John’s End O’Year Rant, 2006

From the Reverend John Hall, Episcopalian Priest...

I think we are growing up a bit, and I am coming to the end of 2006 with hope. I’m feeling more comfortable as an American and as a Christian.

This is not to say that things are all better or even good. After all, we have a government that didn’t tell us the truth. They didn’t even tell Congress the truth, or anybody else for that matter, and thus we became engaged in a war of our own making, and even though we are the Superpower (!), our war has been singularly ineffective even by its own terms, and thus we have created a mess in which many Americans and many, many more Iraqis have been killed, wounded and/or shell-shocked (PTSD’d), and Iraq to-date is worse is off than when we went to save them five years ago. In the name of our being at war, people here, there and elsewhere are deprived of basic human rights by us, the self-proclaimed champion of human rights. Torture under our auspices continues. All of this is sickening to those who love this country and the best that we stand for (freedom of speech, press, religion – the right of all to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – government of, by and for the people – the inherent equality of all).

But at least holier-than-thou is over, or at least taking a rest, whether certain people know it or not, and we meet the rest of the world on a level playing field, a field on which we no longer command respect but have to earn it. This is a grown-up place to be. The childishness of king-of-the-mountain gets old, not just for others but even for us. We have an opportunity to put away America-the-better-richer-more powerful-than-thou and become America-trying-to-be-as-good-as-we-can-be. This is a more secure place for us, because it is based on reality, not hype.

I believe that the church is similarly in a more grown-up place. Yes, some “major” parishes in Virginia are leaving my denomination in a pique precipitated by the consecration of an openly gay bishop, thereby moving the Episcopal Church from Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell to Tell. But the rest of us have decided to concentrate much less on sleeping arrangements of people who wish to make a loving, lifetime commitment to one another, and much more on the plight of the poor. Jim Wallis of Sojourners Magazine points out that the Bible speaks actually very little about sex, but endlessly about poverty. If, as some claim, we have been not-so-good in dealing with sex and sexuality, how much more not-so-good we are regarding poverty! In the sexual realm, we have at least begun to own up to hypocrisies and cruelties of the past (protection of some homosexuals, persecution of others), and confession is good for the ecclesiastical as well as the secular soul, along with repentance and amendment of life. In the poverty realm, the general Convention of the Episcopal Church and my own diocese have committed us ideologically and financially to the support of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, aimed at dramatic alleviation of poverty in the world and the support of universal human rights.

Once again we have learned the hard way that when you take down the wall of separation between church and state, “sin coucheth at the door” (phrase from Genesis 4:7). Some of the most raucous purveyors of moral rectitude in our land have been found to have some pending business of their own in the confessional, just like the rest of us. We too are all on a level playing field. And we do not have to protect God and God’s Truth, as if God needed that from us, and as if we had anything more than a meager understanding of God’s Truth at best. We are growing up.

We are discovering one another: including some wonderful Methodists, Roman Catholics, Quakers, Orthodox Christians, Episcopalians, dissident Episcopalians, Jews of all stripes, Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, Buddhists, and (gasp) atheists, and (of course) agnostics, and people with a home-made spirituality, and so forth. We are realizing that we can benefit from standing in one another’s spiritual shoes and looking at God and Truth from a (for us) different angle. Isn’t that more spiritually grown-up than a we’re-totally-right-and-and-you’re-totally-wrong mentality!

Most of us need to put our spiritual feet down somewhere specific, with respect and wonder for the truth we find there, yet realizing that there is much, much more to know about God, Truth, Reality, Life. I am proud when we forsake knowing-it-all in favor of humbly sharing what we have found to be good and true and beautiful, with an openness to receiving what others may share. I am proud whenever we, the religious people of the world, reach out to the poor and needy. I think that this is what Jesus would do, did, does. And I am proud whenever we take a step away from hypocrisies and cruelties directed toward people who have been traditionally outcast, including homosexuals. My understanding is that we all deserve to be cast out, and would be but for the love of God.

Sure there is lots of work to do in the Church and in the State, but the stalemate of recent years is breaking up, and hope is in the air. Still we do well to be mindful of the parable of the man who was released from the power of seven evil spirits, but then went on to take in some even more evil spirits (Matthew 12:43-45). Let’s not do that. We have to remember that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, spiritual and temporal, and that the place to meet one another is on a level playing field. And we have to remember that God loves each of us in a way that parallels our love of our children, not because of how good they are but because they are our own.

