Tuesday, September 23, 2003
passing through
yesterday we went to brussels (or bruxelles or brussel), where we went to the doctor to check on the baby for the first time in belgium. everything was ok with the baby, and it was actually kind of interesting to see how hospitals work in a different country from the one we know best.
two other things i noticed:
- it was nice to see people our own age and no college students. the university town where we live is only 35 or so years old, so there are very few people here who are not students. it is like a ghost town on the weekends, and during the week, it is reminiscent of the south park episode in which south park is inhabited only by children, because the kids had all their parents sent away by accusing them of molestering [sic] them.
- we passed through three or four language zones on our way to the hospital and back. we live in a french-speaking zone, we passed through a flemish-speaking zone, then brussels is technically bilingual, and the hospital is in a french-speaking area. of course, when you're on a bus, it doesn't matter what the language is outside the bus. however, the kind of freaky thing is that the roadsigns and city names change according to the language zone (e.g., liege becomes luik, mons becomes bergen, etc.)
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Currency, Pt. 4
In fact, it's not just because of J's complaint regarding D's mishandling of her daughter that all of this has arisen. There are some fundamental differences about what direction this church should be pointing. Several of us recognize how important the university is to Iowa Cityhow can anyone not when she realizes that the city population doubles every August when classes begin?, and they argue that the university should be at or near the top of this church's list of priorities. But like all American frontier religions, the Churches of Christ has an unhealthy mistrust of intellectuals, and in spite of all that graduate students give to this church, the mistrust continues here.
J's exasperation at D about taking care of those in the church thus exemplifies that anti-intellectualism: so the argument goes, it doesn't take a rocket scientist, or in D's case, an M.Div., to fulfill the five-finger needs of the flock, regardless of whether 90% of that flock has already heard, believed, confessed, repented, and been baptized. Every proposal suggested by the dissenters has been in service of this mistrust: We Care Ministries thrives by business-card evangelism, sending its believers into the mission field to ask a series of yes/no questions, conveniently squeezed onto a business card, in hopes of converting a wayward sectarian from his sect to ours; or, having a revival will recharge our spiritual batteries more than the symposiums I proposed to invite former members who are important scholars in the Churches of Christ as well as in the history of American Christianity to speak to us and our community. The mess focuses upon a fundamental incongruity of vision not only about what this church should be, but also about what it even is. And the reason the incongruity has remained so great for so long is because we haven't the leadership to hold our hands and push and pull us across the fissure.
* * *So Lindy has called the meeting for tomorrow, as he told D, to discuss these visions of the church. Strangely, I have not been invited although I asked, so it seems my name may be pushed and pulled, but I will not be there to rescue it. D suggested that it was because Lindy didn't want to make it seem as though he had stacked the deck against Sharon, and if that's the case, I respect Lindy's decision. I believe wholeheartedly that it was right to ask him to lead. I pray that he will rise to it, address these wounds, and begin to heal them.
Yet I am worried. If the meeting does not address the real disagreements, if it does not lay all the accusations in the open, if it does not call the backstabbing what it is, then nothing will happen. The malcontents may be quiet a while, but they will arise again with more support. Leadership, in this case, must be able to judge and to censure all those involved according to the need. D, because he is a gentle soul, is willing to follow Lindy's lead even if Lindy decides to be conciliatory throughout. For that worry, I wish I were there, so I might prod everyone to say what is needed beyond what is wanted. And perhaps, for that reason, it's best that I stay away. D and L will be coming here afterwards to debrief, and for now, I suppose that is enough.
Currency, Pt. 3
It has been a quiet two weeks since I spoke with Lindy. When I arrived at his door that Wednesday morning, he was still in his bathrobe, preparing his toilet for the day. During that conversation I recommended that he convene a meeting between the factions. It had to be Lindy to call the meeting, I reasoned, because, more than anyone, in spite of his own desire to retire from the responsibility, he represents the leadership of this church. Indeed, I've since realized, leadership is what this entire mess is about.
