Unpeaceful Rest

From earliest times societies have treated their dead with great care, surrounding the process of burial with sacred meaning and ritual.  From the great pyramids of Egypt to the Hallstatt Culture barrows of Central Europe to the mausoleum of Qin Shihuangdi with its terracotta warriors, burial sites have provided rich information about civilizations long gone. 

The first burial about which any detail is recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures is that of Sarah, wife of the patriarch Abraham.  Genesis 23 describes how Abraham negotiated with the Hittites, among whom he was then living, to purchase a field and cave near Hebron to use as a burial site.  When Abraham died years later, he was laid to rest in this cave of Machpelah with his wife Sarah.  (Genesis 25:10)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This is the second post in honor of the American Library Association's Banned Books Week.  You can find the first one here.

July 2003: The final cultural event of which I take note is the release of the long-awaited fifth volume in the Harry Potter series.  Having decided to opt out of the midnight partying in favor of a good night’s sleep, I picked up my reserved copy at Borders soon after they opened Saturday morning and settled in on the couch with a mug of tea on the stand beside me, eager to learn what adventures and challenges would engage Harry and his friends this time.

Banned Books Week - Potter-Mania

In honor of the American Library Association's Banned Books Week (September 24-30, 2011), I'm posting reviews that I wrote in 2000 and 2003 about the Harry Potter books.  Though no serious challenge to the Potter series has been mounted in the past three years, ALA records show numerous attempts within the past decade to remove one or more of the volumes from school and public libraries.  The forces of censorship continue to threaten literature, from classics such as Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," and "Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank, to contemporary young adult novels such as the Twilight series.  Those who value free inquiry and education need to remain vigilant.

            During the week preceding the release of the fourth Harry Potter novel, I decided that it was time that I caught up with this particular bit of popular culture.  Having been a junior high English teacher early on in my career, I am gratified to learn of any phenomenon which gets young people reading and using their imaginations instead of merely parking in front of a television set for hours on end.  Still, I was aware from various letters to the editors of the local papers that the Potter books are not without controversy.  Wanting to form my own opinions on the matter, I borrowed the first volume from a co-worker and settled in at the laundromat with book in hand, figuring that the 45 minute wait while washers and dryers performed their appointed tasks was just about enough time to determine if the story was sufficient to hold my attention. 

In or Out?

Several years ago the Episcopal Church, in their triennial convention, voted to allow the ordination of gay and lesbian bishops, and to permit bishops in states where same-sex unions are legal to bless those unions.  More recently the Lutherans (ELCA) and Presbyterians (PCUSA) have followed their example, in each case extending the ordained ministry to include non-celibate lesbian and gay clergy.  Predictably, these actions have evoked flurries of news articles and opinion columns, both supporting and opposing the moves toward full inclusion of homosexually oriented persons into the life of the church.

The “homosexual issue” is a fairly recent source of contention and anguish within religious bodies.  But it is simply the latest manifestation of a far deeper question that has been with us for millennia.  In its most concise statement, that question is, “Who is in and who is out?”  Records of humanity’s attempts to make this determination are as old as the oldest portions of the Hebrew Scriptures.

The Conundrum of Inclusivity

For those of us who believe that the ideal of the Christian church is to extend equal welcome to all, there is an unavoidable puzzle.  How can that welcome be extended so that both those who have traditionally been marginalized and excluded, and those who believe that such marginalization and exclusion are right and proper, are held together in a community of Christian love?  To illustrate, let me tell a story.  Call it a parable, if you will.

God-Given Rights

In January 2009 I attended “Heeding God’s Call,” a peace conference convened by three of the historic peace churches – Mennonite, Church of the Brethren, and Society of Friends (Quaker). One of the aspects of the conference was a public witness outside one of the more notorious of Philadelphia’s gun shops.  Volunteers from among conference participants called on the owner to join other gun sellers in Pennsylvania in pledging to take steps to eliminate straw purchases and utilize methods of screening potential gun buyers so as to curb the easy flow of weapons into the hands of gang members and criminals.  As an extension of that witness against gun violence, sixteen people of faith gathered for prayer along Pinch Road opposite the entrance to the Elstonville Sportsmen’s Association for an hour on a Saturday in April 2009.  Our vigil was prompted by the celebration of guns being held on the grounds of the Sportsmen’s Association that day.

One Nation, under Whose God?

I was in third grade when the US Congress added the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.  Our teacher drilled us on the new language until we could recite it en masse without stumbling or forgetting.  At eight or nine years of age most of us had no understanding of the political motives that had driven the change – the perception of threat from the USSR, the McCarthy hearings/witch hunt, the determination to distinguish our country as the exact opposite of the “godless Communists.”  It was one more thing that the adults decided that we had to learn, so we learned it. 

Except for the occasional grumble about having to relearn something we thought we already knew, I don’t recall hearing any discussion about the change, pro or con.  If the one Jewish girl in our class had any qualms, she didn’t express them.  The idea that there might be students who didn’t believe in any God at all never occurred to us.  Such a concept was beyond our realm of experience.  This is hardly surprising, since, as religion scholar Will Herberg has noted, in 1954 91% of the US population identified as either Protestant or Catholic, and 4% as Jewish.  That left just 5% in the category of other religions, or none.