Faithful Philly Forum

Penn researcers just announced they have found out with just 30minutes a day of regular meditation people can improve their attention span and concentration levels. It seems that the discipline of mindfulness actually changes the brain chemistry in some ways not fully known yet. And, those being studied “demonstrated improvements in a matter of weeks.” For me, this jis more evidence for humanity’s spiritual nature and reminds us that we neglect our inner life to our own detriment. (even if not to our everlasting peril!) Meditation is, for me, the simple (and difficult!) act of listening for the “still, small voice of God” in our lives. Christians would do well to do more listening for God and less talking to God, seems to me. 

One of the bright lights of social science in the past half century is also one of the most criticized. Phil Zimbardo conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment, where mentally and physically healthy college student were randomized to be guards or prisoners. Its common material in the ‘research ethics’ unit for Psych 101 or masters level research methods courses. I think he is a bright light because he has learned from his most notorious work what the rest of us need to learn–that we are inextricably shaped by our surroundings, and that while we are accountable for our individual behavior, that leaders are also to be held accountable for the environment in which individuals make behavior choices. Continue Reading »

The BBC morning radio program (or should I say programme?) has been covering Iraq soldier bloggings lately. To hear the more immediate reactions of soldiers and others in that quagmire is fascinating and humbling. This morning, one blogger provided a reminder of the constant vigilance against both suicide bombers and the risk of reacting too quickly at the cost of innocent life. When we talk about living in the present we are talking about getting out of a head space of constantly focusing on deadlines, achievement, worries about the future. These bloggers seem about as present focused as one can get, but to a different end. Their blogs provide a chance to reflect and put those reflections out for the rest of us to see, a greater kind of time space than the immediate present to provide perspective. Reference was made in the program(me) to a saying about journalism being the first draft of history, and how might one would characterize blogging. Perhaps first reflection? First impulse? In this forum, we are trying to pull together a lot of things at once. Sprituality, social justice, day to day in the present and a vision of reign of God all at once. Why wait for the second draft of all that? Might take a while. 

I had lunch with an old friend whom I respect.  He told me that he had come to the conclusion that religion was a very destructive thing.  That was months ago, and I have often pondered that disturbing thought from someone who is intelligent and socially committed.

Last Sunday, the second Sunday in epiphany, I read Isaiah 62:1-12 and Corinthians, 12^th chapter and finally in John, the wedding at Cana.  Startled by God “vindication” of Jerusalem I think that Muslims, Jews, Christians – all could approach this scripture claiming Jerusalem as theirs, looking one day to be “vindicated.”  Then I read in Corinthians that we are all baptized into one body, but of course Paul speaks of our being “baptized” into Christ’s body.

Religion does divide us.  Can we just step sideways a little bit and look at the scriptures as uniting rather than dividing?   Is that possible?  Universal vindication?  The vindication of peace? All of us struggling and seeking and suffering and dying, and hoping and living, and rejoicing – all justified, made right, ontologically okay?  Is it possible that we are one body – all – Jesus Way, Koran Way, Buddhist Way, Taoist Way.  One.

Paul follows chapter 12, of course, with 13, the triumph of love.  Jesus, at the urging of his wise mother, changes the water into wine.  There is enough for everyone.  A grand universal wedding; a body of humanity, a healing of the earth, one great festival.  It is, after all, still the season of epiphany, and God continues to reveal Godself in all manner of ways. But it has to be for everyone.  Then reconstruction will begin, in Philadelphia, in Chester, in Baghdad.  Guns will be beaten into plow shares.  It is possible.

I’m turning over in my head Jesus’s saying that he came not to bring peace but a sword (Matthew 10:34). I’m thinking it has something to say to me about learning how to take a stand–perhaps even how to face evil. We left-of-center Christians are often about peace. What does this saying have to teach us (without explaining it away intellectually)? I figured this crew might have some ideas.

