Congratulations are in order and Another Good Resource

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to send out a quick congratulations to Aaron and Sarah! I wish I could have been there. Mostly to see you two tie the knot, but also to be in Minnesota and not in the 106 degree weather we are having in So. Cal. Yuck. Anyway, congratulations again and enjoy the boundary waters, it is one of my favorite places.

I found this web page, I'm sure most of you know of it already, but it might have some resources that are helpful to some of you. It is: webofcreation.org. It has some information about greening your congregation, or your seminary. It has a number of good resources and suggestions.

Also, I wanted to send a reminder about AAR. It is San Diego this year, just down the road for us in California, and should be a great place to be in November. Here is a link for that: http://www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Current_Meeting/default.asp. It is a bit cheaper if you register early and if you look at some of the programs in the program book online you'll find some great environmental discussions. I'd draw your attention to: A17-201, A17-301, A18-118, A18-219, A18-258, A18-303, A19-212, A19-303, A19-401. I pretty much think I'd like to go to all of these, but don't know if I can be in more than one place at a time.

It would also be great to find a time to meet up with whomever is able to make it out for that. Get some food and catch up a bit.

Hope everyone is great,
Kevin

The day begins!

Hello friends,

It's a lovely early Saturday morning in Minnesota...and I'm getting married to an incredible woman named Sarah today! Why would I be typing on a blog on our wedding day? Well, I guess my body just needed two cycles of REM sleep last night and now I'm wide awake, earlier than I intended. The feeling is a bit like waking up Christmas morning when you are 10 with the good jitters in your stomach!

I wish you all well and pray that your day is full of blessings! Yes, I will send some wedding pictures afterward. But first I'm going to spend a long quiet week caoneing in the Boundary Waters with Sarah.

God's peace to you all,
Aaron

Living in LA: Non-Drivers Wanted

Hi all -- I published this as part of our weekly email alert this morning, and it's also on our org's website.

I know I promised to write a blog about Taize, and it is on the way! I want to download a few pictures to go with it.

:) Hope you are all well!

Jenn

**************

Coming back to Los Angeles from a blessed week of silent retreat has had a wholly unexpected side effect: I’ve stopped driving my car.

Not entirely, mind you, and I’m not quite sure how it happened. It’s as though something picked up my hands and directed them without my own will to the lock on the dusty bike in the garage, which then rode with me on it down to the train station to go to work. (It is probably no surprise to people who know me that I chose the hottest week of the summer so far to start doing this.)

I fought it just one day — Wednesday — and found, much to my
surprise, that driving my car made an extraordinary difference. It made me irritable, grouchy, and hateful towards all the people in the cars around me; I was hot and unhappy in the car, aggressive towards other people in their cars, and it affected my inner experience of the entire day. Instead of a peaceful train ride, where I watched the scenery or read a book, I had to focus on not getting killed by other people who were much, much worse drivers than me. For the record, once I am behind the wheel, nothing is EVER my fault. I am sure that you’re familiar with the experience.

Riding my bike and then taking the train takes longer, it is not as convenient, and I’ve so far not learned how to do it gracefully in a skirt. There are a thousand reasons not to do it, but I’m reminded daily that going fast and efficiently as possible from point to point, pursuing our own busy schedules — or rather tyrannized by them — is not the whole reason we are here. It is something I had forgotten since I learned to drive.

I didn’t learn to drive until I was past 30, and so I spent most of my life without a car. Since getting a license, I’ve been addicted to the convenience and speed of getting anywhere, everywhere, whenever I wanted to. My day has become more and more packed with activities and meetings, because I can get from one place to another so swiftly (theoretically), and the amount of quiet time I have to spend with myself and with God has dropped dramatically. When I used to ride my bike to work regularly, a couple of years ago, I’d often been struck by how unhappy everyone in their cars looked as I rode down the street next to them. I’ve since learned where that unhappiness comes from. Since learning to drive, I’ve lost a lot of the calm and quiet of my day.

