Novels open doors

As an English major, I enjoyed last weeks readings and how they linked the appreciation of Literature (which seems so undervalued these days) to better overall citizenship. Part of the reason that I switched from Biochemistry to English my sophomore year was precisely that interest in seeing things from alternative perspectives. I originally enjoyed science for similar reasons, being able to look at things from the viewpoints of physics, chemistry, biology, neurology, ecology, etc., helps one develop an appreciation for the complexity of the universe. However as my study of science progressed into college, when science took on a much more technical aspect, my interest slowly faded and moved into English. I must admit I always hated English growing up, and it wasn't until my Junior year of high school that I first enjoyed a work of literature. I didn't get a chance to mention it in class, but Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" was the first book that really moved me and opened my mind up to other ways of thinking. For those unfamiliar about the work, it is a novel of early feminist literature, that portrays the life of a woman in the conservative, Creole deep south. It was the firs book I ever underlined in and it has strongly influenced the way I looked at everything since. I have since been moved by many other things that I have read, though I am personally not as great a fan of novels as Nussbaum appears to be. I personally like poetry much better, especially in conveying alternative perspectives, because it must be engaged much more actively and therefore challenges the mind more, but that is just my two cents.

Longwinded but insightful Catholic Bishops

From the readings, I found the document, "US Bishops Economic Justice for All", to be quite futuristic and progressive in its message. The second reading, "US Bishops letter to House and Senate" seemed a little backward in comparison, starting off with the pressing need to keep abortion out of the bill. A statement, which, as we've discussed in class, seems quite irrelevant considering that there is very little likelihood that such a consideration would be a pressing danger. I was not fond of how it seemed to be preaching about the topic of abortion before getting to the more relevant subject of equal opportunity health care for all. I'll try not to dwell on the negatives, however but focus on the positives. I was quite impressed, as I've mentioned, of the first (long) document we read. The call for positive economic development seems almost prophetic in light of today's conditions and just as relevant today as they were back in the 80s. One of my favorite passages from the document was from the first paragraph of Chapter 1, which in my opinion highlights the major themes present throughout the document. “We judge any economic system by what it does to the people and by how it permits all to participate in it. The economy should serve people, not the other way around.” This highlights one of the major problems that seems to plague our current condition in the United States. What I'm referring to is the reversal of roles between human kind and the abstract notion of economy which was originally created and intended to serve human kind. Now days, it seems that instead, human kind is forced to serve the interest of the economy, as though it were that of God it(him/her)self. The theme of the document seems to be very similar, in many respects, to the ecumenical document that Ed and I presented on last week, the Social Creed for the 21st Century (with the major difference being a great deal more words). Unfortunately, while the ideas expressed in the document are excellent, like many of the documents before it, there has a gulf between the strength of action and the strength of words. However, action is much more difficult than words and while the worlds may come from the US Bishops, it is up to all Catholics (and other Christians as well) to do their part to make the economic situation in the United States more open to people from different backgrounds, rather than simply the rich and the lucky.

Compassionate Calvinism and "Not playing God"

As I have been researching Presbyterianism for my and Ed’s presentation on Wednesday, I am seeing a lot of similarity between the United Church of Christ’s stance on social ministry and Presbyterianism’s. Being both heavily influenced by the protestant reformer, John Calvin, it seems to me that both are faced with a similar challenge of justifying moral works and faith. Calvin’s obsession with the justification of salvation through faith alone has always troubled me, especially since learning so much about the Puritans in New England in our freshman MOI class. The atrocities that happened at Salem and other places in New England that were in large part due to certain ignorances perpetuated by Calvinist Puritans have given me a strong suspicion of traditions that so strongly emphasize faith as a virtue above all others that they often overlook virtues as essential to Christianity as love and mercy. I do find it quite refreshing and revealing of my own ignorances that there can be such a wide spectrum of within the Calvinist tradition, for, on the one extreme there is the case of the Puritans and near the other end of the spectrum the United Church of Christ (as well as Presbyterianism) can be so involved in progressive ideas. I was really surprised to learn just how liberal the United Church of Christ is, especially how they have already opened up to the concept of gay marriage and incorporated into their own beliefs. I was very pleased to see a similarity of view to Catholicism (which tends to combine faith and works/love together more as a single unit) with the quotation from the Epistle of James in the first paragraph of the longer reading we had on the United Church of Christ, which stated, “faith apart from works is dead.” I have found a very similar point of view coming from Presbyterianism in preparing for our presentation. From the presentation, I really enjoyed the refrain that we should not play God, which to me seems to be one of the biggest problems that Christianity faces. For as Christians live in a manner that they, at least as individuals, believe is in accordance with God’s will, it becomes very difficult to be faithful to that view without falling into the danger of judging other people according to their personal beliefs. I think that the statement that we should not play God, especially when dealing out judgments to other people, is a major part of being a good Christian. For even in the Gospel, one can see Jesus resisting the making of judgments over others’ actions (with the exception of barren fig trees, but that is precisely because of their own inaction) as he forgives the tax collectors, prostitutes, and adulterers. To me it is the times in the history of Christianity, when man begins playing the role of God (like the inquisition, crusades, etc.) that all hell breaks loose.

