Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth

Our Family's New Edition

2009-01-03T22:32:00.006-06:00

The highlight of my Christmas break was meeting my cute, cuddly, newborn niece. Her name is Kennedy Abigail, and she was born on December 18. Enjoy these pictures of her!

Of course, I also got to see my other niece, Bella, who turned 4 on December 27, and my nephew, Max, who is 5. They're pretty cute too! I think I'm the luckiest aunt in the world.

Pro-Life and Democrat

2008-11-14T11:01:00.002-06:00

Although the excitement has died down a bit since the end of election season, I just came upon this video of Dr. Shaun Casey. Dr. Casey is a graduate of ACU and served as a Senior Advisor for Evangelical Outreach for Barack Obama during the campaign. He is a member of the Church of Christ, and he visited ACU during election season to talk with students, faculty, and staff about faith in public life (ACU also invited a prominent Republican speaker). In this video, he addresses the myth that having a Republican president or a Republican majority Congress or Supreme Court will lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and, therefore, to the end of abortion in the US. For those of you have asked me and countless other Christians who identify themselves with the Democratic party, this is how I can be a Democrat and pro-life.

Shaun Casey on Abortion from Christopher Berry on Vimeo.

Witnessing History

2008-11-05T21:42:00.002-06:00

Regardless of our individual political ideologies, that today is a great moment in American history is undeniable. As I watched the celebrations last night and listened to the speeches of both McCain (who was very gracious and did his best to encourage unity) and Obama, I couldn't help but get a bit choked up. When I talked to two of my African American students today, however, my heart swelled even more for what this means to them, their families, and their future children and grandchildren. Both stressed that they have never felt like the same opportunities were available to them because of their skin color. Both mentioned that, until now, there was no proof available to them that their potential for achievement was unlimited. This is their time. And if Obama's greatest achievement in his presidency is that he will have opened these doors for my talented, brilliant students (although I'm very optimistic that he'll do much more), that is enough for me.

Faith Priorities

2008-10-25T21:43:00.002-05:00

Here is a posting from Jim Wallis' blog, God's Politics, that most closely matches my own personal integration of my faith and my political views. I hope that, as he states, we'll all take our faith into the voting booth with us, realizing that our friends, family members, and colleagues are doing so as well, perhaps with different faith priorities than us.

In 2004, several conservative Catholic bishops and a few megachurch pastors like Rick Warren issued their list of “non-negotiables,” which were intended to be a voter guide for their followers. All of them were relatively the same list of issues: abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, etc. None of them even included the word “poverty,” only one example of the missing issues which are found quite clearly in the Bible. All of them were also relatively the same as official Republican Party Web sites of “non-negotiables.” The political connections and commitments of the religious non-negotiable writers were quite clear.

I want to suggest a different approach this year and share my personal list of “faith priorities” that will guide me in making the imperfect choices that always confront us in any election year — and suggest that each of you come up with your own list of “faith” or “moral” priorities for this election year and take them into the voting booth with you.

After the last election, I wrote a book titled God’s Politics. I was criticized by some for presuming to speak for God, but that wasn’t the point. I was trying to explore what issues might be closest to the heart of God and how they may be quite different from what many strident religious voices were then saying. I was also saying that “God’s Politics” will often turn our partisan politics upside down, transcend our ideological categories of Left and Right, and challenge the core values and priorities of our political culture. I was also trying to say that there is certainly no easy jump from God’s politics to either the Republicans or Democrats. God is neither. In any election, we face imperfect choices, but our choices should reflect the things we believe God cares about if we are people of faith, and our own moral sensibilities if we are not people of faith. Therefore, people of faith, and all of us, should be “values voters” but vote all our values, not just a few that can be easily manipulated for the benefit of one party or another.

In 2008, the kingdom of God is not on the ballot in any of the 50 states as far as I can see. So we can’t vote for that this year. But there are important choices in this year’s election — very important choices — which will dramatically impact what many in the religious community and outside of it call “the common good,” and the outcome could be very important, perhaps even more so than in many recent electoral contests.

I am in no position to tell anyone what is “non-negotiable,” and neither is any bishop or megachurch pastor, but let me tell you the “faith priorities” and values I will be voting on this year:

1. With more than 2,000 verses in the Bible about how we treat the poor and oppressed, I will examine the record, plans, policies, and promises made by the candidates on what they will do to overcome the scandal of extreme global poverty and the shame of such unnecessary domestic poverty in the richest nation in the world. Such a central theme of the Bible simply cannot be ignored at election time, as too many Christians have done for years. And any solution to the economic crisis that simply bails out the rich, and even the middle class, but ignores those at the bottom should simply be unacceptable to people of faith.
2. From the biblical prophets to Jesus, there is, at least, a biblical presumption against war and the hope of beating our swords into instruments of peace. So I will choose the candidates who will be least likely to lead us into more disastrous wars and find better ways to resolve the inevitable conflicts in the world and make us all safer. I will choose the candidates who seem to best understand that our security depends upon other people’s security (everyone having “their own vine and fig tree, so no one can make them afraid,” as the prophets say) more than upon how high we can build walls or a stockpile of weapons. Christians should never expect a pacifist president, but we can insist on one who views military force only as a very last resort, when all other diplomatic and economic measures have failed, and never as a preferred or habitual response to conflict.
3. “Choosing life” is a constant biblical theme, so I will choose candidates who have the most consistent ethic of life, addressing all the threats to human life and dignity that we face — not just one. Thirty-thousand children dying globally each day of preventable hunger and disease is a life issue. The genocide in Darfur is a life issue. Health care is a life issue. War is a life issue. The death penalty is a life issue. And on abortion, I will choose candidates who have the best chance to pursue the practical and proven policies which could dramatically reduce the number of abortions in America and therefore save precious unborn lives, rather than those who simply repeat the polarized legal debates and “pro-choice” and “pro-life” mantras from either side.
4. God’s fragile creation is clearly under assault, and I will choose the candidates who will likely be most faithful in our care of the environment. In particular, I will choose the candidates who will most clearly take on the growing threat of climate change, and who have the strongest commitment to the conversion of our economy and way of life to a cleaner, safer, and more renewable energy future. And that choice could accomplish other key moral priorities like the redemption of a dangerous foreign policy built on Middle East oil dependence, and the great prospects of job creation and economic renewal from a new “green” economy built on more spiritual values of conservation, stewardship, sustainability, respect, responsibility, co-dependence, modesty, and even humility.
5. Every human being is made in the image of God, so I will choose the candidates who are most likely to protect human rights and human dignity. Sexual and economic slavery is on the rise around the world, and an end to human trafficking must become a top priority. As many religious leaders have now said, torture is completely morally unacceptable, under any circumstances, and I will choose the candidates who are most committed to reversing American policy on the treatment of prisoners. And I will choose the candidates who understand that the immigration system is totally broken and needs comprehensive reform, but must be changed in ways that are compassionate, fair, just, and consistent with the biblical command to “welcome the stranger.”
6. Healthy families are the foundation of our community life, and nothing is more important than how we are raising up the next generation. As the father of two young boys, I am deeply concerned about the values our leaders model in the midst of the cultural degeneracy assaulting our children. Which candidates will best exemplify and articulate strong family values, using the White House and other offices as bully pulpits to speak of sexual restraint and integrity, marital fidelity, strong parenting, and putting family values over economic values? And I will choose the candidates who promise to really deal with the enormous economic and cultural pressures that have made parenting such a “countercultural activity” in America today, rather than those who merely scapegoat gay people for the serious problems of heterosexual family breakdown.

