No More Pain: Revelation 21 Painting Series

Finished the fifth painting in my Revelation 21 series today.

Goshen College Caves In To Public Opinion: Educating the Public in How to Compromise Your Faith

Recently Goshen College, a Mennonite school, changed its historical Anabaptist/Mennonite stance on not playing the national anthem at its sporting events. It caved into to public opinion criticizing its Anabaptist/Mennonite "pacifist" practice of not playing the national anthem, which is rooted in militarism and nationalism. I see this as just another sign of the slowly eroding peace witness within the Mennonite Church, which I questioned in my award winning article for Mennonite Weekly Review entitled "When is a Peace Church No Longer a Peace Church": http://www.mennoweekly.org/2008/7/21/when-peace-church-no-longer-peace-church/?print=1

News story: http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/34294434.html

Goshen info: http://www.goshen.edu/president/anthem/

A good article responding to Goshen's action can be found at JesusRadicals: http://www.jesusradicals.com/goshen-college-hurts-the-church/

Here is a letter I wrote to the president of Goshen College, Jim Brenneman, whom I know.


Jim,

I am writing to express my displeasure with Goshen College's decision to cave in to public opinion concerning playing the national anthem at Goshen College sporting events. The national anthem is undeniably a song that grows out of a militaristic and nationalistic tradition. As you have expressed in Goshen pubic communications, "Our practice of not playing the national anthem at our sporting events has been a practice of the college since its inception 114 years ago rooted in the nearly 500-year-old confessions of faith of the Mennonite heritage and in the simple New Testament expressions, “Jesus is Lord” and “God so loved the world.”

To change this practice seems to me to be just another evidence of the slow erosion of the Mennonite peace stance, which I questioned as Minister of Peace and Justice for MC USA: http://www.mennoweekly.org/2008/7/21/when-peace-church-no-longer-peace-church/?print=1. I wrote this because of what I was seeing across the denomination in congregations, conferences, and church institutions.

It is my conviction that holding to our peace witness, amid public pressure to conform, can provide better venues for dialogue and witness than letting go of those convictions by incremental compromises. Even if Goshen continues to "make peacemaking" a part of its education, this action speaks volumes as to what that really means when the "going gets tough."


Peace,

Rev. Dr. Leo Hartshorn

Here is the response Jim Brenneman sent back to me on 2/26/10:


Dear Leo,

I wanted to both acknowledge my appreciation for your feedback and also offer a word or two of response.

First, never before has Goshen College in so public a way proclaimed our commitment to peace in all its forms, than in the last two years. For the first time in GC history, we have done television ads (on regional Super Bowl/Olympics/etc.) and radio spots, proclaiming that GC is about “Healing the World: Peace by Peace.” Our website, our publications, viewbooks, speeches, have all be designed around “Making Peace”. You can read more about the GC promise of “Making Peace” in the upcoming Bulletin. These resources provide an overview of our commitment to describing ourselves in vivid, positive, affirming, contagious ways as a college that promotes peace! Literally, we are shouting it from the rooftops in new and unprecedented ways. We have not abandoned that understanding, though my hope is that we are helping to expand people's understandings of peace. It isn't just about being anti-war (though it includes that), it is about the Biblical understanding of shalom.

Second, our five core values (which positively state who we are and are a wonderful encapsulation of the Anabaptist convictions), explicitly named 8 years ago, are being used to redesign from top to bottom our curriculum; learning outcomes; board, faculty, staff orientation/education through a Core Values Institute; tenure processes; etc., so as to ensure that we “realize our intentions” in keeping GC closely tied to our Anabaptist/Mennonite roots, even while we open our doors wider to those who do not know an Anabaptist from an Antibaptist. In this way, we hope our “Anabaptist story” will truly be an intentional missional adventure (even if one never chooses to become a Christian, Anabaptist or otherwise) creating “choice” for both cradle Mennonites and others to hear the Anabaptist story and make it their own. We are self-consciously structuring our teaching and learning here at GC around the core values, trusting those values to carry the day (like a magnet to shavings), rather than bounding our set of beliefs by impermeable lines of demarcation that, while necessary at outer limits, are not the best approach in wooing new adherents or conversation partners to the table.

