R & R - Reading & Reflecting

Cooperative, Imaginative Education!

2012-03-11T10:59:00.003-07:00

According to this Book Review published at NYBooks.com - educators in America have much that they can learn from Finnish paradigms for education.
Excerpts include:

Sahlberg attributes the improvement of Finnish schools to bold decisions made in the 1960s and 1970s. Finland’s story is important, he writes, because “it gives hope to those who are losing their faith in public education.”

To an American observer, the most remarkable fact about Finnish education is that students do not take any standardized tests until the end of high school. They do take tests, but the tests are drawn up by their own teachers, not by a multinational testing corporation. The Finnish nine-year comprehensive school is a “standardized testing-free zone,” where children are encouraged “to know, to create, and to sustain natural curiosity.”

Every candidate prepares to teach all kinds of students, including students with disabilities and other special needs. Every teacher must complete an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree in education.Because entry into teaching is difficult and the training is rigorous, teaching is a respected and prestigious profession in Finland.

Sahlberg recognizes that Finland stands outside what he refers to as the “Global Education Reform Movement,” to which he appends the apt acronym “GERM.” GERM, he notes, is a virus that has infected not only the United States, but the United Kingdom, Australia, and many other nations. President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law and President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top program are examples of the global education reform movement. Both promote standardized testing as the most reliable measure of success for students, teachers, and schools; privatization in the form of schools being transferred to private management; standardization of curriculum; and test-based accountability such as merit pay for high scores, closing schools with low scores, and firing educators for low scores.

In contrast, the central aim of Finnish education is the development of each child as a thinking, active, creative person, not the attainment of higher test scores, and the primary strategy of Finnish education is cooperation, not competition.

Since I teach at the University, the dynamics of the educational issues listed here may seem far removed from my work. I do not think so.

Over the past decade of teaching, I have found students less capable of thinking with imagination and insight and creative vibrancy than in the past.

Students want to know "what the answer" is - without wanting to explore the complexities of questions and the nuance of possible alternative responses to situations.

I wonder what a better world we could create, if we focused not on competition, but cooperation!

Book Review by: Diane Ravitch over the Book: Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? By Pasi Sahlberg, with a foreword by Andy Hargreaves   Teachers College Press, 167 pp., $34.95 (paper)

Are you familiar with the Fetzer Institute?

2012-03-08T20:47:00.001-08:00

I've been aware of the Fetzer Institute for quite a number of years . . . but realized that perhaps some persons I know might not be aware of their work.

I'd encourage you to click through their links and become aware of who they are - as they seek:

To foster awareness of the power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global community.

In collaboration with our Fetzer Advisory Councils, we seek to understand the motivations and preconditions of exemplary cases of love and forgiveness in the world. From these examples, we develop projects to grow an even greater awareness of love and forgiveness in action in individual and community life.

Toward eupan ~

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

My Jansport Backpack is coming home!

2012-03-02T15:54:00.001-08:00

This is going to sound so silly!

I sent in my Jansport bag for lifetime warranty.

They can't fix it - so wanted to advise me to pick new one from website, etcetera. (Great Jansport Customer service, btw - and Jansport honors their lifetime warranty! - I've sent my bag in 2x before.)

I actually had moment of emotional loss as I thought they had disposed of my bag! (I've carried it since high school - nearly every day for the past 8000 days, to every University, on most of my trips, all over the world!!)

I asked them to do their best at repairing it "as is" and told the Jansport service representative that the bag was "too sentimental" to me to have them not send it back!

The agent assured me, "That's all you need to say, Sir - we'll insure you get your bag back as best we can fix it."

I am genuinely emotional about it.

It's a curious thing what "stuff" is important to us and why!

Thanks Jansport!

(Pictured here with my Jansport Backpack - while teaching in Jerusalem - at the Lithostrotos / Gabbatha)

A simpler calendar for a better world!

2012-03-01T17:18:00.004-08:00

Imagine a future in which you always know the date of baseball's opening day. Or that your birthday is always on a Tuesday (sorry). Or that New Year's Eve is always on a Saturday.

I'd go for this - for sure! I wonder what it would take to get this implemented - for real!

“This is a no-brainer,” said reformer Richard Conn Henry, a professor of astrophysics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “It’s going to save everybody money, trouble and time.”
He and colleague Steve Hanke, an economist and Hopkins professor, have created some buzz by proposing the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar (henry.pha.jhu.edu/calendar).

How to remake the Calendar

Faith in a new calendar

Calendar Overhaul

Encouraged by my colleague

2012-02-29T11:42:00.001-08:00

The Reverend John Franklin Hay, who I have never met, inspires me in many ways.

I share his reflections from a common source of encouragement and motivation, Nicholas Wolterstorff.

Directly from his blog - his words, shared here:

Nicholas Wolterstorff's biblical perspective shapes the underpinnings of my activism and politics more than any other.

"It is against God's will that there be a kingdom in which some are poor; in God's perfected Kingdom there will be none at all. It is even more against God's will that there be a society in which some are poor while others are rich. When this happens, God is on the side of the poor..."

"We must work patiently and persistently to show people the causes of mass poverty, and we must do what we can to convince them that the fundamental criteria by which all political and economic institutions and practices must be tested is just this: 'What do they do to the poor?' If they perpetuate poverty, they fail the most important test of legitimacy, and in that case we must struggle to alter them. We must work for the day when practices which perpetuate poverty have lost their legitimacy in the eyes of people."

Nicholas Wolterstorff in Until Justice and Peace Embrace

Made for goodness

2012-02-27T07:58:00.002-08:00

“You and I, and all of us, are incredible . . . . We are, as a matter of fact, made for goodness.”

~ Desmond Tutu

Shared, collaborative, peer-learning

2012-02-16T08:47:00.001-08:00

I’ve been teaching professionally for 15 years consecutively – and I’ve been engaged in teaching in more than one way or another for more than 20 years. I am still not convinced that I’m a good teacher, that I “know” “how to” teach with demonstrated excellence in all ways. (There are so many variables!!!) Yet, I do know this, collaborative and shared learning – when a class of learners “takes on the task” of learning together – makes the learning experience(s) much more enjoyable! And, when learners share the task of learning – researching, reading, thinking – the learning itself takes on more value, has more personality and has greater effect in shaping a person’s real life.

Several years ago, I was “the expert” who was “the teacher” that received, read, and graded the work of a few specific persons. These same specific persons have become, thanks to grant funds from the Lilly Foundation, Inc. in this past year, shared learners together in a new way without me being “the expert.” It was different than me “teaching” and them “learning” – but us learning together. Five former students and I spent, in intentionally funded and supported ways – time learning together, thinking together, eating together, and becoming friends. It’s been a delight.

When I was in high school and doing my B.A. work at the University – no one really came alongside me and became my friend and invested in me. I had good professors – experts – and I enjoyed many of them. I remain professionally connected and in a true friendship with them – but it is not the same as what has happened for this “group of guys” over this past year.

Because “no one” “helped” me know how to queue up for things – because no one told me what it means to get engaged in a Scholarly Community or the Academic Guild – I didn’t really know how to do it. I have no expectation that the majority of learners in my classes will become my friends. And, I have no expectation that the majority of learners in my classes will embrace life-long learning. And I have no expectation that the majority of learners in my classes will go on to become “Academics.” Nevertheless, I am sure thankful that over time I’ve learned better ways that I can extend friendship with learners – so that – even when the “expert” “classroom” relationship ends – and I stop receiving, reading, and grading their work – we can be friends together who partner in peer learning that will shape our lives, our work, and our identity for a lifetime!

I am inspired to be more collaborative and intentional – more relational and connected with learners in and through classroom experiences – and outside of classroom experiences!

If you’re a professor or teacher and you’re reading this – let me encourage you to build relationships in the classroom that can serve as the “soil” to foster other kinds of relationships when the classroom experience ends.

If you’re a professor or teacher or pastor and you’re reading this, let me encourage you – find a way to connect with peer-professionals and share and learn and live together. I realize that making connections can be difficult because we’ve all too often been taught to “look out for ourselves” And yet, I can assure you – routine connection with a vibrant group of shared, invested peer-learners – can give life a whole new energy that is exciting!

Thanks Wendell, Levi, Eli, Stephen and Jeremy. And . . . as we start new year . . . welcome Paul!

And Jonathan . . . I hope the application gets accepted! We’ll know soon!

Nazarene's in the Holy Land

2012-02-11T17:39:00.001-08:00

I am delightedly part of a core group of persons who are working to establish greater educational connections for Nazarene persons - and pastors! - in the land of the Bible's Origin!

We hope to have some space for official announcements in a few weeks - as key leaders in the Church of the Nazarene must first give permission to our hopeful vision.

In the meantime - here is a link to some of the pictures of our connections, food, meetings and even some fun while in the environs around Jerusalem!

On MLK - from a friend

2012-02-02T10:03:00.001-08:00

My friend from some time at DUKE, the Rev. William (Bill) H. Lamar, IV shared these insightful words about MLK, Jr. a few weeks ago.

I received them then . . . but only had time to engage and read them now.

His full post can be read via the original at the Washington Post.

I like these lines from Rev. Lamar :

It is hard to say what King would be doing and saying if he were alive. But preachers traffic in imagination. So let me imagine based on my study of the man’s life and legacy. He would not be very popular among the educated black middle class because he would remind us of our entanglement in the trappings of success and material excess while neglecting the dire educational and economic straits faced by millions upon millions of our people. He would not be popular among the corporatocracy (the powerful oligarchy of corporations, banks, and governments that control finance and economics and therefore politics) because he would call out their unchecked greed, astronomical salaries, and their erosion of the protection and prosperity of workers. He would not be popular in the White House because American muscular militarism has not yielded to peaceful ways to resolve conflict and the era of government by and for the haves to the exclusion of the have-nots seems uninterrupted. Neither Democrats nor Republicans utter the word poverty and the middle class they fetishizes with rhetoric and neglect with policy shrinks every second. He would not be popular with the self-centered, culturally accommodated American church. He would remind us that we exist to serve, not to be served.
A frozen Martin Luther King is not what we need. A sweet, saccharine a historical Martin Luther King is not what we need. We need the King who died unpopular among blacks and whites because he was more concerned with truth and justice than popularity and access. The King who said no to Vietnam. No to American empire. No to a silent, lethargic church. We need the King who said yes to the dignity and humanity of the poor. Yes to the personhood of people of every race, gender, and socioeconomic status. We need the King who knew that the parched land of America needed the waters of justice in order to bloom into what the founders envisioned even in their brokenness.
I may get to the monument. But I won’t stay long. Can’t stay long. The living, breathing King will be beckoning me away from the mountain and into the valley where there is work to do.

How to tell a story . . . .

2012-01-31T10:13:00.001-08:00

Stories reveal a depth about who we are and what experiences we have had.

Stories evoke reality and truth from us and elicit emotion, surprise, and pathos from those who hear our stories.

I long to become a better story-teller.

The attached PDF document creates "Story Prompts" that any person or group or family can use - personally or collectively - at home, at school, in a community setting.

I received a document nearly like this - as part of the Leadership Education Professional Certificate program completed through Duke University's Faith and Leadership Program. The document I received looked like it had been FAXed and photo-copied many times - and it had no copyright or Author note. I edited and revised some of what I received there and reshaped the original too in a few new ways. I do not claim to have created this - but I freely share it after having edited it for better use.

Story Prompts collected by Marty Alan Michelson.pdf Download this file

As I leave Jerusalem

2012-01-25T00:36:00.001-08:00

I sit at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv as I type. I'll be flying home to continue the work I do among learners in Oklahoma City. (Mind you, I haven't left it even while here - managing several lectures and course assignments online each day!)

I am struck by the vast cultural differences that exist in different places in the world, and how much I wish persons around the globe could look beyond differences in appearances, languages, and preferences to discern relationship with one another in peaceable ways.

It seems to me that, as a percentage of persons alive in the world, there are very few who actively espouse hate. Oh, we're all selfish in some ways - and ethnocentrism is a normal bias for any human person. We discern best our own language, our own customs and our own styles of dress or types of food! And yet, very few espouse and antagonize.

It is a privilege for me to work toward greater peace in our world - and I know I do not do it alone!

Thanks to all who work for peace!

Grateful - truly grateful

2012-01-18T11:09:00.001-08:00

I'm in an airport (Newark, NJ) - waiting to fly to Manchester (U.K.) where I'll team up with some Nazarene people from there - as we fly to Jerusalem for a week.

.

We'll spend our days in meetings, seeking collaboration among various persons in several connected ways toward hopes of establishing an educational connection/site for Nazarene pastors - or young people, or anyone Nazarene! The ideas are just now being discussed - so we can not determine "if" it will work or "when" it will work or "what" it will become - but hopes include options for study abroad for university learners - in Bible training, in peace-making efforts (and study), and in inter-religous dialogue.

As I travel, I am reminded of how wonderfully supported I am in life - primarily from a wonderful woman who loves me and cares for me - and cares for our kids for me when I'm gone. I'm reminded of great friendships I share with people around the globe. And I'm reminded of great collaboration I get to engage - with so many people - in contexts of University work - and Ministry Work - and Peacemaking.

My life has not been perfect (and I have not been perfect!) - but the framework of my life in these period of years - largely framed by the love a wonderful woman and a generous family - in the context of supportive colleagues and University - marks the unique blessing of my life in this time. In the next few hours I'll be in Manchester - where I earned my Ph.D. - and in Israel - from where discernment of God's intention for the world emerges. Fantastic!

My mind is full of the grace and generosity extended to me now.

Blessed. Indeed. Blessed.

I'll be back to read and reflect more on MLK

2012-01-16T19:50:00.001-08:00

I'll come back to this site to spend more time, I'm sure.

A great timeline of MLK's last year of life.

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Four decades later, King remains one of the most vivid symbols of hope for racial unity in America. But that’s not the way he was viewed in the last year of his life.

Exactly one year before his death, Martin Luther King Jr. made a controversial speech condemning the Vietnam War.

In the last months of his life, King struggled to organize a massive march on Washington against poverty. He planned to use civil disobedience to close the capital down.

In the spring of 1968, King led a disastrous demonstration of striking garbage workers in Memphis. When he was killed, King was trying to prove the power of non-violence.

For six years, the FBI conducted a relentless campaign to spy on and discredit King. See for yourself many of the once-secret documents in King’s FBI file.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most powerful preachers of his generation. His words of teaching and comfort were sometimes meant for himself.

Pastors & MLK - On Today's War(s)

2012-01-16T05:53:00.001-08:00

Thoughts from my friend, Rev. John Hay Jr.

VIETNAM AND IRAQ. Each MLK Day since George W. Bush attacked Iraq under false pretenses, the thought occurred to me that King would have not been silent about or acquiesced to the Iraq War. Based on his outspoken perspective on the Vietnam War (a perspective largely based on that war’s impact on poverty and economics), I doubt many would want to hear what Martin Luther King, Jr. would have had to say about the Iraq War. King’s stand against Vietnam was very unpopular. Some of his close associates felt he should not speak out against it. But his last speech on April 3, 1968 was a vow to stand solo, if need be, as a black civil rights leader against war. I know of only handful of pastors who have spoken against the Iraq War or any other. Fewer still who take it to the streets.

WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR? The image of a pastor--white, black, Latino, etc.--in American society is too closely associated with a suit in the pulpit. Let us not mistake our call to interpret and articulate prophesies with being prophetic. Let us not think we have delivered our soul when we have delivered our sermons. Let us not accept a generous paycheck from a congregation that buys clergy silence and keeps pastors on the sidelines of unjust and pressing local, national and world events. Let us put our words into action. Let our calling be expressed fully--in action, in solidarity, in the messiness of community conflict, in speaking truth to power (and not just from behind the pulpit). Jesus points the way. Martin contemporized Jesus' precedent. What are we waiting for?

From Rev. Hay's compelling and insightful blog - here.

December to January 2011 to 2012

2012-01-15T10:04:00.001-08:00

I took on the task of reading a couple of “mammoth” books – in audio format over the holidays.

My life is too busy right now to give a full review – so I’ll just offer a few words. I was recently inspired by the leadership of Abraham Lincoln and enjoyed Doris Kearns Goodwins Team of Rivals. I was amazed by the intricacy of “back story” that Goodwin gave into so many issues of personal, professional and political lives – (and it is lives!) – of the team of leaders that Lincoln pulled around him. Lincoln was (is) complex – his time in history was (is) complex – and the people who shaped the U.S.A. and politics of his era were complex too. This book helps mine that depth.

