Lisa Larges' Ordination Pathway Cleared

Although I have never met this woman personally, I have followed her journey online and in Presbyterian history. I'm celebrating with/for her this week as I've been reading the news reports such as this one from the San Jose Mercury News...

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San Jose Mercury News
By Rebecca Rosen Lum
STAFF WRITER

Article Launched: 01/16/2008 02:57:34 AM PST

A gay woman seeking ordination as a Presbyterian minister might achieve her
longtime goal before foes can appeal a decision supporting her quest.

After 21/2 hours of debate Tuesday night, the San Francisco Presbytery
skirted the denomination's rules, voting 167 to 151 to consider Lisa Larges
for the ministry.

Although an appeal could delay a final decision by at least 18 months,
Larges could be ordained in her home church, San Francisco's Noe Valley
Ministry, before opponents can act.

Tuesday's debate drew record attendance for the presbytery, which meets six
times a year.

"I didn't used to think about my ordination because I didn't think we'd get
here, but I'm ready to go for it," she said after the debate and vote at
Richmond's First Presbyterian Church.

The decision filled her with joy, she said. "I am deeply, deeply grateful,"
said Larges, 44, who directs That All May Freely Serve, a national
organization the supports and advocates for gay Presbyterian clergy.

Others were not joyous.

"What has happened here tonight has violated the constitution of the
Presbyterian Church USA," said the Rev. Mary Holder Naegeli, a Walnut Creek
minister and a member of the presbytery's committee on preparation for the
ministry.

The Rev. Mark Stryker, associate pastor of Moraga Valley Presbyterian
Church, said the bid to advance her ordination was a disruptive move.

Her advocates spoke of values above sectarian rules and of Larges' personal
qualities.

"I believe in the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered
people," said Charles Mann, an elder from Ocean Avenue Presbyterian Church
in San Francisco. "God looks at the heart, not at the race, the gender, the
sexual orientation." The Rev. Will McGarvey, pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Pittsburg, spoke to the delegates of "her wit, her humor, her joyful way of
being with and for people."

A committee report effusively praised Larges.

"We rarely see people so gifted," it says. "Lisa has proven through her
life in ministry that she is a beautiful demonstration of the Christian
gospel."

Opponents said they were disappointed and surprised by the close vote, and
predicted a nationwide backlash.

The question before the delegates was whether to ignore the denomination's
long-standing position that candidates for ordination must be married to
someone of the opposite gender or be single and chaste.

In 2006, the denomination's General Assembly affirmed its support for the
dictum but permitted local ordaining bodies to make exceptions.

Larges must now submit to an intensive oral exam.

Larges has tread this ground before. After she graduated from seminary
school in 1989, a Minnesota committee certified her ready to seek a call.
Her appeal of the objection went to the national church court but was
ultimately rejected.

Presbyteries in New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Northern California
have actively gay ordained ministers, said Richard Lindsay, a spokesman for
That All May Freely Serve.

The San Francisco Presbytery encompasses San Francisco, Contra Costa,
Alameda and San Mateo counties.

Rebecca Rosen Lum covers religion. Reach her at rrosenlum@bayareanewsgroup.
www.mercurynews.com

______________________________________________________________________

More on Abortion Rate Decline

Kevin Drum looks at the state-by-state numbers on abortions and sees that some of the biggest declines came states with the easiest access to contraception and abortion:

Here are the basic numbers: excluding miscarriages, the pregnancy rate among women aged 15-44 has dropped by 13 per thousand since 1990. At the same time, the abortion rate has dropped by 8 per thousand. By itself this isn't conclusive, but it strongly suggests that the reduced abortion rate is mostly due to fewer unwanted pregnancies in the first place. If increased regulation were the prime driver, you'd be more likely to see the pregancy rate staying about the same while abortions drop, and you'd be more likely to see bigger drops in states with more regulation. But that hasn't been the case. So yes: better access to contraception, better education, and better access to the morning after pill seem to have made a difference over time. For anyone who's pro-life but not anti-sex, that ought to be good news.

Friday with Sampson and Sadie

Their favorite morning pastime.

The Candidates We Choose

David Brooks notices this about our Republican and Democratic choices:

It is no accident that the major candidates in the Republican field are a pastor, a businessman and a war hero. These are the three most evocative Republican leadership models. Nor is it an accident that the Democratic race is a clash between a daughter of the feminist movement, a beneficiary of the civil rights movement and a self-styled proletarian. These are powerful Democratic categories.

