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Weekly Meanderings, 6 December 2014

Weekly Meanderings, 6 December 2014

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 10:07 pm by Scot McKnight

Weekly Meanderings, 6 December 2014 2015-03-13T22:07:35-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Yes, let’s do it! The Steffen method of boarding a plane.

In this approach, often called the Steffen method, adjacent passengers in line will be seated two rows apart from each other. The first wave of passengers would be, in order, 30A, 28A, 26A, 24A, and so on, starting from the back. (For a typical airplane there would be 12 such waves, one for each seat in a row and for odd and even rows.)

Pic credit.

Do you eat eggs for breakfast?

Katie Zezima, liberals and conservatives agree on this one:

Controversial court rulings are often followed by protests. Or confrontation. Or social unrest. This week’s decision by a grand jury not to indict a New York City police officer in the death of a Staten Island man added an unexpected entry to the list: rare bipartisan consensus.

Opinions on a grand jury’s decision not to bring charges against a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager were largely split along party lines. Republicans generally approved the decision, while many Democrats did not.

The political reaction to a New York grand jury’s decision not to indict a police officer in the death of Eric Garner, who died after the officer put him in a choke hold, has resulted in a rare consensus, with both conservatives and liberals reacting with outrage to the decision.

“There is no excuse that I can think of for choking a man to death for selling illegal cigarettes,” wrote Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. “This is someone being choked to death. We have it on video with the man pleading for his life. There is no excuse for that I can even contemplate or imagine right now.”

Jon Merritt’s excellent collection of black leaders responding to Ferguson and NYC.

SMcK: I make one point. The national conversation in Ferguson was about racism; the national conversation in Staten Island became police brutality. Justice can move forward in the USA if we reduce police brutality and those most to gain are African American males. By reducing violence we establish less racist and unrestrained violence.

Pete Enns has a nice post about passages about God in the Old Testament that have helped him in his faith. [HT: JS]

Sing or dance?

Jessie Eisinger and Justin Elliott:

The American Red Cross regularly touts how responsible it is with donors’ money. “We’re very proud of the fact that 91 cents of every dollar that’s donated goes to our services,” Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern said in a speech in Baltimore last year. “That’s world class, obviously.”

McGovern has often repeated that figure, which has also appeared on the charity’s website. “I’m really proud” that overhead expenses are so low, she told a Cleveland audience in June.

The problem with that number: It isn’t true.

After inquiries by ProPublica and NPR, the Red Cross removed the statement from itswebsite. The Red Cross said the claim was not “as clear as it could have been, and we are clarifying the language.”

The Red Cross declined repeated requests to say the actual percentage of donor dollars going to humanitarian services.

But the charity’s own financial statements show that overhead expenses are significantly more than what McGovern and other Red Cross officials have claimed.

In recent years, the Red Cross’ fundraising expenses alone have been as high as 26 cents of every donated dollar, nearly three times the nine cents in overhead claimed by McGovern. In the past five years, fundraising expenses have averaged 17 cents per donated dollar.

A good reason to know about Excellence in Giving.

Walk or run?

Statement of the week: Don Lemon, in an interview on CNN with Chris Cuomo, when Chris was pressing against (almost) the legitimacy of Charles Barkley’s Ferguson comments — unvarnished articulation of his sometimes unpopular opinions — said “We have to stop demonizing people for telling us what they think.” [Approximate words.] Don Lemon is right and importantly right. To silence the voice of some will make them go underground and wait for an opportunity to erupt.

I’m sorry, but it’s hard for me (an outside observer) to see how this is consistent with Pope Francis.

At a time when Pope Francis is calling on clergy to live more simply, a Chicago-based abbey has purchased a lakefront Sheboygan mansion as a hermitage for its last remaining monk and a private retreat center for a small society of priests who work to preserve the Latin Mass and other traditional rites of the Roman Catholic Church.

Christ the King Abbey, a once schismatic Alabama monastery that reconciled with the church in 2011, bought the 7,112-square-foot estate at 2528 N. 3rd St. for $700,000 earlier this month.

It will be home to Brother Sebastian Glentz, one of two Benedictine hermits who brought the Alabama abbey back into communion with Rome; and a spiritual refuge for the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius in Chicago, a traditionalist community with whom he now lives.

Glentz — who is known as “Father,” though he is not a priest under church law — said he does not consider the 17-room home overlooking Lake Michigan ostentatious, given its intended purpose as a retreat center.

And the Rev. C. Frank Phillips, who heads the Canons Regular in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, said the purchase is “not really” out of step with Pope Francis, who himself lives in a suite of rooms in the Vatican guesthouse.

[HT: PEP]

Excellent professor Ken Schenck’s review of the revision of Don Dayton’s important book. Worth a good read. [HT: JS]

Camp Bow Wow and non-compete clauses for workers, yes, that’s right:

It’s so absurd it almost seems like a Woody Allen-esque meditation on the limits of capitalism. But here it is: Camp Bow Wow, a dog-sitting chain, makes its workers sign non-compete agreements that bar them from plying any of the “trade secrets” they learn walking dogs at any other animal day care centers for up to two years, according to the Huffington Post. The company declined to discuss the matter with HuffPo.

Sue Manning:

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Some silken-haired beauties are eager sidekicks to motorcycle riders, wind whipping their thick locks as passers-by watch the wild ride with envy. That is until the slobber starts.

