After Mass at Newman / Holy Spirit Parish, it was nice to have some quiet, restful time. Attending Mass at Holy Spirit had been another emotional experience for me -- being back there for Mass for the first time in over 25 years. So I sat in the sun for a bit, then changed to get ready for dinner.
A bit of background here: In 1978, a number of progressive Roman Catholics got together in Berkeley to form a religiously-based organization to oppose what was known as Proposition 6, or the Briggs Initiative. Those of you who saw the film Milk will know right away that this was the CA ballot measure that sought to prevent gay men & lesbian women & allies of gay / lesbian rights from teaching or working in the CA public schools. The organization, named Catholics for Human Dignity (CHD), became the lobbying arm of Dignity USA, the national organization of glbt Catholics, their families & friends. Somehow, I was invited to attend a meeting of CHD to plan our anti-Prop 6 campaign. To this day, I cannot remember who invited me to a Northside apartment in 1978 where I met two men with whom I became close friends: Scott McElhinney & José Léon. Scott was a UC Berkeley undergraduate; José was a graduate student at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (JSTB). It was their apartment, & there I also met Mary Hunt, then a doctoral student at the GTU & now co-director of WATER (Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, & Ritual), a national Catholic feminist organization, and Eileen DeLong, a Sister of the Good Shepherd on sabbatical at JSTB, where she had been deeply moved by the situation of gay men & lesbian women in the Catholic Church. At the time I first met Scott, José, Mary & Eileen, I was in the throes of figuring out my own sexual orientation; having separated from my husband on New Year’s Eve 1975, I’d been content with celibacy & wasn’t looking for either a man or woman in my life. It would be two more years before I would “come out” as a lesbian women, at the end of my first year in seminary.
Although I didn’t consider myself to be lesbian, I had no trouble seeing the justice issue involved in Prop. 6. Nor did my sister, Andi, nor did our parents, both of whom visited us that summer. “If gay & lesbian people are banned from teaching, who will be next? Jews? Single mothers? Blacks?” I think both of our parents voiced just that concern. So I marched in the 1978 San Francisco Gay / Lesbian Freedom Day Parade with a big “No on 6” button on my t-shirt. Two years later, after meeting, loving, becoming lovers with, & breaking up with Kathleen, I came out & began a long active association with both SF Dignity & CHD & helped to found a chapter of Dignity in the East Bay. All of that lasted until the end of 1983, when I formally left the Catholic Church for nearly 10 years.
Back in 1978, Scott, José & I quickly became good friends, & we remained close friends throughout my years in the Bay Area. Scott remained an especially good correspondent after I moved to Boston, & even when he didn’t hear back from me, he kept in touch through the years, even visiting me for several days. So seeing Scott & José was a high priority on this visit. They made it easy, as Scott is an excellent organizer & José an excellent cook with a lovely house & back yard. José invited several of us for dinner on Sunday, 13 June.
José has been an ordained priest for over 25 years, serving as pastor of a parish in Union City, CA; Scott has worked at UC Berkeley for about 20 years. Scott’s husband, Alan, received his MLS degree from UC Berkeley & is now a librarian at Dominican College in San Rafael, CA. Shortly before I left the Bay Area in 1987, I told Scott that I knew a man I thought he would like, thinking of Alan who, at the time, worked as Admissions Director at PSR. I mentioned to Alan that I thought he would like my friend Scott, who, at the time, was working in the Admissions Office at UC Berkeley. Without me actually introducing them, they met; two years later, they met again & got together. They’ve now been together for 21 years & got married in San Francisco prior to the passage of Prop. 8 in November 2008.
In addition to Scott & Alan, we had invited several other friends; only 1 other couple could make it, Brad & his partner, Dan. Brad is a psychotherapist, & we knew each other from Dignity.
It was a lovely, delicious, and often riotously funny dinner. We talked, laughed, told stories, talked about the Church – what else do practicing Catholics (with 1 Episcopalian) talk about when they get together? The food was marvelous, &, no surprise, the time went by all too quickly. That evening, however, confirmed something that I had wondered about: That although I had been away from the Bay Area for over 20 years, I still had and still have a community there – a community of close, dear friends who would love it if I were to move back there; a community upon which I could depend. Dinner with Scott, José & Alan that evening confirmed that my community is still there. I slept very well that evening.
The following day, Monday, I was set to change locations, from the PSR campus to the home of my wonderful friend Nancy Midlin & her husband Bill Coy in Oakland. Nancy & I had known each other since the mid-1970’s at Newman / Holy Spirit (NHHSP), where she was music director & I a member of the choir. We hadn’t kept in touch, although every once in a while, I would hear about her life from a mutual friend, Mary Christine O’Connor, who had also been a choir member & now lived in New York. Then, nearly 5 years ago, at the same time as Hurricane Katrina was devastating New Orleans, Paulist priest Fr. Jac Campbell died in Boston. Jac had been director of NHHSP for several years, & he & I had become close when we discovered we were both living in Boston. Jac had kept in touch with Nancy & several other NHHSP friends. Thus, after Jac’s wake – at which I had spoken, for both myself & Mary Christine – I was amazed & so very glad to see two women walking toward me who I knew I knew… Nancy and Heather had flown from CA for Jac’s wake & funeral. Nancy & I had stayed in touch since then, & when I told her that I was planning to visit, she invited me to stay at her house.
What a wonderful invitation, and what a lovely time I had there!! In addition to Nancy & Bill, her 20+ year old daughter Liz lives there with her 18 month-old daughter Natalia. When I first arrived, Nancy’s 2 sons were visiting. So I arrived that afternoon via East Bay Para-Transit into a sea of fun, laughter, good humor, & wonderful people. I stayed there through Saturday morning, & it was wonderful to spend time with Nancy, get to know Bill a little better – we’d both been at the GTU at the same time – & get to know Liz & Natalia, who is a delight. It was lovely, too, to spend the rest of Monday resting, both before & after having a lovely dinner.
Tuesday, 15 June, was my busiest & fullest day – lots on the calendar. First: 12:10 pm Mass at Newman / Holy Spirit; then, lunch with a friend from the GTU; finally, a gathering at LaVal’s Pizza on Northside with whoever decides to show up.
15 June is the actual anniversary of my Baptism, Confirmation, & First Eucharist; 35 years ago that day, I formally & officially became a Catholic, standing before the community and affirming the Creed that is the faith of the Catholic Church. So the para-transit van dropped me off at Newman / Holy Spirit so I would be able to celebrate my 35th anniversary there – something I had very much wanted to do & one of the reasons I had chosen the particular dates I’d selected for my trip.
Since I was early for Mass, I rode down College from Dwight to the Elmwood district, the three block area along College and Ashby Avenue. I lived in the Elmwood for over 4 years, from 1976 until 1980 & had loved it, renting a one-bedroom flat on the 2nd floor of an apartment building at the corner of College & Stuart Street; the building is still there, and it still looks the same. I doubt it had even had a paint job. A bit further down the street, I was delighted to discover that Nabolom Bakery was still in its same location on Russell Street, and that Body Time, the original Body Shop, still had a store on College. Body Time, founded in 1970, was the first natural and organic body care company; it is still based in Berkeley, still distributes product in reusable containers, and has not “franchised.” I went into the College Avenue shop to purchase a few items that I had missed in Boston, including several wonderful olive oil soaps. Many other shops that had been on College Ave. had disappeared, including the delicious Russian restaurant where I’d eaten with friends. However, the movie theater is still there; the last film I saw there was Kiss of the Spiderwoman. After checking out other stores, I returned to Holy Spirit.
Mass at NHHSP: It was lovely, a typical weekday Mass, quiet, with time to pray & reflect – something I’ll do in writing in another blog.
Then it was time to head for lunch with Anne Dinkelspiel Howd, a friend from the GTU & someone who had been very supportive in my early days of coming out. We met at a small Indian restaurant on the corner of Shattuck & Virginia & spent a wonderful hour talking, catching up, and laughing. She is now raising a son & has a psychotherapy practice. We could have talked for another couple of hours…
I went from there, still in my wheelchair, back up to Northside, following Virginia Street the entire way until I could turn right onto Scenic. From there, I spent some time in the GTU Library where I worked as a cataloger for several years, before heading to LaVal’s.
In riding around both Northside and South of the campus, I again saw clear evidence of the CA financial crisis. Sidewalks have been left in disrepair in many places. More interestingly, the areas of grass between sidewalks and streets on almost every street have been left to grow into weedy, unkempt messes; no one has mowed them, even where homeowners have mowed their own lawns. In many places, the paint has faded in crosswalks and has not been refreshed.
LaVal’s is a Northside institution; everyone knows where it is, & it’s been there since long before I began my graduate work in 1979. So it was a perfect place to meet. I got something to drink – no food because of my gluten-free diet – and waited to see who would show up. The first to arrive was my friend from PSR, Garland Walker, who had come up from Modesto. Garland & I met during my 1st year at PSR, when we both took Systematic Theology with Robert McAfee Brown & ended up in a working group together in which we were to critique a book; we chose Hans Küng’s On Being a Christian. That experience certainly changed my life – but that’s a long story for a different blog… Garland had also been very close friends with one of my closest friends, Stuart Weiner, a PSR student who was killed in February 1983 by a speeding car. So Garland & I had much to discuss & share.
After we had talked for 45 minutes or so, Heather arrived, & the 3 of us went inside. After a while, a friend I’d met through Jac Campbell, Ludwik Zych, who lives in Palo Alto, showed up with white tulips & a card; he & I hadn’t seen each other for over 25 years & were very excited. Nancy then came from the airport where she had dropped off her 2 sons, & finally Scott arrived. It was such a lovely event – lots of laughter, catching up (especially for me with Ludwik), lots of people getting to know each other. Again, it confirmed for me that I have a community in the Bay Area & will have one to which to return when I move back sometime in the future. Scott helped me onto the van, & I was ready to return to Nancy’s for some rest & sleep & not a few tears.
To Be Continued Tomorrow With Part III.......
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Part I: Visit to San Francisco Bay Area this June
Two months ago today, I'd just returned from my first visit in over 20 years to the San Francisco Bay Area. The time I spent there in June of this year was wonderful -- seeing friends, meeting people, visiting old haunts, discovering new places. People have asked about the trip & I've told everyone, "It was wonderful." Now that I've been back for a couple of months, I want to write about it here. I'll mostly go chronologically, although I'm sure that I'll include some diversions. So, here goes Part One of my blog about my Visit to the Bay Area from 10 - 21 June 2010.
