The Apostle Paul/Wikipedia

If you don't believe what I believe than a curse be upon you.

Wow, so much for inter-anything as far as Paul goes. Do you think he was a difficult dude to be around if you didn't agree with him? How do you navigate the narrow sphere of orthodoxy when it comes to the Pauline letters?

Ignore, skip, retranslate, erase?

"But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed," Galatians 1:8-9.

That's about as non-pluralistic, anti-interfaithy, my way or the highway, you're in or you're are out...as it can get. There's not a lot of wiggle & snuggle room.

Paul follows up with a bah-zinger (1:10), "Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."

So much for dialogue.

It seems to go hair raising, teeth grinding across the grain like a scratch on a record player in today's world.

This passage is dead center in the chapter I'm teaching through this Sunday and I'd like some feedback from all of you that are outside the circle. 

How do you respond to this type of passage?

Frank Peretti/Wikipedia

Last month Christian fiction author Frank Peretti visited Real Life Ministries in Post Falls. He didn’t get a great review from our science writer. Now he’s back. This time Peretti be at Auntie’s Bookstore promoting his new book, “Illusion.” He’ll be at the bookstore May 23 at 7 p.m.

Last weekend Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited Spokane. This weekend he’s making a virtual visit through your computer screen. On Saturday at 12:30 p.m. The Episcopal Church will show a live webcast of Tutu and Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori discussing missions.You can watch the webcast here.

We recently ran a story about a local Baha’i. If you want to know more about this faith group, you might consider making a trip to Cheney next week. On May 24, at 3 p.m, “Education Under Fire,” a 30-minute documentary will be shown at JFK Auditorium. According to the event’s Facebook page, “Baha´is in Iran have been subjected to systematic persecution, including arrests, torture, and execution simply for refusing to recant their beliefs. They are also prohibited from going to college (and blocked from many professions). The film connects a diverse audience to a grave human rights issue, a powerful story of resilience against oppression, and the need to respect human rights everywhere.”

Bishop Blasé Cupich of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane recently returned from Rome where he visited with Pope Benedict XVI and other Roman officials. He kept a sort-of journal while he was there. You can read excerpts of it here.

And congrats to all the young Mormon Spokanites who received scholarships from the BYU Management Society. According to the Latter-day Sentinel, "A dozen area high school seniors and five returned missionaries are among the recipients."

School’s out for summer, but education news keeps pouring in. Andrea Palpant Dilley, a Whitworth alumna, recently released her memoir, “Faith and Other Flat Tires.” She writes about her experience being raised in Kenya by Quaker parents, moving to Spokane, and eventually walking away from her beliefs. Spoiler alert: She did, eventually, come back to her faith.

If you have news for the weekly religion wrap-up, email Tracy.Simmons@ReligionNews.com.

Flickr photo by by Sjors Provoost

While doing yard work today, a young man approached me asking for a ride to a location some miles away. He shared a story of needing to meet his son, who he hadn’t seen for six months, and that he had been walking for the last five hours to get where he needed to go.

Before saying yes, I spent a minute trying to ascertain a few things: whether I had the time to drive about a half an hour; if I would be safe; if the man was trustworthy. You get the point. I was trying assess the risk of giving.

It turns out that all my questions were answered to the affirmative. I enjoyed my conversation with the young guy while we were driving, and I hope that he had a successful meeting with his son.

Back home, my wife and I spent a few minutes talking about the process of making the decision to help out. It reminded me of ways I have helped prepare students for serving alongside homeless people. For those of us who do choose to be involved with others through acts of service, a wrestling match over “who is worthy” of our service is an almost universal experience.

Whether we are aware of it or not, many of us want assurances before we give of ourselves. For example, we may want to know that people will appreciate us, that they will use our gifts responsibly, that they are industrious and got into their hardship by honest mistakes. In short, we want someone to somehow “deserve” help. We each have certain criteria by which we judge this.

As I have conducted research, it seems that any reason can be justified, but not all reasons are biblical. This concerns me because it implies that many people are either ignorant of, or unwilling to engage what the Bible says about giving to others.

I would submit that Jesus held two criteria. It seems he was interested only in whether or not someone was aware of their need and if they were willing to ask for help. For me, encountering this has been a challenge. Incorporating this into my own life has changed my perspective from helping others to valuing them.

What are your criteria for serving others?

A volunteer helps a student with reading/Tracy Simmons - SpokaneFAVS

SPOKANE VALLEY — At the sound of the bell, 16 first and second-graders bounce through the doors of Broadway Elementary School and line up behind the men donning neon yellow and orange vests. They walk behind them, 2-by-2, the .3 miles to Spokane Valley Community of Christ.

Inside Janice Townsend and several other grinning volunteers are waiting, holding up bright orange rulers with the student’s nametags hanging from them.

After a short bathroom break, the students line up 2-by-2 again and sing, “God is so good…I’ll thank him now, he’s so good to me.”

“Amen!,” one boy shouts, inspiring a chuckle from the volunteers.

Then they march downstairs for Homework Club where healthy snacks, a puppet show and volunteer tutors await.

The church is completing its fifth year of Homework Club, a program designed to assist select Broadway students with their reading, writing and math homework.

