Blogging woes and Savannah withdrawl

Mahalo, as Hunter Thompson used to say. In this cruel year of our lord, 2009 spring has begun with water standing ankle deep in the low-lying areas around the Circle H Ranch up in good ole Hernando, MS. The Right Reverend Andrew Stoddard, shepherd of First United Methodist in Ripley assures me he has materials at hand in case we righteous folk need to start building an ark. I believe him. Andy has no reason to lie about these things.

How bout that beating Louisville dropped on Arizona, eh? Wow. Those kids are so doggone atheletic! What a beat down! It looked like a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition game toward the end, behind the back passing, clowning. whoah mama, what a rout.

My wife is a southside Louisville native and her family is split right down the middle, UK and UofL, kind of an Ole Miss / State thing in bluegrass state. This tournament, as for our house, we shall stand with Lousivlle.

I thought the “Christian Cinema” story wasn’t bad. Catches a real trend out there. I hope neither Greg Robbins, who’s a nice guy, nor Kirk Cameron, who I don’t know (but who my wife and Leslie Criss both agree is a “cutie”), takes offense to the little movie review I did in today’s paper. I figure that the 7 or 8 folks who read my section each week might get a laugh out of it. I thought it was good natured and harmless, and I wanted to convey that I think folks really should see both of these movies. I really liked them both. I think any movie that addresses the sad fact that half of all marriages today end in divorce deserves it props. Also, I admire “C Me Dance” for taking a bold stance on the reality of evil. We tend, today, to downplay the reality of evil, spiritualize it away. I think that’s wrong and the movie seems to agree with me.

Today I’m hunkered down with my laptop, a goodly supply of melba toast and pesto spread, and two cats sworn to defend me against all the world’s evil. I figure I’ll shrewdly rip the tops off three of four Cokes, read this week’s New Yorker, and watch a DVD of old Simpsons episodes. Maybe toward evening slide out on the porch, smoke a cigar, maybe eat a peanutbutter sandwich and write a letter to my old hero Barry Hannah who isn’t feeling so well these days and needs our prayers.

Derby, you know, is just around the corner, and today I’ll take a look at the possible field. Derby is a time for getting gussied up and preening around like a peacock, making irresponsible, impulse wagers with friends and generally pretending there are still such things as social grace and Southern hospitality.

I have “C Me Dance” and “Fireproof” still on loan from a good friend and I might even watch those two movies, again. It’s always neat to see something with Mississippi folk, and something filmed in the great state of Georgia, where I just left.

Aloha,

Galen

secularization, Hemingway, and The Simpsons

I anticipate getting a few emails about my column in today’s Journal. I really hope people don’t think I’m an irrelegious grouch. I’m really not. I just think there’s an awful lot of intellectually dishonest talk out there in the conservative Christian media about how religious our Founding Fathers were. I just don’t buy it. Look at Thomas Jefferson, my favorite of the FF’s.  A man completely in love with all things French, especially revolutionary ideas. The whole thrust of the French Revolution was the ascendancy of reason and science over old forms of authority – authority which especially meant religion and the church.

I don’t see how anybody can claim to read history objectively and not agree with that.

I’m not saying that I completely agree with the whole thrust of the French Revolution. It went pretty far off the tracks eventually. Still, the ideas of science, reason, democracy, egalitarianism – all of it – were the ideas that Jefferson and others took to heart in building this country. They were trying to get away from Christendom, a Christian theocracy , the old world, authority based on religious ideas. They were doing something totally new and I’m convinced that what they envisioned was a secular world where religion is welcome but private.

So, I hope people understand me on this one. I’m a devout Catholic. I love my church and I love God and my brothers and sisters. I’m not an atheist. For the record. I just don’t drink the Kool Aid when it comes to insisting that the FF’s were all a bunch of evangelicals who meant to build a Christian theocracy.

And, as always, I don’t mind if folks disagree with me. I have a number of close friends and colleagues, sources on whom I rely regularly, who strongly disagree with me. Fine. God bless them. They’re entitled to their opinions and I love them for it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Still, as far as FOCA, well, at least Pat Robertson and I can agree on something

So, on to another subject.