We can learn to love one another more fully. We can, by the grace of God, learn how to love our enemies and make peace in the world, starting in our lives. We can determine to be unfailingly kind, respectful and just with one another, and ask God for assistance in situations where we might otherwise be harsh and hurtful. We can shed any responsibility we might harbor for knowing it all, and rest in the reality that we know very little, really, and that what we do know is a gift, first from God and then from our mentors. And we can be thankful for a diversity of mentors.

Let us in the days ahead, in concert with God, build a world that is better for all, and a church that is truer to Jesus. Happy New Year.

The ONE Campaign

Cranston high schools are falling behind

From the Cranston Herald...

Recently released test results of the New Standards Reference Exam classify Cranston schools as having “insufficient progress” – an unsatisfactory standing experienced by 40 percent of Rhode Island schools.

Save Darfur

SaveDarfur.org has a post called "Generate Press Coverage" that's worth checking out...

Media coverage of the ongoing genocide in Darfur has been woefully inadequate. The Center for American Progress found that during June 2005, CNN, FOX News, NBC/MSNBC, ABC, and CBS ran 50 times as many stories about Michael Jackson and 12 times as many stories about Tom Cruise as they did about the…

TRACKING, THE SAGA CONTINUES

SCHOOL UPDATE FROM CRANSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER STEVE STYCOS, 12/13/06...

Last week, Cranston East principal Sean Kelly generated an uproar in a meeting with the East faculty. I was not present, but was told by several teachers that Kelly stated that starting in September 2008, due to state high school reform, the college preparatory and comprehensive tracks would be combined, leaving only an honors track and an "everybody else" track. He also allegedly said that this decision had already been made by the school committee.

I have also been told that West faculty were given a similar message last year.

If the two principals did say these things to faculty, they were in error. There is no state requirement to end high school tracking and the school committee has not acted on this issue.

After talking with parents and teachers, I called the Rhode Island Department of Education to ask about the state's requirements. I spoke with Sharon Lee, a senior high school reform fellow. She explained that the key requirement is that high school graduates meet state established standards, regardless of whether they are honors, college preparatory or comprehensive students. The entire high school reform package is described at www.ride.ri.gov. Then click on "middle/high school reform" and go to "Diploma System Technical Bulletin-February 2005.

The grade level expectations are also listed at www.ride.ri.gov. Go to "Instruction" and then you will find "grade span expectations" for various subjects.

The regulations require that courses must help students move toward the grade span expectations, Lee explained, adding that the days of "general math" or "sports math" are over. A progression of courses must lead students to achieving the expectations. She also said other districts were addressing this issue in two main ways. First, by giving slower students more time to learn the material. While college preparatory students might take a year of algebra, for example, comprehensive students might take two years to learn the same material. The second approach is to put college preparatory and comprehensive students together in a class, but give the comprehensive students a second or remedial period of math, so to help them learn the material.

After talking with Lee, I spoke with Superintendent Rick Scherza who confirmed, 1) That changes had to be made, but there were no requirements that tracks be combined, and 2) That the school committee has not acted on this issue, but would have to ultimately vote on whatever plan is proposed. He said he is currently trying recruit faculty to serve on a committee to devise a proposal to bring Cranston into compliance with the state high school reform rules.

What does all this mean?

Something is going to happen and everyone needs to stay alert to make sure the result is an improvement.

MORE MONEY PROBLEMS

According to information presented at last night's meeting between the city council and school committee, a new state law bars the school department from submitting a budget which is more than 5.25 percent higher than this year's budget.

The school administration, however, presented a budget projection for next year that is eight percent higher than this year. The leading causes of the increase are a five percent increase in wages (caused by contracts which generally provide a 3.5 percent general increase and an additional step for top paid employees), a ten percent increase in the cost of health insurance and a 12 percent increase in pension costs. Superintendent Scherza will present a proposed and detailed budget to the school committee in late January. Tuesday January 9 he will deliver a state of the schools address which will certainly touch on finances at 7PM at Western Hills Middle School.