Flying Southwest went very well, until we arrived in Denver & learned that our Denver to Oakland flight would be delayed by 2 hours. That meant arriving in Oakland at 5:15 PDT, rather than 3:15 -- something that really threw my schedule for a loop. Still, the flights went well; little problem getting my wheelchair when we arrived in Oakland. (My electric wheelchair traveled in a special place in baggage.)
Flying from Denver to CA on Friday, 11 June, I was able to see Lake Tahoe and knew when we were close to the CA coast -- the hills, green in the winter, had already turned golden-dry. That was my first hint of home. After we landed & I went into the terminal, I had my next more-than-hint, from the advertisements & vendors, as well as the "Welcome to Oakland, CA" sign. By this time, having had little sleep Thursday night & being tired & excited, when it hit me that I was, really, finally, in California, I cried. I'd re-scheduled my para-transit van pick-up for 6:30 pm, so I sat outside waiting for it to arrive. Once it did, I was on my way down the freeway to Berkeley & the first place I'd be staying overnight: Benton Hall, a graduate student residence on the campus of my graduate school, Pacific School of Religion (PSR) on Berkeley's Northside.
First impressions on the ride from Oakland Airport to and then through parts of Berkeley: The dire fiscal condition of the state revealed itself to me almost immediately, in the condition of the freeways and city streets. TERRIBLE. Worse, really, that parts of Hartford, where we deal with damage from winter, salt, sand and asphalt & concrete shrinking & expanding due to extreme changes in temperatures. I bumped & bounced all the way from Oakland to PSR. And I was in tears a good part of the way, too, seeing familiar signs and signposts, familiar buildings and street signs. Oddly enough, & I'd never realized it when I lived there, one of the most visible & recognizable buildings in Oakland is the Oakland Court House, scene of numerous Black Panther demonstrations.
When I reached PSR, I just sat in my wheelchair for a few minutes, taking in the green, the buildings, the chapel -- so familiar from all those years ago. The PSR campus has remained the same -- no new buildings since Mudd was built in the early 1980's, & nothing to obstruct the view across the quad or over to the Golden Gate Bridge. The Benton manager showed me my room, gave me my keys, & I was on my own.
After stretching for a few minutes, washing up, & deep breathing, I decided to poke around Northside for a bit. I knew I needed some seltzer to drink -- I drink plain seltzer & almost any kind of tea, & that's it -- so I grabbed what I needed & went out & about -- for a new experience: seeing Northside in my wheelchair. While there were several restaurants open on Euclid, I didn't feel like eating, & the ice cream shop that had been there when I lived there was gone, so I stopped into Seven Palms, got a bottle of Perrier, & then rode around a bit. Up passed the Franciscan School of Theology (FST -- now painted dark green, I think), then up Le Conte to Le Roy and by the Jesuit School of Theology building and its HUGE new addition. Whatever were they thinking??! The addition, to the left of the old building, is twice as big as the original building & a completely different architectural style. It looks really strange. I couldn't figure out whether the new building houses offices or serves as a large dormitory for Jesuit seminarians, & no one was around who could tell me. The best part of the addition: A ramp for people with disabilities! No more climbing up that huge flight of stairs from the sidewalk to the front door.
I went down a block on Virginia Street & then turned back onto Le Conte, passing the old GTU admin building -- no more bookstore! terrible. When I reached the front of the Unitarian Universalist School (Starr King School), I stopped still, hearing singing. Of course, I had to explore, so I went in. Turns out it was the Friday night Women's Spirit Sing,open to any woman who wants to attend. Something to remember for my return... I stayed for a few minutes, until my cell phone rang. On the phone was the PSR Housing Coordinator who wanted to make sure I'd gotten in to my room. She'd just begun a break from her evening Church History class, so I went over to Mudd to meet her & say hello. After that, realizing that I was really tired, I went to my room. And crashed.
I hadn't expected to feel so completely exhausted the following day. It turned out to be a day when temps reached into the 90's F, however, I didn't know it at all; I was so wiped out that I cancelled my lunch plans with Russ, a friend & co-PSR alum, & his husband & my later afternoon plans to see my friend Judy from Boston. :-( As I lay there in bed, drinking Perrier, I kept trying to convince myself that the trip was NOT a mistake, that I would feel better the next day. It took a lot of convincing; luckily, I believed myself. By evening, I was able to shower, go out for more Perrier, and sleep, rather than crash. When I woke up the next morning, Sunday, I still felt shaky, however, I knew I would make it through the day. Plans for that day: Mass at Holy Spirit Parish / Newman Hall in Berkeley, where I was Baptized, Confirmed, & received First Eucharist, and, that evening, dinner with several very close friends, two of whom I'd know for over 30 years.
Mass at Holy Spirit: When I was Baptized, etc., @ Holy Spirit Parish, it happened at the 12 pm (noon) Mass. No more Noon Mass, though. Now, it's at 11:30 am. I rode across the UC Berkeley Campus, truly enjoying the journey; I will still contend that this campus is one of the most beautiful in the US. Past the carillon & its bells, past Dwinnell Hall, past Sproul Hall, through Sproul Plaza -- location of some of the most famous student protests in US history, & location of several protests in which I, too, participated, including one against apartheid in South Africa, at which Alice Walker read several of her poems. Then down Telegraph Avenue and up Haste Street, a right on College Avenue and keep going on College to Dwight Way. On the Northeast corner of College & Dwight is Holy Spirit Parish / Newman Hall
Built of poured concrete in that era of building, it forms a large, hulking presence off of the large open space in front of the doors. Inside and straight ahead through another set of doors is the chapel. Very modern with its massive Christ figure and almost bare walls, its unmovable altar & ambo that seem to grow organically up from the floor. I love this chapel, this worship space, perhaps because it was the first Catholic Church in which I was welcomed & completely free to worship & to pray. I prayed for several minutes, then went to find Judy.
Judy & I had met when we were both members of the Paulist Center in Boston, MA; we both sang in the music ministry & both had grown up Jewish. Judy had decided to become Catholic, & I was on the RCIA team the year she received the Sacraments of Initiation. She then moved to Berkeley. It was terrific to see her! She'd cut her hair, looked wonderful, & was doing well. We didn't have enough time to talk; a friend from many years ago who I'd known from my first days at Holy Spirit had waited to see me, & the 3 of us talked for 20 minutes, until just a few minutes before Mass. Then, I needed to go in to make sure that the presider, George Fitzgerald, CSP, & someone else I knew from those earlier days, knew that I was there & that I would need a gluten-free host. Big, happy greeting from George; yes, everything is set. Then, wonderful surprise, big hug from Heather Skinner, a woman I've known for many years through the parish; she, her husband, & her mother-in-law had come to that Mass at Holy Spirit knowing I would be there! What a lovely welcome!!
And it felt like home. Quiet, low-key Mass, fitting for the almost beginning of summer; it felt very familiar. Of course, there's always something that I would do differently... and I would have chosen different music... Mostly because I didn't know most of the tunes the congregation sang.
After Mass, George & I had a little time to talk, then I went back down to Telegraph Avenue. Outside of the now-closed Cody's Books, I found a florist & purchased some beautiful deep purple iris for Jose's house where our Sunday evening dinner was to take place. Stopped at Walgreens to pick up some toothpaste -- the travel-size one I'd brought with me was no good, too old -- & then back across campus & at Seven Palms stopped for more Perrier. Then I took a ride down another few streets to the house where I had lived during the last 2 years of my PhD studies at the Graduate Theological Union, on Virginia Street. I knew the house immediately by its bottom-floor on-street windows. I had put my desk under those windows so I'd be able to look outside when I studied. Thought about that house for a few minutes, then went back up the hill to my room to rest.
Dinner & the next part -- tomorrow.........
Flying Southwest went very well, until we arrived in Denver & learned that our Denver to Oakland flight would be delayed by 2 hours. That meant arriving in Oakland at 5:15 PDT, rather than 3:15 -- something that really threw my schedule for a loop. Still, the flights went well; little problem getting my wheelchair when we arrived in Oakland. (My electric wheelchair traveled in a special place in baggage.)
Flying from Denver to CA on Friday, 11 June, I was able to see Lake Tahoe and knew when we were close to the CA coast -- the hills, green in the winter, had already turned golden-dry. That was my first hint of home. After we landed & I went into the terminal, I had my next more-than-hint, from the advertisements & vendors, as well as the "Welcome to Oakland, CA" sign. By this time, having had little sleep Thursday night & being tired & excited, when it hit me that I was, really, finally, in California, I cried. I'd re-scheduled my para-transit van pick-up for 6:30 pm, so I sat outside waiting for it to arrive. Once it did, I was on my way down the freeway to Berkeley & the first place I'd be staying overnight: Benton Hall, a graduate student residence on the campus of my graduate school, Pacific School of Religion (PSR) on Berkeley's Northside.
First impressions on the ride from Oakland Airport to and then through parts of Berkeley: The dire fiscal condition of the state revealed itself to me almost immediately, in the condition of the freeways and city streets. TERRIBLE. Worse, really, that parts of Hartford, where we deal with damage from winter, salt, sand and asphalt & concrete shrinking & expanding due to extreme changes in temperatures. I bumped & bounced all the way from Oakland to PSR. And I was in tears a good part of the way, too, seeing familiar signs and signposts, familiar buildings and street signs. Oddly enough, & I'd never realized it when I lived there, one of the most visible & recognizable buildings in Oakland is the Oakland Court House, scene of numerous Black Panther demonstrations.
When I reached PSR, I just sat in my wheelchair for a few minutes, taking in the green, the buildings, the chapel -- so familiar from all those years ago. The PSR campus has remained the same -- no new buildings since Mudd was built in the early 1980's, & nothing to obstruct the view across the quad or over to the Golden Gate Bridge. The Benton manager showed me my room, gave me my keys, & I was on my own.
After stretching for a few minutes, washing up, & deep breathing, I decided to poke around Northside for a bit. I knew I needed some seltzer to drink -- I drink plain seltzer & almost any kind of tea, & that's it -- so I grabbed what I needed & went out & about -- for a new experience: seeing Northside in my wheelchair. While there were several restaurants open on Euclid, I didn't feel like eating, & the ice cream shop that had been there when I lived there was gone, so I stopped into Seven Palms, got a bottle of Perrier, & then rode around a bit. Up passed the Franciscan School of Theology (FST -- now painted dark green, I think), then up Le Conte to Le Roy and by the Jesuit School of Theology building and its HUGE new addition. Whatever were they thinking??! The addition, to the left of the old building, is twice as big as the original building & a completely different architectural style. It looks really strange. I couldn't figure out whether the new building houses offices or serves as a large dormitory for Jesuit seminarians, & no one was around who could tell me. The best part of the addition: A ramp for people with disabilities! No more climbing up that huge flight of stairs from the sidewalk to the front door.