Friday, like a good Catholic boy, I was stuffing my mouth wtih catfish and greens, staring at the Lee County Courthouse when my good friend the Rev. Jimmy Barnes of St. Paul UM sneaked up behind me and told me he’s trying to get together seven pastors for a servivce on Holy Thursday at his church. I think this is a great idea and I’d like to help him promote it when he makes more plans.

This weekend I have  few projects. First, fix this slow leak in my roof that’s been worrying me for about two weeks. It’s right above my favorite reading spot on the sofa, an expanding, brown ring that’s growing like infection across the candlelight paint on my ceiling. I’m not really up to the job but maybe I can fumble my way through it.

Tonight, I’m reading Ernest Hemingway’s last book, published posthumously, “True and First Light.” I skulked around the fiction section of the Lee County Library today on my lunch hour. My friend Jan Willis looked happily content in his office, behind that Tiffany lamp, so I didn’t go over and bother him. I picked up a new James Lee Burke audiobook, and Tom Wolfe’s “Hooking Up,” which I’m not too enthusiastic about but I liked “I Am Charolette Simons” so I’ll give this a try.

My favorite thing to do on Friday night is watch my DVDs of The Simpsons, episode after episode, while my wife and cats sleep. I’ll watch until two, three in the morning sometimes. My favorite all-time episode is “Mr. Plow.”

Sometime this weekend I’ll get around to finishing my story about St. Patrick’s Day, then I’ll go over to the boneyard and do some jogging.

I’ve gotten some really nice emails and calls, lately, and I’m very grateful. I have to take the good with the bad and I’m getting better about that. Todd Vinyard, our IT man at the Journal is going to help me next week in setting up a formate where I can do a live blog on Saturday mornings. I hope to accomplish that by next Saturday. Wow, people will really get online and let me have it then, eh?

La paz con usteds, hermanos y hermanas

Galen

inconsequential blogging

There are days here at the Daily Journal, like today, when I’m just about worthless. I’ve piddled around today, pecking at the keyboard, staring at that blinking red light on the phone, knowing all the time I should be chasing down stories, working the phones. But, I just can’t do it.

Sometimes I really get sick of listening to my own voice, reading my own work.

They say Thomas Aquinas, at the end of his career, told his people to burn everything. Well, I understand, but the only thing I share with Thomas Aquinas is my ever-increasing waistline.

I think the interview that’s going to be in Saturday’s paper, with Bishop Joseph Latino of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, is the best interview I’ve ever done. I can say without exception that the bishop was the most candid, unguarded subject I’ve ever asked a question. Really good guy.

I’m not so popular in conservative Catholic circles, but I think even the Medieval folks will like this one. The bishop said things that people of all faiths can appreciate. He really blasted FOCA and said some challenging things about Mississippi’s immigration policies.

Next week’s feature is keyed up and ready to go, also. It deals with Lent and weaves together threads such as Mississippi being the most religious and the most generous state. I need some art to go with it, though.

Follow up thoughts on “Hearers” 2-14

Writing is a process that gives me great pleasure but also costs me a lot of restlessness and worry. No sooner that something goes to print I immediately begin to second guess myself. I suppose that’s a sign that I take seriously the subject matter.

I can stare at something for a week, make several revisions, and still fail to see things that only become apparent to me once it goes out to 90,000 readers.  I just hope that my readers know I take the responsibility of writing very seriously and I try, to the best of my ability, to get things right and to be fair.  

I feel passionately about the subject of this week’s Hearers of the Word. I think I made a fair and valid point, but, I wonder if at least one phrase is an overstatement.

I implied that the Catholic Church had viewed the modern world as its enemy. That’s an overstatement. Certainly the church viewed the cultural and philosophical movement called “modernism” as its enemy, but to equate that with the entire “modern world” is a little sloppy. I suppose I felt it was an economy of language just to say “the modern world,” but,  to those who are more precisely keyed into the theological nuance of the matter, it might have seemed sloppy. The church has never viewed the world as its enemy. That’s just an unfair thing to say.

