MORGAN'S MOMENT...
I put up our flag…
            the only one we have.
Not the stars and stripes…
            not the OSU Beaver flag
            so popular in Corvallis.
Our only flag
            shows an orange pumpkin!
I felt sort of unpatriotic…
            can you be an American
            without the American flag?
I thought a minute or two
            watching the wind 
            wrinkle the pumpkin.
Am I any less American
            without an American flag?
            or more of one with a flag?
Then I thought
            what if every nation
            took down national flags
            and flew a universal flag?
I propose a pumpkin flag
            as our world flag…
            maybe with a smiley face.
At least I propose
            that folks of good will
            think a good thought for others
            whenever a pumpkin is sighted.
It’s a goofy idea of course
            but it’s as American as…
            pumpkin pie!
— Art Morgan 

 
10 SERMONS FOR SEPT 11
We will still send copies of the 10 sermons to those who request.  The sermons can be found at this web page. Our Webmaster, Bill Gilbert, reports that we only have 9 sermons in the group.
MOMENT MINISTRIES
October 23, 2001
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at  a-morgan@peak.org
THURSDAY OPTIONS
For those who get this paper before Thursday the 25th, we offer two choices. The first choice is to attend our first Thursday Night Moment of the season. 

            Gather at 6 or so, eat potluck at 6:30
            Music and some thoughts on the 
            tension between the claims of faith
            and patriotism.

Or, attend the kick-off of Barbara Ross’s campaign for the State Senate from 5:30 to 7:30.

One or the other (or, if you are quick you could hit both events)!
 
MOMENTS OF THE MONTH
Paul journeyed to his high school class reunion in Iowa. He was M.C. for the event. He went on to sing at his sister’s congregation…Art and Jean attended the annual Turner Memorial Lectureship in Yakima. A good event with chances to see old colleagues and many blue sheet readers. The route home was via SunRiver to see Terry and Marlene Lorenzen… Lynn (Karen’s husband) is off for another working adventure to Antarctica. He will be there about 3 months. You can check up on him and his project via internet at http://www.secretsoftheice.org/index.html. Click on “Scientific Expedition” and “Project”… Lauren Peters is now at the University of Oregon… Andrew Conner has won a varsity letter in cross country…Grace won the part of queen in “Snow White” which will play at the Majestic on December 1… Ross and Shirley Warren are back at their Desert Hot Springs winter address… Alice Glass’s mother, Barbara, died in Corvallis. Norm flew the family to California for her service… Quite a few people honored Art and Jean at their final celebration of 50 years of marriage. Many thanks for calls, notes and cards. 

(back page)

SCHOOL SPIRIT
        I had a hard time catching on to school spirit in my early years. After all, going to seven different grade schools doesn’t allow for too much loyalty. 
        At high school it was different. I was there four years. Gold and green were our colors. Cheering for the Roughriders was assumed. Other schools were filled with bad guys and cheaters and less worthy people. We only attended away games in groups of our peers. If we went into “enemy territory” alone, we didn’t wear any signs of our true loyalty.
        Our chief enemy was Lincoln High School. They were the toughs from the Wallingford district. We were superior, we believed, and any defeat at their hands was devastating. We chanted, “Give ‘em the axe, the axe, the axe. Give ‘em the axe where? Right in the neck, right in the neck, right in the neck, there!” I think we meant it. Those people were enemy. We were the good guys.
        My outlook was altered when I met Jean. She went to Lincoln! Then I met some of her friends. They became my friends and I couldn’t look at them with any sense of superiority or enmity.
        The same thing happened when the then-feared Walla Walla High football team came to play in a Thanksgiving game. These farm guys from across the mountains were like foreigners. One year a fellow I met in an ecumenical conference played guard for Walla Walla. He was a nice guy and made our feelings toward those kids as “enemy” foolish. I later invited Gabe to be an usher at our wedding.
        I still had loyalty to my school, but the intensity of my school spirit was altered.
        So I went on to become a Husky with some similar loyalty. I sang, “Heaven help the foes of Washington” like a hymn. We had teams we “hated.” Especially those from California and “back east” at Minnesota and Notre Dame. 
        Then we moved to California for graduate school and found ourselves cheering for the “foreign” Bears of Berkeley, except when they played my Huskies. Some years later we were in Southern California and actually had season tickets to USC games. We cheered the Trojans, except when they played the Huskies, of course.
        For the last 30 years or so we have been in Beaver country. The “enemy” here is the Oregon Ducks. My Huskies are not all that well appreciated either. I am cautious about when and where I wear my UW sweatshirt. I am even more cautious about wearing Oregon State colors to events in Eugene. School spirit must be discreet. What must it be like to walk into an airport with a Middle Eastern complexion? 
        Something akin to my youthful school spirit has been fanned almost every day since September 11. I’m reminded to be proud to be an American. Actually, I really had nothing to do with being an American. Sometimes I can say I’m proud, sometimes not so proud. I’m singing “God Bless America” with the same emotion that I used to sing “Fight On For Roosevelt High School, hurl back the foe…” 
        My experience with school spirit emotions through the years makes me think about how our “foes” must feel about their own land. Surely they love their land, their flag, and their country as we love ours. Surely they fear my country and its ways and hope we are defeated.
        I confess that I used to try to solicit God’s assistance during close games. I knew better, and didn’t expect God to choose sides, buy hey, why not try? There was the underlying belief that God was on the side of the good guys (us) and against the bad guys (them). It is sadly amazing that the same childish theology exists today. People are even pitting “God” against “Allah.” When we sing “God bless America” it is like a prayer of expectation that, of course, God will bless America against our enemies.
        Jesus (remember him?) had this school spirit emotionalism under control. He threw my youthful value structure a curve when he insisted, “Pray for your enemies…” Do you realize where this puts God? On all sides. 
        I suspect that means there is judgment against the evil of both sides, as well as compassion for terrors experienced on both sides. 
        School spirit has its place. So does patriotism. But our religion demands something better.
— Art Morgan, October 2001