tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43450405565236109982024-03-13T05:59:00.505-04:00Points of InflectionAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821678105140354829noreply@blogger.comBlogger341125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-86111512698218037992018-05-19T20:44:00.000-04:002018-05-19T20:44:11.710-04:00Last words?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVr8COxCjc0n1G2gN0o-bb21o1_Z5GBh2NCWIeNt7b24MiQCfwMl3Y2HTqxNT1Q80GgNdl6wnOeLOwVd6VrDMDaaa-9-QHZ6r8O1SxkaQcpYpqZnbZHXV1ljju7roFYFtS295OjE0eMcVU/s1600/Roe+plaques+at+Columbarium+cropped+low+res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1556" data-original-width="1600" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVr8COxCjc0n1G2gN0o-bb21o1_Z5GBh2NCWIeNt7b24MiQCfwMl3Y2HTqxNT1Q80GgNdl6wnOeLOwVd6VrDMDaaa-9-QHZ6r8O1SxkaQcpYpqZnbZHXV1ljju7roFYFtS295OjE0eMcVU/s200/Roe+plaques+at+Columbarium+cropped+low+res.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Columbarium, State College Presbyterian Church</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
The writer of this blog -- my beloved husband John Roe -- left behind his earthly life on March 9, 2018. He was confident that he was beginning "a more focused time of peace and joy" with his Lord, and that he would rest close to our child Eli, as they both awaited the resurrection (see his Dec. 11, 2017 post: <a href="https://points-of-inflection.blogspot.com/2017/12/waiting-close.html">Waiting close).</a><br />
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In the last week of John's life, as his body was weakened by cancer and his mind was affected by pain medication, we had some brief but touching interactions. His words as he was dying reflected the focus that he had in life: his relationship with God, love for me and our family, and (of course) thoughts about mathematics.<br />
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In his last days, John spoke out of the fullness of his heart and his mind, even as his connection to them was slipping away. It occurred to me to wonder: When I myself reach that state and the thoughts of my mind come spilling out, will my words be as joyful, gracious, and God-centered as his?<br />
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I wanted to share a few of John's last words here, in the hope that they will give inspiration to others as they do to me. In another sense, these are not his last words, because his writing and blogs continue to speak with his unique blend of insight, passion, and humor.<br />
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Monday, March 5, 2018: John called me to his bedside, and wanted to pray aloud together. That was unusual, because his prayer life was usually intensely personal and private for him. But he prayed "Lord, it looks like I’ve reached the end of my life on earth. But we know that for your people, this doesn’t mean the end of life. We know that you hold me in the palm of your hand, and you also hold Liane. In the last minute of our lives, you will not be any different to us than in all the other minutes."<br />
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Tuesday, March 6, 2018: At 8 am, I asked John if he wanted any breakfast, and he
replied that he needed "circular fruit". I asked why he needed that, and
he replied "to reflect on the shape of our joy together". For John, his
faith and his mathematical mind were intimately connected, right until
the end. Fortunately, there was an orange in the kitchen; I peeled it and he ate a few
bites. Later that morning, John asked for some paper and wrote
"Everyone! Hello, Hallelujah" and then said to me "Tell everyone
'Hallelujah'". When I asked why, he responded "Because God is good and
deserves being praised by everyone”.<br />
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Wednesday, March 7th, 2018: John's mind was meandering and he was musing about theology. I asked myself (aloud) "Are you leaving me?" and was surprised when John answered "No, I feel closer to you, not further away". I affirmed to John that his body was giving out and that he would be leaving the earth but would be with Jesus. And John replied "A new beautiful land appears -- a new world".<br />
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Rest in peace in that new land, beloved, until you and Eli are raised with healed bodies.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821678105140354829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-20618638955353412552018-02-21T15:14:00.001-05:002018-02-21T15:14:20.573-05:00Stairway to HeavenOr just a journey to work? Job requirements: a priestly calling and climbing ability up to 5.7. <div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the remote mountains of northern Ethiopia, </span><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-43079345/ethiopian-cliff-church-gives-priest-daily-test-of-faith" id="id_a307_9dcb_2df5_cb3e">a lone priest scales a 250m cliff each da</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">y to reach his church and study ancient books containing religious secrets.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div>John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-59450651999163171032018-01-18T13:31:00.001-05:002018-01-18T13:31:41.807-05:00Sulitest<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffOtL-xnV-nl_ILG5TIXepeErNyqi1jLFRxPuCxYhJ5Q8Hqho9zThfHh3D86bDhWD8dewM8s6kv-Txd90oqbnSggFM88BqP_IzHbGh7YlePkWu1XiyLfVMFDjZCCQ7dbFYKKn7KUjsFs/s1600/suli.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="447" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffOtL-xnV-nl_ILG5TIXepeErNyqi1jLFRxPuCxYhJ5Q8Hqho9zThfHh3D86bDhWD8dewM8s6kv-Txd90oqbnSggFM88BqP_IzHbGh7YlePkWu1XiyLfVMFDjZCCQ7dbFYKKn7KUjsFs/s200/suli.PNG" width="168" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sulitest report logo</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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I received an e-mailing from an organization called "Sulitest", which stans (I think) for SUstainability LIteracy TESTing. This is in fact one of the many ideas that are related to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro, 2012, and known as Rio+20 because it was a 20-year follow-up to the original Earth Summit also held in Rio - in 1992!<br />
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Specifically, Sulitest is part of the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI). The website says, <i>By joining the HESI, Chancellors,
Presidents, Rectors, Deans and leaders of Higher Education Institutions
and related organizations, acknowledged the responsibility that they
bear in the international pursuit of sustainable development.
They agree to teach Sustainable Development
concepts, encourage research on sustainable development issues, make
their campuses greener and more sustainable, support sustainability
efforts in their communities and share results through international
frameworks. </i><br />
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Has Penn State joined the HESI? Good question - and one that I don't know the answer to. One would suspect that the answer would be "yes", or why am I getting these mailings about Sulitest? On the other hand, even if Penn State <i>has</i> joined, why am I getting them? As you see, I really don't know.<br />
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What <i>is</i> Sulitest? That is a question I can answer, sort of. It is intended to provide an internationally-valid assessment tool for sustainability education. So that, any university course on sustainable development or something like that can have a 'final exam' that makes use of the Sulitest tool. There is also supposed to be a "teach yourself" facility so that any individual can use Sulitest to measure their own level of understanding.<br />
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I would like now to be able to report that I have taken the tool for a "test drive" and that my experiences have been so-and-so. Unfortunately when I try to do that, I am told that the "individual mode" is not yet available. Without personal experience, all I can say is that this is something interesting to watch. Having an assessment tool for one's understanding of sustainability which is recognized as having international validity is surely a worthwhile goal.<br />
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Here is a link to the <a href="https://www.sulitest.org/files/source/hlpf2017report.pdf" target="_blank">executive summary</a> of the Sulitest report, and here is a link to <a href="https://www.sulitest.org/en/" target="_blank">their front page</a>. <br /><i></i>John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-71672976497050518482018-01-11T11:53:00.002-05:002018-01-11T11:54:26.227-05:00Thy Word Is Truth<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnYKpNMWo-dv5UA0m4Pjj1K2k7PMg69RZQA1BQYw4E-OhChH80MYtLHAYnIsF8yZ9m_VmFf9EjocI3uFKZbzNz1PBjUi17wKuuyfrvu2HNIKRI-ngC4dMuP48NgaxuSbZN1I0McyTNp5w/s1600/stars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="177" data-original-width="284" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnYKpNMWo-dv5UA0m4Pjj1K2k7PMg69RZQA1BQYw4E-OhChH80MYtLHAYnIsF8yZ9m_VmFf9EjocI3uFKZbzNz1PBjUi17wKuuyfrvu2HNIKRI-ngC4dMuP48NgaxuSbZN1I0McyTNp5w/s200/stars.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starlight</td></tr>
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I was having my afternoon nap when my phone rang. Usually I remember to set it to "Do Not Disturb" during my nap, but this time I had forgotten.<br />
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"Hello, is that John? This is Matthew" began a bright, cheery voice, obviously launching into a script of some sort. [Name has been changed.]<br />
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I grunted something incoherent, in the way one does when one has just been woken up. But "Matthew" was unstoppable.<br />
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"I'm a financial advisor. I work with several of your neighbors and I'd like to help you too."<br />
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I grunted some more.<br />
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"Let's get some things straight. Tell me, do you have any investments with X or Y [two well-known mutual fund companies}?"<br />
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By this point I was awake and annoyed enough to cut "Matthew" off. How dare this person interrupt my rest in order to tell me half-truths about my neighbors and try to worm private information out of me?! Once, only a few people had my phone number. Now random people call me up and lie to me. The phone has become another means of communication that I have to treat defensively, remembering that the words I hear may be less than the truth.<br />
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<i><b>This</b> is the moment when I was flooded with joy.</i><br />
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The joy came with some content - I will try to express it as "God's word is truth" or "Truth is the language of God's kingdom" (see John 17:17). The world that we live in is full of "Matthews", and that means that we have to be aware - even half-awakened from a nap - that what we're hearing may be less than the full truth. But in God's kingdom we don't have to be defensive in this way. And, thus, in God's kingdom it will be safe for <i>us</i> to share the truth also. God's judgment simply means the light of truth shining everywhere in our hearts. All has been revealed! We have nothing to hide in our own speech, and nothing to be afraid of in the speech of others. What a joy! <br />
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This is what Psalm 19 means in comparing the truth of God's speech to the radiance of the sun and other beautiful metaphors:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="text Ps-19-9">The decrees of the <span class="small-caps" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> are firm,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-19-9">and all of them are righteous.</span></span><span class="text Ps-19-10" id="en-NIV-14179"><sup class="versenum"> </sup></span><br />
<span class="text Ps-19-10" id="en-NIV-14179">They are more precious than gold,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-19-10">than much pure gold;</span></span><br />
<span class="text Ps-19-10">they are sweeter than honey,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-19-10">than honey from the honeycomb.</span></span></blockquote>
As I simply <i>envisaged</i> this aspect of the life of God's kingdom, I was flooded with enough joy to completely overwhelm my annoyance at "Matthew's" interruption. Indeed, I am grateful that "Matthew" made it possible for me to experience the beauty of God's truth. That kingdom of truth is where I am called: yes, to inhabit it after death, but also to strike out for it now, as well as I am able.<br />
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"You will know the truth", says Jesus (John 8:32), "and the truth will set you free".<br />
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<span class="indent-1"><span class="text Ps-19-11"><br /></span></span>
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<div style="left: -99999px; position: absolute;">
What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.
Francis Bacon<br />
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/francis_bacon_149870</div>
<span class="indent-1"><span class="text Ps-19-11"><br /></span></span></div>
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John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-77665852253583909112017-12-20T14:41:00.000-05:002018-01-05T15:03:47.551-05:00Welcome to Newspeak<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi07pEdDuCRBVyQFHl9ScLm-r4qbFUS5CBnaEZ_xEvlX1fC9YtClcO-ioMCt2UGsqIDB9k3G9m2cpMKL2S-9b9Ve-9Px3HLBd1y9fhZWFPlU1DBbs0FAcHX6qSmtZ8pQRZkpgDlQ9vWGBo/s1600/manual.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="800" height="192" id="id_483b_6a6c_7602_20b6" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi07pEdDuCRBVyQFHl9ScLm-r4qbFUS5CBnaEZ_xEvlX1fC9YtClcO-ioMCt2UGsqIDB9k3G9m2cpMKL2S-9b9Ve-9Px3HLBd1y9fhZWFPlU1DBbs0FAcHX6qSmtZ8pQRZkpgDlQ9vWGBo/s320/manual.jpg" style="height: auto; width: 320px;" width="320" /></a></div>
George Orwell’s <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four</i> is a political satire written for its time (the late 1940s). Orwell extrapolates the totalitarian direction of the Stalinism of his day, and imagines what would happen if it were combined with ubiquitous surveillance technology. In the world of the novel, truth is no longer a constant, an unchangeable record of how things really are. Instead, "truth" varies from day to day according to the requirements of the Party. If the size of the crowd at a certain event was declared, by the Party, to have been the greatest ever - why, then, it <i>was</i> the greatest ever, and any historical record suggesting otherwise needed to be adjusted [this example is not an actual incident from <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four, </i>but a similar though more extreme "changing of gears" occurs at the beginning of the crucial Chapter IX of the book]. In fact, the Ministry of Truth, where the book's hero, Winston Smith, works, has as one of its main functions this continuous 'adjustment' of the historical record. Winston rebels, but by the end of the book he has been brought back into line; he will declare even that 2+2=5 if his Party torturer demands it.<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
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At the end of the book is an Appendix on <i>The Principles of Newspeak</i>. This is a completely different kind of writing, a pseudo-academic document, from the perspective (one imagines) of some future sociologist or historian, describing how this almost universal social control had been accomplished. Central was the control of <i>language,</i> and especially the <i>reduction</i> of available vocabulary. Ordinary English (<i>Oldspeak</i>) had been replaced by <i>Newspeak</i>. Orwell writes <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view... and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc [the Party ideology], but to make other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought - that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc - should be literally unthinkable.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and by stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meanings whatsoever... Newspeak was designed not to extend but to diminish the range of thought, and this purpose was indirectly assisted by cutting the choice of words down to a minimum.</blockquote>
Let me now take you back, not to 1984 but just to last week. What do the following words have in common?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Science-based. Evidence-based. Fetus.
