One Year Later

It has been over a year since the mess at the News Press, the local newspaper in Santa Barbara, began. Some 70+ employees including over 50 in the newsroom alone have been fired or resigned over the practices at the paper. One response was the formation of a website - Santa Barbara Newsroom which was an attept to keep the news coming. It was run by a number of former News Press reporters who were fired for union activities. Well Santa Barbara Newsroom is no longer live (they ran out of money) but their swan song is a documentary that shows what has happened in Santa Barbara.

The documentary teaches us some important lessons regarding the role of a newspaper, the necessity for unions to regain their strength, and the disaster that occurs when wealth and power run unconstrained. It runs about 29 minutes, but it is worth watching.

It also reminds me that the battle is not over and that we must not forget it and move on to the next thing... if you live in Santa Barbara and have not cancelled your subscription to the News Press, do it today. If you have friends or family here, ask them to do so. If you visit stores in Santa Barbara, encourage them to find other venues for advertising and patronize those businesses that do advertise elsewhere. Fight the good fight!

Fresh

I miss apples. I know, they grow apples in California and every grocery store sells apples but they aren't the same. There is something about an Empire that you pick off a tree in upstate New York, wipe on your shirt, and then eat. There is something about a Winesap from Pennsylvania... you get the idea. Just like the grocery store tomatoes don't taste like real tomatoes, those store bought apples don't quite cut it. You can't buy real apple cider here and nobody even knows what a cider donut is.

Moving to the central coast in California, I have learned that the same thing is true for all produce. We get the most amazing vegtables here... straight from the fields, strawberries to die for all year round, oranges and lemons... but I'm told that grapefruit don't like the climate and don't grow well. Now I've had those grapefruit shipped from Texas and they are good. They are amazing compared to what I've tasted from grocery stores in the northeast but we found out they just don't cut it compared to the real thing. My son John works for an agency that helps elderly and disabled folk with maintenance issues at their homes. Last week he helped at a home where they had a grapefruit tree. The owner told him to pick a few and take them home. He picked some at random (he had know idea which to pick), threw them in a bag and brought them home. Well, well, well... the kitchen filled with this wonderful fragrance - grapefruit (as I knew it) but sweeter. Then we cut one and ate it. It didn't need added sugar or honey. It was amazing!

So I learned the lesson again... buy fresh. Buy local. Enjoy!

gigs!

Some of you know that I had a very frustrating time trying to put together a funk project with my good friend (and amazing vocalist) Stephanie - working title The Broken Hipsters. We found a great bass player in Johno Dunn and had problem after problem finding a drummer. It began to feel as if they were exploding like in Spinal Tap! Every time we found a good drummer something would go wrong. Finally we found one and it felt as if things were finally going to work. Then we tried to find a keyboard player and had more difficulties. Then the drummer quit the project and we were back to square one. We found another drummer who was very good and clicked extremely well with Johno and then other personal issues got in the way and I tore the tendon in my finger. Needless to say, the project never got off the ground in spite of showing lots of promise.


Just as the Hipsters were disintegrating completely, a great drummer friend of mine, Mike Golden, called me. He had met a singer/songwriter named Jamie Green who had recently moved to Santa Barbara from LA and was looking for an acoustic guitar player. I had been playing mostly electric for a while but Mike was so enthusiastic I thought I should make a contact. We connected and things clicked nicely.

It has been an interesting experience. Jamie is extremely professional and knows exactly what she wants. She played with the same guitar player in LA for about 5 years so it has been an adjustment for her to deal with a new player.

All of this is to say that we have three gigs scheduled over the coming days:

Friday July 13, 6-8 at Borders Books in Goleta, California
Sunday, July 15, 4-6, Northstar Coffeehouse, 918 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA
Saturday July 28, 8, Northstar Coffeehouse, opening for John Cragie.

If you're in the area, stop by and give a listen. If not, check out Jamie's music at the link above.

