The United States of Sin

Geographers from Kansas State University recently studied “the spatial distribution of the seven deadly sins” within the continental United States. The Bay Area rated high in Envy, Greed, Wrath and the mother of all sins, Pride. And the health-conscious community was predictably deemed not that sinful when it comes to Sloth and Gluttony. Although in a finding that might surprise some, our area was also deemed less than sinful when it comes to Lust.

Here’s how the relative sinfulness was calculated:

Greed was calculated by comparing average incomes with the total number of inhabitants living beneath the poverty line…

Envy was calculated using the total number of thefts — robbery, burglary, larceny and stolen cars…

Wrath was calculated by comparing the total number of violent crimes — murder, assault and rape — reported to the FBI per capita…

Lust was calculated by compiling the number of sexually transmitted diseases — HIV, AIDS, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea — reported per capita…

Gluttony was calculated by counting the number of fast food restaurants per capita…

Sloth was calculated by comparing expenditures on arts, entertainment and recreation with the rate of employment…

And pride, lastly, is most important. The root of all sins, in this study, is the aggregate of all data. Vought and his Kansas colleagues combined all data from the six other sins and averaged it into an overview of all evil.

Click here to see the color coded maps with hot-spots of sin.

- Jamie McElroy

The Soul of Capitalism

Yesterday, during Soulwork (our weekly Sunday adult ed series), we discussed how capitalism can be compatible with Christian charity and service. Stay tuned for more about that discussion, but for now, check out this image produced by artist Scott Campbell:

Teens Preach: Loving Truth & Action

Next Sunday, when the Bishop visits St. Bede’s, four members of our Youth Group will go through the rite we call “Confirmation.” They will vow to follow the teachings of Christ and to participate in the life of the church. Then they will kneel before the Bishop, and the Bishop will lay hands on them and bless them.

Over the course of this past year, the kids preparing for confirmation have discussed many different aspects of what it means to be a Christian. During all those Confirmation classes, there have been a lot of words and a lot of speech. And I hope that some of all that word and speech was fruitful.

But I think what was and is most important about what these kids have done over the course of year in their preparations for confirmation is that they have truthfully and actively engaged with the question of what it means to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, what it means to be a Christian.

I have heard stories—particularly from some of our young adults—about how and why they came to be confirmed that served as cautionary tales for me, as someone leading a confirmation class. Two different people have told me that their parents made a kind of Faustian deal with them: “If you get confirmed,” their parents told them, “then you don’t have to come to church.”

Talk about word and speech trumping truth and action.

So, during our first confirmation class in September, we discussed how confirmation was about taking the reigns of one’s faith for one’s self. We discussed how their parents had made certain vows when they were babies to raise them in a church community. And that now, if they wished to dedicate themselves to living as Christians on into adulthood and throughout their lives, they could make those same vows for themselves.

But we also discussed the fact that there was and is no rush, that if they were not sure they wanted to commit themselves to the Christian life, they could wait; that what is most important is that they do what they truly and actively believe is right for themselves as they stand before God.

Learning about their beliefs and their various ways of wrestling with the major questions of faith has been a wonderful experience for me. These teenagers have taught me that being a Christian and committing to the Christian life is not about assenting to a set of edicts that may or may not ring true in one’s heart.

It is about being honest and loving before God, struggling mightily to live out our lives in the way God has lovingly called us to live it—which may or may not involve practicing the Christian faith and attending church services.

- Jamie McElroy

[Click below for the complete sermon, including Youth Group reflections.]

From Pastafarian to Episcopalian

I’m a little late to this, but St. Bede’s parishioner Michael Chen has totally redesigned his blog and it is very much worth checking out. Also he recently posted an interesting response to our last Seekers Dinner. Here’s an excerpt:

The Seeker’s dinner on Thursday was a fascinating look at the composition of St. Bedes. Technically, the topic was “organized religion,” which turned into a somewhat one-sided debate about how bad organized religion is. Which is ironic since the debate took place at a dinner in our church.

I’m honestly not a fan of organized religion. I think it’s potential for being psychologically damaging (see: fundamentalist) is not outweighed by its social good. Especially nowadays, I think it detracts too much from rational knowledge (see: intelligent design). Its community organizational purpose is still valid, but organized religion has lost some of its poise as a governmental check (in a typically American paradox).