Reviewing Objectives

Since the beginning of the semester I have gotten the chance to interact with First Presbyterian Church and construct some ideas of how our service with them might benefit the Washington community. The way it now appears that Ed and I will work to serve the community is through working to revive more communication between Churches in the Washington neighborhood. There was an old group of churches under the title of Downtown Dubuque Christian Outreach that once existed, made up of protestant churches in the Washington neighborhood area that used to put on events. It has since dissolved, more or less, but there is still some funds that are under the name of the group. Ed and I plan to try to use our service to facilitate communication between these churches and perhaps resurrect the group, if possible. Our hope is that, through facilitating better communication between these parishes, they could coordinate their efforts in a more well rounded manner to build a better community around them. Even to just make all of the churches aware of what programs the other churches in the area provide might help to make sure that essential services are not forgotten or overlooked and that certain programs aren’t heavily and unnecessarily repeated.
Looking at what I know now that I wasn’t aware of before, my learning plan has narrowed down more toward putting First Presbyterian church into a more historical perspective, and learning more about its involvement in the Downtown Dubuque Christian Outreach as well as the history of the group itself. Our job in achieving our objectives will be in a big way, very informational. We are going to have to create a picture of what the DDCO looked like in the past, what its purpose was, why it has dissolved in recent years, what we can to do try to restore communication between these churches. Another aspect that we are going to have to deal with is in communication. We are going to have to contact these churches, and try to facilitate communication between them by either setting up a meeting or event. Hopefully, if all turns out as well as it might, the churches in the Washington neighborhood area will be able to better support each other in serving the community of the Washington neighborhood.