My interest in Lincoln – and my extended interest in Rivalry from perspectives close to Rene Girard, led me to read, My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry that Led to the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Nora Titone. I learned significant detail about the Booth family history – connected as they were to the “arts” and Shakesperean Theathre in the U.S., in particular. And I discerned how, as Titone frames the story, that the rivalry of stage acting – and the crowd appeal it garnered played into Titone’s belief regarding the decisions and actions of John Wilkes Booth. Fascinating details I had no idea existed.

Enjoyed another audio read – Under the Streets of Nice – which included translation by Ken Follett, thus inspiring my desire to get it. Ken Follet’s other stories have been fantastic. The book narrated a bank heist. It was not moving in any significant way, just a simple story.

Additionally over the holidays, I read all the leadership books noted in the OSLEP program I was part of.

And, separately, I audio-recorded (not audio-read – but I audio-recorded!! ) hours and hours of lecture through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel and the start of 1 Kings!

Further, I completely renovated a duplex that we own – all the paint and hardwood floors, much of the plumbing and lots of other work!

It was a very, very, very busy “break.” Way too busy, in truth. Too much work for sure!

Leaders Are Master Learners – Bret L. Simmons

2012-01-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

A great short blog post I found - including key lines like:

"Our attitudes as leaders should be “these employees of mine are way smarter than me. I am a student of the potential of their behavior, and I could spend a lifetime learning how to better partner with them to create an organization where we, our customers, and our community can all thrive. I am humbled by the challenge of what our interdependence can achieve.”

"Kaki’s comments about her music remind me that the art of leadership is in mastering the discipline and joy of continual learning."

Leaders Are Master Learners – Bret L. Simmons

What inspires you?

2012-01-11T04:34:00.001-08:00

I wonder what our lives would be like if we could go back and discern the specific things in the past that have inspired us? Not just caused us entertainment, but inspired us in a way that re-directed our lives?

I wonder what would happen with our future - and the future of the world, if we could find things inspirational enough to re-shape our lives in new ways? It certainly seems to me that the best of science and art and imagination and existential depth would be necessary components for inspiring us!

I offer these reflections for your consdideration as I share this link where:

Julie Gardham, Senior Assistant Librarian at University of Glasgow’s Special Collections Department, takes a look at the book that was said to have spurred a young Isaac Newton onto the scientific path, The Mysteries of Nature and Art by John Bate.

An "illustrated technical compendium."

Colossal Leadership for Colossal Success

2012-01-08T08:38:00.001-08:00

This is a long entry - about capturing some thoughts on leadership.

***

I have spent the last several days with John King, Greg Hartmann and Mark Doherty and Dennis Williams - and, as importantly, we have spent our time together with a roomful of exceptional leaders, young people, from across the state of Oklahoma. (John, Greg and Mark are part of the Cultural Architecture Team.)

There are many thoughts that I would like to capture - I have 55 pages of single paged notes I've taken in the past few days - including links to multiple articles and resources!

John King's dad was geologist - and John was himself a professional dancer earlier in life. John seems to have connected multiplied issues from his life's story as he dances around groups using his ability to discover the hidden "gems" and unique "stone" foundations imbedded in each learner, listener, and leader - or perhaps the learner is the listener is the leader. We are all Learnisteneaders!

As I have been with the group, I have reflected on efforts I have given toward trying to develop leadership, and to develop leaders, in my own life. I thought back to the S.O.L.I.D. Team (Seeking Out Leaders In Discipleship) in the early 1990s as part of my work as a pastor. I listened to John Maxwell's 100 Lessons On Leadership numerous times over the years - especially when I used to commute from Colorado Springs to Denver, Colorado. I have read multiple books on leadership over many years and I earned a Professional Certificate in Leadership Education from DUKE. I’ve tried to develop leadership in D.C. and politics – and in international venues as a Peace Fellow.

Additionally, as I work to lead others in care-giving kinds of ways, I worked to earn a Master of Arts Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy - and I worked to establish unique forms of caring for unique kinds of leaders through Confidential Care and Consultation - helping people find meaning in life, so that life can be worth living! I worked with others to found and establish the Eupan Global Initiative, that works to extend the good for the all in collaborative, team-building, generative ways! Peace-building and peace-making - central to my core values - and I believe central to the purpose of good living for all life - are connected to being connected in shared ways!

The Cultural Architecture leaders have shared many things and one of the things I have come away with is a new discernment of the idea that leadership doesn't happen "from" a person, but between people. And, from the information gleaned by John King (with Dave Logan and Halee Fischer-Wright), I was reintroduced to the stages of tribal leadership. (I read the book a couple of years ago, but have a different sense of it now, after spending days engaging the ideas in context with others.) There are numerous frameworks where you can read summaries of Tribal Leadership - so I will let you read here and here as just a couple of examples if you would like more information.

The notion that leadership happens between people is interesting to me - and it seemed wrong, to be frank, when I first heard it. The notion that leadership doesn't come from "a leader" seemed to me, at first, just plain wrong, if I'm honest. I am certain that that comes from the fact that we are used to looking to "the leader" in the group that we don't stop to think about how leadership emerges from within groups as the whole group partners together. Any group will naturally have persons with different roles, but all play roles in leading in unique kinds of ways. And, any "leadership" from a top down perspective only has leadership ability to the extent that it is given - or permitted - as shared members allow the role of others to exert influence one-upon-each-other.

As I heard the notion of leadership happening between people, too, I had bias to resist the notion because of my reading of Martin Buber's I-Thou - and, in fact the way that I teach Buber's I-Thou in Master's Classes for a counseling program. Without detailing the nuance of Buber here, Buber understands that something happens "between (Das Zwieschen in Buber's German) people. For Buber, life's framework of most significant transcendental reality - the mysterium tremendum and Summa summarum of existential meaning - happens in an encounter where two I's stand in full-open-genuine-unfettered mutuality with one another. When that happens, Buber posits that in "the between" a reality of encounter comes to awareness that becomes more than two "I's standing looking at each other as "you's" and a transcendent "You" is now present. For Buber, "All real living is meeting." Or, in an alternate translation, "All real life is encounter." Understood in this way, my bias was to see "the between" among persons as not the place where "leadership" happens - but the place of ultimate existential encounter - not merely "leadership" however or whatever that means.

And still . . . I kept listening.

And as I listened, I pondered the following thoughts.

When I teach Buber's existential philosophy, I often (always, really) use the idea of two pillars and an arch - as an imperfect but helpful and analogy for explaining Buber's concept. To make it utterly simplistic here. Two pillars stand separate one from another and have weight, size, shape, unto themselves. But, you can't do much with a pillar unto itself. It stands alone and has little value. But - when you begin to connect pillars, now you can begin to construct things upon the pillars standing one - with another. And, even more (and I won't get into all the physics and architectural genius here) - while you can take two pillars and join them by a slab of stone or pieces of lumber - in a post-and-lintel form of construction - an arch that connects two pillars is wonderfully more than a lintel. In fact, I posit “the” arch is the heart of “architecture” – it is “arch” “tecton” – to be a cultural architect is to be about the task of constructing arch’s – points of collaborative connection.

An arch does several things in connecting beams but it does so with a sleek elegance and mastery in that (1) an arch is stronger than a beam (2) and because it is stronger it can be the basis of much larger constructions efforts and (3) the arch is simply more elegant, aesthetic and beautiful. Further, the arch works with a wonderful conceptual (even physical beauty). The arch works to connect two pillars when the force of gravity pulls equally on all stones within the arch - and when the keystone in the middle of the arches is perfectly (truly) true to the pillars. Two pillars - standing at equal height with equal balance, mass, and size, can have an arch built between them - and - precisely in the middle - in the between - of an arch a "keystone" holds the two pillars together - creating a space between them that makes the sum of the parts much stronger, taller, and more beautiful than the sum-of the parts taken individually. So much so, in fact, that the Romans (who mastered the architectural reality) were able to build arches upon arches upon arches within buildings - creating one of the greatest feats of civil engineering - alongside the feat of their cultural, political and social engineering in the empire - by creating the Coliseum (or Colosseum). A review of the coliseum in pictures (it's even better to see it in person) will demonstrate that the coliseum is nothing less than a feat of "colossal" engineering, based on the harmonious, balanced, strength of hundreds of arches - partnered together - such that, together - they create the space that allows the Coliseum to become the feat that it was - and is!

Now - when I teach about Buber's ontology, I normally note that the very nature of the analogy I use (which is quite descriptive!) does not make perfect sense of the existential reality Buber is trying to capture. Yet, I point out that for the arch to work - it cannot be one pillar standing taller or stronger or over the other pillar. And, the arch cannot be off-centered between the pillars. And, the force of gravity that pulls on each and every stone in the arch must be the same - so that - "in the between" of the pillars - gravity pulls on the keystone, locking it in place - so that the two pillars - standing in a kind of reciprocal-relationship create the space for the "between" to exist in their midst. The between in their midst, in the language of Buber understands how the space of the between is now the space where "what happens" is not because of the push-or-pull of either pillar - but it is the "force" that exists in the nothingness between them, but not created apart from them.

As I have been with fellow learnisteneaders the past few days - several interesting things have happened within us (individually and communally) that have made the space of the class-learning-environment into something like sacred space. We've learned something about listening each other into leadership - and in the midst of it - a "force" greater than the sum of our parts stands in our midst as a felt Presence.

**
Another reflection from my time with the fellow learnisteneaders is the notion that leadership happens as we "stand on the shoulders of giants" That is, what we do as we move forward into the future we are able to do on the basis of discerning it, seeing it, "knowing it" through others. As but one example, MLK Jr. was inspired by the person of Ghandi and MLK "stood on the shoulders" of Ghandi's non-violent peace-movement for social change, even as he adapted it and changed it for unique situations in America that were different from the specifics of India. But, even as MLK stood on the shoulders of others - so too, he was able to do what he did as he stood on the shoulders of hundreds of thousands of persons who enabled the Civil Rights Movement to have significance. And, in a reciprocal way, one could say that others within the movement "stood on the shoulders" of MLK as they were empowered by, among many things, the power of his rhetoric and his dream. His dream was their dream and their dream was his dream - each standing on the shoulders of each other in a certain symbiotic synecdoche of reciprocity.

And, to add to this notion - to the image - of the castellers of Catalan who build amazing towers of human bodies - constructed, quite literally, on one anothers shoulders!!! - in a feat that matches strength with size with agility with stamina with courage - all to construct something together!

What if leadership is a combination of the insights – that leadership happens between us – and, in the space of the between, life’s moments of greatest significance happen? What if leadership, best reflected, is the best of ourselves combined with the best of that which is eternal and real – creating spaces and places for eupan to manifest.

**
Another reflection.
Do a search on the internet for Colossal and you will find more notes on something being a colossal failure, than a colossal success!

**
These extended reflections on "the between" and "the arch," "castellers" and colossal failures have caused me to wonder.

As I wonder, I posit whether the model of Tribal Leadership should be extended in generative ways. The language itself sounds, well, "tribal" - localized and small. There is nothing wrong with the ideas of Tribal Leadership! The ideas are expansive! The notions (and empirical data) that suggest how tribes work and how triads function is important! And yet - the language is "tribal."

In the book, Tribal Leadership - and in re-tellings of it - the images used for Tribal Leadership operating at Stage 4 and Stage 5 - the highest stages - includes a hexagonal image - which is good, but which remains two-dimensional - even if described as triadic.

What would happen if we took the generative ideas and merged them in new and synchronous ways to build something colossal, together?

The Romans - through feats of synchronous and generative political, social and personal reform - crafted an Empire that shaped the world.

What if we took the idea of the Triad and discerned it in "colossal" ways - where we discerned ourselves as leaders connected in triads - not just laterally (as a 2 dimension image on the page) but laterally and vertically - so that we could "see" in a new image (but with the same foundational ideas) what "we're great" stage four leadership builds. "We're great" stage four leadership and Stage Five "Life's great" leadership creates more than just "hexagonal" objects on the page - but, in a certain kind of way, constructs social-collaborative-open space within and between and over-and-above each relationship such that - what is created is - like the coliseum - colossal!

What is created embraces the "between-ness" of leadership - understood to stand in triadic-ways - but extended, too. The pillar is connected to the other pillar - through the arch - the triad - but the pairing of pillar to pillar happens only with the arch - but happens in the space between them all. And, when these relational structures (or learnisteneaders) come into generative-equal-stabilizing space one with another - and connected to yet another triadic- pillar-arch-pillar - then the architecture gets going!

The colossal feat that was (and is!) the coliseum emerges from the generative space of the beauty, elegance, strength, and power of the "space" that is created by the arches of the coliseum. And together, each and all of the arches and pillars - one with another - they created and framed not just a colossal piece of architecture - but a colossal piece of architecture that became (and remains) a metynomic structure that existed as the symbol of the empires strength, beauty, size, and majesty. The Coliseum was the Empire, the Empire was the Coliseum. And, it stood - it worked - it functioned - in collaborative space. The Empire only worked - as people worked with one another in generative space. (And when that generative space fell apart, so did the empire!) And the coliseum worked (and continues to work) because of the generative reciprocal space that pillars create-standing harmoniously and in balance with the keystone that spans the gap, combines their influence and creates the space of the between - to be constructed over and alongside one another until - the Coliseum stands.

The colossal feat that is the coliseum functions in the beautiful, powerful, "force" of generative space - and it becomes more than a stone structure, and is magisterial and dominating.

Stage four and stage five leadership - are more than simple triads - they are beautiful arches of power which, when aligned, can combine to construct the greatest structures, which serve as the apex of and symbol of perhaps the greatest empire of old.

Do you want to build something colossal?
Not a colossal failure - but a colossal success!
Do you want to work with others in collaborative and generative space that results in a reality greater than the sum of the parts?
Do you want to find existential meaning and value with others that is more than the person?
Do you want to stand on the shoulders of giants - and serve as the foundation upon which others will stand to build on your shoulders?

What if colossal leadership can only transpire between us – with Utter Significance – in shared reciprocity as we build something as beautiful, strong, large and great as the Coliseum.

This could be enable colossal leadership to emerge from a colossal culture to build a colossal piece of architecture as part of a colossal empire, with colossal success.

See the full gallery on Posterous

I am enrolled @ the University of Oklahoma!

2011-12-20T19:05:00.001-08:00

I am not a student in a traditional sense - as I'll be a faculty observer.

I have an OU ID and login so I can be a part of the Oklahoma Scholar-Leadership Education Program. (I never would have thought I'd be "enrolled" at the University of Oklahoma!)

That makes OU the 10th Academic School where I have been "enrolled" in some capacity in my life. In most ways I'll be a fellow-learner in the course.

I will also be the only non-teaching-faculty participant, so this makes OU the 7th University I've had some kind of faculty relationship with!

I genuinely look forward to the course - and am enjoying the reading already!

Leading From Core Values: Principles & Practice of "Tribal Leadership"

This class is full

In this course, we will explore the key perspectives and organizing principles for effective leadership in a collaborative setting. Participants will practice the use of values-embedded stories to create social and psychological space for purposeful collaboration, practice designing and pitching strategic project ideas, learn how to join with others in effective social structures to complete significant projects, and create a vision for their future as effective leaders.

Readings

Do You Quantum Think? by Diane Collins
Selected Readings (to be announced) by Will Durant
The Rules of Victory: How to Transform Chaos and Conflict -- Strategies from the Art of War by James Gimian and Barry Boyce
The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Change Everything by John Hagel III, John Seely-Brown, and Lang Davison
Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organzation by Dave Logan, John King, and Haley Fischer-Wright
The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion by Ken Wilber

John King is co-founder and senior partner of CultureSync, a consulting firm that focuses on Leadership, Strategy, Cultural Change and Executive Coaching. Along with his partner, David C. Logan Ph.D, John is co-author of The Coaching Revolution, a book presenting the author’s best practices in the realm of executive coaching.

John is in demand as a keynote speaker, and is nationally recognized as a senior teacher, coach, and program leader. Clients of his coaching practice have been featured on all major television networks and in The Wall Street Journal. CultureSync’s clients include Intel, Cedars-Sinai Health System,Southern California Edison, CB Richard Ellis, Colliers International, OliverMcMillan, The California State Appointed Executives, Amgen, and American Express, and The Space Frontier Foundation.

John is part of the leadership development team at Sierra Health Foundation and is on faculty at Collier’s University, CB Richard Ellis University, and The California Leadership Institute. John is also a frequent guest lecturer in the Marshall School of Business and the School of Public Policy, Planning,and Development at USC.

OKC Service Project - Dec 28 or 29 !

2011-12-20T18:44:00.001-08:00

Here is a tangible way to demonstrate charitable kindness and service!

Start the New Year off right with a commitment to serve others - even before 2012 arrives!