Entitlement. Vulnerable. Transgender. Diversity. </b></div>
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You may have heard the truly 1984-like story that the Trump administration had forbidden (or at least "discouraged") the use of these words in the forthcoming budget request from the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</a><br />
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The CDC is, of course, the government's public health agency. Public health work has been <b>science-based</b> since Dr John Snow <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/broad-street-cholera-pump">removed the handle</a> of the Broad Street water pump in 1854. His study of the <b>evidence</b> led him to the (correct) conclusion that the drinking water drawn by this pump had become contaminated from a local cesspool, leading to a cholera outbreak. His work saved many lives, and led to the understanding that all citizens have an <b>entitlement</b> to clean, pure drinking water. Public health work including that of the CDC has continued to save lives, especially by focusing on <b>vulnerable</b> populations such as those at risk of prescription opioid addiction, unborn children (<b>fetuses</b>), or lesbian, gay, bisexual and <b>transgencer</b> people.<br />
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I apologize. Perhaps I am working too hard to make my point (which is, in fact, Orwell's point). Remove the language that is used for a certain kind of thought and you make that thought impossible. The kind of thought that these directives would make impossible for the CDC is in fact the kind of thought that is essential to its mission. The effect of these directives is therefore to change the mission of the CDC in a quite fundamental way (for instance, by forbidding the notion "evidence-based"), while appearing not to do so.<br />
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Faced with a wave of ridicule, it now appears that the government has walked back these directives somewhat. Perhaps they were never seriously intended in their original form. But it is likely that attacks like this on science and the scientific method will continue. A government whose approach to the issue of climate change is to scrub references to the concept from the EPA's website is sadly delusional. We can only wonder what will come next.<br />
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Some of my colleagues believe that one thing that may come next is a sudden outpouring of public support for "science" - thought of as <i>an evidence-based process for generating and refining knowledge</i>. This is not so clear to me. When we scientists have been asked to speak publicly about the significance of our work, we have often pointed to the material goods that it has enabled us to produce, or enabled us to produce more cheaply. In my world of mathematics, we've spoken about elliptic curves and then public key cryptography and its foundational role in the financial system - credit cards, Amazon, online stock trading,... Or we've talked of general relativity and its effect on satellite orbits, segueing into GPS and online mapping.<br />
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Yes, it's certainly true that our evidence-based search for truth has turned up many materially valuable goodies. But there is no reason to believe it will continue to do so. Suppose the most important result that science turns up is, "Change your habits or you will bring about the end of your comfortable way of life!" - a fair enough <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/a2699x50iwf7lvr/Final-Draft-of-the-Climate-Science-Special-Report.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank">summary</a> of decades of careful research on climate change compiled into the report of the US Global Change Research Program (28 June 2017). Will this evidence-based news be automatically welcomed? Experience dating back to Jeremiah and the prophets suggests that the answer is probably "No!". It's more likely that "those with power" will be deluded that by destroying the <i>words</i> of the report, they are somehow avoiding its <i>message</i> (Jeremiah 36). Wait... does this sound familiar somehow?<br />
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No, we scientists have enjoyed a good run, but we can't assume it will continue. Indeed, if we stop delivering "the goods", we could face a genuine revolt against science, of which the CDC's list of seven forbidden words is just a preliminary sign. I am not sure what happens then. Jeremiah, remember, spent most of his prophetic career in prosperous times. The disaster that he foretold kept being postponed. There was one "pause" after another in the anticipated northern threat to Jerusalem. But Jeremiah was steadfast and consistent in his warning. As a result, he was able to provide (in his old age) a source of advice that was respected by the exilic (post-collapse) community (see Jeremiah 29). Can we see any parallels here?<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">PS: I don't usually include directly political material in my postings. But I think it is relevant to mention the name of <a href="https://foster.house.gov/" target="_blank">Congressman Bill Foster</a>. He is the only PhD scientist in either the House of Representatives or the Senate. One might think it was important that a reasonable number of our legislators were trained in the methods of science, but apparently the electorate as a whole does not. By contrast, over 40% of members of the House are trained as lawyers; for the Senate, the figure is over 60%. </span></div>
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John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-14368862856056399102017-12-11T16:31:00.001-05:002017-12-11T16:31:23.371-05:00Waiting close<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When we lost Eli - nearly two years ago now - a great many decisions had to be made in a hurry. We quickly decided that his body should be cremated, but what should be the resting-place for his remains? We are fortunate that there was a natural answer. Some years ago, wise and generous donors endowed our church with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbarium"><i>columbarium</i></a> - a place (actually part of the church building with a little garden) which provides spaces where the cremated remains of church members may be respectfully stored. I love the symbolism here - that when we currently-living members enter in to worship we do so in the company of a whole fellowship of believers extended backwards through time. In England one often enters the village church through the graveyard, receiving a similar message about the "communion of saints".<br />
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As you can see from the picture, each niche in the columbarium can hold two sets of remains. When we laid Eli to rest, that did seem as though it might be a problem. It was not long, however, before we found out that the space we had reserved for the second occupant was going to be needed soon enough - for me! So, once the stupid cancer has its stupid way with me, I will rest close to Eli as we both await the general resurrection.<br />
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"Hang on a moment", someone will say. "What's this about <i>awaiting</i> something? I thought Christians believed that when you die you go straight to Heaven to be with Jesus. That's the happy ending, isn't it?" It is certainly <i>happy</i> - happy enough that Jesus can say to the dying thief on the cross, "This day you will be with me in Paradise"; happy enough that Paul can say that "to die is gain" for someone in his position. I believe our rest will be a <i>happy</i> rest. But <i>ending</i>? There is more to the story than perpetual rest, as we confess each time we say the Apostle's Creed: I believe in the <i>resurrection of the body</i>. That is not just about Jesus' resurrection on the third day. Paul insists in I Corinthians 15 that the resurrected body of Jesus is an <i>example</i> of what resurrected bodies - <i>our </i>resurrected bodies - will be like in general. And this matters - for the world, for me, but intensely and profoundly for my dear Eli. I want to try to explain why.<br />
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Jesus, presently "seated at the right hand of the Father" (the Creed again), is not planning to stay there for ever. At some moment in future history he bursts out of heaven, returning to earth with clouds of glory and great fanfare. And the point of this spectacle isn't to snatch the last remaining Christians from the planet before letting it fizzle up. This is a genuine <i>return </i>- Jesus is coming back to implement his kingdom, his rule, in a restored Earth where people will live in restored bodies. "If we have been united with him in a death like his", writes Paul, "we shall surely also be united with him in a resurrection like his".<br /><br />To be sure, Jesus' resurrection body could do some things that regular physical bodies don't do these days. But it was not a ghost: it was <i>perfected </i>physicality. Paul elaborates on this too, using the analogy of the body as a seed. "It is sown in weakness: it is raised in power. It is sown in dishonor: it is raised in glory."<br /><br />
For two years now, each time I read this passage I tear up. For many years, Eli (or Miriam)'s struggle was with their body. Dysphoria meant that this body <i>never </i>felt quite right. Try honestly to imagine it. While most of us get out of bed in the morning glad to be "enfleshed", to be alive and to have a body that feels right and acts as we expect, I think that each morning Eli had to struggle to put on his body like putting on an ill-fitting suit of clothes. He kept trying to get it right. Sometimes he got closer, sometimes further away. And then, one evening, troubled beyond all these issues by an infection that made us all feel miserable, he could not take it any more.<br /><br />What is my ultimate hope for Eli? A disembodied, spiritual life with Jesus? No! He needs a body which <i>works </i>for him - a body that is a focus of joy, not of pain and frustration - a body that enables the communication of love - a body that places him in lasting relationship with the creation and its Creator. That is the promise of the resurrection! "It is sown in dishonor: it is <b>raised in glory</b>". That is the day I look forward to also. "Beloved, we are God's children <i>now</i>" writes the aging John to his congregations, and continues: "We do not yet know what we shall become, but we know that when we see Him we shall be like Him, because <i>we shall see Him as he is.</i>" (I John 3:2)<br />
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Amen<br />
<br />John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-53709589803060510612017-11-24T10:24:00.000-05:002017-11-24T10:24:07.740-05:00Manifesto, Part IIA week or two ago I put up a post called <a href="https://points-of-inflection.blogspot.com/2017/10/manifesto.html"><i>Manifesto</i></a>. The idea was to ask myself what I - or what <i>Points of Inflection</i> - should be standing for in these serious days. It looks as though my <i>own</i> days are short - but if they were long, if I were writing a manifesto for some kind of gathering or movement, what would I emphasize as centrally important? And in such a document I'd want to bring together both the hard-headed mathematical analysis that I've tried to do, and also the spiritual or even "prophetic" critique which tries to understand the 'principalities and powers' that are in action behind the upheavals of recent times and which we can expect in the future. So, in the first <i>Manifesto</i> post, I revisited the idea that <i>materialism</i> bears responsibility for our woes, and found it misguided: I felt our problem was that we did not revere materiality <i>enough</i>, not that we revered it <i>too much</i>.<br />
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In this second post I want to explore a contrast which I think has to be part of the manifesto: <i>the cycle and the line. </i>(If you like puns, let's call them the <i>exercise cycle</i> and the <i>waste line</i>.)<br /><i></i><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8F36_co4qZIbX4qJNJtF2LrPJbolYb8PsdySYFAJ1ZJDru9ykvSYmIs1_53_eJANIlvBkaQr76qHBz9rMZKgCbofMJ4Wx6rR6vbsGUh5cVhDHuNGHA87CncvcxmRbmBvbRbpYNUl6JF8/s1600/johncyc.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="631" data-original-width="1097" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8F36_co4qZIbX4qJNJtF2LrPJbolYb8PsdySYFAJ1ZJDru9ykvSYmIs1_53_eJANIlvBkaQr76qHBz9rMZKgCbofMJ4Wx6rR6vbsGUh5cVhDHuNGHA87CncvcxmRbmBvbRbpYNUl6JF8/s400/johncyc.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cycle versus the line (sketch)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Pardon my less than beautiful sketch. You can find some much clearer diagrams of the same sort in <a href="https://math-for-sustainability.com/"><i>Mathematics for Sustainability</i></a> - hint, hint. What it indicates is a fundamental <i>structural </i>difference between the kinds of processes that are part of the Earth's natural ecosystem and the kinds of processes that<i> </i>tend to be valorized by our industrial society. The processes of the first kind are <i>cyclic</i>. For instance: Powered by the steady flow of energy from the sun, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, turning it into organic material that we can eat (aka food!) and oxygen that we can breathe. Animals like us reverse the process. Nothing is wasted; everything, in principle, can be reused for ever. By contrast, the processes of the second kind are "one way journeys from resource to waste". For example, high-energy fuel (like oil) is extracted from the ground and converted into plastic. Plastic is an amazing material especially in its resistance to biological decomposition. After its useful life, typically a few months, is over, the plastic be thrown "away": but there is no real "away", in fact the plastic will <a href="https://www.citylab.com/environment/2016/07/ocean-garbage-patches-animation-model-noaa/493007/">persist in our environment</a> for thousands upon thousands of years. A <a href="https://points-of-inflection.blogspot.com/2015/07/chapter-one-our-common-home.html">throwaway society</a> has been created in which traditional virtues (such as thrift) have been upended and where more and more parts of the Creation can be regarded as "disposable".<br />
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My <i>Manifesto</i> would aim to embed this fundamental distinction into the way we think and act at all levels of society. Certainly the difference between "the cycle and the line" can be taught in school. Our worship as Christians can emphasize that when we participate in a shared meal (say) - and especially in the great shared meal of Holy Communion - we are also taking part in a natural cycle during which God has caused bread to "spring forth from the earth" and has once again brought forth "the fruit of the vine" - <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/90551/jewish/Texts-of-Blessings-Before-Eating.htm">Jewish blessings before food</a> remind us that our elder brethren have been here ahead of us. I'm also thinking of basic things like accounting processes though. Standard accounting methods like the measurement of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product">GDP</a> for a nation or the "bottom line" for an individual company are likely to give a high positive value to processes of the "waste line" type - the UK Natural Capital Committee said in 2013 that GDP<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
focuses on flows, not stocks. As a result, an economy can run down its
assets yet, at the same time, record high levels of GDP growth.</blockquote>
If we could change our basic accounting measures - the basic structure of how we value things in monetary terms - to give a <i>negative </i>value to the "waste line", and if companies and individuals internalized this sufficiently to act on this new measure of value, then our society would move away from "throwaway" and towards "sustainable". But notice that a change in the basic structure of what is valued above all else is, in truth, a change in our <i>worship</i>. Such a change will not come about without a struggle.<br />