CST: Good Message, Poor Reasoning

If I had to give a talk on Catholic Social Teaching at First Presbyterian Church I would surely address what I believe to be the central message of Catholic Social Teaching, the dignity of the human person. The dignity of the human person is the major aspect of Catholic Social Teaching that I find meaningful, however, I myself believe that the Catholic Church does a terrible job conveying it in a truly universal manner. I was especially bothered by the treatment of atheism and the source of human dignity in sections 19-21 in Gaudium et Spes. The beginning of this passage states “The root for human dignity lies in man’s call to communion with God.” The conflict of this assumption and the opposing stance of atheism leads to the statement at the end of the same paragraph which states, “atheism must be accounted among the most serious problems of this age.” I find the church’s assumption here, that human dignity is sourced in God, to be a very dangerous statement, which here is working more to support their own conflicts with atheism rather than to protect human dignity. In fact, by treating human dignity in such a non-universal way (seeing that belief in God, especially the Christian God is hardly a universal) the Catholic Church seems to undermine the very dignity of humanity. I believe that, whether or not a God exists for man to be in communion with, there would still be reason for human dignity. Man is undeniably a social being. Whether or not this is because God created him this way I feel is beside the point. The fact that man is means that man is social. From birth, man is helpless, completely reliant upon a mother. This reliance is the root of all social reliance later on in life. By virtue of man’s necessary connection to his fellow man and fellow creatures, for survival, growth, sanity, man is immersed in a social web that encompassed the entire planet. Man’s actions spread to other people and creatures, both indirectly and directly, and, in turn spread back to him. It is a sense of one’s own dignity that leads to respect for the dignity of others, for how can man expect others to do for him, what he will not do to others. In this respect, man’s dignity seems tied to the golden rule, which is more along the lines of communion with others than specifically a communion with God. While God, for some, may seem to be an idea that also encompasses all others (which in practice seems to be less the case), it is not, or at least no longer a universal belief. Yet it is hard for even the most skeptical person to deny the existence of others, for at the very least there is the connection to the Mother, the human connection that binds all humanity together, beyond race, nationality, or religion. And the golden rule, though spoken at one time by Jesus, is hardly confined to him alone, nor was he even the first to say it, yet it is present, in some form, in almost all major religions and philosophies and can even be seen in the ideas of secular humanists, many of whom are themselves atheists. I therefore do not think that Catholic Social Teaching is best taught by what we have read from the encyclicals, but could best be expressed, and expressed in a more universal and convincing manner, in the various philosophical and spiritual traditions that have existed through the ages, for I feel that the only way that there will ever be a true respect for human dignity is if it is no simply tied to a single religion or dogma, but can be seen to be reflected in all of the wisdom of humanity, to be seen both through the workings of logic and reason, as well as the traditions that have served humanity throughout history. I have had a lot of difficulty in reading through the encyclicals, because they always seem to refer all of their reasoning back to God, the church, and scriptures. As a logical foundation, this basis is weak, and if another person does not agree with the basis for the argument, it makes the entire argument invalid and even appears to undermine the very values of the argument, which I feel hurts human dignity rather than helps it. I feel that something as universal as human dignity should be argued for on a much more universal and fundamental level than the Catholic Church has been proposing in these encyclicals. The Church’s agenda here seems to be more to protect its own authority in relation to human dignity than to fight for human dignity itself, which I feel must be at the very heart of any spiritual, moral, or ethical argument. For the question of God or no God is a matter of faith, but human dignity cannot be left purely to faith, especially in an age when there are those who have no faith and even the “faithful” seem to have no faith. Human dignity must be protected because it is necessary for every person’s existence, and no man is an island but is made from relationships, literally. Human dignity is necessary because we are all connected in this world and each of us, whether we are conscious of it or not, feel the echoes of our actions, good and bad. There is an image in Buddhism which has resonated strongly in the new sciences of the last century, and that is the myth of Indra’s Jewel Net. This myth I feel illustrates necessity of human dignity in a world which even science has proven to be interconnected beyond our comprehension. The myth goes like this, the god Indra has a net that hangs above his palace. The net is made of an infinite number of jeweled, with every single jewel connected to every other jewel by strings. The jewels are also cut so that each transmits an image of every other jewel in the universe, so that a person could, by looking at one jewel, see every other jewel reflected in it (and within each of those other jewels in the reflection, see another set of reflections). The point of the myth is to show how everything is interconnected. If a person were to move a single jewel in the net, it would move all other jewels. Likewise, in our own world which is similarly interconnected like the mythical net, if a person were to harm a single other person that harm would be transmitted to the rest of the universe, because that person has connections both directly and indirectly to the rest of the universe. I guess if I were to be talking to the group about Catholic Social Teaching, I would teach it in terms of the universality of its message arguing from these different vantage points which all seem to be pointing to the same thing. I would likely break the group into smaller groups and have each discuss how a different religious or philosophical tradition connects to this essential aspect of Catholic Social Teaching, and have them reconvene to discuss the similarities and the different perspectives they saw in their own topics. I would do this because I feel that human dignity is too important to be left to be the responsibility of a single tradition or to be founded by a single point of view.

Is the State Replacing Religion?

With the introduction of so many government social programs over the course of the last century and current talk about socialized health care, the role of religion in America seems to be dwindling. The government, with its programs, has filled large portions of what has traditionally been religion’s niche, specifically, the reforming of society. Religions, specifically Christianity in America (being the dominant religion), have, in previous centuries been the main source of organization to improve the living conditions for the underprivileged and disadvantaged in society. Since the beginning of the century, however, (more specifically the Great Depression and WWII years) American government has taken a much larger role in the lives of its citizens. This is good in the sense that the government offers much more stability and better sources of funding for such programs (being able to tax citizens rather than relying on donations) which is to the great advantage of those who utilize the programs. This change can also be seen in a negative light as well. With the state essentially taking the place of organized religion in terms of matters of social concern, religions have lost a lot of power, both monetary and in terms of social support to be able to make a positive contribution to society. People are less apt to donate to a local church which may have programs to help the poor because they are already paying taxes which support similar programs. Also, because of the negative side of politics much of the funding may be burnt away in pork barrel projects or pay for all the bureaucratic tape that holds back the programs own fruition because of petty partisan arguments. While the congregations and denominations are not without their own squabbles, they at least have some sense of independence from each other which allows them to carry on separately. The churches in America still have the ability to make a difference in society, however, since the government has taken over the role of primary provider for the populous and the churches are quite limited in their interaction with the state, it seems that the role of religion is becoming one more of dialog than of action. And if the future is going to continue on in a similar fashion, then it seems to me that, in order to keep up with the government (and hopefully protect the people from the potential abuse of the government) the different churches and religions in general need to start crossing the borders of denomination and dogma in order to make a difference in this changing world. The current situation in which all religions are fractured into different their separate spheres only works to fracture people, harm spirituality in general, and also weaken religion as a facilitator of positive social change. National governments seem to be taking the place of religions (especially in the practical forms of socialism and communism, which actually negate and replace religions) and it is up to the various religions of the world to come to terms with their similarities in order to fulfill their own goals of improving humanity, which seems to me at least to be the very point of religion, that is, bringing people together and improving their lives here on earth (which will hopefully transfer on to whatever afterlife is coming).