Buy Less Credit Card

Methodists in Great Britain are offering a unique kind of credit card:

In a move that is designed as a challenge to "consumerism as usual" and a reminder of the dominance of money in our lives, the Methodist Church in Britain has launched an alternative Credit Card containing a "buy less" message.

The new Methodist campaign is encouraging people to consume less and live more this Lent, the traditional time of Christian reflection and life review, which remembers the Gospel story of Jesus' sojourn in the desert - when he was tempted, and rejected, various offers of wealth and power.

The alternative Buy Less: Live More credit card cannot be used to make purchases. Rather, it is designed to be placed in a wallet in front of other credit and debit cards to remind people to think twice before they spend.

Buy Less: Live More aims to challenge people to curb their spending and shrink their carbon footprint.

Abortion Numbers Down

From the Los Angeles Times:

A comprehensive study of abortion in America underscores a striking change in the landscape, with ever-fewer pregnant women choosing abortion and those who do increasingly opting to avoid surgical clinics.

The number of abortions has plunged to 1.2 million a year, down 25% since peaking in 1990, according to a report released today -- days before the 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion...

Women looking to end early pregnancies are gravitating to medication abortions, in which they take two pills under a doctor's supervision to induce miscarriage. This approach lets them avoid surgery -- and the protesters who often picket clinics -- and expel the embryo in the privacy of their homes. The Food and Drug Administration approved the pills in 2000 for use through the seventh week of pregnancy.

By 2005, the most recent year covered by the report, the pills accounted for 13% of all abortions.

Dharma Index

From Religious News Service:

Financial news powerhouse Dow Jones & Company has launched new "dharma indexes" to track the stocks of companies that observe the values of dharma-based religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

The Dow Jones Dharma Indexes are the first to measure dharma-compliant stocks and now track more than 3,400 companies globally, including about 1,000 in the U.S., according to the company. In addition to the global index, Dow Jones has created dharma indexes for the U.S., Britain, Japan and India.

Dharma Investments, a private faith-based Indian firm, partnered with Dow Jones to create the indexes. "The principle of dharma contains precepts relevant to good conduct, but also the implicit requirement of mindfulness about the sources of wealth--and therefore responsible investing," said Dharma Investment CEO Nitesh Gor.

Advisory committees of religious leaders and scholars will screen and monitor companies' environmental policies, corporate governance, labor relations and human rights, among other criteria. Companies from business sectors deemed un-dharmic, such as weapons manufacturers, pharmaceuticals, casinos and alcohol, are barred from the index.

Meditation on Causing Pain

Today from Beliefnet's Daily Buddhist Wisdom...


All beings tremble before violence.
All fear death.
All love life.

See yourself in others.
Then whom can you hurt?
What harm can you do?

-Dhammapada 129-130
From "365 Buddha: Daily Meditations," edited by Jeff Schmidt. Reprinted by arrangement with Tarcher/Putnam, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.

COB Joins CCT

Don't you just love acronyms.

The Church of the Brethren has officially joined Christian Churches Together, a new ecumenical organization that is apparently attempting to bridge theological divisions. From the COB Newsline:

On Jan. 11, the new ecumenical organization Christian Churches Together completed its second annual meeting in Baltimore at the Maritime Institute. Representatives of 37 participating churches and six organizations attended. CCT's main objectives are evangelism and domestic poverty, and the organization seeks to bring Christians from across the theological and denominational spectrum together for fellowship and common witness.

The Church of the Brethren was one of seven new churches and organizations received into CCT during the opening worship service on Jan. 8. The other new participants are the American Bible Society, Elim Fellowship, Habitat For Humanity, the Mennonite Church USA, the Polish National Catholic Church, and the Vineyard USA.

"It was a very simple but meaningful ceremony. They called us forward, identified us, and gave thanks to God for us in prayer," said James Beckwith, moderator of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference.He was one of two delegates representing the Brethren, along with Michael Hostetter, chair of the Committee on Interchurch Relations.

"I think our part in the CCT is intended to complement our work with other ecumenical groups, not to compete with other national associations," Hostetter said. "It is intended as a much more broadly based national Christian organization and to bring a variety of Christian expression at the table."

You can read more about the CCT at their website.