Lovelink Ministries is moving one mile in Downtown OKC, from 500 S. Western to 1122 Linwood Blvd ( it's a curious intersection where NW 6th and N. Western and Linwood meet!)

This is a family-friendly-service project idea (!) - kids are welcome - but work is involved and no childcare nor baby-sitting is available!

Packing at 500 S. Western - unpacking at 1122 Linwood Blvd.

Wednesday the 28th - 0900 hours to 1600 hours
Thursday the 29th - 0900 hours to Noon

Email: lovelinkministries@yahoo.com - Tell them Marty sent you to help with the connection!

Bring gloves and willingness to work.
If you have a truck, trailer, or enclosed vehicle (van, moving truck!) - that would be super!

Ghandi on Christmas

2011-12-18T19:14:00.001-08:00

At the Bruderhof publishing site, The Plough - they have a great review of thoughts from Ghandi on Christmas.

I'll post the start of their words - and his words - here, with the hope that you will consider reading for yourself.

Because Gandhi came to the message of Jesus unfettered by the traditions and doctrines that are commonly understood as “Christianity” his heart was free to respond deeply to the good news that Jesus’ advent brought to humankind. Gandhi understood Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom with greater clarity than most of us who call ourselves Christian. We’ll let Gandhi speak for himself:
Ghandi writes: I have never been able to reconcile myself to the gaieties of the Christmas season. They have appeared to me to be so inconsistent with the life and teaching of Jesus . . . .

Ghandi writes: How I wish America could lead the way by devoting the season to a real moral stocktaking and emphasizing consecration to the service of mankind for which Jesus lived and died on the Cross.

DIRECT LINK HERE.

Poetry, Creation, and Our Moral Responsibility

2011-12-04T23:28:00.001-08:00

I love Wendell Berry. I recommend him routinely to others.

And, Ellen Davis, she's great!

I've been shaped by each of these persons - and I have been shaped by the Bible - and have been teaching the "same things" that they have been teaching for years!

A great 52 minute interview with Dr. Ellen Davis - including snippets from Wendell Berry, that might help you re-think the Your role and Our role in creation!

Great stuff at this link! (Go to the left of the screen for "Hear the Show")

See the full gallery on Posterous

The Greatest Prayer

2011-11-27T23:55:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I love the fact that I "know my discipline" (Biblical Studies) and I am thankful that I have learned how to read quickly - with meaning.

That helped me read John Dominic Crossan's 190 page book on the Lord's Prayer: The Greatest Prayer in under an hour this evening. A great read. (If only the student papers that I grade could be read so quickly!!) (Alternate link to text here from JDCrossan webpage.) (Oh how I love picking up new texts at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature!)

I don't mean this at all in any presumptuous way when I say that he has drawn together - with greater scope and depth and meaning - many themes that my friend Dr. T. Scott Daniels and I have noted all across scripture. (And again, I am not trying to be presumptuous here - what J.D. Crossan has done - simply and with depth - is *more* than what Scott and I have done! - but if you'll review Scott and my blog posts, either his or my sermons, and independent or shared writing projects - you will find discernible and direct connected themes - which, in truth - we've probably all "taken" from the same sources of texts we've each read over the past several decades!)

That being said - I'll post my Amazon.com review here - with supplemental note. At Amazon.com I wrote:

This book is not a "devotional" about the Lord's Prayer - nor a simple articulation of Matthew's version of the prayer set in the context of the Gospel of Matthew. Not at all. Rather, in this text, as Crossan outlines in the prologue, he notices patterns (parallelism) and key words that operate within the prayer - that hold it together - in balance between "heaven" and "earth."
Crossan draws upon nearly the entire scope of the Christian Canon - including significant extra-biblical stories and events - to discern what the Lord's Prayer "means" in its historical context, framed within the larger Biblical Canon.
Crossan admits his own bias as having shaped how he might read the prayer - when he notes how he has been critiqued for using his homeland, Ireland as a model for seeing Jesus (p. 165). And, as any good Biblical scholar, Crossan should note his own interpretive and cultural framework that would shape his ideas about the Bible! But, this is not a book about how Crossan interprets the Lord's Prayer. This is a book where Crossan peels back Canon and History to show how the Lord's Prayer very likely *should* be interpreted from within its own contexts. This is a book about where Crossan reveals how History and Canon inform interpretation of the Lord's Prayer.
I have my own bias - as a peacemaker, pastor, and professor. So let me be clear in posing that here. My presuppositions, I will admit, were already with Crossan on many issues - including the use of "deliver us from evil." I still gleaned new layers of insight when I read Chapter 8, "Lead us not into temptation." - As Crossan notes, "The disciples must continue in prayer . . . . [because] it is not acceptable for the followers of Jesus to use defensive counter-violence even to defend Jesus himself" (Page 181).
If you have a few hours, and a good grounding in the history and canon of the Bible, I recommend you read the book straight through - in a single sitting - to capture the scope of what Crossan does in this text.
A note on the 4 stars - instead of 5 stars. First, The book's size and paperback form - and it's publication by HarperOne suggest that this is for a broad, public audience. While it should be read by many and while it is not complex - Crossan covers a huge array of historical events and scripture, such that a "lay" reader, in my opinion would get lost in the details and not finish the book - or, not discern the "larger" thing that Crossan is doing - which he does masterfully. And, second, because the book is much more technical than it appears, a full appendix to cover both topical issues and citations from Biblical passages would be helpful for review.
Finally - on a personal note - I found an email address for Dr. Crossan wherein I suggested he explore more Jewish Scripture connections to what he does in Chapter 6 with "Take-Break-Bless-Give" - pages 129ff. I think the themes he extends forward into the Christian Scripture have a nuance of issue he has not yet seen in from Genesis 1 to 3. I hope Dr. Crossan will explore the possibility of noting the themes I highlighted in a short piece I wrote about this much smaller issue - of much less significance and scope - via Duke University's Faith and Leadership website, entitled "Take, Give, Eat."

I'll add a few more notes here. I think J.D. Crossan's work could have more depth, too - if it connected with themes Scott has nuanced out of Revelation - and these themes connected - as well to the work of how the prayer and its focus on "heaven" and "earth" could be better connected to the Kingdom themes in the Book of Revelation with respect to the Lion/Lamb and the Kingdoms of the world getting "leaves" for peace and healing - from the tree of Revelation 22 - great insight from this text.

I read the book quickly - with no pen(cil) in hand. But I dog-eared the following pages to come back to: 75, 91, 94, 103, 111, 118, 129, 140, 155, 167-168, 173-175, 178-181, and 187.

I have long wrestled - for all of my professional Biblical "career" with the issue of the violence of God in Scripture. And here I'll post what Crossan notes - and I don't think it is is a "spoiler alert" - but know that this is central to what Crossan discerns in The Greatest Prayer. Crossan notes that we are finally people who are Christians - followers of Christ and not "Bible-ians."

Confronted, as we are (italics in original), by tandem visions of both a nonviolent and violent God throughout the Bible, we simply ask ourselves another question. Is Christ the incarnation and revelation of a nonviolent or violent God? (italics in original). Since Jesus the Christ was clearly nonviolent (thank you at least for that judgment, Pilate), we Christians are called to believe in a nonviolent God.
In other words, the nonviolent incarnational Christ challenges and judges the violent apocalyptic Christ. Our Christian Bible, therefore, tells a most strange story. It is one whose meaning is in the middle, not the end, whose climax is in the center, not the conclusion. That is, by the way, why we Christians count time down to the incarnation of Christ and then back up from it. (page 187)

I read this text on Sunday, November 27th - the first day of Advent for 2011. What a delight to be reminded that across history, the Canon, and within the "greatest prayer" - the focus is on a God who empties Self to become human, to teach us how to live nonviolently. Now, if only we can make it on earth, with God's dominion operative through us, as it is in heaven. Then we will live into and "fulfill" with God - the purpose of our prayers for God's Rule to be effective even this year.

I wish someone had told me - what's a Guild!?!

2011-11-26T13:31:00.001-08:00

University courses and reading have been enjoyable to me. I very much enjoyed the persons who taught me at several schools - Nazarene schools - where I earned Bachelor and Master's Degrees. I know my professors were caring individuals and good thinkers. But I wish I would have been given more information, earlier - about what it means to distinguish the differences between work with the Bible for the Parish or Church community and work with the Bible for the Professional Community or "the Guild."

I earned a Bachelor's Degree and two separate Master's Degrees in Religion/Theology from three separate Nazarene Schools - and then went off to do Ph.D. work. I had grown to love reading the Bible, discerning its nuance and complexity - and my professors helped shape my thinking. But none of them gave me discernible, credible and direct insight into what it might mean for me to be "a Scholar."

My pursuit of University degrees came about in large part because I had a higher than average (but not excellent and not genius!) mental aptitude - and because I worked hard and invested time in being a student. (I am convinced that I learned to read and work "harder" as a student than most students. If I have had any success, it is because I invest effort - not because I'm "smart.') I earned scholarships and stipends that encouraged me to continue pursuing degrees, but it wasn't until I had been in Universities for more than 6 years, and I matriculated to the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology that I came into a real awareness of what it means to "be an academic" and to "enter into the Guild" - for me, the Society of Biblical Literature.

For most of the past 16 or 17 years, I have attended, every year, the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and/or a Regional Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. I remember distinctly when I attended the Annual meeting in 1999, in Boston. I recognized at that meeting that I was a "Bible Geek" and I "fit in" with this eclectic and diverse group. I was sitting in a session committed to the Deuteronomistic History - (Joshua to II Kings - historical books in the Jewish Scripture.) The focus of the session was on David. The room was cold. Boston was cold. And a scholar got up to present his paper. And before starting his presentation, he noted how cold it was in the room. He said something along this line. "It's so cold in here I need an Abishag!" I laughed with the cadre of scholars gathered in the room! How funny! Then, I realized - no where else in the world would this joke be *this* funny to this many people - and, in fact, most people would not get the joke! (Abishag is the young woman given to David in his old age - to lie beside him - to keep his aged, dying body warm.) The fact that I laughed at the joke, confirmed for me that I really was a "Bible Geek" and I really did enjoy "this" Guild.

Every Fall at the institution where I work, I teach Old Testament Theology to every School of Theology and Ministry Major. In October, I require every learner to read and engage an article published in a peer-reviewed journal, about the Old Testament. The assignment is simple enough - read the article you have found, and on 2 page summarize the argument and give a personal reaction. After the learners complete the assignment, I talk to them about "where" these articles come from - typically the result of some "paper" "presented" somewhere at one of many scholarly conferences or meetings. I describe the meetings to them and how "the Guild" woks - for various venues, Society of Biblical Literature, American Academy of Religion, Wesleyan Theological Society - - and the like. I am very clear with my learners - usually sophomores and juniors - that they may not have enjoyed the scholarly journal article they reviewed - and they do not have to pursue scholarship. I encourage them that they don't have to pursue graduate work and I let them know they can effectively and capably pastor churches without seeking higher degrees - so long as they covenant to be life-long learners! But, I also make sure they know - clearly and unequivocally - what "the Guild" is and that "now" is the the time in their lives that they need to begin to think about how they will perform and where they will seek graduate degrees and when they will enter the Guild as student members - so they can live into their best possible futures.

That all takes place in October. Then, after another couple of weeks pass, I typically attend the November Annual meeting of the SBL and I remind my learners where I am going and what being a member of "the Guild" entails.

I have many, many good friends in "the Guild" - and I treasure relationships I have from persons of various religious traditions and perspectives, from various schools where I have studied. (In fact, I wish I would have known to be a better colleague and friend with fellow students in my under-graduate and graduate experiences!) With one colleague, in particular, though - he and I both being from the Church of the Nazarene - we lament with a smile - that "no one told us" what we needed to do to become "true" Scholars with "pedigreed" degrees. No one told us that "getting into the right school" and studying "with the right people" can set trajectories in motion that can not be established other ways.

I love what I do and am so very happy in so many ways to be where I am in life - but my career is different than colleagues and friends who teach elsewhere. As an example, I teach at least 8 courses a year - with hundreds of students, thousands of pages of papers to read and grade. I might get a one-semester sabbatical every 9 years. A colleague just a year my senior, pedigreed up differently than I - and he teaches at a school where he gets a year long sabbatical every 4-5 years - and he only teaches a maximum of 3 courses per year, plus has at least one (if not two) Graduate Assistants personally assigned to his courses - giving him much more time to read and write and engage in other ways.

I celebrate where I am at. In truth, I'm not smart enough to be at the most prestigious schools in the world - but, if I had been guided and mentored differently, my life would have taken on other options that are now not possible to me.

I am not lamenting - simply commenting!

And I comment so that the young persons that I teach now will have the insight of this wisdom - from my lived experience - as they think about how they might elect to pursue Graduate School work . . . and life within The Guild!

Blessings!

I've never been in this kind of library!

2011-11-03T05:55:00.001-07:00

I've been in libraries across the U.S., in Europe, England and in Southeast Asia - but never before in a library like the one I was in today.

I stood in a private vault that houses the largest privately owned collection of Bible and Biblical Antiquities in the world today.

I walked past rows of 12 foot high shelves - 20 feet long that held hundreds and hundreds of ancient Torah Scrolls alone.

We then went to another room were I was working with Yitchok Reisman from www.torahscroll.com as he and his colleague were establishing the provenance of numerous scrolls.

As the day started, I asked, "What can I do to help?"

He answered, "Ask questions."

I love the wisdom of Judaism.

Reading about Dark Matter, the Universe and Sex in the Bible

2011-10-29T17:49:00.001-07:00

I had opportunity this past weekend to get several books read. One of the nice things about traveling is that I am very good at tuning-out other people out as I stick my nose in a book. Thankfully I had a few good books to read, and a couple that were less exciting.

The first book I read, Paradise Lust : Searching for the Garden of Eden . The book was interesting because the author traces the journeys of several different persons in their exploration of a finding the historical Eden. The book reads more like a biography of the explorers themselves, then an exploration of Eden as a place. In those ways, the book explores as much as anything the unique personalities and persona of the people who have tried to find Eden. There were several persons reviewed in the book that I had heard of, or had some real year to us because of their association with Biblical studies. But there were several characters detailed in the book and presented numerous eccentricities in terms of their reasons for searching for Eden in various places of the world. I should not have been surprised, but I was surprised to discover that people have claimed that Eden is in places as far as China, Sri Lanka, Zambia, Venezuela and even Ohio. Of course these are very different places then the region of the Fertile Crescent or the region of Mesopotamia which is what I have always been more familiar with. The book was interesting, not one that I would recommend or reread , but intriguing and fun to explore all the same.

My lovely bride picked up this book for me while she was at the library, How to Train a Wild Elephant & Other Adventures in Mindfulness: Simple Daily Mindfulness Practices for Living Life More Fully and Joyfully. When I was in Thailand and this summer, I had opportunity to interact with Buddhism and Buddhists people on a daily basis. I was intrigued by the calmness and serenity of most of the people that I met and my wife knew that. This simple book, does precisely what it claims in its title, it presents several different ways by which people can use different practices to be mindful about every day of their lives. I did not read the book from cover to cover – as the mindful practices are designed to be practiced, one week at a time – hence the 52 chapters. But I did read nearly all of the chapters and found that, if a person were to do these simple things, there is no doubt that they would be more thoughtful and aware and attuned of their daily life – sights, smells, sound and presence around them.

Unprotected Texts: The Bible's Surprising Contradictions About Sex and Desire by ennifer Wright Knust. This book was recommended to me by a friend and I certainly thought the title sounded intriguing. The book was interesting – and there were many, many things that persons would learn about the Bible by reading it. But, in truth, many of the issues were not new to me – and several of them I disagreed with – both in terms of presuppositions and in terms of the hermeneutic used by the author. But, that would be no surprise to the author as she says in her own conclusion, “Whatever we wish for . . . probably can be found somewhere in the Bible . . . . We are not passive recipients of what the Bible says, but active interpreters who make decisions about what we will believe and what we will affirm.” The next paragraph begins, “Once upon a time, the followers of Jesus knew that they were interpreting the Bible, not simply extracting truth from a set of divinely inspired texts.” Her use of “once upon a time” – to make it sound like a common fairy tale, and her use that “they” were “not simply extracting truth” is a bit problematic for me as it does seem the followers of Jesus (she cites Paul) did think they were engaging inspired texts! More to the point, while the author does well to point out that the Bible has no simple solutions – and in fact, quite a myriad of solutions/responses – to issues of sexuality – she comes away with no sustaining ethic for framing any moral basis for any sexual code/principles based on the collection of stories found in the Bible. Here review of the Bible is important, as her reading portrays the deep complexity of myriad issues involving all manner of sexual practice in the Bible! But, to come away from these texts and conclude only with a reader-oriented-uninspired-open-ended-the-Bible-doesn’t-really-say-anything-because-the-Bible-says-so-many-varied things, seems to leave us with no sense – and nonsense all together. Issues of sexuality are complex, indeed! But even in her review of Song of Songs (Solomon) – the author demonstrates her agenda for interpretation as being one that has a political (w)edge against religious groups that use the Bible to isolate views that espouse “family values.” Anyone who reads Song of Songs (Solomon), though, should see plainly that the poems are not about “marriage” but about the passion of lovers. The book, I am sure, will score many points with those who want to “argue” against narrow minded and small-visioned fundamentalist interpretations of erroneous stereotypes for family values from the Bible! But, a full reading of the Bible demonstrates this plainly enough, without needing the bias and ambiguity that Knust adds to the already complicated issues.