We’re a city of drivers, and that has its great points, certainly. We need to be able to drive. But perhaps we’ve taken it too far — and it shows in our inner lives, in our community lives, and in the toll on our environment. Studies show that a city like Los Angeles, with high levels of long commutes, suffers in its sense of community and volunteerism. We pioneered road rage. We drive isolated in our own little castles for much of our lives. We build ever further out, taking desert, mountains, beach, and drive further and further, taking more and more time from what really matters in life, taking more and more resources from the earth, putting more and more pollutants and greenhouse gases into the air. Driving a car is the greatest contribution most of us make to the huge ecological footprint of the average North American.

And we think that we don’t really have any choices.

Our choices, to be sure, are not outstanding. MTA just raised their fares significantly for day, monthly and weekly passes, thus encouraging more people to drive rather than otherwise. Our train and bus systems are inadequate to the needs of working people of all economic classes. And there’s no denying that LA is not a bike- or pedestrian-safe city.

But none of this will change unless we challenge it.

So I’d like to invite you to try going car-less for a day. Just a day — for most people, in most situations, that will be difficult and challenging enough. You’ll have to plan ahead; perhaps ask someone to drive you somewhere; perhaps let your boss know that you might be late for work that day; scout out the bus schedules in your neighborhood; see if you can ride a bike somewhere you’d normally drive, like a grocery store or coffeeshop.

I know that I can’t be fully carless yet, but it’s been a freeing experience for me so far. Living less conveniently, less quickly, and more simply, even for just a day, is its own kind of addictive experience.

Deep Thoughts on Barry Bonds and Ecology

Deep Thoughts on Barry Bonds and Ecology

by Joshua Ashton Hill


I love 3 things: God, sports, and nature. No wonder I’m so conflicted right now: Barry Bonds broke the all-time home run record, potentially unnaturally. So how can a faithful follower of Jesus and baseball ever forgive him?

It is likely that the controversies will never totally rest unless empirical evidence sedates it. And that’s a long shot. So, perhaps better than asking if Barry Bonds took steroids, we should be examining why anyone would take them in the first place. A popular theory is that baseball—-a game requiring patience, strategy, and 7th inning stretches—-is otherwise simply losing appeal in our culture of instant gratification. It needed enhancement.

Don’t Blame Barry. Enhancement is the backbone of our economy. We have television shows called Dr. 90210 and Nip Tuck that feature anatomical enhancement. And it doesn’t stop with our bodies. We cultivate enhanced food that grows bigger, preserves longer, and ships farther. Just like baseball, regular peaches just aren’t good enough anymore.

Agreed--some enhancements are undeniably helpful. My favorite is the toilet. But the usefulness of some enhancements are disputable. Just conduct an informal poll on women’s attitudes toward “natural male enhancement.”

One would think all these enhancements would culminate in an enhanced civilization. In some ways it has, yet, enhancement partners with a dark barbarism—-ignorance of the raw inputs of our daily sustenance. What an obvious and arrogant rejection of the way things are supposed to be. And now I get preachy.

Heed the words of environmental sage Aldo Leopold: “There are two spiritual dangers of not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.”

Observing and obeying the natural processes of biology is the foundation for our humanity and our faithfulness to God. When we live beyond and apart from those processes, we’re doing more than enhancing our bodies, our food, and our merchandise. We’re attempting to augment our existence so that we become gods--separate from and masters over nature, exercising enhanced freedom and rationality. Scrapping our humanity.

I’m reminded of the story of Adam and Eve. They just weren’t satisfied with the perfection of the Garden of Eden, and they tried to enhance their knowledge of Good and Evil by eating the forbidden fruit. The upshot is that humans who seek immortality find shame and death. It doesn’t matter if the story is factual or not; what matters is that it’s still true today.