Still, there are some good aspects, mainly related to community building I feel. But I think St. Bede’s is rare…

Even the services Christina and I attend on Sundays are not 100% comfortable to me–reciting things sounds, at best, droning and, at worst, cult-ish. I enjoy the singing, mainly because when else could I sing? I enjoy the food and gathering with other intelligent individuals. But that actual “organized” part? Meh. Still, I understand the merits of all these aspects, just as I understand that historical precedence is often what drives these arcane rituals that I dislike so much. I am still uncomfortable identifying with a wider religious community, precisely because I do not want to be associated with the ignorance and bigotry that often discolors faith. It took me a lot of willpower to change my Facebook identification from “Pastafarian” to “Episcopalian.”

- Jamie McElroy

We Crucified Thee, We Continue to Crucify Thee

According to a new poll put out by the Pew Forum, if you attend Christian church services semi-regularly in America, you are more likely than not to believe that torture is at least sometimes justified. However, of the four groups distinguished in the poll–Mainline Protestants, White Evangelicals, White Catholics and Unidentified–Mainline Protestants are most likely to believe that torture is never justified. But still–that number is only 31 percent, while 46 percent of Mainline Protestants think that torture can at least be “sometimes” justified.

How unbelievably depressing.

- Jamie McElroy

Do You Believe… in Global Warming?

In anticipation of The Rev. Sally Bingham’s presentation tonight on what churches and other faith-based organizations can do to address the problem of global warming, here’s opinion poll guru, Nate Silver, crunching the numbers on religious belief and global warming belief:

The first thing I noticed from this Gallup survey on attitudes toward global warming is that the percentage of persons who think global warming is manmade appears to be much higher in predominately Catholic nations than in Protestant ones…

Poling in the United States has suggested that Catholics are considerably more concerned about climate change than evangelical Protestants, although not more than mainline or black Protestant denominations, and less so than Jewish or atheist voters.

- Jamie McElroy

Cecilia Redux

On Sunday, May 3, at 4pm, the St. Bede’s Choir will present Blessed Cecilia! –a repeat performance of the choir ’s beautiful concert earlier this year. The program includes the exquisite Serenade to Music, for solo voices and piano accompaniment, by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Benjamin Britten’s lovely Hymn to St. Cecilia, to a poem by W.H.Auden.

We would love to share these musical treasures with you. We invite you to come and sit in our lovely redwood sanctuary with us, and allow us to give you this gift. The concert will be less than an hour, is free, and will be followed by a light, strawberry reception in the Great Hall.

- Jane McDougle

The Messy Bible vs. The Sunday School Bible

David Plotz has written The Good Book, an analysis of the Bible from the perspective of a thoughtful non-clergy-person/non-religious scholar. And The New Yorker online recently posted an interview with him. It’s fascinating reading.

Here’s one question and answer I found particularly provocative:

Early in your reading, you find that some well-known Biblical figures and stories are more complicated than our present understanding of them suggests. Noah’s tale is grim, you say—and yet we’ve turned it into a theme for children’s playrooms. Why have some stories persisted over others?

The stories that persist do so because, as we have cleaned them up, they generally offer some morally coherent lesson for us: Noah teaches about obedience, God’s might, and God’s mercy. Joseph teaches about the persistence of faith in a hostile land. But almost every popularized Bible story leaves out the worst bits, or glosses over the confusing parts. Who remembers the second half of the Jonah story, for example, when Jonah sulks and rages at God because God won’t destroy Nineveh? Or the last couple of chapters of the book of Esther—the basis of the story of Purim—when Queen Esther orders Haman’s ten sons impaled on stakes, for no good reason? My own feeling is that the Messy Bible—with its ambiguous (or worse) heroes and its erratic and wrathful God—is a lot more interesting, and more true to our ugly world, than the Sunday School Bible. But the Sunday School Bible is easier to teach.