It’s a good thing I read this book as an audio book, because it was so good, with so many fascinating issues that if I had read it in paper form – I would have found myself dog-earing pages, highlighting issues, and, in general, it would have taken me 2 or 3 times as long to read with all the notes I would have made. The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality by Richard Panek. Fascinating and brilliant. It takes the reader through a gamut of facts, figures, numbers, persons, and stories that narrate the complexities of what we know – and don’t know about the Universe – and life and the worlds and stars and planets. With fascinating mathematical figures and curious events taking place – the author weaves together a wonderful picture of how much we do not know! What a great book.

As I was nearing the end of my audio-reading of 4% Universe, I picked up and read, 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time by Michael Brooks. The opening chapter in this text, happened to cover the same issue – so I thought the rest of the book would prove intriguing. It did not. Essentially the authors takes issues that seem quite settled in the scientific community but for which there may be an outlier or anomaly that exists – and this author tracks that outlier/anomaly as though *it* were the real truth to be found. Because, for example, a single bandwidth of reception came in through “the Big Ear” at 1420 Mhz in August of 1977, “we can conclude that it was a single from an alien civilization.” And later he writes that the “best we can suggest is that it was a signal from an alien spacecraft . . . aimed momentarily and erroneously in our direction as a civilization migrated through our cosmos.” The author will do well to join in with those who, he claims, have succeeded in making ColdFusion work in the past.

A Small Group "Team Building" "Exercise"

2011-10-13T23:05:00.001-07:00

The Space Between Us by Marty Alan Michelson.pdf Download this file

This is more than a casual "team-building" "exercise."

It has connection though - with "really" "meeting" and being "met" by others in a genuine Encounter.

I'll let the attached PDF speak for itself.

If you work with people in small groups, or on retreats, you might find this intentional encounter helpful.

Authenticity, Accuracy and Reliability

2011-10-09T12:37:00.001-07:00

This past week I had the opportunity to be the designated respondent to a lecture presented at the Oklahoma City's Museum of Art - OKC MOA - connected to the private Biblical Antiquities collection owned by the Green Family, owners of Hobby Lobby, Inc.

Much more about the exhibit can be explored here: Explore Passages

As I understand it, my presentation will soon be available in DVD format - similar to this DVD in the same series. That is fun! My low quality - personal recording of my portion of the the presentation is available at this link: Michelson on Authenticity, Authority and Reliability of Scripture.

Additionally, I will be the first to announce here - what the President of my university, Southern Nazarene University will soon be announcing - I have been invited to become a Scholar-Mentor with the Green Scholar's Initiative. This will not only be exciting for me, working with the Green Collection - it is also exciting that through this series of connections, I will get to work with emerging young scholars who will continue to develop their ability to study and engage the Bible, working with unheard of access to primary texts and documents that have not yet been translated or researched!

At the most recent lecture, I was able to get this snapshot - including (from left to right) - Dr. Jerry Pattengale, Director of the Green Scholars Initiative; Dr. Loren Gresham, President of Southern Nazarene University; Steve Green, President of Hobby Lobby, Inc.; Dr. Stan Toler, General Superintendent for the Church of the Nazarene; and myself.

The lecture I responded to was entitled "Answers to New Theories Regarding How We Got the Bible." I used several news or book issues (Headlines in the Associated Press News, to Cover Stories in national magazines like the National Geographic, to popular HarperOne published best-sellers) to talk about the continuing authenticity, accuracy and reliability of Scripture - especially discerned in light of a Wesleyan Perspective on the role and function of Scripture. It is great to be a representative from the Church of the Nazarene invested in this process!

It was a great opportunity and I am anxious, myself, to see the DVD when it becomes available!

I am always delighted to have opportunity to share in other Churches or Synagogues regarding what we can know about the Bible. I'm excited that I get to share a small portion of this knowledge with other churches even this Fall.

What a privilege to share!

As a supplementary note - several weeks ago I was asked to provide a series of "sound-bite" quotes for the media group working with the advertisement and promotion of the Green Collection and the Green Scholars Initiative. I am not sure if and when any of these quotes might get used - but they accurately characterize my thoughts on the Green Collection:

Past Scholars in Biblical studies have been known to acquire treasured documents and use these documents to advance their own careers. The Green Collection and the Green Scholars Initiative is intentionally stewarding treasured documents in shared ways - to advance scholarship and discernment of the Bible for the world! Their work and their sharing is a sign of their commitment to let these Ancient texts continue to speak today!
The Greens have done the world of Biblical Scholarship a great favor in their willingness to share these important ancient texts. The Bible has shaped the culture of the world and the willingness to share these important, ancient texts demonstrate their kindness and their contribution to a world that is aware of the influence of the Bible.
The fact that the Green Family is committed to scholars and mentoring relationships, demonstrates that this is not a short-lived commitment by the Greens. By encouraging established scholars to share research and engagement of ancient texts with emerging scholars demonstrates a life-long- extended commitment to excellent scholarship in the area of Biblical studies.
Generations of scholars - and Biblical scholarship - will be forever shaped by the Green's willingness to share and steward these resources among small teams of scholars - and young people.
This will allow teams of scholars to study the ancient wisdom of the Bible - for applied discernment and extended influence in advancing good news for the future of our world.
Marty Alan Michelson, Ph.D.
Peacemaker, Pastor, and Professor at Southern Nazarene University

Again, we've got to re-think everything

2011-10-09T11:28:00.001-07:00

I am an advocate of science. It comes to me naturally, it seems, since I grew up in a home where my dad was a Science Teacher!

I am thankful that I have been able to spend the past decades of my life having had opportunity to witness strategic and important new discoveries in Science. Some of these discoveries have extended past theories in new ways - and some of these discoveries raise challenges to the certainty with which we "know what we know."

As a theologian, these issues are important to me - because getting at the heart of what we know and don't know - about all things - about Ultimate things - is very important.

It is with intrigue, therefore, that I read this recent news:

Roll over Einstein: Law of physics challenged

By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press – Sep 22, 2011

GENEVA (AP) — One of the very pillars of physics and Einstein's theory of relativity — that nothing can go faster than the speed of light — was rocked Thursday by new findings from one of the world's foremost laboratories.
European researchers said they clocked an oddball type of subatomic particle called a neutrino going faster than the 186,282 miles per second that has long been considered the cosmic speed limit.
The claim was met with skepticism, with one outside physicist calling it the equivalent of saying you have a flying carpet. In fact, the researchers themselves are not ready to proclaim a discovery and are asking other physicists to independently try to verify their findings.
"The feeling that most people have is this can't be right, this can't be real," said James Gillies, a spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, which provided the particle accelerator that sent neutrinos on their breakneck 454-mile trip underground from Geneva to Italy. (Full Article here.)

An interesting response to this news - that raises issues about new cosmologies and new theologies that might need to be explored as the result of this: HERE.

I certainly do not have "answers" to these complex realities - and I don't pretend to peddle easy responses! For sure!

And yet, I marvel at the mystery that continues to shape what we do and do not know in this utterly, seemingly-infinitely complex world.

It is truly Awe-inspiring to me.

What does it mean to re-think and re-frame Violence

2011-10-09T11:12:00.001-07:00

A great article from Duke's Faith and Leadership program on interrupting violence.

It begins in this way:

White spoke to the two men privately and then brought them together to negotiate a resolution. When discussions were at an impasse, White pointed first to the man who had dropped the cash and said, “I see you in the penitentiary.” Then he turned to the man who had picked up the money: “And I’ll be going to your funeral.”

The solemnity of White’s words, coupled with the respect he had gained as a fair, streetwise negotiator, set in. Two hours after the incident began, the $70 was returned, with no one disrespected and no one dead.

“That’s in essence what we are trying to do all the time -- make sure no one goes to the cemetery and no one goes to the penitentiary,” said Tio Hardiman, director of CeaseFire Illinois and creator of the violence interrupter component of the program.

Full article here

Link to a relevant (and connected) presentation to a group of M.D.'s here.

What is striking to me is the claims made about mimicry - which connects with Girardian Theory on mimesis, desire and rivalry that are at the heart of triangular desire and violence.

Always glad to read about persons effecting to reshape patterns of violence that break-forth in the world - and it seems that Dr. Slutkin has found new ways to label and "prescribe" patterns to help persons break the "epidemic" of violence!

We need an end to violence in our world!

Jimmy Carter, Capabilities, War and Mindfulness

2011-10-01T16:47:00.001-07:00

A few short entries on several miscellaneous books I've recently read and reviewed.

With all the stuff going on with the Palestinian bid for statehood these days, I decided I needed to get my hands on some Jimmy Carter texts - as I know he's been influential in the field. I picked up and read through - but was able to skim through much of - his two texts. His Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid text is not new - but I had not read it. It raised quite a bit of "drama" for him - and reasonably so - and I think even he would agree that his use of "apartheid" was challenging - though I think it is helpful that he labeled the problems there in this way, too. Sometimes "calling something out" helps frame the dialogue. An important text, with good ideas. More recently, Carter wrote, We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land. This text was written at the time when Obama was coming into office, with specific attention to direct conversation to what Obama could do "now" (2007) to effect change. Had the suggestions been heeded, perhaps change could have been effected. It seems, now though, the idea of a two-state-solution is null and void. A pointed review on the death of the two-state-solution and the failure of diplomacy for Israel can be read here.

Though it wasn't on my agenda, I picked up and read, What The Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President? - Jimmy Carter, America's "Malaise" and the Speech that Should have Changed the Country. Since I was not yet ten . . . barely 8, in fact, when this speech was delivered - it was not on my "radar screen" as a child. But, I have read the speech as an adult and I appreciated it. I have thought more than once about how very different so much of the world would be right now had we opted for wiser stewardship, and more fiscal accountability with respect to energy in the 1970s - as it seems to me much of our current spirit of war is motivated in ways we do not want to admit - by our dependency on foreign sources of oil. Alas. The text was a fascinating look at the situations that gave rise to President Carter's speech - and the author wove in major "movements" and movies and issues from the 1960s and 70s that set the stage for the speech. The final words of the text itself, sum up the central importance of the text - and the speech - when Mattson writes:

This book also assumes that Carter's speech still resonates to this day. Consider the speech's major insights in light of the present. We are still a nation dependent on foreign sources of oil and lacking a national energy policy that searches for alternatives. So, Carter's suggestion that America had to generate a sense of national purpose and a 'common good' to fight the energy crisis doesn't sound all that distant. We are still a nation infatuated with private self-interest, whose civic culture seems torn apart, a nation that still 'bowls alone,' as on political scientist recently described it. We are still a culture that prizes consumerism and materialism, whose pop culture seems vapid and distracting at best. Foreign wars still warn us against thinking of America's greatness in simplistic terms, as if it can be easily projected throughout the world without a blowback. So, in the end, this book ends with a question about 1979 as a turning point. Are we so certain that the turn taken was the right one? To remember Jimmy Carter's speech today allows us to ask that question with the sort of moral import it deserves.

I skim read Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life as you Want It. I don't buy into the notion that we can "vision" and "see" our future and "create" it as a possibility in the same way the authors propose, so the book was not too captivating for me. I am not a believer in "visualization" - though I do think it is important to consider possible futures and plan for possible outcomes. Not a book I woureallld recommend, but the book did offer numerous good "exercises" where persons could respond to self-reflective questions that would give them opportunity to consider their life and re-think their goals/perspectives.

I really wanted to like the book, War Is A Lie. While I liked many "glimpses" of ideas in the book, I found the book very difficult to read and discovered, after I was well into it - that the book had been self-published - and, sadly so. I think David Swanson has good ideas and important insight. His book has key research data that does inform its content in important ways - but the ideas and the logic and the history "bounces" all over the place in a way that made it difficult to discern how/why he "bounced" from one idea to another. The titles of each area are clear enough - but the content within each chapter read, to me, as a scattering of ideas - from various points in time in the history of America - and in the history of the world! I wish the 350+ text was cut in half - at least - I think a good editor would do that. Tighten the text and the ideas and - and produce a better book with the same theme. The chapters, if they were better written, have great titles! "Wars are not fought against evil." "Wars are not launched in defense." "Wars are not waged out of generosity." "War are not unavoidable." "Warriors are not heroes." "War makers do not have noble motives." "Wars are not prolonged for the good of soldiers." "Wars are not fought on battlefields." "Wars are not won, and are not ended by enlarging them." "Wars news does not come from disinterested observers." "War does not bring security and is not sustainable." "Wars are not legal." "Wars cannot be both planned and avoided." "War is over if you want it to be."

I'm piecing my way - on a causal basis, through, How to Train a Wild Elephant & Other Adventures in Mindfulness. Based on several experiences I had this summer in Thailand, I am certain my life is now having - and will have - greater fullness and meaning as I learn to be more mindful. I work too hard, sign up for too many things, get too involved, and personally self-distract in many significant ways - all to my own detriment. I'm trying to slow down more - and "take in" what life has to offer me. I think, every-single-day - about being more perceptive of my life, having and receiving better communication - and of insuring I don't have any misplaced anger in my life. And, this little text offers several practices (53 of them, in fact) for being more mindful. As I use a few of the mindful practices, I am, indeed, more attuned to the patterns of my life - and to those in my life with me. I find myself to be more attuned with people - and to people - and I find myself to be more "easy-going" - though this is very hard for me. Robyn picked up this text for me, and I'm glad she did.

And, finally, Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. The book operates more at the theoretical level -- though this is important for outlining her perspective. And, here, even for the sake of my own time, I'll cite another reviewer from Amazon.com who wrote succinctly: "In Creating Capabilities, Martha Nusbaum provides a lucid overview of her version of capabilities theory, which is a theory of justice built on the idea that a society is just if it enables individuals to achieve their potential as human beings. Capabilities theory stresses both the importance of enabling people to develop inner, personal abilities and their living in a society that permits them to use their abilities. In a sense it integrates concepts of liberty and of equality and of postive and negative liberty, concepts that are often viewed as in tension with each other. Prof. Nusbaum also comments on the similarities and differences between her view of capabilities and that of Amartya Sen. Capabilities theory is an important alternative to traditional and contemporary theories of justice, including John Rawls' theory of justice as fairness. This book makes the theory accessible to non-philosophers and could become important in discussions of what the nature of a just society and a just world should and can be in the 21st century."

"Self-Help" Books - Becoming fully actualized!

2011-09-29T17:11:00.001-07:00

I picked up two books by Suzanne Willis Zoglio. Neither were difficult reads – and in fact, both were not intended to be read “straight through” – but more as resource books for reframing one’s life. Both books are really more a collection of “wisdom sayings” – alongside stories and suggestions – for improving one’s life. Create A Life That Tickles Your Soul and Recharge in Minutes: The Quick-Lift Way to Less Stress, More Success, and Renewed Energy. Nothing complex here – but good ways to, in fact, recalibrate. The first ten suggestions in Recharge were great in themselves. Practice “Morning Intent” – Do, Defer or Delegate - Learn to really breathe - Complete One Thing – Throw One Back – Get Physical – Accept a Helping Hand – Get Rid of the Ghosts – Stop Shoulding on Yourself – Plan Tomorrow Today.

The Good Among the Great: 19 Traits of the Most Admirable, Creative and Joyous people by Donald Van de Mark. I find it humorous to read books like this – because they are really quite simple at their core. Van de Mark takes 19 traits from Maslow – based on Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs – including his view of those who are at the highest levels of self-actualization. The traits of “the good among the great” are not new ideas that Van de Mark has found, but his assembly of stories from persons he has interviewed that might have many (if not all) of the traits first identified by Maslow. A simple review of Maslow’s theory (thought it is criticized) would prove as sufficient as reading the book by Van de Mark. Autonomy, Loving, Ethical, Unaffected, Private, Detached, Experiential, Realistic, Laid back, Performance and Process oriented, Egalitarian, Jolly, Empathetic, Dutiful, Appreciative, Creative, Exuberant, Joyous, and Transcendent. But, can anyone, truly be all of these things? Certainly not at one time nor at all times. I suppose though, we should all learn to live these traits in the right moments. But discerning those correct moments takes wisdom itself.

