Twittering the Inauguration: Last week I was having lunch with my church history professor, Dr. Paul Rorem, and some students from my Pseud0-Dionysius class. We were talking about our different plans for watching the inauguration, and so I mentioned that I would most likely be both watching and “tweeting” it with 30 or 40 of my closest twitter friends (which I did). It was an interesting conversation, and I’ll blog more about it later this week, but for today, suffice it to say that the inauguration confirmed a theory I’ve been working on about Twitter as Scholia — basically a running commentary on important events in our culture and society, not unlike the notes that medieval monks and theologians wrote in the margins of scriptures and other important texts.

Grady and Presidential “Powers”:  Walking my four-year-old son to school this morning, I brought up the subject of the inauguration, since during the election he had announced his  support for ‘Arack Obama (despite my own preferences).   He still likes Barack Obama, but I’m not sure he has that much of a grasp on what exactly a president is.  So I thought I would help clarify with a little analogy:

DADDY:  Do you remember the character Ajihad, in the book we’re reading (Christopher Paolini’s Eragon)?
GRADY: Yes, Daddy.  He’s the leader of the Varden.
DADDY:  Ok, that’s kind of like a President.  Barack Obama is our country’s new leader, like Ajihad was for the Varden.
GRADY: Oh.   [thinks about it some]  So what does Barack Obama fight with, then?

And that’s how you can tell you’ve been reading too many fantasy novels to your son (if that’s possible).  Still, I should have told him the President fights with a magic spell book called “The Constitution,” and with a sword called “The Executive Order.” I hear it can slice a Congressman in half with a single stroke. Oh, and let’s not forget the shield of “Presidential Privilege” and the helmet of “Plausible Deniability.”  Didn’t work so well for Nixon, but Reagan and Bush seemed to have wielded them often enough…

Obama’s Speech:  There was much to like in Obama’s inauguration speech, but I didn’t think he “hit it out of the park.”  Perhaps because everyone was comparing him to JFK and MLK, I was expecting more.  Kennedy’s inauguration speech and MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech still send shivers up my spine.  Obama’s speech was good, and he delivered it well, but it won’t go down in history as one of the great speeches of all time.  His speech during the campaign about race, on the other hand, actually might.

Here’s the part of today’s speech I liked best:

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

I hope he can keep that pledge, and that congress will help him do it.  I also like that he called on all those who “enjoy relative plenty” to join in the effort.  I think we could do no better than to start with our neighbor to the immediate south, Mexico.  I noticed that he didn’t say anything about immigration reform, but that’s not too surprising — Bush saw the border as a “homeland security” issue, but Obama’s speech overall gives me hope he’ll see it through the more compassionate lens of “love for neighbor.”

Here’s my least favorite part of the speech:

We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

Sometimes I do think we should apologize for our American way of life — especially when it involves invading innocent countries because we “suspect” them of terrorism, or polluting the environment to assuage our rampant consumerism.  And let’s not forget that we, too, are guilty of slaughtering millions of innocents. I would have been more comfortable if he had said “we will defeat you with our ideals, our integrity, and commitment to justice.”  But he didn’t.  He just ended that paragraph there, letting Conservative hawks assume he meant, “If you mess with America, we’ll still kick your ass.”  And who knows? Maybe that’s exactly what he meant.  Considering what I read my son, I’m probably not one to judge.

The overall tone of the speech, continuing themes from his campaign, was one of reconciliation and hope.  And I certainly think he’s an improvement over our last president.  Obama’s election and inauguration are long deserved triumphs for African-Americans and indeed all Americans on the frontier of race.  But at the end of the day, I must remind myself (and everyone else) that he’s not a savior, not a messiah.  Just a man, confined within the limits of a two-party system, an enormous bureaucracy, and a plethora of special interest groups.  I hope he can navigate all of these things well, and I don’t mind being pleasantly surprised. So congratulations to the USA, and to you, President Obama.  I will earnestly place my hope in you, but (I hope you’ll understand) not my faith.  In fact, I think we’d be a little better off if all of us placed a little more hope in our country, and a little less faith.