That is my list of personal “faith priorities” for the election year of 2008, but they are not “non-negotiables” for anyone else. It’s time for each of us to make up our own list in these next 12 days. Make your list and send this on to your friends and family members, inviting them to do the same thing.

W.

2008-10-18T18:12:00.002-05:00

My friend, Shelly, and I went to see W. last night. It was better than I expected. If a movie can make me feel empathy for George W. Bush, that means it was well-balanced. It portrayed Bush as a man who is not unintelligent, which is the way I typically view him, but as someone who coveted his father's approval and got in way over his head in his quest to achieve it. It was a good reminder to see his pain and frustration, his love for his wife, and his anger and anxiety when it was discovered that there were no WMDs in Iraq. It reminded me that he, like me, is only human. No one, except for Dick Cheney, was portrayed as especially evil or sinister. From the perspective of the movie, Cheney was the primary architect of the Iraq war with Donald Rumsfeld being an important sidekick. The most fascinating character was Condoleeza Rice, simply because she was such a non-significant voice. During the entire two-hour movie, she may have spoken 5 complete sentences. According to the movie's portrayal, she had no power or influence. The covert message seemed to clearly be that she has been a puppet National Security Advisor because of her sex and race. There were some humorous moments, and some of the most well-known Bushisms made an appearance, but it was clearly meant to be a drama. If you've been considering seeing it, I would say it's worth the time.

Prayer for Peace

2008-10-15T22:08:00.002-05:00

Our prayer in graduate chapel today:

O LORD, Sovereign of all the heavens and earth,
Holy and Awesome is your name.
The earth and all that is in it is yours,
And so is the world and those who live in it.
You created us and placed us here to love you and one another,
And to lie at peace with all people.
But LORD, we have failed to do this,
And so your peace has eluded humanity.
We come before you conscious of many who live without peace;
Without the inner peace of knowing you and without the outer peace of security.
We humbly beg you:

O LORD, Sovereign of all the heavens and earth
We plead that you may grant your peace.

For the people of Iraq and Afghanistan,
For the people of Israel and the Palestinian territories,
For the people of Syria and Lebanon,
For the people of Pakistan and India,
We humbly beg you:

O LORD, Sovereign of all the heavens and earth
We plead that you may grant your peace.

For those who live in Sudan and Somalia,
For those who live in Uganda and Kenya,
For those who live in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cote d'Ivoire,
For those who live in Liberia and Sierra Leone,
For those who live in Chad and Zimbabwe,
We humbly beg you:

O LORD, Sovereign of all the heavens and earth
We plead that you may grant your peace.

For the people of Georgia and Russia,
For the people of North Korea and South Korea,
We humbly beg you:

O LORD, Sovereign of all the heavens and earth
We plead that you may grant your peace.

For the poor and homeless,
For the neglected and the rejected,
For the abused and the molested,
For the orphaned and the fatherless,
For the widow and the lonely,
We humbly beg you:

O LORD, Sovereign of all the heavens and earth
We plead that you may grant your peace.

For the greedy and the selfish,
For those who live in plenty and yet are never content,
For those who promote greed by their cowardice,
For those who condone selfish living by their silence,
We humbly beg you:

O LORD, Sovereign of all the heavens and earth
We plead that you may grant your peace.

For us who are impoverished of your love,
For us, sinners in need of your grace,
We humbly beg you:

O LORD, Sovereign of all the heavens and earth
We plead that you may grant your peace.
Through Jesus Christ your son, we have prayed, Amen.

My Wii Fitness Age...

2008-09-30T20:56:00.002-05:00

...is 44 years old. Forty-four!! I was pulling for 25. For those of you who don't know, my real age is 31. The Wii thinks I'm 13 years older than I really am. And how was this determined? By how quickly I could get my center of balance within bars that decrease in size and hold it there for three seconds. After an entire summer of exercising faithfully, I'm delivered with the news that my body is that of a 44-year-old. How encouraging! What is the point, I ask, of exercise if it makes no difference in your Wii fit age? I guess I should get back to work so that I can convince an inanimate object that I am worthy of its approval by decreasing my "age" to at least match reality.

I Pledge Allegiance to the Kingdom of God

2008-09-10T22:39:00.003-05:00

Randy Harris reminded us in graduate chapel at ACU on Wednesday morning that despite the political fervor of this season, as Christians, our true allegiance is to Christ the King. Presidents come and go, and in 100 years the outcome of this election will mean little. So, although it is certainly important for us to be discerning about how we will cast our votes, the eventual triumph of God's kingdom is a certainty, and our job as followers of Christ is to hasten the coming of God's kingdom on earth by being dedicated servants to our true King.

