Prophetic Witness @ OccupyPhilly

As written in an upcoming edition of LTSP's The Seminarian:

Over the last few weeks I had the pleasure of visiting the OccupyPhilly encampment at Dilworth Plaza three times.  Each visit was a uniquely amazing experience.  It was great to talk with folks and feel a strong sense of community during my first visit, but I was also disappointed that people of faith weren’t visibly present at all.  My second time down I attended a meeting of the then newly formed Interfaith Working Group.  Since that meeting, I’ve seen the Interfaith Working Group do some fantastic ministry.  They’ve organized weekly speakers, made appeals for food donations and cared for the many homeless folks living at Occupy.  The group provided a calming presence when police closed the encampment last week and they’ve even worked with the Rev. Jesse Jackson to reach out to the city’s African-American church community.

I purposely made my third visit to OccupyPhilly during one of their public feeding times.  At the encampment’s height they was feeding 900 folks each day of the week and 2100 folks on the weekend free of charge.  Meals were cooked at a local Friends Center kitchen and carted over to the encampment, providing a very public witness to our city’s hunger crisis right in front of City Hall.  Before leaving that evening I briefly spoke with a man who said he wanted to start going to church because the Friends Center was so helpful.

The city government evicted occupiers from Dilworth Plaza last week to make way for a construction project without granting a new overnight permit for another location.  Since then OccupyPhilly’s Interfaith Working Group has worked hard to help homeless folks find another long-term residence.  While I pray the movement stays alive and even grows in the coming months, Occupy has already provided us with an important model for being church in the 21^st century.  Living amidst such social and economic injustice, the church must bear very public, prophetic witness to the many sins of our contemporary society.  Like Occupy, the church must publicly witness in partnership with our interfaith sisters and brother in manner centered on conversation rather than violence.

God's peace,

Dustin

A Christian Response to Rick Perry's Hateful Campaign Ad

Upon first watching Rick Perry's "Faith" ad tonight, I literally felt sick to my stomach.  Gov. Perry not only proclaimed a hateful message just to get some political attention, but he used the Christian faith to do it.  As a gay ally I felt like I was being attacked as well.  Check out the ad:


After my nausea and anger subsided, I watched the video a few more times, and I began to feel profoundly sad.  I felt profoundly sad for my gay sisters and brothers who face messages just like Perry's everyday, I felt profoundly sad for Rick Perry but most of all I felt profoundly sad that this campaign ad that was actually meant to appeal to Christians.  How astray are we that such a hateful message is associated with Christianity?  How is it possible that so many Christians will actually appreciate Gov. Perry's ad?  Most importantly, why are us moderate and progressive Christians so publicly quiet on matters of faith?  The only reason people associate extreme social conservatism with Christianity is because the rest of us don't speak up.
Now, check out this rebuttal spoof ad:


Our "magic spirit guide or whatever" has absolutely not "blessed us with special a-hole privileges."  It is so profoundly sad, yet completely understandable, that this is what many folks, especially young people, think of us Christians.  This is one reason why the Reconciling in Christ movement is so important.  The LGBTQ community has been made to feel so unwelcome by Christians for so long, that congregations need to expressly state they're open to not just tolerating but celebrating God's created humanity in its full diversity.  While RIC is a movement of Lutheran congregations and other communities, many other denominations have similar organizations as well.  I encourage you to be a prophetic witness, speak out against injustice and figure out how you and your faith community can welcome and publicly affirm the lives of LGBTQ believers.  The more we do so, the less we'll frankly seem like "a-holes" and perhaps more folks will be able to hear Christ's good news.

God's peace,
Dustin

After Dilworth Plaza: Being Forced to Exist Alone

One of the best aspects of OccupyPhilly's former encampment at Dilworth Plaza was that it provided a semi-permanent community for homeless folks in Philadelphia to live in a central location with easy access to food and other important resources.  Since the city evicted the occupiers from Dilworth Plaza last week, the rare sense of community for the city's homeless has been destroyed.  Immediately after the eviction, some homeless occupiers attempted to set-up another encampment in North Philadelphia under a I-95 underpass, but they were recently asked to leave as well.  Paul Klemmer, one of the homeless occupiers, recently wrote an open letter to Mayor Nutter about the situation.  Check out the following heartbreaking excerpt:

Philadelphia has about 4,000 homeless people and 40,000 empty dwelling units, but, apparently, unless the wealthy can profit by our occupying these dwellings, they would rather see us alone, with our possessions if not stolen by regular criminals, "confiscated" by police, since we have no place to store anything we can't carry and are not allowed to congregate to watch one another's belongings.