Townsend, Homework Club director, said when the congregation moved to its location on Broadway Avenue, right down the street from the school, it seemed like a perfect marriage. School Counselor Judy Polley (also a member of the church) and leaders from the congregation put their heads together and decided to offer a tutoring program.

Judy Townsend leads a puppet show/Tracy Simmons - SpokaneFAVS

The program is broken into three sessions — fall, winter and spring. Tutoring is available for students in the kindergarten through fifth grades. The current session, which ends next week, is for first and second-graders. There are 16 students and 25 volunteers. Volunteers, Townsend noted, includes tutors, snack providers, security, assistants, substitutes and walkers. Homework Club meets twice a week.

“There have been so many studies about what a difference it (tutoring) makes in the lives of kids. We’re getting a lot of positive feedback from the school,” Townsend said. “And it gives them a safe place to be where people care. We have really dedicated people who are committed to this and believe in it.”

“We’ve seen the kids grow as much as five reading levels and as little as one,” Polley said. “We’ve seen some who are so darn close it hurts, and by the time their done, they’re at the right level.”

She said the small group settings and one-on-one tutoring makes a big impact.

Teachers select which students to send to the club, then give tutors information about the curriculum, homework and the reading, writing and math levels of each student.

Homework Club is funded through donation. In August, when summer school ends, the congregation will provide free lunches, three days a week, to the students.

For information about the program call the church office at (509) 535-2513.

More photos available on our Facebook page.

Gonzaga students graduate. Read full story here.

Gonzaga students graduate.

Read full story here.

Graph showing American's acceptance of homosexuality/Pew Forum

(Click here to see larger image)

Though a bit dated, the Religious Landscape Survey conducted in 2007 offers a snapshot of acceptance of homosexuality by people of different faiths. Approximately 50 percent of the respondents accepted homosexuality as a way of life, whereas 40 percent said it should be discouraged. The remaining 10 percent was made up of those who were split on the issue, did not have an opinion, or refused to respond to the question.

Although societal acceptance of homosexual lifestyle does not equate to support for same-sex marriage, the finding of 50 percent acceptance of gay lifestyle in 2007 is similar to recent findings in Gallup polls in which support for gay marriage has hovered around 50 percent.

Further, a recent Pew poll found strong support and strong opposition for gay marriage is about equal at 22 percent. However, the Pew report also highlighted an increase in strong support for gay marriage from 11% in 2004 to 22% in 2012 and a decrease in strong opposition from 36% to 22% over the same time period.

In his blog, Ross Douthat of the New York Times, offers a nuanced analysis highlighting social desirability bias among respondents as a possible reason why poll results have not translated into support at the ballot box.

The strong opposition to homosexuality is driven in large part by ardent religious beliefs about marriage and sexuality and in this analysis I examine the acceptance of homosexuality by different religions.

Among the major faith groups in the United States, Evangelicals are least accepting of homosexuality. With only one out of four Evangelicals willing to accept homosexuality as a way of life, the contours of the battle on social values are being etched for the coming election cycle. Mainline Protestants and Catholics are more than twice as accepting as Evangelicals, with more than 50 percent accepting homosexuality as a way of life. In addition, an overwhelming majority of Buddhists, Jews, and the unaffiliated, made up of atheists and agnostics, are accepting of homosexuality.

Among those who attend historically black churches, acceptance is at 40 percent. Despite this, various reports suggest that black voters will not turn against the president because his position on same-sex marriage is at odds with their collective position.

Note. The analysis is based on 35,556 respondents from a representative nationwide sample on a survey conducted in 2007 by the Pew Forum on Religion. The data were weighted to compensate for oversampling of certain minority religions.  Margin of error is different by religion because of different sample sizes. Opinions of Muslims, Hindus, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are based on samples of less than 400 and should be interpreted with caution. Margin of error for the other groups was less than or equal to +/- 5 percent and much smaller for Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Unaffiliated, and Black Churches.

Graph showing American's acceptance of homosexuality/Pew Forum

Graph showing American’s acceptance of homosexuality/Pew Forum

The Rev. Janie Spahr, a self-described ``lesbian evangelist,'' is facing trial in the Presbyterian Church (USA) for marrying same-sex couples in California in 2008, when gay marriage was legal. Religion News Service file photo courtesy of That All May Freely Serve

In an unprecedented act of defiance, a California branch of the Presbyterian Church (USA) refused a ruling from a church court to rebuke a pastor who wed same-sex couples.

The Napa-based Presbytery of the Redwoods voted 74-18 on Tuesday (May 15) to instead praise the Rev. Janie Spahr, who wed 16 same-sex couples when gay marriage was legal in California in 2008.

“The 38-year ministry of the Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr has been faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to her calling,” the presbytery said.

“I was stunned by the kindness and the love,” Spahr said Thursday. “I’m so grateful to the presbytery.”

In 2010, the Redwood presbytery’s own court found Spahr guilty of breaking church rules by representing the ceremonies she conducted as marriages, and ordered the presbytery to publicly rebuke her. That decision was upheld by the PC(USA)’s top court in February.