New Year - within Judaism

2011-09-28T21:48:00.001-07:00

At the start of Rosh Hashana, I offer blessing to all persons - of any
faith - and hope for a spirited reflection about what the New Year
might entail by virtue of renewed commitments!

Blessings!

Toward eupan ~

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

The Gift of Sabbath!

2011-09-26T07:55:00.001-07:00

I'm off to an intentional retreat with good friends, faithful colleagues, and shared partners in ministry.

God has given me two gifts as the journey begins.

As we got to the airport to prepare for our departure, I realized that there were two people on the flight who, many years ago, maliciously and falsely claimed lies about me that they wanted to use as a framework for disabling and disempowering my work in ministry! Through a period of a few years, I endured some close scrutiny from those who believed the lies and were confused by the subterfuge of those who sought to cause me ill, and am thankful to report that the integrity of my total life experience triumphed over the vitriol of these persons hate.

It is so nice to be authentically who I am - and to live a life committed to the truth of God's work in the world. I have committed myself to study and service in the Kingdom of God - and seeing those who had willed to cause me harm was a reminder of the wonderful sense of extended Sabbath that God has granted to my life. This is the kind of Sabbath that has, indeed, "released the bond" - Isaiah. "Isaiah 58:6 6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?"

My life is characterized by wonderful, freeing Sabbath - from enemies of my past who I pray God's grace will transform, and who I hope God's love can reach!

God gave me a gift in seeing these people who had willed to be my enemies - by reminding me of all the deep goodness, wholeness and solitude that God has brought into my life in the face of my enemies. I thank God for the many gifts of so many things, I was reminded of in these few moments.

After our airplane landed at the airport hub for our layover - en route to our retreat - I discovered that one of the friends of my life had a conversation with the very persons who had tried to cause me harm in the past. Those persons shared with my friend that they were "sorry" that he was my friend! What a tragedy for them to view life in the midst of their continued attempts to cause harm. But, as they went their way, my friend shared this story with me. I shared with my friend how unfortunate it is that people have to live their life in the framework of hate and attempts to hurt others.

And then, God gave me the 2nd Gift. I looked down at my watch to orient myself to the time-zone in preparation for catching our next flight. My watch was showing the time - but not correctly. In fact, it seems a weakened battery caused my watch to completely reset - reading a date of "January 1st" - set to a Monday default - and a time that was completely wrong. A gift!

In some ways, the weakened battery caused just what I needed - I needed my "clock" to be reset as I head off to Sabbath. I needed to not be "on the clock" and not be concerned about the "hour" of the day - or the day of the week - but the moments of Sabbath that I get with my friends.

I've left my watch on my wrist - with its incorrect time - for the remainder of our days together.

It serves as a reminder to me now - that my "battery" needs to be "recharged.

It serves as a reminder to me now that I'm "off the clock" in these days - and I've been "reset" to the start of a new thing (like the New Year of January 1st) - and I truly receive these moments as Gifts of God in my life - right now.

The gift of a life lived with integrity. Thank you God.

The gift of my "clock" being reset - as this Sabbath experience re-orients my life.

Grateful.

I am truly, truly grateful.

Jerusalem - Extending Peace

2011-09-18T19:02:00.001-07:00

Jerusalem means, literally, "City of Peace" - I hope for extended peace in and through Israel that it might extend to the hopes of Palestine in the U.N. in these historic days ahead! So that it might be "Eretzsalem" - the Land of Peace.

Break-through Rapid Reading

2011-09-17T06:04:00.001-07:00

I borrowed a textbook from a learner yesterday - and then read the text last evening. Break-Through Rapid Reading by Peter Kump.

I realized as I read it - I have intuitively been putting the basic concepts of this book into practice for years.

I "knew" I read faster than "most" people - but know I understand more clearly how or why I read - and how other people read.

If you want to read more text more quickly - I found this to be a great text.

Who are these Nazarenes?

2011-09-08T23:18:00.001-07:00

It is not uncommon for a person to ask me, “What is a Nazarene?"

I will share a few things about who “we” Nazarenes are – that are part of a larger history, of course! These items stand out as personally important to me.

Nazarenes - connection to John Wesley and the Methodist Church:

Nazarenes are an extension of the larger movement of Methodism – that extends back to the influential work of John Wesley and the Methodist movement – including various denominational traditions that have emerged over more than 200 years! There are an estimated 75 million Methodists worldwide.

Nazarenes – who trace a particular theological lineage to John Wesley through the Methodist Church (and social-holiness-revival meetings) are a small denomination that emerged from the larger whole. There are only about 2 million Nazarenes worldwide. (For additional perspective, there are an estimated 100 million Baptists worldwide – an estimated 80 million Anglicans worldwide and an estimated 73 million Lutherans worldwide.)

Nazarenes are just a small drop in the large bucket of Christian denominations!

A few key notes about Nazarene history and distinctive practices that are important to me.

Denominational Name:

The name Nazarene derives directly from the identity of Jesus, who was from the town of Nazareth. An intentional hope of persons associated with the Church of the Nazarene, was that their ministry would follow in the footsteps of this “original” Nazarene.

Connection to Los Angeles Urban Poor:

The Church of the Nazarene traces direct roots to a movement among Christians in Los Angeles, California. In the Organizing Minutes of the church, October 30th, 1895, denominational leaders declared (in language characteristic of their historical context):

“The field of labor to which we feel especially called is in the neglected quarters of the cities and wherever else may be found waste places and souls seeking pardon and cleansing from sin. This work we aim to do through the agency of city missions, evangelistic services, house-to-house visitation, caring for the poor, comforting the dying. To this end, we strive personally to walk with God and to incite others so to do.”

Connection to Influential Civic and University Thinkers:

This church was led in its birth and through its early years primarily by Phineas F. Bresee, but connected to others, including Joseph Pomeroy Widney. (Widney was the second President of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the founding dean of the USC School of Medicine.)

Bresee and Widney had been Methodists. Both men had been active in “downtown” (a modern term) mission in L.A.. Bresee and Widneay wanted this new church they were founding to be active among the homeless in connecting homeless urban poor with Christian families.

Commitment to Education and Female Leadership:

Bresee, who would stay with the fledging denomination while Widney would return to Methodism, was himself a trustee of USC and an advocate for liberal arts education. Bresee would later become President of a Nazarene college – and it is of interest to me that the first Nazarene college was founded by lay-women – and not by male clergy - and included liberal arts work alongside a separate (but connected) Bible college.

Important Quotes on Mission to the Poor from P.F. Bresee:

The mission of Bresee was at the heart of this denomination – and, is a reason I believe in the mission of the Church of the Nazarene today. Key quotes from P.F. Bresee that motivate my connection to the Church of the Nazarene today include the following:

”Let the Church of the Nazarene be true to its commission; not great and elegant buildings; but to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and wipe away the tears of sorrowing, and gather jewels for His diadem.”

“We were convinced that houses of worship should be plain and cheap, to save from financial burdens, and that everything should say welcome to the poor…”

"We can get along without rich people, but not without preaching the gospel to the poor."

"We want pastors who will go out and find the poor that nobody else cares for."

Labor Day Privileges - Unearned

2011-09-05T11:19:00.001-07:00

I shared with learners in my courses this past week - that they will get Labor Day off - because we live in a wealthy America that gives us privileges that we have perhaps not earned. (Reflection on Unearned Privileges here and here and here and here.)

And today, I sit in a quiet, cool office with time to reflect on the privileges I possess on this Labor Day.

I am thankful for my life - and hope to extend in tangible ways the benefits I have received.

In one University course from this past week, as we got to know each other, I asked every learner to share something about themselves that is essential to knowing them. I asked, "What one thing is so important to who you are that we can not really know you and not know this about you?" I shared the following fact from my life as I shared:

If you want to know me, you need to know that I think unembodied theology is meaningless. Our cognitive ability to think about God has no purpose or function if it is not lived out in tangible ways to make the world a better place.

On this Labor Day Holiday, I am thankful for the insight of wise friends (James K.A. Smith's blog - and John Franklin Hay's blog) who cause me to remember the privilege I have, inspiring me to work for all labourers in our world today.

Home with Certificate and Graduate Transcript!

2011-08-28T12:37:00.001-07:00

Home!

With my Professional Certificate in Peace and Conflict Resolution - and my Chulalongkorn University Graduate Transcript!

Thanks again, Rotary Peace Chula for such a great summer!

2 Days to Graduation

2011-08-23T10:52:00.001-07:00

I've submitted my final papers, completed my final interviews, and been to my last few events - just 2 days of engagement and one presentation at the public seminar . . . then Graduation.

This summer I started my relationship with Rotary International, which I intend to maintain for a lifetime, as a Rotary Peace Fellow.

If there is a person who has interest in what we did – or the coursework we covered – from a personal-experiential review, I would be delighted to share with anyone – including any persons interested in making application to this program in the future. (Additionally, I am certain several of my colleagues from this summer would be willing to share their experiences, as well – and I would be delighted to connect any potential future-fellow – with my wonderful colleagues from this summer.)

At the conclusion this program through the Rotary Rotary Peace Center @ Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, in conjunction with University Curriculum, I will have earned the Certificate in Peace and Conflict Transformation.

We had more than 2 weeks of engagement in Northern Thailand and in Cambodia (each yar, though, different Peace Fellows may engage different areas in Southeast Asia). I have listed how and where we were engaged these areas separately.

I have a breakdown of our world-class instructors/trainers for our coursework – but here I am just listing the Titles of the seminars from what we did on campus at Chulalongkorn University, in four separate modules. We had assignments and requirements due with each Module. (The modules presented here are in chronological order – but the seminars are presented randomly.) Our Seminar days were 7 to 8 hours of engagement per day.

It was a very, very, very full summer. Because I am an educator, used to my summers “free” – I can state categorically, I had less free time this summer, than any other summer of my life! Full of learning and discernment.

MODULE 1: The Concepts and Values of Peace and Conflict Studies

MODULE 2: The Diagnosis and Analysis of Conflict

MODULE 3: Conflict Resolution Skills, Approaches and Strategies

MODULE 4: Conflict Transformation and Building a Sustainable Peace

One Day Seminar: “The context of conflict analysis, human security, humanitarian law”

One Day Seminar: “Overview of Conflict Analysis”

One Day Seminar: “Conflict Analysis: Dynamics and Scenarios”

One Day Seminar: “Exercise Work in Real Case Studies: Conflict Mapping”

One Day Seminar: “Conflict Analysis Practicum”

One Day Seminar: “Trends in Armed Conflict and Peace-building”

One Day Seminar: “Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution”

One Day Seminar: “Harnessing the Power of Religion for Peace-building, or Not”

One Day Seminar: “Challenges of Putting Conflict Transformation into Practice”

One Day Seminar: “The Moral Component of Peace”

One Day Seminar: “Problem Solving & Different Approaches for Intervention”

One Day Seminar: “Appreciative Inquiry & Facilitation in Conflict Situations”

One Day Seminar: “Disarmament, Demobilization & Reintegration”

One Day Seminar: “Security Sector Reform and R2P (Responsibility to Protect)”

One Day Seminar: “Terror Management Theory”

One Day Seminar: “The case of Southern Thailand”

One Day Seminar: “De-radicalization and Disengagement”

One Day Seminar: “International & Humanitarian Law”

One Day Seminar: “Theories of Nonviolence”

One Day Seminar: “Peacebuilding and Peacemaking: Lessons Learned”

One Day Seminar: “Political Conflict in Thailand: Past and Present”

One Day Seminar: “Human Religiousness: Foundations for Dialogue & Role in Peacebuilding”

One Day Seminar: “Inter & Intra Religious Dialogue”

One Day Seminar: “’Do No Harm’ in Conflict Response”

One Day Seminar: “Gender in Conflict Situations”

One Day Seminar: “History & Culture: From Ayyathura to Siam to Thailand”

One Day Seminar: “History & Culture: Colonization & Communism in Myanmar & Cambodia

One Day Seminar: “State of the Art in Conflict Resolution”

One Day Seminar: “Defining Conflict Resolution: Classic Modules and Concepts”

One Day Seminar: “Nature and Types of Conflict – Identifying Root Causes”

One Day Seminar: “Truth Commissions and Social Justice – Transitional Justice”

One Day Seminar: “Capacity Building in Peace building and Conflict Resolution”

One Day Seminar: “Evaluation of Peace Programs”

One Day Seminar: “Peace Education”

**Two Day Seminar: “Tools & Techniques for Third Party Intervention”

**Two Day Seminar: “Conflict Trauma”

**Two Day Seminar: “Post-Conflict Reconstruction”

**Two Day Seminar: “Media in Conflict Situations”

** Two Day Seminar: “Storytelling for Conflict Resolution & Peace-building”

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., please.

2011-08-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

I read from the U.S. Headlines today about the newest U.S. Monument, recognizing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In a totally unrelated issue to the Memorial – less than 24 hours ago – I had an online conversation with a learner in a course I am facilitating about Christian Doctrine.

I will post my comments to that learner here – but will say simply that I think it is emphatically important that we remember the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and not just “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

The learner wrote in my class:

“ Dr. King, Jr. was a political icon that kept religion in politics."

I replied:

Dear Learner ~

I start every class I teach on campus with a video that is about MLK Jr..

So, please know that my comment is meant to be corrective in the best sense - and not a challenge to you!

But, I disagree that "Dr. King Jr. was a political icon that kept religion in politics."

Rather, I would note, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was a pastor who corrected misaligned politics with Biblically grounded religion!

Dr. King, in all of his sermons and his public writings - was a pastor - a preacher - and a theologian who used his theological orientation - not his "political" ideas - to shape politics.

And it wasn't just "religion" - it was Biblically grounded Christian identity and Christian Theology!

Dr. King shaped politics - no doubt! Yes he did! But he did so not as a politician, but always as a theologian, pastor, and preacher.

The last time he spoke - as with most of his speeches - it was in a church, behind a pulpit.

Among other great things in that final sermon he said,

We need all of you. And you know what's beautiful to me is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It's a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones. And whenever injustice is around he tell it. Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and saith, "When God speaks who can but prophesy?" Again with Amos, "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow the preacher must say with Jesus, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me," and he's anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor.""

And:

It's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

And:

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.

And:

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I'm happy, tonight.
I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

That marks the end of my conversation with that learner - and here I end this entry with these thoughts.

I wish more memorials were built to commemorate peacemakers.

Though there was opposition and conflict in the episodes of the struggles Rev. King and many others engaged, their struggles were for a more peaceable and just system for life.

I think, as you can tell - it is profoundly important that we remember the Rev. Dr. King for who he truly was at the level of his ideas (his ideology). He was, as much as anything else, and perhaps more than anything else, a person who read from and interpreted Jewish/Christian Scripture.

And his generous and gracious discernment of important broad themes and important recurring strands of key ideas in the Jewish/Christian Scripture, as a minister, shaped his role and place in world history.

Extending Eupan - Reflection on Personal Privilege

2011-08-22T02:25:00.001-07:00

Written while on location in Phnom Penh, Cambodia:

I have spent quite a few weeks studying to be in Cambodia – being as aware as I can be of the current situations in this country – while remaining aware of the social/political factors that have shaped its history.

In particular, I have been reflecting on the issues of Genocide that characterized the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, particularly between 1975 to 1979. As part of our plans for shared time of peace and conflict resolution engagement in the land, we will be visiting the “museum” that commemorates the killing fields, as well as the “S-21” prison, now a museum. In these ways alone I have been prepared for the reality of death, gruesome genocide and terrible torture that has taken place in this land.

Our first day in Cambodia, having landed in Phnom Penh, we went straight to a tourist event – visiting the King’s home at the Grand Palace. Our guide told us his name was “Ritz,” and I thought as we walked through the Palace how this place looked like “the Ritz.”

From there, we headed out to a great buffet lunch, “all-u-can-eat” - noodles, meats, rice, potatoes, fruits. Our group ate and went off for another touring event – visiting the “Russian Market” – a series of interconnected booths with various wares for sale.

Not being much of a shopper, I stayed back at the lunch buffet.

I ordered a cold coke and placed my earbuds in my ear and powered my iPod.

As the sounds of soft piano played in my ears, I watched drips of water condense on my cold beverage, Phnom Penh was humid.

I looked across the room to the flat-screen TV and read the headlines listed in English, as the newsreporter shared.

“Libya’s Civil War”

“Somali Food Fight” leaving people dead.