You can check out more of Paul Klemmer's letter here.  The church needs to be a prophetic witness and support individuals like Paul who want to set up fully functioning communities where homeless folks can live, be good neighbors and even minister to each other without being victimized by our wider society.  As Paul mentions later on his letter, these encampments or facilities could be located in those forgotten, abandoned places in the city like foreclosed homes.  OccupyPhilly's Interfaith Working group has continued working on helping the homeless of our city find new, fully functioning communities to live instead of simply shelters.  The group can certainly provide a strong model for the rest of us.

God's peace,
Dustin

UPDATE 12:47 PM: Here's a great video segment on this second eviction from Fox29 News:

Second Occupy Camp Evicted In Philly: MyFoxPHILLY.com

Lion King Wedding Sermon (in video)

Here's the video version of the Lion King wedding sermon I posted last week.  Imagine that the movie clip was actually playing on a large screen instead of just my lap-top.  Please make a comment and give me some feedback.  Thanks so much.

The Case for Mustache December @ LTSP

Good look huh?

The holidays can be a difficult time for everyone, but it is especially so for seminarians.  Amidst the hope of Advent, us seminarians can easily get bogged down by papers, studying for finals, and all sorts of other assignments.  The holidays can also bring up a variety of difficult emotions.  As daylight decreases and it gets colder, we begin to stay inside more, and things can get pretty lonely.  Once you add on top of all that the stress of waiting for CPE, internship and first call placements, we can definitely get pretty blue this time of year.

And thus my sisters and brothers I submit for your consideration holding Mustache December at LTSP.  What better way to proclaim the gospel to troubled souls than growing a sweet 'stache?  Through the growing of epic mustaches, the men of our community could join together in solidarity and spread a little Christmas cheer to all.  Recognizing that most women are unable to participate in this movement, I'd argue that you my sisters in Christ come up with something equally as fun.  Maybe we could hold a mustache judging contest around the time finals begin as well, perhaps with a free razor as the prize for best 'stache?  It's just an idea, but let's start the conversation!  If you're at all interested please comment or shoot me an email.  Thanks friends.

God's peace,
Dustin

PS: Financial aid extrodinare Liz Bruton has endorsed Mustache December, arguing that mustaches will allow folks to save just a little taste of all those holiday goodies for later.

A Narrative of Place for the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia

What follows is a proposal for a January term independent study at LTSP.  It's in preparation for the beginning of GreenFaith certification program for the campus.  I'd love to hear what you think and would love suggestions, especially in terms of my bibliography.  Thanks!

On October 4th, 1889 a new campus in Mount Airy was dedicated for the then twenty-five year old Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. As part of the day’s festivities, Reverend George H. Gergbending delivered a greeting to new seminary, of which the first stanza read:

      School of the prophets, hail!
      Removed to regions fair,
      We greet thee in thy bright, new home,
      Engirt with beauty rare.
      We greet thy buildings all!
      How beautiful they stand!
      Their turrets, walls, foundation stones,
      So nobly wrought and planned!

While still bright and beautiful, much has changed on the LTSP campus over the last 122 years. What was then a newly constructed dormitory is now our recently renovated Brossman Center. Instead of the Krauth Memorial Library, an old barn stood on the northwest side of campus. In 1889 spacious verandas still surrounded the former summer home of James Gowen, now known as the Hagan Center.

It is a proposition of this study that through many changes a “narrative of place” has been constructed by the women and men who lived, studied, worked and worshiped at LTSP. The land has a story, populated by a diverse cast of characters that includes nobly wrought buildings, an ancient now dying tree and a recently repainted statue. This story has a complex plot with a central problem: how can LTSP best serve the church, Christ’s body on earth. Like all good stories, this narrative of place affects all those who relate and contribute to it: what do the Caucasian depictions in the chapel windows tell to the prospective African-American student? What does the seminary’s playground tell to the many neighbors who use it? This study will ask how is a narrative of place constructed on the LTSP campus, what is that current narrative and how does it affect the faith life of those who encounter it.

The proposed study will be for one credit, with evaluation done through a thirty-page paper. Besides original research through interviews, reading the seminary’s self studies and review of historic materials in Rev. Dr. John Kaufmann’s old office, the following bibliography will inform this study:

Berry, Wendell. The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays, Cultural and Agricultural. San

Francisco: North Point Press, 1981.

Brueggemann, Walter. The Land: Place As Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith.

Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977.

Jarvis, Elizabeth Farmer. Mount Airy. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub, 2008.

Inge, John. A Christian Theology of Place. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2003.

Orsi, Robert A. Gods of the City Religion and the American Urban Landscape. Bloomington, IN:

Indiana University Press, 1999.

Pahl, Jon. Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces: Putting God in Place. Grand Rapids, Mich:

Brazos Press, 2003.