So, what does all of this mean in terms of how we ought to conduct ourselves as citizens of this country? First and foremost, we need to realize that good Christian people will be voting for Barack Obama and John McCain. We also need to realize that although we may invoke biblical principles and standards to justify our decisions, those decisions are typically based much more in our own lived experience (as is our interpretation of the very scriptures we invoke). Finally, if we are followers of Christ the King above all, what are the implications for how we treat others on this earth who follow a different earthly, albeit secondary, king than we do? Unfortunately, it has seemed that people who claim to be followers of Christ are the most divisive during election seasons, saying awful things about and to one another. When Christians behave in this way, how can we expect our political candidates to act any differently? Perhaps one way in which we can be about the breaking in of God's kingdom is by refusing to engage in hurtful, mean, and divisive conversation, regardless of whether or not the object of our comments will ever hear what we say about them. If we refuse to engage in these types of conversations, perhaps we can begin to change the political atmosphere in which we live.

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen" (Eph. 4:29).

Titletown, USA - PARKERSBURG, WV

2008-07-23T18:07:00.002-05:00

Parkersburg, WV, is one of the finalists for ESPN's Titletown, USA competition. Parkersburg is also Eric's hometown and where we both went to college and fell in love (ahhhh). Here's the video feature. Hope you enjoy. If you have a soul, please vote for them to win.

Who's Hottest?

2008-07-19T12:46:00.003-05:00

Kip? Magnum? Or Eric?

*For those of you who may be worried, this was only temporary. Thankfully, it's already been removed.

Stephen Colbert and N.T. Wright

2008-07-01T18:07:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, N.T. Wright, Bishop of the Anglican Church, was a guest on The Colbert Report discussing his new book, Surprised by Hope. I've not read the book, but I know that Wright's theological views have been instrumental in shaping the vision of the Highland Church. I've posted the interview here so that you can hear for yourself what the book is about. I'm adding it to my reading list.

So, what do you think? Is heaven just an ethereal place we'll go upon Christ's second coming that is totally separate and apart from earth? Or is God's ultimate goal to restore all things to him...humanity, heaven, and earth?

Women in Leadership #2

2008-06-04T16:10:00.003-05:00

Although it's been quite a while, some of you may remember that I wrote a post about women in leadership using Hilary Clinton as an example of the double binds women in these roles face (find it here). At the beginning of the Democratic primaries, I felt torn about who I would support in this election. The feminist in me really wanted to like Clinton, but I quickly found myself being drawn to Obama, and my vote ultimately went to him. What a lot of it came down to for me was that Clinton didn't seem to be embracing her femininity and addressing the ways in which having a female president would make a difference. Instead, I saw her embracing masculinity in many ways, and while this likely helped her to win the votes from steelworkers and autoworkers, I think it may have hurt her among young feminists like me. I desperately want to see this nation elect a female president, and I think we will in my lifetime, but I want her to be like me and my female colleagues...intelligent, discerning, and able to be tough when needed but also collaborative, inspiring, and committed to relationships. This article from Slate echoes my sentiments:

Death of a Saleswoman
How Hillary Clinton lost me—and a generation of young voters.
By Meghan O'Rourke
Posted Wednesday, June 4, 2008, at 11:31 AM ET

"That bitter cynicism of yours is something you've acquired since you left Radcliffe."

"That cynicism you refer to I acquired the day I discovered little girls were different from little boys!"

—Lloyd Richards to Karen Richards, and vice versa, All About Eve

In the coming days, as Hillary Clinton moves to the sidelines and Barack Obama takes the stage alone, many people will suggest that America just wasn't ready for a female president. This may be true. But we'll never entirely know, because Clinton did not invite us to spend much time contemplating the momentous fact that she was the first female presidential candidate with any chance of occupying that position. Her problem wasn't that she was a feminist. Her problem was that she wasn't feminist enough.

For me, at least, she wasn't—and for many young women my age. Back in the mid-1990s, as a college student, I spent an afternoon on the New Haven Green, adjacent to Yale University, waiting for Hillary Rodham Clinton to speak. There was a huge crowd of mostly young women. I found her impressive, if not entirely galvanizing. She had a girlish voice and soft, wispy bangs, as I recall, and she struck me as a real person—not merely a wife performing the role of first lady. I remember wondering if she might some day run for president. I also remember feeling that it seemed outside the realm of the imagination.

That's no longer the case. When Clinton announced her candidacy in January 2007, she raised hopes and possibilities in the minds of young women across America. But the substance of her presidential run seems far more dismal than I would ever have imagined back in 1995. You can't be a historic first unless you act like one, and Hillary Clinton has not. In the Wellesley commencement speech that made her famous before she got to Yale Law School, she spoke about "searching for more immediate, ecstatic, and penetrating modes of living." Yet Clinton ran away from the revolutionary aspects of her own candidacy. There's been nothing of the ecstatic in her presidential bid—that mode, instead, has been embodied by Barack Obama. He appealed to voters' desire for liberation and revolution, and on the strength of that appeal won them over.

Clinton didn't trust that the message of revolution embodied in her candidacy could animate American voters, particularly male voters. And she lacked the courage of her young, ecstasy-seeking self. And so she sent the message that gender was not a factor. Presumably, she did this based on the reasonable assumption that it was politically perilous to be a woman. But the paradox is that in taking the safe tack she thought made her more electable, she actually made herself less electable. She presented herself as a hard-bitten Washington insider, running on experience when a lot of American voters, particularly young women, were looking for transformation.

Obama understood this from early on. Contrast their opening bids: Obama skillfully announced his in Springfield, Ill., with a speech that echoed Abraham Lincoln. Clinton, by contrast, announced hers in a risk-averse video recording on her Web site: "I'm in it to win," she said redundantly. As her campaign progressed, she rarely invoked the historic predecessors that made her candidacy possible—Susan B. Anthony, say, or Jeannette Rankin, a pacifist and suffragette who was the first woman to be elected to Congress (and who always had the courage of her convictions, voting against the First World War). To be sure, Clinton did praise Eleanor Roosevelt's "thick skin"—rather the way one nerd praises another's social-avoidance techniques. It was part of acting as if she were a man inoculated against the slings and arrows of sexism.

