Ah, how much I love you all... I've been dragging myself out of bed early every single morning of this conference so that I can write to you all (plus Mom and David) from Thailand. It's my way of assuring everyone that I'm safe and sound. But today will be my last blog from the "Land of Happiness" (I think that's what the promotional tourist video we watched at dinner last night called it)-- I head back to the States tomorrow at 6 am Thai time (sometime Sunday evening for the folks back home). I feel like I haven't seen much, but I've certainly gotten a lot to think about. But Ann, Molly and I are going to remedy that this afternoon following the conference, when we visit some of the famous Buddhist temples here in the city. I'm so excited that I even wore close-toed shoes in this heat so that I could go into one.

Yesterday I attended some great workshops, one of which was actually on women and religion. The panel was made up of Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian people of faith talking about their work for women in a faith context. And you know what one of the coolest things about it all was? None of them were Westerners-- even the Christian was from the Phillipines. So we heard about their struggles in the faith community from a different perspective, but at the same time we heard a lot of the issues we face in our work, too. It was particularly fascinating to listen to the Buddhist woman talk about how she frames her discussion of liberation for women in terms of the Buddhist concept of release from suffering through the Eight Noble Truths. We also heard from an awesome Muslim woman about her continual work on behalf of religious women in Malaysian society, and how her persistence has gotten her group a seat at the table in many religious discussions. Given the rather ambivalent feelings overall by many women here about religion, it was great to be in a room with women who understand the importance of integrating faith with our values regarding human rights.

Okay, so it is workshop time, and I'd better get off the 'Net. I hope these blogs from Thailand have been mildly interesting... after my 24 hours on the plane tomorrow, I should have more ruminations about the whole experience, in a more coherent manner. But don't expect a Monday blog-- I think I'm going to crash when I get back.

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." --Romans 12:18

Kelsey

Good morning, once again, from Thailand. I'm progressively feeling better every morning, as I finally begin to adjust to the time change (too bad we leave on Monday). I also finally talked to Mom and David last night on a streetcorner outside 7-11. I could tell Mom had been pretty freaked out by not hearing from me... I think she was secretly crying over the phone when she first heard my voice. Mom doesn't like me to be where she can't get in contact with me, and for her, there is no place more remote than Bangkok, Thailand. David, on the other hand, just sounded plain lonely. But his White Sox did sweep the World Series, so that was a bit of consolation for him.

Ah, the conference, the conference. Let me tell you that this is the most diverse group of women I've ever been with in my life. Literally, I'm inclined to think that just about every nation in the world is represented here... certainly every region. During the fundraising workshop yesterday, I learned how to raise money for NNPCW with a group of women from India, Turkey, the Phillipines, and Kyzrikistan (sp??) respectively. During my workshop on young women and feminism, my partners were from Laos and Malaysia. We listened during plenary yesterday to an Iraqi woman, who told us how women in Iraq had actually lost freedom under the new Iraqi constitution. One of Ann's workshops yesterday was all about the movement for the rights of Roma (Gypsy) women in Eastern Europe.

This is forcing me to deal with a new issue, one that has pushed my comfort zone at the conference-- being in the minority, not only as a white woman but also as an American. It isn't easy to hear the constant criticism of US policies worldwide in relation to women's rights, and know that while I am not the American government, I am the face of America to many people here. I do think that most people differentiate between American citizens and the American government. Still, though, it isn't always easy to be the people that some folks can vent their frustrations on.

Yesterday afternoon I went to a great workshop about young people and feminism. One of the videos they played showed young women and men from around the world talking about the feminist movement-- their impressions of it and where they thought it should go. It was probably one of the most hopeful pieces I saw in the entire conference, because it showed how much has actually been done. It was awesome to hear young men from Africa talking about how they saw themselves as feminists, based on their understanding of the term as meaning equal rights and opportunities for all people. I've ordered a copy, and may try using it as a discussion prompt in some places on the World Tour.

Another aspect of the younger women's workshop (and AWID has done a fantastic job of incorporating significant young women's involvement in this conference) was the way in which it didn't harp on someone else to help us. I guess we're in a different place in the global North, where a lot of the de jure obstacles to women's rights are gone, than in the global South where women's second-class status is still codified into law in many places. For us, frankly, I don't know whether relying on institutions such as the government or the United Nations to make women equal is going to solve the problems that remain. I'm tired, anyway, of relying on someone else to help us women. Part of empowerment is learning to help one's self. Sorry, my thoughts on this subject are pretty random and just beginning to percolate. But I've been thinking a lot about it at this conference, and questioning older women's reliance on these national and international structures as the end-all answer.

I think that's all, as far as rambings go for now. A line is forming for the Internet, so I should stop hogging this computer and move on. Check back in tomorrow for my last post from Thailand!!

Kelsey

PS-- Sorry about the Bible verse... my Internet is getting funky, so I'm having trouble looking one up online.

I'm feeling slightly better this morning, after seven whole hours of sleep... and I mean slightly. It isn't always easy to spend a day listening to the great problems of humanity, particularly when you're doing it while adjusting to an 11 hour time change. But today is a new day (despite the fact that Blogger says I'm posting on Wednesday night), and hopefully my mood will improve.

We are in an interesting position here, being American church workers at an international, secular feminist conference-- we've got two strikes against us, being Americans and being the representatives of organized religion. Frankly, I have to wonder what Christians and other religions around the world are doing to make women, women who are essentially following Jesus' command to care for "the least of these" in their work for sustainable development, human rights, and women's empowerment, dislike people of faith. Maybe it has to do with things like the Methodist Church in Fiji publicly calling for all LGBT people to be dragged out into the street and stoned. Or perhaps it is all the ho-hum stuff that we know about in the United States, with faiths that tell women quite explicitly where their place is in the church and society.

But is this honestly living out God's love for all people? What is it doing to our witness to the world? One woman from Malaysia, when we mentioned at lunch that the Presbyterian Church (USA) was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women next year, replied with incredulity, "You've had women pastors for 50 years??"