- Jamie McElroy

This Week at St. Bede’s

Thursday, May 21st, 6:30pm in the Great Hall — Young Adults Break Bread at Bede’s with The Theology of Battlestar Galactica. You won’t want to miss this! There will be a catered supper. Your $10 donation will be most appreciated. RSVP

Sunday, May 24th, 5pm  — Eve of Bede Evensong. The English monk Bede was the greatest scholar of the eighth century in the Western Church. Legend reports he was given the title of “Venerable’ by an obliging angel. Join us for this celebration of our patronal saint with a choral service of hymns, evening canticles, readings and prayers. Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis (The Gloucester Service) – John Sanders 1988. Freewill offering.

NB — We have four more openings for the Parish Retreat at the Bishop’s Ranch, June 12-14 with space in the Ranch House and in Webb Lodge. Let the Parish Office know asap if you would like to go!

- Judy Werner-Hall

Easter Sermon 3: Faith vs. Belief

Wouldn’t it be nice if Jesus would appear, in all his glory, once and for all, as then we could stop worrying the edges of our faith, and just get on with living it?

But Jesus isn’t going to appear, at least not in that way. If he did, we would have no choice but to believe. As Jayber Crow, in Wendell Berry’s novel of the same name, says, “He would be the absolute tyrant of the world and we would be His slaves.  Even those who hated Him and hated one another and hated their own souls would have to believe in Him then.  From that moment the possibility that we might be bound to Him and He to us and us to one another by love forever would be ended.”

So, we are given the choice:  we can choose to try to believe, or we can choose not to bother. If we choose to make the effort, perhaps the first question should be, what should we believe?It’s certainly would seem to be the easier question to answer, because we have the creeds.  We recite the Nicene Creed almost every Sunday.  That’s what we believe, isn’t it? A nice tidy list, that keeps everyone agreed and looking in the right direction?  Not quite, I suspect.  Hasn’t each one of us, at least at one time or another, had trouble with the creeds?  And, more sadly, how many people have found those words to be such a stumbling block that they have walked away from our doors.

While not intending to be too heretical, I think it’s interesting to consider that for the first three hundred years of Christianity, there were many Christians who would have struggled with being made to affirm that particular set of tenets…

The Nicene Creed was created to bring into line all the varying Christian theologies, and to make clear which ones were not acceptable, or heretical…

But do we believe what we are told to believe?  Not usually. However, being told can be comforting. Beliefs bring groups together.  At least you know what you should believe, even if you don’t yet. And where is faith in all of this? In an interesting article by the French philosopher and theologian Jacques Ellul, called “Belief and Faith”(1983), he differentiates between the two in, I think, very helpful ways.  He writes: “Belief provides answers to people’s questions while faith never does….Belief is reassuring. People who live in the world of belief feel safe…For belief things are simple:  God is almighty.”  On the other hand, faith will never provide answers, faith listens and waits.

- Jane McDougle

[Click below for the complete sermon.]

Let the Greening Begin

This past Sunday, while the adults were in the Great Hall discussing environmental ethics with Stanford Philosophy doctoral candidate Lauren Hartzell, as well as the environmental impact of future landscaping and building projects on the Bede’s site with ecologist, Ryan Navrotil, our  kids were out behind the Great Hall breaking ground for the new St. Bede’s Community Garden.

Small-space farmer extraordinaire, Brian Leen is overseeing the project and this summer, we will put to work all the kids who participate in our Eco-Camp (August 17 – 21 — register today!), digging, planting and otherwise cultivating this new garden.

- Jamie McElroy

Easter Sermon 1: Proclaiming Easter Today

What are we doing here, as others go about their weekend on this fine spring day? What does what we are doing here mean, not only to us, but to those who aren’t celebrating in our terms? What does it mean in its farthest reaching sense, for the world that Christ came to save? It is incumbent upon us to decode this story, this good news. We must make our claim in such an accessible way that others can apprehend it as a gift, freely offered, an invitation fully extended, of extraordinary applicability to real life. Otherwise, the gospel will remain like the sacred mushroom of a peculiar equatorial tribe, an odd looking fungus on the forest floor, its medicinal properties untapped for human health.

Simone Weil has a particular credibility as a witness to the resurrection because she was a lover of God in Christ and yet not a Christian. Weil maintains that the will has no power to bring about salvation. What saves us is our desire for God, our love of God. God is our original vocation, or calling, the first gift for those who believe, as we say. So we encourage others to trust the deepest longings of their heart and soul. They are not vestiges of some childish naivete. They are aboriginal sparks of inspiration, to be cherished and cultivated, to be appreciated as they transform each life that holds them sacred.

