Someone has done a study on race relations on campus and they have discovered that students who eat with other ethnic minorities are more likely to report good race relations than those who do not.
Apparently it is not enough to have racial intermingling in the classroom or dormitories. The report suggests that one difference is that the dining room seating is voluntary.
This coming Sunday is World Communion Sunday and that is a reminder to us that this communion we are part of is meant to be a force that brings all races together around one table. Canada and Ottawa are home to an amazing diversity of peoples. Sometimes our churches reflect that reality.
One more interesting point in this study. The dominant white community felt they did a better job than did the ethnic minority groups. That tells me predominantly white churches still need to do some soul-searching.
Peter
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Lady Gaga
After this week’s gospel reading on the foreigner woman who bested Jesus in a debate and proved to be more Christian than he was, I am looking for unexpected sources of truth. And I stumbled across Lady Gaga.
It turns out that Lady Gaga began life as Stefani Germanotta. Maybe I’m the last to discover this but an article by Rodney Clapp describes her as an awkward teenager. She experienced bullying for being ugly, having a big nose and giant eyebrows. They put her down for her laugh, her makeup and her love of theatre. It got bad enough that she wanted to stay home from school.
In her new life as Lady Gaga, Stefani has maintained her outrageous persona. But despite her present day fame, she can’t forget her pain as an unhappy teenager. Thus beneath the flash and glam, Stefani conveys a message that despite others’ putdowns because you’re too fat or too skinny, despite harassment because you’re gay, you have real worth. if you’re a misfit, embrace yourself.
Fans write to her in gratitude for helping to liberate them from the chains of hate. A 15 year old offers this testimony, “At every concert you’ve said that you want to liberate us and that is what you’ve done. Your songs have taught me not to listen to haters and be who I am, because baby, I was born this way.”
Lady Gaga may be an unlikely source of truth but this sounds like good news in unusual packing.
Peter
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Real books
I can’t quite get my head around this one. I read a few days ago that the University of Chicago has opened a state-of-the-art library. The pubic space is full of computers. But there is not a book in sight. What? Obviously students are learning to learn without books. Actually most of us are. Amazon has announced this week that they are selling more digital books than print books. I have to admit that I downloaded the Wind in the Willows and was reading it at the pool while waiting for a little girl to finish her swim lesson. I understand the convenience of the digital library but I still like to see books around me on the shelves without having to turn on a machine.
In a recent magazine which still comes to me on paper through the mail, John Buchanan quoted this from John Updike,
“Shelved rows of books warm and brighten the starkest room...By bedside and easy chair, books promise a cozy, swift, and silent relapse from this world into another...Smaller than a breadbox, bigger than a TV remote, the average book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture...Books hold our beams down; they acts as counterweight to our fickle and flighty natures.”
In a recent magazine which still comes to me on paper through the mail, John Buchanan quoted this from John Updike,
“Shelved rows of books warm and brighten the starkest room...By bedside and easy chair, books promise a cozy, swift, and silent relapse from this world into another...Smaller than a breadbox, bigger than a TV remote, the average book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture...Books hold our beams down; they acts as counterweight to our fickle and flighty natures.”
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Non-Violent Protest IS The Way
Stephen Zunes , professor of politics and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco and chair fo the academic advisory committee of the International Center on Non-violent conflict, offers a view off the mainstream media grid.
He claims that the most successful pro-democracy protests have been the non-violent ones. Over the past decades, this has been the case. Note - the Philippines, Serbia, Chile, Poland, Bolivia, the Maldives and now Egypt and Tunisia.
Even Libya made its greatest strides in the early non-violent phase of the uprising. In the first week resignations took place in the cabinet, pilots crashed their planes or flew them out of the country, refused to bomb protesters. Thousands of soldiers defected. But when the protest grew violent the gains stalled.
Zunes claims that Libya may end up being an example not of the ineffectiveness of non-violence but of the need for strategic, well-organized non-violent protest.
It takes great courage to take part in these protests but in the long run, the violent rebellion may prove far more costly.
Peter
He claims that the most successful pro-democracy protests have been the non-violent ones. Over the past decades, this has been the case. Note - the Philippines, Serbia, Chile, Poland, Bolivia, the Maldives and now Egypt and Tunisia.
Even Libya made its greatest strides in the early non-violent phase of the uprising. In the first week resignations took place in the cabinet, pilots crashed their planes or flew them out of the country, refused to bomb protesters. Thousands of soldiers defected. But when the protest grew violent the gains stalled.
Zunes claims that Libya may end up being an example not of the ineffectiveness of non-violence but of the need for strategic, well-organized non-violent protest.
It takes great courage to take part in these protests but in the long run, the violent rebellion may prove far more costly.
Peter
Sunday, May 1, 2011
But I don’t like church!
So how is the church to respond to a generation that does not seem to want to go to church? Some younger people are attending but the echo generation (the children of the boomers) is less connected to church than previous generations.