But the Redwoods Presbytery rejected those rulings this week, saying that a public rebuke would “continue the harm” done to gays, lesbians transgender people and bisexuals “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

“The Presbytery of the Redwoods opposes imposition of the rebuke … as inconsistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the faithful life of ministry lived out in this Presbytery,” the motion said.

The motion does not undo the rebuke, but emphasizes the presbytery’s rejection of the judicial rulings, said the Rev. Robert Conover, the presbytery's stated clerk, or chief church officer.

Laurie Griffith, manager of judicial process and social witness in the PC(USA), said she had never before seen a presbytery reject a ruling from its own court.

Last year, the PC(USA) voted to allow openly gay clergy. Gay and lesbian advocates will lobby to lift the ban on gay marriages at the PC(USA)’s General Assembly in July.

Flickr photo of an orphanage by by Tormod Sandtorv

A 3-year-old boy was taken into medical care the other day after he suffered a cardiac arrest. He weighed less than 10 pounds.

If he survives, he will join his siblings under the care of the state. Statistics show that this is not a great move, but clearly, neither is being with his mother or father. He will now be an orphan.  

The God of the Bible identifies with widows, orphans and immigrants; the classes that Tim Keller describes as “the most powerless and vulnerable members of society.” So inseparable is this link that in Proverbs 14:31, the author states, “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker.” This is nothing less than the person of God communicating, “Your attitude toward them reveals what your true attitude is toward me.”

This recent event has raised a different facet of the issue: what if a child has already been orphaned by her or his parents, but still lives with them? Who enters in to advocate for the child? Who will be responsible?

Neglect of responsibility is abuse. But it seems to some, responsibility is that disgusting word that so much of our society disdains in favor of “taking care of myself.” Frankly, I’ve never seen this kind of abuse. But I’ve seen scores of children abandoned in various ways by their parents, who are hoping for “another shot at a new life.” Granted, there are back stories to these situations. I have posted several times about the need to graciously attempt to understand others before we place judgment. But clearly, responsible care has failed this boy. And far too many others as well.

Parents, what do you think? How would you describe your responsibility to your children?

She's a native of Spokane and will write news articles for the site, as well as assist in our social media efforts, particuarly Pinterest and Tumblr.

Please welcome her to the SpokaneFAVS team!

You can read more about Treffrey here.

Public domain image

As many Americans know, sex education has been a part of our children's schooling for years to much debate. Many state that abstinence-only education is the way to go, and even the Obama administration recently added their support to this argument. Other citizens claim that teaching safe sex is what's necessary for teens if they want to live healthy lives. My question is this: why do we even have sex education?

When it comes down to it, we need to ask ourselves what our goal is in teaching teenagers about sex in elementary school and beyond. Are we wishing to reduce rates of teen pregnancy, children born out of wedlock, and abortion, or do we want to dismiss an act that almost all of us partake in as unsafe and only allowable within marriage? I feel like in almost all circumstances the former is what we each strive for, and research shows that educating teens on safe sex proves more effective than abstinence-only education in these regards.

The United States has the most teen pregnancies out of any developed nation, with a whopping 22 percent of women claiming to have had a child before they turned 20 years old. This rate is double that of Canada and almost four times that of France. Despite our predominately abstinence-only education, levels of sexual activity and the age with which it begins does not vary much between the U.S. and other nations. Why, then, do we have such a high teen pregnancy rate? Teens in America are less likely to use contraceptive methods when engaging in sexual activity, whereas in most European countries where they predominately teach safe-sex education, the rates for contraception use are much higher.

Our teen pregnancy rate, though still incredibly high, has actually decreased over the past two decades. The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) researched this phenomenon and discovered that teens who were educated about safe sex were more likely to use contraception and, the study goes on to say, teens who consistently use contraception account for only 5 percent of all unintended pregnancies.

With data like this, I feel that it's necessary for we as a society to embrace safe sex education. Though it doesn't hurt to continue to tell teens to wait before marriage, this doesn't change the fact that 95 percent of Americans have pre-marital sex. Though abstinence is obviously the most effective form of preventing pregnancies, abortions, and STD transmission, a statistic like that shows that abstinence-only education doesn't produce the desired effect of abstinence.

Opponents of safe-sex education state that the discussion, promotion, and distribution of contraception increases the likelihood of adolescent sexual activity, but studies show this to be false. Teens display no increase in sexual activity when contraception is widely available and heavily included in their education, so what reason is there to not add it to our curriculum? Discussing and educating our youth on safe sex as well as providing them with contraception will not only prevent teen pregnancy, as has been shown in Europe, but will not increase their sexual activity, and will expose them to less STDs.

Why, then, do we teach 84 percent of our teens abstinence education and less than one-third about contraception? Your guess is as good as mine. Ultimately, it's time for we as a society to embrace safe-sex education and supplement it with reminding teenagers that abstinence is the best form of prevention. Though people may find it morally wrong to advocate for eliminating abstinence-only education, I'm certain that everyone can agree the drop in unintended teen pregnancies and abortions would certainly be a positive improvement in the lives of Americans.

http://spokanefavs.com/blogs/viewpoints/viewpoints-which-is-more-effective-teaching-safe-sex-or-teaching-abstinenceRead more about this issue in this week's Viewpoints.

Fotopedia photo by Benoit Chopin

May 29 will be Turban Day at Eastern Washington University.

