Liz's Bloglet - Monday 28 November 2005

Four lionesses put their imprint on history. A nice reminder that, while mostly men get the credit, women were equally involved in the civil rights movement. _
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08:46:23 AM, Monday 28 November 2005

Nature has published a comic about synthetic biology. _
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08:58:42 PM, Saturday 26 November 2005

The Presbyterian series is over. I want to thank everybody who was curious, asked me questions, and treated me with respect. As I said at the beginning, I don't usually talk about my beliefs with other people, and I'm done now. _
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07:31:55 AM, Saturday 26 November 2005

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:34-40 _
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07:30:58 PM, Friday 25 November 2005

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving preparing a very large meal in our little house with Remi's folks here. If you have gmail but stay permanently logged in on your computer, you should log out and read their Thanksgiving message because it's really nice. I hope everybody else is doing well wherever you happen to be. _
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07:23:37 AM, Friday 25 November 2005

Listening to "Katmandu"off of Bela Fleck's Tales From the Acoustic Planet 2: The Bluegrass Sessions, it occurs to me that this is the single greatest Asian influenced bluegrass song ever written and should be included in the soundtrack of the next Firefly movie. _
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04:05:11 PM, Monday 21 November 2005

Remi and I were talking about my blog yesterday and he encouraged me to do the entry about my church here in Durham before giving up on the Presbyterianism thing. So, here it is.

My church is First Presbyterian in downtown Durham. We are surrounded by the public library, the courthouse, the jail, social services, and Urban Ministries--an outreach to the homeless that was started in our basement but recently outgrew it and now has its own building. In 1955, when many Southern churches were terrified of integration, the congregation voted to welcome anybody who wanted to worship. In 1960, when white flight was happening in most cities in the country, the congregation voted to stay downtown. Now the congregation is a mix of old Durham families, folks affiliated with Duke and Chapel Hill, people who live in the converted tobacco warehouses downtown, and liberal Presbyterians who drive as much as an hour to worship with people who welcome them. We have a large East African community who are active in the English language worship but also have monthly worship in Swahili. We are also involved with the development of a Spanish language congregation in North Durham.

I found my church by luck. I was looking for a liberal Presbyterian church--in our neighborhood there is a church that is a PCUSA church, but they are evangelical in theme and among other things support a "crisis pregnancy center", which I have a real problem with. There are several other churches in Durham, but I knew little about them. I was interested in First Church because it's downtown and we really like downtown Durham and have enjoyed watching its rebirth just in the time we've been here. I looked on the webpage of The Covenant Network of Presbyterians, a network of churches committed to inclusivity both in belief and practice, and found First Church on there. I visited and was greeted by everybody sitting all around me and made to feel like they really wanted me there (not an experience I ever got at the Presbyterian churches I attended in Annapolis or Athens). The next week I got a welcoming call from a guy who just happened to be in the choir and two weeks later I was in the choir, too.

In previous entries, I've said a lot about the practice and service of my church in the process of talking about Presbyterianism in general. I also mentioned a little in the comments what I get out of being part of the congregation, in response to a question from Tim. To finish out all of the Presbyterianism on this blog, I'll just quote that comment from a few weeks ago: "...what I get out of my church is comfort, the feeling of forgiveness and release from the weight of everything I've done wrong, the love of a group of people who are also celebrating God's love, a time each week when I can be quiet and make music and be with wonderful people and be challenged to be better and also think about things a lot bigger and more interesting than myself." _
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08:25:58 AM, Sunday 20 November 2005

I learned enough political theory from The West Wing to know that you should never respond to every single critism raised against you, because that draws attention doubly to your critics. Although Josiah Bartlet never had a 30% job approval rating, I would assume that advice would only double when the entire country already thinks you suck. It is beginning to seem certain that Bush really has stopped taking advice from Rove and really is trying to do it all himself. _
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09:28:10 AM, Friday 18 November 2005

Remi bought me the first season of The Gilmore Girls because he likes me and he rocks. It is really good, and funny, and, unlike the current season, doesn't make me cry. _
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07:50:44 PM, Saturday 12 November 2005

Presbyterians in Hell
Several people have asked questions about the Presbyterian understanding of hell and my own. Here is a nice article about current Presbyterian thought on hell.
Highlights:
In a 1996 Presbyterian Panel survey only 51 percent of members and 46 percent of pastors said they believed in hell.