The History of Carver Park

Well, as Liz rightly pointed out, my post for this past week was not at all what the assignment said. I had accidentally pasted the wrong document into the blog, so she unfortunately had to read a crazy creation story I had written a while back. Unfortunately, I also destroyed the document that I originally meant to post (I had been cleaning out my cluttered desktop and figured that the document I posted was no longer in need of being stored on my computer – wrong on that one). So I am going to do my best to rewrite what I remember of what should have been my last posting.
As some of you may know, I am from Minnesota. I’ve spent pretty much my entire life before college at my home in Victoria, Minnesota, a town of about 4,000 people that pretty much makes up the edge of the Twin Cities suburbs. I live on the outskirts of the town and am surrounded by farmland that has been convert over the past decades into a park reserve approximately 3,700 acres in size, over twice the size of the Mines of Spain here in Dubuque. The park is called Carver Park and is very similar to the Mines of Spain, but without the bluffs, of course, and with the addition of four large lakes, several smaller lakes and a host of ponds and wetlands. This is where I spent a lot of my childhood since the only other kids in my five-house neighborhood moved away when I was about five or six.
There are several old building foundations scattered throughout the park from barns and farm houses that have long since crumbled or been destroyed. There is also a historic house in the park that belonged to the Grimm family that emigrated from Germany, and created the first winter-hardy alfalfa which is now grown across the country. Many other farms were scattered through the land that is now park area, but have since been forgotten and overgrown with young forests of maple and basswood. My own home and neighborhood is located on land that was once farmland, belonging to one of my neighbor’s families.
It is my neighbor that I think would be most helpful in collecting information about the land around Victoria and the families that first lived there before the old farms were turned into park land. My neighbor is called “Uncle Ron” by most people who know him well, which is a good portion of the town. He is very active in town affairs and I’m sure has scores of knowledge about what life was like before the park was made. He lived around the time that the houses in our neighborhood were built and may even remember or have photographs of what the area looked like early in the 1900s.
Some of the obstacles in collecting information may simply be the availability of the history of the town. I’m not sure what information has all been saved through the years and much has surely been lost. Also, as older population in the town dwindles, many of the memories disappear as well. It would also be difficult to get specific information that I would need to recreate the sense of life when all was still farmland. The old minds of the town have surely become somewhat more forgetful and may prove to be more difficult that anything. For the book itself, I would want to make a format as some kind of memoir of what the land looked like before it was suburbanized and turned into park reserve. I would likely use a lot of old photographs and try to recreate maps of what the town looked like in older times in order to give a sense of what life was like before cars buzzed all over the land. It would certainly be an interesting undertaking and would add to my appreciation of the natural beauty of the parkland I grew up on.

First Visit and Nussbaum Readings

On Tuesday I had my first visit to First Presbyterian Church with Pastor Achtemeier. From my conversations with Pastor Achtemeier I learned that she and her parish currently have little involvement in the Washington neighborhood and are looking to improve relations in the future and become better Christian stewards. Pastor Achtemeier stated that the service role of Lindsey and I will be primarily to help the parish in building better relations with the community. Pastor Achtemeier showed me a map that showed where the various parish members live. In total there are about three members of church who live in the downtown area, the rest of the church members seem to, for the most part be from the area west of Dubuque and various surrounding areas, with a couple even being from East Dubuque. The church itself is small with a very round design with the pulpit and sanctuary in a corner and the pews surrounding it. The design of the church surprised me a bit, especially in how it seemed so different from the Catholic churches I’ve seen.