I’m struggling with what the term means.  I know what it’s supposed to mean, “Greater love hath no one, etc.” and “do unto the least of these ..” We’re supposed to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned. Jesus has lots of teachings how we’re supposed to let go of what we have, open our arms (and hearts) to others, give unstintingly.  But have you ever tried that? Giving unstintingly?  Give until it hurts?
It seems like the well off and comfortable can maybe give.  Maybe they have a lot to give.  (I’m thinking here of Lazarus with the beggar at his gate — he had lots of extra rooms, I suppose.)  But what do poor working stiffs have to give?  I mean, I have a reasonably comfortable house that’s warm (at least as long as the decrepit furnace I can’t afford to repair keeps going.)  But does that mean I should take in someone off the street for my  spare room?  I doubt anyone would argue that, in the interest of safety and common sense if nothing else.

I have enough to eat and even enough extra for vet care for a few cats and seed for the wild birds.  But do have enough to buy sandwiches for everyone who accosts me on the streets?
Where are the limits?  How much safety and comfort for the comfortable is too much and should be given up?  How much comfort, decency, cleanliness, etc is our right to claim for ourselves — and also to advocate, fundraise, produce etc for the less well-off as well?

There is a time to reap and a time to sow.  Is there also a time to give or agitate and a time to rest or even receive?  How does a good Christian know when (and how) to give and when (and how) to hold back to maintain some basic love/care for herself?

There seems to be a lot of praying happening on College Green at Penn these days. I hadn’t been on a morning run through campus for a week, so saw for the first time today both the Penn for Jesus House of Prayer tent near Van Pelt Library and then an arch of balloons over Locust Walk at 36th Street with a sign nearby announcing the Muslim Students Association Islam Awareness Week.

The House of Prayer tent was up last spring and even garnered a favorable cartoon in The Daily Pennsylvanian. I am not on campus regularly, so I may have missed it, but I do not recall such a public witness by the Muslim Students Association before.

I see positive things in both of these efforts. First is the toleration that apparently is being shown, at least by not damaging their public displays, for both Muslims and conservative Christians, neither of which is a huge presence at Penn. I think too many undergraduates in particular combine a little smarts with a little education and have a know-it-all attitude that takes some experience with life to soften. It is too easy to reflexively oppose what is different and students, like so many others, want to “fit in.”

As for the two groups, I am pleased to see conservative Christians doing something other than confrontational “witnessing” that I find counterproductive and, as a Christian, embarrassing. If the Muslim Students Association is finding its public voice, that may be a sign that Islam is moving beyond a post-9/11 defensiveness and is dealing with the violence issues it has. All in all, I sensed a refreshing openness that perhaps signals a renewed place for the religious viewpoint in the public square. I hope this leads to a larger place for the Christian Association’s peace and justice focus in our civic and religious life.

“There is that of God in everyone.”  I heard this often during my sojourn living and working with Friends.  My own Quaker daughter said it best, I thought, when she said “At any time, with any person, you may be looking into the face of God – listening to God speak.”  What a different reality it would be if we paid attention to that idea; if we looked for that of God in the other.  It might prevent us from freezing people into categories of otherness, separating them from us.  It might prevent what I consider a growing and terrifying divide among and within religions…simply stopping for a moment to see  divinity within the other.  Maybe we wouldn’t drop bombs on people then; or blow each other up in such a variety of ways, knowing that we are once again killing God.  Each day we are offered a chance to see the light of divinity, the real presence of God among us … each day in our dealings with one another, in our actions, our choices, our policies.  Each day we create a world in which God is vibrantly present.  Or we choose to let Her die - again.

And the killing gets easier.  The most absurd thing I have witnessed in public policy recently is a refusal to limit the number of handguns that one can purchase per year in Pennsylvania.  Why do handguns even exist?  Why do we need any, let alone more than 12 per person per year?  We know where the guns end up. Killing children.  Killing those moments of divinity. Every day we create a world with or without the beauty of God present.