MORGAN'S MOMENT
Friend Dick Wing in Columbus
    scared the holy out of me
    reporting about publishing
    one of my back pages:
       “Going into our church paper
        makes it go into the hands of
        easily twelve thousand people.”
He was curious about whether
     others were reprinting
     my stuff. 
I get occasional reports
     from various readers
     who admit copying and sharing.
Truth is I don’t know
     and as I told Dick
     “Writing has a life of its own.”
It’s scary enough to me
     to dare to write anything
     thinking with every mailing
     “Why am I doing this?”
It’s more scary
     when I think how often
     I push against the edges
     of habitual thinking.
My own mind stirs to action
     responding to other’s writings
     as I hope happens
     when people read mine.
If you can stand
     the fright 
     without certainty of being right…
     write.
  — Art Morgan 
MOMENT MINISTRIES
Oct.. 30, 2000
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at  a-morgan@peak.org
POLITICS
   We all know that we’re more likely to keep our friends and avoid controversy if we don’t talk about politics and religion.
   I personally try not to talk about religion very much, but do so often enough to make some people unhappy. 
   I try to keep political matters to myself, mostly because people can be more emotional than rational about the subject.
   As one with roots in biblical ideas of justice and compassion toward others, it is most difficult to stay out of political discussion. The biblical prophets were not shy about their attacks on those who found ways to exploit various categories of weaker individuals.
   The current political campaigns offer both promise and threat to different groups among us. Often those with most to lose do not vote. And many who vote are more into personalities than core values and issues.
    When the dust (and disappointments and gloating) settle, we will find that it’s still necessary to stand for what is truly just. The battle is never won.
   Issues of gender, ethnicity, age, health, education and poverty will be all the more present due to repeated assaults, especially in many initiatives.
   I post a few signs in my yard and will do some door-to-door canvassing for a candidate. I will participate with some other clergy in a vigil against Ballot Measure 9. I will also post Ecumenical Ministry of Oregon’s ballot measure on my web page, for those who would like some help in voting on the 26 ballot measures. Voting is a spiritual activity.
November Thursday 'Moment'
The next 'Moment potluck is
Thursday, Nov. 9th
A QUOTE WORTH POSTING
The friend quoted above is himself an accomplished and inspirational writer, doing his own column (not to mention 3 Sunday sermons, and a TV program) every week. He included a quotation sent to him by a man whose wife is terminally ill. It was written by Leslie Weatherhead:
“Like all men, I prefer the sunny uplands of experience, when health, happiness abound, but I have learned far more about God, life and myself in the darkness of fear and failure than I have ever learned in the sunshine. There are such things as treasures of the darkness. The darkness, thank God, passes. But what one learns in the darkness, one possesses forever.”
the back page
BALLOT MEASURE RECOMMENDATIONS BY ECUMENICAL MINISTRIES OF OREGON
The following is supplied for information only, reporting recommendations of EMO. They have a history of sensitivity to justice issues, particularly with their effect on general population. Other good sources include the League of Women Voters and VoteSmart, 
No position:
 Measure 83 – Veterans’ Loans
 Measure 84 -  Local Government support
 Measure 85 -  New Counties
 Measure 87 -  Zoning Speech
 Measure 1  -   School Funding
Vote Yes:
 Measure 94 -  Repeal Measure 11
 Measure 99 -  Home Care Commission
 Measure 3   -  Conviction before Forfeiture
 Measure 5   -  Gun Show Background Checks
 Measure 6   -  Campaign Finance Reform
Vote No:
 Measure 86 -  Kicker into Constitution
 Measure 88 -  Increased Federal Tax Deductions
 Measure 89 -  Tobacco Settlement-Referral
 Measure 90 -  Return on Retired Utility Authorization
 Measure 91 -  Full Federal Tax Deduction
 Measure 92 -  Payroll Deduction Authorization
 Measure 93 -  Votes on Taxes and Fees
 Measure 95 -  Criteria for Teacher Pay
 Measure 96 -  Initiative Process
 Measure 98 -  Political Prohibition
 Measure   2 -  Legislative Review of Rules
 Measure   4 -  Tobacco Settlement
 Measure   7 -  Takings
 Measure   8 -  Appropriations Limit
 Measure   9 -  Legalization of Discrimination
THREAT AND PROMISE
          I was on the phone with my long time friend, Don.
          Some of our readers know him. Most don’t. He is our “Associated Moment Minister” in Washington, using us as an umbrella under which to perform occasional ministries. For instance, he did the first wedding in the new Mariner’s Safeco Field.
          He is known in Corvallis as a “Giant Killer,” which is what they called the football team that beat USC some 30 years ago. OJ was on the USC team that year.
          Don and I became acquainted while I was pastor of a University church and he was doing ecumenical Campus Ministry. He has spent times at our cabin and we have been at his place when in Seattle. We participated in his wedding to Beth not very many years ago.
          Sometime this summer he called me about a biopsy. We had hopes that it would be OK but wasn’t. His diagnosis is about the same as mine, so we had much to share.
          That is the threat. Time for Don to become a giant-killer again. What makes Don’s situation more difficult is his age, which makes him about 20 years younger than me. The second thing is that he and Beth had high family hopes. They were doing watchful waiting, month by month. But not for a bad biopsy, report.
          The threat was not only to Don’s life, but to the life they dreamed to produce. Needless to say, prostate disease can be a major problem for those hoping for a pregnancy.
          We’ve shared news of books and papers and other information sources pertaining to treatment options for several months now. Lots of e-mail messages and long distance phone calls between us. And lots of mutual caring and support.
          One night Don called to report something new. The last “new” report he had was about contact he was making with a Seattle doctor who would be interested in also seeing me. But this was a different kind of “new.”
          “We’re pregnant,” said Don.
          “Wow!” said Art.
          So it is that last night Don talked about something I had also been thinking. Don called it the “mysterious juxtapositions in life.” Threat and promise.
          I thought of the words in “0 Little Town of Bethlehem” that speak of “hopes and fears.” Also, the words in the nativity story which proclaim that “those who sit in darkness have seen a great tight.”
          There’s probably a theological point to be made here, but somehow involving God in this kind of situation is speculative. Sure, tight against darkness, promise against threat, are hopeful. On the other hand, who needs darkness against our light, and threat against our promise? All we can do is notice what is. And what is, is that when we get what we dream after, it doesn’t mean that we won’t also get a nightmare we don’t want.
          The further mystery in all of this is that we can’t know how much promise is in every threat, and how much threat is in every promise. Our great hope is that what is within us and between us and around us will uphold us in both threat and promise.
Art Morgan, October 2000