This is why I'm convinced, more than ever, that the work of NNPCW and other groups that express faith in a way that empowers women is crucial to not only the status of women in society, but also to our command by Christ to witness to the world God's love. It makes us different-- different from those who would say that God condones the injustices of the world as some sort of punishment for sin (whether committed directly by us or not), different from those who easily lose hope that their work for change will truly make a difference.

Because that's the other part of what makes us Christian feminists different. Yesterday I saw a lot of women who had been worn down by the fight. I get worn down, too, to tell you the truth. But I can fall back on the fact that "we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Corinthians 7:8-9). I can cling to the knowledge that God loves me, a woman; God doesn't want for the world what the world makes of itself; and God will someday make all things new. And I can be renewed in that knowledge far beyond any victory or defeat in the present struggle.

So, women of NNPCW, one by one we make a difference in the way women see the church, and the way the church sees women. May God be with us in our witness and our work.

"Sisters and brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of humanity, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him." --1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

Kelsey

Good morning, everyone, from Bangkok! First of all, I want to announce that I made it to Thailand in one piece, after 27 hours or so of traveling (19 of those were in the air). Thank you for any thoughts and prayers you might have sent my way.

I will have you all know that it wasn't the 12 hours from Chicago to Tokyo that reduced me to a blubbering mess-- it was getting to Tokyo and finding out that we still had six more hours on the plane until Bangkok! But on the bright side, I got to meet up with Ann while I was there and commiserate. She's at the computer next to me now, and Women's Advocacy Associate Molly Casteel is behind us. This means that we all managed to find our way to our hotels at midnight last night and likewise get here this morning. I had a rather uneventful cab ride, while Molly and Ann got to ride the water taxi down the river. I'm jealous.

I don't have anything to inspire you with yet, since the conference hasn't technically started. In fact, since I only arrived around midnight last night, I don't have much impression of anything except for United Airlines' junky airplane food. But hopefully tomorrow I'll have more to report. Bangkok is definitely an urban city, with run-down shops and skyscrapers crowding the streets. But then you'll see that sudden burst of color from a Buddhist temple, or a river winding its way through the teeming streets, and you'll know you've come halfway around the world.

Sorry, no verse today :(. Just think of John 3:16 or something.

Kelsey

So, I do have an excuse for not blogging yesterday on Kelsey’s behalf. This past weekend I was at my church’s All-Church-Retreat. Oodles of fun for all, during the day. However I had to sleep on the horrendous cots in the cabins. Now, at the time they were fine, since I was up at 7:00 AM and didn’t get to bed until 1:00 AM. A day filled with activity and deep thinking for my 15 youth (12-18 year-olds). So, at night I just wanted to crash. Sunday and Monday my neck was a little sore, however that was nothing compared to yesterday when I couldn’t even move. I took a muscle relaxer and called Bridget to tell her that I would be in to work when it took effect. Unfortunately, it never quite helped so I ended up staying on my couch all day. Staring at my apartment that so desperately needs cleaning. My mom is coming this weekend. And growing up there was ‘that speech’ when my room was messy: “I just can’t imagine what your house is going to look like when you grow-up!” Well, no need to imagine. It looks like trash, if I don’t start feeling better it will stay that way too.

I have to admit, I am a huge fan of Tuesday night TV. As you know I get 2 channels, ABC and NBC. And many of you are to think, who live by cable, “Whatever do you watch with only 2 channels?” Granted, I don’t get FOX so I can’t watch the World Series (and too bad I love baseball), and I no longer get VH1 to watch Best Week Ever, but I am making due. I used to be a NBC Thursday night line-up girl, along with everyone else in my dorm. All of us girls would gather around for: Friends, Frasier, Will and Grace, some new show, and ER. However, since my serving days started, I admit, I had neglected the Thursday nights in order to make more money.

Now since I have a 40-hour a week job, one seems to find the time to sit and rot ones brain with the Television. So, my Tuesday nights are as such: The Biggest Looser (I know reality TV is the devil, but I love it!), (tape) Commander in Chief, My Name is Earl, practice guitar, Law and Order SVU, then, Commander in Chief that I taped. That is my Tuesday, don’t mess with it or criticize it, you can try but it won’t matter.

So, last night on Commander in Chief, the First Gentleman is thinking about getting a job outside of the White House. It showed a clip of the Allen’s past in where officials come and ask Mackenzie to run for congress while her husband sits by her side with this look of, “why are they asking her and not me?” on his face. Rod Allen has gone from VP Chief of Staff to adoring husband. All I keep thinking about is if the past First Ladies ever felt the same way? I am sure they have all had to give-up their jobs to travel the country, kiss babies and shake hands of press and the American people, but what are they getting in return? With women being more established in careers more than ever during that time in their life, the presidential run for men is taking their own wives a step backwards when they are promoting equality in marriage. These are women that have jobs that took a lifetime to get to, and they are asked to give it up for the pursuit of their husband’s career. Sounds all too familiar to me. Many will state that the pay is the reason that women choose to follow their husbands. We know from an early age that even though we do the same jobs, men receive more pay for these jobs. It seems realistic to follow where the most money is coming. Unfortunately, it gives men an easy out and excuse. What about being happy as an excuse to stay in a job?

I just don’t think that many of us have thought about the First Ladies being cheated out of their careers. We see it as a great honor for them to choose China patterns to be in the Roosevelt Room, and not to wonder what they could be doing in the West Wing. I love Commander in Chief; it gives us a taste of role reversal and the possibility of so much more to come.

“Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen.”
Hebrews 11:1

Peace,
Brianne

Why is it, on the days when you most need to be getting stuff done, you can’t seem to get anything done or be in the mood to do anything? That seems to be the day I’m having. I have to finish an article for Church and Society before I leave for Thailand tomorrow, and it seems nearly impossible right now. So I’ll try to give you a pithy blog today (hah!) so that I can move onto some heavy-duty writing.

