Monthly Archives: April 2009

Are you having a "Hopeover"?

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I am. I am having what Naomi Klein calls a Hopeover in her essay A Lexicon of Disappointment in the May 4 issue of The Nation.  I loved and was inspired by what some called President Obama’s “hope-based missional narrative” during his campaign.  I still think he was the best option available – who had a chance to win – in last year’s election, and I’m still happy to have supported and voted for him. But I am having a hopeover.

Hopeover. Like a hangover, a hopeover comes from having overindulged in something that felt good at the time but wasn’t really all that healthy, leading to feelings of remorse, even shame. It’s the political equivalent of the crash after a sugar high. Sample sentence: “When I listened to Obama’s economic speech my heart soared. But then, when I tried to tell a friend about his plans for the millions of layoffs and foreclosures, I found myself saying nothing at all. I’ve got a serious hopeover.”

I am not ashamed to have supported or voted for Obama.  Yet, I am waiting on some of the big difference to come through from his predecessor. Prosecuting the Bush administration for torture, real health care reform (maybe even national health care or steps in that direction), steps away from the financial system that caused the current fiscal mess.

As a minister, I am not quite as cynical as Klein seems to be in tone about the hopeover because I think the “hope-based missional narrative” has a power of its own to generate the real work that needs to be done.  Inspiration drives the perspiration.  Or as Klein quotes Political scientist Sam Gindin, “Being realistic means taking hope out of speeches,” he wrote, “and putting it in the hands of workers.”

Which brings me to the final entry in the lexicon.

Hoperoots. Sample sentence: “It’s time to stop waiting for hope to be handed down, and start pushing it up, from the hoperoots.

Eventually we all must be the change we want to see in the world, as Gandhi taught.  Obama has preached this too and ultimately that’s why I haven’t given up hope yet, although I have been taking some Advil, vitamins, and drinking water.

Yes, there IS bullying in Texas Schools

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No. According to both Texas’ schools and the Texas legislature bullying either doesn’t really happen that often or it only happens to gay kids or kids of color or poor kids or weak kids or non athletic kids, so in a sense it’s acceptable because it only happens to the unacceptables among school children. My wife teaches in a local ISD and has had children receive death threats via the Internet, but the response of the school is that such things happen “outside” school and therefore are not the school’s problem.

The latest email from Equality Texas reads in part:

In 2007, the anti-bullying and anti-cyberbullying “Corinne’s Law” was introduced in the Texas Legislature by Rep. Harold Dutton and supported by Equality Texas. The bill died on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives for lack of action. YOU can help stop the madness. Urge passage of House Bill 1323 by Rep. Mark Strama. Take Action. Ask your representative to vote FOR HB 1323. Help stop the madness.

Click here to take action.

Racism rears its head in Texas once again

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Last week a Texas State Representative named Betty Brown (R-Terrell) told a young, Asian-American lawyer from Austin named Ramey Ko during a hearing on a voter-ID bill that if Asian Americans have trouble getting accurate ID’s they should change their names to something “easier for Americans to deal with.” Telling other people to change their names is rich coming from someone named Betty Brown.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported:

Ko, a Democrat and founder of Asian Americans for Obama, said Asians often run into problems because some IDs show phonetic spellings or family names while others show Americanized names.

Brown asked him, “Do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily?”

Later, she asked: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

Ko called the remarks “not overtly malicious but subtle racism.”

The Asian American Action Fund’s blog was not subtle in any way in calling out Representative Brown for her racist comments.  The blog posted comments from Asian American community leaders blasting Brown.  Among them California State Senator Leland Yee, a Chinese American:   “Asking us to give up being ‘Chinese’ in order to become American is quite hurtful.” Yee said that Senator Brown does not understand the Asian American community is the same as other Americans, and that nobody should be asked to change their names to please another ethnicity.

Let Representative Brown know how you feel about this by contacting her office.

Capitol Address
Room E1.404, Capitol Extension
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 463-0458
(512) 463-2040 Fax

District Address
108 S. Pinkerton, Suite 105
Athens, TX 75751
(903) 675-9500
(903) 677-6773 Fax

You can email her office using the form here.