- Kitty Lehman

[Click below for the complete sermon.]

How Do We Know?

Jane raises some very good questions in the post below regarding knowledge (what we know, how we know it) when she asserts that she is not an agnostic since she does feel that she knows/believes whole-heartedly things she cannot fully explain.

I call myself an agnostic in the context of the theist/atheist debates largely because those debates are generally conducted in philosophical and scientific terms–which is to say in strictly rational terms. Therefore, I think that when we define knowledge as that which we may know according to reason, we must all be agnostics, since none of us can logically prove much of anything regarding the presence or lack of presence of a benevolent, omnipotent God.

However, as Jane rightfully alludes to, there are many other ways of knowing besides the strictly rational. After all, we rely upon intuitions and feelings and other non-rational forms of insight all the time. We wouldn’t be able to function in the world if we didn’t–as neuroscience writer, Jonah Lehrer’s recent book, How We Decide, lays bare.

That said, I think that, as Christians or believers more generally, it’s important for us to remember the fact that, in rational terms, we lack of knowledge–we are, in this sense, agnostics. Reason serves as a very, very important counterbalance to the knowledge/belief that comes from one’s felt awareness of God. Reason helps us to live into that most Christian of virtues: humility.

We know but we do not know.

- Jamie McElroy

God’s Eye View?

By combining hi-def video technology with slo-mo, might we begin to see the beauty of the world as God sees it?

- Jamie McElroy

David Hume and Ye Olde Atheism

Contra the New Atheism of the likes of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher, philosophy professor, Simon Blackburn, longs for the more erudite, funny and respectful atheism of 18th century philosopher, David Hume (a favorite thinker of mine, I must admit). Blackburn writes:

I suspect that many professional philosophers, including ones such as myself who have no religious beliefs at all, are slightly embarrassed, or even annoyed, by the voluble disputes between militant atheists and religious apologists. …The annoyance comes partly because of the strong sense of deja vu. But it is not just that old tunes are being replayed, but that they are being replayed badly. The classic performance was given by David Hume in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, written in the middle of the 18th century. Hume himself said that nothing could be more artful than the Dialogues, and it is the failure to appreciate that art that is annoying.

But Blackburn’s beef with “The New Atheism” is not merely a problem of style or artfulness. He  concludes:

So is Hume himself an atheist? The word does not fit, and he never described himself as such. He is much too subtle. Philo the sceptic says that we cannot understand or know anything about a transcendent reality that explains or sustains the ongoing order of nature, while theists such as Demea say that we cannot understand or know anything about the transcendent reality, which is God, that explains or sustains the ongoing order of nature. Since the inserted clause does not help us in the least, the difference between them is merely verbal. And this is Hume’s conclusion.

As I’ve asserted before, and as Hume would seem to think himself: There are no true atheists or theists, since certainty on either side of the question is beyond our human ability. Rather, we are all agnostics.

- Jamie McElroy

Speaking of the Sacrament of Confession…

Have you heard about last week’s release of the so-called “torture memos”? Those highly confidential memos written by Bush Administration officials detailing America’s “enhanced interrogation techniques”–non-euphemistically known as torture–over the past seven years?

The revelations include the fact that our government waterboarded (that is: drowned until just before asphyxiation and death) Khalid Sheikh Mohammed not one time for 90 seconds, as had been previously asserted, but according to one of these memos 183 times in one month. (Click here.)

Such details have altered the argument of those who support such practices. Prior to the release of these documents, the assertion was: “The United States does not torture.” Now, the assertion is: “It worked.” No longer is anyone trying to argue that the U.S. has not tortured its prisoners over the past seven years.

That is a significant confession. And maybe the torture worked and maybe it didn’t. That depends upon your definition of “worked,” I suppose. But admitting that we did torture can begin the process toward true reconciliation with God.

- Jamie McElroy

Something Tells Me…

…that this advertisement for the Sacrament of Confession–targeted, obviously, at teens and young adults–isn’t going to have the effect that the Catholic Church is going for.

Having gone through the Episcopal Church’s Sacrament of Reconciliation, I can say that irony and parody kind of feel antithetical to the whole thing. Owning up to one’s sins is, in my opinion, the ultimate act of sincerity. I don’t see how an ad that reeks of sarcasm is going to convince anyone to wade into such thorough-going self-examination.