Three student groups have come together to host the event, which is designed to help educate students about the Sikh faith.

"It's about bringing awareness to Sikhism, Sikhs in America and what a turban is. People don't really understand that if people are wearing a turban, they're not a terrorist. They're not Taliban. They're actually Sikh and it has nothing to do with the War on Terror," said R. Skyler Oberst, president emeritus of the Compassionate Interfaith Society.

He said 10 pieces of fabric are being flown in from India for the event and 10 student volunteers will wear turbans around campus that day.

The babaji (leader) of the Sikh Temple of Spokane will kick off the day with a lecture at 10 a.m. At 11 a.m. there will be a screening of "Sikhs in America," followed by a discussion. At noon there will be a Peace Pole blessing and the event will conclude at 1 p.m. with a panel discussion.

R. Skyler Oberst is a SpokaneFAVS contributor.

Flickr photo by by blmurch

As though the American public was not already terribly polarized and reactive around subjects pertaining to women’s bodies, TIME magazine jumped in this week with a controversial cover: an image of a trim, blonde, good-looking mother nursing a toddler son, accompanied by the caption, “Are you mom enough?”

I realize the intent is to sell magazines. If offense or controversy or shock helps, it is used. But I’m not sure what to make of the image-caption combo. Is it a dare? Are we meant to gasp and dismiss this hot momma as a freak? Either way, I’m amazed at the mainstream media’s ability to over-sexualize and shame mothering in one go.

One way to pile on even more controversy would be to put that hot momma in a clergy collar.

I nurse my toddler son, who is just over 2 years old. Sometimes we nurse just before I lead worship, and I find myself pondering the meaning of my body giving nourishment to a child minutes before I will stand at the table of God and share the holy nourishment of bread and wine. I sense the movement of the holy spirit connecting the duties of mothering with those of pastor-ing. As best I can, I try to savor that connection.

Of course, too often I am also checking the clock and under a little stress on Sunday mornings. I rush the nursing and wish to be free to just “go do church,” to make sure I am a good enough pastor. Then worries flood my mind in the opposite direction. Did I shortchange my son? Am I a lousy mom? On either side, there are nagging anxieties about being “enough.”

In the middle of all that worry, I end up speaking powerful words, those of Eucharistic prayer. With hands lifted, I say, “O God most majestic, O God most motherly, O God our strength and our song, you show us a vision of a tree of life with fruits for all and leaves that heal the nations.” Life. Strength. Healing. Fruit enough for all.

In response to TIME magazine’s ploy to sell copies, the gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that God is mother enough for all the cosmos. Creating, providing, nourishing, sustaining us all with life abundant. Parenting will always be a journey beset on all sides with second-guessing and worry. Am I enough? Attachment parenting, while being the style I favor most, is not free from that kind of worry either. Let us root ourselves in God’s grace, knowing that while we will surely make mistakes in all our endeavors including the raising of our children, God’s mercy and love are deeper and wider and richer than our failings.

And we who have decided that nursing our little ones even as they grow bigger, may we recall the lullaby-like song of Julian of Norwich:

Mothering Christ, you took my form
Offering me your food of light
Grain of life and grape of love
Your very body for my peace.

Child refugee/Eric Blauer

On Dec. 24, 2004 a cataclysmic tsunami devastated regions throughout the Indian Ocean. Indonesia was the epicenter of massive destruction but other areas were also hit, like Khao Lak  in Thailand. My brother was part of the media work of filming that natural disaster. He lives in Thailand, so I had first hand report from the front lines of the humanitarian response.

He is currently a missionary living and working in Khao Lak, a region still plagued by the dark memories of that horror.

Upon arrival to their new work a couple months ago, they were greeted with an earthquake and tsunami evacuation. Nothing resulted from it but the fear is a tangible reality for many there.

As a pastor, part of my work here in Spokane is with refugees, the majority come from Burma. They fled into Thailand due to the violence taking place in Burma and with no safe option to return apply for resettlement to another country through the United Nations.

When I look at these beautiful people its hard to imagine the trauma many of them have faced in their homeland. The resiliency of the human soul is something to behold, as is the grace of God working in and among such suffering.

My brother told me about a little girl he knows in his town whose mother abandoned her after the tsunami. Such events often leave a wake of broken hearts and minds. This little girl was eventually adopted by the woman pastor of the church he is partnering with in Khao Lak.

When I see the smiles on the faces of the refugees I work with here, it connects me with the picture I have of her smiling in Thailand.

A smile — it doesn't seem like much in light of wars and tsunamis but in the moment, it seems like everything is going to be ok.

Such small joy propels me onward in the ministry, believing that God cares for the poor and oppressed and that He invited us all to join Him in that work of love.

Speakers include Carol Baker, of the Department of Rehabilitation, Michelle Fulton, of the Spokane County Developmental Disabilities Department, Tommy Borges from a Veterans Housing Program and Lisa White, director of career and technical education programs for Spokane Schools and founder of the Career Focus program for High School students with Special Needs.

The meeting will be followed with a group discussion of attendees' own personal experiences and motivations regarding the issue.

The public is invited to attend.

