What the heck is a Meme you ask? I had no idea either when the great and powerful blogger Adam Walker Cleaveland tagged me to participate in one. So, I checked out the PresbyMeme post that Bruce Reyes-Chow started. He says that a Meme is essentially a chain letter for bloggers, without the threat of terrible things happening if you don’t continue it. So here’s to my first Meme. The rules for this one are:
- In about 25 words each, answer the following five questions;
- Tag five Presbyterian bloggers and send them a note to let them know they were tagged;
- Be sure to link or send a trackback to this post
1. What is your earliest memory of being distinctly Presbyterian?
Energizers, baby. When I was in late middle school, my family moved from a Methodist church to a Presbyterian one, and I can remember people at church being very proud of their energizers. A couple of friends would come back from the Montreat youth conference or maybe Camp Grier and tell me all about them. Eventually, I did get to experience them for myself, and all I can say is that they do kind of capture the essence of many nerdy Presbyterians, who want to try to get their bodies moving, but who will only do so in a very calculated, choreographed way. When you think about it, energizers are dances done decently and in order.
2. On what issue/question should the PC(USA) spend LESS energy and time?
I have no idea. Issues are issues because they’re important to someone. I think the national church has to prioritize which issues are truly national church issues and which issues may be local to regional church issues. In today’s society, what does it mean to be a denomination? I think the PCUSA should spend less time being the national rule-maker and more time galvanizing all its people for their unique vocations in the world. George Hunsinger quoting Barth says, “In large things and in small, one and the same God speaks and acts “differently yesterday, differently today, and differently tomorrow…. He is always infinitely diverse in his communion with each individual angel, thing, human being, or believer, as compared with all the rest.” The church should spend less time figuring out how to make everybody fit into its categories and more time celebrating the fact that God, who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, speaks and acts differently in all times and places, so that we might all be brought into community.
3. On what issue/question should the PC(USA) spend MORE energy and time?
Public witness. Presbyterians have a long history of stepping out and making public confessions of faith and comments into political and social life. I understand that the denomination will continue to be stuck in muck if it tries to come up with a denominational “stance” on every issue in American and global public life. But, the church should spend more time teaching one another about the denomination’s rich history in public life, and equipping one another to make public statements of faith about both the “sacred and the profane”. Ongoing war, increasing class disparity, and a housing crisis, among many other things, are too pressing for us to live in ignorance or in fear of what might happen if we do say something.
4. If you could have the PC(USA) focus on one passage of scripture for an entire year, what would it be?
I don’t think focusing on a passage of scripture for an entire year is a useful exercise. I think there is a widespread biblical illiteracy among people in churches, which deprives people of both the joy of scripture and the insights it has for our living out our faith. Engaging the whole canon (and things outside the canon) is the only way to really get at some of the hard issues our church seems to be stuck in. If I could press the question further, I think it would be awfully helpful for the church to focus on hearing the contemporary stories of faith of our brothers and sisters in the church – and the stories of people’s joys and struggles outside the church.
5. If the PC(USA) were an animal what would it be and why?
Probably a peacock, because it likes to show off its tail feathers. (I have no idea what that means – I just know I’ve gone over the word limit on every other question so I’m going to pass the baton now).
I’m going to tag Erin, Carmen, Jessie, Rebecca, and Wes.
