Emails and Baptism

It's scary having someone who's not like you who may end up as the President of the United States. I've received all the Obama emails, and I struggle with how to respond. Do I respond with righteous indignation? If anything justifies indignation, it's blatant racism. Do I respond with Active Listening? I could tune in to the feelings of the writer (or, more likely, the forwarder): fear, anxiety, their own anger. Do I respect my elders (and many of the forwarders are my elders) and allow them their opinion? For them to be my elders, they've got to be on up there, so what are the chances they'll change at this point? And how much influence can they really have?

Questing Parson posted a wonderful email addressing the subject. You can find it here.

Discovered while reading Alan R. Bevere's weekly roundup of the MethoBlogoSphere.

God's Language

Found this great post on Enter the Rainbow ... all about what our response should be to people who speak other languages. And it starts with a Children's Sermon story. I'm a sucker for stories about Children's Sermons.

Walking a Black Dog

A couple of things happened in the last couple of days that have me thinking about my depression, and mental illness/health in general.

First of all, I read a blog called Walking The Black Dog that covers what it's like to live with depression. The author refers to Winston Churchill's referring to his own depression as a "a black dog." The blogger's post today was about the estimate that over a quarter million of our current military are suffering from depression or PTSD. Another quarter million suffer from Traumatic Brain Injury. That's over half a million people. And we're not prepared for them to come home. We can't handle the mental illness that's in our communities now -- how do we handle 620,000 soldiers, sailors, and marines?

The second thing that happened was that in my Bible Study class last night, we talked about the Geresene Demoniac in Mark (Mark 5:1-20. You may remember it as the one where the demon says "I am legion" and Jesus drives the demons into the pigs). That brought up a discussion of mental illness -- how it feels to be a family member of a mentally ill person, how the community feels about it, how the person him/herself feels. I didn't claim my depression during the session, but I did in an informal conversation after the class.

We don't know how to handle mental illness any better than the people of the ancient Middle East did. We're all OK with it as long as you keep it from being messy. You can be depressed, as long as you take something for it, and don't let it get all over my stuff. But don't have schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder, or something else that's not well treated with drugs.

I know this isn't anything new I'm saying. I just needed to write it down. Maybe I can write about it in a smarter, more impressive way next time.

Kerygma Bible Study

I started a new Bible study tonight ... the series is called Kerygma, and we're starting with the Gospel of Mark. I haven't done a Bible Study in a long time. I won't say how long it's been, but I think last time was for credit for my degree.

Which I got in 1981.

Anyway, it's almost like starting over. I remember the high points, but it's been a loooooooong time.

1. A Really Cool Thing

The class is being led by the woman who actually wrote the study, Dr. Carol Miller. How cool is that? She's retired now, and she and her husband Rick, both UMC ministers, decided to land here. (I'm not sure I understand why, because I'd actually like to land somewhere where, 7 months out of the year, daytime highs in the 90's are not considered a cool spell.) I admire her ability to express strong opinions without them becoming personal. That's not a skill I ever managed to develop, so I'm impressed when I see it in other people.

2. A Somewhat Anxiety-Producing Thing

If you drew a line and labeled one end "Fundamentalist" you could pretty much draw a picture of me hanging off the other end of the line, listing to starboard. I believe strongly in everyone's right to meet God wherever they are, and in God's ability to be there, no matter what. But fundamentalists scare me. I always fear that they're waiting for me to say something that they can pounce on and use to announce to the world that I'm doomed to spend eternity in Hell. And living in Louisiana, wedged between the Baptists and the Catholics, being theologically liberal is asking for trouble. Rather than run that risk, I usually just keep my mouth shut, and avoid situations where it might come up (which explains why I haven't done a Bible Study since I left college). I'm still not sure I'll be able to take the risk of speaking out. Even if I don't, it'll be interesting to watch Carol do it. Maybe I'll learn from her.

Fundamentalism

One of my recently-discovered favorite spirituality blogs is called Following Frodo. It's written by a United Church of Canada minister, and s/he recently did a series called "Why I'm Not a Fundamentalist." It's worth looking into.

Why I'm Not a Fundamentalist, Part 1, Scripture
Why I'm Not a Fundamentalist, Part 2, Virgin Birth
Why I'm Not a Fundamentalist, Part 3, Atonement
Why I'm Not a Fundamentalist, Part 4, (Bodily) Resurrection
Why I'm Not a Fundamentalist, Part 5, Jesus' Return