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<b>Note:</b> Some might be skeptical of the argument made above from a Biblical Theology perspective. Didn't we (some of us) learn from the biblical theology movement of the 1950s and 60s about the contrast between "Greek and Hebrew thought", the fact that the Hebrew understanding of God at work in history made it possible to see the world as moving forward, towards a purpose, rather than spinning pointlessly round and round? Isn't what I'm saying just going back on that, in fact reintroducing some kind of Nature-worship? (Many evangelicals are suspicious that this is the secret agenda of the environmental movement anyhow - go Google "resisting the Green Dragon" if you find this hard to believe). But I don't see this objection holding up. The world that God has made does indeed have a Great Story that moves forward to its consummation in the new heavens and the new earth - but it also has natural cycles of various kinds, many of which are acknowledged and celebrated in Scripture. It is a pretty poor argument, to claim that since Christian history sees the world moving forward to a new creation, it therefore justifies the creation-dishonoring exploitation of the world as we have it now. <br />
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<br />John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-25911749130990565782017-11-18T20:22:00.002-05:002017-11-18T20:22:42.812-05:00My mission statementI can't remember, to be honest, when I first got the idea of a personal mission statement. It was quite a while ago - I would say before the word "mission statement" had become part of standard managerial-ese, an idea to dread as much as to welcome. Nowadays it sometimes seems that a highfalutin "mission statement", heavy on jargon and light on content, is a required component of any kind of planning for something new. <i>Dilbert</i>, as usual, neatly satirizes the trend:<br />
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But wherever it came from for me - perhaps from Stephen Covey's <i>Seven Habits</i>, perhaps from thinking about my impending duties as department head, perhaps somewhere else - I found the idea of a personal mission statement a helpful one. Not something that would necessarily set objectives for me every day - but something that I could review prayerfully, every day, to remind me what was important. Various versions of this have lived with me over the years - currently it is incorporated into <i>PrayerMate</i>, the excellent iPad app that I use to remind me about daily prayer items. [Splitting it into daily items in this way has allowed me to add comments - "Move out of the comfort zone" has somehow acquired the comment "When was I last in it?"] But while tidying up my desk (actually, while rectifying the consequences of near-disastrously spilling my drink around the router) I found an old copy with the nine points neatly listed. I wondered if I should share them. Please ignore these if they are of no use to you, but here they are:<br />
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<b>John's Mission Statement</b></div>
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All to the glory of God</div>
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Succeed at home first</div>
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Communicate every day</div>
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Seek the heart of worship</div>
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Move out of the comfort zone</div>
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Teach from the heart</div>
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Prepare the ground for insight</div>
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Start with what matters most</div>
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Love alone endures</div>
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It is hard to write these things without being all too aware of how I have failed to live up to the aspirations they represent; but, as I approach the end of earthly life, I do feel that by and large those aspirations were solid ones, worth aiming for, and worth seeking Grace for when I miss the mark.</div>
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John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-5817793874747620102017-11-14T12:27:00.001-05:002017-11-14T12:41:46.775-05:00“Mathematics for Sustainability” sent to SpringerFriends -<div><br></div><div>I am very excited to share with you the news that <i>Mathematics for Sustainability</i> has been sent off to Springer-Verlag, the publisher, for copy-editing. During the past couple of months we have been responding to comments from Springer’s readers, and from other friends who have reviewed the manuscript for us, and their input has helped us significantly improve the book. Now that work is done.</div><div><br></div><div>This is the next-to-final step in the publication process. The copy-editors read the book looking for spelling errors, misplaced punctuation, and things like that. This job will take a couple of weeks. After that, we get to review and incorporate the copy-editors’ corrections (together with any additional minor changes of our own), and then return the <b>final</b> book version to Springer. At that point everything is out of our hands and the physical process of printing can start.</div><div><br></div><div>It is so exciting to have reached this point! I would like to take the time to once again acknowledge (split infinitive! Don’t tell the copy-editor!) the enormous gift that my coauthor Russ deForest has made in bringing the project to completion, especially in recent months when illness has limited the amount I can contribute. Thank you!</div><div><br></div><div>We were honored to hear a few days ago that as well as listing it in their series <i>Mathematics of Planet Earth</i>, Springer have also chosen our book to inaugurate a completely new publication series, <i>Texts for Quantitative Critical Thinking</i>. This is a strong push from our publisher and helps convey their confidence in the work we have done.</div><div><br></div><div>We were also honored by a most gracious and lovely foreword contributed by Francis Su, past president of the MAA. Here is part of what he wrote (addressed directly to students):</div><div><br></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div><i>Here’s what stands out to me when I read this book: there are many math books that will feed you knowledge, but it is rare to see a book like this one that will help you cultivate wisdom.</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>There is a deep difference between knowledge and wisdom. A knowledgeable person may be armed with facts, but a wise person considers how to act in light of those facts. A knowledgeable person may think an answer is the end of an investigation, whereas a wise person considers the new questions that result. And a knowledgeable person might ignore the human element of a problem that a wise person deems essential to understand. As the authors illustrate, mathematics that pays attention to human considerations can help you look at the world with a new lens, help you frame important questions, and help you make wise decisions.</i></div><div><br></div><div style="text-align: left;">Amen! I truly hope and trust that this book will help its readers cultivate wisdom.</div><div><br></div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-36509791836906388602017-11-09T11:31:00.002-05:002017-11-11T11:01:51.444-05:00Transforming<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhTdzqofKE_VRrzZ9s6KNlB_fvHx7Lz-htsNBSzzz7e7NuNF8dUoLB38PnUueApOLUVs_xrG1FfJRDAWg9IavokFvcn8Rc_0rGcbvhDEhcmX7-PXzIk5BjCqpf__1q63nXvl89wVi7cq4/s1600/Transforming.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1177" data-original-width="809" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhTdzqofKE_VRrzZ9s6KNlB_fvHx7Lz-htsNBSzzz7e7NuNF8dUoLB38PnUueApOLUVs_xrG1FfJRDAWg9IavokFvcn8Rc_0rGcbvhDEhcmX7-PXzIk5BjCqpf__1q63nXvl89wVi7cq4/s320/Transforming.jpg" width="219" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover of <i>Transforming</i></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoaPqkB6kxF1jDBhs-TCRLADy9pb2WPv4ktgusLYAkPz6NRZrakXHdTslliqFTobhZ1wyeELUhhuL1mgKXUgXvvKt3AMUF7ahOaaZGEiT1qqF0K19KUDaDdBB63Dm8ZuAULPtkTro_CfI/s1600/Transforming.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span id="goog_142963385"></span><span id="goog_142963386"></span></a>A sweet gift arrived in my email last month. It was a PDF file containing a review copy of <i>Transforming</i>, Austen Hartke's forthcoming new book about the Bible and the lives of transgender Christians (#TransformingBook - it is available for preorder: if you have a <a href="https://heartsandmindsbooks.com/" target="_blank">local Christian bookstore</a>, please support their business by preordering from them, or you can preorder it <a href="https://t.co/b0sa8L9oDm" target="_blank">here</a> from you-know-who in Seattle). Publication date is early April next year and, sadly, I don't expect to be around to hold a copy in my hands. But Austen is a good friend and knows how much this project - a project that only he could carry out - has meant to me. So when he obtained some electronic "review copies" he was gracious enough to send one on. As it happens, the email arrived just at a moment when I had been feeling sad about not being able to see this book, and it lit up my face when I realized what it was!<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Austen (Twitter: @AustenLionheart) is a transgender Christian and theology student (MA in Biblical Studies) who has been sharing brief, thought-provoking videos on what it is to be transgender and Christian for several years now. (His YouTube channel can be found<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ArienKatrim" target="_blank"> here</a>.) Our dear child Eli (Miriam) met Austen at a Reformation Project conference in the summer of 2015, and Eli frequently spoke of Austen as one of the trans Christians whom he admired and wished he could bring to speak at Penn State. After we <a href="http://receivingme.net/" target="_blank">lost Eli in 2016</a>, we (Eli's parents) were able to bring part of these wishes to reality by a speaker series in Eli's honor, and Austen indeed spoke at Penn State in March 2017; you can find a video of his presentation, jointly with Allyson Robinson, at <a href="https://areyoureceivingmeblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/23/2016-17-events/" target="_blank">this page</a> or directly on YouTube <a href="https://youtu.be/i6LDAbkMe8o" target="_blank">here</a>. During the preparation for this event, I had the privilege of getting to know Austen better, as an articulate and thoughtful speaker and thinker and - more important - as a brother in Christ, fellow heir to the kingdom, and voice of encouragement (as I know he has been to so many transgender Christians through his videos and personal ministry). Now Austen is extending his ministry through the gift of this book.<br />
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I asked him if I could write a brief review and he said "sure". So here are a few quick take-homes to whet your appetite for publication date.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Who should read this book?</b> It will be a help to several different groups of people. If you're a Christian wondering about your gender identity, or convinced that you belong somewhere in the "transgender" description but wondering whether or how God's love can reach someone such as you, you need this book. Or if you are a parent or friend of someone in the first category, and you're wondering how on earth to navigate through a world that seems suddenly to have shifted. Or if you are a pastor or ministry leader thinking in advance (good for you!) about how to make your ministry more welcoming, or about what you will do when a trans* person walks into your church and seeks the welcome of the Lord's Supper or the opportunity to serve by leading a Bible study. </li>
<li><b>What is in the book?</b> There are two parts. Part I offers a quick introduction to three key themes: the history of how transgender people became the focus of recent culture-war battles, a review of the terminology of sex and gender, and a discussion of three ways of understanding gender dysphoria presented in Mike Yarhouse's recent book <i>Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture.</i> In the much longer Part II, Austen interweaves discussion of biblical and theological themes with personal stories. Thus, we ask what does the creation story tell us about gender? what do the many "name changes" in the Bible signify about name changes for trans* people? how does God "break the rules to get you in" (see Isaiah 56, a chapter that has meant much to many trans* people including Austen himself)? why is it important that "even Jesus had a body"? But in answering these questions we also learn the stories of M Barclay, the first nonbinary deacon commissioned in the United Methodist Church; River Hammond, who had to struggle so hard to get people to honor their new name that "I had to turn into an unpleasant person for a while.... Just two months ago (this is several years after transition) my mother called me River for the first time"; Lynn Young, rooted in a deep experience of "belonging to God" received as a child, and later discovering zir Native American heritage and identifying as a "two-spirit" person within that tradition; as well as many others. These stories help us understand that there is no one "correct" way of being transgender - a great help if the only trans* narratives that one has heard are the dramatic ones that make it to the evening news.</li>
<li><b>What next?</b> There is a chapter towards the end of the book called <i>Life Beyond Apologetics</i>. "Apologetics" is a technical word that means something like "defending oneself theologically". 1 Peter 3:15 says that <i>all</i> Christians should be ready to defend their faith in this way by answering the questions of unbelievers; but sadly, transgender people are all too familiar with the need to defend themselves against their <i>fellow believers</i> who want to deny or restrict their ability to live as their authentic selves. Perhaps it is inevitable, at the present time, that apologetics takes up a large part of what is written on trans* people and Christian faith, but I know from conversation with Eli how exhausting it is continually to have to adopt a defensive stance. Which Christians are safe to talk to? Which restrooms are safe to enter? I speak only as an ally (a.k.a. a person, hopefully of goodwill, who has not really experienced what they are talking about) but I hope for the day when apologetics gets just a single chapter in a book like this one (maybe the sequel?) and the rest is full of examples of the new and previously unimaginable good gifts that transgender people have brought. As Austen says in this chapter, let's move from tales of "gender dysphoria" to "gender euphoria": "the contentment, authenticity and joy that you feel when you get to be yourself". But to achieve this, "it is a good and healthy thing to realize that the theological crumbs (of apologetics) that we once cherished are no longer enough - we need a full, whole grain loaf of the bread of life." (Can you tell that Austen is a baker?) </li>
</ul>
This book is a wonderful gift. Make a note to go buy it when it appears!<br />
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<br />John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-18626288958319189772017-11-07T16:02:00.000-05:002017-11-07T19:55:33.086-05:00That Amazing Photograph<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSzUYuO-WRtJ0-CuE8o7tPt8hiyQnXZVq-w8r7sKWcb1rgMoeXcGoFCWHgkLzl2G5MFud2uUjNz_NKvVnH5_hThE1Q_a2TrPNMVsYRyw1nMst_xxBeTciEmoJyVrwPRibU3EdgQm-07Io/s1600/In+the+Ahwahnee+dining+room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSzUYuO-WRtJ0-CuE8o7tPt8hiyQnXZVq-w8r7sKWcb1rgMoeXcGoFCWHgkLzl2G5MFud2uUjNz_NKvVnH5_hThE1Q_a2TrPNMVsYRyw1nMst_xxBeTciEmoJyVrwPRibU3EdgQm-07Io/s320/In+the+Ahwahnee+dining+room.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John and Liane in the Ahwahnee Dining Room, May 2016</td></tr>
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In my <a href="https://points-of-inflection.blogspot.com/2017/11/ezer-kenegdo.html" target="_blank">last post</a>, I mentioned that there was a tale to tell about this picture of Liane and me in the dining room at the Ahwahnee, at the beginning of our Yosemite trip in May 2016.<br />