Third, Goshen College continues to be a leader in Peacemaking, Environmental Transformation, Intercultural Teaching and Learning, Interreligious Dialog (new SST in Egypt geared around Muslim/Christian engagement), all the things that have made it and will continue to make this such a wonderful place to learn. We also want to spread this influence in the world to include professions of diplomacy, governmental/nongovernmental leadership, civic engagement, business, and other professions not always considered part of the “peacemaking” enterprise. So when we say on our banners flying from every pole on campus: “Making peace with business, the arts, environment, sports, Christ, etc. its more than a slogan, it’s a vocational invitation.

And finally, I have devoted my entire adult ministry to bringing into the Mennonite Church hundreds of new members and have helped mentor pastoral and other leaders new to the Mennonite Church. For not a few of them, their discovery of the peacemaking way of Christ came by a welcoming spirit that did not challenge their perspectives at the door, but invited them to consider new perspectives over time and in community. That continues to be part of our missional commitment at Goshen College.

This letter might not fully address all your concerns, but I trust it helps convey that we are passionately committed to our theological heritage even as we attempt to negotiate the challenges of contemporary issues.

Peace,

Jim B.

James E. Brenneman, Ph.D.
President
Goshen College
1700 S. Main St.
Goshen, IN 46526
(574) 535-7501

A Cry of Absence: Recommended Reading

Facing six months of unemployment and a lack of direction at this late stage of my life is difficult, a spiritual struggle. So, I turn once again to a trusted guide along the way and am re-reading Martin Marty's A Cry of Absence. I would recommend it to those wrestling with God or life, on the edge of faith, for those with a "wintery spirituality."


Quotes from this contemporary spiritual classic:

"Winter is a season of the heart as much as it is a season of the weather"---pg.1

"The absence can also come, however, to a waste space left when the divine is distant, the sacred is remote, when God is silent"---pg.2

"Those in intellectual solidarity with athiests are likely to be people who have cried in anger when God seemed withdrawn, seemed powerless in the face of disease that tore the flesh of a child or parent."---pg. 13

for Iris

You are the hand
I am the glove

You are the sun
I am the moon

You are the wind
I am the tree

You are the ocean
I am the fish

You are the breath
I am the sigh

You are the rain
I am the earth

You are the flesh
I am the bone

You and I
I and you

Yin and Yang
Night and Day

Bound to each other
Creation's dance
in a corner of the earth

Follow Your Passions and Giftedness

Below are two sets of reflective questions for individuals and congregations I prepared recently for my own congregation in order to follow your passions and gifts and to discern the corporate giftedness of a congregation. Unlike some gifts surveys that try to pin down exactly what your gifts are that match those in the biblical texts, these are open ended reflective questions that should be accompanied by prayer, discernment, and communal confirmation.

Following Your Passions: Reflective Questions for Individual Gifts Discernment

The purpose of these reflective questions is to provide a stimulus for individual discernment of their gifts for ministry. A person’s gifts are often manifest in their passions and not always in their professional vocational choice. Our gifts can be revealed in our practices, things we love to do, as well as the skills we display and the affirmations we receive from others. These questions are open ended and intended for reflective responses that are accompanied by prayer, conversation, and contemplation. With the assumption that our gifts are connected to our passions, these questions are all pointing toward the discovery and affirmation of our passions.

1. What have people in your life or the church often affirmed or praised you for? (Examples- friendliness, hospitality, knowledge, wisdom)
2. What kinds of things do you dream about doing?
3. What are you most passionate about in your life?
4. Within church life, what energizes you?
5. What kinds of things would you do, even if you were not paid to do them?
6. If there were no limits of time, energy, money or resources, what would you do with your life?
7. What do you think are your special talents, gifts and abilities?
8. How are they being used in your job, the community, in the church?
9. What do you think God has sent you to be and do in this life, this community, this church?
10.As you reflect on these questions what themes seem to keep recurring?

Following Your Giftedness: Reflective Questions for Corporate Gifts Discernment

Not only are individuals gifted by God, but also congregations as particular collectives of people in a specific place and time are corporately gifted. Congregations have been uniquely shaped by their traditions, history, experiences, ministries, location, and individual participants. Rather than trying to model themselves after other “more successful” congregations or simply using methods proposed to produce growth, congregations should first discern their own identity, context, and giftedness as a congregation. These reflective questions may assist in that process. These questions should be first discussed in small group settings, then each group’s responses processed in a larger group until there some kind of consensus or “common sense” together about the corporate gifts of the congregation.