David passed on an article from Australia’s The Age newspaper today about race relations, particularly between whites and African Americans in the United States. It basically comments on how, 50 years after Brown vs. Board of Education, we are still a largely segregated society… and not just along race lines. Middle class black communities have their own version of “white flight,” living in areas far removed from the turbulence of the inner cities. Even then, however, middle class whites and African Americans don’t mix much outside the workplace—only five to ten percent of Americans live in integrated communities, and public schools are almost completely segregated. And all the while, poverty in this country deepens, eliminating the opportunities that civil rights gains have provided in the past for people of color (as programs continue to wend their way to the federal budget shredder, too).

A couple of thoughts to throw out there, as a white woman. First of all, it is time for whites (or European Americans, or whatever you want to call this group) to start really examining the privileges that they hold in this world. This goes beyond the subtle gains of being racially in the majority, though. It goes back to being a citizen of the world’s only superpower, a person with a college education, a person often of middle or upper class background. There are so many layers of intersecting privilege that build barriers as whites attempt to dialogue with people of color, as well as people from other nations, the working poor, and others. No one can always eliminate these things, at least not in the short term. But when white people start to notice, they can start to act.

An example, just from this blog post right now—as I was going back over what I wrote in that last paragraph, I realized that I kept using the pronouns “we” and “us.” As a white woman, I was referring to white people, of course. But then it dawned on me how off-putting this subtle language would be to the women of color who read this blog. Because what I had just implied was that the “in” people in NNPCW are the white women. Women of color come out sounding like the “other,” part of the Network but not quite part of the Network in the same way that white women are. I did change the paragraph, by the way. Yet if we’re ever going to have a fundamental shift in race relations in this country, whites in particular must start realizing how often they subconsciously exclude people of color.

And for those of you who are about to say that the “us/them” dichotomy exists regardless of racial ethnic background, yes, you’re right. But the majority group has historically held the power and advantage in this country, and needs to think about how they continue to distribute that power to others. While we all need to think about privilege and how it manifests itself, this is particularly crucial for people of European descent. As Robert Jensen of the University of Texas says in an article from the Baltimore Sun in July 1998:

“I benefited from, among other things, white privilege. That doesn’t mean that I don’t deserve my job, or that if I weren’t white I would never have gotten the job. It means simply that all through my life, I have soaked up benefits for being white. I grew up in fertile farm country taken by force from non-white indigenous people. I was educated in a well-funded, virtually all-white public school system in which I learned that white people like me made this country great.”

Once all Americans have started to address the issue of privilege—realizing what each of us has that might be harder for someone else to get—perhaps then we can get down to the business of the segregation issue. Because at that point we might be in the place to honestly discuss what separates black and white, and engage together in advocacy on behalf of the poor in this country. Because as the article I read points out, the collective amnesia in this country about issues of race and poverty comes from the middle class—both black and white.

Frankly, there are no easy answers. Perhaps all we can do at this point is realize what God has blessed each person with, and the responsibilities that go with it. We are God’s servants with the talents, and God condemns those who don’t use, or don’t acknowledge, what they have for God’s justice and righteousness.

“For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” --Matthew 25:29

Kelsey

The trip to Thailand looms ahead… I’m even starting to think about packing. David looked up the weather there last night online, and it will be in the low 90s every day with a 60% chance of rain in Bangkok. I’m apparently coming during monsoon season, so it should be wet and hot. I think I’m going to go purchase a light rain jacket this weekend, if such a thing can be found here with winter approaching.

For me, the eternal question when I go to a new place is, “Whatever shall I wear?” This is particularly difficult when you’re going to conferences, because you can never tell whether it is going to be professional or casual dress.

Take church conferences, for instance. I go to these things thinking, “This is my job! I’m supposed to present! I should dress professionally!” And when I show up in my slacks and dress shirt, I meet all these campus ministers in Bermuda shorts and Birkenstocks who look at me as if I had just been spewed forth from the jaws of corporate hell. I see it as a sign of respect for them—I think they see me as “The Man’s” minion. And I just hate looking out of place anyway.

With this problem, I think khaki pants are the cure-all solution. They’re too casual for the boardroom, but still professional-looking. Plus you match the campus ministers’ Bermuda shorts in color. Too bad I can never keep my khaki pants clean. I need a pair for each day of the week.

And then you always have to deal with the inevitable “inside-outside” issue. Have you ever been to those conferences where it is sweltering outdoors, but the minute you step inside you think you’ve entered the Arctic Circle? AWID has already warned us that the conference hotel will likely be much cooler than outside. This means that I either look like a freakish American dropped from Michigan onto the streets of Bangkok, or I develop hypothermia in the hotel. I’ll probably just wear the same little white cardigan five days in a row.

If those of you who have been to Southeast Asia before have any tips for packing, help me!!

One other thing—since apparently at least a few of you like the blog, I’ve been encouraged enough to start a discussion forum for NNPCW members and alumnae. The Network Café will hopefully bring together young women from around the country to discuss and learn. The page also includes regional posting boards, so you can meet other NNPCW members and alums in your area. We’ve had quite a few postings thus far, so please stop in and check it out. Just remember that our usual liability disclaimer applies (opinions expressed here do not reflect the positions of the PC(USA)…), and keep it clean. We’re the church, not the Cosmo chat room.

I’ll be back in on Monday before the great adventure begins. Until then!

“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will God not much more clothe you—you of little faith?” --Matthew 6:30

Kelsey

There’s a line in a Jimmy Eat World song that goes something like this:

“I’m not alone ‘cause the TV’s on, yeah,
I’m not crazy ‘cause I take the right pills, every day.”

I’m finding that I watch a lot more TV in the mornings these days. Ostensibly it is to watch the weather report. But even though I hate hearing about the latest murder and mayhem in the Metro Louisville area, there is something to what Jimmy Eat World says. The perky voice of the weatherman echoes through my empty apartment, and I’m not alone.

