The Peregrinating Parson

I love America. I love being an American. I love the rights and privileges and responsibilities that come with being an American, particularly a straight, white, middle class American with advanced degrees. The privileges weigh heavily on me now more than ever because I know my responsibilities to those who do not have the same advantages I have to name both the ideals and the flaws of this country and to use my voice to hold a mirror up to all of us, force us to examine ourselves in the harsh light of reality, and realize that we have work to do still on this dream called THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. First, we must dispel once and for all the notion that America is a Christian nation. We are not and never have been; it is anathema to our DNA to claim to be so. Nonetheless, it is true that some element of theological aspiration to be the “shining city on a hill”, the new Jerusalem, undergirds our nation. Some—but in no sense all—of the undocumented immigrants who came t

I’m spending Saturday working a fund raiser for the church’s separately incorporated 501(c)(3) mission organization. It’s not protesting on the front lines against the horror that is the “Zero Tolerance” family separation immigration; it’s not protesting the utter gall of an executive who is under multiple federal investigations to think he has the right to appoint a justice to the court that will undoubtedly decide some or all of his fate in the years to come. But it is, in its way, a protest: that this mission organization is even necessary makes raising funds for it a protest against the deepening unkindness of American civic society that allows the wealthiest and loudest to get far more than their fair share when far too many of the poorest and silenced don’t even receive a chicken in every pot, never mind any more than minimal public support for the education and care of their children or jobs that pay truly living wages. I am angry. I’m angry that the government

A Compilation of Science and Faith Devotionals for the  United Church of Christ Science and Technology Network I had the tremendous privilege of representing the United Church of Christ at the annual meeting of the  Ecumenical Roundtable on Science, Technology and the Christian Faith  in Atlanta, Georgia, from April 19-21. I'm very excited about the work of this group, particularly its witness at the annual meetings of the  American Association for the Advancement of Science . I'm also excited that the United Church of Christ Science and Technology Network is doing something that no other partner in the roundtable is currently doing: devotionals connecting faith and science. Because UCCSTN doesn't have its own web presence beyond our Facebook group, we don't have a "home" for the body of work to which several of us have contributed, I'm assembling this page as that home for the time being. Hopefully, we will have a more visible presence at some

The Quest for Perfect Vision Devotional for the United Church of Christ Science and Technology Network May 10, 2018 Rev. Dr. Ruth E. Shaver Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’   The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” —Mark 10:51 If Jesus came to me and asked me what I wanted him to do for me, it would be a toss-up between giving me 20/20 vision without glasses or contacts and fixing my knees and ankles so I don’t have to have my knees replaced or wear braces to do anything other than walk on even surfaces. In the end, I’d probably choose the orthopedic issues over the optometric issues for Jesus to heal, but that’s mainly because I’ve had knee surgery once (on both knees at the same time!). I know it’s a hard recovery route. The burden of bad eyesight is less oppressive, at least to me. I haven’t seen clearly without corrective lenses since I was in second grade. I’ve had bifocals twice: in sixth grade, because it was

If I Could Save Time in a Bottle… Devotional for the United Church of Christ Science and Technology Network March 31, 2018 Rev. Dr. Ruth E. Shaver [God] has made everything suitable for its time;   moreover, [God] has put a sense of past and future into their minds,   yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.   —Ecclesiastes 3:11, NRSV, alt. Holy Saturday is an odd day in history. Looking back from the next day, or 50 days later, or roughly 2000 years later, we can see that this was a “ Schrödinger’s tomb ”* moment: either Jesus was dead, as the events of Friday testified, or Jesus was alive, as Jesus himself had promised. The disciples, women and men alike, went with the testimony of time and experience, only to be mightily surprised—or, as the Gospel of Mark says, traumatically ecstatic—the next morning. We know because of the way history has unfolded that Easter Sunday was a pivot point in time. The world was categorica

As a Sinai and Synapses Fellow, one of the things I get to do is talk to and with people about how faith and science intersect in their lives. One tangible piece is the "More Light, Less Heat" video series and my contribution is up! Rev. Dr. Ruth Shaver and William D. Richards: Seeing God in the Patterns Bill is one of my best friends and was, in a very real way, the one who inspired (or challenged, might be an even better term) me to write the first draft of the curriculum that became my doctoral project. And, of course, that led to the Fellowship... Please enjoy, and check out the other videos in the series. And if you think the work Sinai and Synapses and other organizations that hope to bridge the divide between the worlds of science and religion, please consider a donation to one of your choosing (partial list): Sinai and Synapses Boston University Ph.D. Program in Religion and Science Member Denominations of the Ecumenical Roundtable Coming Together on Scien

Apparently, I’m doing church growth all wrong. Again. In 2010, a church in my hometown, Corpus Christi, Texas, gave away all kinds of great prizes to those who attended Easter services . And like Oprah’s show at times, on that day, everyone got a prize worth at least $300. And this past weekend, Destiny Church in Columbia, Maryland, gave away four cars to randomly chosen attendees of services plus one to a deserving family in need. I doubt it will surprise anyone to know that attendance at both churches, and many others that have done something similarly gimmicky, spiked for these giveaways. I know that some people go back in weeks to follow; long-term, I don’t know about the success of these events for changing lives because I wonder what it says about these churches’ understanding of God that they collectively believe giving away material things is the best way to introduce people to God. Actually, I don’t have to wonder much; many of these churches say on their we

When I was in high school, I competed on the Academic Decathlon team in its first two years of existence. One of the competition categories was speech, in which we had to give a prepared speech and then an extemporaneous speech in front of a panel of three judges. The first year’s subject was World War II; you’d think that being both a history buff and someone with an interest in a military career at the time that the speech would have been a cinch. It was an unmitigated disaster. My nerves got the best of me and I forgot the entire middle section of it and was so flustered by the time I got to the extemporaneous speech I could barely get my lips to move. I had the lowest score of the competition across all the brackets. It was humiliating. So when it came time to prepare the speech for my second year of competition, I knew I needed something I was so passionate about that I could just rattle it off as a conversation, albeit a one-sided conversation, if my mind went b