DUMB, DUMBER, DUMBERER

I think whatever smarts I once had have leaked out of my brains.

I’ve just returned from the annual meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature. That’s a professional society for Biblical scholars, most of whom teach at colleges and seminaries. I am one of the few average parish pastors who go to these meetings. They are big time. Thousands of people attend.

On each of four days there are three blocks of time 2½ hours long during which 40 to 50 different group meetings are held on various topics. On the fifth day there is only one time block in the morning. So there are something like 500 different sessions over the course of the meeting. A session might present book reviews or have papers read and discussed.  In addition most of the major publishers in the field have book exhibits with discounts of 20% to 50%.

So what did I attend? Sessions on Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism, The Didache in Context (two sessions), Development of Early Trinitarian Theology, Redescribing Early Christianity, Jewish Christianity/Christian Judaism, Bible and Visual Arts, Cross, Resurrection, and Diversity in Earliest Christianity. I also stayed for a viewing of the film Son of Man done in South Africa and attended a couple of receptions.

My problem with all of this. Many of the presenters have such an enormous gasp of their field that I have trouble following their papers. For every topic there is a vast body of literature that has to be mastered. I just can’t keep up with everything–all the books, monographs, periodicals, and papers. I am a lot slower grasping things than I was, say 20 years ago when I was doing research.

Maybe the biggest problem is that I have no one to discuss these subjects with. I go to these meetings in order to be exposed to what’s going on in the scholarly fields, but when I return home, I don’t have a scholarly community to share with.  Although most mainline clergy are very smart and well-educated, much of our interest has to be focused on the pastoral needs of our congregations. There isn’t a lot of time for abstract discussion of, say, whether the author of the Didache, was aware of the institution narratives for the Eucharist. In fact I can think of some clergy I have known who would shout, “Who cares?” if anyone tried to talk about these things.

There has been some fuss in the Society or Biblical Literature about whether the Society is allowing too many “faith-based” approaches to be involved rather than confining the Society to purely objective approaches. I detected elements of this in the Redescribing Early Christianity group. The intention of that group is to describe Early Christianity in objective terms rather than theologically. The feeling is that much of the reconstruction of Early Christianity has been done with a view to theological concerns while ignoring sociological forces involved. However, it was clear to me that the group was anything but objective. One of the elements of religion is religious experience. Many people were concerned about consideration of anything smacking of the supernatural such as visions. But that is part of the phenomena of Christianity whether they like it or not. It reminds me of the approach of Rudolf Bultmann to “demythologize” Christianity which to mind resulted in something other than Christianity.

In any case, I felt like a whole lot of stuff was flying over my head. Then again I did observe one professorial-looking person at the counter where they distributed free tote bags. He was shuffling through the four coupons sent with his registration material trying to figure out what he was supposed to give to the nice lady at the counter to get his free tote bag. This was pretty simple: it was the coupon that said “exchange this ticket for your free tote bag.” That one I got right the first time. Maybe there is hope for me yet.

As we approach the beginning of Advent on Sunday, November 28, may the Lord who came and is to come bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne



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ANOTHER POLITICAL RANT

The elections are long over, and the people are beginning to see what sort of crop will come from the seed that has been soon. I can see at least one weed for working people here in Florida. The incoming State Senate President recently remarked in regard to the former state senate: "The overall body was moderate. It was very sympathetic to unions.” Sympathy to unions is thought of as a bad thing. This is the sort of thing that makes me wonder why working people support these reactionary politicians who actually work against their best interests. Unions have been the protectors of working people. Without unions there wouldn’t be five-day work weeks, overtime, and other basic protections for working people.

Now my thinking on the subject is biased. Although I have never belonged to a union, my Father was a union man, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; my father’s father was a union man, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America; and my mother’s father was a union man, Flat Janitor’s Union.

I am convinced that unions have provided the balance that makes capitalism work. I have seen what happens to employees in some non-union settings: they are treated like dirt. They are regarded as mere commodities, expenses to be controlled. If business had seen their employees as the valuable resource which allows the company to make money instead of a necessary evil, unions might never have been needed.

And it was American Labor Unions that stood up to the attempts of Marxists to subvert labor into supporting the communist movement. Unions have supported this country against its enemies.

Unions are not faultless. They were (and still are) slow to realize that the management they had to deal with had no stake in the survival of their companies. With the golden-parachute deals, CEOs could bailout of a company and still be ahead of the game. So what if a business lost money during a strike, the management wasn’t going to lose out.

The power of labor has diminished as manufacturing jobs have disappeared in the U.S. They really needed to see how the job market was changing and to encourage members to train for the new, technological fields that have emerged. That’s not a traditional function of unions, but it would have helped their members and perhaps opened new areas for organized labor.

Nevertheless, unions greatly improved the life of working people. I am, therefore, suspect of politicians who make anti-union comments. What have they got against working people banding together for better conditions and compensation? And why do working people vote against their own best interests.

I’ll probably lose some friends or get nasty comments about this blog, but dog-gone-it, it’s time for the decent people who do most of the working and paying to get a fair shake. They aren’t going to get it from politicians who try to undermine the ordinary working person.

Wayne


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JELL-O AGAIN

I bought a set of dvds of the old Jack Benny television series. (For those who know me, yes I actually spent money. I know I usually expect to get change back when I spend a nickle, but these were 4 dvds for less that $7.00. Jack would have been proud of me.) The ones from the early 1950s are fascinating because it is obvious the technicians and performers were still working out how to do television. It was a cross between radio and theater. The pace was slow, the middle commercial was actually worked into the skit, and even Benny himself, who became a master of the medium, was occasionally bewildered. In one show he came out with a small piece of paper in his hand that he occasionally checked as if reminding himself what came next. At the end of one show he came out from behind the curtain, put on his glasses, and checked his watch trying to determine how much time he had. He was startled when the orchestra began playing. “Is that it?” he asked. “Are we out of time?”

Benny had a 15 year run on television. On the one hand, at 71 he had tired of the grind of doing a weekly show. On the other, the networks (CBS in 1964 and NBC in 1965) felt the show didn’t appeal to younger audiences anymore. Benny was squashed in the ratings by Gomer Pyle: USMC.

Jack Benny died while I was in my first year at seminary. I remember how one of my roommates, Wayne Walther, offered a prayer for Jack Benny “who taught us to laugh.” I wish I had thought to do that. For a number of years the Cultural Center in Chicago (the old Public Library) had a reproduction of Jack Benny’s famous vault. It was gone the last time I went there. 

The Lutheran Magazine had Jack’s picture on it cover a couple of months back. Someone had to complain about using a image from a past generation which contemporary people won’t recognize. Well, they should.  There are lessons to be learned from this great comedian. Jack Benny was never vulgar. There was no cursing or degrading language on his shows. He let himself be the object of jokes. He introduced an African-American character Rochester, played by Eddie Anderson, who was not stereotyped. He might have been a servant in the fictional Benny home, but he was treated as an equal often one-up on Benny.

I miss Jack and his style of humor. None of us who refuse to move beyond out 39th birthday will forget him.

May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.





I can’t resist plugging myself. A Pilgrim’s Place has been listed in “The Top 50 Lutheran Blogs.”    Of course this is a shameless attempt to increase traffic to a site about which I know nothing either positive or negative, but I’ll take any reinforcement I can get.



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