I went down a block on Virginia Street & then turned back onto Le Conte, passing the old GTU admin building -- no more bookstore! terrible. When I reached the front of the Unitarian Universalist School (Starr King School), I stopped still, hearing singing. Of course, I had to explore, so I went in. Turns out it was the Friday night Women's Spirit Sing,open to any woman who wants to attend. Something to remember for my return... I stayed for a few minutes, until my cell phone rang. On the phone was the PSR Housing Coordinator who wanted to make sure I'd gotten in to my room. She'd just begun a break from her evening Church History class, so I went over to Mudd to meet her & say hello. After that, realizing that I was really tired, I went to my room. And crashed.
I hadn't expected to feel so completely exhausted the following day. It turned out to be a day when temps reached into the 90's F, however, I didn't know it at all; I was so wiped out that I cancelled my lunch plans with Russ, a friend & co-PSR alum, & his husband & my later afternoon plans to see my friend Judy from Boston. :-( As I lay there in bed, drinking Perrier, I kept trying to convince myself that the trip was NOT a mistake, that I would feel better the next day. It took a lot of convincing; luckily, I believed myself. By evening, I was able to shower, go out for more Perrier, and sleep, rather than crash. When I woke up the next morning, Sunday, I still felt shaky, however, I knew I would make it through the day. Plans for that day: Mass at Holy Spirit Parish / Newman Hall in Berkeley, where I was Baptized, Confirmed, & received First Eucharist, and, that evening, dinner with several very close friends, two of whom I'd know for over 30 years.
Mass at Holy Spirit: When I was Baptized, etc., @ Holy Spirit Parish, it happened at the 12 pm (noon) Mass. No more Noon Mass, though. Now, it's at 11:30 am. I rode across the UC Berkeley Campus, truly enjoying the journey; I will still contend that this campus is one of the most beautiful in the US. Past the carillon & its bells, past Dwinnell Hall, past Sproul Hall, through Sproul Plaza -- location of some of the most famous student protests in US history, & location of several protests in which I, too, participated, including one against apartheid in South Africa, at which Alice Walker read several of her poems. Then down Telegraph Avenue and up Haste Street, a right on College Avenue and keep going on College to Dwight Way. On the Northeast corner of College & Dwight is Holy Spirit Parish / Newman Hall
Built of poured concrete in that era of building, it forms a large, hulking presence off of the large open space in front of the doors. Inside and straight ahead through another set of doors is the chapel. Very modern with its massive Christ figure and almost bare walls, its unmovable altar & ambo that seem to grow organically up from the floor. I love this chapel, this worship space, perhaps because it was the first Catholic Church in which I was welcomed & completely free to worship & to pray. I prayed for several minutes, then went to find Judy.
Judy & I had met when we were both members of the Paulist Center in Boston, MA; we both sang in the music ministry & both had grown up Jewish. Judy had decided to become Catholic, & I was on the RCIA team the year she received the Sacraments of Initiation. She then moved to Berkeley. It was terrific to see her! She'd cut her hair, looked wonderful, & was doing well. We didn't have enough time to talk; a friend from many years ago who I'd known from my first days at Holy Spirit had waited to see me, & the 3 of us talked for 20 minutes, until just a few minutes before Mass. Then, I needed to go in to make sure that the presider, George Fitzgerald, CSP, & someone else I knew from those earlier days, knew that I was there & that I would need a gluten-free host. Big, happy greeting from George; yes, everything is set. Then, wonderful surprise, big hug from Heather Skinner, a woman I've known for many years through the parish; she, her husband, & her mother-in-law had come to that Mass at Holy Spirit knowing I would be there! What a lovely welcome!!
And it felt like home. Quiet, low-key Mass, fitting for the almost beginning of summer; it felt very familiar. Of course, there's always something that I would do differently... and I would have chosen different music... Mostly because I didn't know most of the tunes the congregation sang.
After Mass, George & I had a little time to talk, then I went back down to Telegraph Avenue. Outside of the now-closed Cody's Books, I found a florist & purchased some beautiful deep purple iris for Jose's house where our Sunday evening dinner was to take place. Stopped at Walgreens to pick up some toothpaste -- the travel-size one I'd brought with me was no good, too old -- & then back across campus & at Seven Palms stopped for more Perrier. Then I took a ride down another few streets to the house where I had lived during the last 2 years of my PhD studies at the Graduate Theological Union, on Virginia Street. I knew the house immediately by its bottom-floor on-street windows. I had put my desk under those windows so I'd be able to look outside when I studied. Thought about that house for a few minutes, then went back up the hill to my room to rest.
Dinner & the next part -- tomorrow.........
Monday, August 16, 2010
Oppression and Double Oppression
I learned any number of things when I attended graduate school back in the day... In fact, I was in seminary, which is graduate school for people who hope to be priests, ministers, & / or theologians, having attended Pacific School of Religion (PSR), a member school of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), a consortium of 9 graduate seminaries, in Berkeley, CA, for more than a few years. I began my Master's of Divinity degree in 1979; transferred to the PhD program in 1981; withdrew from the PhD program in 1985; and received my Master's degree in 1986. I loved it. I loved studying Sacred Scripture, religious history, and liturgy. I especially loved studying the centuries' long changing understanding of G-D and the ways in which G-D and G-D's people continue to be in relation with one another. I had wonderful teachers (for the most part), and met people who have become life-long friends.
One of the most important things I learned during those years came as a gift from another doctoral student, Thee Smith. Thee had been the Teaching Assistant in my first course in basic theology, formally termed Systematic Theology. A handsome, soft-spoken, bearded African-American man, Thee helped to take some of the burden off the senior faculty member teaching the course. Since that senior faculty member was the Rev. Dr. Robert McAfee Brown, one of the most well-known progressive theologians of his era, over 100 students had enrolled in the first quarter of the Systematics class. Since no classroom could hold that many people, we met in the chapel. Thee read and commented on student papers, held office hours, and, once per quarter, presented a lecture.
One afternoon during my 2nd year of doctoral studies, I decided to attend one of the occasional free lectures offered by the GTU. This particular lecture was in fact a panel discussion by 4 members of the Systematic Theology faculty on the emerging field of Liberation Theology.
Briefly, Liberation Theology is theology done "from below" -- the interpretation and understanding of G-D and the relationship of G-D and G-D's people by those who have been disenfranchised and who have previously had little, if any, role in interpreting G-D and their relationship with G-D. It is more accurate, really to refer to Liberation Theologies in the plural, since these new fields have been taken on by the poor of Latin America, African-Americans in the US of North America; by peoples in Africa and Asia; by women, both US North American caucasian women and by African-American and Latina women; by lesbian and gay people. Begun by poor people in Latin America, Liberation Theologies have been engaged in by Catholics, Protestants and, to a lesser extent, Jews over the past 30-35 years.
For this particular panel discussion on Liberation Theology, the folks putting it together had failed to move beyond their own academic ghetto and had chosen three white men and one white woman as panelists. From my recollection, the topic that the white woman planned to discuss had nothing at all to do with Feminist Theology. Rather, she intended to talk about concerns with land reform in Scripture.
As I sat in the auditorium, somewhat aghast at the speakers' list, I saw Thee Smith toward the front of the auditorium. The moderator called the gathering to attention, and then he introduced Thee, noting that Thee wasn't on the list of speakers. Thee, however, had asked to speak.
What Thee said that afternoon has remained with me for over 25 years. He spoke of his anger over the choice of speakers; his anger that it was left to him to point out the irony and outrage that a discussion on Liberation Theology had a panel made up of four theologians who could hardly be considered Liberation Theologians. He then discussed the way in which this process served as a situation of what he termed "Double Oppression." Not only was he, as an African-American Liberation Theologian, once again ignored, disregarded, and marginalized by being overlooked as a speaker on the panel; he in fact experienced the Double Oppression of having taken on the task, the moral responsibility, of going to the people who put the program together to point out to them their continued racism and oppression of him as an individual African-American and of African-Americans collectively.
Thee then called for a logical and compassionate approach to Double Oppression, a way to insure that it does not happen. He called upon whites to be the first to raise their (our) voices in opposition to racism, rather than wait for our Sisters and Brothers of Color to object to it; he called for men to protest sexism and misogyny and not wait for women to object to it once again. He called upon Christians to be the first to speak out loudly and clearly against Anti-Semitism, rather than wait for Jews once again to object; he called upon heterosexual people to speak up when they hear and / or see homophobia and / or heterosexism, rather than remain silent while their lesbian sisters and gay brothers protest such oppression.
I have never forgotten Thee Smith's talk, and I have tried to follow that which he called upon us to do. I also believe that he would not object if I added to that which he called upon us to do. In relation to the recent wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Islam actions and speech, and in relation to what one group has promised to do -- burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the attacks of 11 September -- I call upon Christians, Jews, and people of other faiths to raise our voices clearly, loudly, unequivocally and uncompromisingly against such actions and speech that threatens and oppresses our Muslim Sisters and Brothers. And I'm glad to be able to say that something I learned in graduate school in theology actually stuck.
One of the most important things I learned during those years came as a gift from another doctoral student, Thee Smith. Thee had been the Teaching Assistant in my first course in basic theology, formally termed Systematic Theology. A handsome, soft-spoken, bearded African-American man, Thee helped to take some of the burden off the senior faculty member teaching the course. Since that senior faculty member was the Rev. Dr. Robert McAfee Brown, one of the most well-known progressive theologians of his era, over 100 students had enrolled in the first quarter of the Systematics class. Since no classroom could hold that many people, we met in the chapel. Thee read and commented on student papers, held office hours, and, once per quarter, presented a lecture.
One afternoon during my 2nd year of doctoral studies, I decided to attend one of the occasional free lectures offered by the GTU. This particular lecture was in fact a panel discussion by 4 members of the Systematic Theology faculty on the emerging field of Liberation Theology.
Briefly, Liberation Theology is theology done "from below" -- the interpretation and understanding of G-D and the relationship of G-D and G-D's people by those who have been disenfranchised and who have previously had little, if any, role in interpreting G-D and their relationship with G-D. It is more accurate, really to refer to Liberation Theologies in the plural, since these new fields have been taken on by the poor of Latin America, African-Americans in the US of North America; by peoples in Africa and Asia; by women, both US North American caucasian women and by African-American and Latina women; by lesbian and gay people. Begun by poor people in Latin America, Liberation Theologies have been engaged in by Catholics, Protestants and, to a lesser extent, Jews over the past 30-35 years.