“Syrian Siege” with a report of some 300 dead today.

As the chilled, carbonated, syrupy drink delighted my taste-buds, I realized I was listening to an album entitled “Escape.” Here I was – a rich, educated, privileged white-man – sitting in my isolated, Westernized, “escapist” head-phone reality – a cold coke to chill my body and quench my thirst,quiet music relaxing my spirit. And I was immediately existentially aware that in this same moment, in so many places in the world, people live now in the midst of trial, trouble, and tribulation.

I knew the S-21 prison was nearby – it is, after all, located in the heart of Phnom Penh. More than 17,000 persons, average persons who committed no crime and who had no secret allegiances – these people were stripped, shackled, incarcerated, and tortured for months – to death.

Just blocks from where I sat, only a few short decades ago – in my lifetime!

And in the same period of years, in my life, my country and my life has not experienced torture, genocide, civil war, food shortages, nor intrusions of conflict.

I wonder, “Do I live faithfully enough into the privilege I have been extended, to extend that privilege to other people?”

I will try to live my life in ways that are faithful and honest, kind and true, gracious and generous – in all ways extending peace.

Toward eupan ~

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Advocacy, Engagement and Learning in Cambodia

2011-08-22T02:21:00.001-07:00

STUDY & ENGAGEMENT: On-Site in Cambodia

One Day Seminar: “Deep Culture, Deep Structure in Cambodia – Religion & Nationality” Led by Emma Leslie - Director, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Cambodia

One Day Seminar: “Ecology, Economic and Sustainable Development: Discerning the Effect of Tonle Sap Lake.” On site in the floating villages of the Tonle Sap Lake communities, led by various boat/educational guides directed through the Osmose Ecological Project.

One Day Seminar: “Religion and Empire Building in Southeast Asia: The Significance of Angkor Wat” On site engagement at numerous religious sites in the Angkor Wat Complex of Temples. Educational engagement provided by personnel from British Research Team.

Half-Day Seminar: Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre – On-site experiential lecture and tour including the mass-graves and site of execution, and current memorial Stupor Followed by Media Presentation and Photographic exhibit and art tour at on-site museum.

Half-Day Seminar: Tuol Sleng Genocidal Museum. Of more than 14,000 persons imprisoned in Security Prison 21 “S-21), none escaped, and only 7 survived the torture they endured. Included engagement with 1 of 3 living survivors, Bou Meng.

Half-Day Seminar: “History of and Protest for Human Rights in Cambodia” At the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association ( ADHOC )Led by President Thun Saray

Half-Day Seminar: “Justice as Forgiveness through the Courts in Cambodia” At the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam ), formerly Yale University’s field office for the Cambodian Genocide program (CGP). Led by Youk Chhang, Director, DC-Cam.

Half-Day Seminar: “Establishment of the ECCC: Moving Forward through Justice” Engagement included tour of the court and chambers, at the Extraordinary Chamber in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC). Led by Lars Olsen

Half-Day Seminar: “Resolving Collective Labour Disputes.” At the Arbitration Council, Phnom PenhLed by Ann Vireak (Chief Arbitrator), Sonja Kim (Legal Advisor), & Rebecca Lee

Half-Day Seminar: “Government and the Garment Industry – Monitoring and Compliance” At the International Labor Organization (ILO). Led by Yim Pichimaliki, Head of Monitoring Team

Half-Day Seminar: “Perspectives on Labour Growth and Management in Cambodia” At the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS) office. Led by So Somalay

Half-Day Seminar: “How to assist in giving a better quality of life?” At the facilities owned and run by Make a Difference for Good in Siem Reap (MaD) Led by Phil Starling

Half-Day Seminar: “Experiences in Fishery Conflict Resolution” At the Fishery Action Coalition Team (FACT)Led by Heng Ratha including testimony and experience from 3 local representatives

Celebrating Solid Gold Spousal Support

2011-08-20T02:02:00.001-07:00

Spousal support is normally a "hated" word . . . as it means for most divorced persons, some form of payment/alimony due to an "ex."

For me, I celebrate my spousal support from Robyn!

My life’s journey has been exponentially more full and vibrant with Robyn in my life.

In six years of marriage to Robyn, I finished a dissertation I had intentionally boxed up to focus on being a parent and Dad. With Robyn in my life, though, I was able to complete the Ph.D. with shared spousal and parenting support!

And, not just that - in the same space of these 6 years, Robyn's grace and shared care in my life has given me(we) opportunity to:

Start and finish a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy
Travel with groups to Palestine/Israel/Jordan 4 times, planning a 5th trip now!
Travel to and teach in Costa Rica 3 times
Start and Finish a Professional Certificate in Leadership Education from Duke University
Travel to (and around) and teach in Europe
Develop and Direct the Eupan Global Initiative in various advocacy and awareness efforts.
Travel extensively through many U.S. States, as a family – and as a couple - including connection and advocacy/academic travel with Metanexus and the Society of Biblical Literature
Have space to think, write and travel to present lectures/papers in numerous contexts
Receive the acclaim of a NEH Grant, including status as a Visiting Faculty Member at Oxford University
Become a Carl Wilkens Fellow with advocacy work in Prevention and Protection efforts with Genocide Intervention Network
Read and Research as part of the Calvin Seminars in Christian Scholarship
Become a Rotary Peace Fellow
Manage, organize, edit, and write my first book.
And, in a few weeks, I will finish what started as an idea more than a year ago, the Professional Certificate in Peace and Conflict Resolution from Chulalongkorn University.

Robyn has given me space, freedom, shared help and resourcing in so many innumerable ways – with time, with work, with family, with just so very many things!

I wish for every person who seeks to be married – the blessings I have received from my loving, sharing, caring spouse.

I try to be a good husband - though I'm no expert at it for sure. But, as I read and reflect on my life's reading and reflections shared in this blog, I realize - "all of this" stems from the "spousal support" and love and care and grace and generosity I receive from my loving spouse!

My wife is worth more to me than all the gold in the Buddha made of solid gold! (see picture)!

And, Robyn is easier to travel with than the Gold Buddha. Plus, Robyn is lighter than that 5 ton block! - and she smiles more radiantly and exudes more beauty than the Gold Buddha, too! ;-)

Angkor Wat - A-maze-ing and Awe-Sum

2011-08-17T05:13:00.001-07:00

I spent woefully too few hours in temples (Pagoda) in and around the Angkor Wat Temple and the entire temple complex in recent days. (Outside Siem Reap, Cambodia.)

To describe the place as awe-sum is better than awesome – because the “sum” total of this place only inspired awe! And then more awe. And the extent of temples here and there - running through jungle is something of a maze - besides being amazing!

There is so much to reflect on with respect to Angkor Wat, I do not know where to begin. I am struck by how much time, effort, money and engineering went into the logic and construction of these “state”-religious structures – and meanwhile, there is not a single remain of a common person anywhere to be found. I passed many huge, monumentally sized buildings with grand walkways or roads, and water construction (moats) for these magnificent buildings that must have been – in their day – wonderful – absolutely marvelously wonderful.

Wow.

And yet, in the forests and trees around the area – even today – local Cambodians live in their tarp-bound huts around the perimeter, in houses and places of pseudo-temporary occupancy that will not last even a few decades – and the “effect” of this empire persists for millennia.

As a tourist among tourists, I realize “we” visit these places to celebrate their beauty, but I wonder if, in the process, we are still celebrating the oppressive powers of empires that enslaved the poor in their own mythic-theo-political quest to be God-Kings on earth.

Is this any different than what is narrated in Genesis 6? If the leaders would have empowered their people in their time and if they would have increased the social fabric (the social capital) of their world for the the average person, would the empire have lasted?

Had the religious identity of the empire not shifted from Hindu to Buddhist, I wonder – had the buildings been dedicated to the enlightened, empowered persons who constructed them – could the empire have lasted had they been empowered? But then, would people build such buildings to demonstrate their own strength or do people need a “god” to build for?

I’ll be reflecting on my experience at Angkor Wat for a lifetime – really.

I have no doubt about it.

I’ve only just begun reflecting on Angkor Wat.

I’ll conclude with a link to the Wikipedia pages for the great poem Ozymandias by the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The poem is well worth considering – for any empire. And, the modern and popular uses of the this poem and the importance of Shelley in other venues, are important enough that – if an educated person is reading this and does not know the poem or the poet, they should follow the links to know both!

Resources - from quakerbooks.org

2011-08-17T00:25:00.001-07:00

I have not had time to read each of these texts (most, cheap at $4.95!) - but I have gleaned from them this summer and have got them on order for personal re-engagement for my personal library.

I was impressed with their simple truths, clear principles, and thoughtful "methods" for working in the various topics they cover.

Here's a direct link - to a few more than what I have listed below: http://www.emu.edu/cjp/publications/little-books/

The Little Book Of Strategic Peacebuilding

BY LISA SCHIRCH
"Strategic Peacebuilding" recognizes the complexity and the effort this elusive ideal requires. Schirch singles out four critical actions that must be undertaken if peace is to take root at any level: 1) Waging conflict nonviolently; 2) Reducing direct violence; 3) transforming relationships; and 4) Building capacity. She never imagines this to be quick-or an individual-task. Her clear and incisive strategy encourages enabling many approaches to peace, honestly assessing who holds power, and persuading and coercing, but always with keen judgment and precise timing.

The Little Book Of Strategic Negotiation

Negotiating During Turbulent Times

BY JAYNE SEMINARE DOCHERTY
Most books on negotiation assume that the negotiators are in a stable setting but what about those far thornier times when negotiation needs to happen while other fundamental factors are in violent change, from deciding which parent will have custody of their child while a divorce is underway; bargaining between workers and management during the course of a merger or downsizing to establishing a new government as a civil war winds down.

A Little Book Of Forgiveness

Challenges And Meditations For Anyone With Something To Forgive

BY PATRICK MILLER
"When first published in 1994, this was a book whose ideas and message were ahead of its time. . . Since 1996 I have directed the Stanford Forgiveness Projects, a series of research endeavors that helped substantiate the power of forgiveness to reduce hurt, depression, anger and stress in people who hold grudges. . . In addition to this research I also have taught forgiveness to thousands of hurt and angry people. What I find fascinating is that the things I taught, researched and proved to be true, D. Patrick Miller already knew. . ." Frederic Luskin, Director of Stanford Forgiveness Projects. This is the 10th anniversary edition.

The Little Book Of Cool Tools For Hot Topics

Group Tools To Facilitate Meetings When Things Are Hot

BY RON KRAYBILL
Some subjects seem too hot for a group to discuss sanely, but this book shows how to help people hear each other when they feel like shouting; how to focus on the issues at stake rather than having a war of personalities; how to employ actual practices for better understanding (interviews, small-group discussions, role-reversal presentations); and how to move a group toward making a decision that all can honestly support. Cool Tools is rich in anecdotes and practical how-to for any group faced with tension-filled decision-making.

The Little Book Of Biblical Justice

BY CHRIS MARSHALL
This book identifies characteristic features of the Bible's teaching on justice and addresses the many complexities that surround it. It also explores the Bible's shaping effect on Western political and judicial thought.

The Little Book Of Peace

EDITED BY PATRICIA CHUI
This great little book gathers together over 400 quotes of wisdom from political and spiritual leaders. The words are thought-provoking and comforting, advocating world and inner peace alike. Contributors include Gandhi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Anne Frank, Vaclav Havel, Buddha, Joan Baez, Martin Luther King, Jr. and many, many more. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the American Friends Service Committee.

The Little Book Of Conflict Transformation

BY JOHN PAUL LEDERACH
The author prefers the word transformation to resolution. This book incluces all the key ideas and thinking in how to transform a conflict - how to end something destructive and create something desired. Lederach examines both the long and short term and avoids idealism in favor of practical detail.

The Little Book Of Restorative Justice

BY HOWARD ZEHR
A primer on the idea of restorative justice, with helpful illustrations, tables, and lists.

The Little Book Of Strategic Peacebuilding

Senator Hatfield Shaped My Life

2011-08-11T07:33:00.001-07:00

I attended Elementary and Secondary school in Oregon when Senator Mark O. Hatfield was one of Oregon’s U.S. Senators. He died this week.

I did not grow up in a politically active family and do not remember too many occasions in school or in my elementary and secondary schooling when we spoke about Senator Hatfield. But I do remember reading about him. My recollection is that during his term of office, he was greatly respected. Neither loved, nor hated, but respected for the integrity.

I wonder what U.S. policy and action – and U.S. International relations - would be like today if more Senators advocated as he did.

Hatfield was a Republican who disagreed with then Republican President Ronald Reagan. He, “used his chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee to denounce what he considered the ‘madness’ of excessive defense spending.”

Though a Navy Veteran who participated in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, he is described as “one of the Senate’s most unwavering pacifists” who “never voted for a military authorization bill.” As a “critic of extremism across the political spectrum, [he] carved a centrist path on divisive issues such as the environment.”

“If you’ve been in a war, you cannot but have your views altered,” he told the Associated Press in 1986. “The devastation, the terrible devastation, is not something one ever forgets.”

First elected to the Oregon state legislature in 1950, he was instrumental in passing measures banning racial discrimination in housing and public accommodations in his first few years in office — a decade before the government considered similar civil rights laws.

As I write this entry, only yesterday I visited the horrific memorials to the genocide of the Communist Khmer Rouge period in Cambodia, a country that was redeemed in January of 1979 by the Vietnamese. Only hours ago I ate lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in Phnom Penh (Cambodia), before going to the Documentation Center of Cambodia to be informed about how this center is documenting the problems of genocide in this land! Prior to the years of conflict with the War in Vietnam and the problems throughout Southeast Asia, in 1966, Mr. Hatfield nearly lost his seat in the U.S. Senate as he stuck to his position, “You can’t stop communism with bullets.”

Hatfield, helped pass a ban on underground nuclear tests. He campaigned for rules to prohibit the sale of arms to undemocratic countries and countries that do not respect human rights. When he left office, he expressed, “We’re [the U.S.] still the largest arms peddler in the world,” he said in 1997, “and we infect the rest of the world with our lust for weapons.”

Words to live by . . .

2011-08-03T05:41:00.001-07:00

My potential new life-statement, which I have always tried to live out:

Be faithful to my view of God & be a blessing to all other views of life.

It re-frames the ancient wisdom of the Jewish-Christian ideal (Love God/Love Neighbor) in a way that might help me - and others - view anew this ancient theistic vision for life.

For years I have thought, prayed, and blessed my children and others in the following way:

"Help me(us) to be a person who is faithful and honest, kind and true, gracious and generous, a person who reflects and embodies the life of God's Kingdom."

Those are words that cross my mind, and cross my lips, nearly every-single day.

I want to live this way - to be a peacemaker in and for the world.

Travel to Jordan, Palestine, Israel and Egypt - January 2013

2011-07-30T04:50:00.001-07:00

I am making plans to host a Holy Land Study Trip looking toward a 10-14 day travel experience – on or about January 1 to January 20 in 2013. (18 months away).

This will be my 5^th trip to Israel/Jordan/Palestine and I have spent nearly 70 days traveling in and around the region.

Each and all of the participants I have taken, always come home radically transformed to think about multiple issues from the Bible from hundreds of Biblical passages – with intentional awareness and learning about issues also including the current (and historical) politics of the land, current culture, and peacemaking issues.

If have interest in traveling with me to the Holy Land - *mark* your calendars now!

From this link you can watch numerous video clips that demonstrate what my trips are like:

http://www.youtube.com/holylandstudy

Here is a link to a FAQ page which needs to be edited – but which is generally correct (minus dates/dollars).

http://metier.blogspot.com/2010/02/travel-to-israel-jordan-and-palestine.html

I expect my trip in January 2013 will *include* either (probably) Egypt or Petra – a $500 trip supplement to what I normally include (and this will be elective). Including either Egypt or Petra – and total costs and fees for *all* issues – the trip should (by my educated guess) be slightly more than $4000.00 per person – domestic and international airlines, double-accommodation quality hotels, buses, tips, entrance fees, breakfast and dinner. (Keep in mind, the international travel consumes as much as 35%-45% of the total trip cost! – You simply cannot get there for less than $1500 – and closer to $2000.00 is becoming the norm – another reason to travel now – it won’t get cheaper in the future.)

Mark your calendars - formal details will be announced in 2012 for this 2013 travel opportunity.

A Muslim teaching about Peace from the Buddha

2011-07-28T10:03:00.001-07:00

What a privilege to spend the day with Chaiwat Satha-Anand while in Thailand.

Dr. Satha-Anand is Professor of Political Science – Thammasat University. Among other titles, his is the Chairperson of the Strategic Non-Violence Commission.