"It's a theological problem," says Brian Blount, associate professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. "God is all-forgiving and all-loving, but might cast some people into a lake of fire. Theologians have been working on this for a long time."

"It's just not there in the Scriptures," says Eugene March, longtime professor of Old Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, speaking of a Dante-esque hell ruled by Satan to punish the wicked. He argues that contemporary readers often impose concepts on Biblical texts. "A hell in the sense that we talk about hell is a concept of the Middle Ages. Once you have that notion of hell, you may read about the 'lake of fire' or Gehenna (a garbage dump outside Jerusalem that burned perpetually) and say, 'Oh, that is what hell is.' But the text does not support it."

This last bit seems right to me. The Middle Ages was a sucky time to be alive, and I can't imagine that going or not going to church really helped all that much one way or another. There were a whole lot of illiterate, unhappy people who had to be presented with a simple, black and white reason to be religious.

To me, there is no particular reason to believe in an Inferno-like hell, and every reason to think that God is not the kind of God who damns people, that God is a God of love who asks only love in return. If the whole heaven/hell, damned/saved thing is true, I would rather go to hell than worship God. This same dilemma has caused many people to lose faith--for me it has just meant learning more about my own faith and finding people who think about God like I do. _
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08:34:49 AM, Saturday 12 November 2005

I am in Berkeley Springs, WV, which seems to be a nice enough place. Their Best Western is brand new and has wireless, at the very least. _
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06:14:14 PM, Monday 7 November 2005

I wasn't going to do it, but I just can't help myself. Amanda at Pandagon points us to Part II of Leon Kass's essay "Get Back in the Kitchen and Make Me Some Babies", oh, I mean "The End of Courtship", previously linked to by Mr. Dempsey.

It appears to be entirely about how women taking birth control pills, allowing us to control our menstrual cycles ourselves, lessening hormonal fluctuations and all the fun they bring, and preventing pregnancy, has the power to destroy the world. Amanda has so much fun with it, I will just link to that Little, round, effective at destroying Western Civilization.

My favorite passage:
Her menstrual cycle, since puberty a regular reminder of her natural maternal destiny, is now anovulatory and directed instead by her will and her medications, serving goals only of pleasure and convenience, enjoyable without apparent risk to personal health and safety.
Apparently he's married (to a very successful humanities professor) and has two daughters. He could have asked them what menstruation is like instead of saying something so silly. _
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11:55:00 AM, Monday 31 October 2005

What do Presbyterians do?
Who we are and what we believe doesn't really say all that much about what Presbyterians do that make them Presbyterian. Since we don't have to obey an orthodoxy, what really unites us is the things we do together.

Worship
Presbyterians believe men and women are called equally into all parts of the church--of the four pastors who serve my church, two are men and two are women. We baptize children as infants and then "confirm" them as teenagers, which is process of education and then welcoming them as full members of the church. Adults who have never been baptized can go through that whole process at once. Adults who are members of other Christian denominations are welcome to join our church. We take communion, the bread and wine (er...grapejuice, this is the South), to be a symbol and reminder of God's love for us and welcome all believers to join us at our table.

Presbyterians for the most part worship liturgically, meaning we follow a set order of things. This order was derived from Catholic liturgy, which was itself derived from Jewish liturgy. Bible readings for a given Sunday come from a list used by many other churches, but our pastors then put their own spin on it. My church uses mostly traditional, classical music, although we do incorporate music celebrating the diversity of backgrounds of the congregation. During the service we "pass the Peace", taking a couple of minutes to hug each other and introduce ourselves to visitors.

