MORGAN'S MOMENT...
“Do you like twittering?”
I searched my brain bank
     all through my mental dictionary…
     nary a “twitter.”
“I don’t know…
     I’ve never twittered.”
It took a PBS feature
     to correct a major gap
     in my modern education.
Twittering is a big thing…
     used mostly by the young
     with increasing exceptions.
Senators were seen “twittering”
     during President Obama’s
     speech to the joint Congress.
It’s an internet texting program
     that limits messages
     to 140 characters.
Twittering sends brief messages
     by the millions
     to people hoping to be twittered.
Maybe it would be a good skill
     for me – and other preachers –
     to limit myself to 140 characters.
So bow your heads….
     and let us twitter…
     briefly.
— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER – Do you “Kindle?”
An interview with the CEO of Amazon by Charlie Rose - (if you’re not catching Charlie Rose’s interviews you’re missing a lot!) – introduced me to a future without books. I believe the device already on the market allows one to hold a book-sized reading screen in place of a book. The machine can download any book you choose in about 60 seconds or so. You buy your book for $9.95 and it is loaded into your “library.” It’s one of those revolutions many hope won’t happen, but could.
What will happen to book stores and libraries…and book cases?
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MOMENT MINISTRIES
– March 2, 2009 –
    A MOMENT MINISTRIES production – Art Morgan a-morgan@peak.org
MANGLED BLUE SHEETS
We have had reports from more than a few that recent blue sheets have arrived mangled and unreadable. Some have even come back to us as so mangled that addresses could not be read.
Our local bulk mail department informs us that in all likelihood recent PO efficiency machines are the culprit. We have mailed the same quality paper in the same way for 30 years, with rare complaints.
Our printer has suggested tabbing our mailings, which we are now doing. We don’t like tabs on mail ourselves, but it’s better than nothing. If you have a problem, we would like to know. We can give you a link via email to allow you to download any mangled mailing from our web page. We’re complimented that people care.

A COUPLE OF BOOKS
If you are interested in history, especially in these times of Middle East history, I have a book for you. It was sent by Pat Nease, a beach friend from Puget Sound. Over 650 pages in small print!
The book, “A Peace to End All Peace” by David Fromkin, shows how European nations, especially England, France and Germany, in the period around WW I, created much of the chaos that now exists. The U.S. has now added to that sorry history.
The reasoning, politics and religious ideas that shaped these decisions makes interesting reading. The Palestinian issue is partly the fault of those who acted to fulfill what they believed was biblical mandate. I wonder about such a mandate.

If you are interested in Montana, especially Eastern Montana, and want an in depth sociologist’s study of small towns, I have read a book called “SURVIVAL or Gradual Extinction – The Small Town in the Great Plains of Montana,” by Marvin Gloege. It helps to love the big sky country, its small and struggling communities, and the view from a planner’s eye to be attracted to this book. My interest in history and some study of sociology kept me reading about each of the 22 small towns. I found an emotional feeling for the people of these places, where a way of life was slipping away.
I heard of this book because I know Marv and Marlene and of his interest in history and his career as a community planner. He lives in Corvallis, but his roots and a great part of his heart remain in Montana.  I can steer you to the book if you wish.
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ENFORCED LENT
       My good friend who lives in Pocatello called just now. Cheerful and interested in what I am doing and reading and writing. She awaits the blue sheet, so I must hasten on. I told her what I was thinking of writing about – how everyone is observing a season of self-sacrifice this year, like it or not. She said, “I understand,” and laughed. You have to know her circumstances to know that she really does understand.
       I failed to grow up in a tradition that made much of Lent. In fact, puritanical types in my protestant history tended to think Lent a Catholic activity. As years went on most churches of Christian persuasion dabbled on the shoreline of Lent with calls to devotion and sacrifice. Many jokes are made about giving up something for Lent.
       Believe in spiritual or physical self-sacrifice or not, the gods that be (or not) seem to have forced Lenten practice on all of us. I mean all of us in the whole world. I mean all of us of whatever religion or not. In the 40 days already underway (in case you didn’t notice) - beginning with Ash Wednesday (another of the marginal church year days for others than Catholics) – we are all joined together in a period of self-examination, penance, and personal sacrifice. There is wailing, gnashing of teeth, and great humility.
       You can’t escape it. The TV facing the exercise machine I was using at the gym this morning kept flashing the stock market report as the Dow continued to dive.
       If the season has not affected you it is because you are somehow immune from what is shaking the foundations of people around the globe. These are dark days.
       If you follow the Christian story you know that it doesn’t get any better. Holy week is more hell. Good Friday is dark and dismal. We can experience it with honestly heavy hearts this season. The question of this season is, will there ever be an Easter? One thing we know is that we are living through Lent whether we believe in it or not.
THE AUDACITY OF HOPE
       Our book club has chosen “The Audacity of Hope,” - by Barack Obama (in case you didn’t know) – for our March meeting. I skimmed the book a couple of years ago, but didn’t even list it among books I had read. It interested me because my cousin, Tom Baylis, a political science professor in Wisconsin, mentioned that I should pay attention to a young politician from Illinois named Obama.
       How could an unknown man of color with a name like that be nominated for President? That’s what I thought, but didn’t say. I think I wasn’t alone at that moment. “Audacious” was the right word I thought.
       Well, he’s President now and he has been handed quite a bouquet of problems to deal with. The economic crisis is a major challenge. When many have given up hope, and some are even hoping his efforts fail, Obama maintains something we all could use: Audacious hope.
       In between workout machines one morning at the gym one guy was lamenting that things could only get worse. Being a perennial contrarian, I said: “On the contrary, things are going to get better.” He asked how I knew. “Because I am a prophet.” I laid that on him because he was a Bible type, if you know what I mean. I said, “You know how the Bible prophets worked?” He didn’t. “Well, when ever things were going well they always spoke gloomily about how bad things were going to get. And they were right 100% of the time. And when things got desperately bad they always promised hopefully that things were going to get better. And you know what? They were always right.”
       I left him to ponder the profundity of my prophetic proclamation. Audacious hope has a history.
─ Art Morgan, March 2, 2009