In this regard, Clinton never really was the first American matriarch. Instead, she may be best remembered as our last patriarch. The more her campaign floundered as Obama offered ecstasy and she didn't, the more masculine and hard-nosed she made herself out to be. Cannily reversing gender roles, she told Obama supporters that if he couldn't "take the heat" he should "get out of the kitchen"—a subtle put-down of her own gender aimed at working-class male voters who wanted reassurance that Clinton was manlier than the girlie men the Democrats had of late been nominating. Her supporters (among them, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana) invoked stories of steelworkers waxing enthusiastic about her "testicular fortitude." While Obama went on rhetorical flights about hope, she compared herself to the hyper-masculine Rocky Balboa—an underdog, to be sure, but a stoic one who keeps getting up. None of this was accidental, even if the source wasn't always Hillary herself. She was "manning up." Over the years, her hair had grown shorter, and her make-up thicker, like a mask. She played the men's game so well that James Carville eventually quipped, "If she gave [Obama] one of her cojones, they'd both have two."

Unfortunately, a man's rules seemed to be politics as usual. There were the researchers who planted fears that Obama had been schooled in a madrasah, the bizarre (for a Democrat) implication that McCain would make a better president than Obama, the appeal to voters' latent racism. It was these types of calculation that lost her many young women's votes. Worse, all this hardball was occasionally interrupted by cynical, strategic cries of sexism. It's indubitable that sexism infected the campaign, and the media's coverage. Of course, there's a double standard when it comes to men and women in politics—"the tyranny of high expectations," as Elizabeth Kolbert puts it in Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary, a recent anthology. John McCain can call his wife a "cunt" in the earshot of reporters and get little blowback, yet Clinton can't change her hair without being called untrustworthy. But even last fall Clinton's relationship to sexism seemed schizophrenic: First she did the tough, impervious act, and then she played the dame in distress when a debate didn't go her way. In contrast to Obama's matter-of-fact relationship to race—as a subject that bore serious discussion but was hardly the be-all and end-all of American politics—Clinton's relationship to gender seemed at turns angry and deeply ambivalent.

Of course, there's some logic behind Clinton's calculation that running on gender was too politically risky. Race—however profound an issue it is in America—doesn't get in the way of the paradigm that treats ambition and leadership as masculine qualities. Gender does. Obama can still draw on the classic paradigm of leadership; Clinton would have had to create something new. To judge by all kinds of studies of women in private-sector leadership positions, this would have been a fraught battle, strewn with double standards. It's only fair to point out that many of Hillary's attributes—toughness, control, emotional distance—are qualities that are sometimes admired in men but almost never in women. We'll never know whether the traits Clinton displayed in this campaign would have drawn less animus from voters had she actually been a man.

But if ever there were a moment to have ventured that battle, this was it. If she'd run against an establishment candidate like Kerry, being the experienced woman would itself have seemed radical. In the context of Obama's transformative campaign, though, she couldn't afford to become the old-style candidate. As Obama grew more potent, Clinton grew more brittle. She allowed him to set the terms of debate—optimism, church choirs, soul music. Then she responded by tearing him down instead of defining the conversation on her own terms. At the apogee of her campaign's vicious sniping this spring, Clinton seemed to embody a travesty of feminist values—to be a cautionary emblem of what can happen to a gifted young woman embittered by the challenges she's had to face. It was as if she failed entirely to see the revolutionary nature of her achievement.

Last week, I e-mailed a group of young women, asking them what they thought of Hillary Clinton's campaign as it drew to a close. The women I heard from were mostly young, well-educated, upper-middle-class, and white—one of the groups that didn't flock to Hillary in numbers her campaign (and many second-generation feminists) had expected. I got one response over and over: frustration that Clinton hadn't done enough, as a historic "first," to differentiate herself from stodgy, old male Washington politics. But they also felt … ambivalent about their frustration. In that sense, you might say, nothing has changed. Women have always been ambivalent about Hillary. In another sense, though, she had been a candidate of profound change—albeit not in the way that you might think. Her own risk-aversion has given us "something to chew on," as a young film producer told me. And the media's sexism forced twenty- and thirtysomethings to recognize that feminism is not just "our mother's problem," as another young professional phrased it.

As he goes forward, Obama will undoubtedly be compared to Abraham Lincoln. But I always thought Whitman was a more apt predecessor for both candidates. Whitman embodied the ecstatic to which Hillary Clinton, at one time, linked her hopes for a better America. But she didn't make it part of her campaign. Instead, she made fun of Obama's knack for lighting a fire in the hearts of a wide swath of Americans. She preached pragmatism instead of fellow-feeling. And she scolded Obama for being starry-eyed. But her decision to turn away from the ecstatic was a great mistake, as Whitman might have understood. By stripping her campaign of its native appeal, by refusing to portray herself as part of a transcendent feminist narrative, by diluting the dynamic pleasures of mass political response, she let us down. After all, feminism need not be joyless.

Meghan O'Rourke is Slate's literary editor and the author of Halflife, a collection of poetry.

Your Kingdom Come

2008-05-23T07:38:00.003-05:00

"Our time would be a good time for your kingdom to come, because we have had enough of violence and travail." -Walter Brueggeman

As I look around at the world, I sometimes see little of the hope, joy, and peace that is supposed to come with the establishment of God's kingdom. Families are marred by conflict and tension; churches fight against one another; thousands of people are dying in natural disasters, in wars, and from famine. The poorest of the poor are hungrier than ever because of food shortages in the very places where food is most needed. The world is consumed with poverty and injustice. As I look back through the 2000 years of history since Christ dwelt with us on this earth, I wonder, have we made any progress on a grand scale? Or are things the same? Will they always be the same?

We have been trying to figure out the nature of God's kingdom for that 2000 years as well. Did he mean for us to conquer the world, threatening all those who choose not to bow down to him with violence? I don't think so. Did he mean only that his kingdom consists of the church and the people within it taking care of their own? I hope not. Did he mean only his heavenly kingdom and that we have no power to bring his justice to the earth? Again, I hope not, for this would produce a people concerned first and foremost for themselves as they become so consumed looking up and forward that they forget to look around. It has been so long...2000 years! What is God waiting for? What are we waiting for?

God, help us to be aware of our roles in the hastening of your kingdom, whatever its true nature may be. May we seek answers to the question, "What can I do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace?"