God Bless America? I found it fascinating that Rick Warren led the nation in the inaugural prayer, and that Bishop TD Jakes preached the private inaugural sermon this morning.  Sadly, the ministerial voice most absent was the one I find myself most often in agreement with:  Jeremiah Wright.   I hope Obama’s rejection of Wright, and turn to these two more conservative pastors is not a preview of changing beliefs or politics.  I understand the political expediency that required Obama to distance himself from Wright, but I hope the reconciliation in the air extends to Obama’s long-time pastor, too.  Jeremiah Wright got fried over a brief clip from a sermon that was taken entirely out of context.  But I think my closing sentiments echo his true message a bit better:   May God Bless America:   South America…Central America… Mexico…Canada… And may the United Sates of America stop worrying so much about getting blessed, and start worrying about how we can bless those around us. Despite Wright’s absence, I sensed his influence in parts of Obama’s speech.  And so, I too, have hope today.

My internet friend, Bruce Reyes Chow, is running standing for Moderator this year, and that fact alone put GA on my radar screen.  I guess it should have already been there, since I’m attending a Presbyterian seminary and am an inquirer for ordained ministry in the PCUSA.  But there’s nothing like a super-hero-rock-star candidate to generate interest in something that sounds like a really, really large committee meeting.

Anyhow, I would love nothing more than to be in San Jose, California right now, attending my first GA.  Except for the whole, “moving to New Jersey to start seminary in two weeks” thing, of course.  So instead, I’m watching the live feed on my laptop in my empty apartment in Princeton.  Thank God for that, at least.  I wonder how many others on this campus (or on this coast?) are doing the same tonight.  One way or another, it’s an important part of being Presbyterian, and the fact that I’m getting all geeky excited about it means that I have crossed that threshold once and for all.  Even more than when I bought a PCUSA baseball cap.

Right now I’m listening to the nominating speeches for Moderator (BRC went first), so I’ll hopefully post an update when the election is over.  My prayers are with Bruce, but also with the other candidates, the commissioners, and the PCUSA as a whole.  May God lead us in a new direction for a new world.

UPDATE:  At exactly 12:28 (East Coast Time), and with 55% of the vote in the second ballot, Bruce Reyes Chow was elected Moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the PCUSA.  I’m watching his family take to the stage now!  It’s a great day for the future of the Presbyterian church!  Way to go, Bruce!

If you’re not into science fiction, then you probably at least know him as the guy who wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you are into science fiction, then you just know him. Period. Along with probably Isaac Asimov and Robert Hienlein (and maybe Ray Bradbury), Clarke is the backbone of that genre, and a few others as well.

If you use GPS in your car today, watch satellite TV, or listen to XM Radio, say thanks to Sir Arthur, who first came up with the ideas that made these technologies possible.

Clarke was a hardcore scientist, a champion of undersea exploration, and a peacemaker. But above all he was a writer, and one who inspired much of my own writing and ideas about science fiction. I’m compelled to offer a summary of my indebtedness to him in my own writing:

• Space Academy: My young-adult novel (unfinished) uses Clarke’s brilliant (and quite possibly prophetic) idea of a space elevator to transport people off the planet.
• Twelve: My short-story involving human memory backup/restore — Clark explored this idea as far back as in 1948 with his novel The City and the Stars.
• Catching Christopher: My attempt at a children’s short-story in a sub-genre that Clarke helped pioneer with his work for the British science fiction comic, Dan Dare.

And here’s Arthur C. Clarke in some of his own profound words:

1. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
2. If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run — and often in the short one — the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative
3. As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.
4. I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here.
5. I don’t believe in God but I’m very interested in her.
6. I want to see lasting and meaningful peace achieved in Sri Lanka as early as possible. But I am aware that peace cannot just be wished; it involves hard work, courage and persistence.
7. Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.