Also, I’m not sure everyone would agree with me that, through Vatican II, the Catholic Church was “embracing a pluralistic modern world.” Again, “embracing” is probably an overstatement. “Acknowledging,” “ coming to terms with,” or “ authentically engaging in dialogue with”–these phrases might be more accurate. Again, trying to fit huge ideas into small space sometimes handcuffs me.

Still, despite these turn of phrases that could have been sharpened, the essential thesis of the column holds, that is that fringe groups often misrepresent the larger religions that they claim to represent.

Christianity, emerging part III

Whew! What a run on one subject, eh? Glad that’s over!  He, he. Seriously, though, it was a good set of interviews and I made a couple of new friends along the way. I thought people were very candid and fair. During the series I also got some calls from old friends around the area, mostly of a more conservative ilk, who were eager for more on traditional churches. I hope that part III satisfied.

My only concern, after reading the final draft, is that a person might read it as saying that the only way for traditional churches to survive is to adopt missional characteristics.  That wasn’t my intent, but it might read that way.

My readers know I’m Catholic, which I don’t hesitate to name as perhaps the most traditional church of all. So, I’m still sorting out how I feel about the whole missional movement. Regardless of how I feel about it (which I tried, as best I could, to leave out of the article) it really seems to a phenomenon that’s gaining speed.

I should give a little background here. About 3 months ago I attended a conference in Memphis. It was about the emergent church and Phyllis Tickle was the featured speaker. I really enjoyed it, and I knew that was a local story there somewhere, but I wasn’t quite sure how to tease it out. I talked with David Eldridge at Calvary, who’s familiar with Tickle’s work, and with Bryan Collier at the Orchard, long before I started writing the article. They helped me sharpen my ideas and sort out the language. It became clear that the way people in this area talked about “emergent” or “emerging” Christianity was the language of “missional.”

This week in Hernando, in between episodes of the Simpsons and Flight of the Conchords, I’ll be writing up the interview I had with Bishop Joseph Latino of the Catholic Diocese of MS. I’ve got that on tape.

I’ve spent the last two days on the phone gathering interviews for a piece I want to do on Lent. That will run 2-28. Lent, with its emphasis on self-denial and almsgiving seems like another of those teachable moments, particularly in this economy. I’m using a couple of articles that recently named Mississippi as the most religious and the most generous state in the country. I’ve tried to include academics, financial people, as well as ministers in this one. It seems like every story these days is about the economy, doesn’t it?

I’m sure I’ll get some emails about my column this weekend. Sometimes you just have to call things out the way they are. Bishop Williamson’s comments were inexcusable. I haven’t hesitated to call out Pat Robertson and John Hagee, so, what’s good for the goose, right.

Oh well.

addendum, Neighbors

Oh, you know, every time my Neighbors turn comes around, I think about Fred Rodgers. I hear him singing that song: “And when I wake up, ready to say, I think I’ll make a snappy, new day (one, two)…”

I do love Public Broadcasting.

upcoming Neighbors story

This past week I had the pleasure of working on a Lee County Neighbors story. My last Neighbors turn was back in September when I did a story on David Smith at Harrisburg Baptist.

This go round I’ve done a story on Lenton Smith (I’m two-for-two with “Smiths” for Neighbors) who is kind of a Jack of all trades out at Sanctuary Hospice House.

Lenton is a minister, cook, counselor and a real delight to know. Linda Gholston and Joyce Riley invited me out a couple of weeks ago to take a look at the facility and I had the chance to meet Lenton. She said she enjoys my work and we hit it off immediately.

I didn’t realize until just a few days ago that I had a Neighbors piece due. “So, Galen, how’s your Neighbors piece coming,” Bobby Pepper asked me at the water cooler.

“Eh?”

“Your Neighbors piece due in a couple of days.”

“Eh?”

I set to work right away.