For this particular panel discussion on Liberation Theology, the folks putting it together had failed to move beyond their own academic ghetto and had chosen three white men and one white woman as panelists. From my recollection, the topic that the white woman planned to discuss had nothing at all to do with Feminist Theology. Rather, she intended to talk about concerns with land reform in Scripture.
As I sat in the auditorium, somewhat aghast at the speakers' list, I saw Thee Smith toward the front of the auditorium. The moderator called the gathering to attention, and then he introduced Thee, noting that Thee wasn't on the list of speakers. Thee, however, had asked to speak.
What Thee said that afternoon has remained with me for over 25 years. He spoke of his anger over the choice of speakers; his anger that it was left to him to point out the irony and outrage that a discussion on Liberation Theology had a panel made up of four theologians who could hardly be considered Liberation Theologians. He then discussed the way in which this process served as a situation of what he termed "Double Oppression." Not only was he, as an African-American Liberation Theologian, once again ignored, disregarded, and marginalized by being overlooked as a speaker on the panel; he in fact experienced the Double Oppression of having taken on the task, the moral responsibility, of going to the people who put the program together to point out to them their continued racism and oppression of him as an individual African-American and of African-Americans collectively.
Thee then called for a logical and compassionate approach to Double Oppression, a way to insure that it does not happen. He called upon whites to be the first to raise their (our) voices in opposition to racism, rather than wait for our Sisters and Brothers of Color to object to it; he called for men to protest sexism and misogyny and not wait for women to object to it once again. He called upon Christians to be the first to speak out loudly and clearly against Anti-Semitism, rather than wait for Jews once again to object; he called upon heterosexual people to speak up when they hear and / or see homophobia and / or heterosexism, rather than remain silent while their lesbian sisters and gay brothers protest such oppression.
I have never forgotten Thee Smith's talk, and I have tried to follow that which he called upon us to do. I also believe that he would not object if I added to that which he called upon us to do. In relation to the recent wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Islam actions and speech, and in relation to what one group has promised to do -- burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the attacks of 11 September -- I call upon Christians, Jews, and people of other faiths to raise our voices clearly, loudly, unequivocally and uncompromisingly against such actions and speech that threatens and oppresses our Muslim Sisters and Brothers. And I'm glad to be able to say that something I learned in graduate school in theology actually stuck.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
The More Things Change...
This past Friday afternoon at 3 pm, a group of about 100 people gathered at the North Entrance to the Connecticut State Capitol Building. This interfaith gathering including Muslims, Jews and Christians. This diverse group came together to speak out against and be a witness in opposition to the increasing Islamophobia in the US. The Islamophobia came "home" to Connecticut over the past one and a half weeks, when an organization that claimed to be Christian showed up outside a mosque in Bridgeport, CT -- one of the state's 3 largest cities -- one two successive Friday. While outside the mosque, on the first Friday, this supposed Christian organization harassed people attempting to enter the mosque for Friday prayers and called them names. The following Friday, members of the organization picketing the mosque claimed that they were there to "convert" Muslims, to teach them the "truth" about Jesus, insisting that "love[d]" Muslims and want to "save" them.
The name of the organization protesting outside the Bridgeport mosque is "Operation Save America." To my mind, what this nation most needs saving from is groups like "Operation Save America" that wants to claim and insist that they alone have the truth, that Christianity is the only true religion, and that everyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ in the way in which they believe in Jesus Christ is going to Hell.
I'll leave aside whether or not this group and others like it are, in fact, truly Christian. That's a topic for another day. Instead, I'll address a different topic. In many ways, there's little new here. What I find particularly interesting, however, is that "Operation Save America" is a new name for a group many had thought had faded into history in the late 1990's. "Operation Save America" used to be "Operation Rescue," the ultra-Right-Wing anti-abortion and anti-women's rights organization that used to block entrances to women's health clinics; super-glue the clinics' front door locks shut; harass clinic staff, physicians and clients; scream at women through megaphones and call it "counseling," yelling at them not to abort their babies. The actions by Operation Rescue and similar groups whose misogyny and distrust of women's moral agency became so extreme that, in 1994, two women staffers were murdered and several injured at 2 women's clinics in Brookline, MA. The perpetrator of those attacks was a very devout Roman Catholic man, John Salvi. And these were not the only 2 people murdered in the struggle for women's reproductive rights.
At the time of the Brookline clinic shootings, I was working around the corner from several major Boston teaching hospitals (Brigham and Women's, Beth Israel Deaconess, Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute). Before leaving work that day, we were advised to be extremely careful; the shooter had not yet been arrested. Extra police were visible all over the hospital area, in part because the injured had been transported to the nearest hospitals, which were the Brigham and Beth Israel Deaconess. We were advised to go directly home, rather than to one of the hospitals, even though many of us worked as physician / researchers at one of the hospitals. Law enforcement could not tell us for sure that the perpetrator would not show up at one of the hospitals with the intent to attempt to take more lives. It was known that the Brigham performed abortions.
Two nights later, I went with a friend from church -- a young woman who was a med student at Harvard Medical School -- to a memorial service / rally to mourn our lost sisters and show publicly that even in the face of these horrific murders, we would not be cowed, we would not be made fearful, we would not hide -- and we would not stop providing the best and most comprehensive medical care to women, no matter what their circumstances and / or their needs.
I am not stating that Operation Rescue was responsible for John Salvi's actions. I would argue, however, that extremist rhetoric does influence people who are considering carrying out extremist actions. It's likely that no one in Operation Rescue, or any other anti-abortion organization, told John Salvi it would be good, just, and justifiable for him to shoot and kill people who worked at the 2 Brookline clinics. When he got through shooting on that 30 December 1994 afternoon, Shannon Lowney, age 25, and Lee Ann Nichols, age 38, were dead, and a number of other clinic employees and volunteers were injured, in what he considered to be in defense of life.
Now, Operation Rescue has a new incarnation, Operation Save America. Instead of harassing and threatening women, the "new" organization is harassing and threatening Muslim women, men, and even children. Now, instead of yelling at women entering health clinics not to abort their babies, they are yelling at Muslims to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of G-D and telling them that they should convert to Christianity.
Why is it that people in groups like Operation Rescue and Operation Save America insist that their way is the only way and their truth the only truth and that we all must follow them in that way and that truth?
And if this has begun to sound all too tiredly familiar, here are a few more jolts. Operation Save America chose to picket the Bridgeport mosque on Friday afternoons -- Fridays being the holy day during the week for Muslims -- starting during the month of Ramadan, which is the holiest month for Muslims. As a woman who grew up Jewish and is now a practicing Catholic, I am outraged by this series of deliberately insulting actions. If Operation Save America, or any other Right-Wing (supposedly) Christian group chose to picket synagogues with the aim of converting Jews on Rosh Hashahah -- the Jewish New Year -- or Yom Kippur -- the Day of Atonement which, together with Rosh Hashanah, are the holiest days in Judaism -- the Jewish community and much of the Christian community, and certainly liberal Christian denominations, would be in an uproar. Yet there has been little uproar over the actions of Operation Save America against the Muslim community during Ramadan.
Another jolt: I don't know which organization has come up with the following idea, but somewhere in the US, a Right-Wing ostensibly Christian organization has proposed that every 11 September be a day dedicated to the burning of copies of the Koran, the holiest book of Islam. Shades of Nazi Germany and Josef Goebbels, no? This type of rhetoric not only frightens me; it chills me right down to the very marrow of my bones. So, please, if you know of an act of anti-Islamic intolerance / Islamophobia in your neighborhood, city, or state, please speak out against it. Please attend a rally, community meeting, interfaith gathering to say "No, not in my neighborhood; not in my city; not in my state." Please take positive action, please speak out; please do not remain silent in the face of this increasing intolerance.
The name of the organization protesting outside the Bridgeport mosque is "Operation Save America." To my mind, what this nation most needs saving from is groups like "Operation Save America" that wants to claim and insist that they alone have the truth, that Christianity is the only true religion, and that everyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ in the way in which they believe in Jesus Christ is going to Hell.
I'll leave aside whether or not this group and others like it are, in fact, truly Christian. That's a topic for another day. Instead, I'll address a different topic. In many ways, there's little new here. What I find particularly interesting, however, is that "Operation Save America" is a new name for a group many had thought had faded into history in the late 1990's. "Operation Save America" used to be "Operation Rescue," the ultra-Right-Wing anti-abortion and anti-women's rights organization that used to block entrances to women's health clinics; super-glue the clinics' front door locks shut; harass clinic staff, physicians and clients; scream at women through megaphones and call it "counseling," yelling at them not to abort their babies. The actions by Operation Rescue and similar groups whose misogyny and distrust of women's moral agency became so extreme that, in 1994, two women staffers were murdered and several injured at 2 women's clinics in Brookline, MA. The perpetrator of those attacks was a very devout Roman Catholic man, John Salvi. And these were not the only 2 people murdered in the struggle for women's reproductive rights.
At the time of the Brookline clinic shootings, I was working around the corner from several major Boston teaching hospitals (Brigham and Women's, Beth Israel Deaconess, Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute). Before leaving work that day, we were advised to be extremely careful; the shooter had not yet been arrested. Extra police were visible all over the hospital area, in part because the injured had been transported to the nearest hospitals, which were the Brigham and Beth Israel Deaconess. We were advised to go directly home, rather than to one of the hospitals, even though many of us worked as physician / researchers at one of the hospitals. Law enforcement could not tell us for sure that the perpetrator would not show up at one of the hospitals with the intent to attempt to take more lives. It was known that the Brigham performed abortions.
Two nights later, I went with a friend from church -- a young woman who was a med student at Harvard Medical School -- to a memorial service / rally to mourn our lost sisters and show publicly that even in the face of these horrific murders, we would not be cowed, we would not be made fearful, we would not hide -- and we would not stop providing the best and most comprehensive medical care to women, no matter what their circumstances and / or their needs.
I am not stating that Operation Rescue was responsible for John Salvi's actions. I would argue, however, that extremist rhetoric does influence people who are considering carrying out extremist actions. It's likely that no one in Operation Rescue, or any other anti-abortion organization, told John Salvi it would be good, just, and justifiable for him to shoot and kill people who worked at the 2 Brookline clinics. When he got through shooting on that 30 December 1994 afternoon, Shannon Lowney, age 25, and Lee Ann Nichols, age 38, were dead, and a number of other clinic employees and volunteers were injured, in what he considered to be in defense of life.