The two Georges and the two Dianes on Obscenity and Indecency

When I was a teen I bought George Carlin's album Class Clown because it contained a brilliant satire on obscenity titled "The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television". (And yes, I can still recite those words from memory from Carlin's routine.) My mom heard it when I was playing it and promptly threw out my album in an attempt for parental censoring. I promptly bought another copy. So there's the first lesson on trying to clearly define and outlaw obscenity--humans will be humans!

This morning in the news I read that:

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On "Good Morning America" to promote her new film "Mad Money," Keaton told host Diane Sawyer that she admired her beauty, especially Sawyer's lips, saying that if she had lips like that she wouldn't have had to work on her "f---ing personality" and would be married by now.

After she spoke the word, Keaton made an offhand apology, and Sawyer warned that her mother was going to wash her mouth out with soap.

ABC News senior vp Jeffrey Schneider said the network bleeped the word for the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zone feeds and regretted the incident.

"It was obviously unfortunate, and we were quick to correct it for subsequent feeds," he said.

Last year, a federal appeals court in New York threw out the FCC's rule that said a fleeting reference gets broadcasters a fine for indecency. In its decision, the court told the commission that it failed to give a good reason for its decision and likely couldn't find a good reason if it had to.

The Bush administration is appealing the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Congress has also taken action. Briefs are due in the appeal next month.

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At the time Carlin was developing his Seven Words routine, we were entrenched in Vietnam. Today we are up to our necks in Iraq and Afganistan. It's sad to see that the U.S. government leaders have not learned to better order their priorities over the past 35 year

I think I will go dig out my old 33 1/3 lp of Class Clown and give it a spin now. I need a good laugh to keep me from crying--or cursing!

Amend the Constitution to Bring it in Line with God

Mike Huckabee has a certain folksy appeal. And to an extent the success of his candidacy is a fitting response to the way political conservatives have toyed with evangelicals over the years, mouthing their language to get their votes while ignoring them once in office. But he is also rather frightening:

"[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards," Huckabee said, referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

On the lips of George Bush this would be political pandering. But I think Mike Huckabee means it.

Many Names for God

From The Religious News Service:

When Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal converted to Catholicism during high school and college, he took a momentous step away from his inherited faith of Hinduism, the prevalent religion of his parents' generation and Indian homeland.

But among Jindal's relatives and among Hindus in India generally, his decision to adopt the Christian way is strongly supported.

Jindal's personal path to Christianity was aided by an open-minded attitude among his relatives about theology. His infrequent visits to India as a child gave him little chance to acquire a deeply ingrained appreciation for Hindu culture.

His relatives' perspective reflects a tolerant side of Hinduism, which for thousands of years has survived philosophical transformations, rebellious counter-religions and numerous sects, only to claim them all in time as part of the infinitely flexible cosmos of Hindu faith.

"If you find and see that you get more peace of mind, more solace, in that religion, then why not change religion?" said Jindal's uncle Subhash Gupta, a practicing Hindu. "In India, many people change to the Christian religion. And I can understand that some people maybe find Christian religion more satisfying to their needs."

Jindal, who was sworn in as governor Monday, grew up in Baton Rouge, La., under the guidance of Hindu parents. On a few occasions, he spent time with Hindu relatives in India. One of his earliest mentors was his multifaceted maternal grandfather, Krishan Gupta, a Punjab banking executive who was widely read and believed in the equality of religions.

Jindal would spend much of his time on those visits in his grandfather's home, a place full of books, including the popular Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita. Gupta could read Urdu and was familiar with the Quran.

"They had a great relationship," Subhash Gupta said.

The young Jindal posed "questions after questions" to the elder Gupta about Indian religion and philosophy. The grandfather "was amazed to see that such a question was coming out from this age of boy," Gupta said.

Jindal's aunt, Nirmal Aggarwal of New Delhi, also recalls a special bond between Jindal and her father, Krishan. She said Jindal's conversion to Catholicism was a natural and spiritually healthy move.

"I am happy with it ... because I think it is his own affair,"

Aggarwal said. "I really respect his decision. All religions, I think, they believe in one divine power, that is God."

Although the relatives' opinions might seem magnanimous, their views are typically Hindu. India's large-circulation national newspapers viewed Jindal's election as front-page news, and for the most part his conversion to Catholicism has received less comment than criticisms of his infrequent visits and seeming lack of interest in his parents' home country.

