have for pastors so that they might use their time to God’s glory?
OK, so here’s the main tension I feel. The culture is all about time as a commodity, time as something to be managed, something to fight, something to beat. But the Christian take on time is different. First of all, time is a gift from God. It shouldn’t be something to wrestle, but something to embrace.
So in the New Testament, there are two words for time. “Chronos” is chronological time, sequential time as we usually think of it. “Kairos” is a more complicated term, a time more qualitative than quantitative. Kairos time is the moment when God deems something appropriate, the right moment almost regardless of the time on the clock.
The go to verse to show kairos is Mark 1:14-15 “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The TIME is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’” That’s kairos time — a God moment.
So as a pastor, as a Christian, I am aware of the danger of being sucked into thinking time is something to fight against, something to be freed from. In fact, God might be using time to do God’s business. But, all that being true still doesn’t necessarily mean I feel as if I use my time wisely, or that my time is best spent to serve, or even that the way I spend time is faithful at all.
Here’s a few things I’ve figured out re time and ministry, but I’d love to hear more from you all:
- Emails can wait. When getting to the office, reading for 20-30 minutes is a real handy way of scheduling study time.
- Saying “no” is a gift. Saying “no” is often a good idea.
- No matter how many hours I work in a week, it’ll always feel like there’s something more to do.
- Twitter and Facebook are really valuable ministry tools, but I needn’t use them constantly.
- Thinking of my day in blocks is helpful. If I have meetings at night, cutting afternoon work short is a good idea.
- Schedule time to study, don’t just say “I should read this week.” (Ok, I’m no good at this, but I’m aware at least.)
- Sometimes, often in fact, opportunities for real ministry are unscheduled — the conversation at the post office, the person who pops into the office unscheduled.
- Writing a sermon while at the office just doesn’t work. I need to start scheduling more time away from the office and not feel guilty about it.
- Visits — along with study — tend to be the first thing that get cut from a busy week. Some visits to those ill have to be done, the other visits get pushed off easily.
Ok, I’ll stop there. Often, when thinking about this stuff, I recall Eugene Peterson’s book “Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness.” He gets this stuff, but I also don’t quite think his experience is easily translatable to other contexts.
So this friend of mine who says he’s not busy, says what he primarily does is “Spend my days listening for God, and enabling my congregation to do the same.” Maybe that’s something else to keep in mind. May God’s time allow it.
image by Rich DuBose
Starfish or Spider Church? Part I
Thanks to an idea from folks at Presbymergent, I’ll be putting up a series of posts this week on Brafman and Beckstrom’s The Spider and the Starfish: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations moving towards an assessment of the PC(USA) as a starfish or a spider. Part 1 follows…
Book Overview:
A blurb on Starfish’s cover reads, “The Starfish and the Spider is one of those delightful business books that transcends the genre.” I wholeheartedly agree. In a quick 232 pages, Brafman and Beckstrom develop a way of looking at systems that explains both the resilience of the Apache Indian tribe and the 
unparalleled success of Wikipedia. They do so with humor and with clarity, claiming that starfish-shaped organizations will continue to lead our society’s big movements, and predicting dismal straights for spiders.
Why all this talk of pointy-limbed creatures? They serve as the book’s main metaphors for success and failure. Think of a spider. Cut off a leg, it survives but is hindered. Cut off a few more, it will die. Cut off a spider’s head and it will die immediately. The shape and qualities of a spider describe many hierarchical organizations with a top-down approach to leadership, a specialized approach to legs (divisions), and a unified understanding of the organization–we all sink or swim together.
A starfish is another animal entirely. A few years ago, the Great Barrier Reef was suffering an explosion of the starfish population, so much so that they began to destroy the coral. So a group of divers, in an attempt to save the reef, made a series of dives on which they collected starfish and cut them into half, leaving them to die. What these divers did not realize is that starfish do not die when cut into pieces: each piece grows into another healthy starfish! A starfish shaped organization is decentralized. Like Alcoholics Anonymous, or Wikipedia, or the internet, or the Apache tribe, or Skype, or eBay–or even in a hybrid form, like Toyota (not General Motors), or a decentralized organization with an aware and listening leader, starfish organizations have non-centralized characteristics.
Brafman and Beckstrom, analyzing multiple starfish organizations, proceed to describe the characteristics. For example, to become successful, starfish organizations often have a catalyst figure whose “tools” are genuine interest in others, a penchant for networking, and high emotional intelligence. Spider organizations require CEO types who must be bossy, rational, powerful, directive, and ordering. Starfish catalysts, though, use peer relationships, trust, inspiration, collaboration, and enjoy ambiguity.
The book concludes with ruminations on “hybrid organizations” that have leaders, but whose leaders his “the sweet spot” involving listening, openness to change, and enough decentralization that allows for creativity.
Check back in a few days for more on the Starfish and the Spider as it relates to the church universal and the PC(USA) specifically.
Update: Part II of the series examining the PC(USA) and the book’s descriptions is here.
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