I grew up in a small town close to Leavenworth, Washington. I know it wasn’t nearly as idyllic as my retrospective imagination paints it out to be—like every clique, there were the insiders and the outsiders. But we did have community in Leavenworth. Whether it was AAU basketball or Friday night football, drama productions or community chili feeds, one knew people. It didn’t surprise me, when my dad passed away, that a few hundred mourners from up and down the Wenatchee Valley showed up at his funeral.

Where are the kids that grew up in Leavenworth now? I’m in Louisville, Kentucky. Krysten just bought a house in St. Paul, Minnesota. Colin is somewhere in Arizona. Casey spent a year in San Antonio, Texas before returning to Seattle. A few are still in our hometown, raising kids of their own now. But we are the diaspora, the community that left to go to college and never returned.

And we find other “diasporas”—young men and women like us, students or young professionals, from small towns in Tennessee and Texas and Oklahoma. We sit together at the lunch table, or chill at restaurants or bars on the weekends. Sometimes, I think we come together just to escape the weatherman’s voice. Or maybe we’re all searching for our own small town Americas.

We talk a lot about the effects of globalization abroad, in some country in Asia or Latin America. I rarely hear a discussion about what globalization means for young American adults. Though technology helps us maintain community circles over thousands of miles, a global economy means that good jobs aren’t where we live. They aren’t with our families and in our communities. How can I return to Dryden or Leavenworth? What possible work exists for me there? The best I can do is rebuild another community in some distant Babylon, only to watch those I care about flee somewhere else.

And I go to the house of God, searching for something eternal.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” --Revelation 22:13

Kelsey

Another day with way too much to do… but to be perfectly honest with you, that’s the way I tend to like it. Better to spend the entire day rushing from one crisis to another rather than dragging it out, trying to find stuff to keep you from falling asleep at your desk.

Today, my friends, I’m going to teach you a practical skill I learned from wise woman alumna Kristy Graf—how to parallel park. After squeezing into a spot barely larger than the ‘Stang itself this afternoon, I once again thanked my lucky stars for the Halloween night when Kristy showed me the great secret to parallel parking. To commemorate her contribution to my practical education, today I’m going to share this story with you.

I was in Boston with the World Tour, and I had agreed to take a group of friends to a Halloween party that night (in one of those random alignments of the cosmos, our group included four former PC(USA) Young Adult Interns and Kristy, a former CoCo member and current liaison to Presbyterian Women. Guess what we went as? Nuns). Cars lined the tiny city street like twelve year olds queuing up for Britney Spears tickets in a grocery store. The only spot we could find was literally no bigger than the little rental car I was driving.

So Kristy soothed my fear and trepidation by offering to help me park it. And it was in that moment that she gave me the golden secret to parallel parking—crank the wheel all the way around, before you release the brake. As you slip into the spot, you can then start to straighten out the wheel. I found that I was failing to crank the wheel far enough to begin with. I then wondered why I seemed to only move back and forth, with increasing panic, in the same little spot. But under Kristy’s guidance, I managed to get into that tiny spot. And I only tapped the car in front of me once.

The lesson? When you’re parallel parking, cut the wheel as far around as it will go before letting your foot off the break. We can all be great parallel parkers, if we only remember this piece of advice.

And if you need more counseling on this subject, I refer all inquiries to Kristy Graf.

“A wise child loves discipline, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.” --Proverbs 13:1

Kelsey

So it’s on to the World Series for the Chicago White Sox. Hooray! David woke me up last night at 11:45 pm to let me know that the ChiSox had beaten the Angels 6-3 for the American League pennant. Last time they went to the Series, my mother was a squalling newborn. And the last time they won was in 1917. Let’s hope they can make good this time.

In other news, I saw the film Elizabethtown last night. Those of you who feel like you spend your lives on planes to and from Louisville might enjoy the movie purely for the recognizable sites—the Louisville skyline, Slugger Field… no sentimental shots of PresbyLand, however. If you have seen the movie, I actually watched them film the scene where Orlando Bloom runs out of the hotel after Kirstin Dunst. In fact, I stood about 30 feet away from Orlando and saw him eat his lunch that day. Hah! Those of you who do travel with the church, however, know that a direct flight from Portland to Louisville, or from anywhere to Louisville, is pretty much a complete fiction.

This week promises to be a doozy. With the World Tour to finalize, a Leadership Event Planning Team and a Fundraising Committee to get on the boat, and two articles to write for Church and Society and Presbyterians Today, I have a lot to do before I can venture off to Thailand next week. Combine that with the breast cancer walk this weekend…

Lest you’ve forgotten, I am still planning on participating in Louisville’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk this Sunday. The campaign here at the Center has gone very well—we stole a cardboard cutout woman from Presbyterian Women and named her “Hope,” since the theme of the walk is “Hope Starts Here.” We then dressed her up and are currently parading her around the building, along with a signup sheet, to encourage folks in PresbyLand to donate or join us in walking. So far we have about 20 walkers. Click here if you want to see Hope or donate to our group (but ignore the statistics about how we don’t have any walkers or money. That’s not true!).

Since more than 11,500 young women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the next year, what preventative steps can we, as young women, take to protect ourselves? Since there are no known causes for breast cancer, early detection is your best chance to minimize the impact of it and increase your chances for survival. The Young Survival Coalition (YSC) recommends that you start doing monthly breast self-exams by age 20, 7-10 days after your period starts, and that you have a doctor perform an exam every year. You can visit YSC’s website to find out more about how to do self-exams, or you can also stop by your college’s health center. I know that Whitworth had cards hanging up on the shower nozzles in our dorms.

What should you be looking for during a self-exam? A lump or change in the shape of your breast, swelling, unusual discharge, nipple retraction, redness on the nipple or breast, basically anything that really looks abnormal should be checked out. And if your doctor tells you that you’re too young to have breast cancer, insist on a mammogram, MRI, or a second opinion. While four-fifths of all breast lumps are not cancerous, it is better to be safe than sorry.