Tom Sherwood, former campus minister, is helping us to listen and learn to the echos. Tom is conducting a research project on youth and young adults called Listening to the Echo.
Tom’s research uncovers a deep spirituality that is part of the lives of many young people. They care about justice issues. They are passionate about the environment. They just don’t see the church as being relevant or helpful to them.
Tom heard this comment from a 20 something young person:
“Religion is more harmful than helpful.”
Tom says he has heard lots of ignorance about who we are as the United Church. Many young people confuse us with Catholicism and American fundamentalism. When the echos articulate their theology, it is remarkably like our own in the United Church.
How do we help echos see the real us?
Perhaps we need to be clearer and more articulate about who we really are. as a faith community. Perhaps we need to find ways to be in conversation with young people to see what we do have in common or to see what we can learn from each other. What do you think?
....more on this in weeks to come.
Peter
Tom Sherwood, former campus minister, is helping us to listen and learn to the echos. Tom is conducting a research project on youth and young adults called Listening to the Echo.
Tom’s research uncovers a deep spirituality that is part of the lives of many young people. They care about justice issues. They are passionate about the environment. They just don’t see the church as being relevant or helpful to them.
Tom heard this comment from a 20 something young person:
“Religion is more harmful than helpful.”
Tom says he has heard lots of ignorance about who we are as the United Church. Many young people confuse us with Catholicism and American fundamentalism. When the echos articulate their theology, it is remarkably like our own in the United Church.
How do we help echos see the real us?
Perhaps we need to be clearer and more articulate about who we really are. as a faith community. Perhaps we need to find ways to be in conversation with young people to see what we do have in common or to see what we can learn from each other. What do you think?
....more on this in weeks to come.
Peter
Sunday, April 24, 2011
God So Loved The Dirt
“God so loved the dirt...”
There it was - this unusual title of a magazine article about God loving dirt.
It seems like a fitting headline for this weekend with Good Friday and Earth Day coinciding. Christians should be first in line when it comes to caring for the dirt and for all the other elements and beings of creation.
The Holy Weekend begins with Jesus going straight from the Last Supper to a garden where he prays for guidance. And now on Easter morning Mary goes to the other side of the city to follow the burial rituals. Here in the cemetery she mistakes Jesus for a gardener. And so he is. The God who is revealed in Genesis is more gardener than warrior. We lost that somewhere along the way and as Joni Mitchell wrote, “we have to get back to the garden.”
In Norman Wirzba’s article, he says “Whether Christians do right by the environment depends on whether we see the Earth as a megastore where we can shop for whatever we want or as a garden that needs careful tending.”
Peter
There it was - this unusual title of a magazine article about God loving dirt.
It seems like a fitting headline for this weekend with Good Friday and Earth Day coinciding. Christians should be first in line when it comes to caring for the dirt and for all the other elements and beings of creation.
The Holy Weekend begins with Jesus going straight from the Last Supper to a garden where he prays for guidance. And now on Easter morning Mary goes to the other side of the city to follow the burial rituals. Here in the cemetery she mistakes Jesus for a gardener. And so he is. The God who is revealed in Genesis is more gardener than warrior. We lost that somewhere along the way and as Joni Mitchell wrote, “we have to get back to the garden.”
In Norman Wirzba’s article, he says “Whether Christians do right by the environment depends on whether we see the Earth as a megastore where we can shop for whatever we want or as a garden that needs careful tending.”
Peter
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Accept Me As I Am
A local Houston paper reported that over two dozen churches in Houston sponsored a “Bring your Gay Teen to Church Day.” This was set in motion because of a teenager’s suicide. A desperate young person could no longer cope with years of bullying. The largest church in Houston, Joel Osteen’s megachurch, declined that invitation to be involved. Osteen believes homosexuality is a sin.
I recall on a Habitat for Humanity trip to Amarillo, a young person from Joel’s church told me how exciting it was to be part of a such a huge congregation. You really should come here if you are ever in town. If I was a young gay person, being bullied, I don’t think I would feel all that welcome at that megachurch.
I wonder how welcome gay folks feel in our community. I wonder what we can do to make those who endure cruel jokes and spiritual judgement, feel more welcome in our congregation. The Ottawa Presbytery is taking this year to explore what it would mean for us to become an affirming presbytery. I hope we can be listening and learning so we can consider that question for our own congregation.
Peter
I recall on a Habitat for Humanity trip to Amarillo, a young person from Joel’s church told me how exciting it was to be part of a such a huge congregation. You really should come here if you are ever in town. If I was a young gay person, being bullied, I don’t think I would feel all that welcome at that megachurch.
I wonder how welcome gay folks feel in our community. I wonder what we can do to make those who endure cruel jokes and spiritual judgement, feel more welcome in our congregation. The Ottawa Presbytery is taking this year to explore what it would mean for us to become an affirming presbytery. I hope we can be listening and learning so we can consider that question for our own congregation.
Peter
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