MORGAN'S MOMENT...
I spoke only a few words
    as we gathered by the river…
“We return these ashes
    to the living waters
    to melt together
    in timeless belonging to nature
    from which they came
    and of which they are a part…
    Ashes to ashes
    Stardust to earth dust
    God to God.”
One by one in silence
     son and daughter
     granddaughter and 5 grandsons
     four close friends took turns.
Each dipped a scoop of ashes
      to send into the current
      with a rose for each following…
      watching them disappear.
Grief and sadness
       mystery and wonder
       questions and hope
       secret and sacred thoughts.
This place of roaring waters
       will always be remembered
       by this family and their friends
       for that holy moment.
— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER
Some will find Harold Bloom's “Jesus and Yahweh – The Names Divine” a bit hard to follow. Others will find it an interesting and informative book about ideas of the divine. Bloom focuses on Jesus and Yahweh, but does not exclude others.
Bloom has done great scholarship with amazing breadth and depth in his conclusions.
Bloom's work has been in the study and criticism of literature. He brings this same discipline as he addresses the ideas of divinity.
The book will be enlightening for almost everyone. Those who are up to date in scholarship issues will like him. He writes brilliantly and will make you think.
•
MOMENT MINISTRIES
May 20, 2007
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at a-morgan@peak.org
A Season Ending
This “moment” season was late in beginning. Unlike doing structured ministry, we do whatever comes next. You don't have to plan what comes next; something always comes. So the season filled up with all sorts of unexpected things. I caught on to this early in my career and made a point of not scheduling at least 1/3 of my time. You have to leave room for the unplanned things.
Deaths are not generally planned, and we had a number of them this season. We haven't tracked the hours and miles and activities involved in them, but it has been significant. We need some time to let our thoughts and feelings about these catch up.
Mother's Day weekend was just another example. We had our last Thursday night moment (a “Cinco de Mayo” night with great food and a nice group ─ even without Paul) before leaving on Friday to attend a memorial event in Oysterville, Washington. (Notice comments on the back page). Following that service we drove home for the night.
On Sunday we drove to Medford, then up the Crater Lake Highway to “The Gorge” where today's “Morgan’s Moment” took place.  We were with the Dibb clan to share in the scattering of ashes for Al and Betty Ann Dibb.
These kinds of events are ones we wish never had to be, but since they are, you want to be involved. Shared sorrow enriches life.
We've had lots of good things going on as well. E-mail keeps conversations going with so many. Nice to talk about life and books and thoughts.  We get live visits occasionally, like Fellinger’s from Vermont. And we've been able to do some visiting ourselves. And, of course, we've had the blue sheets which give you the unfair advantage of hearing too much of us and too little of you.
I've been a lucky dude, to have a venue for sharing ideas and faith, or lack thereof, and being a presence in a number of lives in ways that seems to have been important. I thank my constituents, both those in the neighborhood and those who read. It’s been a season.

Summer Contact
We will be sending out an occasional electronic “Blue Sheet,” but you'll have to print it on blue yourself. I have some on my list. If you've received it that way in the past then you will again. If you have not received a “Blue Sheet” by e-mail or attachment and you would like to, just let me know at a-morgan@peak.org.
If you want to write or visit this summer (look us up on MapQuest)
    2412 N Herron Road
    Lakebay, WA  98349
    (253 – 884 – 2771)
There is almost always a place to sleep and room at the table.
We expect to make our annual move to Puget Sound on May 22 and will be in residence there through September. Our e-mail address remains the same.

 
                                                                                     (back page)

FAREWELL FALWELL
      Falwell has done it again. He's made the front page. He would be pleased. If there were ever a genius at getting publicity he was it. It didn't matter whether people agreed with him. Getting the publicity was worth it.
      You have to hand it to the man. He started out with a handful of people and built a church that seats four or five thousand. And a University to boot. He stuck to his simple, fundamentalist, Southern Baptist convictions throughout.
      He also had a great strategy. It’s one that politicians use to great advantage. Figure out what people want to hear, then say it. That's what Falwell did. He knew how they wanted to understand the Bible and he gave it to them. He knew how they felt about different issues in society and he spoke for them. He was the voice for a group he called “the majority.” In the south, particularly, where people have been conservative both politically and socially, he was welcomed as an alternative to a society that seemed to be going another direction.
      He identified hot-button issues used by evangelists and politicians for years. These issues are proven to bring out crowds and voters. One agenda candidates and preachers can deal the race card or homosexual card or the drug card or the immigrant card, Sunday after Sunday, year after year, from pulpits and on radio and TV. Other social justice issues are given little play because it’s the hot-button issues that stir people.
      When I first started in ministry anyone using the church as a base for talking about justice issues like poverty or hunger or peace or racism was preaching “the social gospel.” Evangelicals and fundamentalists were critical of that approach and insisted on keeping religion out of politics and social issues.
      Falwell changed all of that. He turned evangelical Christians around until they are now a major player in all elections. They are politically savvy and have lobbyists working legislative halls in every state and in Washington, DC. They are a force and weigh heavily on political appointments and on issues having to do with their hot-button issues. Politicians regularly sought Falwell’s support. After Reagan’s election, partly due to support from “the Moral Majority,” no one fails to court evangelicals.
      And in one of his most audacious statements blaming 9/11 on a whole list of “sinners” who offended God, Falwell may have been close to right. Without question, Muslim fundamentalists see American morality as something they do not want infiltrating their societies. A blow such as 9/11 could be understood as a way of striking back. Falwell might have been on to something.
      Anyway, he's gone. I didn't agree with him on hardly anything. He proved a dangerous truth; that you can gain a following if you say what people want to hear.



OYSTERVILLE




Jean
       I had my 5th birthday the year we lived at Oysterville. We attended the little village church. There was no minister, so my dad and others led services. It still has the kerosene lanterns hanging, the old pews, and the pot-bellied stove. We went fro the funeral of my 97-year old relative, Virginia Holway. I helped set up chairs outside for the overflow crowd and was invited to read the scripture. I stood at the old pulpit table on the cover to the baptistery left when the Baptists abandoned the place.
       As I read the passage from John 14 I realized how much biblical thinking has changed in the years since I was in Sunday school there. Much scholarship is as outdated as that old church. Yet, to many people, their core beliefs and understandings have remained as they were when that church was built in the late 1800’s. My suspicion is that very few in that crowd actually belong to a church now. Many did not believe the words I read as having any relevance or meaning today. As my brother, who was sitting in the back row suggested, “I suspect Jesus would ask how this passage came to be associated with him, and I suspect he would have denied saying it.”  The old words were read, “Blest Be the Tie That Binds” was belted out with fervor. We were all glad when the service finally ended. But I think we were all glad we came. Old or not, the spirit in that church is still alive.
─ Art Morgan, May 20, 2007