In addition to the spiritual problem, if you must separate the two, there are physical, ecologic crises that pour forth from our culture of enhancement. Global climate change and biodiversity loss put Barry Bonds into perspective and signal the fact that we’re repeating the mistakes of Adam and Eve. The only difference is that our forbidden fruit is fossil fuels. And we’re desperate for them like addicts who need a fix.

Consider cocaine. Its effects are caused by borrowing tomorrow’s dopamine for a double-dose today. We’re like that. We’re so desperate for our luxuries today that we’ll sacrifice the ecological integrity of tomorrow. And, unless there is a major change, we’ll crash tomorrow for the excesses of today, just like a cocaine user.

What’s crazy is that we show actual psychological symptoms of addiction to fossil fuels. We’re dependent. We take the drug in order to mitigate the sobering effects of withdrawal. We say, “Whatever we have to steal and pawn, it’s worth it if we can maintain the illusion of immortality until we die. It doesn’t matter what the lasting effects are, just so long as we can remain blissfully disconnected from the true character and pace of natural growth and decay.”

We must return to the basics of our humanity. We have to go to rehab.
I don’t claim to possess the answer to baseball’s crisis or the restoration of the Earth, but I do know one time-tested way of gaining much-needed insight and perspective.

Here’s one way to start: Sit. Breathe deeply and inhabit your body. It is fine the way it is. The eternal is fully present, even within you. Start with that. Be grateful for it. Smile and know that the truly good things in life are not only free but abundant, if we have patience.

Back when patience was a virtue and not a liability, baseball was a great game without need of enhancement. Back when we had time to sit and watch birds, we appreciated things as they were. We didn’t need “cheap” electricity. We didn’t need grapes in the winter.

If enhancements do not promote sustainability, community, health, and wholeness, they aren’t enhancements. They are distractions that divert our attention from what really matters.

For some, Barry Bonds will always represent a scar on the history of baseball. Regardless of his guilt or innocence, I suggest we look deeper. The humility and grace with which Bonds has navigated a potential crisis suggests that he has drawn strength and balance from a deep place.

So I forgive you, Barry, for what it’s worth. You have reminded us of the more important things that require our immediate attention.



# # #

Grant opportunity and photos

Well, I think I finally got all the mud out of my ears and my clothes. I definitely felt like a creature of the mud for a few days. i don't have many pictures, but definitely have many memories and images flowing through my mind when I close my eyes. I loaded the pictures I did take onto Flickr. Here is a teaser. Find more at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10642403@N03/

On a personal note, I am still processing the three day experience on Port Isobel. I came home and started journaling immediately. It was good to spend time just connecting with you, with the Earth, and with God. I feel stronger and enriched both mentally and spiritually. If only it had lasted a week...


I also wanted to let you all know about the National Geographic Society's young explorers grant . I learned about it from the North American Association of Environmental Educators. Here are the details. It definitely doesn't apply to all of us, but you all might know others that fit the bill.

Deadline: Open
The National Geographic Society's Young Explorers Grants for 18-25 year-olds to pursue research, exploration, and conservation-related projects consistent with National Geographic's existing grant programs. Grants vary in amount ($2,000 to $5,000) depending on the significance of the project.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/yeg/

A Green Vatican

Thought you guys would be interested in this article from National Catholic Reporter...

"For Benedict, environmental movement promises recovery of natural law tradition"

By John L Allen Jr Weekly
Created Jul 27 2007
National Catholic Reporter

One could say that summer 2007 is when the Vatican decided to go green. First came an announcement in June that more than 1,000 photovoltaic panels will be installed atop the Paul VI Audience Hall, allowing the building to utilize solar energy for light, heating and cooling. A month later, the Vatican became the first state in Europe to go completely carbon-neutral, signing an agreement with a Hungarian firm to reforest a sufficiently large swath of Hungary's Bükk National Park to offset its annual CO2 emissions.