Now, Operation Rescue has a new incarnation, Operation Save America. Instead of harassing and threatening women, the "new" organization is harassing and threatening Muslim women, men, and even children. Now, instead of yelling at women entering health clinics not to abort their babies, they are yelling at Muslims to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of G-D and telling them that they should convert to Christianity.
Why is it that people in groups like Operation Rescue and Operation Save America insist that their way is the only way and their truth the only truth and that we all must follow them in that way and that truth?
And if this has begun to sound all too tiredly familiar, here are a few more jolts. Operation Save America chose to picket the Bridgeport mosque on Friday afternoons -- Fridays being the holy day during the week for Muslims -- starting during the month of Ramadan, which is the holiest month for Muslims. As a woman who grew up Jewish and is now a practicing Catholic, I am outraged by this series of deliberately insulting actions. If Operation Save America, or any other Right-Wing (supposedly) Christian group chose to picket synagogues with the aim of converting Jews on Rosh Hashahah -- the Jewish New Year -- or Yom Kippur -- the Day of Atonement which, together with Rosh Hashanah, are the holiest days in Judaism -- the Jewish community and much of the Christian community, and certainly liberal Christian denominations, would be in an uproar. Yet there has been little uproar over the actions of Operation Save America against the Muslim community during Ramadan.
Another jolt: I don't know which organization has come up with the following idea, but somewhere in the US, a Right-Wing ostensibly Christian organization has proposed that every 11 September be a day dedicated to the burning of copies of the Koran, the holiest book of Islam. Shades of Nazi Germany and Josef Goebbels, no? This type of rhetoric not only frightens me; it chills me right down to the very marrow of my bones. So, please, if you know of an act of anti-Islamic intolerance / Islamophobia in your neighborhood, city, or state, please speak out against it. Please attend a rally, community meeting, interfaith gathering to say "No, not in my neighborhood; not in my city; not in my state." Please take positive action, please speak out; please do not remain silent in the face of this increasing intolerance.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Part Two -- Martyrdom, Love, Social Networking, and Theology -- Part Two
© Patricia Shechter
18 July 2010
Fourth Draft -- Unfinished
Please do not cite, copy, or quote
PART TWO
Social Media
We live in a culture today that offers so many distractions, so many means of subtle (and not so subtle) “entertainment,” so many ways which help us avoid paying full attention to anything that our minds seldom focus on a single thing for more than a few moments. In fact, “multi-tasking” has become an essential 21st Century CE life- and job-skill. It has become commonplace for affluent US North Americans to utilize multi-technologies all at the same time while utilizing a single device. People watch movies on their cell phones, iPhones, or “BlackBerries” while at the same time talking with friends, completing a homework assignment, and searching the web for the location, hours, and menu of a local restaurant, using the same technological device for all those tasks. New devices come onto the market every few months, new “must-haves” that ostensibly replace the now ostensibly outdated earlier “must-haves.” Most jobs, even entry-level positions, require the ability to manage multiple projects at the same time. Sending brief messages via cell phone has become so popular – so ubiquitous – so endemic – that it has resulted in the coining of a new verb: To text, as in “I’ll text so & so now.” Sending messages limited to a maximum of 140 characters via “Twitter” software now has its own verb, to “Tweet.” Life has started to be reduced to small bits – bits and bytes byte by byte -- mediated by ever newer forms of technology and media.
In a presentation at St. Patrick-St. Anthony Church on 19 January 2010, theologian Elizabeth Dreyer, referring to the revolution in communications brought about by the Worldwide Web, Social Networking, texting, etc., stated: “Our anthropology is changing.” Put In different words, these new media – the web, cell phones, computers -- and their applications – Facebook, YouTube, texting – are changing how we are and what it means to be human. Foundational to my theology is that being in right relation and in relationship are essential to being human. Thus, my concern over the impact of the new media and their applications focuses on how they impact both our individual and our relational lives.
It seems to me that we are coming to be reduced by and to what the technology and media are able – and willing, according to the programmer(s) – to handle. We are able to claim hundreds of “friends” on Facebook (FB), and those FB Friends are able to watch and follow our every move on YouTube, should we choose to allow that. They know our list of 25 things about us and whatever else we choose to reveal or share. But are some of them – or all of them – or any of them – really friends? Or have we reduced the concept and meaning of friendship to something unrecognizable prior to this era? And do these putative friends really know us at all? What is our definition of friend in this “brave new world?” What type of time do we spend with them? What type of commitment do we have with them?
And then, who is the person on our own Facebook page? Are we really that person? Are we the sum of the various pieces of data – the random, or even not-so-random, bits and bytes – we ourselves added to the Facebook technology? What have we perhaps exaggerated? What have we deliberately left out? What have we forgotten? Deliberately misrepresented (lied about), even, perhaps – G-d help us – fabricated?
Social Media and Relationships
With our lives getting broken down into tinier and tinier fragments of time, bytes, and pixels, lists of data points for Facebook, snippets of video on YouTube, will we lose the ability to integrate / re-integrate ourselves as whole, full human persons, created in the image and likeness, not of a computer technology avatar, but rather of the Holy? Will we leave behind the talent for long-term, in-depth conversation, the patience to listen and to drink deeply of another person’s story? And if we do not cultivate that talent, if we, in fact, have no place in which and no way in which to cultivate that talent, how well will we develop the capacity to establish long-term, emotionally, as well as sexually, intimate relationships? How will we establish our ability to pray, to meditate, to be in relation to and relationship with G-d? If we have difficulty sustaining relationships with other people, people we’re able to see, hear, touch, embrace; if we have difficulty listening to other people, difficulty believing them when they reassure us that they do, indeed, love, care for, and treasure us, how will we sustain our relationship with G-d, or believe that G-d does, indeed, love us as no other does, that is, unconditionally? As Jesus says to Thomas the Apostle in the post-Easter Upper Room, “’Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.’” (Jn. 20:29)
Don’t get me wrong – I love Facebook; I probably spend far too much time with it. And saying all of the above not deny the positive aspects of the ever-changing “Social Networking” universe. Its benefits became clear and obvious in the weeks following the massive earthquake that struck the island nation of Haiti on 12 January 2010. Facebook updates kept people around the world informed about the progress of the relief efforts of numerous relief organizations and also helped people caught in the disaster inform family members and friends of their status and condition. These media acted as “clearing houses” for the hundreds of inquiries concerning the whereabouts of people in Haiti. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were contributed to aid organizations via “Twitter.” Most incredibly, people who were trapped under rubble were able to send “Tweets” or text messages to let family, friends, & rescue workers know where they were, & this information helped to facilitate their rescue.
I don’t “text” or “Tweet” people. In my everyday context, however, I find Facebook to be a superb medium for reconnecting with and keeping in contact with friends, some of whom I have not been in touch with for decades. I enjoy reading what my friends have been doing, how their children are faring, what they are reading, listening to, thinking. I’m able to do all this without requiring an email from them; Facebook allows us to communicate in a kind of shorthand. Between Facebook and email, I was able to plan an eleven-day vacation in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the same time, I find it highly disconcerting to receive a “Friend” request from someone I don’t know, even someone of whom I’ve never heard – in one instance, in Morocco, and mostly in Arabic, a language I do not read. And I’ve “de-Friended” a couple of people for various reasons, including realizing that I wasn’t interested in reading what one was doing on a nearly-hourly basis & what she was cooking & eating for breakfast, lunch & dinner every day of the week.
Despite my finding Facebook useful and at times fun, I still have many questions and qualms about all of this new media. Reflecting further, I realized that those question & qualms brought me back to some very foundational questions. In our contemporary Western developed (perhaps over-developed), post-Industrial, post-Capitalist, extremely individualized, now-Globalized society, the main questions people seem to be asking, at least until this most recent thunderous recession, have been: “What do I like?”, “Who do I like?”, and “What do I want?” Yet, those are not my primary questions. As a Catholic Christian, a following of Jesus Christ, a feminist and lesbian-identified bisexual committed to “the faith that does justice,” an inheritor of both Judaism (by birth & raising) & the Christian Gospel (by choice at age 25) and tradition, my primary questions are: “In Whom do I believe?”, “What do I value?”, “Who do I love?”, “How do I live a life of love & justice?” and “Who is G-d calling me to serve / What is G-d ‘s will for my life?”
Social Media and Right Relation
Because I believe that living Ad maiorem Dei gloriam – For the greater glory of G-d – necessarily means living in right relation and relationship, these new media will be valuable only insofar as they help to develop & enhance relationship & right relation, that is, only insofar as they enhance our living lives of love and service. Thus, teenage boys using texting to check up on “their” “girlfriends” violates right relation.
More generally, a recent report on college students and empathy (Konrath, U MI Institute for Social Research, May 2010), indicated that its data show today’s college students “are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait.” Researchers on the study cited several possible reasons, including exposure to media violence and the current atmosphere of hypercompetitiveness. Another factor, the researchers say, could be the recent development of social media. Edward O’Brien, a graduate student involved with the study, stated in a press release that “’The ease of having ‘friends’ online might make people more likely to just tune out when they don’t feel like responding to others’ problems, a behavior that could carry over offline.’” The confusing definition of “friends” combined with the distance provided by interacting with such “friends” almost totally online provides a buffer, insulating and isolating one from responses that are caring, empathetic, and loving. And I am forced here to wonder: How does Jesus’ “new commandment” in John’s Gospel to “’love one another as I have loved you’” fit in here, with our FB Friends? Would we follow Jesus’ commandment of love so great that truly loving service could lead to death, for those we name as Friends on Facebook?
A short digression: When I use the term “right relation,” I am referring to a way of being in relationship that is loving, caring, egalitarian, respectful, in which both partners in the relationship are true partners, with open communication & trust, in which both partners value what is unique about the other. Being in right relation means that those with whom one is in relation are regarded as “thou” rather than as “it,” in the sense of Martin Buber’s I and Thou. Another way to understand the quality of relationships is to recall the Benedictine vision of hospitality, an extremely important part of the Benedictine life and charism. Everyone who comes to the door of the monastery is to be viewed as Christ. “All guests…are to be welcomed as Christ.” [RB:53] As persons living For the Greater Glory of G-D, to live in right relation, our own homes and our own hearts need to integrate Benedictine hospitality, so that we treat all persons we encounter as Christ. Living in right relation involves not only those with whom we are most intimate but also those who are strangers, or even possibly potential enemies, when they come to our door. We are called always to live in openness to right relation with every person we encounter, recalling that Jesus calls us to love not only our friends but also our enemies. (Jesus never promised us that it would be easy, except insofar as it is the Cross that we share with Him.)