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We're both quite down-to-earth people. Strange, "touched-by-an-angel" experiences happen to someone else - not to us. Yet we'd both agree that the journey that culminated in this picture was one of the strangest we have ever experienced. There was a message at its heart - a message of grace and tenderness, a message that we were granted at the exact time we needed it.<br />
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So what's the story? I think it is our first day in Yosemite, May 16th that would be if I am right. In the morning we had decided to test my mobility by hiking from the hotel up to Mirror Lake, a distance of a mile or so. With the aid of my trusty hiking poles I am able to manage this without much problem. As we approach the lake we decide to pause for a rest. There is a fallen tree trunk that leans out over the water, and we hike a little off-trail to go sit on this tree trunk at the edge of the lake - to soak up the beauty of Yosemite and, probably, to mull over what lies ahead for us as a result of the cancer diagnosis I have just received. I don't remember many words being said, or needed.<br />
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Suddenly, a shout from a hiker on the trail interrupts our contemplation. "Excuse me", she says as she scrambles down to join us. "I couldn't help noticing you and thinking what a beautiful picture you made - a picture of a couple truly in love. I'd be privileged if you'd let me take a picture with your phone, so that you can see what I saw."<br />
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OK, I confess, the thought went through my mind: 'Is this some scam to steal my phone?' But it felt as though something real and deep was going on. We agreed, and I lent my phone to this passing stranger who scrambled back to the trail, took a few shots, and came back to give me the phone with its pictures: "So glad to be able to do that for you. Have a great day!"<br />
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Wait a minute, you say, John and Liane are not sitting on a log by a lake in the picture <i>I</i> just saw! No, indeed. I still have the picture of us on the log and it is one I love to look at. But it is not <i>the</i> picture. That came a little later.<br />
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You see, we gathered ourselves together, a bit bewildered that a complete stranger had found us photogenic in this way, and we hiked back to the hotel. It was now about 2:00 - late enough that it was possible to secure a table for a late lunch. In fact, the dining room was quite empty and we were directed to a beautiful location by a window. We were sitting there waiting for our meal to arrive when the strangest thing happened...<br />
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A smartly-dressed lady walks over from another table across the room. Somehow I knew what she was going to say as soon as she started. "I am a professional photographer... I was admiring the picture that you two make in the window over there... I would be honored if you would allow me to take your photograph... picture of real love..."<br />
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<i>That</i> is the photograph that you see. It comes about after we were told for the second time in the same day that the love between us was somehow visible. Neither of the people who told us that could have known that we were heading into a time of our lives when we would need to lean heavily on the strength of that love, or that a reminder of what we meant to one another would be specially meaningful that particular day. They reacted to what they saw. But I can't help believing that Someone had a message for us that day, and underlined it by repeating it twice in almost exactly the same way. And the reminder in that message was not just how closely we held one another in love, but how closely we both were held - and still are held - by the love of God.<br />
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<br />John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-81264649457725951212017-11-04T21:05:00.000-04:002017-11-04T21:05:26.567-04:00Ezer Kenegdo<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSzUYuO-WRtJ0-CuE8o7tPt8hiyQnXZVq-w8r7sKWcb1rgMoeXcGoFCWHgkLzl2G5MFud2uUjNz_NKvVnH5_hThE1Q_a2TrPNMVsYRyw1nMst_xxBeTciEmoJyVrwPRibU3EdgQm-07Io/s1600/In+the+Ahwahnee+dining+room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSzUYuO-WRtJ0-CuE8o7tPt8hiyQnXZVq-w8r7sKWcb1rgMoeXcGoFCWHgkLzl2G5MFud2uUjNz_NKvVnH5_hThE1Q_a2TrPNMVsYRyw1nMst_xxBeTciEmoJyVrwPRibU3EdgQm-07Io/s320/In+the+Ahwahnee+dining+room.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John and Liane in the Ahwahnee Dining Room, May 2016</td></tr>
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I've received such a lot of encouraging letters (both the paper and the e-mail kind) recently. Not only letters of sympathy or prayer - though there have been plenty of those too, and they mean more than I can say. Right now I'm thinking more of those readers who want to express their thanks for the encouragement <i>they</i> have found in the material I've been posting on my blogs, either here, or on <a href="https://caringbridge.org/visit/johnxroe" target="_blank"><i>Caring Bridge</i></a>, or <a href="http://receivingme.net/" target="_blank"><i>Receiving Me</i></a>, or my <a href="https://sites.psu.edu/johnroe" target="_blank"><i>math blog</i></a>, or in other places. Some want to say "your faith is so inspiring". Some want to say "I
count among my dearest blessings the opportunity to get to know you and
to be touched by your wisdom and friendship." Some want to say "It is really remarkable how you combine rationality and science,
your faith, and such a positive attitude on the realities of life, in
such a beautiful way." It is great to know that what was written partly as a
way to share news and partly, let's be fair, as a kind of therapy for
myself, has turned out also to mean so much
to so many other readers. This brings me great joy and thankfulness. But it's also made it clear to me that I desire to make a public acknowledgment, a "thank you". Read on - this is it.<br />
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Yes, there is a public acknowledgment that I desire to make. Apparently, quite a few people find an unusual combination of insights in this corpus of writing I have created as death approaches. Okay, then, where do these insights come from? Not just from me, that is for sure. If you had known me as a young adult you would have seen a clever guy, an argumentative guy, someone who knew a lot (though not as much as he thought he knew) about mathematics and theology and electronics and sailing and a whole collection of other things - but you would not have seen someone who was able to make the kind of personal connections that people are finding and valuing in my writing today. Though I would have affirmed (in the words of 1 Corinthians 13) that love is superior to all knowledge, all verbal dexterity, all checking off the boxes on charitable giving, I do not know how much that affirmation would have meant to me personally. I was, at heart, a theorist: and the gospel is not a theory.<br />
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So, what is different now? The answer has a name, and her name is Liane. When I met Liane I was soon deeply attracted to so many things about her: her thoughtfulness, her character, her care for others, the detailed way all these things were expressed. Yes, indeed, also the beauty of her smile. That beautiful smile still has the power to turn my heart inside out! But we met while I was on a relatively short visit to the US as a post-doctoral student; after that our courtship had to be conducted almost entirely by mail, with me in England and she in the US, so I didn't get to see that smile as much as I would have liked. (Yes, kids, "mail" does mean "snail mail" - waiting several weeks for each answer, each letter saved and treasured - we both still have them!) But beyond all that, through courtship and marriage and time in England and the USA, I was learning from Liane to prioritize people, not just ideas. To build relationships, not just to execute calculations. It seems dumb, but I think I remember saying to her in the course of some early discussion, "You mean to say that sometimes other things are more important than being right?" Well, yes. Sometimes - often, indeed - being right is not the top priority. It may not help anyone (even if, as a matter of fact, you <i>are </i>right). Prioritize people instead. I needed to learn that. If some of my readers are being helped by my writing now, I believe it's partly because I <i>did </i>learn it. And I learned it from Liane.<br />
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There is some divine humor at work here. Liane would be the first to tell you that <i>she</i> is not naturally very skilled at relationships or people-orientation. But from the day in her early teens when she committed herself to become a Jesus-follower, she realized that a relational focus, an orientation to community, is one of the key marks of the kingdom that Jesus came to establish. "People will know you are my disciples by the way you love" (John 13:35). So she strove to develop the mind-set and the skills that are needed to attend to others, to really listen, to keep up a personal connection from day to day and week to week. When she met a guy who may have been intellectually sharp as a razor but who needed some<i> - </i>should we say <i>tutoring?</i> - in these relational areas, she was equipped to help him learn.<br />
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There is a wonderful Hebrew phrase, "ezer kenegdo", which is used in Genesis 2:18 to describe God's creation of a "suitable helper" for the male human, Adam. The poet Dryden rendered this as "help-meet" and this has got transmuted in some parts of modern Christianity into a lot of nonsense about how "woman" is naturally man's subordinate, the "executive assistant" to his "company president". This idea is way out of line with the meaning of the word "ezer" for helper - which, apart from this passage, is almost always used of how God is Israel's helper and rescuer, hardly a subordinate position - and "kenegdo" which means something like "appropriate" or "matching" - "the embodiment of inner and outer encouragement", in the words of biblical scholar G. von Rad. What I am trying to say is that our marriage - our "ezer kenegdo" relationship - made it possible for me to learn deeply what it means to prioritize people and relationships. This was a gift that completely changed my life for the better - and when kind folks now tell me how meaningful my writing is to them, they are, whether they know it or not, giving thanks for the gift that Liane has been giving me for thirty years and more - not just for whatever gifts I may have started out with at the beginning of this journey.<br />
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The photo above shows the two of us in the dining room of the "Majestic Yosemite Hotel" in spring 2016. We had just recently lost our child Eli (Miriam), and then soon after had received my diagnosis of incurable cancer. This could (should?) have been the darkest moment of our lives. But is that what you see when you look at the photo? I don't see it. What I do see is, well, "the embodiment of inner and outer encouragement" - going both ways, giving and receiving joy even in the depths of pain. I have been so fortunate in this gift. If you get anything out of my writing I believe you are sharing in that good fortune. I want to gratefully acknowledge it, from the depths of my heart, while I still can. Beloved - thank you.<br />
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PS: There's a quite amazing backstory to this photo. I'll post about that another time. <br />
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<br />John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-35456834247609883162017-10-28T13:26:00.000-04:002018-02-14T20:55:43.632-05:00If you die, we split your gearUntil some major life event draws near (a house move, a death, perhaps a separation) it is hard for one to realize just how much <i>stuff</i> one has accumulated around one's existence. Much of it has brought joy or has enabled joyful experiences, but as the end draws near one wonders: what next for this stuff? How can it continue to bring joy to others? How can we avoid it becoming simply a burden, a nuisance, until - stripped of meaning - it just ends up as someone's waste?<br />
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This question has weighed on me in regard to several groups of things. What of my books? What of my rock-climbing gear? What of the surplus air-miles in my travel account? And I've been working on trying to share them in a joy-bringing way. The air miles, for instance, went to bring three working pastors (who could not otherwise have afforded the travel) to the <i><a href="https://www.reformationproject.org/" target="_blank">Reformation Project</a></i> conference in Chicago this weekend. And as for the climbing gear - Well, I had a bright idea to share it with my friends at Seneca Rocks Mountain Guides. I've enjoyed their comradeship and encouragement almost since my first visit to Seneca, in October 1998. And Seneca has become one of the special places in my life, a "thin place", a window into joy. What better than to give back? Well, as I said, I had an idea. I shared it with Diane Kearns, one of the co-owners of SRMG and someone who's been a friend to me and to my family. She took it and ran with it a bit. The above little video is the result. I hope you enjoy it!John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-80859856470383282352017-10-22T19:50:00.000-04:002017-10-22T19:50:19.597-04:00Manifesto<div class="tr_bq">
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I have been posting regularly here at <i>Points of Inflection</i> since 2011, or about six years. A lot has happened in that time. The intention was to write down my thoughts and reflections about mathematics and sustainability, and especially about the challenges presented by the GreenFaith program that I had just joined. But our youngest child was just about to embark on a journey of gender dysphoria, a gender which would test their courage to the limit and beyond, a journey to bleak places of mental illness, a journey that would ultimately bring us all to a place of terrible loss. And that's spilled over onto <i>Points of Inflection</i>, though I've tried also to make a more focused site at <i><a href="https://receivingme.net/" target="_blank">Are You Receiving Me?</a></i></div>
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And then at some point during that awful journey, and during the original thinking process that this blog was intended to document, came the call from the family doctor - "I want you to make an appointment with a brain surgeon". Though it turned out that a brain surgeon was not who I needed (that was the result of some strange appearances on the MRI) I did need some very delicate surgery, which I received at Johns' Hopkins, and when it and chemo and radiation were done there was still some chance of a recurrence. Guess what? I was in the recurrence group. So I am now looking at <a href="https://caringbridge.org/visit/johnxroe" target="_blank">life-ending metastatic cancer</a>, and meanwhile I have <b>just</b> finished <i>Math for Sustainability</i> thanks to the wonderful work of coauthors Russ and Sara, and it will, I hope, appear early next year. I am really blessed by the gift of this team to work with.<br />
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So it feels like time to write a "manifesto". If I wanted to say something for the future, for the next six years, what would it be? Are there ways in which I would want to change the fundamental metaphor of "points of inflection"? Is there something I'd like to add? Some error I feel I should defend against?<br />
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Here's a really early post which I still feel hits the nail right on the head. A new manifesto, if there is such a thing, should start here I think.<br />
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American households are drowning in "stuff". But why?