Service and Ministry
Presbyterians as a whole take our charge to go out in the world and help people very seriously. While, in the past, there was some emphasis on "evangelizing" in the traditional sense of trying to convert people to our ideas, we now have explicit written statements against, say, trying to convert Jews. I've never heard of a PCUSA program whose help to someone ever required them to believe or even hear about what we believe. Like most mainline religious folks in the US, Presbyterians are active in things like Habitat for Humanity and disaster assistance. My church here in Durham is located downtown and has historically been the one-stop place for both those who find themselves homeless due to sudden crisis and those who are chronically homeless. _
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07:34:11 AM, Sunday 30 October 2005

What do Presbyterians believe?
Okay, the first one was easy. This one is harder. I considered doing a history of Presbyterianism thing, but I was afraid everybody would fall asleep before we left Scotland. This one will be about the current teachings of the Presbyterian Church, as they have been taught to me. The extent to which I believe each of these things, I will perhaps get into at some other point.

The 21st century Presbyterian Church has not changed its fundamental beliefs all that much. We believe that the Bible was written by people inspired by God. Because it was inspired by God, it is precious to us. Because it was written down by people, who are flawed, over a long period of time and transcribed and translated and chopped up and put back together, we see the contradictions and problems in the text and seek to look beyond the mere words to try to understand what it can still say to us today. For those interested in such things, I think most of us use the New Revised Standard version or a similar modern, scholarly edition Bible.

The other important writings to Presbyterians are the Confessions, historic statements of doctrine by the Church from throughout its history. The entire Book of Confessions is of course now available in PDF form. The most recent confession, which we frequently use in worship services, can be read here and will give a fairly thorough going through of the doctrine of the church. I've included it in the comments for people's perusal. That page is part of the Presbyterian 101 section of the PCUSA webpage, which does much of what I am doing, but without my distinctly amusing style.

Many important beliefs of Presbyterianism came straight from John Calvin (who was dropped from the Program before I got to SJC, but I gather is a rather terrifying read). One of those is justification through faith alone--one cannot "earn" God's love through good works or lose it through bad. Another is the priesthood of all believers--while we have pastors who preach and provide leadership and care to the congregation, we are each charged with studying, understanding, teaching, and caring on our own. This is the theological explanation for the government system I described in the previous post. _
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08:36:58 PM, Saturday 29 October 2005

Cheap joke from Garrison Keillor:

Halloween is a Republican holiday. You scare everybody to death while grabbing as much as you can for yourself and worrying about the consequences later.

ba da bump. _
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08:06:01 PM, Saturday 29 October 2005

We interrupt the Presbyterianism to bring you this lovely news bit about my high school, courtesy of Laura: North Meck High erupts into chaos. I'm just so full of good old Viking pride. _
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12:42:18 PM, Friday 28 October 2005

Part I: What is a Presbyterian?
As my wonderfully literate audience knows, the Greek word presbyter means 'elder'. All Presbyterians of all stripes are ruled by a elected group of Elders, elected by all members of the congregation, based on their wisdom and call by God. No, they do not have to be old. The Elders form committees and run the congregation, and with input from the congregation and God, choose Pastors. Elders choose representatives who they send along with the Pastors to the Presbytery, which meets occasionally to form committees and discuss the church on a larger local scale. The Presbytery sends representatives to a Synod, which is larger, multi-state, and doesn't do a whole lot besides forming committees. They also send representatives to the nationwide General Assembly, which has lots of committees. Lots of committees.

To summarize--being Presbyterian fundamentally is a form of government where we elect people to run things. They run things by forming committees, having meetings, and discussing things endlessly until they figure out what to do. This makes us different from the episcopal form of church, such as Methodists and, well, Episcopalians, who are ruled over by bishops, in the same general model as Catholicism. We are also distinct from those who evolved from the Anabaptist tradition, who, traditionally, have no higher government to the church at all. Those of you who know about the Southern Baptist Convention are permitted to laugh at the irony, and weep for those whose tradition was lost.

