Monthly Archives: April 2007

Rahm Emanuel Explains It All To You

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I'm not a big fan of Illinois' Congressional wunderkind Rahm Emanuel, because he operates too much like a "political machine" guy – he kind of held on to the purse-strings during the last election and a lot of deserving grassroots candidates had to scramble for campaign funds because they weren't "insiders" or sexy enough to pique Emanuel's interest.

Be that as it may, he recently did a rundown of all the highlights in the scandals, schenanigans, and criminal acts that have come to light that have plagued the Bush Administration. The full text is at www.TomPaine.com.  It's a quite a little chapter of accidents, as they say. 

TomPaine.com – Politicizing Government Service

I don’t think politics is a dirty word. (And, those of you who know me know that I am very knowledgeable when it comes to dirty words.) Politics is a vital and essential element of our political system—the vehicle by which we advance our governing principles and policies.

Believe me, I’m not naïve. President Clinton made me a top aide in the White House not because of my good looks or charm—and not because I was a top policy expert. No, I got to the White House the same way he did: through politics. I am not one who believes you can ever fully divorce politics from policy in a democracy. It would be like trying to do physics without math. Yet I’ve also always recognized that there is a balance; that we should never allow the basic functions and solemn responsibilities of government to be subjugated to or take a backseat to politics or party interests.

President Bush came to the White House with an entirely different understanding.

Not since the days of Watergate, when our judicial system and intelligence community were deployed by the White House in the service of partisan politics, have we seen such abuses. And in many ways, what we have seen from this administration is far more extensive than that scandal.

Partisan politics has infiltrated every level of our federal government—from scientific reports on global warming to emergency management services to the prosecutorial power of the federal government itself. Even the Iraq War—from our entry to the reconstruction—has been thoroughly politicized and manipulated.

Official Internet Fight Song

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According to Joey The Accordion Guy the official fight song of the Internet should be that instantly recognizable classic, the "Amok Time" fight scene music where Kirk and Spoke duke it out with various bizarre weapons so Spock can marry his betrothed… and all that that implies.

Like the Vulcan ritual that the music underscored, most internet arguments are triggered by a response in the most primitive parts of our brains, look silly to outsiders and seem to be taken up by people who are slated to have sex once every seven years. 

My favorite weapon was always when T'Pol or whatever her name was announces they now fight with "de Ahn Vuuhn!" because I got a kick out of the accent. Grab the music clip from Joey's site while you can, it won't be available for long.

[tag]iTunes, iPod, Star Trek[/tag] 

Evolution and Ecumenical: Together at Roundtable

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First of all, I had no idea that there was any such thing as the "Ecumenical Roundtable on Science, Technology and the Church", but I'm delighted to find that it exists, and seems to be going strong. Not only that, but several of the mainline churches that are all part of it have permanent committees that study the impact of science on religion: the Presbyterian Association for Science Technology and the Church, the ELCA Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology, and our own Episcopal Committee on Science, Technology and Faith. The Methodists and the United Church of Christ also reported on holding special events or symposia revolving around science and religion.

This is a hopeful sign to me and makes me happy to think that some churches do embrace forward thinking, and open-minded discussion of topics that in some quarters are perceived as a godless attack upon Christianity.  

Episcopal Life Online – NEWS

Wilson explained that his just-published book, "Evolution for Everyone," is a print adaptation of the class he teaches at Binghamton, an attempt to present evolutionary theory as alluring. Students from all fields of study and a variety of backgrounds have rated the class a success.

"This is not about me, but the reality that evolutionary theory is a powerful tool for improving and changing the world in a way that does not threaten the values of morality and hope for a better future," Wilson was quick to add.

Although a faculty member in the department of biology, Wilson’s primary current interest is studying religion and related cultural movements, using the theoretical framework of evolution.

"Being with you at this meeting is very exciting for me — where else will I find a group so well informed about both science and religion — and not only informed but practicing," he said when welcomed by the audience of lay and ordained scientists from five denominations.

"Great things are taking place now in the social sciences as principles of evolution are applied," he observed. "We need theory to help us see what is in front of our faces," he continued, using "theory" in its scientific, not popular, sense.

"My work asks, ‘Can evolution make more progress than previous theoretical frameworks in making sense of religion?’"

… 

Asked why an atheist with an appointment in the Department of Biological Sciences would take such an interest in religion, Wilson responded with two reasons. "Religion is an intellectually fascinating topic. It always has been for scientists, and explaining it from an evolutionary perspective is a major challenge and accomplishment," he said.

"But I’m also a do-gooder. I may not have a religious dimension to my actions, but I have a lot of things in common with religious people. I believe that the future can differ from the past, and I think spirituality is a form of long-term expansive planning."

On the morning of April 21, Wilson presented some thoughts on "Biology and Evolutionary Aspects of Homosexuality." A panel of Episcopalians from the Executive Council Committee on Science, Technology and Faith and from the Faith and Genetics Working Group of the Diocese of Massachusetts responded.

I bet the discussion afterwards was interesting… and I bet that the strict Biblical literalists of all the member denominations will be having a field day tearing this whole thing apart.