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There's a ready answer that many preachers and people of faith would
give. Materialism! Too much attention, too much attachment to physical
objects; not enough to the realm of the spirit. Surely this is the
ground for a culture of endless accumulation.
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I don't think this is right; or, a least, I don't think it cuts deep
enough. When you think of a greedy materialist, you might think of a
miser returning every evening to gloat over the beautiful objects he has
hoarded. But that kind of greed is not really characteristic of
consumer society. When I've acquired the IPhone 4, I may gloat for a
while; but only until my neighbor gets an IPhone 5. Perpetual <i>dissatisfaction</i>, rather than gloating <i>satisfaction</i>, is what I feel about my stuff.
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William Cavanaugh writes, "What really characterizes consumer culture is not <i>attachment</i> to things but <i>detachment</i>.
People do not hoard money; they spend it. People do not cling to
things; they discard them and buy other things...Consumerism is not so
much about having more as it is about having something else; that's why
it is not simply <i>buying</i> but <i>shopping</i> that is the heart of consumerism."
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What if our unsatisfying overconsumption is a symptom, not of materialism, but of a restless and misguided <i>spiritual</i> quest? What if we're not materialistic <i>enough</i>? </blockquote>
John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-15360597567725479302017-10-21T22:27:00.000-04:002017-10-22T19:13:53.195-04:00"Bother", Said Pooh<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last month, a judicial nominee named Amy Coney Barrett appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearing. California senator Dianne Feinstein focused on the nominee’s Catholic faith. “The dogma lives loudly within you” said Senator Feinstein, in a Yoda-like remark which was presumably intended to suggest that Barrett’s Catholic faith might undermine her judicial independence. (For the record, Barrett’s jurisprudence apparently indicates a clear conviction that judges should recuse themselves from cases where their religious convictions might interfere with their faithful and impartial execution of the law.)<br />
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I want to use this little story as a peg on which to hang some reflections about my own writing, both here and on <i>Caring Bridge</i>, as I approach my death from cancer. Unsurprisingly, as the end approaches I find myself reaching more often for the language of my faith, talking more about Jesus and the “work he accomplished at Jerusalem”, about God and God’s revelation which, while some demand a miraculous sign and others seek after wisdom, is in fact “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God”, the one in whom “all the promises of God find their Yes”. And this talking causes me several sorts of botheration---like Winnie-the-Pooh, another easily botherated sort of guy. If you wonder where all this faith language is coming from, and perhaps share or at least want to understand my botheration, read on...<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Botheration #1 is my fear that by using this language I am simply, without intending to, <i>excluding</i> my many dear friends who don’t share my faith tradition. I want to say to these beloved people, “You are welcome here from the bottom of my heart. I know that some of what I write may just make no sense at all. If it helps, remember that many dying people describe mysterious journeys which are, in some way, private to them. If thinking of things that way will help you be present with me, then go right ahead. I value your love and support more than I can say. Thanks so much for being here.”<br />
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Yes, it's true, what I see as going on here is more than the mysterious individual journey of a dying person - amazing and deserving of honor though that may be, whatever that person's background and self-understanding. But this is <b>not </b>the moment for me to be preaching about that (unless you want me to - email me and I'll preach up a storm). It is the moment for me to say, thanks again for sticking with me. You find out who your brothers and sisters are at this moment. Some who talk the talk find they can't walk the walk. May they receive mercy. Some who I feel I'll never understand reach out with a touch of real kindness. May you be blessed.<br />
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Botheration #2 is in a sense the opposite of botheration #1. It comes from those who want to say, in one way or another, “Your faith is an inspiration”, or “You are a role model” or something like that. I wrote earlier about how the <a href="https://points-of-inflection.blogspot.com/2017/02/role-model.html" target="_blank"><i>role model</i> </a>language can actually be frightening - for surely there will be times when I won' feel like anyone's role model, and what then will I do with your expectations? But there's also something deeper here, I think, something in common between the two botherations. Both of them seem to proceed from the assumption that I start with something <i>before</i> faith - some "common human experience" if you like - and then by some commendable exercise of will power (botheration #2 people) or some level of sheer nuttiness (botheration #1 people) I impose a reinterpretation of this raw experience in faith language, a language which is a kind of second-order reconfiguration of the facts. Something like a scientific theory, or even like J.G. Ballard's notorious title <i>The Assassination Of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered As A Downhill Motor Race. </i><br />
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That is also what I think Feinstein thinks Barrett is up to. Feinstein believes (I think) that Barrett has access to the language of neutral discourse which she, as a good liberal, shares; it is just that Barrett insists on passing it through the "Catholicizer" (I guess I envisage this as a kind of food processor), a process which those who wish to interpret her jurisprudence then have to reverse. But (and this is Botheration #3 and final), <i>it does not feel like that</i> (at least to me).<br />
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Look, it has been 45 years since I prayed that God would forgive me, make me part of God's self, drench me with the Holy Spirit, incorporate me into the death and resurrection of Christ. (No, I would not have put it quite like that back then.) Forty-five years during which I have been at least trying to inhabit the world of Scripture as my primary world. Forty-five years during which that Lord has been present as a living, unpredictable, sometime-startling and sometimes-consoling reality. That changes you. In particular, over time faith stops being a thing you do and starts being a thing you are. At some point the vocabulary and imagery of scripture starts being the primary vocabulary and imagery that you reach for.<br />
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I don't mean (I hope) that I have become one of those tiring people who have a proof text for everything. It's more like Scripture is like a giant pile of fireworks for me. Set a spark going anywhere - say, a thought about how the "growth now" economy puts our desires above our childrens' - and before a moment has gone by we have connected to the vicious caricature by Ezekiel of the idea that child sacrifice will bring economic growth, and then we're over to Isaac and Ishmael, and Mount Moriah and the ram caught by its horns, and "No person shows greater love", and the whole New Testament theme that Christ is victorious over Hell because He has been there and emptied it out, like a kind of giant enema (pardon me, I have constipation on the brain right now), except that what is emptied out is not sh*t but <i>people</i>, people loved by God who are not sh*t and not abandoned, even after death, people whom God is not so fastidious as to avoid in the work of redemption, and... Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Can't you <i>hear</i> those fireworks going off? That's how it is a lot of the time. (Not all; that would be a lie. But a lot.) And then all that has to be calmed down so I can write a single sentence or two in <i>Mathematics for the Environment</i> about the work of Herman Daly. God is always way ahead of us, with an understanding that is way deeper than ours can be, and a judgment (like the work of a great cancer surgeon) that is way more precise and penetrating than anything we could come up with.<br />
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So what's the botheration? The botheration, I suppose, is the feeling that I should keep that all under wraps. But with little time to run on the clock, I don't really care so much. Let it hang out. If I've succeeded in sharing to one person, just a little bit, "how wide and deep and broad and long" is this inexhaustibly patient redemptive determination that we call "the love of God", I've done something that matters, because God's enabled me do do it. Look for the peace. It is so close. It is nearby. It is in the hands of God. Reach out your hands and let those other, scarred hands enclose yours. Do it now.<br />
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John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-31486710282554128592017-09-08T11:58:00.000-04:002017-09-08T11:58:11.218-04:00A Long Silence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There's been a long silence on <i>Points of Inflection</i>.<br />
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Some friends and readers, knowing that I am dealing with terminal cancer, might have been wondering whether I am still around. For sure, this blog will at some point be shuttered when the cancer wins - or thinks it wins. Not that it really does win. Cancer is stupid. When it kills me, it kills itself too. But it is then gone forever: while I await the resurrection at the renewal of all things. It is like a tiny parable of <a href="https://points-of-inflection.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-hook-easter-reflection.html" id="id_f35a_8952_e27c_4c05">"the death of death in the death of Christ"</a>.<br />
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For now though the point is, yes, I am still here. It is not my own death that has shut me up. No, what has really left me speechless is <i>Charlottesville</i> - or, to unpack that a bit (as if I need to), the white nationalism and racial hatred on display there on August 11 and 12, the deadly violence that followed, the nods and winks these received from our man-child president, the turning of the screw of fear on those who don't "look right"; most recently on the "Dreamers".</div>
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I am white, and I <a href="https://points-of-inflection.blogspot.com/2016/05/seek-welfare-of-city.html" id="id_bdd7_d179_846_229e">became an American</a> last year. That makes me a white American (and the "last year" doesn't allow me to evade the weight of that designation). I can't just keep blogging on and ignore the fact that something odious, done in the name of people like me, has bubbled to the surface. On the other hand, cancer limits my ability to act, and of what use is it to add my own personal handwringing to the already-plentiful supply of handwringing from the sidelines?</div>
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So I have felt blocked. Choked.</div>
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<div>
Psalm 42:11, in Robert Alter's very literal translation, refers to "murder in my bones". That could be a description of cancer as it makes its way through my skeleton. It could also describe how racism, sexism and so on seek to break up the "skeleton" - metaphorically, that which gives structure and shape to life - for those "outside" the privileged group. A life without structure - one continually at risk from random violence or detention - is a life where it is so hard to <i>build</i>. Yet brave people continue to build, in faith.</div>
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<div>
What has got me through my chokedness is to hear some other recent voices, which I would like to share with you. The first is that of the <i>Theological Declaration on Christian Faith and White Supremacy</i>, <a href="https://thedeclaration.net/" id="id_eafa_6335_6bd3_14d4">TheDeclaration.Net</a>. Part lament, part confession of sin, part call to Gospel work, this document renewed my hope that the Church of Christ still has a liberating word to say despite its extensive complicity in past wickedness.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The second is that of Ta-Nehisi Coates writing recently in <i>The Atlantic</i>. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/" id="id_9f2a_965e_5ba2_2d17">His article</a> is titled <i>The First White President</i>. If you are at all like me, you will find it an extremely unsettling read. But then, there is something extremely unsettling going on in this country. There is something more than unsettling wrapped around the structures of power, like the cancer wrapped around my bones. And it seems that we are finally undergoing the CT scan that will reveal it for what it is.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Let's hope, then, there is time for effective treatment. If not... Remember that I said cancer is stupid? Ta-Nehisi Coates ends up in a similar place:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It has long been an axiom among certain black writers and thinkers that while whiteness endangers the bodies of black people in the immediate sense, the larger threat is to white people themselves, the shared country, and even the whole world. </span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I still believe in the renewal of all things, and in the possibility for that renewal to break back into the present. Coates is an atheist and so can't hold that hope as I can. But for me and other believers I don't want it to be a cheater hope, a "get out of responsibility free" card. There is work to be done. The "Theological Declaration" indicates some directions this work may take.</span></div>
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John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-47785977962993251742017-07-12T14:22:00.000-04:002017-07-12T14:22:22.389-04:00Review: "Merchants of Doubt"(Crossposted from GoodReads)
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9293635-merchants-of-doubt" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming" border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1326053796m/9293635.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9293635-merchants-of-doubt">Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/142427.Naomi_Oreskes">Naomi Oreskes</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2014794235">4 of 5 stars</a><br />
<br />
I've been familiar with the basic message of <i>Merchants of Doubt</i> for some time. It is that much of the (alleged) controversy that we perceive around climate change was and is an example of motivated reasoning, generated deliberately by a small group of aging scientists who had previously employed similar tactics to undermine the scientific consensus on the links between smoking and disease; between chlorofluorocarbons and ozone depletion; and between powerplant emissions, acid rain, and damage to forest ecosystems. Funded to a significant extent by industries that feared the consequences of regulation, this group generated the appearance of controversy, and then relied on reporters' unwillingness to make scientific judgments and respect for the "Fairness Doctrine" to ensure that consensus science was depicted in the media as simply one side of a "he said...she said" face-off.<br />
<br />
Why did these people do it? Here is where I found the book helpful (apart from its exhaustive documentation of the story I just told in the previous paragraph). The authors show how many of the key figures had backgrounds in the Manhattan Project or the Cold War physics community that grew out of it. For them, the conviction that communism and socialism were the real enemy never went away; in fact, it hardened into a certainty that any government regulation at all was the first step on a road towards complete loss of freedom. Therefore, any science which identified a problem whose solution seemed to require such regulation had to be blocked. Because it seemed to lead to unacceptable conclusions in a different realm (the realm of politics and governance), the science itself <i>had</i> to be wrong somewhere. When the tobacco industry or the fossil fuel industry or whoever it might be went looking for scientific "hired guns" who would fight the dangers of regulation, these scientists were ready, because of their ideological stance, to hear the call.<br />
<br />
Oreskes and Conway don't mention it, but I have often wondered whether <i>creationism</i> has a part to play in this story also. Here again, consensus science (in this case the theory of evolution) led to unacceptable conclusions in a different realm (a certain kind of theology). Creationist authors like Whitcomb and Morris (<i>The Genesis Flood</i>) assured their readers that the views of mainstream scientist could be disregarded because "the evolutionist seeks intellectual justification for escape from personal responsibility to his Creator", a foreshadowing of the climate "skeptics" who similarly claim that mainstream climate science is poisoned by the prior ideological commitments of its practitioners. There is probably no direct connection between Fred Singer and company and the "creation scientists"; but the work of the latter may have prepared an audience to accept the arguments of the former.