My own relationship to the complaints voiced against D is a complicated one: on the one hand, I am at the center of it because I am a teacher and because I am D's friend. The story-of-the-week, indeed, has been that D, L, and I are plotting to take over the church. Perhaps there are reasons that's what is being said: he's the minister, she's his fiancée, and the three of us are the only people who have volunteered to teach an adult class for more than a year. Moreover, my teaching has been controversial. Most recently I twice taught an adult class about Social Justice. It was an ambitious, flawed class, egalitarian in its brilliant and its miserable moments. In its ambitiousness it was a Bible class that tried to be comprehensive in its scope, addressing the Bible, explaining ourselves as readers of it, and understanding our world freshly in light of it. So we tackled, and we tackled seriously, issues ranging from economic to gender justice. In all the Bible classes in which I've ever been involved, whether as a student or as a teacher, no one has insisted as I insisted that we Christians have a responsibility to live within the world, understand it, and change itas justice demands. In its flaws, the class too often fell into political and doctrinal bickering, and most of the time I was not adroit enough to rescue it from such quicksand.
On the other hand, I am also on the controversy's periphery. Although I have been accused of leading the church astray, it has been by people who smile at my face and hug my neck on Sunday, and, more importantly, by people who never set foot in my class nor asked me to describe it. Indeed I only learned that I have critics when my critics attacked my friends. How can anyone respond to accusers who will not accuse?
Currency, Pt. 2
The story of L's accusation came later, well after D publicly confessed his regret for having let down J, and through J, S, and immediately after a note was put in the bulletin this past Sunday that S was seeking pardon from Governor Vilsack. At lunch at HyVee with Lindy and Carol, Jim and Sharon, and D and L, someone asked, "Well, what did S do?" L replied, "I don't know the whole story, but according to Brittany"who is J's youngest daughter and her staunchest supporterand L told the story of S's wrong-place, wrong-crowd arrest. It seemed fine, until J called this afternoon. "Why did you accuse my daughter of being untrustworthy?"
"I didn't!" L replied.
"Well, Sharon said you did," rejoined J, and then told that neither she nor Brittany would return to this church.
And so it comes back to Sharon. L, D said, went to her to find out why she had lied to J about what she had said, and they talked for two hours, and they talked about many things. "If you want so much to evangelize," L asked, "why do you never bring anyone to church with you?" And Sharon replied, "Because D and Greg aren't teaching the truth. I worry about Jim (her husband) because after church I have to come home and explain to him what is the truth. I don't know how much longer we can stay in this church."
Unfortunately, this isn't unexpected. These malcontentments have been brewing for some time, even since D was hired two years ago when Kem Ferguson left and Michelle Stotz last stayed the summer in Iowa City and Sharon covered both of them with her skirts. It's possible that Kem's return to town has spurred Sharon to a frenzy, but it's certain that Sharon has decided she has the support in J, and, she says, in Sarah, and in "others," to show her discontent again.
But here's where it puts the church: while healing, setting new roots, and growing, there are with groundhogs digging into the earth beneath them. And D's upset. It has become dirty enough to turn to lies about L. He's facedand we're faced, with a moment of decision: do we let the groundhogs continue to dig and perhaps unbury the new roots, or do we catch them where they are and deposit them elsewhere? And certainly it's not a difficult decision to make.
So tomorrow I speak to Lindy. What semblance of leadership there is in the church apart from D must confront Sharon in order to assert any sort of Biblical authority (such as that from Matthew 18.15) over the matter. There must be a public airing of grievance. D thinks that it's probably best for the church if Sharon leaves, and I agree, if only because she has never shown herself above-board: after all, any sense that I am thought a false teacher has only come to me third-hand until L brought it to me second-hand, which is especially surprising since the one who accuses me has never been to a class I teach.