Lenton is a bright shinning light, let me tell you. I wish I could fit everyone who wants to praise her into the story. Look for that on Wed.

P.S. Deste Lee took some beautiful photographs to go with it. Beautiful!

Thoughts on a Saturday night

I recently spent some time talking about the newspaper biz with an old friend up in New Jersey. She works for a smaller, more specialized paper and said she’s concerned because times are getting really tough. She’s really smart, knows the paper biz, knows theology, and if she’s concerned I suppose we all should be.

Talking to her made me think of the old days back in grad school in D.C. I am so, so, so, out of practice in theology. I am rusty, and that’s an understatement. I used to be right there, on the vanguard. I’m not anymore. I think at some point I made the decision, after being turned away from a couple of theology schools, to try and become a writer. I knew I’d never be Karl Rahner, or Rudy Bultmann, and, now that I’ve switched gears, I’m pretty sure I’ll never be Ernest Hemingway, either.

Mediocrity is a hard pill to swallow, isn’t it?

I like to read “The Mail” section of The New Yorker. Perhaps because I get so many opinionated, critical emails and letters, I take comfort in reading critical letters to another publication.

I recently enjoyed a letter sent in by a fellow who was criticizing a Jan 5 piece about alternative journalism titled “It Took a Village.” In it the critic quotes Dan Wolf, one of the founders of the Village Voice, who said, “The Village Voice was conceived as a living, breathing attempt to demolish the notion that one needs to be a professional to accomplish something in a field as purportedly technical as journalism.”

Wow, I like that. That’s kind of the way I feel about my newborn career in journalism. I’m just blundering along, trying to learn what I can from those around me. I think I have a gift for listening and for hearing the heart of a story. I worked as a lay minister for a while and I cultivated the kinds of pastoral skills that help when I’m doing an interview. However, I just don’t feel that I’m a very good writer. I take much too long to produce stories and I’m not aggressive enough to really do investigative reporting.

Emily LeCoz is a good friend and I’m constatly telling her how amazed I am by what she does. I couldn’t do it. Give me a week or two to work on a piece and I can give you something decent. Ask me to turn something out in a day and you’re risking the life of the paper it’s printed on.

I’m working on this. I want to get better.

One of the things I like make sure I have on Fridays is a couple of interviews in my bag to take to Hernando so I can work when I feel like it. I spend a lot of the weekend reading and watchign DVD’s of  The Simpsons, but, I also like to lock  myself away and work a little. This weekend I have some good stuff: an interview with Bishop Jospeh Latino of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, MS. I have that on tape. I also have an interview with Rev. Cheryl Penson of Lane Chapel CME Church in Tupelo. That’s for Black History Month. Todd Sherman, my good friend, shot a nice portrait to go along with the piece and my cubicle mate, Leslie Criss, will be expecting that by Tuesday evening.

Tonight my wife, who teaches school,  is helping pull off a beauty paegent that’s also a fundraiser. We have real objections to the whole business but she’s being a good sport about it.

I should be working while she’s away but all I’ve done is make hotdogs on the grill and watch three episodes of The Sporanos. Tomorrow she and I will attend the wake of a realative in Memphis, probably hit a restaurant out in Collierville/Germantown.

I’ve recently been talking to my good friend, Ginny Miller, about starting a FaceBook account. I told her, “Ginny, I don’t think anybody really cares to know what I’m doing throughout the day.”

No sooner that I said that, I make this entry.

Peace,

Galen

So much for new year’s resolutions

If you take a look at the blogroll, a couple entries back, you’ll see that I vowed to blog more often, and with higher quality.

Oh, well.

Anyway, I have a friend who edits a Catholic newspaper in New Jersey who tells me not to worry so much about quantity, since there’s so much junk out there, and to focus on quality. I’m not sure I’m up to that task either, but I’ll try.

