Cover of WAR
“Statically, it’s six times as dangerous to spend a year as a young man in America than as a cop or a fireman, and vastly more dangerous than a one-year deployment at a big military base in Afghanistan.”
– Sebastian Junger in his book “War,” p. 194
Image via Wikipedia
“If
you try to assert wisdom before people have themselves walked it, be
prepared for much resistance, denial, push-back, and verbal debate.”
– Richard Rohr, (Falling Upward; via MINemergent)
This is very true. There is also the reality that people who speak truth in these days, whose “yes” is yes and whose “no” is no, who and actually deal with the issues that become big, white elephants in the room, well these people are going to be resisted, are going to be accused, and are going to be opposed. (The vested interests of the status-quo will not recuse themselves easily, even as their failure is imminent.)
This is too bad, because when we speak truthfully, with consistency, and actually deal squarely with the real problems we face, then real, positive, and workable change for the better can occur. This is, of course, called integrity.
When we live within integrity, we then earn a hearing and garner respect from those who want nothing to do with the institutions to which we (I) belong – namely, the Church.
The new 2011 Beloit College Mindset List for the new freshmen class of 2015 is now out.
“This year’s entering college class of 2015 was born just as the Internet
took everyone onto the information highway and as Amazon began its
relentless flow of books and everything else into their lives. Members
of this year’s freshman class, most of them born in 1993, are the first
generation to grow up taking the word “online” for granted and for whom
crossing the digital divide has redefined research, original sources and
access to information, changing the central experiences and methods in
their lives. They have come of age as women assumed command of U.S. Navy
ships, altar girls served routinely at Catholic Mass, and when
everything from parents analyzing childhood maladies to their breaking
up with boyfriends and girlfriends, sometimes quite publicly, have been
accomplished on the Internet.”
The whole list is below the jump.
Related articles
This is a great little video by Gungor…. has a should very similar to Sufjan. Hum.
Here is an interesting article in Newsweek – “How To Raise a Global Kid” (now found on The Daily Beast website) concerning what parents who can afford such things are doing with their children and their kid’s education to make sure that they are more than adequately prepared for the future. With Asia in the ascendence and the West, including the USA, in the process of decline, if not crumbling, they see the necessity in educating their children to be “global kids.”
First of all, among those who are considered “movers and shakers” outside of our crass political spheres there is the recognition that the West – Europe and the USA as the predominate entities – will not be able to resurrect out of our decline. Therefore, was people enmeshed in the “world economy” and of means, they are assuring a global oligarchy that extends beyond geo-political boundaries. What does this foretell concerning the vast majority of young people and their education in U.S. schools? What does this foretell concerning the U.S.’s ability to actually solve the fundamental and profound problems we are facing (let alone the E.U. Euro and debt issues)?
While I sincerely hope that we are able to squarely face our problems, right now I sadly doubt we have the will within our collective minds and believe that we no longer have politicians who will make the very tough decisions to avoid collapse of our derived “empire.” Worryingly, I think we have to hit bottom before anything is truly done.
This bodes not well for emerging generations. Those who have the means and who have parents savvy enough to know what is going on in the broad, world scheme will come through as “global kids” who will inhabit the global oligarchy. That means the center of power will no longer be the West. I don’t want this to be fear-mongering, but I just don’t see the leadership necessary to deal with the issues.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/07/17/american-kids-immersed-in-chinese-asian-education.html
“Attentiveness to peculiar narrative identity seems to me an urgent practical enterprise for a religious community that is often so bland that it loses its raison d’etre. The issue is to practice a peculiar identity that is not craven in the face of the moralisms of the right or the left.”
– Walter Brueggemann, quoted in “Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church”; by Kenda Creasy Dean; p. 61.
In an article from the Telegraph (England) entitle, Flee to Mars if America commits worst error since 1931, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes about the U.S. fiscal mess and Congress’ dysfunction.
A couple pertinent paragraphs:
Yes, there is such a concept as an “expansionary fiscal contraction”,
as in Ireland (1980s), Denmark (1990s), arguably Canada (1990s), and
the UK after both 1932 and 1993, but in every successful case this was
accompanied by monetary loosening. That card has already been played
this time.Should America instead opt to evade these fiscal cuts by actually
defaulting on debts accumulated by self-indulgent baby boomers, I would
also like to flee Mars because such an outcome might be even worse.Those who choose to breach America’s sacred bond to creditors across
the world in this squalid way, in circumstances short of war or
extenuating distress, deserve our contempt. Be they accursed forever if
they stoop so low.
Politically speaking in an observatory way, this is fascinating to watch. This is not reality TV, however, where we can edit out way out of the unpleasantness. We are forced to live with and in the dysfunction. It makes the whole situation a little more dire.
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
I haven’t thought all that much about the ending of the Space Shuttle program – I mean I really have, but I don’t dwell on the subject. I’m having an emotional, visceral reaction. I’ve always been so enamored with the future, technology, and space exploration. The first launch in 1981 was an exciting event.
I wonder why the United States could not have or develop a replacement launch system to take the Shuttles place. Now, we are at the mercy of the Russians to get any of our people into space. Perhaps this is just a lull, but the decimation of the space industry that is resulting is not good for the future of our space program.
I also understand that the monies allocated to NASA could be better spent creating new systems for deep space exploration – by be in a glorified bus business. I understand that. Yet, at this point in time I don’t believe that our situation is a result of a well planned out program. I simply fear that with all of other national problems, the U.S. space exploration program may well be hampered, permanently.
We shall see, but for now there is no longer a means to get our guys into space.