I pray that this will be resolved without bloodshed, but I fear that such is an impossible thing for which to hope. My God, how grateful I am that you make possible the impossible.
Currency, Pt. 1 (Repost)
(I substituted initials for names before, but from here out I'm just deleting the last names. If someone from Kirk/Wood stumbles upon it, well, greetings, and welcome to
Hermits Rock! By the way, Jeremy, L lived in a suite with your sister at our mother-school.)
This evening D called to tell me that we are both accused of being false teachers at our church. We are accused by Sharon "and others," women, it seems, who are concerned about the direction of the church and the truth of its teachings. And so the rains that avoided Iowa City all summer come.
"I showed up at L's tonight to cook dinner," he said, "and she was late. I waited, but she didn't get home 'til seven o'clock. Reasoning that she had got held up at work, I didn't think much of it. Then, after supper she told me that she got a call from J who immediately accused L of calling her daughter untrustworthy."
There has been a lot of discontent over D lately. J's oldest daughter, S, is in prisonso the story goesbecause she was in the wrong place with the wrong people when they decided to kidnap someone. At the beginning of the summer J informed D that her daughter wanted baptism, and she asked D to contact her. Because her prison is 90 miles west of here, D thought it best if he asked the churches in Des Moines to help; in the meantime, he got engaged, went on some summer traveling, and in the midst of it all, forgot the urgency of J's request. By August, J was livid about what she understood to be his negligence, something to he admitted but also begged forgiveness for the sake of his preoccupation.
But we learned of J's anger not when she confronted him directly; rather, it happened surprisingly, in the midst of the August business meeting, when D and L were reporting their experience at the National Conference of Campus Ministers. Establishing a campus ministry, or at least, a service to the students in this town, they argued, should be a primary goal of this congregation, and they revealed that the people at that conference were absolutely gung-ho about helping us get started. At that suggestion, J's top blew, and with it went Sharon's, who argued, as she's argued for years, that the only way this church can grow is to host a "We Care" campaign. J agreed and further said, "How can we hope to take care of a bunch of students if we can't even take care of the people already at this church?"
Monday, September 15, 2003
hermit greg so sorry
i've not had my computer online to write much for hermits lately.
WAH!!!!
Saturday, September 13, 2003
teaching statement
yes...that time has come. though i will only have a draft of one chapter by the end of september, i am putting myself up for sell to the highest bidder. i am selling my wares on any street corner i can. i am offering myself to any deparment passing by who has a penchant for a master-of-none. so i am writing teaching statements. here is a draft of one:
…in all our knowledge of ourselves and in all knowledge of the world,
we are always already encompassed by the language that is our own.
We grow up, and we become acquainted with [humans] and in the last
analysis with ourselves when we learn to speak. Learning to speak
does not mean learning to use a preexistent tool for designating a world
already somehow familiar to us; it means acquiring a familiarity
and acquaintance with the world itself and how it confronts us.
Hans-Georg Gadamer, “Man and Lanuguage”
Language is an encounter with the world in which one lives and moves. Good classes are dialogues that combine conversation and confrontation in fruitful, though always unexpected, ways.
These creedal statements translate into the classroom in a variety of ways. First of all, my language class is a confrontation. I believe in strict discipline. In fact, I routinely practice ritualisitc knuckle-rapping, preferably with an aluminum ruler. I have found that nothing motivates students like pain and the fear of pain. Spanish is spoken in class throughout the semester with virtually no use of English. In fact, if students don't understand what I am saying to them the first time. I repeat it, this time with the inflections of a regional dialect: first, Castillian (it is the mother tongue after-all), I find that the lisping, gutteral sounds of this dialect to be most difficult to understand; then, I move to a sing-songy Argentinian, the use of
vos, which naturally afects the conjugation of the second person singular, is most disconcerting; last of all, I repeat the statement in a full-blown Dominican accent, the rapid-fire speaking, the constant swallowing of all 's's and final consonants, ensures complete and utter incomprehension. With each new repitition, which is also a different dialectical rendering of the phrase, I find it useful to raise my voice. So that by the fifth and final repitition, which is a return to the indistinct Tom Brokaw Spanish that I normally use in the classroom, I am yelling at them much like Colonel Klink at the end of every Hogan's Heroes episode. I have found that after being subjugated to this teaching style for a month, or month and half, they all break and become most docile and receptive to the language. Yes, I have found that confrontation works most well for teaching Spanish to the clueless brats that sit in my classroom.