In the United States today, most of us who identify as Presbyterian are members of the Presbyterian Church, USA. There are several other denominations of Presbyterians--two larger ones are the Presbyterian Church in America and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Both groups broke away from the group that is now the PCUSA over various issues (I think one was slavery and one was ordination of women, but I'm not sure which is which). The only thing all three still have in common is form of government. When I use the word "Presbyterian" from now on I will only be referring to the PCUSA, since I know next to nothing about any other type. _
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08:48:20 PM, Thursday 27 October 2005

One of the whole points of being a progressive Christian is that we don't spend a lot of time trying to convert other people to our viewpoint. However, a common argument heard is that the liberal among the religious need to be more active and louder if we don't like that anti-religious tone of a lot of liberal discussion. In addition, as was mentioned on Moss's blog, many people of all stripes think you have to be a fundamentalist to be religious, and that viewpoint is, of course, universal among fundamentalists. Finally, as a scientist, many of my coworkers believe that religion and science are completely incompatible.

In response to all of that, and the loveliness of the conversation on Moss's blog, and Tanya's beautiful post about Yom Kippur and her temple, I'm going to spend some time here talking about Presbyterianism, my religious beliefs, and my fantastic church here in Durham.

I'm sure I will be tedious and dull, but I welcome comments, especially those that keep in mind that I am trying to be completely honest in doing this. I will try to treat all commenters with respect and expect them to grant me the same courtesy. Oh, and I'm going to be very busy over the next couple of weeks (3 publications I'm trying to finish, a midterm and paper for class, and going to a conference in West Virginia), so I don't know how quickly this will all happen. _
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08:36:22 AM, Thursday 27 October 2005

Lean Kass, the eternal bringer of stupid ideas, has some more about what's wrong with girls these days. Apparently, if I would just give up all of my freedom, independence, education, etc, Noah's son wouldn't have had to see him naked. Or something. _
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08:20:32 AM, Saturday 22 October 2005

Apparently I made this post before, so now this post is intentionally left blank. _
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03:17:40 PM, Thursday 6 October 2005

Best. Movie. Ever. _
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12:27:11 AM, Saturday 1 October 2005

Amanda of Pandagon has adopted one of Tuxedo's long lost cousins. Many shelters find black cats hard to place, so I'm always happy to see someone else who has gained a shiny, happy friend who will never look dirty and is always dressed for formal occasions. _
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07:31:58 PM, Friday 30 September 2005

Friday Random Ten
1) See That My Grave Is Kept Clean--Blind Lemon Jefferson
2) Moving Mountains--David LaMotte
3) From Blown Speakers--New Pornographers
4) Where Do We Go From Here?--Buffy et al
5) Picture of You--My Morning Jacket
6) We're Both So Sorry--Mirah
7) Cordova--Indigo Girls
8) Do You Have Room?--Bela Fleck
9) Bop Til You Drop--The Ramones
10) The Way You Say Goodnight--The Magnetic Fields _
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09:27:38 AM, Friday 30 September 2005

You get more attention if your disaster doesn't happen in slow motion... _
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08:00:08 AM, Tuesday 27 September 2005

Marching band is bad for your hearing. As a former piccolo and tuba player, I kind of already knew that. _
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07:56:18 AM, Tuesday 27 September 2005

The future is worth fighting for!

Yes, I am counting down to the opening of a movie. Yes, I am a big nerd. No, I don't care. _
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08:36:51 AM, Monday 26 September 2005

Friday Random Ten
1) Dreaming My Dreams--The Cranberries
2) Home Sweet Home--Bela Fleck
3) Your Truth, Our Lies--Young Fresh Fellows
4) Dahmer Is Dead--Violent Femmes
5) Before I Met You--Flatt & Scruggs
6) There Is A Reason--Alison Krauss & Union Station
7) Reunion--Indigo Girls
8) Kiss Off--Violent Femmes
9) One Too Many Mornings--Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan
10) A Tiny Broken Heart--Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard _
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06:31:46 PM, Friday 23 September 2005