Readers tell me they’re interested in how a story comes together and how I pick topics. Well, I try to watch a wide variety of television news. I watch things  I like, such as the Daily Show, CNN, and PBS. Then I watch things I’m not so crazy about, like The O’Riley Factor and Hanity and Colmes (did I spell that right?). I was having lunch today with the Rev. Bryan Collier at Cafe 212, and I said, “I have to keep in touch with what the other side is saying.” I meant that in the most conciliatory manner possible. I think O’Riley does a great job of keeping his finger on the important issues. Hanity—eh—he’s just too caustic for me.

I also listen to American Family Radio and visit their website. They have a great news apparatus over there and really stay abreast of things.

I scan the AP wire everyday and usually take a look at the New York Times and the Washington Post (I used to live in D.C.).

Sometimes, stories just find me. (I wish they’d do that more often). People call in or send emails. I can’t get to all of them, and it always troubles me when I have to tell someone “Thanks, but no thanks.” I try to do it diplomatically and I always appreciate the input.

So, stories usually come together over the course of a couple of weeks. When I first got here I had a tendency to lock onto one thing and put on blinders until that was done then move on. Friends, let me tell you, that’s not how it’s done in the newspaper biz. These folks I work with keep about five stories going at any one time, in all states of completion.

I’m getting a little better. Folks I’ve talked with this week will see their stuff in the paper a couple of Saturdays down the road. I do an interview here, an interview there, and piece it together a little at a time. For example, a couple of weeks ago when I was in Oxford doing the quilting story I caught up with the pastor and interviewed him for the “Christianity, Emerging” article which will run in three installments, starting Saturday.

For such a neophyte, I’ve got a lot on my plate right now. I’ve had to turn down a couple of good stories that I just couldn’t get to. I’ve got this three-part series (probably the most ambitious thing I’ve done here), plus a Neighbors story coming up, plus an entry for Black History Month, plus Mardi Gra and Lent right around the corner.

Oh, and did I mention that the bishop is coming to town Saturday? I didn’t find this out until earlier this week. Saturday I’ll have the honor of sitting down with Bishop Joseph Latino of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson.

That interview will run when the “Emerging” piece is finished.

I’m out and about this weekend, snapping pictures, doing interviews. Oh, also, there was a good story link on the DJ homepage today about Mississippi being the “most religious” state in the union. I want to do something with that next week.

Thanks to all. Peace and God bless,

Galen

Evolution disclaimer

MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE REGULAR SESSION 2009
By: Representative Chism
HOUSE BILL NO. 25
AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO INCLUDE 1 CERTAIN LANGUAGE EXPLAINING THAT EVOLUTION IS A THEORY IN THE 2 INSIDE FRONT COVER OF CERTAIN PUBLIC SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS; AND FOR 3 RELATED PURPOSES. 4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI: 5 SECTION 1. The State Board of Education shall require every 6 textbook that includes the teaching of evolution in its contents 7 to include the following language on the inside front cover of the 8 textbook: 9 “The word ‘theory’ has many meanings, including: 10 systematically organized knowledge; abstract reasoning; a 11 speculative idea or plan; or a systematic statement of principles. 12 Scientific theories are based on both observations of the natural 13 world and assumptions about the natural world. They are always 14 subject to change in view of new and confirmed observations. 15 This textbook discusses evolution, a controversial theory 16 some scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin 17 of living things. No one was present when life first appeared on 18 earth. Therefore, any statement about life’s origins should be 19 considered a theory. 20
Evolution refers to the unproven belief that random, 21 undirected forces produced living things. There are many topics 22 with unanswered questions about the origin of life which are not 23 mentioned in your textbook, including: the sudden appearance of 24 the major groups of animals in the fossil record (known as the 25 Cambrian Explosion); the lack of new major groups of other living 26 things appearing in the fossil record; the lack of transitional 27
H. B. No. 25 *HR07/R105*
09/HR07/R105
PAGE 2 (RKM\HS)
ST: Education; require disclaimer in textbooks
regarding the teaching of certain theories.
forms of major groups of plants and animals in the fossil record; 28 and the complete and complex set of instructions for building a 29 living body possessed by all living things. 30 Study hard and keep an open mind.” 31 SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from 32 and after July 1, 2009. 33