March 2013 Article

I love running.  Recently began habitual running December of last year.  Used to run when I was in the US Navy stationed on Guam.  We ran and SCUBA dived a lot because nothing happens on Guam...ever.  Good or bad.

Worse thing that seemed to happen after WWII was the unfortunate invasion of Brown Tree Snakes introduced by military transports.  Although they posed no immediate risk to humans they decimated the indigenous bird population.  Most are extinct except a few including my favorite, the Black Drongo.

The blatantly territorial Black Drongo survives on Guam because it violently dive bombs all life forms, including humans.  Running is a dangerous proposition when the Black Drongo is nesting, which is.  The confounded birds will pounce unsuspecting pedestrians and won’t stop, even if you run far away from its nest.  They may be the progenitors of the infamous Angry Birds game, which seems to be a popular past time while listening to the pastor’s sermons.  

The US Marines rushed the Guam beaches on July 21, 1944 and basically exterminated the Japanese military personnel who had “forcefully annexed” Guam shortly after their attack on Pearl Harbor.  Ironically, to rid the island of the Brown Tree snake the USDA will begin a new invasion.  They will begin parachuting tiny dead mice laced with tylenol into the jungles.  Evidently, they will use small parachutes so the small mammals will get tangled in the trees and not land on the jungle floor and unintentionally poison other unsuspecting animals.

Just as Guam once teemed with bird life like an aviary, the United States used to be populated by an abundant variety of Christian bodies.  But as time has gone by, the number of self-identifying “Christian” people has shrunk considerably.  Although not extinct by a long shot, many of the remaining Christians are about as pleasant and helpful as the Black Drongo.  

Through all the research I’ve accomplished it is obvious that early Christians converts were not attracted to the faith because of the Church’s stance on the sociopolitical issues de jure or their specified lists defining the sacred and profane.  They were attracted to the faith because they were won over by the loving hearts of other followers of “The Way”.  Here’s the issue we face: when Christianity became an institutionalized religion it quickly abandoned living into “The Way” for enforcing orthodoxy with a mix of orthopraxy.  That is, as an institution, Christianity became less about following Jesus than it did about following what others in power said to do.

It is the height of hubris to assume that any human can interpret the Bible or the Spirit’s will simply because they embrace a human tradition as basis for their authority.  And therein lies the great friction for Christians the world over: from where does your authority originate?  Luther and the Western European Reformists went to scripture.  Many did well and many did not.  However, the fact remains that the early church was a confederated body of diverse beliefs and actions, centered and founded upon the person called Jesus of Nazareth.

Thankfully, we’ve been given the gift of scripture, historical theology, archaeology, and science (to name a few) -so that we can better understand the why and how of being a Christian.  But the most important thing gifted to us is the Church of Jesus Christ as we gather for worship.  Nothing on Earth is more powerful or hopeful.  In the end, although we Christians are called to stand for specific moral and ethical standards we need to be more loving about how we do it.  Otherwise, we risk becoming the Black Drongo of the Christian Church, running off more people than we attract. 

April Newsletter Article

Our local PBS station aired a special on a computer created by IBM. The creators called it “Watson”. Their goal was to create a computer that could compete and win against the best Jeopardy players on earth. Some of you may watch Jeopardy and know how complicated it can be. Imagine how complicated it would be for machine. Unlike chess, which has a set of defined rules and pieces that move in predetermined directions, the game of Jeopardy uses human language, with humor, double meanings, and knowledge based upon life's experiences. A computer can't have experience. A computer is simply a calculator, using ones and zeros.

As some of you may know, Watson's engineers were victorious. They created a computer that could play Jeopardy and it beat two of the best players on earth, including my favorite, Ken Jennings. He won $2,520,700 over his 74 consecutive wins in 2005. It was unbelievable. I hurried home every day during my senior year of seminary to watch Ken Jennings perform his magic.  More importantly, to the IBM engineers Watson was a huge step forward in "machine learning", because Watson had to “learn” on its own and not be programmed with facts and figures. Scientists have been chasing artificial intelligence for several decades but this was a huge leap forward.

What I found interesting and incredibly ironic was that the further humans reach toward artificial intelligence the further away the prize gets. And even more ironically, the more we reach toward removing the human from the equation, the more pronounced the human influence becomes; because you cannot take the image of the Creator out of the created. That which is created will always resemble its creator(s).

Perhaps one day we may create machines that think and reason on their own, but nothing can replicate the human capacity for emotion and the irrationality of human love, which itself is a dim reflection of God's love. Many have watched with skepticism and awe how the personal computer found its way into our homes, onto our desks, onto our laps, and finally into our hands, so that it can be stored in our pocket. But what is most interesting isn't the machinery itself but what it does. Our machines haven't made us any better although they have made us more efficient, sometimes. But our machines more often than not have allowed us new and inventive ways to communicate with one another.

We have created machines that allow us to communicate with more people, more often, and in greater quantity. However, for all of our fits and starts into the world of mass communication and Internet technology the quality of our communication has not improved. The loudest people, and often the most insane seem to stand out in the heap, still. So not much is really changed it's just  the methodology.

By the time you read this message the Easter season will have been in full swing for about a week. We are people shaped by a creator who loves us, redeems us, and guides us. We are never left alone as people of the resurrection. I hope during this Easter season you find reason to rejoice and communicate out of that joy. Please watch your language. Please watch how you treat one another. And remember that no matter how impressive our technology human beings are human beings; always have been and always will be. God so loved the world that he sent his only son so that those who believe in him would have eternal life. I hope that you live into that eternal life today by communicating and love.