Spokane River, view from Downtown Spokane

People live in the Inland Northwest for a variety of reasons; one that most agree on is the intrinsic beauty of the area and the accessibility of the outdoors. Whether you are a cyclist, skier, hunter, fisher or a boater the opportunities are nearly endless.

I am a fly fisher.  In my younger years I spent hundreds of hours a year floating in a float tube or wading a stream in pursuit of trout. Those bright southern Idaho days are wonderful memories that fill me with nostalgia and peace. These days I do not spend nearly as much time in the rivers and lakes as I did 20 years ago, however the time I do spend in a river allows me to reflect on my spiritual well being.

Living through middle age is not a unique experience, everyone that lives long enough goes through some kind of transition, sometimes several transitions. While it may not be humanly unique it is individually unique, each person experiences life individually and the path through middle age can be a lonely one, even when you are surrounded by friends and family that love and care for you. That has been my experience.

Coming through a “dry stretch” both metaphorically and literally (did I mention that fishing has been on a back burner for several years?) and seeing the blessed waters ahead I find reflection on the pursuit of trout an appropriate topic for my first column here.

I spent a few days on the Missouri River near Wolf Creek, Montana recently with my father and a very good friend. After preaching at a congregation on Sunday morning I was treated the gift of hospitality in the form of a wonderful London Broil dinner, and then my fishing companions and I “wadered-up” and made our way to the river. 

When I arrived at my designated water on Sunday evening I had already been fishing pretty hard for several days, and I had just offered ministry of the word. I was feeling pretty good about life so I was in no real hurry to wave my magic graphite wand in the air. I was content to sit on the bank and watch my dad fish. 

As I sat there a family of beaver swam up stream stopping every 20 to 30 yards to crawl up the bank and nip off a willow, then crawl down the bank to eat the bark in the water. Because I was just enjoying the river and the life present there I was able to watch as the water drained from the beaver’s fur to transform them from a shiny black animals into a deeply rich cocoa brown fluffy animals. As I think about my own experience in life, the transformation of the beaver, before my very eyes, seems kind of like the transformation we make in life as things drain away from us. I am a different critter than I was 20 years ago when I was bent on catching all the trout in any given river or lake. I am different in not only the way I approach fishing but in the way I approach my faith. 

As a young adult it was really important for me to be right: right in my thinking, right in my practice, right in my interpretations and belonging to the right community. Today, I am willing to admit that I am probably wrong about a lot of things. However, while recognizing that I may not have all the answers, I think I might have some pretty good ideas for me and my fellow sojourners to explore in our mutual search for truth. The list of truth I carry is getting shorter but will always include, “Love God and love your neighbor.”

Could it be, that just as the water drained from the beaver’s fur and transformed it from a rather intimidating looking critter into a wonderfully soft and gentle looking creature, that our churches should allow the orthodoxy (right thinking) that divides us to drain away? Is it time for people who call themselves Christian to start believing less and begin to be more? Our society is moving away from religion and moving toward spirituality at an astounding rate. In the midst of this change, many people continue to think that what they believe is more important than saving people from the hell in which they find themselves, allowing those who are seeking a relationship with God to be sacrificed on the altar of beliefs. Belief never really saved anyone.  Relationship built on solid principles of love always saves. Belief is important only if it is a power that changes the mind and the life of a person. What would happen to our community if Christians would be instead of believe?

"How desperate are you? You call upon such lost creatures to defend you."

Loki, The Avengers

The Avengers, a reminder of God’s call to the lost

Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest - Proverbs 14:4

Last Saturday a few of us from our neighborhood and church were working in our community garden. I got the pleasure of spreading manure over our garden beds. It's not one of the most glamorous duties but if you want good fertilized plants, it's a necessity. In fact it's quite amazing that what we often call 'waste' is actually one of the most potent elements for fruitfulness.

Good produce needs good poop!

If that isn't a deep truth needing much contemplation, I don't know what is. Think about this truth while looking at all of your difficulties, trials, challenges, dissapointments and failures.

They may just be the material of your next seasons explosive growth.

Maurice Sendak created some of the world’s best-loved contemporary children’s books, including 'Where the Wild Things Are'. RNS photo by John Dugdale/courtesy Harper Collins Publishers

When the mind that first imagined the Wild Things disappeared for good last week, the children-turned-adults who adored Max and his wild rumpus with big-eyed monsters didn't just mourn the loss of Maurice Sendak; they also grieved for their own ever-fading childhoods.

Since his death on May 8 at age 83, Sendak has been referred to frequently as the most important children's author of the 20th century. His millions of fans crossed borders of age, race, gender, nationality and religion.

It's a measure of Sendak's imagination that his stories — so infused with a very particular Jewishness — are absent evidence of Judaism or anything else besides a good read to his most important readers.

"As a child, I wasn't thinking about the Jewishness in his books," said Laurel Snyder, an author of children's books. "I was a kid."

Snyder said she grew up with "Zlateh the Goat," a 1966 story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, illustrated by Sendak. By then, Sendak had already won the Caldecott Medal, the highest honor for children's literature, for "Where the Wild Things Are," and Singer was one of the most important writers in America.

The pairing of two American literary superstars for "Zlateh the Goat" was important for both adult and children's literature, said Snyder.