If you’re currently a young woman living with breast cancer, I would recommend checking out YSC’s website. It has many resources for support and advocacy, since the needs of young women often remain unaddressed when it comes to breast cancer research and support. The PC(USA) also has links here for more info about breast cancer.

And if you are living with breast cancer, this weekend’s walk downtown is for you.

“O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good; for God’s steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed from trouble.” --Psalm 107:1-2

Kelsey

While waiting for my computer to boot this morning, I picked up a copy I’ve been hoarding of the most recent Atlantic. The Advocacy Office has a subscription, and I’d wanted to read about “how A.Q. Khan made Pakistan a nuclear power.” The magazine has also featured a series by philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy about his Tocquevillian travels through America. I think I’ve even mentioned the series in the blog before—back in April or so, he wrote an enchanting feature on the Pacific Northwest (although he spelled Wenatchee, WA “Wanatchee”—ughh).

Levy started off his fifth installment in Washington, DC, where he visited with leaders of the Democrats. In a section entitled “The Democratic Party as a Black Hole,” he says this:

“The fact is that these brilliant pioneers who were supposed to set down the cornerstones for the people’s house of tomorrow had only one idea, one obsession, and fundamentally, one watchword: how, in four years, to fight the Republicans on the battlefield of fundraising…” (106).

I was a student of history and literature in college. And though the study of American history is often ugly, there were always a couple of elements that inspired me—the lofty philosophical ideals of the nation’s founders, the eternally optimistic outlook of American Romantic writers like Emerson and Whitman, the courage and bravery of ordinary people as they made their faith real in the face of attack dogs and water hoses in the civil rights movement. Maybe I took in too much of Winthrop’s “city on a hill” rhetoric as a third grader or something. But I’ve always subconsciously paralleled our toddler nation with the human condition itself—always falling short, but constantly striving toward something great. “…Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,” in the words of Paul from Philippians 3:13, to make this a place where life and liberty can truly abound for all.

But these days, I’m beginning to feel that the few idealistic illusions I had left are gone. It seems that our leaders, of whatever political persuasion, no longer strive toward the greatness of a better life for all the world’s people. They focus on the fundraising and the strategy that will supposedly buy them our hearts and minds, without giving us something to believe in. They sell us empty husks for food and expect us to return on the next market day. And they wonder why young adults in general fail to turn out in November. Simply put, what do we have to vote for?

Don’t get me wrong—fundraising in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. I’ve been in the real world long enough to know that organizations can’t get by without a little dough. But what happens when money replaces substance as the avenue to power, and power is the end goal? When staying in office becomes more important than what you do with your time there? I feel like the battles have become so acrimonious, the financial stakes so high, the actual message so hollow, that you and me and almost everyone else has lost much to invest in.

The question is whether the church will follow the same path, as it tries to up its revenue, to get more members, and to increasingly seek power to frame the moral debates in our society. Whether or not the American government is still “of the people, by the people, for the people,” Christianity must cling to the substance that has kept it alive for the past two millennia—the abundant love of God for every human being, expressed in the person of Christ. The death of that hope means the death of this institution.

And perhaps the survival of that basic message, enduring beyond the rise and fall of powers and principalities and political trends, testifies better than any individual witness to its veracity.

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” --Romans 8:38-39

Kelsey

I received yet another frantic call from my mom yesterday afternoon. She watches the news far too often—“Kelsey, please don’t go to Thailand! They’ve got Avian bird flu over there!” I couldn’t refute her claim, since I try to avoid watching TV unless baseball is on (that controversial 9th inning strikeout last night worked in our favor, though—the White Sox downed the Angels 2-1).

Well, after a bit of research online on this topic (in which, incidentally, I also noticed that Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher got hitched—rock on, Demi), I actually discovered that today Romania detected bird flu in its poultry. Considering that I will spend most of my trip to Thailand in a hotel conference room, and I spent much of my trip to Romania this summer stumbling over chickens running loose in people’s yards, I think I’ve already encountered the greater risk.

Yes, my friends, I’m leaving for Bangkok in less than two weeks, on October 25. The AWID International Forum, which I’m attending with NNPCW alumna Ann Crews Melton and Women’s Advocacy Associate Molly Casteel, will bring together activists and scholars from around the world to talk about how to create institutional and social change through our work. AWID places special emphasis on women in developing countries, and many of the delegates will be from other parts of the world. I’m particularly interested in the mini women’s rights film festival they’ll be holding Thursday night… hopefully I won’t be in a comatose state by then due to the 12 hour time difference.

Besides my obvious excitement about my first trip to Asia, I’m very much looking forward to the chance to learn from women in other parts of the world about organizational strengthening strategies that have worked for them. It seems that in the United States, we’re often caught in our own little bubble. We see our way as the right way, the only way, for something to be done, and our problems as the defining problems of women around the world. When it comes to women’s rights in particular, I think many Western societies see themselves as enlightened paragons of virtue—“Women here got the right to vote in 1919,” and so on.

Yet I get more excited about women’s issues these days when I hear stories from abroad. These women take on non-trendy, grassroots justice issues. The stories I’ve read are of women who examine the problems in their particular social context, whether that’s genital mutilation or honor killings, and look to the women affected for solutions. That seems much more empowering to me than an agenda imposed from someone above or outside.

We ultimately strive for that autonomous model ourselves in NNPCW, with our decentralized, non-hierarchical network structure. At our best, the national NNPCW office provides you with opportunities for leadership development, improved methods of communication, and resources to aid you in your work. We don’t package your experience as a woman into a little box, and we don’t tell you what issues should be important to you. We give you tools that empower you to create change on your own college campuses. And really, isn’t that what the Body of Christ is all about?

Hopefully my trip to the International Forum will give me better strategies for how we can move even more toward this vision. And in the meantime, I’ve got some hot tips from the New York Times on places for great Thai food in Bangkok.