I’ve been told from time-to-time, again just yesterday, that talking with me is like playing leapfrog – meaning that I tend to jump from one thing to the thing, from topic to topic. I’ve been told I should be on Ritalin because I can’t seem to focus for long on one thing. I’ve always said – as a justification? – that I’ve developed a keen ability to free-associate, or something like that. I also say that I am constantly trying to find and figure out the connections between seemingly unrelated things. I do believe that I am a generalist and finding linkages and connections is frankly very important to me. It drives me nuts, as well as my closer friends because I tend to process out loud.
??Truth be told, I do need to figure out a way to stay on topic a little better than I now do. So, I’m going to try – in a rambling, generalist kind of way. One of the ways I’m going to try is by writing some short pieces about experiences in my life that add up to who I am now. An experience I had a couple days ago with a couple clergy over the development of a new ministry that would require me to give up a lot and put myself into a situation that is more akin to living as an early 20’s college student rather than a professional person nearing 50. A newly minted priest-to-be, now deacon, in our threesome made a couple comments that I could have misinterpreted (I tend to think not, however, even in my own assumption), that I found personally annoying. To me, they sounded condescending and presumptuous. He did not know me at all, yet… Likewise, and this is where I near hypocrisy, my own presumption could be getting in my way of seeing things clearly.??
Anyway, I thought it might be good for me to detail an overview of some of my early experiences – if just for my own sense of personal history. This is overview #1 – The Introduction. I have no idea where to begin. Perhaps all this will be under an umbrella of “challenge.” I sense that as a society we are no longer particularly keen on be personally challenged. Challenge is difficult, particularly when the zeitgeist demands that we have to feel good about ourselves, always. Being challenged is often very uncomfortable and in the short run not particularly “feel-good” inducing. In addition, too often being challenging is considered by the guardians of multiculturalism and identity-based Realpolitik to be an affront to diversity. If we challenge such things as attitudes, behaviors, morals, spiritualities, religious beliefs, political ideologies of people belong to certain groups (of any kind in the favor with the guardians), then we are attacking the very person-hood or self-identity of the individual or the legitimacy of the group. I find this absurd, but that’s why I don’t fit in particularly well. After spending twenty years in higher education and six years as a clergyman in the Episcopal Church, the driving force to capitulate to the “parity line” is profoundly strong.
??The challenges of life change. Right now – being forced to look for another ministry position in an institution that is very challenging. Right now – the way I’m feeling (feelings being quite fickle), the future looks like the diminishment of my life rather than a good, forward momentum. Right now, a real heartfelt loneliness (I’ve great friends, but they just aren’t the same of the one with whom I share life and love).
??
If one would consider the “normal” life of an average late-forties American male, as difficult as that prospect is in such a profoundly varied culture and diverse population, I don’t fit it politically, socially, or politically. Materially, while I don’t have nearly as much “stuff” as an average American male in his late 40’s, I do have more than an average 20-something. This affects (or is it effects?) what I can and cannot reasonably do without having to divest myself of nearly all that I posses. At this point in my life and considering the amount of money I will conceivably make in the near future, I cannot afford to do that with an expectation that I will have to repurchase such items in the future. I’m considering a new ministry position, and it seems I may have to do such a thing – thus the feeling of “diminishment.”
??Some may accuse me of snobbery of elitism when I say I don’t want to live in that kind of situation or setting or in that run down apartment. Well, too bad. That “too bad” attitude comes from what I have willingly sacrificed over my life, and particularly in my early adult life after college that continues to impact my life even now. Someone who doesn’t know me of my life may easily assume such attitudes. I particularly get annoyed when someone makes that kind of assumption about me and knows nothing of my life.
?
?Challenge back then:
??
When I finished college, I remained in Bowling Green because at the time I wanted to continue working in campus ministry. Campus ministry had a tremendous impact on my life. My senior year, I and a couple other students began a new campus ministry-like group on the campus of Bowling Green State University out of an Assembly of God church that was not even two years old. In that short time, the church had grown to around two hundred regular attendees. We realized that the growth of the various campus ministry groups on campus was not a result of non-Christians or lapsed Christians coming into the groups, but just a shuffling around of those who were already fairly committed Christians. We also noticed that the various groups on campus, and there were around 20 (if I remember correctly), rarely had anything to do with each other. If anything, there was an antagonism between many of the groups due to theological and even political differences in understanding and action. We wanted to form a group that helped bring together Christians from all of the different groups. ?
?
In the end, we didn’t want to just start another campus ministry like all the others, but something different, something unique, something that didn’t exist to perpetuate a specific theological vain of thought or understanding, but a ministry that was creative enough and open enough to figure out ways to help bring unity and understanding among Christians that still allowed for the great diversity of opinion and practice among the various groups. Frankly, we believed that the differences were good and helpful because they enable us wrestle with issues of faith and life that was not possible if we only stayed among our own. ?
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We decided on the name, Dunamis Outreach, because we liked the implications of Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The challenge of creating something new, hopefully honestly new, was daunting to us as 21 year old with little real experience of life. Yet, we didn’t know any better; we didn’t know that is “couldn’t be done;” we didn’t know that other people had lost vision and their ability to dream what could be – and be willing to go after the vision and the dream; we didn’t know that we really needed to think about our retirement portfolio and to live on virtually nothing was a prudent way to live. We just did it, whatever it took to do it, and had fun all along the way.?
?
Enough for now. I could save this as a “draft,” but when I do that I never come back to the draft. So, just publish and since I’m really doing this for me, banish the concern about what others think.