ABC Biennial

It's been a week since we got home from the American Baptist Churches Biennial meeting... I wanted to write seriously about it but by now, a lot of the meeting has receded into that area of my brain where cobwebs outnumber synapses so you'll get some impressions only.

The meetings took place in the Washington DC Convention center... it s a cavernous place that really requires many more people than we had (about 2500) to feel "alive." Even the opening night which we shared with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, who were ending their convention, wasn't full. (they numbered about 3000.) The space made it difficult to feel connected and all of the meetings felt smaller than they were.

THE CBF is a lively group. Their display area was wonderful to walk through. The downside of them is that they seemed pretty homogeneous - white and southern.

The joint ABC/CBF worship began with a presentation from the pension/benefit board. Huh? What a silly way to celebrate our relationship even though it is a way that ABC has helped out the CBF.

ABC did a better job with media this year but still was not as good as many local churches.

The worship services leaned towards the "Swiss army knife" style that happens when you try to make an extremely diverse group of people happy. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it felt just like a Swiss army knife - lots of little parts that aren't big enough to do what they're meant to do while at the same time making the whole thing a less than useful monstrosity (yes, that is an exaggeration but I liked the word).

The preaching was less than I hoped for. Lauran Bethell was probably the stand out for me. She was the individual least likely to be known for her preaching but the genuineness of her presentation really worked for me. There was some wonderful music - a few of the choirs were amazing - and some that did nothing for me at all - enough said there. A number of the African American churches brought dancers as did a southeast Asian congregation. Fun.

Walter Shurden spoke at the Association for Baptist Principles meeting and was wonderful at laying out the foundation for who we are as baptists.

The best part of the meetings is getting together with friends, many of whom I get to see only at the biennials. We had some reasonable beer and some great conversations.

I was happy to see the racial diversity (we do this better than anyone else in the US) but saddened that the full breadth of who we are wasn't visible. The anglo conservatives didn't come. In addition to the folk from PSW who weren't there (and most would not have attended anyway), I didn't see any of the conservatives that I know from around the denomination. This lack of theological breadth made for less contention but it also made for some boring meetings and didn't feel quite "Baptist." For me, the diversity of theological stance is crucial to who we should be. There was also an awful lot of gray hair present...

The next biennial will be in Pasadena. I hopeful that the location will draw some new folk to the meeting and that the planners will build on what was done well... two years will tell.

always a parent

While we were back east, our daughter Alexis left for 6 months in India. She will be doing an internship at the Nelson Mandela Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi. Her interest is how interfaith relationships contribute to the formation of a civil society (or not).

We are very proud of her and excited about her work as she moves forwarded in her scholarship and eventually career. BUT (and it is a huge but), I can't help but be more than a little nervous about her being so far away in such a foreign place. She is 24 years old! She is extremely capable! She has spent time in Central America and Hungary and has traveled to places that made me really nervous in the past. But she is still my baby.

She'll be blogging about her experiences in India at her blog. Check it out... think of her... and pray... for me.

Freedom

I just got home from a 3 week trip back east that included the ABC Biennial meeting (more about that later) but the meetings got me thinking about freedom.

Walter Shurden spoke at the Coalition for Baptist Principles gathering and told a wonderful story... while pastoring, he invited a number of leaders from their faith traditions to share their traditions in an adult Sunday School class. At the end of one of those meetings, Shurden asked the Catholic priest who had been sharing what he understood to be the central characteristics of the Baptist tradition. Without a blink, the priest replied, "freedom."

Shurden went on to talk about freedom as central to not only the Baptist tradition, but also to the ways in which God relates to humanity. God gives us freedom for faith or not, freedom to follow or not, freedom...