There were many reasons it was interesting to hear and learn from Dr. Satha-Anand – and I learned much from the depth of his “moral” and “peace” experience, teaching, research and life.

One of several interesting things that stood out to me about his story, though – had to do with his motivations and interests in studying peace. Dr. Satha-Anand was educated in Thailand in the 1970s when Thailand experienced its own levels of political turmoil, including the fact that Dr. Satha-Anand was a student at Thammasat University in 1976 when the October 6^th massacre took place. As Dr. Satha-Anand said, “This event shaped my life.” Dr. Satha-Anand went on to study at the University of Hawaii – gleaning from Dr. Glenn D. Paige from a course entitled “Non-Violent Political Alternatives” Dr. Satha-Anand stated, “I came to learn a little more about non-violence and wrote my dissertation on it.” He returned to Thammastat university where he now teaches. He quipped with a smile how, how later students told him that his dissertation on “Violence and Non-Violence in Politics” is published under "Military Studies." With a laugh he said, “What a surprise they’ll get when they read my dissertation!”

What stood out to me about Dr. Satha-Anand personally has to do with the fact that in his own country, in his own culture, in his own circumstances and in his own situations, he has had to discern how to use and apply the practices of peace in conflict based situations. For Dr. Satha-Anand, activism for peace need not be based on faith based convictions, but on reason – the moral ascendancy and higher value of peace!

Dr. Satha-Anand – a muslim, taught me about peace perspectives from the Buddha.

“Fighting for peace in a world blinded by violence, weapons of light are needed. These "weapons" include wisdom to unlock the complexity of causes which give rise to violence and to make sound judgments valuing life; space where voices of victims with their tremendous moral authority could be heard; courage in an unyielding search for nonviolent alternatives; and sustained capability in the hearts of common people to feel tenderness and compassion both for loved ones and humanity in general.” (From Chaiwat Satha-Anand – “9/11, 9/20 and Gandhi's Puzzle: Fighting Postmodern Terror/Modern Warfare with Peaceful Alternatives”)

Einstein's God Makes Me a Better Teacher

2011-07-28T06:28:00.001-07:00

Learning about Einstein's God has made me a better teacher.

I’ve studied the “science” and “art” of pedagogy in many places – lectures, symposia, seminars, texts and the like. One of the best places to capture something of the “mystery” (though that is too strong a word) of teaching comes from the writings and workshops/lectures of Parker Palmer and his Center for Courage and Renewal.

Earlier this week I listened to one of the most delightful interviews/podcasts. Entitled Einstein’s God – I learned, I grew, I thought, I re-listened, I paused, I looked up highlights, I clicked through links, I thought some more, I wrote, I “rewound” (an odd verb for a podcast that is not “wound” like a tape used to be!), I toke more notes, and finally, I finished the audio. (You should read all of this as effusive praise for how much I enjoyed the podcast!)

But – when it was all over – I realized something elusive about great teaching – and great learning from good learners.

Great teaching and great teachers inspire learners to want to learn more – to think more – to read more – to study more.

As I paused and replayed sections of the podcast – as I thought about its content and looked up links or connected ideas – I realized that the 50 minute interview, took me well over two hours to digest – and I was not yet through with digesting it all. I still have more hyperlinks to read and more content to glean as I think about the extended issues that have emerged from this “single” lesson.

I have long recognized that some of the people I most enjoy in life – are people who recommend good reading to me. And, this podcast helped me realize – that good teaching – perhaps the best teaching – is the kind of teaching that propels us on the extended journey of continued learning, research and reading. I “learned” as I listened to the podcast. But, it compelled me to learn more – and read more – and think more as (and after) I listened.

I hope to be the kind of teacher delivers content worth “catching” - data worth deciphering – information worth exploring.

I am going to try harder to be a teacher who inspires learners (and learning)- and links and review and new exploration – as much (and more) than I deliver old data in ever-increasing-out-dated modes of technology driven content.

Two of the many wonderful insights from this particular podcast include – this quote from Einstein,

Why do we come, sometimes spontaneously, to wonder about something? I think that wondering to one's self occurs when an experience conflicts with our fixed ways of seeing the world. I had one such experience of wondering when I was a child of four or five and my father showed me a compass. This needle behaved in such a determined way and did not fit into the usual explanation of how the world works. That is that you must touch something to move it. I still remember now, or I believe that I remember, that this experience made a deep and lasting impression on me. There must be something deeply hidden behind everything.

And, this wonderful note from Einstein on John Calvin - [which I read, in part, as an indictment on how far religious traditions may have moved from their origin(s)(ators).]

Einstein's humor and humanity were revealed in his public appearances, but also in the vast correspondence he conducted with people of all walks of life. Here's a passage of a letter he wrote to one of his early biographers, who had asked Einstein to recall the details of receiving his first honorary degree. While still a patent examiner in 1909, four years after he discovered special relativity, Einstein was honored during the 350th anniversary of the founding of the University of Geneva by the Protestant reformer John Calvin.

Quote from Einstein: “So I traveled there on the appointed day, and in the evening in the restaurant of the inn where we were staying, met some Zurich professors. I had with me only my straw hat and my everyday suit. My proposal that I stay away was categorically rejected, and the festivities turned out to be quite funny, so far as my participation was concerned. The celebration ended with the most opulent banquet that I have ever attended in all my life. So I said to a Geneva patrician who sat next to me, "Do you know what Calvin would have done if he were still here?" Then he said, "No," and asked what I thought. I said, "He would have erected a large pyre and had us all burned because of sinful gluttony." The man uttered not another word. And with this ends my recollection of that memorable celebration.’

Recent reads - June & July 2011

2011-07-23T04:08:00.001-07:00

Quick notes on several recent books read –

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers – and the sequel Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind – both by Loung Ung. A third text, When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge – A Memoir by Chanrithy Him

I was not required to read these books as part of field work that we are engaging as Peace Fellows in Southeast Asia – but I am glad I took the time to read all three. Like the film, the Killing Fields (link to Trailer), that I have watched and used in class in the past – these stories recount the experiences of the authors (and their families) as they (but not many in their families) survived the turbulent years in the late 1970s to and through the 1980s as they lived in Kampuchea/Cambodia/Angkar. I will be in Cambodia for 9 days in less than two weeks. I have no doubt that my thoughtful and attentive empathetic and emotional reflections will be piqued for the experiences I will soon have. Each story had value for my reading – though each story itself is full of tragedy, pain, and senseless death.

Lone Survivor by Ken Hodgson. A cheap AmazonKindle purchase – one that I found “fun” in several intriguing ways. Presented as a autobiographical report – that really is historical-fiction – the protagonist (Alferd Packer) explains how his quest for gold in the Colorado Rockies – coupled with a tragic winter storm – led him to cannibalize other potential gold prospectors. An interesting exploration for the “mindset” and “lifestyle” of life, but not a text I’d recommend or read again.

Accidents Waiting to Happen by Simon Wood. A cheap AmazonKindle purchase – used to kill some time on a long trip. Not a book I would recommend – as numerous scenes, including some important scenes early in the narrative are improbable (spoiler alert – after an airplane accident in the story, the FAA/NTSB report came back within days – and these reports normally take months before they are reported!)

And finally, Jane Eyre. I hadn’t read it. Now I have. When it was all over I wondered why it was a classic. So I read the Wikipedia page on it. If I would have read the Wiki Summary – it would have saved quite a bit of time reading the extended story. Alas, I was on the road and had the time.

With the final three books, though, I am reminded that good reading is better than just reading. (I am sure there are some Lit. Experts who would challenge my ideas about Jane Eyre - and while I recognize it's importance for its time - when it was written - it didn't move me now. In the history of literature, I am sure it was and is important.)

Reflecting on how Americans often don't trust Bible Scholars

2011-07-12T10:19:00.001-07:00

Recently I had a pleasant but confronting conversation with a person who had some family connection in her childhood with both Catholicism and Mormon faith and who claimed to believe in the Bible. This person knew lines from Scripture and she had an awareness of things specifically pertaining to sayings of both Jesus and Paul. She was informed but she chooses not to believe in the central claims of creedal/orthodox Christianity.

The conversation was meaningful and helpful for each as we discussed several specific issues.

It was particularly helpful for me as I continue to discern how non-believers think about Jesus and Christians and Christianity. And I hope the conversation was helpful for her as she continues to think about how her own framework for thinking about the issue of God/Theism will develop.

What was curious to me about the conversation, though – that I find curious about many conversations with people who have some history with Christianity – including persons who affirm Christian identity is this:

This mature woman had no idea I could cite to the chapter in the Bible (if not the verse) directly about the generic claims she sort of remembered. When I re-framed the larger context of some of the general statements she was “quoting” (mis-quoting really, but she was not stupid and had a sense of things) she was surprised when I opened up my Bible program on my computer to read the context of the passages she was mis-interpreting.

When I opened up my Bible program she said something like, “Wow. That’s cool. I mean . . . I guess I should have known the Bible can be on your computer . . . but, that makes sense. I hadn’t thought of that. It’s a book – it can be put on a computer. Cool.”

I have been using an integrative, complex bible software program on my computer for almost 20 years! I started reading the New Testament in its original language over 20 years ago! And I have had ability to read the Bible in English, Biblical Greek and Biblical Hebrew – and I have had (at other times in my life better) ability to read the Bible in German, French –and the Aramaic portions, in Aramaic! And I engage the Bible in some way – in significant ways most days – every-single-day-of-my-life. This person clearly is not *that* connected to the Bible – as the Bible has been on the ipad and mobile devices like the old Palm Pilots for – well, decades!

The gal with whom I was having this conversation had an operating premise – or so it seemed to me – that while I perhaps knew more about the Bible to cite it better than she . . . I sensed that she felt she had an equal and competent understanding of the Bible in order to know what or how Christians believe based on what the Bible says.

Her statements conveyed to me that she believed my knowledge and history with the Bible was not significantly enough more attuned and engaged and researched and deliberate that it should have any effect on shaping her understanding of the meaning of the Bible for Christians.

In the conversation, her tone (while gracious) and the context for engagement (while conversational) operated as if to suggest to me an attitude of, “That’s cool, Marty – what you know about the Bible is cool. But, of course, I know the Bible too. So, while I like you, I know the Bible too so I can have my own positions on what the Bible means.”

What is so odd to me about this conversation – and what it frames for issues of faith – stems from the radical, individualized, singular and arrogant sense of “private” and “personal” belief that has been enculturated within what I see as particularly and uniquely American- Protestant- Christianity (and not Catholicism nor Orthodox Christianity – in my limited experiences.)

I do not claim to *know* all that faith entails.

I am fully aware (all too fully aware) of the diverse interpretive options that emerge in a full-contextual (academically critical) reading of the Bible (in its various textual emendations/languages/nuance). And, I am fully aware of how faith traditions and denominations and creedal formations and faith communities have interpreted various issues over the centuries of Christendom. So, I am not claiming I know it all – nor am I claiming that belief and discernment of the Bible is simple and therefore someone needs me to understand it!

But . . . I do believe American-Protestant-Christians have extended the claims of important zealous Protestant-Martin-Luther in sola scriptura – to become something more like (and I don't know Latin) Solus ipse (“only onself”) or a kind of Biblical solipsism. American Protestant Christians do not believe, it seems to me that it is the Bible alone that is needed - but, they now believe "my" "sole" view of the Bible is all that is needed.

American-Protestant-Christian claims to belief, I think, are not carefully bounded by what Scripture says or how experts nuance and discern the complexity of scripture.

American-Protestant-Christians are concerned with how they (as autonomous, privatized individuals) *want* to read the Bible within their often radically uninformed, “personal” “belief” “system.” (I think of many persons who say things now like, “I am a spiritual Christian, but not a religious Christian.” Or, “I am Christian, but I don’t attend any Church, I read the Bible for myself.” Or, another conversation I had with a person who claimed to be a devout Christian who articulated some non-Biblical idea of, and I quote, “Vibrations” that shape our lives.)

I will grant that anyone can believe anything they want.

I am not opposed to this in the slightest. I have frequent contact with and important friendships with humanists, Unitarian universalists, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikh and others. I value the people I know who don’t believe – and who don’t believe as I do!

I am not afraid of people not believing.

I am not afraid of people that do not believe as I do.

I am afraid though – and find it utterly incomprehensible – how people claim to believe what the Bible means when they do not know what the Bible actually says (let alone understand the nuances of its historical, social, literary, grammatical contexts!)

When people have complex illness, they trust informed, educated health professionals – nurses and doctors to care for them.

When people are in complex forms of travel – be that automobiles or airlines – they trust engineers to safely construct the machinery and pilots, aviation control and conductors to safely guide the patterns of travel.

We don’t do our own orthodontia.

We don’t perform our own surgeries

We don’t build our own computers from the chip up!

We don’t disassemble and reassemble the entirety of our mobile devices when they fail.

We don’t construct our own refrigerators, air-conditioners, microwaves and the like!

We trust – in fact – that persons with years of experience and attentive expertise in these matters will think through these things correctly for us and create or perform tasks that inform our lives!

We trust others in so many things that are complex.

Why then, I wonder, do people who hardly read the Bible – who only occasionally hear its words in the context of a sermon – think that *they* know as much about the Bible as the persons (Theologians and Bible Scholars) who have spent their life attending to the Bible's nuance and complexity – discerning its beauty and integrity?

The bible is complex – in numerous ways.

I do not claim to *know* all there is to know about the Bible, God, Faith, and the like – but I certainly do not understand why American Protestant Christians, by in large, do not trust that I know at least some things significantly more than they know based on hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of extended engagement and expertise.

This is a curious thing to me.

Advocacy and Learning in Northern Thailand

2011-07-10T07:12:00.001-07:00

My week in Northern Thailand - included a full-schedule!

Wow!

No wonder I returned to Chulalongkorn University Campus exhausted!

Here's what we did as part of our Rotary Peace Fellows Field Study Experience:

1 Day Seminar on location in Northern Thailand @ the Baan Pang Saa Village - Briefing by former Senator Tuenjai Deetes on the topic: Ethnic minorities, citizenship and social inclusion with Thailand’s northern hill tribes

1 Day Seminar in Northern Thailand @ Mae Ai, including on-site engagement in villages hosted by the Law Clinic led by Ms. Boon Pongma, Legal Aid.

½ Day Seminar in Northern Thailand at the DEPDC: Development and Education Program for Daughters and Communities (DEPDC). TOPIC: Roles of Organization on Human Trafficking

½ Day Seminar on the role of Drug Trafficking in the world, via the Golden Triangle, hosted at the Hall of Opium, developed by the Mae Fah Luang Foundation. Chiang Rai, Thailand

1 Day Seminar on Human Trafficking – at the Operation Center on Prevention & Suppression of Human Trafficking, Mae Sai – and the Mae Sai Immigration, Office. Thailand.

1 Day Seminar on the role of Buddhist Communities in developing initiatives to care for the stateless, hosted at the Sangha Metta Project.

½ Day Seminar on the role of sex-trafficking and rescue, hosted at the New Life Center

½ Day Panel Discussion with the topic: The Suppression of Human Trafficking in Chiang Mai (Hosted by two organizations: TRAFCORD and Commander of Crime Investigation Division Police Region 5) at Chiang Mai Gate hotel.

½ Day Seminar on the role of the Arts and Theatre in educating and informing villagers about the effects of trafficking in humans. Hosted by the Gab Fai Community Theatre Project.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Gardening and The Christian Calendar

2011-07-09T07:03:00.001-07:00

If you like to Garden (or would like to begin to garden) - and if you have any interest in reflecting on the Christian Year (Liturgy, Easter, Lent) - then you will find much to ponder in this excellent podcast from "On Being." (Made me miss my garden this year - and look forward to my next gardens in the future!)

Entitled: Restoring the Senses: Gardening and Orthodox Easter

Some excerpts include:

Mr. Guroian: And think about throughout the Old Testament, from Genesis through the prophets, the creation itself is, is really depicted as a great temple in which worship is to be done. God sets the foundations. God stretches the heavens as a canopy. And we're here to make the song of creation, the liturgy of creation, and new creation manifest, visible, audible in the world.

and:

Mr. Guroian: Human beings are not simply oriented by one sense or two senses. They're, they're oriented by several senses. And so in order for the human being to be wholly engaged, all of those senses ought to be at work. One of the jobs of a Christian is to, in point of fact, hone the senses, reform the senses, make them holy. And that process can take place within a church, certainly, where everything is focused on God.

While among the Hill people in Thailand

2011-07-03T07:28:00.001-07:00

I love being among indigenous people for many reasons.

Today I watched children play - and ate home-made meals, packed in the tribal "ziploc" bag! Super!

