Archives

Homespun Symposium V

Dec16

*What do you believe is necessary for true racial reconciliation to take place in American society?
*Does your solution involve coercive governmental remedies?
*Do you believe that Churches have an important role to play in this process?

This is the Homespun Bloggers’ question posed by Marc at Hubs and Spokes this week.

My answer is fairly simple. I don’t think we’ll ever have “true racial reconciliation” until we lose the useless concept of “race” altogether. The word is essentially meaningless. I looked it up in the dictionary and got this definition:

1. A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics. 2. A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution: the German race. 3. A genealogical line; a lineage. 4. Humans considered as a group.

A more or less distinct group? A group of people classified together? Humans considered as a group? Well, that’s as clear as mud. My race is Baptist, I guess. Or if we’re talking about physical characteristics, then I’m a member of the short race.
The government and churches can both help in this process by refusing to classify people by physical characteristics, except for the obvious male/female classification. That’s the only meaningful or useful physical distinction that I can see between different kinds of people. When asked for my ‘race” on forms, I write “human.” And I teach my children to treat all people as humans.

This is not just a semantic discussion. As long as we continue to classify people by skin color, even with the best of intentions, we say that there is some essential meaning to “being Asian” or “African” or “Hispanic” other than country of origin or ancestral origin. And we tacitly continue to perpetuate the myth that dark-skinned people are somehow different from light skinned people. Middle Earth (a fictional place) had races: dwarves, humans, elves, and hobbits, among others. These groups were different kinds of beings with essential diffenences that went way beyond skin color. In our world, there are only humans. The sooner we all learn that fact the better. After that, we can begin to discuss cultural differences between people of different backgrounds and how those can be bridged, understood, or tolerated.

Natalists?

Dec7

David Brooks calls us “natalists,” people who are having three, four and even more children.

All across the industrialized world, birthrates are falling – in Western Europe, in Canada and in many regions of the United States. People are marrying later and having fewer kids. But spread around this country, and concentrated in certain areas, the natalists defy these trends.

They are having three, four or more kids. Their personal identity is defined by parenthood. They are more spiritually, emotionally and physically invested in their homes than in any other sphere of life, having concluded that parenthood is the most enriching and elevating thing they can do. Very often they have sacrificed pleasures like sophisticated movies, restaurant dining and foreign travel, let alone competitive careers and disposable income, for the sake of their parental calling

And he says, “People who have enough kids for a basketball team are too busy to fight a culture war.” Not quite. I believe I am fighting a culture war every day as I raise my children. I am doing my dead level best to teach them to be “spiritually, emotionally and physically invested in their homes” and to “sacrifice pleasures” for the greater good of the kingdom of God. I pray for them, nurture them, teach them, and love them every single day, and this is how I “fight a culture war.” Culture is made up of people, and a Godly, Christlike culture is made up of people who are committed to living out the life of Christ in all areas of culture. Together we “natalists” can change the culture–peacefully, non-violently–but it’s a struggle nevertheless.

RSECVV: Exhibit 2

Nov15

From an opinion piece by Aly Colon of The Poynter Institute:

The “moral values” voter has become a popular way of identifying a segment of the population that played a key role in the re-election of President Bush. But who are these people? What “moral values” do they hold? How do their values play out in their lives? The term usually gets pinned on people who oppose same-sex marriage, abortion, and stem cell research. Reporters use such terms as evangelical, religious, Christian, and conservative to describe them. And often, journalists use these terms interchangeably. But what do they know about the topic? And what do they need to know?

Mike and Cindy live down the street. They have two daughters, and they also homeschool. (Hey, I know a lot of homeschoolers.) Mike is a quiet guy who likes to cook and work in his yard in his spare time. Cindy likes to shop and play and drink tea with friends when she’s not homeschooling. Mike and Cindy both are “values voters,” but one or both of them may have slipped a couple of Libertarian votes in with the Republican votes because they’re concerned about the war in Iraq. They’re pro-life, pro-marriage, and generally supportive of GWB. However, they’re not sure we need to be in Iraq at all, and they want us out as soon as possible. They felt “safe” voting Libertarian to send a message since this is Bush country, Texas. Mike and Cindy are active in their Southern Baptist church; Cindy teaches first graders in Sunday School. They don’t own any guns, but they believe you have a right to do so if you want. Cindy likes to watch Oprah..

Are these scary people?

Rugby

Oct20

Thomas Hughes, author of Tom Brown’s Schooldays, was born on this date in 1822. In addition to writing the definitive fictional treatment of the boys’ public school experience in Victorian England, he also started a Utopian community in the mountains of Tennessee called Rugby, named after Dr. Thomas Arnold’s school for boys that is the subject of Tom Brown’s Schooldays.