1. What history, experiences, events, and changes in the congregation’s life, both positive and negative, have shaped the congregation into what it is today? Describe those characteristics.
2. How has the congregation been shaped by its pastors and members over the years?
3. How has the congregation been shaped or not shaped by its church tradition, theology, and practices?
4. How has the congregation impacted and been impacted by its local community?
5. What is about the congregation that has attracted new people?
6. What is it that keeps the people coming?
7. What has kept some people from becoming part of congregational life?
8. What ministries have emerged because of the passions of members, rather than traditional programs of the church?
9. What makes this congregation different from other congregations in the area? Or what does this congregation have to offer the community that the others cannot in the same way?
10.Name three characteristics that reflect the corporate identity of the congregation?

Recalling 2009

As I end the year 2009 and begin 2010 tomorrow , I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on the highlights of my life by making a list of things I did during the year. Here is what I was up to during 2009.

My Life in 2009:

1. Celebrated my 60th birthday, 36th wedding anniversary, 30th year of ordination.
2. Ended my job as Minister of Peace and Justice with Mennonite Mission Network.
3. Moved from Lancaster, PA to Portland, OR.
4. Deaths of friends and family: Karen Throckmorton, sister-in-law; Bob Keane, producer of my group Beauregard Ajax.
5. Trips/Events: Peace and Justice Support Network meeting in New Orleans, LA (visited 9th Ward, Congo Square, Edgar Degas House); Mission Leaders meeting and Psychedelic Poster Art exhibit in Denver, CO; Mennonite Central Committee Sales in Albany, OR and Ritzville, WA; Seattle Mennonite Church in Seattle, WA; Pacific Coast and Aquarium at Newport, OR; Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, PA; Bike shows in Carlisle, PA, Gettysburg, PA, Millville, NJ; Mennonite Church USA national assembly in Columbus, OH (led 2 peace workshops, 2 Drumming for Peace workshops had a total of about 2-300 people, set up PJSN booth, judged Step contest, supported Pink Mennos, presented first Different Drummer Youth Peace Award, presented Peace Pitcher Award, hosted two PJSN Bible studies), attended concert of Rain: the Beatles Experience in NJ, Escher exhibit, Portland, OR.
6. Writing: entries in my two blogs, produced and printed booklet The Economic Crisis and the Divine Economy; finished writing and illustrating Readings for Radicals: a peace and justice lectionary, awarded second place award of merit in editorial/opinion piece from Associated Church Press for my Mennonite Weekly Review Article When is a Peace Church No Longer a Peace Church.
7. Artwork: Added drawings to my Artisans of Social Change and M.U.S.I.C. series of Oumou Sangare, Michael Jackson, Chuck D and Public Enemy, Edwin Hawkins, Aung San Suu Kyi , William Sloane Coffin, Babatunde Olatunji, Marvin Gaye, Malvina Reynolds, about 20 Rock ‘n Rollers (face drawings on rocks), 13 drawings in Da Vinci sketchbook, 4 paintings in Revelation 21 series, scratchboard drawing published in Beyond Ourselves magazines.
8. Movies: (Note some I saw with my 5 year old grandson, Gavin) 9, Monsters vs. Aliens, Christmas Carol, Sherlock Holmes, Avatar, Doubt, Miss Potter, Coraline, This Is It, Watchmen, Surrogates, Angels and Demons, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Inkheart\, Wolverine, Star Trek, Up, G-Force, Aliens in the Attic, and more.
9. Books: The Beat of My Drum, Preaching as Testimony, Politics of Heaven, Altar in the World, Jesus Interrupted, In the Shadow of Empire, Leonardo, Durer, Jesus DUB, Underground Together, Being Consumed, Inspiration: The Artist’s Way, Between Barack and a Hard Place, The Religious Art of Andy Warhol, Speaking Treason Fluently, and others.
10. Preaching: Peace Mennonite, Portland, OR, Frazer Mennonite, Frazer, PA, Blossom Hill Mennonite, Lancaster, PA, St. Andrews UCC, Lancaster, PA.
11. Drumming: Peacemaking and the Arts Festival, Frazer, PA, MC USA National Assembly, Columbus, OH, Blossom Hill Mennonite Sunday School class, Lancaster, PA, 2Sacred Drumming workshops at Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lancaster, PA, New Danville Elementary School, New Danville, PA, Ten Thousand Villages warehouse, Akron, PA

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

no more tears

Today I finished the fourth painting in my series "Revelation 21" entitled "no more tears."

No More Death: Third painting in Revelation 21 series

Finished the third painting in my series "Revelation 21" today.