Article about Unconscious Bias

A really interesting article, "Unconscious Bias Is Running for President," by Rebecca Solnit.

https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-unconscious-bias-is-running-for-president/?fbclid=IwAR1tMpG6wyh3FGcDMnXoUuc2AV-isHT1b9CFz_xDjuDLPnNv0dA2L-CiqyI

Greta Thunberg

Good piece about Greta Thunberg, who has really caught the moment concerning climate change.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/23/greta-thunberg-speech-un-2019-address

John Coltrane's 93rd

Jazz great John Coltrane was born on this day (September 23) in 1926. A friend shared with me this  interesting article about his musical roots in African American religious culture.

https://www.wbgo.org/post/deep-dive-presence-past-john-coltranes-expressive-and-searching-music?fbclid=IwAR1RExfFFJy3gOaPM0oSdpIYwJhE4Peuh2Pm0_cch0W1W4BwpdZFcddZeNc#stream/0

(Photo from this article: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/blog/on-the-50th-anniversary-of-his-death-12-fascinating-facts-about-john-coltrane-1.4209266 )

Shawshank Redemption

"The Shawshank Redemption" was released in U.S. theaters 25 years ago today. As folks know, it didn't do well at the box office but did better with VHS rentals and took off in popularity and esteem via the TNT network.

The big hole in the story (no pun intended) is how Andy would have time to get into town, visit so many Portland banks, buy a car, and go way out in the country to leave money and a letter for Red, and then leave Maine for Ft. Hancock, TX--all while undetected. But the story has such a message of hope, that I don't care about that difficulty.

(Photos copied under fair use principles.)

Wonderful Way to Say It

(Copied from Facebook's "Life's Simple Truths" page)

A Grateful Divvie

Forty years ago this month, I began my MDiv program at Yale Divinity School. Here is the text of my September 2, 2009 post, when I reflected on the 30th anniversary:  

August turned to September, and a thought popped into my head today: my arrival at Yale Divinity School for my masters degree was thirty years ago, sometime about now but I don‘t recall the exact date. I was a student at YDS in 1979-1982.

I knew I was in trouble the minute I drove up the narrow driveway off Prospect Street and stepped into the brick complex (designed on the order of the University of Virginia). I felt a rush of happiness that felt exactly like falling in love with someone. I knew I was in trouble, because I felt I belonged here but I couldn’t stay forever. This was, after all, only a three year program.

I won’t write here about the friends and acquaintances of the time, although that part of YDS was as important to me as the academic program, a little more so. I’m the kind of person who feels that, however successful a situation might have been by some standards, it was unsuccessful if I didn’t come away from it with positive relationships. YDS was a place of great friendships which have endured over all these years. Now we’re all in our fifties and have been through all kinds of life experiences. Ironically, I arrived at YDS more painfully shy than I felt when starting college, for my college had been a lonely experience.

Not all my YDS courses were worthwhile. An otherwise interesting social ethics class was cut short by the professor’s travels in search of a new job, since he’d not gotten tenure there. Seminars related to parish ministry would’ve been more useful if I’d had more experience; without that, I missed a lot of what I should’ve been learning about the subtleties of church leadership. Plus, those classes tended to be dominated by folk who loved to hear themselves talk. A professor who swore like a sailor taught a preaching course. I remember very little about the class but that.

I loved my classes on the Bible, though, taught by Brevard S. Childs, R. Lansing Hicks, and Luke T. Johnson. I still have several course texts and still build upon the things I learned in those four semesters. I also loved the theological courses taught by former dean Robert Clyde Johnson. He read his lectures, old school, but as we students frantically tried to take notes we felt grateful to be in the presence of such a passionate, probing mind. (Johnson had suffered a very major heart attack in the late 1970s and I was advised to take a class with him as soon as possible. He lived until 2002.)

Two other wonderful professors were Hans Frei and Colin W. Williams. Frei taught in the Religious Studies dept. down the street, but I took his seminar in Schleiermacher and chatted with him about doctoral work. He wrote a kind and supportive letter of recommendation for me later. Williams taught a course in Methodist theology and history. I admit I would’ve rather taken another Barth seminar at that late point in my degree, but Williams’ course was very lively and enjoyable. He, too, wrote me a wonderful letter for my grad school applications. Taoists are correct: life is best approached as a flow. Ten years later I was unexpectedly hired in Kentucky to teach a series of courses in Methodist studies, and that seminary class prepared me well.

For some reason I never thanked Dr. Johnson in later years but I did send appreciative notes to these other profs. Dr. Hicks stopped reading his e-mail as he grew very ill, but his son-in-law found my note--expressing how much his Old Testament class had inspired and taught me over the years--and read it to him just days before he died. Sometimes you’re so glad you took the time to express gratitude to someone.