But perhaps the best words to end with are those I began with — the words of my son, who will grow up in the world Clarke helped to create: “Dad, I dreamed about space last night.”

This song centers around a man who has been a mentor, pastor, friend, and inspiration to me for most of the past decade: Philip Lotspeich. It’s a true story (but aren’t all folk songs?) about some of the crazy things he put his neck on the line for as both a minister and as someone just trying to live up to the radical, counter-intuitive, and often dangerous example set by that Jesus guy we talk so much about.

I think the song lives up to my emerging philosophy of folk music, especially principle #4. As with all my songs (and everything I write) this is published under a Creative Commons license. Anyone is free to download it, copy it, share it, re-mix it, re-record it, change it, sell it, mash it…whatever. Music is a gift. Share it. But most of all, enjoy it.

You can also find it (and my other songs) in these places:

• Reverb Nation
• MySpace Music
• The Open Source Internet Archive
• My Facebook Profile
• On my Wiki (The Lyrics)

And for added effect, try playing them all at once!

By now, Em is probably somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on her way to the middle east, where she’ll be deployed for the next two months (over Christmas) flying a large gas-station for the US Air Force. That sucks.

But last night before she left, she called to let us know that Mark proposed to her (and she said yes, of course). She told Amy all the details of the proposal, ring, etc. — but I’m a guy. All I heard was that my little baby sister is getting married. Sniff.

By the way, if you’re on facebook, you can join our movement to draft her!

And Mark, if you’re reading this — you didn’t have to ask our sister to marry you just to come with us on the Belgian Beer Tour (but we’re glad you did)!

But you probably want to know what I actually thought of the movie. Here again, I need to disclose that I rarely view contemporary adaptations of great ancient works (Homer’s epics, Beowulf, Arthurian Legend, etc.) as simply “good” or “bad” in their own right, but rather as mirrors that reflect society’s current values, trends, and beliefs.

This version of Beowulf does have some significant departures from the original epic, which I’m sure will be a source of ire for purists. Nevertheless, I think they were effective changes, and shed much light on our own times and struggles.

The dominant theme of this film is that “Pride is the curse.” Grendel’s mother (Angelina Jolie) is transformed from a monstrous sea-hag to a seductive enchantress, who offers a to fulfill the glory-dreams of both Beowulf and Hrothgar before him — a Faustian deal which eventually costs each his life, soul, and happiness. All they have to do is sleep with her (what Nordic warrior wouldn’t take up that offer?). But the “seed” of their sin becomes the curse that comes back to haunt each one — for Hrothgar, Grendel, and for Beowulf, the Dragon.

I think this is a timely message for Americans today — we have slept with the Goddess of power, wealth, and fame. What offspring of our poor choices lurks in the future to claim its revenge? There are many possible answers to that question, of course, ranging from environmental to spiritual, to economic.

At one point in the film, an old man (whose family has been burned alive by the dragon) yells over and over to an aging Beowulf, “The sins of the father, the sins of the father!” This is an interesting concept (sins of the father visited upon the children) that shows up several places in the Bible, but also in Euripides’ Phrixus, Horace’s Odes, and Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.

As I watched old King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) say to young Beowulf, “She’s not my curse anymore…” I couldn’t help but think of George Bush the elder, his son George W. Bush, and their wars in the Middle East.

Both Bushes surged in the polls when they took on the mantle of “War-time President.” Fame. Approval. Oil-Wealth. But what monsters did each create in the process? Was 9/11 the offspring of the father coming back to claim the son? Did the son “defeat” the monster, only to sleep with the goddess and create a greater one in its place?

Both the original Beowulf epic and the film end on a note of uncertainty and fear for the future — the monsters are slain, but so are the heroes. In the epic, invaders from other lands stand poised to wipe out the leaderless survivors. But in the movie, the threat is more insidious: The forces that created the monsters remain. Will they fall prey to the same lust for power, wealth, and fame all over again?

In exactly one year, America crowns a new king. Will we?