Conversation? Well, aside from the constant running-dialogue that I have with myself throughout the class, there isn't much conversation. I just threw it in there to impress you at the beginning. To, in a manner of speaking, make you like me and show you that I know the pop-pseudo-psycho-babel that most of you slavishly follow so that you would be open and receptive to the presentation of my teaching style.
Friday, September 12, 2003
gone!
Johnny Ritter.
Johnny Cash.
moules and frites, punk
everything is gray here.
there is no sun in belgium today, and there wasn't one yesterday.
a massive percentage of the population smokeseverywhere. i keep my office window open, no matter the weather, because the air in my hallway gets hazier and hazier as the day goes on.
the police have yet to make their
surprise visit to confirm that my wife and i actually live together. the bank has yet to send us the secret pin number to our "mistercash" card.
however, the people are very friendly and welcoming. when i try to speak french, many (out of pity probably) try to speak english, and we communicate in a mixed language. and everyone has negative feelings about george bush.
in short, life is neither boring nor bad.
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
just a question or two
(They say) two thousand zero zero party over
Oops! Out of time...
So tonight we gonna, we gonna
Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999...
does that really mean that we get to party like it's 1999 until the year 200,000?
also,
the lake woebegone effect...is that some mixed metaphor that refers to "where every child is above average" and lake effect snow?
lastly, and this isn't a question, just a thing of beauty to share. if you have
realplayer check out this little gem from the
daily show with jon stewartfool me once...
Monday, September 08, 2003
chris moved to belgium...
and all you got was this crappy little post.
however, from reading below, it appears that some sort of nefarious high drama is afoot.
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Currency, Pt. 1
This evening D., my friend and minister, called to tell me that we are both accused of being false teachers at the church I attend. We are accused by S.T. "and others," women it seems who are concerned about the direction of the church and the truth of its teachings. And so the rains that avoided Iowa City all summer come.
"I showed up at L.'s tonight to cook dinner," he said, "and she was late. I waited, but she didn't get home 'til seven o'clock. Reasoning that she had got held up at work, I didn't think much of it. Then, after supper she told me that she got a call from J.R. who immediately accused L. of calling her daughter untrustworthy."
There has been a lot of discontent over D. lately. J.'s oldest daughter is in prisonso the story goesbecause she was in the wrong place with the wrong people when they decided to kidnap someone. At the beginning of the summer J. informed D. that her daughter wanted baptism, and she asked D. to contact her. Because her prison is 90 miles west of here, D. thought it best if he asked the churches in Des Moines to help; in the meantime, he got engaged, went on some summer traveling, and in the midst of it all, forgot the urgency of J.'s request. By August, J. was livid about what she understood to be his negligence, something to which he admitted but also begged forgiveness for the sake of his preoccupation.
But we learned of J.'s anger not when she confronted him directly; rather, it happened surprisingly, in the midst of the August business meeting, when D. and L. were reporting their experience at the National Conference of Campus Ministers. Establishing a campus ministry, or at least, a service to the students in this town, they argued, should be a primary goal of this congregation, and they revealed that the people at that conference were absolutely gung-ho about helping us get started. At that suggestion, J.'s top blew, and with it went S.T.'s, who argued, as she's argued for years, that the only way this church can grow is to host a "We Care" campaign. J. agreed and, further, said, "How can we hope to take care of a bunch of students if we can't even take care of the people already at this church?"