I see these new media valuable insofar as they help us to continue to strengthen, enhance, and deepen our love for one another. Email has been wonderful for keeping in touch friends who live far away from one another; in my life. It has enabled me to keep in regular contact with a close friend, Kevin, a Jesuit who works in the Society of Jesus’ Chicago Province Mission in Peru. At the same time, Kevin & I make sure that we at least talk on the phone at least once when he visits the US. Email, Facebook, & texting alone aren’t enough. Or, rather, they are, perhaps, enough for reportage – I’m doing thus and so, just saw this & that, am working on bric & brac. They cannot, however, take the place of talking with one’s friends & loved ones on the phone or, better, face-to-face. It is during those long phone conversations and times together, with one another, talking, sharing, walking, being silent, that relationships grow, develop, strengthen, and deepen. The only reason that my friendships with Kevin and other geographically-distant friends have continued through long years of long-distance connections is because, when we became friends, we had the gift of those many opportunities to be together over many graced days and evenings when we were able to cultivate our relationships, deepen and strengthen our ties with one another, negotiate whatever difficulties cropped up, & come to understand the depth of our love for one another as sisters & brothers.
These friends form a set of relationships in my life that are so crucial that I am able to say honestly that I don’t know who I would be had I never met and become close friends with them – and by close, I mean intellectually, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually intimate. A friend from college, Charlie, whom I’ve known for over 40 years; Mary Christine, a friend from Berkeley & my early days in the church, who now lives in New York; Kevin, who I met at and with whom I attended seminary (graduate school in theology); Gary, another friend from graduate school, a clinical psychologist & former Dominican priest. Other close friends I have or have had have given me the wonderful gift of their deep friendship at different times in our lives. From all of these friends, I’ve learned many, many things. And one thing I’ve learned in the process of living a friendship is that friendships take work. They require time, attention, deep listening, patience, faithfulness, love, affection, good humor, honesty, gentleness, constancy, integrity, continuity, humility, tenderness, a willingness to admit fault, a willingness to apologize, a willingness to be forgiving and to ask to be forgiven. And probably other qualities I’ve forgotten!
Perhaps it is by being in right relation with those we love, taking the time to be with them (when possible), to listen –truly listen – to them; to laugh and cry with them; be honest with them & tender with them; & all of the other hallmarks of right relation – perhaps that points to the way in which, in this life, on an everyday basis, we find ourselves living “Ad maiorem Dei gloriam” – “For the greater glory of G-d.” By being in & living in right relation, we live in the Spirit of G-d, loving, caring for, and being in service to one another. And, loved and cared for in such a way, we are then empowered to go beyond ourselves, to live lives of love & justice, to do the faith that does justice. St. Irenaeus, an early Church theologian, wrote that “The Glory of G-d is the human being fully alive, and the life of the human being is the vision of G-d.”. If Facebook and other forms of social media enhance our being in right relation with each other, if they help us to be more intimate with and more loving toward one another, help us to be more honest and less defensive, help us to care more deeply for each other, help us to better serve one another and encourage us in engaging in the faith that does justice, then this new world of ubiquitous communication may be able to have a role in moving us from communication to communion and to a deeper awareness and understanding of our closeness to G-d and our dependence upon one another. These new media may be able to connect us with one another more intimately, even if / when we may not know one another personally, because these media have the ability and power, in times of crises, to communicate the critical need being experienced by a population, human and non-human, and help us to see clearly the ways in which we are being called to serve those most in need.
I am reminded of a story I heard within days of the earthquake in Haiti about a group of highly savvy technical people in Washington, DC. Word was disseminated through the Internet that technical folks were invited to gather in an office after the end of the regular workday to figure out how people with their type of expertise could be of assistance in the disaster. A group of ten or twelve met; they had heard that one of the most critical needs to that point was for an integrated database that could list those who had survived and those who had been killed. Any number of organizations had their individual lists, but there was as yet no single list; thus, those searching for news of loved ones & friends found themselves having to go from one organization’s website to another in their search for information. The people who gathered in DC hadn’t known each other; they began talking, brainstorming, proposing ways to tackle this problem, and started figuring out how to create such an integrated single database. From what I understand, groups like this sprang up all over the world – groups of computer-technical people who heard of a need and spent all of their spare hours over the next several weeks to answer that need.
At the same time, it has already become clear that these media may also be used for ill and even for evil. Whether used for bullying by high school students of other students; cyber-stalking by an ex-boyfriend, ex-lover, or ex-partner; trying to document imagined cheating by a jealous spouse by checking his lover’s Twitter account; spewing forth anonymous insults, including sexist, racist, and homophobic tirades on message boards; and many more examples, these social media can be seriously abused. When abused in this way, they damage, injure, hurt, and destroy. In this way, these media add to the alienation, pain, soullessness, increasing lack of empathy, and amorality of contemporary society. I believe that we must guard against contributing to this use of these media by never taking their use for granted and by always keeping in mind the fragility of our sisters and brothers.
Again, I want to return to Jesus’ Final Discourse in the Gospel of John and remembering Jesus‘ “’new commandment’” to his Disciples to “’love one another as I have loved you.’” (John 15:12) Whenever we utilize these new media, I believe, those words of Christ should be foremost in our thinking.
18 July 2010
Fourth Draft -- Unfinished
Please do not cite, copy, or quote
PART TWO
Social Media
We live in a culture today that offers so many distractions, so many means of subtle (and not so subtle) “entertainment,” so many ways which help us avoid paying full attention to anything that our minds seldom focus on a single thing for more than a few moments. In fact, “multi-tasking” has become an essential 21st Century CE life- and job-skill. It has become commonplace for affluent US North Americans to utilize multi-technologies all at the same time while utilizing a single device. People watch movies on their cell phones, iPhones, or “BlackBerries” while at the same time talking with friends, completing a homework assignment, and searching the web for the location, hours, and menu of a local restaurant, using the same technological device for all those tasks. New devices come onto the market every few months, new “must-haves” that ostensibly replace the now ostensibly outdated earlier “must-haves.” Most jobs, even entry-level positions, require the ability to manage multiple projects at the same time. Sending brief messages via cell phone has become so popular – so ubiquitous – so endemic – that it has resulted in the coining of a new verb: To text, as in “I’ll text so & so now.” Sending messages limited to a maximum of 140 characters via “Twitter” software now has its own verb, to “Tweet.” Life has started to be reduced to small bits – bits and bytes byte by byte -- mediated by ever newer forms of technology and media.
In a presentation at St. Patrick-St. Anthony Church on 19 January 2010, theologian Elizabeth Dreyer, referring to the revolution in communications brought about by the Worldwide Web, Social Networking, texting, etc., stated: “Our anthropology is changing.” Put In different words, these new media – the web, cell phones, computers -- and their applications – Facebook, YouTube, texting – are changing how we are and what it means to be human. Foundational to my theology is that being in right relation and in relationship are essential to being human. Thus, my concern over the impact of the new media and their applications focuses on how they impact both our individual and our relational lives.
It seems to me that we are coming to be reduced by and to what the technology and media are able – and willing, according to the programmer(s) – to handle. We are able to claim hundreds of “friends” on Facebook (FB), and those FB Friends are able to watch and follow our every move on YouTube, should we choose to allow that. They know our list of 25 things about us and whatever else we choose to reveal or share. But are some of them – or all of them – or any of them – really friends? Or have we reduced the concept and meaning of friendship to something unrecognizable prior to this era? And do these putative friends really know us at all? What is our definition of friend in this “brave new world?” What type of time do we spend with them? What type of commitment do we have with them?
And then, who is the person on our own Facebook page? Are we really that person? Are we the sum of the various pieces of data – the random, or even not-so-random, bits and bytes – we ourselves added to the Facebook technology? What have we perhaps exaggerated? What have we deliberately left out? What have we forgotten? Deliberately misrepresented (lied about), even, perhaps – G-d help us – fabricated?
Social Media and Relationships
With our lives getting broken down into tinier and tinier fragments of time, bytes, and pixels, lists of data points for Facebook, snippets of video on YouTube, will we lose the ability to integrate / re-integrate ourselves as whole, full human persons, created in the image and likeness, not of a computer technology avatar, but rather of the Holy? Will we leave behind the talent for long-term, in-depth conversation, the patience to listen and to drink deeply of another person’s story? And if we do not cultivate that talent, if we, in fact, have no place in which and no way in which to cultivate that talent, how well will we develop the capacity to establish long-term, emotionally, as well as sexually, intimate relationships? How will we establish our ability to pray, to meditate, to be in relation to and relationship with G-d? If we have difficulty sustaining relationships with other people, people we’re able to see, hear, touch, embrace; if we have difficulty listening to other people, difficulty believing them when they reassure us that they do, indeed, love, care for, and treasure us, how will we sustain our relationship with G-d, or believe that G-d does, indeed, love us as no other does, that is, unconditionally? As Jesus says to Thomas the Apostle in the post-Easter Upper Room, “’Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.’” (Jn. 20:29)
Don’t get me wrong – I love Facebook; I probably spend far too much time with it. And saying all of the above not deny the positive aspects of the ever-changing “Social Networking” universe. Its benefits became clear and obvious in the weeks following the massive earthquake that struck the island nation of Haiti on 12 January 2010. Facebook updates kept people around the world informed about the progress of the relief efforts of numerous relief organizations and also helped people caught in the disaster inform family members and friends of their status and condition. These media acted as “clearing houses” for the hundreds of inquiries concerning the whereabouts of people in Haiti. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were contributed to aid organizations via “Twitter.” Most incredibly, people who were trapped under rubble were able to send “Tweets” or text messages to let family, friends, & rescue workers know where they were, & this information helped to facilitate their rescue.
I don’t “text” or “Tweet” people. In my everyday context, however, I find Facebook to be a superb medium for reconnecting with and keeping in contact with friends, some of whom I have not been in touch with for decades. I enjoy reading what my friends have been doing, how their children are faring, what they are reading, listening to, thinking. I’m able to do all this without requiring an email from them; Facebook allows us to communicate in a kind of shorthand. Between Facebook and email, I was able to plan an eleven-day vacation in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the same time, I find it highly disconcerting to receive a “Friend” request from someone I don’t know, even someone of whom I’ve never heard – in one instance, in Morocco, and mostly in Arabic, a language I do not read. And I’ve “de-Friended” a couple of people for various reasons, including realizing that I wasn’t interested in reading what one was doing on a nearly-hourly basis & what she was cooking & eating for breakfast, lunch & dinner every day of the week.