I have to say that I bristle whenever folk talk about the US as being a Christian nation or even that it is founded on Christian ideals and then argue and work towards a theocracy. It seems to me that working towards a theocracy is precisely the opposite of what God wants and a nation where freedom, including absolute freedom of religion, is the distinguishing characteristic, is exactly what God does want. It is a wonderful irony isn't it? God has given us the freedom to not believe, the freedom to not follow. From the positive perspective, God has given us the freedom and responsibility to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling and nobody, including God's self, can impose faith upon us. It is only when we have that freedom that we are living in the kind of society God envisions for us all. God wants us all to be in relationship with God but it is more important that we be able to choose than what we choose.

Happy 4th of July! Let Freedom Ring!

hmmmm...

saw this sign as we drove away from the National Airport in DC...



the jokes are just too easy...

Robert W. Cholke

Yesterday I learned of the death of the Rev. Robert W. Cholke in April of this year at age 67.

Cholke (everyone that I knew who knew him called him "Cholke," even Lee, his wife at the time) was my and Cheryl's CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) supervisor at the Haverford State Mental Hospital outside of Philadelphia. He was one of the most important people in my early formation as a clergy person. His imprint is still clear to anyone who knew him and who knew me before my time at Haverford. Cholke was bright, insightful, one of the most perceptive persons I have ever known, and funny. Most of all, he was real. There was no pretense and nothing hidden. He shared himself openly and freely.

Let me tell three stories about Cholke.

1. I clearly remember my first day at Haverford... I was more than a little nervous. I had had almost no experience with mental illness and was filled with stereotypes. My theology at the time was narrow and naive. And there was Cholke... chain smoking, heavy drinking, couldn't form a sentence without a 4 letter word, Lutheran, Cholke. I was aghast! What could this man teach me? He couldn't even be a real Christian. I was sure it would be a waste of time, just a hoop to jump through to finish seminary. I'd hang in there and be done with him as soon as possible. Little did I know.

2. As part of the CPE program we had individual sessions with the supervisor. One day, I arrived to see Cholke and he was running late with a patient. I sat outside the door for a few moments before it opened. When it began to open, I stood to enter. There in the doorway was a man who I reacted to as one of the most repulsive human beings I had ever seen. I could smell him from feet away. His speech was slurred. He was missing teeth. His face was swollen and bruised, as if from a fight. His clothing was dishelved and his hair was a mess. He had tardive dyskinesia - a side effect from the use of major tranquilizers that cause an individual to loose control of small muscles when they aren't using them. When he wasn't talking his tongue darted around uncontrollably. His fingers also moved, as if with minds of their own. My first reaction was to step back. His attention was on Cholke who was there completely and absolutely for him. Before he left, Cholke took the man and embraced him with a smile and a laugh. Cholke saw what I could not. He saw the face of Jesus. No, he saw this man as a child of God. It was a moment of grace for a man from whom most would run. For me, it was a moment of transformation - one huge step on my journey to see what is real and true.

3. Cheryl and I participated in a couples' group with Cholke and Lee. Week after week Cholke would see something the rest of us had missed, share it, and we'd all think, "how'd we miss that?" Then came the week we were looking at some of the issues in Cholke's relationship with Lee. He was as clueless as the rest of us when it came to his own relationship.

I could write pages about the things I learned from Cholke and the ways those insights changed who I am. Whenever Cheryl and I would talk with another clergy person regarding their CPE experiences, more often than not we would shake our heads and give thanks that Cholke had been our supervisor. I hope he would be proud of who I have become and of the ministry I do. I know he would shake his head, laugh, smile, and call me on things I had not seen.

I hadn't seen him in more than 20 years. I am sure that he grew and changed and that the journey of his life sharpened his insights and enriched his ministry of caring. I do know that he married again and that family life had brought him both joy and pain. I pray for those who loved him and were close to him during these years, that God will hold them close in grace and love and ease their grief, especially his wife, Joanne Martindale.

These words were found in some of Cholke's papers... and they sum up his spirit...