To some, these may seem curiously cutting edge moves from a pope whose recent decisions to revive the pre-Vatican II Mass and to reaffirm claims that Catholicism is the lone true church have cemented his reputation as the ultimate "retro" figure. He sometimes brings to mind the famous quip that rolling back the clock is a perfectly reasonable thing to do if it's keeping bad time.

So what gives?
This week, we got the outlines of an answer from the pope himself, during a July 24 conversation with priests from the northern Italian dioceses of Belluno-Feltre and Treviso. (Such encounters have become an annual ritual as part of the pope's summer vacation.)

The first question had to do with the formation of conscience, and Benedict replied with his now-familiar diagnosis of the cultural situation in the West. By truncating the sphere of reason to only those things which can be empirically verified or falsified, the pope said, spirituality and morality have been "expelled" from rationality, consigned to a merely subjective sphere, understood as a matter of individual taste and judgment.

In response, Benedict proposed a two-pronged strategy, one being the path of religious faith, the other being what he called "a secular path." By that, Benedict appeared to mean natural law, the idea that nature itself carries a moral message that can be deciphered utilizing the faculty of conscience, even by those who aren't Christian or who aren't religious at all.

In the pope's mind, this seems to be where environmentalism enters the picture.

"Everyone can see today that humanity could destroy the foundation of its own existence, its earth, and therefore we can't simply do whatever we want with this earth that has been entrusted to us, what seems to us in a given moment useful or promising, but we have to respect the inner laws of creation, of this earth, we have to learn these laws and obey them if we want to survive," Benedict said. "This obedience to the voice of the earth is more important for our future happiness than the voices of the moment, the desires of the moment. Existence itself, our earth, speaks to us, and we have to learn to listen."

>From there, Benedict said, we may also learn anew to listen to the
voice of human nature as well, discovering in other people and in human communities moral laws that stand above our own ego. In that regard, the pope said, we can draw upon the great moral experience of humanity. Doing so teaches that human liberty never exists in isolation from others; it works only if it's rooted in a sense of common values.

In other words, Benedict sees in the modern environmental movement the most promising route for recovery of the natural law tradition.

What today's rising ecological awareness presumes is that there are limits inscribed in nature beyond which humanity trespasses at its own peril. Without any particular reference to religion, the secular world today is arriving at its own version of natural law theory.
Building upon that momentum, and directing it beyond environmental matters to questions of individual and social morality, is what Benedict seems to mean by a "secular path" to formation of conscience.

To extend a metaphor, one might say that Benedict XVI is trying to paint a distinctively Catholic shade of green.

I don't mean to suggest that the pope's environmental concern is entirely instrumental, as if he OKed putting solar cells on Vatican buildings simply because, in some round-about fashion, he thinks that'll convince people not to have abortions. He's made clear on multiple occasions that he regards defense of the environment as an urgent moral necessity all by itself. But Benedict also appears to see something deeper stirring in Western environmentalism, a new sense of moral restraint grounded in objective natural reality.

To put the pope's point simplistically, if the world is willing to limit its carbon output on the basis of the laws of nature, then maybe it will become more willing to accept limits arising from nature in other spheres of life as well.

Check out Geez Magazine...

Hi Guys,

Following a discussion I had on Port Isobel with Jenn and Chloe, I thought I'd share a magazine I have run across. http://www.geezmagazine.org/ It bills itself as a magazine for those on the fringes of faith, holy mischief in an age of fast faith. Some great guys out of Winnipeg have put it together, one was an editor for Adbusters (definitely has an Adbusters sort of feel). Their contributors come from all across the spectrum of Chrisitianity...and beyond. Their Make Affluence History campaign...where you can sponsor a child from the suburbs, has been a great hit. Anyways, some light reading material to keep the discussion going. I don't have any pictures from the weekend so let's see some more posts up.

-Nathan

more photos?

Hey guys, I'm on here now. I was wondering if people have more photos from the weekend and if they could help me know how to get to them. I saw the mudd one and that is great. I'd like to see what others have.

I'll also write more on here soon. Maybe something about my travels this summer and thoughts.

K