These passengers are pooches – mastiffs, Labradors and Chihuahuas often clad in goggles and tiny leather jackets that fly along in blimp-shaped buckets attached to the side of motorcycles. They are set apart from other pets by speed instead of breed.

They are also the stars of “Sit Stay Ride: The Story of America’s Sidecar Dogs,” a documentary that was largely funded by an online crowdfunding campaign and gives a quarter of its proceeds to shelters and rescues. The movie is also available for free to any animal welfare agency wanting to screen it as a fundraiser.

The documentary by filmmaking couple Eric and Geneva Ristau is the unique story of 15 dogs and 18 riders who spend all the time they can on three wheels.

Allan Bevere, Ferguson, churches and racial reconciliation — let the pastors show the way:

Many of us know the old adage– Sunday morning is the most segregated time in America. We Christians have been very comfortable staying within our “own groups.” Those groups are not only racial, but that is my focus in this post. The followers of Jesus Christ who have the ministry of reconciliation have failed to show the culture around us what that reconciliation looks like in Christ between people whose skin colors differ. We have worked to change laws, but not hearts; what we ultimately have is a heart problem.

The day after the grand jury decision to acquit Officer Wilson, I placed a phone call to an African American pastor I met several weeks ago at a luncheon. We exchanged contact information to schedule a time to meet for lunch. But I suppose with the busyness of our days, neither one of us contacted the other.

So, on Wednesday of last week I called him and we are going to meet for lunch. I want to talk with him about Ferguson and the larger issues that have once again bubbled to the surface. I will do some talking, but first and foremost I will be listening. I will be listening to his story because I know that is the only way I am going to learn. And I also hope we can discuss how our two communities of faith might get to know each other, that we might listen to one another, and to share our different stories in the larger narrative of the story of the gospel that all of us embrace.

And not only do I want to build relationships in general, I want to build relationships as Christians who gather for worship and who gather around the Table of our common Lord. I believe that reconciliation can be found at that Table. As Christians it’s time for us to step back somewhat and focus a little less on doing (though that should not be neglected) and work on just being– just being the one Body of Christ in all our diversity, knowing that our common faith puts that diversity in divine context.It’s time for the church of Jesus Christ to take seriously its ministry of reconciliation, including racial reconciliation in the church itself. Only then can we be that witness, that city on a hill shining forth to the world that racism, even in its most subtle forms is not the way of God.

Nancy Beach, Mary and women during Advent:

This is why all of us would do well to return again and again to the moments described in the gospels as Jesus ennobled and treasured the contributions of women. Jesus was a radical on many fronts, including his view of women. So as we approach Christmas, I urge women to be inspired by Mary. Know that our God SEES you, that He will not abandon you, that He has a vital role for you to play and will equip you with what you need. The road may be extremely difficult on many days, but please do not despair and do not give up! Take your seat at whatever table you are invited to join. Find your voice and speak up with that rare combination of grace and truth. Lean into other women (and men as well) for support and understanding – do not do this journey alone!

Emily Yahr, on sleep:

Although there is debate about the magic number of sleeping hours, experts here recommend a solid eight. That said, 40 percent of American adults are sleep-deprived; the average American sleeps less than seven hours per night during the week. Meanwhile, 70 percent of adolescents also fall behind the recommended amount.

Lack of sleep is a serious problem in our constantly moving, 24/7 society: People are getting thousands of hours less sleep than they once were. As the documentary puts it, sleep is being “decimated” by our overstimulated culture with so much technology and gadgetry that distracts everyone all the time. Plus, people are overworked, so they no longer have enough time to do the things they want during the week. As a result, they stay up even later on weekends so they can compensate.

The Best (Six) Years of Your Life — college:

College, as the saying goes, is supposed to be the best four years of your life. But there’s increasingly a new norm for students: spending six years getting a degree.

Even the government now measures whether students graduate on time if they do it within six years, rather than four.

Taking longer to graduate isn’t cheap. It costs $15,933 more in tuition, fees and room and board for every extra year at a public two-year college and $22,826 for every added year at a public four-year college, according to anew report by the nonprofit Complete College America.

At a time when total student debt has surpassed $1 trillion, getting students to graduate on time has become critical.

So what’s the reason behind students spending so much extra time getting their degrees?

Colleges have added too many unnecessary degree requirements and remedial courses that keep students in school for much longer than needed, according to the report.

How long did it take you to graduate? Your children?

What to say?

Americans are obsessed with parenting advice. Bloggers, magazines, whole Web sites urge us to do more. Or less. Be more Chinese, they implore. Or more French.

But despite this constant flow of advice, we have very little idea how to make kids happy. Quantitative measures show that American children areamong the most miserable in the developed world, and there’s a growing gap between our kids and those in other nations. America’s teens “trail much of the world on measures of school achievement, but are among the world leaders in violence, unwanted pregnancy, STDs, abortion, binge drinking, marijuana use, obesity, and unhappiness,” according toadolescence scholar Larry Steinberg.

At their core, a country’s policies and practices are driven by belief systems. And while other developed countries are taking a supportive attitude toward their future citizens, America seems mired in the ancient, dehumanizing beliefs about children that will continue to hold our kids back, and eventually the country as well.

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