To me, the term “liberal arts” means a way of education in the ways of thinking. The term, “liberal arts,” to me implies an approach to learning that takes a very broad approach, a way that fosters the use of techniques rather that the memorization of technical vocabulary. I feel that liberal arts education is very undervalued in a society that stresses specialization and gives little room for modern renaissance men and women. However, I feel that it is one of the most useful sources of creative and critical thinking in society. It creates thinking minds that remain unbound by traditional definitions and boundaries, minds that will someday think up new ways of doing things rather than remain stuck in old (though mastered) techniques. Martha Nussbaum’s definition of liberal arts deals mostly with the way in which it fosters logical thinking and reasoning, especially through the study and use of philosophy. For her, the best liberal arts colleges and universities have mandatory requirements in philosophy in order to build a base of critical thinking that can reflect upon itself and improve itself as it develops. Her position differs from many others in that she feels that we should seek to develop a critical way of thinking and questioning rather than passively accepting information. Her thinking can seem a bit dangerous to those who fear what the use of reason and questioning can do to the traditional sources of authority, who have classically taught based upon such authority rather than the use of reason and critical thinking. In the service world, liberal arts can help prepare people for service by giving them the ability to critically and creative come up with solutions to the various problems in the world. It is, after all, the act of problem solving that, at least to me, seems to be the root of all service. Bad plans, even with lots of man power can do very little compared with good, efficient planning and well organized man power.

Past Service Work and Learning Plan

I have not done a great amount of service work in the past, though I do have some experience. I have served at two food shelves in high school, the ICA (Intercongregation Communities Association) food shelf in Excelsior, MN, and the PROP (People Reaching out to Other People) food shelf in Eden Prairie, MN. At the ICA food shelf, most of my tasks dealt with unloading, sorting, and moving food that was donated. It was a kind of warehouse setting run by volunteers, mostly older volunteers, so I usually did some of the heavier lifting and tasks that required more mobility (like climbing into large boxes to retrieve bags of food that were otherwise unreachable). While working at the PROP food shelf, I had the opportunity to interact with the community members who used the food shelf. There my tasks usually consisted of either sorting food donations or making carts of food for families that came in according to their needs. My work at prop had a much greater impact on my perception of things, in that I was able to meet the people who used the food shelf in person, most were very kind and interesting people, while some kept more to themselves. There were occasionally some quite demanding people that made working a little more stressful, but overall it was a very good experience.
In addition to working at couple of food shelves, I also had the opportunity to work at Feed My Starving Children in Eagan, MN. Feed My Starving Children is a nonprofit Christian organization that makes food mixtures to feed starving children throughout Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia. The food they make is designed to be easily shipped around the world, and culturally acceptable to people of the many different countries they serve. It consists of rice, soy nuggets, dehydrated vegetables, and vitamins and minerals, to provide good nutrition at a low cost, with simple preparation (just adding water). Working there I was able to taste the food, and I can say that it is much better than some of the meals I’ve made in college. The cost per meal to make the food is about 17 cents, and the work involved in making it involves mixing together the separate ingredients in the right quantities into a bag, which is then sealed and ready for shipping. In working at Feed My Starving Children I gained a more global perspective on the idea of service, and was able to see the vast difference between the way that Americans (even the more impoverished Americans) live and how the majority of people across the world live in the less developed countries.
There are a few things that I would like to learn and do over the course of my service experience this year. The first would be to make a positive change in the community I’m working in, mostly, being able to see the difference between the beginning and end of the project. I secondly like to learn about the history of the both the church and the community that I am serving in. Though I am not myself from Dubuque, my Grandparents grew up in Dubuque, and I would like to learn a bit about the history of at least part of Dubuque, in order to get a feel for what it was like for them growing up and living in Dubuque. I would also like to get the opportunity to interact with some of the families in the Washington neighborhood and learn about their lives and what their history in Dubuque might be or else their reason for coming to Dubuque. Lastly, I would also like to learn a bit about the Presbyterian faith, since I will be working with the First Presbyterian Church downtown. I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic schooling my entire life. However, I feel that one of the things that helped me to look more deeply into matters of faith was what I learned about the Lutheran faith, going to a daycare run by the wife of a Lutheran Pastor. I hope to have a similar widening of perspective by learning about the Presbyterian faith.