Clips here:

Part of My Day

2011-07-02T09:28:00.001-07:00

Part of my day included more than an hour spent on this website - wow! I will be back!

http://thisiscolossal.com/

That was what I did to "chill" after I had spent a larger portion of my day studying the most recent issues of statelessness and human-trafficking - per reading provided to me - and per the following couple of links.

I'll be in Thailand - on the borders with Burman/Myanmar and Laos for the next 8 days.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012402s/The_Reith_Lectures_Securing_Freedom_2011_Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_Liberty/

http://www.johnpilger.com/videos/inside-burma-land-of-fear

We live in a complex world - I hope to do more with my life to ameliorate and lessen the suffering.

A fascinating radio interview

2011-06-29T06:09:00.001-07:00

"If science teaches me anything, it teaches me that even simple things like an atom are fairly hard to understand. And that makes me skeptical of anyone who claims to have the last word or complete understanding of any deep aspect of reality." ~ Lord Martin Rees.

A radio interview to ponder:

http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2011/cosmic-origami/

I no longer feel like a foreigner

2011-06-27T09:41:00.001-07:00

I no longer *feel* like a foreigner in Thailand.

Oh, I am one – but I don’t *feel* like one.

I do not speak the language – but in the past 19 days I have learned all I need “to survive.”

I noticed it when I was riding up the escalator from the metro (subway) system. I was looking into the faces of the persons coming down – mostly Thai – though this is a diverse city – with many persons from many places here. A few days ago when they looked at me, I “felt” like an American – like a tourist here. And while I still am an American – and still have tons and tons that I could “tour” to see – I no longer feel like this is a “foreign” land because today when they were looking at me, I "felt" like I "belong" here too - in some way. I did not feel like an outsider.

I think it’s because I know how to get around in all ways. I’ve been on busses, in taxis, ridden tuc-tucs, boats and I know how to use the skytrain (overground rail) and metro. I have been to and from the downtown – by transport and on foot. I have been up and down the river and know the timetables. I have been to several (I think all) of the city’s main parks. I know several places to exercise (when I’m not walking for miles on end) and have taken advantage of enjoying “watching” people during the day or in the evening when I have been “out and about.”

I have been to and from the airport and the main train station, more than one time – even taking an out of city excursion for a weekend alone.

I know where the “Superstores” are – several of them – and several meat/fruit/vegetable markets. I’ve seen – I think – everything that is for sale by vendors on multiple city streets.

I have been by and around the malls – but not in them except for a few brief floors – it’s just not my thing. I have eaten at several restaurants and of course driven/walked by hundreds more! And, I know more than one place to get a good-ol’-fashioned 7-11 slurpee – or an A&W Root Beer on these hot and humid summer days! I have eaten at least three "dishes" or individual items of local food each and everyday - making that perhaps a hundred new fruits, pastries, cakes, noodles, drinks or other items that I've now sampled and nearly all enjoyed.

In short, I know how to “get around” even if I don’t speak the language and – I don’t feel like a foreigner here anymore. I certainly still am foreign – and it would take years to learn the culture in invested ways.

But it sure feels nice to do what I’ve done and know what I know already.

A Quick FB Chat on Why I Believe

2011-06-26T13:11:00.001-07:00

It needs to be noted - that I am copying and posting here a 2 minute exchange I had on Facebook.

I am intentionally not editing it.

But I think it says a lot in its brevity about how I think about about belief.

A student from over a decade ago asked me was in a conversation recently with an atheist and out of that, she asked me

"I was wondering about your answer to that question: why do you believe there is a God?"

I quickly responded:

On the belief issue - this is tricky to answer in this context but I certainly believe because I was "raised" to believe and it is hard to get away from nurture. So, I have to be honest about that.
In other days (periods of my life) I have chosen to believe because of two things (1) the human body (as one example of a living thing) is just too too too too too too too complex and amazing to believe in non-theistic evolution - in my opinion. Even if you posit billions of years - the fact that from a zygote our cells divide and know to be a fingernail, over an artery, and not a heart muscle, or an inner working portion of the cones or rods in my eyes. How can that happen but from some divine plan/purpose? The complexity is astounding. And, (2) multiply (1) times every living thing and the size and scope of the universe in all its phenomenal size, scope. If the earth were a mere couple of miles (a few thousand feet) closer to the Sun - which is millions of miles (millions and millions of feet away) - we could not have life as we know it. So - the mystery and scope and size and complexity of many created things - including a complexly old universe - these things have been a key factor in my belief in the Divine.
Finally, ultimately, I choose to believe that the way in which the total tradition of Judaism - and the lifestyle(!) and life and death of Jesus - makes sense of how the Divine (God) would want us to learn to live in the world to make it on earth as it is in heaven.
So -
Nurture
Complexity - Mystery
Love-Peace
That about sums it up.
I may have to archive this - it's really a simple way for me to express why I believe that Jesus best reflects God's hopes and intentions for a world that is complex and mysterious - but beautifully nurtured.
Blessings dear friend.
You are loved.
~ marty

The Grand Palace area - Emerald Buddha - Bangkok

2011-06-19T04:58:00.001-07:00

I will let these simple three videos speak for themselves.

A wonderful day in and around "all" of the "key" (tourist) sites in Bangkok today. Much to see!

Bangkok Living - Rotary Peace Fellow - Start of Summer 2011

2011-06-12T08:07:00.001-07:00

I am not sure how often I will post this Summer - 2011 - about events going on in my life in Bangkok.

In four days already - there would be pages of "journal" or "reflection" type entries to record - and what I have had time to record I am sharing in more personal, family ways through other venues to my immediate family.

But, I did want to note that I have arrived safely in Thailand - and am excited about a comprehensive curriculum and "in-the-field" program of study in Cambodia, and on the Thai border with Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Laos in the next several weeks.

The pictures should be obvious from what I stand in front of - One clearly has me at the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University and the other was a Welcome Ceremony at the The Rotary Centre in Thailand with my area host counselor, PP.Sanit Sakseree. An additional picture of the 17 total recipients of this fellowship-scholarship opportunity with our Thai Rotary Host Counselors.

It's late Sunday night for me, June 12th, (exactly 12 time zones ahead of my family in Oklahoma) - and I'm up reading a text entitled: Contemporary Conflict Resolution: The Prevention, Management and Transformation of Deadly Conflicts - in preparation for course discussion this week. My accommodations are very much "Graduate School Style Dormitory" on the campus of CU - - but comfortable, clean, and graciously hosted by many Thai persons - kitchen style sink, plenty of hot water in a personal bathroom, air-conditioned (very humid here!) with good internet. All is well.

I am delighted to be the recipient of this fellowship through Rotary International and am anxious to see the doors that will be opened for me for extended work in peacemaking and fellowship and extending "the good for the all" through the Eupan Global Initiative into the future.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Very Happy - with review of my book!

2011-05-24T08:53:00.001-07:00

Delighted with Ben C. Ollenburger's review of my book!

Thanks!

"In this bracing study of the Deuteronomistic History, Marty A. Michelson combines a careful literary reading of key texts with Rene Girard's theory of mimetic violence, sacrifice, and the scapegoat mechanism to offer a fresh explanation of the emergence of kingship in Israel. Michelson's innovative study not only unsettles common historical assumptions but challenges readers to think in new ways, including positive ways, about violence and kingship, and the relation between the two. Girardian theory is here put to constructive historical use."
-Ben C. Ollenburger
Professor of Biblical Theology
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary

More here: Reconciling Violence and Kingship

My first book is published

2011-05-18T20:11:00.001-07:00

The publisher called me yesterday to confirm my address in order to send me "my" copies.

The publisher just uploaded the content to Amazon (however that is done) today - and the Book Image/Art is not yet up - so I'll be excited to see what they've chosen when that is complete! It's about the formation of the monarchy in ancient Israel - Reconciling Violence and Kingship in Judges and 1 Samuel.

Super excited.

One major milestone completed for my life - many more yet in store!

My library and the Library of Congress

2011-05-09T02:35:00.001-07:00

A colleague shared with me the website and program Library Thing - a couple of years ago.

Slowly but surely I began to catalogue my library into their system - which is "my" library hosted on their site. (In hindsight - I wish I would have paid for the scanner - but that would have required me to keep dust-jackets in many cases - which I rarely keep.)

About two months ago - the same colleague hired a University student to help him label and organize his physical library - and - once those two worked out all the glitches on printing labels, and so forth - I hired the same student to help me.

Several weeks ago - that student and I - and my children (who I used as conscripted forced labourers) - labeled and reorganized my entire library.

The average person walking into my office this week - would probably not notice anything different from several weeks ago - basically the same stuff on the shelves - just shuffled. But, I *know* the difference - and know that I can more quickly access, use, and loan my library out now. And that makes me *feel* so much better about my work space! And, a clean and clear work-space is a productive space!

(As an additional bonus - the reorganization helped me "toss" or donate many items that had someone managed to "land" on shelves - and additional advantage!)

This is yet another reason I haven't been reading much - but I have not been idle either!

Torah Scrolls and Holocaust Memorial - Yom Ha Shoah

2011-05-07T20:15:00.001-07:00

I spent part of my day as an intermediary - connecting saved Torah Scrolls from Nazi Holocaust destruction - with the Jewish Federation Yom HaShoah event next weekend!

I have been connected to the Jewish Federation for at least a decade in various ways here in Oklahoma City - and in the past numerous months have developed a relationship working in academic ways - and in collegial and networking-connected ways - with both the Green Scholars - and the coming exhibits that highlights the collection of Bible material in the Green Family collection.

Exciting opportunities.

Appliances and Yard Work

2011-05-07T17:07:00.001-07:00

This site originated as a place where I track my reading. But, over the last couple of years I have cited a few other things.

I haven't had time to do much reading of late - too busy with too many papers to grade from too many assignments I've assigned! Phew!

Today was a crazy day. I moved 9 separate dryers and 1 washer - back and forth between 6 different properties. Boy I'm glad that I own a pick-up truck, a trailer, and a good appliance dolly! Oh, and glad I own properties and garages to get stuff moved around in.

A few weeks ago I hired a friend to help me sort and organize all my tools! My tools are organized better now than they have been in - well, forever. Never have my tools been so clearly organized, labeled, stored and picked up. Very, very nice.

I like scholarship - my life in books and thinking - preaching and communicating - but I like working too.

I've said to my wife many times - if I weren't a scholar - and if I couldn't live in Oregon - the next best thing would be to be a groundskeeper at a gorgeous golf course. (Preferably in the Northwest - or West Coast - but I could go to pretty places East of here.) I love mowing. Silly. But true. I love mowing grass!

Wendell Berry - on Violence.

2011-05-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

Wendell Berry reflects on the violence of killing others as a perpetuated acceptable human value.

This is one of Berry's "Sabbaths" poems from his collection, Leavings.

They gather like an ancestry
in the centuries behind us:
the killed by violence, the dead
in war, the "acceptable losses" --
killed by custom in self-defense,
by way of correction, in revenge,
for love of God, for the glory
of the world, for peace; killed
for pride, lust, envy, anger,
covetousness, gluttony, sloth,
and fun. The strewn carcasses
cease to feed even the flies,
the stench passes from them,
the earth folds in the bones
like salt in a batter.

And we have learned
nothing. "Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you"--
it goes on regardless, reasonably
the always uncompleted
symmetry of just reprisal,
the angry word, the boast
of superior righteousness,
hate in Christ's name,
scorn for the dead, lies
for the honor of the nation,
centuries bloodied and dismembered
for ideas, for ideals,
for the love of God!

Thanks to John Hay Jr. for sharing.

A few quick notes

2011-05-01T22:37:00.001-07:00

The past month has been full on many fronts - decidedly wonderful to be with my family in several ways.

I have picked up some additional responsibilities at my home church - currently between pastors - and that has occupied much of my time, but I enjoy being involved in pastoral ministry and still tell my wife that I really do think I would enjoy the patterns of life associated with a small church somewhere in the northwest - preferably on the Oregon coast. I keep telling the representatives for the Church of the Nazarene in Oregon to keep me on their lists. Someday the timing might be right. I think about Oregon - and the coast - perhaps every single day - at least 5 days a week, that is for sure. Having opportunity to preach in a series of weeks - has been delightful - so that sermons and content and the reading of Biblical books can be connected. I post some of my public preaching / teaching at this link - http://mysermons.posterous.com/

Had opportunity to get to the TallGrass Prairie Reserve in the center of Kansas. Amazing to study (as I did more in the past) how much American Westward Expansion has diminished this huge natural ecosystem down to nearly nothing. I am not against what we have done - necessarily - as much of what we have done includes making the vast prairie of old into the "breadbasket" that keeps America and persons in the world - alive through agricultural harvest. At the same time, I wish we were more frequently more thoughtful about how we use land - and how we allow for natural ecosystems to survive as we humans live in sync with the complexities and diversities of Creation. The same days I was able to be among in the wild, I got in on some of the meetings of the International Symposium of Agroterrorism. Not my bailiwick, but interesting for sure.

I had opportunity to read through Bill Bryson's most recent book, Home . Not my favorite of Bryson's - mainly because the book did not seem to do what it claimed it would do. Instead of being about the Home, it was much more like his other book, A Short History of Nearly Everything - where he follows a series of connected ideas on a wide berth of subjects. I enjoyed *much* of what I gleaned and learned in HOME - but it was not what I had expected it to be - and not Bryson's characteristic charm.

I caught up on a couple of National Geographic magazines.

And, I've been grading a lot - it's the end of the semester, after all.

I leave soon for Thailand - will spend some time with family before departing.

Blessed life I live. Blessed.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Film and Faith - Hildegard von Bingen

2011-04-09T16:19:00.001-07:00

Had the opportunity to watch VISION with my wife and friends this weekend. Review of the film here:

Hildegard von Bingen was truly a woman ahead of her time. A visionary in every sense of the word, this famed 12th-century Benedictine nun was a Christian mystic, composer, philosopher, playwright, poet, naturalist, scientist, physician, herbalist and ecological activist. New German Cinema auteur Margarethe von Trotta reunites with star Barbara Sukowa to bring the story von Bingen to life. Sukowa portrays von Bingen’s fierce determination to expand the responsibilities of women within the order, even as she fends off outrage from some in the Church over the visions she claims to receive from God. Lushly shot in the original medieval cloisters of the fairytale-like German countryside, Vision is a profoundly inspirational portrait of a woman who has emerged from the shadows of history as a forward-thinking and iconoclastic pioneer of faith, change and enlightenment. In German with English subtitles.

It was great to watch the movie with friends so that we could talk about the content of the film after it was over.

In truth, I thought the film was too long (111 minutes) - and while some of the views/scenes were great - some transitions for sequencing between large blocks of time were awkward.

Most importantly, though, for myself and for those with me - we had opportunity to talk about how and where (in history) important persons of faith have shaped communities of faith. We were able to talk about what it means to lead to and for communities of faith.

The movie created a great opportunity to share with others about challenges and opportunities for working to and for people of faith.

Always happy for students I have worked with to progress!

2011-04-04T19:03:00.001-07:00

I have been blessed to mentor many great students - and to share extended relationship with many! Happy for many who go on to do great things!

http://snu.edu/snu-senior-theology-student-accepted-into-duke-divinity-school

SNU Senior Theology Student Accepted into Duke Divinity School

BETHANY, Okla. (April 4, 2011) - Southern Nazarene University Senior Theology major Josiah Daniels has been accepted to the Master of Divinity program at Duke Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, NC. After completing the three-year M.Div. program Daniels plans to apply to doctoral programs in pursuit of his goal of earning a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies. Daniels wants to become a professor of Bible.

During his years at SNU Daniels has served as a ministerial intern at Tulakes Church of the Nazarene, and at Reaching Our City, two Nazarene outreach centers that provide ministries to serve disadvantaged populations in the Oklahoma City metro area. He also is a member of the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, which helps prepare first-generation college students to succeed in graduate school. As part of this program he completed a research project under the direction of Dr. Marty Michelson entitled, “Jubilee Made Evident in Luke 4:18-20: A Biblical, Historical and Social Look” which he presented at several undergraduate research conferences around the country.

On his reason for pursuing graduate school Daniels says, “I have a particular interest in Christian work with the poor in a pastoral setting. I also hope to be able to teach theology and significantly contribute to the work of Biblical Studies and Christian Theology. While I have a strong commitment to academia, I believe that the world of academia must be fused with the life of the local church.”

Duke Divinity School is consistently ranked among the top five graduate programs in theology in the nation and is home to some of the most prominent writers and thinkers in the areas of biblical studies and Wesleyan theology.

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And, delighted to know of four other great students I remain friends with - who have finished other work at DUKE in the past decade! Delightful!