San Diego

2008-04-16T20:35:00.004-05:00

As most of you know, I spent last weekend in San Diego. My primary purpose for being there was to attend the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) conference on gender relations on Christian college campuses. There were some very interesting conversations that took place. You can go to www.cccu.org if you're interested in learning more about what took place at the conference. The conference was hosted by Point Loma Nazarene University which sits on a hill overlooking the ocean. It was really beautiful.

But, what all of you really want to know about is my trip to the zoo. If you like zoos, and you haven't been to the San Diego Zoo, you're missing out! It was awesome. They have just about every kind of animal you can imagine. My favorites are the large apes (they had baby gorillas...so cute!), any kind of cat (especially the small wild cats that look like Oscar and Cassie; it's just funny to think about how they could probably rip me apart), polar bears, meercats (a mom and babies), and on this trip, the hummingbird aviary. Here are some photos of my favorites:

Church Softball

2008-04-05T20:09:00.002-05:00

Eric has decided to play softball on Highland's team this spring and summer. Their team's name is Highland: God's Helpers, or HGH (let's just say they're a little full of themselves). Unfortunately, I haven't been able to go to any of the games yet, but apparently Eric was the hero of the first game. When he got home that evening, I noticed that his entire left leg was bloody. After wiping away the blood, we discovered that he had at least a 6-inch "boo-boo" (my term, not Eric's). I asked how on earth he did that, and he proceeded to tell me about how he had slid three times during the game, one of which was for the game-winning run. One of his slides was apparently head-first. He's been out of practice for a while. They have a team blog at www.hghsoftball.wordpress.com. It's incredibly entertaining, so check it out if you have time. I, by the way, will not be playing softball anytime soon. We went to the batting cages last night, and I hit about 5 out of 30 balls. It's not looking promising for me!

My "Little Sister"

2008-03-22T14:00:00.003-05:00

Many of you have heard me talk about Anyssia, my "little" through Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS), so I thought I'd share a picture with you. If you aren't familiar with BBBS, they provide one-to-one mentoring for any child who wishes to have a mentor. They are unique in the nonprofit sector because they have opened themselves up to outside program evaluation for years. The outcomes are incredible. "Littles" in the program are more likely to graduate from high school, less likely to engage in risky behaviors (alcohol and drug use and promiscuity), and less likely to end up in prison when compared to other children in similar circumstances who are not in the program. I know much of this because Eric works for BBBS here in Abilene, but I also know this from the position of a researcher. During my studies at Michigan State, I was on the positive youth development (PYD) research team. We conducted the type of program evaluations mentioned above and found repeatedly that a one-to-one relationship between a child and an adult other than his/her parents makes a significant difference in his/her pro-social development. Clearly, this is a program in which I really believe. Such a tangible difference can be made with such a small amount of time and effort. And while the research focuses on outcomes for the "littles," I think "bigs" would report significant positive outcomes as well. I know it's had positive effects in my life...joy, laughter, gratitude, opportunities to learn, and many others. If you've been thinking of getting involved in your community and have 4 hours per month to offer, try Big Brothers Big Sisters. You won't regret it.

Hoopie

2008-02-16T15:18:00.003-06:00

The other night I was sitting at a coffee shop with some good friends having good conversation, when I began to tell them about some of my childhood experiences of going "down hoopie" with my family. Being that I am from West Virginia, and they are from Texas and Oklahoma, they had never heard the word "hoopie" and wanted to know exactly what it means. Hoopie, I told them, is a place "down the river" from where my family's home was. It was where my Grandma Altie and Grandpa Charlie lived (although they weren't actually my grandparents at all; they were the parents of my great uncle). Several times during the year, typically at squirrel, deer, or turkey season, my entire extended family on my dad's side would make the trip down the river to hoopie. Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Altie owned hundreds of acres with beautiful forests, streams, and fields and two farm houses. They lived in one of the houses, and we would stay in the other when we visited. Their house was updated, but our house had been built in the early 1900s, and no updates had been made. I only remember one electric light in the entire house: a lone lightbulb that hung over the dining room table. Accompanying the lightbulb was always a strip of flypaper, dotted with its victims. There was a water pump in the backyard, and we bathed by pouring water into the kitchen sink. There were heaters of some type in the bedrooms, but I remember that we always had to turn them off at night because there was too much of a fire risk. So we would bundle up with an abundance of blankets and wake up in the morning with icy cold noses. Despite the lack of modern creature comforts, I always smile when I think about hoopie. Here are some of my favorite memories:

Having huge farm-style family lunches at Altie and Charlie's house when the men came in from their morning of hunting
Exploring Altie's bookshelf and reading books that seemed so old they would surely fall apart in my hands
Walking in the woods and seeing frog eggs for the first time (this happened shortly after I had seen E.T., and I remember asking my dad if they were E.T. eggs)
Running through the fields, streams, and woods and catching all sorts of animals...turtles, salamanders, frogs, etc.
Sitting around the living room and singing gospel songs, occasionally accompanied by someone playing the spoons
Staying up late telling stories and jokes and thinking that I must have the best, most fun family in all the world
Exploring the barns and sheds with my sister, always being fearful of meeting a snake
Going out to the potato patch with my dad and Grandpa Charlie and sitting under the weeping willow that stood in the middle of the field

While "hoopie" is associated with a particular place for me, a more accurate definition might be that it's a state of mind...kind of like margaritaville without the alcohol and tropical weather. It's about having fun with family doing simple things. It's about unplugging from all of the "conveniences" that have crowded our lives and enjoying nature and the company of good people.

So, do you have a "hoopie"? I hope so.

I Love My Husband!!

2008-02-14T16:01:00.002-06:00

Well, it's my tenth Valentine's Day with Eric, so I want to take this opportunity to publicly declare my love for him. As I was writing in his card this morning, it struck me that I have no regrets about the decisions we've made in our life together. No regrets. How many people can say that? Of course, we've made mistakes, and there have been painful times, but I can honestly say that I treasure every moment we've shared together. There's nothing I would change about our journey. Eric has supported me endlessly, putting my needs (especially my career goals) ahead of his own time and time again. I love him in every sense of the word...agape, filia, and eros. My continual prayer is that I will be able to be a wife that is worthy of him each day.