"Teaming them up not only brought a Jewish book like that into the limelight, but also brought a layer of literary legitimacy into the children's book world," she said.

Sendak's relationship to Judaism was perhaps most shaped by the Holocaust.

"The Holocaust has run like a river of blood through all my books," Sendak told The New York Times in 2006. "Anything I did had to deal with that — with my family, the ruination of my childhood, the humiliation of being a victim."

Neal Sokol, who included many pieces of Sendak's original artwork in his 2010 show, "Monsters and Miracles: A Journey Through Jewish Picture Books" at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, said Sendak continually used the "ordeals and odysseys" of Jews from both Old World shtetls and New World city streets to inform his stories.

"Jewish culture defined his work and he wasn't ashamed of that," said Sokol.

Sendak, whose parents traveled to the U.S. from Poland in the 1920s, was often sick as a child in Depression-era Brooklyn. His later writings and illustrations borrowed from his memories of childhood's dark corners and the way children can tap into their imaginations to escape those corners.

"It is always amazing to me that children survive childhood, that they go on to have professional careers and run countries," Sendak said at a talk at Washington University's Graham Chapel in 1989. "I think it's due to their tremendous courage. They have to be very brave. And that loyalty and courage and bravery is the subtext of everything I have ever written."

Sendak based the monsters in "Where the Wild Things Are" on his aunts and uncles that his parents had managed to bring to Brooklyn from the old country.

"I hated them all," he said at Graham Chapel. "They were grotesque, with their huge noses, their great cascades of hair, their bad teeth."

Early in his career as an illustrator, Sendak received commissions from Jewish organizations including B'nai B'rith and the United Synagogue Commission on Jewish Education. In 2010, according to The Wall Street Journal, Sendak gave $1 million to the Jewish Board of Family & Children's Services, a mental health and social service agency in New York, where his life partner of 50 years, Eugene Glynn, worked as a psychiatrist.

When he designed a series of pamphlets on anti-Semitism for the Anti-Defamation League early in his career, Sendak based the drawings on sketches he made of kids in his Bensonhurst neighborhood in the 1940s.

While Sendak's parents were able to bring his mother's family out of Poland, his father's family was wiped out by the Nazis. As a teenager, Sendak studied the black-and-white photographs of his murdered relatives.

Patrick Rodgers of the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, which houses the largest collection of Sendak's work, said the legacy of the Holocaust is "the biggest thing" in Sendak's work.

"His relationship to Judaism is a mostly secular one," Rodgers said. "He struggled growing up semi-kosher. He didn't do much in the way of worship. He couldn't relate to the world his family came from, but he became really aware of it when that world was falling apart."

As absorbed as Sendak was with his Jewish roots, his God was not Abraham's God. In 2003, he told Terry Gross, host of NPR's "Fresh Air," that religion "made no sense to me."

"You know who my gods are, who I believe in fervently?" Sendak asked. "Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson — she's probably the top — Mozart, Shakespeare, Keats. These are wonderful gods who have gotten me through the narrow straits of life."

Rodgers said Sendak's form of worship "was being an artist and trying, almost in a platonic way, to access other art that moved him deeply."

"Listening to Mozart while looking at Blake and transmogrifying them into what he did — that was his spiritual practice," he said. "That was where his soul was."

Einstein/Wikipedia

This story goes back to Albert Einstein in 1905, called Einstein’s miracle year. In just that one single year, Einstein published four papers, any one of which would have made the career of any other scientist. Hey, I’d be happy to have a sentence or a numerator in one of his equations! But then between 1905 and 1915, Einstein went on to publish numerous other papers on his theory of relativity for which he is the most famous. What is less known is that during the final 30 years of Einstein’s life, his work was mostly unsuccessful. Those are two words you never hear in the same sentence, Einstein and unsuccessful. That was because he put all his efforts behind the holy grail of science: the theory of everything, or the ToE as it is commonly abbreviated. 

In recent years, there’s been a proliferation of scientists throwing entire careers into a venture for the ToE. Perhaps you’ve heard some of the big ideas, such as string theory, quantum gravity, branes, the multiverse, and it gets even wilder from there. What’s going on? Researchers used to concern themselves with boring research you never heard of, like the discovery of the Xi_b baryon or an investigation into the double nucleus of the Andromeda galaxy. 

I say it has more to do with psychology than physics. It’s like a deep thirst. Once we understand that elements are comprised of atoms, well, it doesn’t just stop there, does it? We want to know what makes up an atom, then what makes up a nucleus, then a quark, and on and on. Where does it end?  Not until we know the ToE. Not until we know everything. 

You probably get where this is going. The famous mathematician Blaise Pascal described it this way in his book "Pensees:" There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God.

The search for knowledge is in its fundamentals a search for God, for that is the culmination of all knowledge, or the end of science. When we finally reach that pinnacle of humanity, the great ToE, we’ll find that the theology was already there thousands of years ago.

Illustration contributed by Mel Morgan

PULLMAN — Wiccans celebrate the full moon with a sacred circle of candles and incense. It’s a nighttime, outdoor ritual that could alarm unsuspecting police and residents, particularly in a small town like Pullman.