Unfortunately I never thanked the late B. Davie Napier for his course in the prophets. This was a bad omission on my part, because the course--not really an academically rigorous course but one in which we sat around chatting a lot--was once of the most influential of all. I may have taken it because I needed a few more Bible credits for ordination. The recent death of Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker movement (I’d never heard of her or it) made me think deeply about social justice issues, and Napier’s course intensified my interest. The course also influenced my teaching style, in the way I try to create a comfortable, positive classroom atmosphere in my classes.

I must add my good fortune of rooming next to a Yale School of Music student, who became a great friend and opened to me a nascent love of music.

In parish ministry, I sometimes found that, whenever I told a colleague that I’d gone to Yale Divinity school, I‘d get a weird reaction, implying, Oh, I must not be a people-person if I went to such an academic place. Supposedly-ivory-tower professors have not been put-off by my clergy credentials the way a few fellow pastors have wrinkled noses about my academic degree. Actually, at YDS, I became truly passionate to help people. It drew me out of my shy shell and gave me three years of honest, caring conversations with people who were posed at the same life-moment: between being called and plunging into some kind of service.

Here is a photo of the campus, which I borrowed from the school's website. Over the years, I never felt a compulsion to revisit YDS. My new wife and I stopped by the campus during our New England vacation in 1985, after classes were out, but that is all. I’ve never returned for a reunion, and during a 2006 New England vacation we had time to swing by New Haven, but I felt no need. The importance of YDS to me is not simply the campus, after all, but the friends, acquaintances, professors and experiences. I’ve served as a class fund-raising agent, however, and now I’ve taken on a new gig as class secretary, so I’ve tried to give back to the school in addition to yearly contributions. I’ve also prayed for students over the years that they might find a special place--if not YDS then a similar place, but hopefully YDS--which will nourish their lives with friendship, important courses, and cherished memories.

Birmingham Church Bombing Anniversary

The Birmingham church bombing, which killed four young girls and injured many, happened on this day in 1963.

https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/birmingham-church-bombing

RIP Ric Ocasek

So sorry to learn of the death of musician Ric Ocasek. The Cars were all over the radio when I started seminary in 1979, and they were so important for that Eighties sound and fashion. #seminarymemories

https://pagesix.com/2019/09/15/the-cars-frontman-ric-ocasek-found-dead-in-manhattan-townhouse/

Happy Birthday, Michael Haydn!

A few years ago I discovered the symphonies of Michael Haydn (1737-1806), Joseph's brother and purchased them on two CD box sets. Also, one of my Pandora channels is Michael Haydn, which provides a great selection of classical-era music by him and numerous others. Although it seems unlikely that Michael will become as well known as his brother, he wrote over forty symphonies, numerous other instrumental works, as well as religious works that his brother preferred to his own. Like Joseph, he began in music as a chorister at Vienna's St. Stephen's--one of my favorite places in the world--and had a long career as Kapellmeister at Grosswardein and Salzburg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK1UZgYPk1E

Happy 250th Birthday, Humboldt!

Today (Sept. 14th) is the 250th anniversary of the birth of naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. It's been fun to become aware of Humboldt during his anniversary times (he died 160 years ago last May). As this article indicates, he was the first to develop an understanding of ecosystems, wrote (in the 1830s) about the dangers of deforestation and human-caused climate change, and brought the ancient Greek word "cosmos" into modern usage to describe interrelations on earth and in space, and between physical reality and human art and feeling. He influenced a wide range of people like Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, Thoreau, artist Frederic Edwin Church, Walt Whitman, and many others. Thoreau figured out how to write "Walden" after he read Humboldt. Beth and I enjoyed visiting Humboldt University in Berlin this past June.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/climate/the-forgotten-man-of-science

See my earlier posts about Humboldt: http://paulstroble.blogspot.com/search/label/Humboldt%20%28Alexander%20von%29

Waiting on the Lord

"Waiting for God” was a British sitcom (1990-1994) about a two rebellious residents of a retirement home. It has been shown on American PBS stations over the years. The title is a comically bleak reference to death, all the residents have to look forward to, so the two of them (Tom, whose dementia seems partly feigned, and the gruff Diana) decide to raise some hell.

I love the biblical expression “waiting for (or on) the Lord.” There are numerous Bible passages that concern this subject: Psalm 27:14, 39:7, 52:8-9, 62:1-12, Lamentations 3:25, Isaiah 40:29-31 (that one is quite well known and affirming), Isaiah 51:1, Galatians 6:9, and numerous others. In the New Testament, the theme of waiting connects not only to God’s providential care for our lives but also the Christ’s second coming.

I don’t wait well. Being stuck in traffic or a slow line, etc., make me anxious, although I think I’m more patient today than I used to be, thanks to self-calming strategies that are helpful. My family might dispute that, LOL, but I see my own slow progress. Nevertheless, impatience is a common trait, and a sermon I preached on this subject years ago became a real connection among several of us who fail to have inner peace while waiting.