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<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5763039-john">View all my reviews</a>
John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-32687916945982682072017-07-01T19:08:00.003-04:002017-07-01T19:08:44.818-04:00News on "Math for Sustainability"If it seems as though I have been talking about the "Math for Sustainability" project for years, that's because I have. I think it was in 2012 that I first proposed something like it as part of my Fellowship class for GreenFaith.<br />
<br />
So it is exciting that in two weeks we should have submitted the "final" version of the book to Springer. "Final" is in quotes here because their readers and copy-editors still have to make their comments on it, and we then have to respond and incorporate them in the TeXscript, but this is a major milestone.<br />
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Part of the project is to build a website to support readers of the book, and I'd like to let you all know that is now live at <a href="https://math-for-sustainability.com/">https://math-for-sustainability.com</a>. I encourage you to head over there and take a look!<br />
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The very last section of the main text, Section 6.4, is called "After Math". In this section we try to go beyond mathematics and open up the idea that sustainability requires not just numbers, but values: our full ethical engagement. Readers of this blog will know that, for me, such questions need to be viewed through the lens of Christ's presence as the meaning and as the master of creation. I can't go that far in a general textbook, of course; but I can (and I hope we do) challenge readers to discern what it is that they value, and how well those values hold up under the challenges that the Anthropocene epoch is sure to bring.<br />
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Peace<br />
JohnJohn Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-29577048090891842522017-06-23T19:19:00.002-04:002017-11-17T15:53:52.647-05:00Memories XIII: Eli/Miriam Memorial Site<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuf4UMSPRi85AM6oY9O6N99a3j560b8W5IZhNxOkrY7WkyqQ2Opz1pdn7YlYliztJ4LGnQ861qeFTD-E4Mpg114NsJw3TPT_IPByNByo_RTejFO-S7aAiOCHmp5iNKlwHbhRhYkzy8Zzo/s1600/eli2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="250" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuf4UMSPRi85AM6oY9O6N99a3j560b8W5IZhNxOkrY7WkyqQ2Opz1pdn7YlYliztJ4LGnQ861qeFTD-E4Mpg114NsJw3TPT_IPByNByo_RTejFO-S7aAiOCHmp5iNKlwHbhRhYkzy8Zzo/s200/eli2.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
For the last year we have used the <i>Are You Receiving Me</i> web address (<a href="http://receivingme.net/">receivingme.net</a>) as a pointer to the series of talks and events on campus that we have helped to sponsor in memory of our dear child.<br />
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As time moves on, it is not so relevant to use this address to point simply to a schedule of talks that are past. Liane and I have decided to use the address to point to a more permanent memorial for Eli/Miriam. This will include the talks and events but also other material like Eli's <a href="http://www.receivingme.net/2017/06/23/obituary/" target="_blank">obituary</a> in the Centre Daily Times, other writing and interviews we have done, and so on.<br />
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Thanks for visiting <a href="http://receivingme.net/">receivingme.net</a><br />
<br />John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-39796701564550217822017-06-05T10:43:00.000-04:002017-06-05T10:43:35.627-04:00Ichabod<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAm9eV6kQ_FST3Pu_ICHdsoWgDDqZEzi5DgBTTNPd6-q76JrAljftm-syyfItmAwL8COGzArxOBBNp5L2E34HhKeFT8HFA8kOsw_4wUbuDEOcnPJ_wWBk-A3YOqGg73ctKwjW7ip7O0jw/s1600/Tissot_Moses_and_Joshua_in_the_Tabernacle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="445" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAm9eV6kQ_FST3Pu_ICHdsoWgDDqZEzi5DgBTTNPd6-q76JrAljftm-syyfItmAwL8COGzArxOBBNp5L2E34HhKeFT8HFA8kOsw_4wUbuDEOcnPJ_wWBk-A3YOqGg73ctKwjW7ip7O0jw/s320/Tissot_Moses_and_Joshua_in_the_Tabernacle.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Moses and Joshua Bow Before the Ark</i>, by James Tissot</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So Donald Trump has decided to walk away from the 2015 Paris climate accord. Count me among those who believe this will make less difference that may at first appear to the ultimate outcome of humanity's battle with climate change - which is, at root, a battle with ourselves; whether the interests of our future selves can overcome the greed and inertia of our present selves. Aquinas would have called this <i>temperance</i> (before that word became associated specifically with alcoholic indulgence): "a disposition of the mind that binds the passions".<br />
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Can our "passions" be controlled? As every self-help book will tell you, it is easier to do that if we set goals together and hold one another accountable, which is what the Paris agreement (a voluntary, nonbinding accord) was aiming for; Trump's pullout will damage that. But for climate temperance to be successful, it cannot anyhow be limited to the actions of heads of state. It will have to become embedded in life at every level. Trump's action ultimately, I believe, makes little difference to this. The flurry of <i>local</i> responses, like Pittsburgh's mayor <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yc9662cg" target="_blank">pushing back</a> after Trump's rhetorical claim that "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris", is an encouraging sign that this sort of embeddedness is beginning to develop.<br />
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No, what is changed here, perhaps irreversibly (I do not know) is the idea of America, not the hope for climate action. I have been reading the books of Samuel in Robert Alter's <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/The-David-Story/" target="_blank">magnificent translation</a>. Chapter 4 of 1 Samuel presents the story of Israel's "loss" of the Ark, the visible sign of the presence of God in their midst. Israel at this time is being run by Eli, described as an old, overweight man, who has given up much of the day to day business of government to his corrupt family. These family members decide to bring the very Ark itself as a talisman to ensure victory into a battle with the Philistines; their plan backfires, the Ark is lost, the Israelites are defeated, and one messenger escapes to bring the news to old Eli, "seated in a chair by the road, for his heart was trembling over the Ark of God". "What happened, my son?", asks Eli. "And the bearer of the tidings answered and said, 'Israel fled before the Philistines, and what's more there was a great rout among the troops, and what's more your two sons died- Hophni and Phineas - and the Ark of God was taken. And the moment he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell backward from his chair through the gate and his neckbone was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy." <br />
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Shortly afterwards we learn that the wife of the ill-fated Phineas, horrified by the news, gives birth prematurely to a son and dies in childbirth. "And she called the boy Ichabod, which is to say 'Glory is exiled from Israel' - for the taking of the Ark and for her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, 'Glory is exiled, for the Ark of God is taken.' "<br />
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Now listen to Alter the Hebraist, who lets a non-expert like me see some of the inner ties of the text. "The term for 'glory', <i>kavod</i>, is transparently cognate with <i>kaved</i>, 'heavy', the adjective used to explain Eli's lethal tumble from his chair; the leader who might be supposed to represent Israel's glory exhibits only deadly heaviness."<br />
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"American exceptionalism" is an oft-used phrase, though I have not heard it so often lately (perhaps now that President Obama is not around to be accused of not believing in it). For many people, "exceptionalism" involves the idea that the USA is the guardian of a certain "glory", what Jefferson called the "Empire of Liberty" - a set of values "based on the natural and universal rights of man", which could by American example "be lighted up in other regions of the earth, if [they] shall ever become susceptible of its benign influence." America's glory, in this reading, is its choice (or destiny) to take thought for the world.<br />
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The strongest feeling that I have in reading Trump's speech on the Paris Accord is: That glory has departed. And what remains, in the Trumpian US, is nothing but a "deadly heaviness".<br />
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<i>Ichabod</i>, indeed. John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-77531382511803631742017-05-24T21:14:00.000-04:002017-05-24T21:14:53.802-04:00Letter to PA Human Relations CommissionThe
Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission is considering <a href="http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=XdXQM8OSFpSkLuXGi8gw1UTinuFz56B4">guidance</a> clarifying
that discrimination against LGBTQ people in Pennsylvania would be treated—and investigated—as a
form of sex discrimination. This guidance, which follows precedents set in federal courts and by federal agencies, would be a huge step towards helping ensure
LGBTQ Pennsylvanians are able to live their lives free of discrimination. <br />
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There is a public comment period that ends in a couple of days (you can find information on the linked website). Here is the letter I sent. Please, if you live in Pennsylvania and support equal opportunity protection for LGBTQ people, send your own letter of support. I don't doubt that they will receive plenty of comments that lean in the other direction!<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I appreciate the opportunity to comment to the PA Human
Rights Commission on the proposed guidance relating to LGBTQ individuals, which
I learned about on this web page: <a href="http://www.phrc.pa.gov/Pages/default.aspx#.WSYXo8a1tPb">http://www.phrc.pa.gov/Pages/default.aspx#.WSYXo8a1tPb</a>
and which I have studied and reviewed.<br />
<br />
As the father of a transgender young adult, who sadly took
their life a little over a year ago, I am all too aware of the climate of
discrimination that exists against such people in some parts of our state, and
I applaud your proposal to follow the precedents set by federal courts and
administrative agencies, including the EOC, in treating discrimination against
LGBTQ people as illegal sex discrimination.<br />
<br />
The proposed guidance correctly states that “the gist of
these claims” (under federal law) “is that LGBTQ individuals do not comply with
sexual stereotypes and that discrimination against such an individual… amounts
to discrimination based on sex.”<br />
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I thoroughly support this statement and the subsequent
commitment that “it is the positon of the Pennsylvania Human Relations
Commission that it will take and investigate sex stereotyping claims filed by
LGBTQ individuals.” Our LGBTQ youth need the full protection that
the law and federal and state agencies can offer them.<br />
<br />
Would it not further strengthen the statement, though, to
acknowledge explicitly not only that “the basis of these claims” is
such-and-such a legal argument but that in fact “federal courts and agencies <i>have
found</i> that discrimination against LGBTQ people <i>is</i> discrimination
based on sex stereotyping, and is therefore illegal under federal law”? I
would endorse a change in this direction, as recommended by the National Center
for Transgender Equality.<br />
<br />
I am deeply appreciative of the spirit and intent of the
proposed guidelines and, for the sake of so many young and not-so-young people
in the LGBTQ community who face discrimination and hate, I am grateful to the
Commission for introducing them. You will surely also hear from others
who feel that in some way the proposed guidelines violate their freedom.