“If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members of the body, each one of them, as God chose.” --1 Corinthians 12:17-18

Kelsey

I felt a bit scattered yesterday, I must admit… I left the Center after work, only to discover that I had forgotten to move my car at 3 pm and now, at 6 pm, I had a $15 parking ticket. This is my second ticket in about a month, so I’m thinking that maybe I need to suck it up and buy a monthly parking pass. I’m simply too cheap to do it, though.

These parking people need to learn a bit about grace. They ride around downtown on little yellow Vespas, wearing little yellow polo shirts that say “Parking Authority” on them. They look like summer camp counselors. But you can just imagine their glee when they see that you’re illegally parked—the meter man (because the only ones I’ve seen are men) hops off his little Vespa right there in the street, whips out his ticket maker, and slaps the green “PARKING TICKET” envelope on your windshield. I’m sure he cackles as he drives away, too.

And if you think I’m exaggerating about the malevolent intent of the Parking Authority, let me inform you that they once ticketed the Red Cross blood drive truck when it was parked illegally behind the Presbyterian Center. Now, that’s cold to ticket the blood drive truck, no matter where you’re from.

An alternative, of course, is to start riding public transportation, the TARC. Or as we often say here, I could “TARC it” to work. This has several distinct advantages, the most obvious being the cost. With gas prices even in Louisville creeping up near the $3 mark, a $27 per month bus pass sounds very appealing. The other bonus, of course, is that I would no longer live in fear of the evil parking police.

Drawbacks include the fact that I would have little control over my own start/stop times. To show that I truly am an American, I’ve always liked the autonomy that my own car provides—the ability to travel when I want and where I want. Combine that with the fact that I’m a rather impatient person, and waiting around for the bus has never held much appeal. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and frugal Kelsey is salivating at the potential savings.

So I’m thinking about taking the bus challenge next week, just as an experiment. I’ll still have the ‘Stang waiting in the wings for the days I have to stay late or come in early. And since mass transportation really is the more environmentally friendly thing to do, I can be a better steward of God’s creation as well. Although my attempts at recycling aren’t going so well on that count… but my recycling issues will have to hold for another blog.

“God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.’” --Genesis 1:29

Kelsey

Sadness… the church has moved its roving eye away from this plucky little blog and back to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Understandable. But since we’ve pickup up at least five new Network memberships since the feature went up last week, I was kind of hoping to ride the gravy train for as long as possible.

And you’re all probably angry with me right now—it is already 5:30 pm, and you haven’t had a blog post since Friday! Shocking neglect on my part, I must confess. But I was off yesterday, and I don’t have Internet at home. Today I basically hopped from one meeting to another, where I learned the fun skill of disciplining your employees, followed by an afternoon exploring the wonderful world of budgets with Mary Elva. At least I had cake at the latter meeting. So you’ll have to forgive me for the lateness, and the shortness, of this post. I’ll be back tomorrow with my usual musings on life.

One thing buzzing around Women’s Ministries right now that is kind of interesting… we have a new “cultural proficiency” initiative going on around PresbyLand. The goal is to get us to be more aware and more adept at working with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, and to create an environment more hospitable to them. Very worthy goal, of course, and they did have a great kickoff party the other day with smoked salmon for the masses.

As part of the initiative, though, someone posted signs all over the building highlighting our values and commitments when it comes to cultural diversity. Right in front of the door to Women’s and Racial Ethnic Ministries, for instance, there is a sign headed by the word “Justice.” But in one of those gaffes that sometimes happens, the same sign sitting right in front of Women’s Ministries refers to the “God of our fathers” in a passage from the King James Version of the Bible—and for those of you in the know, inclusive language for God and language that includes women in the Body of Christ is a big thing around here. Hmmm… and I thought the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) officially used the New Revised Standard Version. Not the most culturally proficient thing to do as it relates to us here in Women’s Ministries.

But anyway, I’m going home for the night. Until tomorrow!!

“But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.” --2 Corinthians 4:7

Kelsey

It is now day three of our place of honor on the PC(USA) homepage. While I know I should be enjoying our moment in the sun, this humble blog’s great chance to gain the notice of august personages within the church, it tends to make me more nervous than anything else. Alas, it seems easier to write when I think the only person reading this is my mother back in Washington, who would tell me that carving sculptures out of blue cheese showed extraordinary genius on my part.

But I do want to give a shout out to the behind-the-scenes heroine of the blog—Amy Tuttle, our web designer. Not only did she manage to finagle us the great opportunity for this PC(USA) feature, but she also designs all the fantastic layout and graphics on this page and the NNPCW homepage. She deserves extra prayers on her prayer day in the Mission Yearbook, November 30, for putting up with us (see the Sept. 29 post to learn about prayer days).

In several posts, I’ve alluded to our peculiar position here in PresbyLand of being both church and corporation—we’re charged with showing the love of God to everyone while still keeping out of the red in doing it. However, from time to time opportunities do spring out of our conundrum.

Yesterday, I had a chat with my friend over at Interfaith Worker Justice, Emily Harry. Her request of me highlights the ways in which the church, because of its almost constant interactions with the business community, has a real opportunity to put its faith into practice. Emily is currently organizing a campaign on behalf of hotel workers, and she had heard that I would be attending a gathering of meeting planners in the building. Because of the plethora of meetings we schedule here at the Center, we are in a unique position to support workers who are striking for fairer wages when we pick the hotels you stay at. By avoiding hotels in contract disputes, and rewarding those that do engage in fair labor practices with our business, we can play a positive role in supporting workers. She hoped that I would lift this up during the meeting.

Other places where the church puts its money where its mouth is include our policies supporting minority and women-owned purchasing vendors and our Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) committee. Plus, we’ve engaged businesses like Taco Bell, during the recent boycott, in discussions about just labor practices. So when you think the church doesn’t have a voice, doesn’t have relevance to the world, think again.

Of course, this works on the micro level, too. For a long time, I felt like boycotting particularly unethical products and businesses was a nice but ineffectual gesture. I didn’t do it because I was convinced that my actions couldn’t make a difference.