Out of Commission

2008-02-02T20:44:00.000-06:00

This has been quite a week. Last weekend, I had the privilege to speak at the Zoe conference in Fresno, CA, and after an eventful trip home due to bad weather and flight cancellations, I finally arrived home on Monday evening. With a temperature...and as I would find out on Wednesday upon visiting the doctor, with the flu. I have never been so sick in my entire life. I had a 102 temperature for 4 days, the worst aches and pains I have ever felt, and sinus congestion that could not be alleviated. I did nothing but lie on the couch for the entire week. Eric took wonderful care of me, carting me to the doctor's office and making endless trips to the drug store and grocery store. At one point, he jokingly said to me, "Isn't it weird that you have something that some people die from?" My life, of course, wasn't in danger. But the sad truth of that question penetrated me later as I thought about all the people who will get the flu who don't have insurance to pay for their doctor visit and who don't have the $30 (more without insurance, I'm sure) to pay for the 10 pills that will kill the virus. Despite feeling awful, ultimately, at the end of this week of illness, I'm thankful...thankful for a job that allows me to miss a week of work and provides health and prescription insurance; thankful for a comfortable home in which to heal; and thankful for a husband who is attentive and caring. I hope that I'll continue to appreciate these things as the memory of my bout with the flu fades.

I'm Hooked

2008-01-16T22:43:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Eric's cousin, Zach, we were introduced to the joys of Guitar Hero while visiting our family over the holidays. When I first heard about the game, I thought, "That sounds really stupid." Well, it is stupid, but it's also a lot of fun. Eric and I saved some of our Christmas money so that we too could be the proud owners of Guitar Hero (although we only have Guitar Hero II, and we have a generic guitar). On Sunday, our first day of ownership, I played so much that I had to put Icy Hot on my wrists before going to bed. That's embarrassing. And, here's what real guitar players think about people who play Guitar Hero:

1992

2008-01-01T18:08:00.000-06:00

When I was at my parents' over the holidays, we spent one evening going through boxes of pictures, and this is just one of the gems I found. Yes, this is me in 1992 at 15 years old. Note the huge hair and glasses, the color block shirt, and the stirrup pants. If you're observant, you'll notice that I'm reading It by Stephen King. During my junior high and early high school years, I was obsessed with him, and I was clearly very irritated that someone had interrupted my reading to take this picture. Go ahead...have some fun at my expense!

The Work of Christmas

2007-12-18T19:57:00.000-06:00

This will be the last time I post until after the holidays. I hope that all of you will have a blessed and memorable time with your family and friends. May you have an opportunity to reflect on the joys and pains (and everything in between) of the past year and to be grateful for the one who humbled himself to birth in a barn with cows, donkeys, sheep, and poor shepherds as the only witnesses.

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with the flocks,
then the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal those broken in spirit,
to feed the hungry,
to release the oppressed,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among all peoples,
to make a little music with the heart.

And to radiate the light of Christ,
every day, in every way,
in all that we do, all that we say.

Then the work of Christmas begins.

-Howard Thurman

Thanks, Cecelia!

2007-12-16T22:10:00.000-06:00

Thanks to my mother-in-law, Cecelia, Oscar and Cassie did not have to go without cute Christmas apparel. Oscar, the orange cat, was happy to don his new collar. He posed beautifully for the camera. Cassie, on the other hand, is another story. Sometime in her early kittenhood, she developed a fear of bells. This happened before she came to live with our family, so we have no idea what trauma befell her that involved jingling bells. We put the collar on her, hoping that her fear had subsided, but alas, we were wrong. As soon as she took one step and heard the jingling, she froze. The picture shows the position in which she remained for about 5 minutes before trying to back out of the collar. We graciously removed the collar just after taking the picture (for those of you who might be concerned about cruelty to animals). It's too late to get Christmas cards made, so the pictures posted here will have to do. Thanks, Cecelia!

A Must Read

2007-12-15T11:12:00.000-06:00

If you don't typically visit the other blogs linked here, let me strongly encourage you to read the post on Waymon Hinson's blog from Friday, Dec. 14. Contained there are the words of one of the MFT program's outstanding first year students describing her family's experience over Thanksgiving break. Waymon and his teams are significantly involved in expanding the kingdom of God on earth through their pursuit of justice.

My Quest for Cat Costumes

2007-12-10T22:30:00.000-06:00

I was talking to my husband, Eric, the other day about my blog, and he said I need to have some levity along with all of the serious posts about religion, gender, politics, etc. So, here it is!

As most of my readers know, I don't have children. As a result, when it comes to Christmas cards, I typically send the kind you buy at the store in a box...no family pictures included. Nobody really wants a picture of a couple; they just want to see cute kids. This year, I decided I would send a personalized photo greeting of my two cats, Oscar and Cassie, dressed in Christmas costumes. They're much cuter than a lot of kids anyway (of course, not any of the kids I know and love). I was extremely excited when I saw cat costumes in the PetSmart ad this past weekend. There was a picture of a cute orange cat that looked like Oscar in a Santa hat and a red jacket with white fur lining. I had dreams of dressing Oscar like Santa Claus and Cassie like an elf. I wasn't sure how I would get them to sit still long enough for me to take a picture or how I would even get the costumes on them, but I was determined.

I set out for PetSmart with one thing in mind: buying two really cute costumes. I walked all over the store looking for them and finally found the place where all of the Christmas pet items were on display. Another woman was there, and I overheard her talking to an employee. She was asking where the cat costumes were, and he told her they didn't have any. I was so disappointed! So needless to say, no one will be getting a personalized photo greeting card from the Goffs this year. You'll have to settle for the store-bought, boxed card once again. But at least you'll get a handwritten message.