Jinee Melland, a 20-year-old undergraduate student at Washington State University, didn’t want to cause any trouble by worshiping with her friends. She turned to Google for help, which is how she stumbled upon Spirituality at WSU, a new program designed to help students on their spiritual quests.

“I wasn’t expecting much of a response, actually,” she said. “We don’t tend to get good vibes from people.”

But Mel Morgan, assistant dean of students, talked to local police and provided Melland with a list of locations where the Wiccan group could gather.

They’ve been worshiping trouble-free on campus ever since.

Spirituality at WSU, Morgan said, is based on a seven-year research project conducted by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute. The researchers, Alexander and Helen Astin and Jennifer Linholm found 80 percent of surveyed college students were interested in spirituality and 76 percent indicated they were looking for meaning and purpose in their life.

The UCLA study reported that universities have, “increasingly come to neglect the student’s inner development — the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, spirituality, and self-understanding.”

Alexander Astin said he’s seen several universities trying to help solve this problem by implementing the research, mostly through seminars, forums and creating space on campus for meditation.

He said the study also found students' religious engagements tend to decrease in college (church attendance, for example), but their spiritual qualities are strengthened.

“What may be most important is that spiritual growth contributes positively to the more traditional kinds of college outcomes — academic performance, how satisfied you are with college and psychological wellbeing. It’s important because it seems to enrich the whole college experience,” he said.

He added that faculty can do many things to help a student’s spiritual growth, like encouraging them to reflect, contemplate and meditate.

“Secular institutions, in many ways, are better equipped to explore these questions because there’s no party lines, so to speak,” Astin said. “It’s the ideal place to explore these questions.”

Morgan was intrigued by the research because she said she’s seen students question their values and ponder what they want to do with their lives. Those are spiritual issues that often don’t get talked about in academic settings, she said.

“Separation of church and state doesn’t mean we can’t talk about religion. Yes, we need to be cognizant and respectful, but we can and should talk about these things. It’s at the front of everything we do,” she said. “We are here to help with a student’s spiritual development, just like counseling services are there to help with a student’s emotional and mental development.”

Janae D. Brewster, residential education director, said Spirituality at WSU is a safe place for students to explore spiritual issues.

“It’s a way for us, not to debate religion, but to talk about more of those underlying values and ideas and questions that are (often) tied to religion,” she said, noting students with no religious affiliation are also often interested in spiritual issues like community service, finding meaning and caring.

In its inaugural year, Spiritualty at WSU helped the Wiccan group as well as a group of Muslim students find a worship space and has been building a coalition of faculty and community faith leaders that students can turn to for help.

The program also partnered with the university’s Gender Identity/Expression and Sexual Orientation Resource Center to host a recent panel on open and affirming churches in the area.

Melland said several of her peers are battling with spiritual issues and has encouraged them to check out the spirituality program.

“It’s definitely helped me connect. It’s a good tool,” she said. “I feel a lot more comfortable being away from home.”

Tracy Simmons can be reached on Twitter @SpokaneFAVS or by email, Tracy.Simmons@ReligionNews.com

The Avengers poster/Wikipedia

I will freely and unashamedly admit that I helped secure "The Avengers" a $200.3 million opening weekend. Sure, I went for the entertainment value, too. I also knew that with Joss Whedon writing and directing, there would be at least passing references to spirituality. Though the dialogue focused more on action and humor than spirituality, one line arrested my attention.

Loki, the primary villain, asks Nick Fury, the leader of the Avengers, “How desperate are you? You call upon such lost creatures to defend you.” This question reminds me of the way the Bible uses the concept of lostness. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel are often likened to lost sheep. In the New Testament story of the lost son (often called the story of the Prodigal Son), the father indicates his son was lost, but now has been found, a concept John Newton later used in the song “Amazing Grace.”

Amazing grace, indeed.  It seems that the Bible is full of “lost” people doing the work of God. Rahab, a prostitute, assists in the overthrow of Jericho. David, an adulterer and murderer, writes poignant psalms and is called “a man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). There’s the story of Jonah, in which (deep breath) the reluctant missionary runs away from God, is swallowed by a big fish, repents, goes to do the work God asked him to do, complains that the people actually listened and repented, and has to do additional repenting for his attitude. Not exactly your poster child for missionary work. Jesus’ disciples are a ragtag crew, falling asleep when he most needs them and running away when he is arrested. Well, most ran away. Peter, however, spent quite some time that night trying to convince people he was not a disciple of Jesus. It seems that God, like Nick Fury, also uses lost creatures.

In "The Avengers," the fate of the world rests in the hands of a disparate group of “lost creatures.”  Nick Fury is desperate, and there are very few options left to him. That is one difference, however, between God and the plot of "The Avengers." God is not desperate; rather, because of his immeasurable love, God intentionally seeks out those who are lost — or who have at one time lost their way — and uses them for his purposes. The examples listed above are merely a sampling of the number of “lost” people God calls to enact change in the world. Is he calling you to assemble?

Indaba Coffee Shop/Eric Blauer

Indaba onesie/Eric Blauer

Indaba is one of my mobile mocha offices in Spokane. It has fantastic brew masters who love making coffee as much as drinking it. The craft is taken seriously and the difference is discovered in the cup. It's one of West Central's better claims to fame in Spokane. These kind of gathering places foster an evolving blend of urban business ethos — kind of like the mullet, business in front, party in the back. These community hubs enable me to connect, communicate, create and contemplate, all in one place and in a short amount of time.