People don't need a long life,
As much as they need a compelling reason to live,
And a compelling reason to die.
For upon these two necessities
Is Life for the human being
(in that great array of living things)
Sustained, enabled, and fulfilled.

Chaplain Robert W. Cholke, 5/18/94

Thank you Cholke for all that you taught me, for the imprint you made in my life, helping me to be come who I am. My life is richer and fuller because of you. Rest in peace my friend.

Congratulations John!

things change

Our baby... a 6'3", 285 pound baby, graduated from high school on the 15th. We are so proud of John. He is turning into a wonderful young man. His mother and I are excited and expectant to watch as he continues to grow and mature and turn into the good man we see taking shape. I'm sure there will continue to be surprises... but that makes the future even more wonderful.

He begins as a student at Santa Barbara City College in the fall, probably as a business major. We'll see where his path leads him... and watch proudly.

Paris

no... not the city. I just had to write about her.

It really has been a roller coaster ride hasn't it? First, she gets sentenced to jail. In California a celebrity getting found guilty and sentenced is a very very very rare thing. We know which side our bread is buttered on and we give them the slack they need to live the excessive lives we all wish we could. Then she is released because of "medical reasons." Say what? I'm guessing that a significant proportion of the inmates in the LA county jail have drug problems, or mental illness, or severe anxiety about the place they are (most people don't get excited about going to jail and it is a scary place).

I have to admit that at first I felt like cheering when she went back to jail... spoiled little rich girl needs to learn a lesson... but the more I thought of it, I began to think that maybe... just maybe she should be released.

We have incredible over-crowding in our jails. All kinds of people (Paris included) end up there when some other setting would be much more effective at dealing with their problem. Perhaps she should be doing community service in a physical rehabilitation facility that deals with folk injured in automobile accidents. Or maybe she should be spending her time helping homeless alcoholics. Something... anything... to help her learn what a spoiled brat she is and turn her life outward.

And there are those who are there because of who they are. Racism is still operative both in our laws (look at the laws for crack abuse - mostly a crime of poor minority folk - vs. powdered cocaine - a drug of rich mostly white folk) in enforcement (lots of my friends have been pulled over for DWB - driving while black), and in sentencing. Of course there are issues of personal responsibility but there are also issues of culture that cannot be dismissed. There must be something wrong wen we are second only to Russia in the percentage of our population in prison.

So Free Paris! And if you want a little pink bracelet that says just that, for only $9.99 you can order one here

Shift Happens

A friend sent me this link....

it is long but raises some interesting questions.

glumbert.com - Shift Happens

Prince at the Alma Awards

with Sheila E and Grupo Fantasma!

my, my, my...

what more is there to be said?

A Man of Grace

I have to admit that I wanted to blog about Scooter Libby and especially about te vice president's reaction to his conviction but good news prevailed.


Yesterday's L.A. Times had a front page article on David Scholer, professor of New Testament at Fuller Seminary. Dr. Scholer is dying with cancer but has learned to live the verse from Thessalonians - "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances." And his life exudes grace to all who come in contact with him.

I have met him in passing, read some of his writing, and heard him speak a number of times. He is an American Baptist and his theology and style exemplify the best of what I understand of the Baptist tradition. Good stuff... his scholarship, but more important than that to me has been his faith and the way he lives his life. May I learn that lesson.

film

In the last week I've rented two little films that were fantastic and which I would highly recommend seeking out...


The Beauty Academy of Kabul is the first. Yes, it sounds like and is an oxymoron - a beauty academy in Kabul. What it also turns out to be is a quiet and gentle lesson about every day acts being subversive, about unintended consequences of international policies, about the power of the human spirit.

The second film is one that you'd likely never hear about. 10 Items or Less is an intimately scaled film staring Morgan Freeman as an actor researching a part and Paz Vega as a checkout girl in a grocery store. The film follows the two of them for the better part of day as they interact with one another. The characters are wonderful. The story is human. When the film ended, I wished they could both become my friends. But as Freeman's character and Scarlet acknowledge near the end of the film... they'll never see one another again. We'll never see these characters again, but it was certainly worth spending a short 82 minutes with them.