What I Learned from the Lutherans

2007-12-02T20:15:00.000-06:00

In a previous post, I mentioned that Eric and I attended a Lutheran church (ELCA) for two years when we lived in Michigan. Most of you know that I grew up in a Church of Christ, so this was quite a detour from the path on which I began my spiritual walk. We had a very difficult time finding a church when we moved to Michigan. We had just left Abilene and Highland, and we knew that we would be encountering a very different C of C environment in Michigan. But we wanted to try. I especially wanted to be committed to my heritage, so we agreed that we would try to find a congregation that we could agree to attend. So, we visited the two congregations in Jackson, the town in which we lived, and when we knew we wouldn't fit at either, we drove to East Lansing and Ann Arbor (both 60 minutes away) to visit the congregations there. Those didn't work either, so we decided to try the next closest thing, the Independent Christian Church. We attended there for about 6 weeks but we felt very unwelcome. It was a congregation of about 150, but no one other than the preacher had ever bothered to speak to us. So, one day on a whim, as we were on our way to the Independent Christian Church, we pulled into the parking lot of Immanuel Lutheran Church and decided to go in. We quickly came to love this congregation of 200 people. Here are just a few of the things I learned from my time at Immanuel:

The beauty of liturgy. I grew up in an anti-liturgical tradition, so this was completely new to me. It took a while to get used to it, but the predictable rhythm of worship was comforting for me as I was in a very hectic time of my life (working on my Ph.D.). I also grew to love the communal participation in worship. In the C of C, there are traditionally a few people providing the service for the rest of the congregation, but at Immanuel there was very little of the service in which the entire congregation was not involved. I loved hearing our voices in unison as we recited the Apostle's Creed or said the Prayers of the People.
The power of using others' words in prayer. I briefly mentioned this in an earlier post, but growing up in the C of C, I was taught that prayer should be spontaneous and come from the heart. This is noble, but I think if most people are honest, they will admit that they often do not have anything to say to God. It was while attending Immanuel that I was introduced to the rich, meaningful words of others' prayers.
The significance of amazing grace. If you're familiar with church history, you know that Martin Luther was first and foremost a proponent of God's grace and human unworthiness. As a result, the Lutherans emphasize grace above all else; there is nothing that humans can do to contribute to their own salvation. This is their explanation for infant baptism. Rather than believer's baptism being something that I can claim as a "work" by which I earn my salvation, infant baptism is a gift of grace given to a child by her parents and her church family. While I still prefer believer's baptism, there is a certain beauty in the symbolism of infant baptism.
The value of religious dialogue. Pastor Erick took an interest in Eric and I, most likely because no one from the C of C had ever darkened his doors, and we literally spent hours in his office discussing our different traditions. Before that, I had never experienced religious/theological dialogue in a church setting. Unfortunately, what I had experienced growing up when Christians disagreed was slandering and backbiting. Pastor Erick taught me that we could actually talk to one another, disagree with each other, and still be in communion with one another.
The joy of being invited into community. After we had been at Immanuel for a few months, Eric and I were asked to teach a young adult Bible class on Sunday mornings. I was absolutely shocked. We had been attending for just a short time, and we had never formally become members of the congregation (because I didn't feel comfortable becoming Lutheran). Eric was also invited to be a "lay minister," which meant he did anouncements, read the Prayers of the People, read the Scriptures, and helped serve communion. We talked in astonishment about this...did they realize we weren't "Lutheran"? Should we clarify to make sure they realized that we weren't technically part of them? We decided we would talk to Pastor Erick about this because we didn't want to be dishonest. He assured us that they were fully aware of our status, but they believed we had something valuable to offer the congregation. After all, we were Christians and that was really all that mattered.
The importance of looking "out" more than looking "in" (or, in Highland terms, being missional). The congregation at Immanuel had an outward focus and was always engaged in outreach. There were plenty of disagreements among the congregants but they were never distracted from their mission to share the light of Christ.

I was blessed to be a part of Immanuel Lutheran Church for those two years. They impacted my spiritual life significantly, and I learned things that I may have never learned elsewhere. If you get the opportunity to take a detour off of your typical beaten path, I hope you'll seriously consider taking it. You may be surprised by all that you'll learn.

Women in Leadership: The Double Bind

2007-11-26T18:30:00.000-06:00

Since I took on the role as clinic director for the Marriage and Family Institute at ACU, I've been thinking a lot about leadership and particularly women in leadership. I am incredibly fortunate to have a mentoring relationship with David Wray, who has established himself as a true servant leader through his roles as department chair, church elder, and Associate Dean of Spiritual Life and Co-Curriculum in the College of Biblical Studies. He has been challenging me to be intentional about my leadership style by identifying core principles which will guide me as I make decisions and interact with students and colleagues. As I have been pondering what my core principles are, I came to the conclusion that I want to lead as a woman who is not only biologically female but feminine as well. I want to capitalize on my talents of empathy and creating connections in my leadership role. I also do not want to dress like a man in order to receive respect. I'm not afraid to admit that I like clothes, and I enjoy being somewhat fashionable in the way that I dress. I've also realized, however, that these qualities may interfere with cultivating respect and being taken seriously.

Women in leadership roles face an intimidating double bind. Women and men are obviously socialized to behave and to interact with others in different ways. Because men have traditionally been the ones in formal leadership roles, the characteristics and qualities expected of good leaders have been based upon stereotypically male behaviors. This puts women in a difficult position. They can choose to be themselves and use their own strengths and talents to lead, but they are then subject to criticism because they aren't masculine enough. On the other hand, women who choose to emulate masculine traits in their leadership roles are criticized for trying to be too masculine. I think that Hilary Clinton, regardless of personal opinion, is a good example of this. When Bill was in the White House, she was criticized for trying to be involved in too much public policy, and people speculated about who the real president was. People do not like her because she is opinionated and outspoken, which are not traits that are typically valued in women. When she tries to connect with her feminine side, however, she is accused of trying to use her sex to her advantage. She is in an impossible position. No matter what she does, she will be the object of criticism because of the double bind that has been created for women in leadership positions.

As a culture, both in the church and in the larger community, we do not value the voices of women. Admittedly, things have come a long way, but we still have a lot of work to do in valuing all that women have to offer, both in formal and informal leadership.

All of these thoughts have led me to become interested in doing research on perceptions of women in leadership roles, especially at Christian colleges and universities. So, what do you think? What are your perceptions of women in leadership roles? Who, among women leaders, do you respect and why?