Not that there’s anything wrong with irony and parody and sarcasm, like this, for instance. I just wouldn’t use such stuff to “sell” confession.

- Jamie McElroy

Un-Baptism

Having just celebrated the baptism of three babies last Saturday night during our Easter Vigil, it saddens me to read this news story from the Daily Telegraph in London.

It turns out that an atheist in England has sued to have his baptism “removed” (by having the record of it scrubbed from the rolls of the Church of England). He was baptized as a baby and now that he’s an adult he so emphatically does not want to be identified as a Christian that he has sought this legal remedy based on the argument that as a baby he could not have made the decision to be baptized for himself.

The article also refers to a nascent movement among English atheists to pursue this sort of “un-baptism” that is taking particular aim at the doctrine of “original sin”–the idea that babies are somehow born sinful and need to be cleansed. Any thoughtful church I know has long-ago repudiated the idea of “original sin” and view infant baptism as way of fully including the child in the universal Christian church and not as a cleansing of sin, original or otherwise.

Now, it doesn’t make me sad that he’s chosen to part ways with the church in which he was raised. Anyone who grows up attending church needs to decide on their own whether they want to continue along a Christian path. That’s what I think the rite of Confirmation is all about. (And that’s what I’ve tried to make as clear as possible to the four teenagers in our current Confirmation Class–”If you decide to get confirmed, do it because you want to, not because your parents want you to. If you’re not sure, just wait. There’s no harm in waiting. But make sure it’s your decision.”)

What’s sad to me is that this man is so hurt and/or angry about his experience in church that he’s seeking this particular legal remedy–and of course he’s not remotely alone. One way or another, the church (of all denominations) has scarred so many people so deeply and it’s a crying shame.

- Jamie McElroy

…And the Mustard is Hiiiiiigh

This Saturday, April 18 and the next, April 25, 9:30 – 11:30 am, we are continuing our rehabilitation work on that swath of land we’ve adopted in the Palo Alto Baylands (just past the Duck Pond on Embarcadero). And for now, that consists  of yanking out invasive mustard weeds at the root. Last week, some of those mustard plants were over 6-feet tall before we started pulling them out.

According to the Ranger we’re working with, if we were simply to let this land fend for itself, it would be nothing but a 6-foot high field of mustard. Why does that matter? Well, the mustard dries out the soil by sucking up all the water it can possibly handle since it naturally tries to grow as big and tall as possible, so any available water gets used for that purpose and not for any other plants, wildlife, bugs, birds and so on. Also, mustard doesn’t like salt, so it leaves the salt behind which adds to the problems in the South Bay, where there are huge, destructive salt deposits along the shore. Furthermore, it’s an annual plant so those 6-foot weeds eventually become 6-foot dry husks that make great kindling for wildfires.

Mustard plants like these are a problem throughout California. They were introduced into this area by Spanish missionaries who spread mustard seeds as they wound their way through the region so as to mark their trail. I guess they imagined that they were spreading the Kingdom of Heaven in accord with Jesus’ analogy (“the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed…”)

How ironic, you might say. Or maybe it’s just tragic.

- Jamie McElroy

In Praise of Church Music (and Musicians)

In less than four days, over 9 million YouTube users have watched 47-year-old Brit, Susan Boyle audition for “Britain’s Got Talent”–England’s version of “American Idol.” Check it out for yourself.

An Andrew Sullivan reader reacts:

Susan Boyle looks like a lot of the women with whom I’ve sung [in church choirs] over the years, and has the spunk that they have, too. Her chat before and after indicated a bright spirit, I know the type and have sung with these women, and girls, many times.

Also, women’s voices don’t really reach full maturity until early to mid-40’s. I’ve gone from a soprano to a high mezzo and my voice is completely different than it was 5 years ago (I’m 39.). I suspect she is reaching her voice’s best range at her age.

Creative spaces are to be found in the unseen and unexpected. They should have some church choirs on American/British Idol, both countries have very strong traditions of group singing and as a result individual singing. There are more good singers around here than you can shake a stick at. I bet she sings in her church choir in her ‘villages.’