The biological determinists are wrong. _
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09:12:20 AM, Wednesday 21 September 2005

Billy Sothern has another article in Salon. _
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11:29:08 AM, Monday 19 September 2005

Duke professor Rob Jackson (who is the director of my program and whose lab my office is in, because that's where there was a desk available) wrote a really cool Op-ed about race in science. _
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06:02:48 PM, Saturday 17 September 2005

There are an awful lot of victim-blaming lies going around out there. This is the timeline:
"Friday, Aug. 26: Gov. Kathleen Blanco declares a state of emergency in Louisiana and requests troop assistance.

Saturday, Aug. 27: Gov. Blanco asks for federal state of emergency. A federal emergency is declared giving federal officials the authority to get involved.

Sunday, Aug. 28: Mayor Ray Nagin orders mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. President Bush warned of Levee failure by National Hurricane Center. National Weather Service predicts area will be "uninhabitable" after Hurricane arrives. First reports of water toppling over the levee appear in local paper.

Monday, Aug. 29: Levee breaches and New Orleans begins to fill with water, Bush travels to Arizona and California to discuss Medicare. FEMA chief finally responds to federal emergency, dispatching employees but giving them two days to arrive on site.

Tuesday, Aug. 30: Mass looting reported, security shortage cited in New Orleans. Pentagon says that local authorities have adequate National Guard units to handle hurricane needs despite governor's earlier request. Bush returns to Crawford for final day of vacation. TV coverage is around-the-clock Hurricane news.

Wednesday, Aug. 31: Tens of thousands trapped in New Orleans including at Convention Center and Superdome in "medieval" conditions. President Bush finally returns to Washington to establish a task force to coordinate federal response. Local authorities run out of food and water supplies.

Thursday, Sept. 1: New Orleans descends into anarchy. New Orleans Mayor issues a "Desperate SOS" to federal government. Bush claims nobody predicted the breach of the levees despite multiple warnings and his earlier briefing.

Friday, Sept. 2: Karl Rove begins Bush administration campaign to blame state and local officials—despite their repeated requests for help. Bush stages a photo-op—diverting Coast Guard helicopters and crew to act as backdrop for cameras. Levee repair work orchestrated for president's visit and White House press corps.

Saturday, Sept. 3: Bush blames state and local officials. Senior administration official (possibly Rove) caught in a lie claiming Gov. Blanco had not declared a state of emergency or asked for help.

Monday, Sept. 5: New Orleans officials begin to collect their dead." _
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08:45:36 AM, Thursday 8 September 2005

Anti-death penalty lawyer, New Orleans refugee, and Johnny (A '98) Billy Sothern has an article in Salon today about race, New Orleans, and the hurricane. _
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10:30:41 AM, Monday 5 September 2005

Gulf Coast Johnnies. Spread the word that there is a webpage to help track down Johnnies who may have been affected by Katrina. It looks like several people from our era aren't accounted for yet, so, if you know how to get in touch with them, help out. _
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12:46:36 PM, Friday 2 September 2005

The guy on the news said he had spent last night in the New Orleans Convention Center with several thousand other people, but had left in the middle of the night because of all of the people shot to death.

I spent a week in that convention center in May. I gave a talk on stream restoration in the Southeast and heard a ton of stuff about stream ecology and caught up with all my friends from UGA.

I can not begin to comprehend what has transformed a perfectly nice convention center into a place where people are being shot to death during a natural disaster. _
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07:00:53 PM, Thursday 1 September 2005

I spent a week in New Orleans back in May. The tourists were appalling (as was the smell they left behind). But the little coffee shops and antique stores and book stores and the actual people who live there were wonderful. We did the Cafe du Monde beignet thing and spent an evening in their amazing aquarium. I can't believe it's all just going to wash away. _
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07:16:06 PM, Sunday 28 August 2005

The Rabbi's Cat wishes to be Jewish too. A new graphic novel (for Remi). _
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12:26:03 PM, Friday 19 August 2005

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