Despite my finding Facebook useful and at times fun, I still have many questions and qualms about all of this new media. Reflecting further, I realized that those question & qualms brought me back to some very foundational questions. In our contemporary Western developed (perhaps over-developed), post-Industrial, post-Capitalist, extremely individualized, now-Globalized society, the main questions people seem to be asking, at least until this most recent thunderous recession, have been: “What do I like?”, “Who do I like?”, and “What do I want?” Yet, those are not my primary questions. As a Catholic Christian, a following of Jesus Christ, a feminist and lesbian-identified bisexual committed to “the faith that does justice,” an inheritor of both Judaism (by birth & raising) & the Christian Gospel (by choice at age 25) and tradition, my primary questions are: “In Whom do I believe?”, “What do I value?”, “Who do I love?”, “How do I live a life of love & justice?” and “Who is G-d calling me to serve / What is G-d ‘s will for my life?”
Social Media and Right Relation
Because I believe that living Ad maiorem Dei gloriam – For the greater glory of G-d – necessarily means living in right relation and relationship, these new media will be valuable only insofar as they help to develop & enhance relationship & right relation, that is, only insofar as they enhance our living lives of love and service. Thus, teenage boys using texting to check up on “their” “girlfriends” violates right relation.
More generally, a recent report on college students and empathy (Konrath, U MI Institute for Social Research, May 2010), indicated that its data show today’s college students “are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait.” Researchers on the study cited several possible reasons, including exposure to media violence and the current atmosphere of hypercompetitiveness. Another factor, the researchers say, could be the recent development of social media. Edward O’Brien, a graduate student involved with the study, stated in a press release that “’The ease of having ‘friends’ online might make people more likely to just tune out when they don’t feel like responding to others’ problems, a behavior that could carry over offline.’” The confusing definition of “friends” combined with the distance provided by interacting with such “friends” almost totally online provides a buffer, insulating and isolating one from responses that are caring, empathetic, and loving. And I am forced here to wonder: How does Jesus’ “new commandment” in John’s Gospel to “’love one another as I have loved you’” fit in here, with our FB Friends? Would we follow Jesus’ commandment of love so great that truly loving service could lead to death, for those we name as Friends on Facebook?
A short digression: When I use the term “right relation,” I am referring to a way of being in relationship that is loving, caring, egalitarian, respectful, in which both partners in the relationship are true partners, with open communication & trust, in which both partners value what is unique about the other. Being in right relation means that those with whom one is in relation are regarded as “thou” rather than as “it,” in the sense of Martin Buber’s I and Thou. Another way to understand the quality of relationships is to recall the Benedictine vision of hospitality, an extremely important part of the Benedictine life and charism. Everyone who comes to the door of the monastery is to be viewed as Christ. “All guests…are to be welcomed as Christ.” [RB:53] As persons living For the Greater Glory of G-D, to live in right relation, our own homes and our own hearts need to integrate Benedictine hospitality, so that we treat all persons we encounter as Christ. Living in right relation involves not only those with whom we are most intimate but also those who are strangers, or even possibly potential enemies, when they come to our door. We are called always to live in openness to right relation with every person we encounter, recalling that Jesus calls us to love not only our friends but also our enemies. (Jesus never promised us that it would be easy, except insofar as it is the Cross that we share with Him.)
I see these new media valuable insofar as they help us to continue to strengthen, enhance, and deepen our love for one another. Email has been wonderful for keeping in touch friends who live far away from one another; in my life. It has enabled me to keep in regular contact with a close friend, Kevin, a Jesuit who works in the Society of Jesus’ Chicago Province Mission in Peru. At the same time, Kevin & I make sure that we at least talk on the phone at least once when he visits the US. Email, Facebook, & texting alone aren’t enough. Or, rather, they are, perhaps, enough for reportage – I’m doing thus and so, just saw this & that, am working on bric & brac. They cannot, however, take the place of talking with one’s friends & loved ones on the phone or, better, face-to-face. It is during those long phone conversations and times together, with one another, talking, sharing, walking, being silent, that relationships grow, develop, strengthen, and deepen. The only reason that my friendships with Kevin and other geographically-distant friends have continued through long years of long-distance connections is because, when we became friends, we had the gift of those many opportunities to be together over many graced days and evenings when we were able to cultivate our relationships, deepen and strengthen our ties with one another, negotiate whatever difficulties cropped up, & come to understand the depth of our love for one another as sisters & brothers.
These friends form a set of relationships in my life that are so crucial that I am able to say honestly that I don’t know who I would be had I never met and become close friends with them – and by close, I mean intellectually, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually intimate. A friend from college, Charlie, whom I’ve known for over 40 years; Mary Christine, a friend from Berkeley & my early days in the church, who now lives in New York; Kevin, who I met at and with whom I attended seminary (graduate school in theology); Gary, another friend from graduate school, a clinical psychologist & former Dominican priest. Other close friends I have or have had have given me the wonderful gift of their deep friendship at different times in our lives. From all of these friends, I’ve learned many, many things. And one thing I’ve learned in the process of living a friendship is that friendships take work. They require time, attention, deep listening, patience, faithfulness, love, affection, good humor, honesty, gentleness, constancy, integrity, continuity, humility, tenderness, a willingness to admit fault, a willingness to apologize, a willingness to be forgiving and to ask to be forgiven. And probably other qualities I’ve forgotten!
Perhaps it is by being in right relation with those we love, taking the time to be with them (when possible), to listen –truly listen – to them; to laugh and cry with them; be honest with them & tender with them; & all of the other hallmarks of right relation – perhaps that points to the way in which, in this life, on an everyday basis, we find ourselves living “Ad maiorem Dei gloriam” – “For the greater glory of G-d.” By being in & living in right relation, we live in the Spirit of G-d, loving, caring for, and being in service to one another. And, loved and cared for in such a way, we are then empowered to go beyond ourselves, to live lives of love & justice, to do the faith that does justice. St. Irenaeus, an early Church theologian, wrote that “The Glory of G-d is the human being fully alive, and the life of the human being is the vision of G-d.”. If Facebook and other forms of social media enhance our being in right relation with each other, if they help us to be more intimate with and more loving toward one another, help us to be more honest and less defensive, help us to care more deeply for each other, help us to better serve one another and encourage us in engaging in the faith that does justice, then this new world of ubiquitous communication may be able to have a role in moving us from communication to communion and to a deeper awareness and understanding of our closeness to G-d and our dependence upon one another. These new media may be able to connect us with one another more intimately, even if / when we may not know one another personally, because these media have the ability and power, in times of crises, to communicate the critical need being experienced by a population, human and non-human, and help us to see clearly the ways in which we are being called to serve those most in need.
I am reminded of a story I heard within days of the earthquake in Haiti about a group of highly savvy technical people in Washington, DC. Word was disseminated through the Internet that technical folks were invited to gather in an office after the end of the regular workday to figure out how people with their type of expertise could be of assistance in the disaster. A group of ten or twelve met; they had heard that one of the most critical needs to that point was for an integrated database that could list those who had survived and those who had been killed. Any number of organizations had their individual lists, but there was as yet no single list; thus, those searching for news of loved ones & friends found themselves having to go from one organization’s website to another in their search for information. The people who gathered in DC hadn’t known each other; they began talking, brainstorming, proposing ways to tackle this problem, and started figuring out how to create such an integrated single database. From what I understand, groups like this sprang up all over the world – groups of computer-technical people who heard of a need and spent all of their spare hours over the next several weeks to answer that need.
At the same time, it has already become clear that these media may also be used for ill and even for evil. Whether used for bullying by high school students of other students; cyber-stalking by an ex-boyfriend, ex-lover, or ex-partner; trying to document imagined cheating by a jealous spouse by checking his lover’s Twitter account; spewing forth anonymous insults, including sexist, racist, and homophobic tirades on message boards; and many more examples, these social media can be seriously abused. When abused in this way, they damage, injure, hurt, and destroy. In this way, these media add to the alienation, pain, soullessness, increasing lack of empathy, and amorality of contemporary society. I believe that we must guard against contributing to this use of these media by never taking their use for granted and by always keeping in mind the fragility of our sisters and brothers.
Again, I want to return to Jesus’ Final Discourse in the Gospel of John and remembering Jesus‘ “’new commandment’” to his Disciples to “’love one another as I have loved you.’” (John 15:12) Whenever we utilize these new media, I believe, those words of Christ should be foremost in our thinking.
Part One -- Martyrdom, Love, Social Networking, and Theology -- Part One
© Patricia Shechter
18 July 2010
Fourth Draft -- Unfinished
Please do not cite, copy, or quote
18 July 2010
Fourth Draft -- Unfinished
Please do not cite, copy, or quote
PART ONE
The original title of this article was "AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM ~~ For the Greater Glory OF G-D ~~ Martyrdom, Love, and Social Networking OR What Would Ignatius Say?" I began writing this theological meditation in the summer of 2009, just a couple of months after I’d been laid off from a job. I’d been trying to figure out what the phrase “For the Greater Glory of G-d” means – not in the grand sense, the historic sense intended by Ignatius of Loyola and lived out by generations of Jesuits (and many taught in Jesuit institutions), but rather in the ordinary-person, ordinary-day, ordinary-life sense. I’m still trying to understand it in the context of the early 21st Century, CE: The Post-11 September 2001 Era; the Digital Era; the Post-Runaway Capitalist Post-Economic Melt-down Era; the Global Instant Communication Era.
I would venture to say that many Roman Catholics in the US of North America and Western Europe associate “Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam” – For the Greater Glory of G-d – with martyrdom. For the most part, certainly in developed countries, the majority of people today, even people of deep (Christian) faith, have no desire to be engaged in or pretensions toward martyrdom. At the same time, martyrdom does seem to be embraced by many, Jesuits and others, if it comes. I’m not sure whether martyrdom is sought, i.e., gone after with intentionality – but I don’t believe it would be avoided by certain folks if circumstances aligned themselves in that direction. (I will admit here that I am a total novice when it comes to the thoughts of Ignatius of Loyola and Ignatian spirituality, and I need to research what Ignatius wrote about martyrdom, if he wrote anything at all.) Knowing his tendency toward practicality, however, I’m not sure that he wouldn’t have seen it as a waste of time, talent, and treasure. However, that is in no way intended to minimize the sacrifices of countless saints, Jesuits and others, who, following G-d, lost their lives in martyrdom.
