MORGAN'S MOMENT...
A nice place for picnic lunch…
        a tree shaded Rest Area
   
    on “Reservation” land.
All alone except
        for a well-traveled camper
   
    on one corner of the lot.
We’re taught to take care
        in such places
 
       so I kept a wary eye as we ate.
A man appeared out of the camper…
        tanned skin in cowboy hat and boots
   
    possibly a local resident.
My attention and wariness focused
        as he walked toward us
   
    carrying something in his hands.
Was he selling to a traveling tourist
        or coming to beg a handout
   
    to keep his rig on the road?
He kept walking right to our table…
        a friendly native American I thought
   
    at least I hoped so.
All my wariness melted
        and remnant cultural bias exposed
   
    as he offered us the gift in his hands.
Two ice cold cans of Seven Up
        for strangers having lunch
   
    freely given with a wave and a smile.
We almost forget
        that there are mostly good Samaritans
 
       along the road.
— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER
Many people on our recent journey are readers. We spent lots of time discussing various books. In fact at one stop our hosts took us to their book club where they had a vigorous discussion of the book about the Supreme Court called “The Nine.” I want to read it. You might too.

MOMENT MINISTRIES
– October 16, 2009 –
    A MOMENT MINISTRIES production – Art Morgan a-morgan@peak.org


FIRST FALL BLUE SHEET

    Many on my various lists have received “Summer Blue Sheets” via email. A few actually received a printed version by regular mail. These summer mailings went to people who led me to believe they wanted summer contact.
    I’m not sure how many who will be receiving this mailing did not receive either an email or printed version. It may be that some will receive both an email and printed version. We’ll try to send out the kind of blue sheet as you wish to receive it.

BACK AT CORVALLIS HEADQUARTERS

    We were last in residence in Corvallis on May 23. It’s been a while. Email (now including Blackberry) has kept us in contact with many over the months. With cell phones, Blackberry and computer email, nobody knows where anyone is when contact occurs. An interesting time. Few sit home waiting for phone calls or mail anymore.
    We come home from Ashland on Tuesday to see what it is like to live in our own house after being away nearly five months. In that time I have put out eight blue sheets, five travel reports, done three memorial services, presided over four scattering of ashes (with another pending), as well as our grandson's wedding. There have been dozens of  conversations and hundreds of emails. I have also attended at least a half dozen committee meetings in Tacoma as a Member of the Steering Committee of the Tacoma Prostate Cancer Support group, and serving on the planning committee for a Symposium for Cancer Support Group Leaders.

FACE TO FACE

    Jean has taken up texting on her cell phone, partly because that’s how others in our family talk. We are finding that our grandchildren, along with others, don’t read their email often and answer it even less. So Jean texts. I still mostly email.
    Some strongly resist anything less than direct phone calls or US Postal service letters.
    On our 2400-mile trip that included visits in Pocatello, Billings, Great Falls, Spokane and Yakima we had face to face time with about two dozen who read the blue sheet. I like that, and times for sharing ideas. I try to write like I’m talking face to face. It’s better (I think!) than nothing.

 
                                                                                          (back page)

THE THREE Interfaith AMIGOS
A Report from the Turner Lectureship at Yakima Washington

    9/11 didn’t help interfaith understanding. In fact it branded the Muslim religion as dangerously fanatical. Anyone who would die in the name of faith must be an extremist. We are so sure of their danger that we recruit young men to fight and die in the name of Christ to stamp out such people.
    Early on, when emotions were running hot, three men representing the three major Abrahamic faiths began talking together, then talking together within and between their congregations. Don is a Christian pastor, Jamal is a Muslim Sheik, and Ted a Jewish Rabbi. They offer a moderating view of their respective religions. They do not represent the fundamentalist wings of their faith.
    They did three lectures. Everyone loved them, of course, especially when they wrapped arms around one another’s shoulders and sang a prayer chant. In Hebrew, I think. We’re all in favor of peace and cooperation and brotherhood, aren’t we?
    All seemed well until the final session when they divided us into small groups to discuss what we might do to advance the interfaith cause in our own communities. Our group had two or three active pastors and a couple of geezer types who had nothing at stake.
    One of the pastors got our little group off course – or was it on a truer course? He came right out and said that he wasn’t ready to talk about inter-faith. He didn’t even have commonality within his own congregation.
    Bingo! Truth trumps everything. The group woke up and stories began to pour forth about faith divisions within faith congregations that claimed unity in Christ (a line used in churches that suggests that everyone who is a Christian is of one spirit). In his case the problem was the president of his congregation, an active lady who also taught the adult Sunday school class and led two week-day Bible classes. She had a great following. The problem was that she was a hard core fundamentalist, totally dedicated to being sure that her understanding of the Bible was upheld by the church, especially the minister. He felt trapped. He wanted to know how he could achieve the unity within his one congregation that these Amigos achieved between three major religions.
    I remembered some remote line in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus told a man to go make peace with his brother before bringing his offering. Try that in church some Sunday!  Then I remembered a beach neighbor down the road that I have been trying to get to answer my “hello” so that we might make up a difference several years old. I thought of neighbors next door with whom we speak, but who do not trust us or our daughter or our grandchildren because we are not “true” Christians.
    It sort of dawned on me that it’s probably easier to have a worship service shared by a Muslim, a Christian and a Jew (as occurred one evening at the lectures) than it is to overcome common differences we all have in our personal lives. We wonder why Jews and Palestinians can’t just get over it and get along with each other. We wonder why Taliban types in every religion or in people with no religion can’t put down their weapons and stop blowing the arms and legs – and heads – off of innocent people.
    I’m probably not going to visit our local mosque or synagogue to check my welcome. My guess is that I might find more to agree with than in some of the Christian groups in our town. I think that I’m probably unbending in my own open religious style. It has been a long time (if ever) that I could accept the literalism in Christian, nor in the texts of the Hebrew Bible or the Quran. I’ve pretty much figured out that fundamentalism is deadly – literally!
    The Three Amigos reminded us of the core truths found in most religions that have power to bring people together. The Golden Rule has expression in sacred texts from long before Jesus. Love of others, neighbors, enemies, spouse – as ourselves – will get us there.
    We hit the road for home, stopping for a picnic lunch, when a traveling transient type (in my eyes) approached us. My apprehension was overcome when he offered us two cans of cold pop to go with our lunch. I don’t have any idea what his religion was, if any. His act of humanity reached out and touched me. He was an amigo too.
Art Morgan, October 13, 2009