The Non-Blog Post

            OK, I have five unfinished blogs sitting in my ‘writing’ folder entitled:

-- United Methodist Church hypocrisy (homosexual behavior and war doctrinally being ‘incompatible with Christian teaching’ cuts both ways);

-- Boy Scouts renew refusal to admit self-avowed homosexuals (exercising rights or just plain wrong);

-- church membership is passé (club dues vs. discipleship);

-- church caring ministries performed by caring Christians (laity-to-laity models -- self-serve or drive-thru);

-- open market value of clergy services (comparing how much money people earn in society performing identical functions of management, counseling, guide/mentor, visionary CEO, weekly public speaking engagements, scholar-in-residence, etc.). 

            Why can’t I bring these to closure?  Surely it is not because I lack information or perspective since there’s a glut of both.  It’s not because I’m dispassionate about the topics.  Could it be I’m uncomfortable with where these topics are taking me through my assessment?  I think I’m getting warmer… So, in true scientific fashion I began looking for common threads among the topics.  Surprise – they all relate to injustices and the conflict surrounding them. More fundamentally (always a dangerous word to use in theological treatises), there is profound disagreement if they even are topics related to injustice (biblically speaking).

I readily acknowledge there are excellent, thought-provoking arguments on all sides of these topics. That said, at some point, it seems to me that we must focus on areas of agreement rather than on razor-sharp points of disagreement. As in any free society, we will not all agree – that comes with the territory.  However, mutual respect and tolerance are also foundational to the American ethos (or at least they used to be). So, how can we frame issues into questions rather than dogmatic statements; questions that invite reflection and reasoned dialogue that heals rather than polarization and division that harms?

Here are some broader questions for people to ponder and discuss:

-- Should the value to society of a professional athlete be 100 times more in real dollars than a teacher, social worker, or clergy person?

-- Should private organizations segregate simply because they have the legal authority to do so?

-- Is the reason why people do good things as important as the good things people do?

-- Is it still true in America that an ethical person knows the right things to do but a moral person actually does them (even when no one else is looking)?

-- Why is the United Methodist Church (among others) myopically obsessing on one doctrine that it claims is ‘incompatible with Christian teaching’ while completely ignoring the other?

-- Is the exercise of free speech and freedom of association always the ethically and morally correct thing to do (simply because it is a ‘right’ in America)?

            While I am almost certain we won’t all agree on the answers to these questions, I want to live in a nation and society that remains committed to open, thoughtful, and respectful dialogue from which we may all develop greater understanding and insight.

How about you?

Summer Dreams...

For at least several generations (including mine), the American Dream was characterized by a vertical climb accompanied by the accumulation of bigger and better stuff.  However, most experienced rock climbers take only what they need and lighten their load as they go.  So, it has always seemed to me that the wise principles of climbing are essentially in disagreement with the goals of the former American Dream.

I say ‘former’ because a new American dream is emerging.  A recent NPR story cites national pollster John Zogsby who, in his book The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream, discusses a generation he calls the “first Globals.”  Instead of loading themselves down with stuff over decades and laying down deep, permanent roots, these young adults are motivated to collect diverse life experiences.  They are living, studying, or working abroad, and are far less interested in following the traditions of previous generations.  To be less anchored, they rent places to live rather than purchase homes.  They choose possessions that facilitate movement rather than immobility. 

Zogby writes, “Two out of three of them have passports. They are well traveled; technologically they have networks that include people all over the world. They have a desire to be nimble, to go anywhere and to be anywhere. They also have a desire to change their world and feel like they’re in a position to do that.”  They have moved from the fixation of the previous American Dream on possessing more and better stuff to a passion for experiencing people and the world through a global lens.  In this way, the possessive idea of “my stuff” evolves into the global reality of “our stuff.”  Interconnectedness and sharing replace individualism and personal accumulation as the mechanisms through which this generation understands their place and purpose in life. 

As a result, Globals care little about how much they own.  Aspects of life requiring a sense of permanence are eschewed (i.e., 30-year mortgages at a permanent address or a decades-long career with the same employer) in favor of the ability to pick up at a moment’s notice and relocate or refocus their lives.  Globals are more concerned about how much they can give to the world than about how much they can take from it.  They have the audacity to believe global change can begin with the act of a single person.  In fact, they understand global change always begins this way.

One aspect of physics that fascinates me is chaos theory.  Globals embody the key principle of Edward Lorenz’s ‘butterfly theory’ -- the flutter of a butterfly’s wings can set the initial condition for change through which the course of global weather is altered forever.  So it is with Globals – they are setting an initial condition for change through which the human pattern of behavior is altered forever. Globals believe they produce a ripple effect of global proportions. This is good stuff. 

So, my hat’s off to this new generation that is daring to redefine the American Dream.  I like their direction and courage. There is hope for America’s future after all.  Dream on!