And where else can you drink a lemon tinged Staccato, read theologians or pop culture authors and buy a onesie for your favorite drooler?

Photo of people waiting to speak at City Council meeting/Tracy Simmons

President Obama’s recent endorsement of same-sex marriage opened a torrent of speculation on what his newly enunciated position will mean politically, but the latest polls indicate the public largely backs his views and that his stance may not hurt him at the ballot box.

A Gallup poll in early May showed that by a 54-42 percent margin, American adults consider gay and lesbian relations “morally acceptable.” The level of approval has grown steadily since 2002, when it stood at 38 percent, so much so that Gallup considers the current situation “the new normal” in U.S. public opinion.

Another Gallup survey taken on May 10, a day after Obama announced his “evolution” in thinking on gay marriage, showed that 60 percent of Americans said it would make no difference in how they will vote in November, while 13 percent said it would make them more likely to vote for him and 26 percent said it would make them less likely to vote for him.

Twenty-three percent of independents said Obama's support for gay marriage would make them less likely to vote for him, a statistic that is already raising hopes among conservative activists.

“The six in 10 Americans who say Obama's position on same-sex marriage will not affect their vote could be an underestimate because Republicans disproportionately make up the group who say they are less likely to vote for Obama, and Democrats disproportionately make up the group who say they are more likely to vote for him,” wrote Gallup analyst Jeffrey M. Jones.

“It is probably safe to assume, given the strong relationship between party identification and vote choice, that most of those voters would have voted for or against Obama regardless of his view on gay marriage.”

Respondents were closely divided on whether they backed Obama’s position, with 51 percent approving and 45 percent disapproving.

Public Domain Image

In the midst of an emotional-charged presidential election year, each political party has a strategy to secure the presidential victory. The vilification of the rich is a common theme trumpeted in the news today. Are the rich paying their fair share? Why the increasing, growing disparity between the rich and the poor? We can debate another time whether it is the greed of the rich or the current governmental policies, intended to correct the disparity, that are actually causing more disparity than closing the gap. This column seeks to address the fundamental question: does a society need the rich?

For the sake of full disclosure, I do not belong to the 1 percent. I am in the lower middle of the 99 percent. Most likely, I will never belong to the 1 percent in my life. Yet, for the health of our society, do we need the rich?

A fixed definition of rich seems to be elusive. First, we were told those making over $250,000 a year. Then we began hearing that anyone making over $150,000 a year was rich. For the sake of discussion, you pick your definition of rich and I will be fine with that. Again, does society need people who fit into your definition of rich? Or, should all Americans be economically equal? If we were all economically equal, what would that look like? What appropriate wage level would be assigned to all equally? Also, who would determine it?

God speaks clearly about wealth. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils, and by craving money many have caused themselves much harm (1 Timothy 6:10). Acquiring wealth through immorality is wrong (Proverbs 10:2; 21:6). Yet, wealth earned in a God-honoring way is the gift of God (Ecclesiastes 5:19). Being rich in and of itself is not evil, but, depending how a person acquired that wealth or uses that wealth, then it could be determined to be evil or good.

There have been rich and poor in the world in all ages. Often the rich have been extremely abusive, exploitive and arrogant towards the poor. That will always be wrong, in all ages.  It is a sin. Because some have sinned, does that disqualify all the rich from being beneficial to society? Do we need the rich?

Here are two ways in which the rich play an important, beneficial role in society. The rich can be thanked for the current American standard of living, which most people in America enjoy. When the first major appliances, cell phones, or flat screen TVs appeared on the market, most Americans could not afford them. The purchase price exceeded well beyond what the average person could pay. The rich were the only people who could buy them. As the rich purchased goods, manufacturers reinvested the profits, eventually making the product less expensive to purchase. If there were no rich to initially buy the expensive product, manufacturers would not have been able to produce goods at a cost at which most Americans could afford. If a manufacturer initially produced a product which most people could afford, it must of necessity be a low quality product. The rich have helped make quality products available for the average American, raising our standard of living.

The American society is built upon the division of labor. Most of us do not live on self-contained farms from which we can meet all our needs. If we all did, there would be no need for additional jobs in society to meet the needs we could not meet ourselves. We depend on others to meet some of our needs. In turn, the product of our labor meets others’ needs. Jobs are created to meet the needs of society.

Perhaps in the best possible world, we would all be self-employed and barter our services with others to meet needs that we could not meet on our own. That is not the world we live in. Most of us work for another, who compensates us for our labor. We, in turn, spend the money to purchase goods and services to meet our needs. Someone has to provide the jobs, to take the financial risk of providing a good or service. Poor people do not create jobs. Businesses create jobs.  According to the United States Census Bureau statistic from 2008, there are slightly over 11.2 million firms with 1-19 employees, employing 142,365,284 people, the majority of employed Americans. Many of these small businesses would qualify as rich according to current political definition. The rich supply the vast majority of jobs in America.

Do we need the rich? Yes, yes I think we do.