India's revered national figure Mahatma Gandhi espoused religious tolerance because he believed there were many paths to God -- so long as the pursuit was sincere. Pandit Deoki Nandan Shastri, a Hindu holy man in Varanasi, made a similar point.

"Hindu is not a religion," he said. "Hinduism is a way of life."

"You pray to Christ, I pray to Rama, he prays to Muhammad," he said.

"We are going the same way. God is one. His name is called a thousand names."

Very nice. So it should be with Christianity. Not a religion, a way of life.

Ginsburg (and Scalia) on Faith

From the Washington Post:

Ginsburg, who was raised in Brooklyn, said her first glimpse of anti-Semitism came during a drive with her parents down a country road, where she saw an "unsettling" sign outside an inn that instructed, "No dogs or Jews allowed."

She said Jewish children of her generation knew that they had to be among the brightest, "because the best schools had quotas" for the number of Jews they would admit. When she arrived for her first year at Cornell University, she said, she found the Jewish women had all been assigned to rooms in one section of the dormitory.

Ginsburg is one of several justices this term who have spoken frankly about religion and their personal lives. Justice Clarence Thomas has received the most attention, the result of numerous references to his faith in a best-selling autobiography that provided a moving account of his rise from poverty and an often-angry reprisal of his tumultuous confirmation process.

Less noticed was Justice Antonin Scalia's participation last fall in a symposium at Villanova University that addressed "the role of Catholic faith in the work of a judge."

One of five Roman Catholics on the court, including Thomas, Scalia said that "there is no such thing as a 'Catholic judge,' " according to coverage by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"I am hard pressed to tell you of a single opinion of mine that would have come out differently if I were not Catholic," Scalia said, adding that his view that the right to abortion is not based in the Constitution is consistent with his view that the document also does not prohibit or criminalize the procedure.

But Scalia said his faith does oblige him to live by two instructions, both as a person and as a judge: " 'Be thou perfect as thy heavenly Father is perfect.' And 'Thou shalt not lie.' " Ginsburg said that while being a Jew does not affect her view of the law, "being part of a minority, I know what it is like to be an outsider, what it's like to be the victim of prejudice."

Unlike Scalia and Thomas, Ginsburg said she is not an observant Jew, though she was raised in such a household. She somewhat reluctantly told the audience that her decision can be traced to her mother's death when Ginsburg was 17. Although there was "a house full of women," Jewish law required 10 men to convene a minyan, or communal prayer.

Ginsburg said she might feel differently if she were young now; she recently attended a Washington bat mitzvah where both the rabbi and cantor were women.

As for her career, Ginsburg said, being a woman provided more obstacles than being a Jew. She graduated tied for first in her 1959 Columbia Law School class, she said, but did not receive a job offer from any New York law firm. That she was a woman hurt, she said, but that she was the mother of a young child was "the real killer."

2018

That's how long we need to be in Iraq, according to the Iraqi defense minister:

The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.

The Naked Brain

Could it be that parallel universes and naked brains are floating alongside us in the cosmos? Some cosmologists think it is possible. This, by the way, is from today's New York Times, not a supermarket tabloid:

The expansion of the universe seems to be accelerating, making galaxies fly away from one another faster and faster. If the leading dark-energy suspect, a universal repulsion Einstein called the cosmological constant, is true, this runaway process will last forever, and distant galaxies will eventually be moving apart so quickly that they cannot communicate with one another. Being in such a space would be like being surrounded by a black hole.

Rather than simply going to black like “The Sopranos” conclusion, however, the cosmic horizon would glow, emitting a feeble spray of elementary particles and radiation, with a temperature of a fraction of a billionth of a degree, courtesy of quantum uncertainty. That radiation bath will be subject to random fluctuations just like Boltzmann’s eternal universe, however, and every once in a very long, long time, one of those fluctuations would be big enough to recreate the Big Bang. In the fullness of time this process could lead to the endless series of recurring universes. Our present universe could be part of that chain.

In such a recurrent setup, however, Dr. Susskind of Stanford, Lisa Dyson, now of the University of California, Berkeley, and Matthew Kleban, now at New York University, pointed out in 2002 that Boltzmann’s idea might work too well, filling the megaverse with more Boltzmann brains than universes or real people.