It was to be a cooperative, class-free, agricultural community for younger sons of English gentry and others wishing to start life anew in America. At its peak, some 350 people lived in the colony. More than 70 buildings of Victorian design graced the East Tennessee townscape.

I am quite interested in intentional comunities, even those of the nineteenth century which rarely seemed to last as established communities. In fact, we were discussing these types of communities and the religious groups that started them in our American Literature discussion group today as we discussed Emerson, Thoreau, and the Transcendentalists. I would like to do a study of Utopian and planned communities and what causes them to fail or succeed or perhaps become manipulative cults.

Response?

Sep20

Other than praying for her (which I’m doing), how would you respond to a young friend (college student) who said this:

There was a time in my life when I looked upon the world with optimism, when I believed in the intrinsic goodness of man and the infallibility of Christian faith, when I trusted the superior wisdom of my parents and the loyalty of friendship, when I was blissfully ignorant of the pain of emptiness and loneliness . . .

The implication in the rest of the post is that this student has “lost her faith” and is feeling pessimistic and hopeless about herself and her place in the world generally. I don’t believe she is suicidal–just cynical. Without knowing what’s led her to this place, what can I or anyone else say to encourage her and give her hope?

Resurrection Celebration

Apr10

Some Resurrection Celebration traditions here:
1) We always save the trunk of our Christmas tree and make a cross out of it to display in our living room for a few days before and after Resurrection Day. (I like to call the holiday Resurrection Sunday instead of Easter, but I often slip into calling it the latter.)
2) We got this idea from a book called Celebrating the Christian Year by Martha Zimmerman. We always cover all the windows with sheets on Thursday evening before Resurrection Sunday in order to remind us all of the darkness that fell during Jesus’ crucifixion. It’s also a reminder of the sadness and despair the disciples went through before Jesus came back to them and the darkness and hopelessness of sin that all of us were trapped in before we knew the light of Jesus’ life in us.
3) We usually hide Easter eggs for the little ones on Saturday morning. It’s part of the fun, but it seems better to get it over with on Saturday and then focus on Jesus and his resurrection on Sunday morning.
4) We take down the window coverings and decorate the cross with balloons and flowers and whatever else comes to mind on Saturday night so that the house is full of light and joy on Sunday morning.
5) We have a sunrise breakfast together out in the backyard and read the Biblical story of Jesus’ resurrection aloud. Then, we go to church to celebrate.

How do you celebrate the resurrection of our Lord?

Celtic community

Dec3

“The central feature of the model of Celtic Christianity is the monastery, the mission centre from which the surrounding area was impacted with a living gospel. From these centres the faithful would live lives of expectant devotion, strict asceticism and sacrificial charity. They sought to emulate Christ and create ‘heaven on earth’ in these places. Their approach to establishing these communities was not necessarily to search for converts as much as to express their own devotion to God. In such a spiritually charged atmosphere how could one not expect that Christ would add to the church daily.“

~Lessons from the Celts by Frank Emmanuel.

Why could not our home and our cul-de-sac become, not a monastery, but definitely a mission centre and a community from which the surrounding area can be imapcted with a living gospel? Families, especially extended families of Christians, living out the gospel in a community would be an unusual witness in our society.

My vision for this kind of community in a suburban setting includes several possible elements:
We could, as the Lord allows financially, buy several of the homes on our cul-de-sac for our children, their husbands or wives, and their families to live in. We would have individual homes and respect each other’s privacy while at the same time being able to live in community. This community could take several forms: a Sabbath meal together once a week on Sunday or Saturday night, shared celebrations, sharing of work in the yard or in the home, watching out for one another’s children and for the eldery in our community, sacrificially giving ourselves to one another. While the community would never be perfect, being made up of imperfect human beings, we could “serve one another in love” and so show to the world what a Christian extended family is supposed to look like. We would also have the opportunity to use the gifts and talents that the Lord has given each of us to help each other and to minister to those outside the family. For instance, some could sing or dance to glorify the Lord and edify the family. Others could make meals or organize ministry or teach the things they love to the children. We could help each other economically by sharing tools, negotiating group price breaks, and telling each other about bargains. A fruit and vegetable co-op or some other kind of shopping co-op might be a possibility. In fact, there is no limit to the kinds of materials and activities that might be shared, enabling everyone to save time and money: books, other educational materials, entertainment, movies and games, yard tools, etc. Does anyone else have any other ideas about how this might work? I’m going to post this introduction to an essay on my blog, and if any of my family reads it and wants to respond, please email me or post to the family blog.