Such folk indeed have the right to believe as they wish about LGBTQ people. But
there should not be a right to negate the very existence of people such as my
child. You are headed in the right direction. Thank you.</blockquote>
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John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-30405134551400908712017-05-13T20:25:00.000-04:002017-05-13T20:25:23.046-04:00Memories XII: Joy, Sorrow, Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvzVuGuP8m43qHXQ5UQdokEbUE0FDBU_brxT0KjRoq7UdhE1PX1nkTqqJV3u0KurQn6M820uWS7rnAAAy4lNI8oJ0wocxh95VSwI1zP2bSgil4AjF36xqJ7hW7efUUL85hSvJAqf8eA8/s1600/happy.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvzVuGuP8m43qHXQ5UQdokEbUE0FDBU_brxT0KjRoq7UdhE1PX1nkTqqJV3u0KurQn6M820uWS7rnAAAy4lNI8oJ0wocxh95VSwI1zP2bSgil4AjF36xqJ7hW7efUUL85hSvJAqf8eA8/s400/happy.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Of all the pictures we have of Miriam (Eli) as a young child, this is probably my favorite.<br />
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It's an autumn evening, some time before Miriam's first birthday. I've just got home from work - maybe four straight hours of teaching math to Oxford students - good work but demanding. And I have not even had time to take my tie off before I'm swamped by the waves of joy coming from this strong-willed little person. (To the right of the picture my guitar awaits - Miriam loved music.)<br />
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It's that enormous joy that I remember so clearly from Miriam's childhood, a joy which began to explode into talk and friendship and sharing soon after this picture was taken. It is that which I am so bitter at mental illness for taking away, so that instead of the bright shining light it was during childhood, joy began to fizzle and sputter like a defective bulb - sometimes there, sometimes hidden but reachable, sometimes seemingly absent - as Eli grew to be an adult. Until darkness fell.<br />
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But that grief does not erase the childhood joy. Looking at the giant grin in this picture, I can still feel it.<br />
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For those who, like me, believe that in the end God's love will win out and wipe away every tear - it's important that we don't do the opposite thing either, and pretend that the final joy will <i>erase </i>the suffering that Eli endured, or that we have endured. Indeed, the final joy is somehow only possible <i>because</i> God in Jesus walked the road of suffering to its end.<br />
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So we will face the road ahead - maybe "good work but demanding", maybe a road more marked by pain and loss. These are real; but as we go, we will look forward to reaching our home. And again being swamped by waves of joy.<br />
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As C.S.Lewis wrote, "Joy is the serious business of Heaven". <br />
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<br />John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-7354631993255237982017-05-07T13:18:00.001-04:002017-05-07T20:36:03.087-04:00Bret Stephens, Alan Jacobs, and climate change<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alan Jacobs (via amazon.com)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My aggregator list has about 30 different blogs on it. All of them represent voices that I found interesting and important when I added them; many have now fallen silent, and I regret that, and wonder whether I should remove them or whether they might, perhaps, come back to sparkling life. One blog that is very alive and consistently fascinates me is Alan Jacobs' <a href="http://text-patterns.thenewatlantis.com/" target="_blank"><i>Text Patterns</i></a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Jacobs_(academic)" target="_blank">Jacobs</a> is currently a distinguished professor at Baylor and before that was at Wheaton College. He wrote a fine <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Narnian-Life-Imagination-C-Lewis/dp/0061448729" target="_blank">biographical study of C.S.Lewis</a> - one of the best, I think - and more recently has published a history of the Book of Common Prayer - I'd love to read that as the BCP has been a <a href="https://points-of-inflection.blogspot.com/2016/09/a-few-devotional-apps.html" target="_blank">steady guide</a> to me in my <a href="https://points-of-inflection.blogspot.com/2014/11/praying-te-deum-and-benedicite.html#more" target="_blank">Christian journey</a>.<br />
<br />
He also writes a wide-ranging blog which right now is revolving around two aspects of our present age which are both loudly announced (by some people) and which seem to be mutually contradictory: on the one hand, that this age is the dawn of the <i>Anthropocene</i>, the age when the human race is getting "big" enough to become the central influence on our planet's ecology; and on the other hand that it is also the dawn of the <i>posthuman</i>, the era when human beings are transcended and (according to some) superseded by machines that are faster, stronger, more agile, precise and intelligent that we are. "Ours; not ours", <a href="http://text-patterns.thenewatlantis.com/2017/04/anthropocene-theology.html" target="_blank">writes Jacobs</a>. "It is in the light of this twofold reality that theology in our time should be done."<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>That is all by way of an introduction to Alan Jacobs for those of my readers who don't know him already. But last week he posted a piece called "<a href="http://text-patterns.thenewatlantis.com/2017/05/help-wanted-from-thoughtful-people.html" target="_blank">Help Wanted</a>". It is short enough that I can reproduce it in full.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Suppose you’re a person who believes that anthropogenic climate change is very real and very, <i>very</i>
bad news. Suppose further that you believe that portrayals of a future
of chaotic weather and massively destructive rises in sea level — e.g.,
the portrayals we see in Kim Stanley Robinson’s recent novels — are not
manifestations of apocalyptic alarmism but are sober, well-thought-out,
plausible projections from the best current data. And suppose further
that you read <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/opinion/climate-of-complete-certainty.html">that Bret Stephens op-ed</a> and think that it’s not only reasonable but self-evidently correct. <br />
<br />
Where would such a person go to be taught, in calm, clear, and rational
prose, why that last supposition is in conflict with the previous ones?</blockquote>
Well, I had read the New York Times op-ed he is referring to, titled "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/opinion/climate-of-complete-certainty.html?_r=0" target="_blank">Climate of Complete Certainty</a>". It uses the example of Hillary Clinton's vote-modelers in the 2016 election to begin a conversation about the evils of misguided certainty which concludes, "Perhaps, if there were less certitude about our climate future, more Americans
would be interested in having a reasoned conversation about it." This was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Stephens" target="_blank">Bret Stephens</a>' first column for the NYT - he had, I gather, been brought on board as part of an explicit decision by that newspaper to broaden the range of editorial-page voices that its readers hear. I didn't know that, though, and was completely unaware of the upwelling of outrage that his first article had apparently generated. But I had just been writing some material for my "Math for Sustainability" textbook explaining the probabilistic nature of climate forecasts, and why that does not absolve us from responsibility for (potential) action now, so Mr Stephens' insinuation that "uncertainty" might justify less action, even if more conversation, aggravated me a bit. Anyhow, I finally determined to try to write something in response to Alan Jacobs' help-wanted request. Here it is.<br />
<br />
Mr Stephens begins his piece with a reminder that we don't know as much as we think we know, however well-informed we are with data and statistics; and for his example he chooses the data-heavy Clinton 2016 campaign, which crashed and burned despite their advisers' apparent near-certainty of a win going into Election Day. To illustrate the point here, let's imagine that this graphic represents what the Clinton team believed to be the probability distribution of likely outcomes (number of electoral votes) on Election Day:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifiN_y8cfggzomI-ZFa0qgy9urdZa8HZcglPfrTHxdVMx6K8w6UfbQmFmx5F_pnluhCUFM5D6q3GqWMEMvSTXkcynM8NQz38wFcvcu9tyRIKMOKt5YrFrPMxxQS53KyjCxc0jneJPjXGY/s1600/DEV3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifiN_y8cfggzomI-ZFa0qgy9urdZa8HZcglPfrTHxdVMx6K8w6UfbQmFmx5F_pnluhCUFM5D6q3GqWMEMvSTXkcynM8NQz38wFcvcu9tyRIKMOKt5YrFrPMxxQS53KyjCxc0jneJPjXGY/s320/DEV3.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maybe Clinton hoped for this?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The gray shaded area shows their estimated chance of a Trump win - a couple of percent or so. If, however, the team had been more alert to the inherent uncertainty of their data - had less of a "limitless faith in the power of models and algorithms to minimize uncertainty and all but predict the future" (to quote Mr Stephens), they might perhaps have allowed a substantially wider range of error (variance) and so produced something like this<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEtmG3ud3Kmjjop77LKbqGx_lYH314gESir1nYKDV4XwN8ri1mzvrPC4O675lVs_mby_plwrq4sGM4IVXn0NbiT8CroDLtr9_WGJHXLoBo-kWs2yX1olei_Rn_kI0Q0L46jBQNBjOK0g/s1600/DEV4.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEtmG3ud3Kmjjop77LKbqGx_lYH314gESir1nYKDV4XwN8ri1mzvrPC4O675lVs_mby_plwrq4sGM4IVXn0NbiT8CroDLtr9_WGJHXLoBo-kWs2yX1olei_Rn_kI0Q0L46jBQNBjOK0g/s320/DEV4.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">But ended up with this?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
which shows about a 30 percent chance of a Trump win (roughly what Five Thirty Eight was suggesting the day before the election). Then they might have done something differently (Stephens doesn't say exactly what different actions greater epistemic humility might have produced, but that's fair enough, since he is using the Clinton campaign only as an example).<br />
<br />
It's worth observing that the outcome of an election is a <i>step function</i> of the underlying state variable. If Clinton obtains less than 269 electoral votes, she loses; more than 269, she wins. Setting aside the tiny chance of an Electoral College tie, these are the only two possible outcomes and they are at opposite extremes. Most natural processes do not have outcomes of this step-function, yes/no type. The range of outcomes in the climate system is not <i>x</i> percent chance of the apocalypse versus 100-<i>x</i> percent chance that nothing bad happens at all, but a probability distribution of outcomes running from "dodged a bullet there" through "quite bad" and "terrible" and "disastrous" to, yes, "apocalyptic" at the other end. I am sure that Mr Stephens understands this, but by beginning with an example with a step-function outcome he may dispose his reader to the belief that the same kind of outcome function is relevant to climate change.<br />
<br />
To contrast with the (completely imaginary) curves that I drew above, here is a real example of a probability distribution for the most important quantity related to climate change, the so-called <i>climate sensitivity</i>, which is the expected (medium-term) average warming of the Earth in response to a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgma3JY10wqlYFRq29QdhbW6TeE3PEUNywL0w3v9aPQthPYivbZ0LaZMZzfrM9EPPhUj6C4eNJmntpfyZGMMOUNNl4DLNw2uuUu5AfQRmor_RjZpqqIdcHNBdM9Ce_uBgQyulQO8uMdn2g/s1600/RoeBaker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgma3JY10wqlYFRq29QdhbW6TeE3PEUNywL0w3v9aPQthPYivbZ0LaZMZzfrM9EPPhUj6C4eNJmntpfyZGMMOUNNl4DLNw2uuUu5AfQRmor_RjZpqqIdcHNBdM9Ce_uBgQyulQO8uMdn2g/s400/RoeBaker.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
This is from Gerard H. Roe (no relation!) and Marcia B. Baker. <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/318/5850/629" target="_blank"><i>Why Is Climate Sensitivity So Unpredictable?</i></a> Science, 318 (5850):629–632, October 2007, but many similar graphs and tables can be found in the more recent literature (including the IPCC reports). The scale along the bottom represents the amount of warming in degrees Celsius in response to a doubling of CO<sub>2</sub> (a point that we have not yet reached, but one that we are well on our way towards; the doubling of CO<sub>2</sub> is used as a reference value, as the corresponding distributions for other percentage increases in CO<sub>2</sub> can be calculated from this one).<br />
<br />
What is there to notice? Well, first of all, there is a wide range of uncertainty - the "high confidence" range for climate sensitivity in the latest IPCC report is between 1.5 and 4.5 degrees Celsius. Second, the distribution is heavily rightwards skewed: in other words, a hugely worse outcome (7 degrees, anyone?), though unlikely, is more likely than a neutral outcome (0 degrees, it was all a scientist's bad dream). Because of this skewing, if I pulled the same trick with this distribution as I did with the Hillary-election one above (modeling "epistemic humility" by increasing the variance while leaving the mean more or less the same), we would end up with a picture where the outcomes were strongly weighted towards the disastrous.<br />
<br />
"Anyone who has read the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/AR5_SYR_FINAL_SPM.pdf">2014 report</a>
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change knows that...much that passes as accepted fact is really a matter
of probabilities" writes Mr Stephens, presumably referring to information like that contained in the graph above. I find myself puzzled by this assertion. What exactly is it that "passes for accepted fact" that is really a matter of probabilities? You will not (I think) find anyone claiming that a 2 degree climate sensitivity, for example, is an "accepted fact". When Mr Stephens went on to say, "By now I can almost hear the heads exploding", I checked my own head and found it disappointingly unexploded. Maybe I am just missing the point, but the idea that our grasp on the future is uncertain and involves probabilities seems simply banal. (That we can narrow down those probabilities, in the case of the huge and complex global climate system, as much as we have - <i>that </i>seems pretty amazing. But also a different discussion.)<br />