Calling the DRE

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I have only heard of one congregation in the Unitarian Universalist Association that has a called Director of Religious Education. That congregation is Horizon UU Church in nearby (to me) Carrollton, TX.

This is an important as well as an intriguing step in the development of Lifespan Faith Development. A called DRE or DLFD has a different relationship to the congregation, to the minster(s), to the staff, and to the job than someone hired by the board or hired by a senior minister or a committee or some combination thereof. Like a minister in a congregation, the called religious educator is in a covenantal relationship with the congregation and reports directly to the church’s board or governing body and is an ex-officio member of that body. Thus the minister(s) and religious educator are partners in ministry and lifespan faith development.

This assumes a willingness to see ministry as a team effort and assert that all we do in a congregational setting is faith development – weekly, Sunday worship is faith development, committees and various ministries are faith development, social justice work and community outreach and involvement is faith development.

I like the model. It’s difficult for a congregation to commit to this type of call with a religious educator, especially financially, when some find it difficult to commit to even one full or part-time minister, but I truly believe this is the direction in which we must move and the goal towards which we must strive.

The Homeless Soccer World Cup

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<![CDATA[Having a broken foot, I've been reading a lot and watching a lot of video.  Homelessness is one issue that is a particular special interest of mine.  I recently discovered the 2007 documentary Kicking It by Susan Koch and Jeff Werner.  The film chronicles the Homeless World Cup, played in Cape Town, South Africa at the same time of the 2006 World Cup.

Here’s the film’s description from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival site:

Using the global appeal of soccer to address the pandemic of homelessness, the Homeless World Cup was first established in 2001 to give homeless people the opportunity to better their lives through sports. Five years later, 20,000 homeless people had competed on street soccer teams, with 500 players selected to represent 48 countries in the fourth annual Homeless World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, in the summer of 2006. Susan Koch’s Kicking It profiles seven of these players—men made invisible by poverty and addiction but who now emerge as compelling figures fighting to become heroes on the soccer pitch and find a way out of their situations.

The men journey from all around the globe, temporarily putting behind them Dublin’s heroin epidemic; Nairobi’s slums; Madrid’s overcrowded shelters; Charlotte, North Carolina’s streets; war-torn Kabul; and the stigma of homelessness in unforgiving St. Petersburg. Whether they are experiencing victory or defeat on the field, bonding with teammates, or flirting with groupies, soccer provides an escape from their problems while it also inspires hope for actual change in their lives.

Ultimately uplifting, though tempered by the sobering reality of its subjects’ vulnerable lives, Kicking It captures their humanity and ability to overcome adversity—all through the simple game of soccer.

I'm Still Here

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YES, I’m still here. I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I last posted to the Sunflower Chalice.  Life just gets in the way sometimes.  I’ve been dealing with a broken foot since just after Christmas and the bone was not stitching itself back together, so I had to have surgery.  The foot developed a post surgical infection. That’s been one thing that has been going on.  In addition to the usual church business, I am also preparing for my formal installation as the second called, settled minister at Pathways Church. What blogging time I have been able to log, I have had to devote to another project.

I am a member of a Unitarian Universalist ministers study group called The Greenfield Group. We must twice each year for a retreat/symposium and I am the chairperson of our upcoming April gathering – mostly due to the fact that group selected my topic for this symposium: The Emergent Church and New Media.  We will be taking a look at the decade-plus movement within evangelical Christianity known as the Emergent Church and how it impacts and is related to Unitarian Universalism, 21st century global media culture and the impact of things web 2.0 and other emergent media on congregational life.

We are calling this convocation and the blog I created for it UU 2.0: The Emergent Church and New Media. The practice of Greenfield Group for many years has been to choose assigned readings, usually papers and books and for members to write papers and have a primary responder write a response to the work.  This time, we are using only online material as primary reading and viewing and posting the work online for peer review.  We will then discuss the work and the process at the convocation.

I hope my foot now cooperates in my travel plan to get me to the convocation back in New England.