Keith Olbermann on Iraq

I don't watch much TV and almost never MSNBC so I missed this comment when it was aired. I came across it today on Mike Leaptrott's blog. It is long and perhaps not quite as timely as when it was delivered a few days ago but still very much on target and worth watching and sharing.

Thanks Mike!

Arlington West

This photo of is of the Arlington West Memorial at the beach in Santa Barbara. There are 3000 crosses in the sand, most with names, many with photos. Of course there is also a sign that recognizes that as of this writing there are actually 3497.

Memorial Day is always an ambivalent day for me. I am a pacifist. I always think there is another way to solve conflict than with military might. The Iraq War itself involves no ambivalence. I think Bush, Cheney and the rest of them should be tried for war crimes and imprisoned. Now we know that they told yet another lie when they tell us that nobody could predict what has happened. Before the invasion they had received intelligence estimates that predicted exactly what happened. Of course, they ignored those predictions. They must be held responsible for the death and destruction they have caused.

My feelings about the casualties are very different. (here's a link to the names, details, and photos of those who have died). Some who have died signed up for the military because they truly believed in this mission and believed they could make a difference in the world. Some were in the reserves because they believed it was an easy way to supplement their income and never dreamt they would be in combat. At worst they expected to be deployed to help clean up after a natural disaster. Some were confused young people who joined the military in hopes of finding direction for their lives. Someone had told them that "joining the army will make you a man."

The men and women represented by those crosses in the sand, many of whom were too young to really know who they were or where they were going, gave their lives at the bequest of the nation. It is a noble act to be willing to sacrifice your future for the greater good. It is an act to be honored. At the same time, it is an act that should not be required without the most serious of discussion and not until every other option has been exhausted. In this case there was no serious discussion and much of what there was was laced with lies. It wasn't a case where every reasonable option was exhausted, it was a time when the option chosen should not have been on the table at all.

These men and women did not waste their lives. They sacrificed for their country. Still, their lives were wasted. George Bush wasted their lives. They died for his macho fantasy in an unnecessary war that cannot be won.

I seriously doubt that he will be held accountable for his actions in this life, but I believe he will stand before God and listen to each name read, see each face of each soldier who died, of each one who has come back without limbs, of each one who cannot adjust to life after having seen what they saw and done what they did. He will see each face and hear each name of each Iraqi citizen who died as "colateral damage" or in the sectarian violence we fomented. He had better pray that his view of God is not accurate. If we do have a God of violence and vengence, as George Bush seems to believe, he will surely pay for what he has done. I imagine him standing and saying, "But I thought it was the right thing" with that goofy look on his face and God responds, "Go away from me. You never knew me."

futures

We aren't wine snobs but if we could afford it, we could easily become so... Cheryl and I are members of one of the wine clubs at Beckmen Vineyards. Yesterday we had a wonderful day at a tasting of futures (and a few current wines) exclusively for wine club members. Beckmen produces wonderful Syrahs, Grenaches, and Rhone style blends. We learned about Beckmen's biodynamic farming, had a nice picnic, enjoyed the tastings, and ordered a number of bottles of wine which will be released over the next year or so. Then, some we'll drink and some we'll hold for as many as 10 years. Buying good wine is a statement of optimism regarding the future.

Ecclesiastes was right when it tells us that "wine makes the heart merry." Good wine does it doubly

no to feeds

Sometimes I'm a luddite... I find myself rejecting some technological changes just in principle. Feeds are one that I'm still rejecting. Why? I like the surprise of finding something I wasn't expecting to find. I like not having to read everything that is out there (even from people who's blogs I want to read). I like the possibility of going to a blog and finding nothing new or a whole bunch of new posts. It feels relational when I choose to go to someone's blog to read what they have to say.