<br />
So, our grasp on the climate future (as on other aspects of our future) is uncertain. A probability distribution like the one above represents the <i>best currently available state of our knowledge</i>, but allows plenty of room for uncertainty. Does that mean that a rational person would take no action, awaiting greater certainty? The conclusion does not follow in general. In the book, I use the example of auto insurance to illustrate this. Suppose you buy a new car, worth, I don't know, $20,000. You wonder whether to take out (comprehensive) insurance - coverage that will pay you back the value of the car if it is wrecked in an accident. If you knew for sure you were going to wreck your car next year, then buying insurance would be an easy decision. But that level of certainty is not required for the purchase of insurance to be rational. What you need to know is that a wreck is a <i>substantial risk</i> (you can set your own criteria for what counts here) and that, if it occurred, it would do you <i>substantial damage</i> (maybe you can no longer get to work, you lose your job, you can't support your family, your relationship comes unglued - all of these are real possibilities). Then buying insurance, if you can afford it, is rational. If you are rich enough to write off the loss on Wednesday and go buy a new car on Thursday, you don't need insurance. If you are sure enough that you will never suffer a major accident, you don't need it. Otherwise, if you can afford it, you do.<br />
<br />
All of this thinking is transferable to the climate situation. The probability distributions above, together with our current "business as usual" trajectory, suggest a substantial risk of significantly damaging our planet. If that damage were to occur, we are not rich enough to afford a replacement Earth - nor, so far as we know, is there any showroom where shiny new planets are on offer. Action to mitigate climate risk - "insurance" - seems to be rationally indicated.<br />
<br />
At this point, I think Mr Stephens might want to draw attention to the phrase "if you can afford it" that I inserted above. He writes, "Demanding abrupt and expensive changes in public policy raises fair questions about ideological intentions." Again, he uses the language of step functions ("abrupt and expensive changes") to characterize policy responses to climate science: once again, I feel, he may dispose his reader to believe that there is a binary choice between an "abrupt and expensive" response or no response at all. But many climate responses - perhaps particularly those that have a market element rather than setting hard regulatory boundaries - can be "switched on" slowly or rapidly, and ramped up to whatever level seems to bring about the needed effects. For a specific example, this would apply to the "carbon fee and dividend" proposal advocated by the <a href="https://citizensclimatelobby.org/" target="_blank">Citizen's Climate Lobby</a> (a revenue-neutral carbon tax, whose proceeds are returned equitably to all citizens rather as Alaskans today receive dividends from the Permanent Fund).<br />
<br />
I don't feel I've done a good job in meeting Alan Jacobs' challenge: that is, explaining why there is a conflict between believing that "portrayals of the future like those we see in <a href="http://kimstanleyrobinson.info/" target="_blank">Kim Stanley Robinson's</a> novels (shout-out, by the way, to Mr Jacobs for getting me into reading them, they are fascinating) are plausible projections from the best current data" and believing that Mr Stephens' article is "not only reasonable but self-evidently correct". Maybe I don't see too much of a contradiction either: after all, I already described one of his key points as "banal", which surely includes "self-evidently correct". I'll go further and say that <i>this</i> also seems to me "self-evidently correct":<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Censoriously asserting one’s moral superiority and treating skeptics as imbeciles and deplorables wins few converts.</blockquote>
The problem with climate change - for that matter, the problem with many related environmental issues as well, like deforestation, water scarcity, resource depletion, you name it - is that <i>we</i> are the problem, all of us, even those of us who think we are doing our best to be "green" or "low impact" or whatever we like to call it. We are all in the grip of a system that is bigger than us, what the New Testament might identify as one of the "<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+6%3A12&version=KJV" target="_blank">principalities and powers</a>", and because of that there is simply no place for moral superiority here - not to mention that it is pretty useless as a communication strategy, as Mr Stephens reminds us and as much <a href="http://righteousmind.com/" target="_blank">recent research </a>has confirmed. Allow me a personal aside here. A few years ago I decided that one of the best things I could do as an educator was to teach math-related sustainability ideas, including the basics of climate change, to nonspecialists (hence the forthcoming book, and <a href="https://points-of-inflection.blogspot.com/2017/03/mathematics-for-sustainability-due-for.html" target="_blank">many posts on this blog</a>). I want to equip students with the tools to evaluate the data for themselves - risk, modeling, change, decision-making under uncertainty, all these are tricky topics on which a mathematician can <i>help</i> (I say no more than that) a conscientious citizen to achieve clear(er) thinking. There is no assertion of moral superiority in my classroom and (I hope) no-one is treated as an imbecile. In fact, I do not find the students by and large to be skeptical of the scientific consensus on climate change - I would be glad for some <i>more</i> skepticism now and then, and I think it would be educationally beneficial too. Moral issues more often manifest themselves in a sort of environmental Pelagianism - if only we would all recycle our water bottles and take shorter showers, the world would be fine. I am still thinking about the most effective way to respond to that.<br />
<br />
So can I find <i>any </i>conflict for Alan Jacobs, as he requests? Well, I am disappointed - and I think he should be too, if he seriously understands KSR's novels as plausible projections from best current data - by Mr Stephens' concluding sentence<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Perhaps if there were less certitude about our climate future, more
Americans would be interested in having a reasoned conversation about
it. </blockquote>
Undoubtedly, reasoned conversation is important. Undoubtedly, moral smugness is an obstacle to such conversation. But, by leaving things here, Mr Stephens lets it appear as though, given that "much that passes as accepted fact is a matter of probabilities", more "reasoned conversation" is <i>all</i> that can be justified at this stage. Is that what he actually believes, or does he also accept the argument, sketched above, that "<a href="https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/the-enduring-uncertainty-beyond-the-climate-basics/">uncertainty, informed and bounded by science, is actionable knowledge</a>" (quoting former NYT columnist Andrew Revkin)? I think his article can be read either way.<br />
<br />
Once again, the "sophisticated but fallible" models that produce the probability data above are the best guide that we currently have to our future planetary trajectory. To use their acknowledged fallibility as an excuse for inaction is like not hitting the brakes as you approach the hairpin bend because you are not sure whether the speedometer reads 71 or 72. <i>If</i> that is what Mr Stephens is recommending, I think there is an ethical conflict for someone who believes KSR's novels are plausible projections of the "business as usual" future. But <i>if</i> you read him simply as suggesting ways in which climate messages can be communicated more effectively (I think Mr Jacobs uses the word "winsomely" in another post) - well, I think his advice is good, and I don't see a conflict. And I don't honestly know <i>which</i> reading is the correct one. I look forward to reading future writing from Mr Stephens for the NYT in which he clarifies this point. <br />
<br />John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-64477417417274423182017-04-29T17:30:00.000-04:002017-05-05T18:32:34.727-04:00My final class (probably)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8TLZuNixo_oO5fwbU02hhWDXn5jLOxaVRse7Abxc1NXOHe8aLnkTP_IBKWAGBe_i26HGQe4fSyr31rwWvLDKFbh0L_oZy8G1h4ykxkPKV93ITEzxxRwXYKCM4XCNLUDQ4zsNOgckFC00/s1600/KTheoryClass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8TLZuNixo_oO5fwbU02hhWDXn5jLOxaVRse7Abxc1NXOHe8aLnkTP_IBKWAGBe_i26HGQe4fSyr31rwWvLDKFbh0L_oZy8G1h4ykxkPKV93ITEzxxRwXYKCM4XCNLUDQ4zsNOgckFC00/s320/KTheoryClass.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Class photo</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Last Thursday I wrapped up Math 583, Introduction (interpreted in a rather generous sense) to K-Theory, which is likely to be the last class I teach at Penn State. My students presented me with a beautiful and generous card, and also insisted on taking a group photo (see picture). I was instructed to put a picture of "something K-theoretic" on the board above us, so I chose the irrational slope foliation on the 2-torus, which Michael Atiyah had me read about when I arrived at Oxford as a new graduate student, and which I was teaching my own students about a couple of weeks back.<br />
<br />
It has taken me a lot longer than you might expect to realize that my life as a professional mathematician revolves around my delight in <i>teaching</i> - not simply in teaching classes in the usual sense, but in <i>explaining</i>, making stuff clear, a gift that my parents gave me (both of them being teachers, and my father a teacher of mathematics who ignited my delight in geometry from a very early age). Most of my research has arisen from a desire to explain things to myself which I believed, sometimes wrongly, were clear to everyone else. I don't think that this is everyone's path, or that it has to be, but it was certainly mine. Writing books is of course a well-known symptom (compare Ecclesiastes 12:12) and I have churned out a few. We are meeting on Monday with the publisher from Springer for <i>Mathematics for Sustainability</i>, which as regular readers know has been a major dream of mine for many years. It is incredibly exciting to feel that finally coming together.<br />
<br />
Of course the temptation for people with this sort of gift is to believe that being able to explain things is <i>enough</i>. (That might account for my thinking seriously at one point in my youth about becoming a pastor - after all, it's all about explaining the Bible, innit? Mercifully I was dissuaded from this.) <i>Explaining</i> is often a necessary step, but for accomplishing meaningful change, it is never a sufficient one. We also need builders of community, summoners to action, companions in suffering, co-celebrants in joy: and that is true whether I'm talking about the community of faith or about working for a sustainable future. For those who have been that sort of partners to me and my family, especially in the crucible of the last few years, I am truly grateful.<br />
<br />
Onward!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345040556523610998.post-72009893525722327352017-04-15T12:28:00.000-04:002017-04-15T12:28:05.728-04:00Transgender and ChristianAs many readers know, Liane and I have been sponsoring a series of presentations at Penn State this year in honor of our transgender child Eli/Miriam, whom we lost to suicide in January 2016. Here below is the video from the final presentation in the series, <i>Transgender and Christian</i>, with <a href="http://allysonrobinson.com/" target="_blank">Allyson Robinson</a> and <a href="http://austenhartke.com/transgender-and-christian/" target="_blank">Austen Hartke</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/i6LDAbkMe8o/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i6LDAbkMe8o?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>The idea for the whole series - and this presentation especially - came from many conversations that Eli and I had about being a LGBTQ Christian. At our former church I had helped bring into being a series of one-day conferences to try to help Christian students engage faithfully with real-life issues, and Eli would press me to try to focus one of those events on LGBTQ acceptance and ministry. Our conversations usually ended with some version of the phrase, "In your dreams" - we knew that our pastoral staff were not likely to be open to fresh thinking on this matter, however deep its theological grounding might be. But we did get as far as preparing a list of speakers, in case our dreams might someday come to fruition.<br />
<br />
After our child's death Liane and I thought again about those dreams and that list. While taking a walk with friends along the high ridges behind State College which he loved,we opened our hearts to Ben Wideman, pastor to <i>Third Way Collective</i> and to <i>Receiving with Thanksgiving</i>, the group that Eli helped found. With the other RwT students we felt a call to try to make Eli's dream a reality, though we felt that a speaker series made more sense than a one-day event. There were four names at the top of Eli's list: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kWzWwMm6qY" target="_blank">Justin Lee</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptd_1cc4NR4" target="_blank">David Gushee</a>, Allyson Robinson, Austen Hartke. We contacted them, thinking we might get a couple of acceptances. Every single one responded withe an immediate "yes". That's when we knew something was afoot.<br />
<br />
So now the series is over. I continue to mourn - on this Holy Saturday, I continue to wait for the One who will make all things new. But I am glad also that out of our grief have come some resources which can continue to bless others - the video above and its two predecessors - as well as what would have made Eli's heart glad, a loud and unapologetic shout-out to queer people of faith on Penn State's campus.<br />
<br />
Easter blessings to PoI readers (including all my atheist and other non-Christian friends, if you are graciously willing to receive them)<br />
<br />
John<br />
<br />John Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09911318392839061126noreply@blogger.com0