In the same way the odds of a real word showing up when you shake a box of Scrabble letters are greater than a whole sentence or paragraph forming, these “regular” universes would be vastly outnumbered by weird ones, including flawed variations on our own all the way down to naked brains, a result foreshadowed by Martin Rees, a cosmologist at the University of Cambridge, in his 1997 book, “Before the Beginning.”

Peace in the Middle East

When I think about the possibilities for peace in the Middle East, there is a part of me that just throws up my hands. Hasn't there been conflict there forever? What are the chances it will ever come to an end?

The truth is, though, that there hasn't been conflict there forever - at least between Jews and Palestinians or between Israel and its neighbors. It just seems that way. But in reality there were centuries without conflict for the simple reason that during those centuries there were virtually no Jews living in Palestine.

The Hebrew scriptures tell the story of Jewish settlement in "the promised land" several thousand years ago. That settlement lasted through the the birth of Christianity and what we now call the Common Era (C.E.). But in 132 C.E. in the aftermath of a major Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire, the vast majority of Jews were expelled from Palestine. This Jewish life without a "home" is known as the Diaspora and it lasted until the modern era. Meanwhile Palestine was governed by a variety of empires, most of them Muslim.

It wasn't until the early1900's that there was the beginning of an intentional migration of Jews back to the region. This migration became a flood during and after World War II. The modern conflict in the Middle East came about because of establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians who suddenly found themselves without a home of their own.

So while the conflict in the Middle East has ancient roots, it is really a modern conflict. And let's not forget that Israel has made peace with Egypt and Jordan; progress has been made.

While I have very little hope that President Bush will succeed in his efforts to forge a peace plan, who knows. Maybe he will bring us a Nixon to China-like surprise. But I am hopeful that we are reaching a ripe moment when both Israel and the Palestinian finally realize that peace is in their best interests.

I am looking forward to seeing the presentation this Sunday by Bill McGrath as he shares his pictures and experience in this troubled part of the world.

Robertson Reflects on the Terror Attack That Didn't Happen

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson predicts more of God's judgment in the form of chaos and mayhem in 2008, but admits he misread God's mind in 2007:

In what has become an annual tradition, the one-time presidential candidate explained an apparent error in what he thought he heard God telling him in a prayer retreat at the end of 2006.

"Last year I felt God was saying there was going to be some kind of terrorist attack that might involve a nuclear weapon," Robertson said. "That hasn't happened, didn't happen in 2007."

"All I can think is that somehow the people of God prayed, and God in his mercy spared us," Robertson said.

Evolution Resource

The National Acadamies of Science has a new book out: Science, Evolution, and Creationism, available to purchase or read online at their website. From the New York Times today:

The 70-page book, “Science, Evolution and Creationism,” says, among other things, that “attempts to pit science and religion against each other create controversy where none needs to exist.” And it offers statements from several eminent biologists and members of the clergy to support the view.

In the book, which will be available on the Web site of the National Academies (www.nas.edu), the panel reports that evidence for the theory of evolution is overwhelming and growing. It cites findings from DNA research, fossil discoveries and the observations scientists have made about emerging diseases, like SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.

The book also denounces the arguments for a form of creationism called intelligent design, calling them devoid of evidence, “disproven” or “simply false.”

Two Parties Heading in Opposite Directions

From Andrew Sullivan:

Tonight was in many ways devastating news for the GOP. Twice as many people turned out for the Democrats than the Republicans. Clearly independents prefer the Dems.

Now look at how the caucus-goers defined themselves in the entrance polls. Among the Dems: Very Liberal: 18 percent; Somewhat Liberal: 36 percent; Moderate: 40 percent; Conservative: 6 percent. Now check out the Republicans: Very Conservative: 45 percent; Somewhat Conservative: 43 percent; Moderate: 11 percent; Liberal: 1 percent.

One is a national party; the other is on its way to being an ideological church. The damage Bush and Rove have done - revealed in 2006 - is now inescapable.

Obama and Huckabee

The political establishment took a hit last night. Obama and Huckabee, winners in Iowa, have both taken on the old guard establishment in their parties. But I think that only one of these candidates is a national candidate. Huckabee won with strong support of conservative Christians, a strong constituency in Iowa. He won't find the same kind of support in New Hampshire and in many other states around the country.

Obama on the other hand won with broad support from many constituencies, including women - supposedly Hillary's strength - and Independents. He is going to be a formidable candidate.

The Republican field is in disarray. Thankfully, Giuliani appears to be toast. I still think it will be McCain in the end.