Sheldrake, Philip. Spaces for the Sacred: Place, Memory, and Identity. Baltimore: Johns

Hopkins University Press, 2001.

Tappert, Theodore G. History of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia: 1864-1964.

Philadelphia: The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, 1964.

 

The Faith Community's Role at OccupyPhilly

I've been meaning to write a second theological reflection on my experience with OccupyPhilly for a while now.  I just watched this footage from ABC6 below, and boy, it's so compelling I had to write something:



Obviously, emotions have very much escalated since police began evicting the OccupyPhilly community from Dilworth Plaza.  While I've haven't personally been able to make it down there in recent days, from email updates I've read it is very clear that the Interfaith Working Group has been working hard to cool tensions and develop productive alternatives to occupying Dilworth Plaza.  Especially after seeing tonight's footage, it looks like OccupyPhilly needs the help of our local faith community to help keep the peace more than ever.

God's peace,
Dustin

UPDATE (7:02 AM): Right originally posting this I came upon some more footage on OccupyPhilly Media. It looks like from some of the following footage that things were really quite bad tonight:








Are police really trampling folks with horses and pulling knives on people? While this news is still unsubstantiated, I believe our faith community really needs to actively observe what's now happening at OccupyPhilly to help prevent further violence.

Climate Changed

A couple weeks back I had the pleasure of attending PennFuture's annual Southeastern PA climate conference at the The Franklin Institute in Philly as part of my fieldwork with Lutheran Advocacy Ministries of PA.  It was a tough but informative experience for me... as a person of faith I'm glad to have learned more about how climate change is already affecting God's creation, but some of what I learned was difficult to bear.  PennFuture is an organization dedicated to "creating a just future where nature, communities and the economy thrive" through advocacy, organizing, legal services and public policy analysis.  The theme for this year's conference was "Climate, Changed: Extreme Weather and the Need to Take Action."  After some opening remarks, Katherine Gayewski began the evening by discussing Philadelphia's local efforts to both curb climate change and prepare for it's inevitable consequences.  As Director of Sustainability for Philadelphia, Katherine's work centers around implementation of Mayor Nutter's ambitious Greenworks initiative to make Philly "the number one green city in America by 2015."  It seems like a far fetched idea, but of the program's fifteen specific goals, some were already 60% to 70% met after only a year.  Katherine stated that climate change is already well underway, and our focus must shift from prevention to adaptation and minimization.  For instance, through the Greenworks program, Philadelphia is working to adapt for increased storm water runoff but is also moving reduce the city's emission of green house gases by 20%.

Dr. Howard Kunreuther, professor and director of the Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at UPenn's Wharton School of Business, discussed long-term strategies to mitigate the financial risks associated with climate change.  "Business folks" are unfortunately somewhat unpopular in green circles yet Dr. Kunreuther presented a very enlightening perspective on climate change that can hopefully change that mindset.  There's over $10 trillion of risk from the coast of Northern Maine to Texas, most of which is largely uninsured against an increase of extreme weather events like floods and hurricanes.  Unfortunately, only 20% of people who buy flood insurance keep it after eight years, largely due to human psychology.  Dr. Kunreuther made a number of public policy proposals that could better fit flood insurance to the short time frames people think in.

The highlight of the event though was Dr. Heidi Cullen's presentation on the science and public perception of climate change.  Unfortunately, things haven't gone too well in recent years.  While media coverage of climate changed increased greatly after the release of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in 2008 and 2009, coverage has greatly dropped off since the beginning of our recent recession.  After recent campaigns to falsely challenge the validity of science and the last Congress's failure to pass cap and trade legislation, the climate change community has largely been scrambling to find a next move.  Since most advocacy organizations put all their effort into passing national cap and trade legislation, it's been only recently that the focus has shifty to more local efforts like Philly's Greenworks program.  The Earth's average temperature has already risen well over one degree and in that same period the Northeast US has experienced a 67% increase in extreme weather events.  Unfortunately, the climate has already changed and our focus must shift from prevention to adaptation and minimization.

Wow, that was a whole lot of doom and gloom huh?  What's a faith leader to make of all this, and what role does the faith community have when dealing with climate change anyway?  The church  course should be serving as a moral conscience for the world and to do this faith leaders first need to help their parishioners reconnect with God's creation... only then will folks become more invested in the issue.  Knowing the magic and beauty that is in God's gift of creation, people will respond.  Then, begin thinking about how your own faith community can begin not only minimizing it's carbon footprint but also modelling good adaptation practices for parishioners... does your church have proper flood insurance and storm-water management systems for instance.  Being a prophetic witness by leading parishioners in advocating for local and federal public policies that curb climate change is also important.  God's creation is certainly groaning, but boy, there's a whole lot that we as people of faith can do to help.

God's peace,
Dustin