Thanksgiving...A Few Days Late

2007-11-24T16:44:00.000-06:00

Although I'm a few days late, I thought I should still go ahead and post my "what I'm thankful for" list, so here it is:

My husband, Eric. Each year, I love him more than the last, and I'm so thankful to have a marriage that brings so much joy to my life.
The rest of my family...my parents and my in-laws, my sister and sister- and brother-in-laws, and my niece Bella and nephew Max (they are so funny and brilliant!).
All of the great friends I've made here in Abilene and beyond...you know who you are.
My colleagues. I work with great Christians whom I admire and respect. They provide such wonderful examples of Christ-likeness. It's a blessing to be able to imitate them because I know they're imitating Christ.
My church family. I have had the opportunity to be a part of two congregations which I considered to be true family: Immanual Lutheran Church in Jackson, MI, and Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, TX. Although I am no longer with them, my family at Immanuel, and especially Pastor Erick, influenced my spiritual walk beyond what I can describe here (maybe that will be a later post), and I thank God for them often. My family at Highland has been just as meaningful. Highland is a large congregation (approx. 2000 members), and although it is impossible to know everyone, I have been able to form meaningful relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ through Bible classes, through my small group, and through opportunities to serve alongside the larger community.
My students. Being able to teach graduate students is a privilege. They think critically, they ask difficult questions, and they push me to expand my own knowledge. They are also so much fun! I love being able to joke and laugh with them.
My cats. Some of you who are not cat people may disagree with this, but cats are great pets! If Oscar and Cassie were not a part of my life, I know I would be more stressed. I can always count on Cassie to give me more love and affection than I want most of the time, and when Oscar is in the mood to cuddle, it makes my day!
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The opportunity to be in relationship with the triune God is the greatest blessing in life.

This list could go on and on, but the people (and animals) I've mentioned are those who enrich my life with meaning, contentment, and joy. If you're included in the people on this list, thank you for the privilege to be a part of your life. May the atmosphere of Thanksgiving be evident in your lives throughout the year.

Solitude, Silence, and Prayer

2007-11-21T10:03:00.000-06:00

I was blessed with the opportunity about a month ago to attend a 24-hour retreat for solitude, silence, and prayer. The Human Resources director at ACU, Suzanne Allmon, and a team of faculty and staff have been focusing on ways in which ACU can encourage employees to be more intentional about spending time with God in the midst of all of our busyness and chaos, and these 24-hour retreats are one way in which they are helping us. When we arrived, the 12 of us in attendance met together for introductions and to talk about the purpose and goals of the retreat. We then had lunch together, followed by a session on solitude, led by David Wray. After talking about solitude for an hour, we had three hours in which to practice solitude. I thought to myself, "Three hours is an awfully long time to sit outside by myself doing nothing." I was amazed at how quickly the time flew by. I spent some time journaling about what keeps me from solitude and silence in my everyday life. I realized that I am ultimately afraid of failure. I am so accustomed to having goals, the steps to which I can easily identify. So much of what happens in times of solitude depends on God, so my lack of control is frightening to me. The purpose of solitude is to listen. There is a part of me that is still skeptical about this...does God really talk to us? I hear so many people say, "God told me to...," and it is followed by something that is so clearly not within God's will for his people. So, this causes me to be skeptical about hearing God's voice. I ask myself, "Is it really God, or is it just my own mind telling me that it is God?" Unfortunately, I think people are relatively adept at fooling themselves into believing/justifying a lot of things that are not true, with Satan's help, of course. On the other hand, there are some people whom I respect deeply that practice listening to God and whose lives are clearly in line with his purposes. So, I decided, I'm diving in and giving it a chance.

Our next session together was coaching on silence. David emphasized the necessity of not only external but internal silence. That's the hard part...quieting my mind. Shutting off the racing thoughts and the to do list. After our discussion, we went out into the night (literally the very dark night) for an hour of silence. This was planned so that we would not be able to read or write during this time. I cleared my mind by breathing in rhythm with the Jesus prayer: "Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner." We ended the evening by sharing our desolations in small groups and praying for one another.

The next morning, after breakfast, we discussed prayer, and David provided us with several suggestions regarding how to pray. Since I grew up in a C of C, I was taught that prayer should be spontaneous and made up only of our own words. We did not even pray the Lord's Prayer at my home congregation. I was talking to my husband after I returned home about how I feel like I ran out of words sometime when I was in college. The idea that prayer consisted of me talking to God, using only my own words, was tiring and overwhelming. I eventually stopped praying because, to be honest, it seemed redundant and boring. It wasn't until we attended a Lutheran church when we lived in Michigan that I realized I could use other people's words when praying and even that I could listen in prayer. This has opened a whole new world to me. The prayers contained in Scripture and written by the early saints and church fathers/mothers are so rich and meaningful. Maybe this is a way in which the Holy Spirit intercedes for us...by providing us with the words of those who have gone before us when we can't find our own.

To summarize all of this, the weekend was wonderful! When I returned home on Saturday afternoon, I had a feeling of peace, restfulness, and relaxation that lasted the rest of the weekend. When I returned to work on Monday, it felt as though I had had a 2-week vacation. So, if you ever have the opportunity to attend a spiritual retreat, I pray that you'll take advantage of it. Don't let your fears of the unknown keep you from experiencing God. Take the leap of faith, and dive in!

The Other Side of the Street

2007-11-17T22:34:00.000-06:00

A Prayer by Walter Brueggemann

Just when we imagine that we have you figured out

you show up working the other side of the street

in your frightening freedom.

You meet us behind and before

as promise and as threat,

and we are overmatched whenever we sit to deal with you.

So we bid you to pay less vigorous attention to us

and we bid you to give us the freedom and courage

that we may withstand you

in ways that are proper to you and to us.

We pray in the name of the utterly humble One

whom you therefore exalted.

Give us wisdom and freedom

that we may sense the ways in which we may best live in this world

where the last become first and the first become last. Amen.

Welcome!

2007-11-17T22:06:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my blog. I had no intentions of ever beginning a blog until last night. My good friends, Shelly and Mauri, convinced me that I should start one...so here I am!

You may be wondering about the title, "Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth." Unfortunately, I cannot claim to have come up with it myself. It is the title of a collection of Walter Brueggemann's prayers. The title is meant to convey that this blog will contain posts about the spiritual and sacramental aspects of life (awed to heaven) as well as the mundane and everyday (rooted in earth). One day you may read a post about my struggles with prayer, while the next day, I may write about something funny one of my cats did. I'm looking forward to sharing my musings on life in the already but not yet. Thanks for coming along!