But then, at the last Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women, it dawned on me that it wasn’t even about changing the world with my one act. It is all about my faith, and proclaiming that faith in whatever way I can. If Scripture tells me to “seek justice, [and] rescue the oppressed” (Isaiah 1:17), then it doesn’t really matter if I jump on a huge groundswell for change or if I quietly join a nascent cause with no immediate prospect of success. It doesn’t matter if the change happens next week or a hundred years from now. Because I know that transformation will come, and my faith gives me the strength to live into that when it seems foolishness to others.

Remember that all mass movements started with just a few people—people who committed to doing something about the wrongs they saw, even when everyone else said it was impossible. As people of faith and as the Body of Christ, we’re charged to live into the promise of God’s coming realm. And sometimes that means throwing common sense out the window, and putting our money where our mouth is.

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” --1 Corinthians 1:27

Kelsey

PS—If you’re more interested in the hotel worker campaign, visit Interfaith Worker Justice’s website.

So the Bogdan and I watched TV together last night via cell phone. I was the Chicago White Sox’s good luck charm—when I first called David, they were losing 4-0 to the Red Sox. In the course of our conversation, however, they scored five runs to win the game. Let me declare publicly right now that since my Mariners didn’t make it to the playoffs, I am officially casting my lot with the White Sox out of affection for David. Never mind that he lives in Boston now—he was born in Chicago, and roots for what he calls the “red-headed stepchild” of Chicago sports. Ah, well.

Meanwhile, after flipping channels a while, I hit on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. Now, here’s a moment of true confession for me… I love Martha. I love Martha in spite of her recent stint in jail, regardless of her hawking cheap kitchenware at K-Mart. In fact, I will say that I love Martha because of all these things. There is just something deliciously dystopian about Martha showing you how to perfectly wield your butterknife, because you know that she’d stab you in the back with it if you crossed her. She is the perfect androgynous mix between the traditionally masculine and feminine worlds.

Take this week’s episode of ruthless boardroom intrigue. Of course, it produced the usual drama of junky reality TV—people whining to the camera incessantly about everyone else (thank you, MTV’s Real World), cheesy music as Martha fired a rather silly aspiring broadcast journalist. But what I found so amusing about the whole thing was that the challenge this week was… wedding cake. Yes, all this cutthroat competition was about who could produce and market the best wedding cake.

Now, I said that Martha somehow manages to blend the masculine and feminine in her power-hungry marketing of domestic bliss. Perhaps that is why everyone loves to hate her. The “good ol’ boys” of business feel threatened because Martha bases her power in a world they can’t touch. No Enron exec could show you how to arrange calla lilies on TV and make oodles of money in the process. And what would happen anyway if all those Martha fans woke up and started something that didn’t have to do with soufflés and decoupage?

At the same time, many of us women hate Martha for enshrining and idolizing the male paradigm for female success—essentially, she’s a woman who has built her power base on reinforcing traditional patriarchal expectations of women. Martha sets impossibly high standards for what our homes should look like, how our food should taste, the calligraphy to use in addressing social invitations. And there’s a small part of many of us that wants to create the perfect world of Martha Stewart Living for ourselves. She feeds us the ultimate lie of the patriarchy—that we can only be happy when we conform to society’s impossible ideals.

Of course, we’re not looking at very Christian or feminist models here. Our faith tells us that not only is it impossible to be perfect, but that the world’s idea of perfection bears the marks of sin’s corruption anyway. And the objectives of feminism seek the empowerment of everyone, not only a few WASPy women who adopt male paradigms of power in order to make it big.

Women like Martha Stewart are often considered “feminist,” and evoke fear in the establishment by their power. But if the radical equality and abundant love for all people promoted by both Christianity and feminism were really borne out, we’d be seeing something much more threatening to the current order than Martha’s butterknives—a world in which God “has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:53).

I still get a twisted kick out of Martha, though.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” --John 10:10

Kelsey

Once again, NNPCW is at the forefront of the technological bandwagon—Presbyterian Women now has a blog, too, for their Global Exchange to Brazil. You can check it out here. I’m very excited that we’ve started a blogging trend in Women’s Ministries. And I just found out that we’ve received the unparalleded cyber-honor of a feature on the PC(USA)’s homepage (I’m hoping they’ll include a blue ribbon with that). So welcome, all ye curious, to Network Notes.

An older, but great, article about women’s leadership in the church recently crossed my desk from PW staff person Unzu Lee. Scholar (and graduate of Louisville’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) Linda McKinnish Bridges wrote the piece for the Baptist theological journal Review and Expositor in summer 1998. Bridges holds that the spread of Christianity always begins with a “Lydia Phase,” in which women are major players in teaching, preaching, and leading the emerging church. As the movement becomes more institutionalized and culturally acceptable, however, it almost always conforms to the patriarchal attitudes of the surrounding culture and excludes women’s leadership. I would encourage you to read the article if you’re interested.

What intrigued me, though, was her thesis on the role of women in the 21st century church. She argues that many women played major roles in the first-century church in part because they were small, decentralized house churches. This made it possible for women, with little public experience but with a source of authority within the home, to be comfortable with leadership roles in the church “family.”

Much later in the article, Bridges contends that the pendulum is swinging back toward that direction in the modern church. As she comments:

“The people who supported the growth of organized religion are dying. In their place are equally hungry faith seekers, although not as institutionally focused. … They are interested less in form and more in essence. They are casual. And casual faith seekers do not search for powerful centers of religious expression but for immediate, authentic places of spiritual growth” (13-14).

In light of this shift, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that the NNPCW model has validity for the entire church. In many ways, we have the small, decentralized characteristics of early house churches—students meet together in a chapel basement, in a dorm room, or in a student lounge, where we create communities that pray, study Scripture, and act on behalf of justice. We promote an empowering decision-making structure, where the entire community comes together to consent to what is best for the group. We share a common Christian faith, but focus on different goals and objectives.