Still, I remember a Jesuit friend, John Donohue, following the Memorial Mass at San Francisco’s St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral for the four US women religious workers murdered by paramilitary death squads in El Salvador in early December 1980 – nearly 30 years ago now. To John, it was obvious that Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clarke, and Jeanne Donovan had become martyrs, and he was jubilant. He felt certain that their martyrdom assured them of heaven, and he rejoiced. I, on the other hand, by then a Feminist activist of 10 years on, was shattered. Shattered by their murders, and more, shattered by what I knew and what I could only imagine had been done to them prior to each of them being shot in the head at point-blank range. As almost always, almost inevitably occurs to women defeated and captured in war, before they were murdered, the four women were raped. I found little in their experience that glorified the Holy One and little leading me in that direction. Instead, I cried in grief and in rage, realizing once again that little had changed since Susan Brownmiller had written her ground-breaking book, Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, published in 1975. As I had learned from my first and best teacher of Theology, Rev. Dr. Robert McAfee Brown, what one sees depends upon where one stands.
That’s not to deny or reject the power, meaning, and meaningfulness of martyrdom in the history of both Judaism and Christianity; thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands, have accepted death rather than abjure or deny their faith. From the Macabees in pre-Rabbinical times to Stephen, the first Christian martyr; to Thomas Becket and later the dueling Catholic (including many Jesuits) and Protestant martyrs of the British and European Reformations; to the Japanese martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries CE; to the Jewish martyrs of the ghetto uprisings, death camps, and partisan organizations during World War Two who died Kiddush HaShem, glorifying the Sacred Name; to the Latin American martyrs of the late-20th century CE – Archbishop Oscar Romero, Rev. Rutillo Grande, SJ, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Jeanne Donovan, and Dorothy Kazel, and, nearly nine years later, the six Jesuits priests and their two working class women staff members at the University of Latin America in El Salvador, with the thousands of lesser known martyrs in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala – the centuries have been peopled with women and men who chose death over denial of their faith and their G-d. And for the recent martyrs of Latin America, failing to engage in the praxis of justice would have been just such a denial. Tertullian knew early on that “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” In these latter days, it has been the seed of the faith that does justice.
Most of us, however, will not hear or be expected to respond to a call to martyrdom – at least that’s true for most, if not all, of us in the US of North American “middle class” white population. And I would guess that the majority of US North Americans would utter a quiet but heart-felt “Thanks be to G-d” for that, happy, or at least relieved, to leave martyrdom, for the most part, to the earlier chapters of Christian (and Jewish) history.
At the same time, living life for G-d – living a holy life – isn’t “for martyrs only.” For, as G-d reminds us in innumerable ways, “But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: You are Mine.” (Is. 43:1; emphasis added) Not only does G-d call us; made as we are, in the image and likeness of the Holy One, each of us has a special mission, a special place in the life of G-d. “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” (Augustine’s Confessions) Jesus missions and commissions His disciples to “heal those who are sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, cast out demons.” (Mt. 10:7) Jesus calls His disciples to minister to people dealing with the most ordinary situations and needs of everyday life: Hunger, thirst, illness, grief, fear, isolation, imprisonment, loneliness, pain, loss, death. Furthermore, Jesus tells His disciples “’The gift you have received, give as a gift.’” (Mt. 10:8) In John’s Gospel, after giving the disciples the most profound yet simple lesson of what it means to be His disciple in the loving act of washing their feet, Jesus presents His disciples with a “’new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you.’” (John:15:12) Jesus then says, “’There is no greater love than this: To lay down one’s life for one’s friend.’” (John 15:13) For John the Evangelist, following Christ is epitomized in the praxis of loving service, even if such loving service results in death, as it did for Christ His Lord.
So, for those of us who have heard and responded to G-d’s call in our lives, how do we deepen our life with G-d? How do we live Ad maiorem Dei Gloriam in our everyday lives ~~ lives that, when we really think about them, are, for the most part, fairly ordinary, with mundane tasks, mundane worries, daily concerns, griefs, and occasional joys? The very ordinariness of our lives leads many of us to utter sighs of relief. What we all too seldom grasp is that the very ordinariness of our lives is itself blessed by and infused with the Presence of the Holy. All that is is G-d’s creation, pronounced in the first chapter of Genesis to be “very good.” As we are part of that creation, we, too, are part of that goodness.
We meet G-d, and G-d meets us, in the very everydayness of our lives. We meet there because G-d meets us in our experience, and most of our experience consists of the daily-life-ness of our lives. G-d is able to encounter us only where we are, at each moment, not where we once were or where we intend or hope or plan to be an hour from now, or tomorrow, or next month or next year.
That may seem obvious, and it likely is. However, I’m not sure we really live that way, or recognize that G-d is there in the midst of it all. Because often, we ourselves aren’t there in the midst of it all! And that becomes increasingly true in the context of our post-modern world, a world increasingly mediated by an ever-increasing plethora of media.
CONTINUED...
Monday, May 17, 2010
Peace Symbols -- Now and Then
Earlier today, I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond with my mother and a friend. I needed an ironing board; my mother needed a whole list of stuff. As I sat waiting for her to be checked out and pay for her cartful of purchases, I looked around the store. Hanging from the ceiling was a banner in purples and pinks, kind of batikish -- it showed two peace symbols.
The peace symbol now sells all manner of merchandise -- thongs for one's feet (and perhaps for other places on one's body...); t-shirts and tank tops from Victoria's Secret; office supplies from Staples; baby onesies; necklaces from Claire's.
I find it appalling.
I remember when wearing a peace symbol was risky, controversial, counter-cultural, and daring. People who wore them as clothing, as political buttons, as pendants flirted with being cursed at at best, beaten up at worst. My friend John, who wore his long blond hair in a pony tail and a small peace pin on his jacket came close to being roughed up at a gas station in Western PA where we stopped in 1971 on our way back to Marietta College in Southeastern OH. Wearing peace symbols indicated one had joined "the radicals" or "the hippies" or both. High schools forbade students from wearing them. Colleges didn't bother; the administrators knew they'd lose that battle.
Wearing a peace symbol in the 1960's and early 1970's meant that the wearer had joined "the other side," "the tribe," "the enemies of the state," those who were dangerous, those who opposed the government and opposed the War in Vietnam. They dared to say no openly and forcefully to policies and actions they opposed.
I know all of that because I was there, fully a part of it, fully a member of the generation that refused the givens and instead endeavoured to stop a war, improve race relations, change relations between women and man, change society, and bring about a revolution. I'm not afraid or ashamed to say that. I wore my peace symbols proudly, defiantly and wore my clenched fist pins even more defiantly. The peace symbol, the clenched fist, the peace sign made with the first 2 fingers -- along with long hair for white folk, afros for Black folk, flowers, blue jeans, Army surplus, bellbottoms, granny glasses -- except for the afro, I wore them all. All of them stood for a new way of living, of being, of creating, a new vision, a new commitment to a new future. We each learned to describe it and explain it ourselves; there were few, if any, precedents except for the ones from the previous week or month. Some of us read and quoted the Port Huron Statement and New Left Notes. Some of the more historically- and / or philosophically-minded read Marx. Some who considered themselves revolutionaries read Regis Debray or Mao or Marcuse. For the most part, though, we made it up as we went along.
We wanted peace ~~ an end to the War in Vietnam that threatened to engulf all of Southeast Asia. Until the early 1970's, unless one lived in a major metro area or in a place with a large, activist university, e.g., Berkeley or Madison, WI, declaring openly that one supported peace, opposed The War, wanted justice in Vietnam for the Vietnamese people, wanted the troops brought home, and opposed the military draft, one took a risk of isolation, ostracization, arguments within one's family, with friends, with teachers, professors, administrators. Wearing a black armband could get a high school student suspended or expelled. Peace wasn't patriotic -- it was dangerous.
Now, though, peace is a fashion statement. Everyone's for it, because everyone supports the troops. No danger anymore. No risk. So peace has become easy, its symbol ubiquitous. The question then becomes: Does the peace symbol retain any meaning?
I think I liked it better when being for peace was dangerous. At least then, we knew what it meant.
The peace symbol now sells all manner of merchandise -- thongs for one's feet (and perhaps for other places on one's body...); t-shirts and tank tops from Victoria's Secret; office supplies from Staples; baby onesies; necklaces from Claire's.
I find it appalling.
I remember when wearing a peace symbol was risky, controversial, counter-cultural, and daring. People who wore them as clothing, as political buttons, as pendants flirted with being cursed at at best, beaten up at worst. My friend John, who wore his long blond hair in a pony tail and a small peace pin on his jacket came close to being roughed up at a gas station in Western PA where we stopped in 1971 on our way back to Marietta College in Southeastern OH. Wearing peace symbols indicated one had joined "the radicals" or "the hippies" or both. High schools forbade students from wearing them. Colleges didn't bother; the administrators knew they'd lose that battle.
Wearing a peace symbol in the 1960's and early 1970's meant that the wearer had joined "the other side," "the tribe," "the enemies of the state," those who were dangerous, those who opposed the government and opposed the War in Vietnam. They dared to say no openly and forcefully to policies and actions they opposed.
I know all of that because I was there, fully a part of it, fully a member of the generation that refused the givens and instead endeavoured to stop a war, improve race relations, change relations between women and man, change society, and bring about a revolution. I'm not afraid or ashamed to say that. I wore my peace symbols proudly, defiantly and wore my clenched fist pins even more defiantly. The peace symbol, the clenched fist, the peace sign made with the first 2 fingers -- along with long hair for white folk, afros for Black folk, flowers, blue jeans, Army surplus, bellbottoms, granny glasses -- except for the afro, I wore them all. All of them stood for a new way of living, of being, of creating, a new vision, a new commitment to a new future. We each learned to describe it and explain it ourselves; there were few, if any, precedents except for the ones from the previous week or month. Some of us read and quoted the Port Huron Statement and New Left Notes. Some of the more historically- and / or philosophically-minded read Marx. Some who considered themselves revolutionaries read Regis Debray or Mao or Marcuse. For the most part, though, we made it up as we went along.
We wanted peace ~~ an end to the War in Vietnam that threatened to engulf all of Southeast Asia. Until the early 1970's, unless one lived in a major metro area or in a place with a large, activist university, e.g., Berkeley or Madison, WI, declaring openly that one supported peace, opposed The War, wanted justice in Vietnam for the Vietnamese people, wanted the troops brought home, and opposed the military draft, one took a risk of isolation, ostracization, arguments within one's family, with friends, with teachers, professors, administrators. Wearing a black armband could get a high school student suspended or expelled. Peace wasn't patriotic -- it was dangerous.
Now, though, peace is a fashion statement. Everyone's for it, because everyone supports the troops. No danger anymore. No risk. So peace has become easy, its symbol ubiquitous. The question then becomes: Does the peace symbol retain any meaning?
I think I liked it better when being for peace was dangerous. At least then, we knew what it meant.
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