Waiting on the Lord is difficult because we don’t know God’s timing or all God’s purposes. Just because we’ve “claimed a promise” about God’s provision, doesn’t mean that God is obligated to act in that way, or according to our timing. In my experience, I’ve felt both very let down by God and thankful for God’s care, within a “big picture” context of God’s ongoing and faithful provision for me and my family.

It’s a tricky balance to live one’s life conscious of the importance of waiting for God. On one hand, God wants us to “be still” and trust in God (Ps. 46:10), and not always take matters in our own hands. For instance, some of us try to browbeat others to believe or behave like we do. But we need to trust the Lord to work in those persons’ lives, according to the Spirit’s timing, not ours---and, after all, maybe the Spirit wants us to see things in ourselves to change.  

On the other hand, Gal. 6:9 and other verses indicate that we’re going to be active in our faith, and we might grow weary and discouraged in our efforts to serve the Lord. If I’m waiting on the Lord to the extent that I’m doing nothing, that’s the wrong approach, too. (Remember that corny joke about the person who refused the help rescuers in a flood, because he was trusting the Lord's help. When he was killed in the flood and went to heaven, he protested that he’d prayed for God’s help, and St. Peter tells him, “We sent two boats and a helicopter!”)

Waiting on the Lord is a balance: neither absolute stillness and inactivity, nor frantic productivity that tacitly indicates we don’t really trust God to work unless we cover all the bases ourselves beforehand. My own struggle is definitely the latter.

Waiting on the Lord is also important to keep in mind when we face disappointments in life: people who got promoted instead of us, illness that struck, opportunities that never opened up, prayers that we can’t perceive were ever answered, people's coldness. We become insecure about many things. We can’t always turn off our painful feelings and the strategies we use to feel better and cover ourselves. But we can address those feelings and strategies by focusing upon the Lord, who does not disdain our human struggles.

“Waiting on the Lord” is a matter of dependency on God, and many of us don’t like to be dependent on anyone, including God. But that Isaiah 40:29-31 passage indicates that waiting is a source of great strength and renewal.

He gives power to the faint,
   and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
   and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
   they shall walk and not faint.

That’s a wonderful promise for those of us for whom waiting just upsets us and freaks us out.

(A post from 2013)

Beethoven's Ninth, Freude!

Sirius XM's "Symphony Hall" station had a top-75 countdown over the Labor Day weekend. Listeners had voted for their favorite pieces. I enjoyed listening to the station off and on over the weekend. #2 was Dvorak's New World Symphony. I figured #1 must be Beethoven's Ninth, or possibly Vaughan Williams' "The Lark Ascending" which tops British polls of this kind. Sure enough, it was Beethoven's Ninth.

When I was little, I loved the Peanuts comics and enjoyed getting paperback collections of the strips. Nearly every December 16, the story concerned Beethoven’s birthday and Schroeder’s celebration of it. Of course, Schroeder also performed Beethoven sonatas and other works on his toy piano.

Thus inspired by a favorite comic strip, I liked certain Beethoven compositions when I was young. In those days, the Huntley-Brinkley evening news on NBC concluded with the scherzo from Beethoven’s Ninth. I wrote NBC to find out the title and got a letter back!

Subsequently, I found a used LP of the symphony at our hometown library’s annual book sale. I Googled what I remembered of that old album and actually found a copy at this site:
https://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Symphony-No-Minor-Choral/dp/B008CL8B64  I "borrowed" the photographs of the album from there. Here is some information about the recording itself, which is from 1956: https://www.pristineclassical.com/products/pasc293 What fun to relive a childhood memory of such a beloved symphony.

Prophetic Witness Prudence Crandall

On the Episcopal calendar, Prudence Crandall (1803-1890) is honored today, the anniversary of her birth, as a prophetic witness. She was a Quaker school teacher who admitted an African American student into her private school in Canterbury, Ct, the first integrated classroom in the U.S. The student was named Sarah Harris, who wanted to teach other free blacks. Crandall refused to expel Harris when townspeople objected. Crandall shortly opened a school for African American girls, and effort supported by William Lloyd Garrison. Crandall suffered legal repercussions, including a night in jail, and a new Connecticut law (on the books for five years) that preheated schools for black students from outside the state, without local permission. Violence by townspeople forced Crandall finally to close the school. She was finally vindicated by the town and state and was recognized for her courageous work.

Here are sites about her:
https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/prudence-crandall/
http://connecticuthistory.org/prudence-crandall-fights-for-equal-access-to-education/
http://www.cwhf.org/inductees/education-preservation/prudence-crandall#.V8qxlztpCT8

Harris (1812-1878) went on to be an abolitionist and activist and has a dormitory named for her at the University of Rhode Island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Harris_Fayerweather

(A post from 2016)