Perhaps we can make this transformational moment in the church a permanent “Lydia Phase”—one where women, such as those of you involved with NNPCW, can spark the growth of this changing church and then maintain leadership roles of significance. We know that the church as it stands seems unappealing to many in our generation. Maybe it is time for us to take the vibrant faith communities we know as NNPCW and share them with others. Like our foremothers, it is our turn to heed God’s call to shape the emerging church.

“A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.” --Acts 16:14

Kelsey

Lest you’ve been missing installations of “Kelsey’s Educational Blogs” in my rambling rantings of the past few weeks, have I got a treat for you, kids. Today we’re going interfaith, exploring the wonderful Jewish and Muslim celebrations of Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan. My desk calendar says that today is the first day for both (although my Presbyterian Planning Calendar claims that Rosh Hashanah began yesterday and Ramadan begins tomorrow), so we can safely say that both begin sometime this week.

My first stop on the quest was www.jewfaq.org, the Judaism 101 site. According to this site, Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, the first and second days of the month of Tishri. For Jews, the new year is a time of deep religious significance. Observant Jews attend synagogue during this holiday, where a special prayer book called the machzor is used to encompass the expanded liturgy. The custom of blowing the shofar (a trumpet-like ram’s horn) comes from the Scriptural basis for the holiday, Leviticus 23:24:25—“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the people of Israel saying: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of complete rest, a holy convocation commemorated with trumpet blasts. You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall present the Lord’s offering by fire.”

The holiday also encompasses several other popular customs. Jews eat apples dipped in honey, signifying their desire for a sweet year. Many people also empty their pockets into a flowing body of water during the first day, a practice symbolic of casting off one’s sins to start the new year.

In my high school World History class, Mr. Simonson taught us that Ramadan was one of the five pillars of Islam. Unlike most Christian religious celebrations, which have been largely secularized in the past century, Ramadan maintains its religious significance. For it is in the month of Ramadan that Muslims believe Allah gave the first verses of the Qur’an to Muhammad (on Laylat al-Qadr, or the “Night of Power,” one of the last ten days of Ramadan). To mark this time, all able Muslims over the age of twelve will eat and drink nothing (not even water) during daylight hours from now until November 3. Muslims eat before sunrise, and then break the fast in the evening each day.

The fast compels Muslims to remember the suffering of the poor, as well as their fellowship with others observing Ramadan around the world. Many mosques sponsor a community iftar (break fast) in the evenings, as well as optional prayers. The month is also an opportunity to practice spiritual discipline—the fast includes a more focused attempt to follow Islam’s moral teachings, and to practice purity of thought and action. The basic purpose of Ramadan is to actively bring one’s self closer to Allah.

Ramadan ends with one of the most important holidays in the Islamic calendar, Eid al-Fitr, or “Festival of Breaking the Fast.” In addition to contributing to mosques and the poor at this time, people celebrate by dressing up, attending prayers at the mosque, giving gifts to women and children, and visiting with family and friends. Reconciliations are emphasized. But one thing in particular is forbidden during this celebration—fasting.

So that’s what our monotheistic cousins are up to these days. I would encourage you, if you know Jews or Muslims, to learn more from them about these holy days rather than just relying on my second-hand knowledge. I certainly don’t intend to misrepresent them in any way, but I may have done so out of ignorance.

And think about how we as a Christian community can reclaim the religious significance in our own holidays. As I read about Ramadan, for instance, I thought about the original fasting element of Lent. Or what about lighting the candles and praying during Advent? We often have a tendency to eschew what we see as empty rituals. But maybe we should instead see them as a framework to help us push out the clutter and distractions, and focus on God in our lives.

“Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all people.” --Acts 2:46-47a

Kelsey

It’s rumble time in our nation’s highest court—the President has named Harriet Miers, one of his White House lawyers, as the new nominee for the Supreme Court. While I do think it’s good that she is a woman (she had to face and overcome at least some measure of discrimination to get this far, which hopefully means she understands it), I will say no more of my personal opinion on the intrigues to follow, not even what I think of the name "Harriet." Like our new Chief Justice, I always try to maintain a Sphinx-like silence on some of my views. It isn’t my job to tell you how to vote—as we Presbyterians like to affirm, God alone is Lord of the conscience.

It is a tricky line, really, the whole separation between church and state. Because what is it the church’s job to tell you? When does the prophetic voice in the church become an abuse of power by someone in authority?

I’ve never been one to believe that the separation line means removing issues of faith from social discourse altogether, partly because such a stance would be impossible. I also think the church has a lot to say to society—from condemning violent video games in the hands of children to bringing poverty to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness.

I am a proponent of separation, however, for the sake of the church itself. When I was in Germany studying World War II a few years back, I discovered that German churches today refuse to display national flags in their buildings. In fact, they think it is somewhat disturbing that Americans do it so proudly. Why? Because when Hitler co-opted the church in the 1930s, Nazi flags blanketed houses of worship. And the established churches remained silent as Hitler’s regime slaughtered millions of Jews, along with the Roma (Gypsies), gay men, and political prisoners (including theological giant Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

The lesson? It is much harder to speak out against what is wrong with the state when you’re in bed with it. So many people seem to think that the best way to get faith and values into the social consciousness is to become part of the government itself. But in my mind, the church and its outreach become far too dependent on the state, and far too worldly, when the two become one (isn’t that a Spice Girls song, by the way??). The churches on the margins are the ones that thrive, from the first church in Acts to underground fellowships in China today.

Such churches don’t always say what the society says, or what the state itself says. Remember that churches on the margins started the civil rights movement in our country. Churches on the margins were at the forefront of the fall of communism in East Germany. Churches on the margins continue to speak out for human rights in Colombia, at the risk of arrest, torture, and assassination.

In my mind, a church that witnesses to Jesus Christ in its message and actions won’t have any problem impacting society. Maybe we should be more concerned with that than with the fate of deaf and dumb courthouse statues displaying the Ten Commandments.

“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” --Hosea 6:6

Kelsey