Random Thumbnail Stories

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IMG_4221

I'll try something from time to time here – when one of the random thumbnails catches my eye, I'll tell the story behind it.

This was taken on a May trip to Washington State a few years back. David and I flew out for Folk Life and then took off on a big loop around the Olympic Peninsula, the National Park, and down and around the long way, ending up at Mt. Rainier National Park. It was a lot of fun, but the next time we do that, we'll retrace steps rather than circumnavigating the peninsula, it was a very long drive.

This was taken along the coastal unit, where we could have spent a lot more time. On a future trip, we'll arrange our days differently. 

IMG_4221 on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

[tags]Flickr, random[/tags] 

Choir Draft Pick #1 2007

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Okay, now that I'm finally fed up with tinkering with CSS and getting Firefox and IE6 to play more or less nicely…

This morning started oddly; David had to take off reeely early in the morning on a sekrit mission (no gurlz aloud) so the morning routine was a little different. He was all "Love you, bye!" and I was all "Whaaa… huh… ::smack smack scratch scratch:: love you too mmm bye." 

I don't do mornings very well at all, see. And then all too soon it was time to jump in the car and get to church for rehearsal, since I skipped the midweek one. 

When I got there, a couple of my favorite regulars were there with a younger guy at the "greet and sign-up" table. As all three of them are black, I stupidly assumed at first he was a nephew or something visiting from out of town, but it turned out he was a first-time visitor, 45 minutes early for church! 

So we welcomed him and made him feel comfortable, chatting while the other choir people wandered in and the choirmistress wandered over to say hello. In passing, he mentioned that he'd just moved to the village, and "he and his partner just moved here, and were looking for a church" and had found us via the new website. A little light went on deep in the lumber-room that is my brain and I thought to myself, "oh, you're going to be just fine here." 

He said he wouldn't mind listening to the choir rehearse, and I actually was kidding when I said "well… do you sing? Because if you want to sit in with the choir, you're welcome to join us." 

To my amazement, he said "Uh, yeah… I used to sing bass in the Baptist choir in St Louis."

Bingo! We laughed and offered him an out, but the choirmistress was in range and pounced. Next thing I knew, he was hustled off to the combination nursery and choir room with one of the other guys and came back wearing somebody else's robe. Heh. They even got him to fill out the visitor card with his email address, so he'll get the newsletter (I made sure to hand that off).

We don't normally pounce on visitors like that, but something in his manner was just so engaging, it was like laughter between old friends.

He was a really good sport about being choirnapped, I must say. A little shy about singing at first, but he seemed to be having a good time with the "boys" in the back bench.

I've noticed over the years that men in church choirs often turn out to be characters, by the way. Choirmistresses roll their eyes, try to keep order, and laugh with everyone else.

Anyway, they were chuckling and kidding around back there with him (and also explaining how the service went, and which hymn book to juggle). He seemed familiar with some Episcopal norms and forms, anyway. 

From things he said, it was clear that the warm welcome we were offering him put him at ease in a lot of important ways.  

We had no Eucharist today, because of a tricky scheduling problem. Stephen was off at the Jungian Institute on something to do with his certification (almost the very last thing except for a dissertation defense in June). Paul, another priest assocated with us (I think he's retired) was elsewhere. Manny, a third priest who's part of our community, isn't yet licensed to celebrate Communion (he's apparently still in the process of being received as an Episcopal priest from the Roman Catholic church). And Ethan, who preached, is still at the discernment level, but very far along in the process (he's also Senior Warden).

Yeah, we have a pretty deep bullpen that way, but only Stephen is salaried on a quarter-time basis. I'm not sure what the deal is with stipends for the others, I'll have to look more closely at the financials. I think the others were attracted to this community because it's either a safe haven, or a pleasant place to spend Sundays "off" when not filling in somewhere else in the Diocese of Chicago as a supply or substitute priest. 

Anyway, Ethan's sermon today was really engaging and personal and heartfelt, in a way that he hasn't done before – usually, he likes to show how hard he's worked on researching and analyzing the text like a true Biblical scholar. Today, it touched on his background and his whole being or personhood. It resonated well with what we had discussed earlier with our visitor, too. It was synchronicity with capital S. 

After we got through the service, which was Morning Prayer with a lot of additional psalms and things, there were the usual announcements – they needed volunteers to make up more grocery bags for the supplemental food pantry ingathering, the rummage sale in July is coming up.

And then our young visitor stood up and said "Yeah… I'd like to announce that I am today's draft pick for the choir, and I'm looking forward to next week. I wanted to thank you all for the welcome and letting me suit up today."

There was a huge laugh from the congregation and applause. He's not a big guy – quite a bit shorter than me – but he looks like he might have wrestled in high school.  

During coffee hour, everyone from the 11 o'clock service arrived for Adult Ed and Sunday School, and several of us were helping to finish stapling the food pantry pamphlets on the grocery bags, count them, and stack them up with route maps.  As I wandered around chatting and setting up a place to work on the bags, I could see our visitor talking to everyone. He wasn't exactly a captive audience, but he was waiting for his partner to pick him up, I think. He's got an amazing gift for talking to people and making them laugh.

He was still there when I left, happily talking to Stephen's sons about sports and music.