On a related note, there is a wonderful film available called The Devil's Playground which is a documentary about the Amish rite of passage called Rumspringa. In the film there is one Amish man who is interviewed regarding their relationship to technology and he said that they are not against technology for technology's sake. They are against the impact that it has on relationships with one another or with the world around them. Zipping by in a car stops the individual from being in relationship to the landscape. Sitting around a television stops the family from interacting.

So... I'm resisting feeds.

India

My daughter, Alexis, is working on a masters degree in the international studies department at UCSB and has been looking for a place to do some required international work. Door after door seemed to close in front of her and I was more than a little worried that nothing would come together. She wasn't concerned. She reminded us that doors open when they are supposed to. An example took place during her undergraduate work. One week, a speaker from The Institute for European and Social Studies in Szombatheley, Hungary spoke at her school and impressed her. Within a few weeks, she was in Hungary for a semester. It turned out to be a formative time for her.

She seems to have done it again. This time in a place equally as surprising. Alexis is headed to the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution in Chandigarh, India. Assuming that she can work out the visa issues, she'll be there in about 6 weeks. The current plan is that she'll spend about 6 weeks in Chandigarh and then move on to Delhi for about 5 more months.

I have to say that the possibilities both excite and frighten me... it is amazing how much smaller the world is than when I was her age, how many more opportunities there are, and the possibilities for growth and for making a difference in the world.

churches?

I have been a pastor in three churches for a total of about 29 years but I still wouldn't say that I really understand churches. Why one grows and another doesn't, why one seems to thrive while another struggles, why people choose to attend one over another... It puzzles me. Plus, every church is different. They do things differently. They understand their ministry differently. The members wear the tasks of keeping a church going in different ways. All of that adds up to a surprise whenever we experience another community of faith so one thing that I look forward to when we travel is visiting other churches.

Few have surprised me more than the one we attended a few weeks ago. I found the church via google - did a search for emerging churches in that city - and it seemed a reasonable choice that I would likely find positive.

There were about 350-400 people in the worship service. I would guess that about 60% of the folk present were past retirement age. There were very few 40-50 somethings and a lot of younger adults and small children. The younger children seemed to feel very much at home and didn't feel constrained as they moved around the worship center during the service and made a good bit of noise. It was a typical 70's style architecture and there was a large screen in the front. Dress was conservative.

Now for the surprises... A number of people recognized us as visitors and greeted us warmly both before worship and during the greeting time about 1/2 through the service. Almost every one of them (including one of the pastors) asked what church we belong to. I'm curious as to why we stood out so and more curious at the question that every person asked. I don't know if tey were looking for common ground or it they were testing us.

When we entered the room, I couldn't see any instruments and there was no background music going on. I didn't give it much thought though. I looked through the printed bulletin and didn't recognize the titles of most of the songs to be sung. So I opened the hymnal and was surprised to see the music was written in shape notes. I still hadn't put things together. There were no instruments. The service began with a video advertising the National Day of Prayer... Then a song leader went to the front, played a single note on a pitch pipe and began to sing. The congregation joined in, in parts. For one song, the novelty (to me) was nice. By the 3rd song, I was deadly bored. Communion followed... it was done in the pews and frankly was the least moving communion I've ever experienced. The preacher had a warm and engaging style and did a nice job of exegesis on the scripture, but he didn't ever really get to application (and there were lots of doors opened for that to happen). The sound was poor and it was very difficult to hear the folk upfront other than the preacher (who wore a lapel microphone).

It was one of those churches that I couldn't understand at all. It flew in the face of everything my gut tells me about churches. If I lived in that town, I would certainly never attend there again and couldn't understand why anyone who wasn't a serious shape note singing fan would... but the space was pretty full and it seemed as if the folk there were committed to that community of faith.

So what did I learn? I still don't understand churches. And don't trust everything google tells you.