Sudan, Uganda, and the Bullshit of Duke Divinity School
I just left the lunch panel discussion led by an Anglican Bishop from southern Sudan and a Catholic priest from Uganda. They were here at Duke to talk about the wars in their respective countries, and especially to talk about the church in that connection. The lunch was in the big lecture room. While my wife and I were walking to the meeting, she wanted to hurry, because she figured that by the time we got there, there might not be any seats left in the room. On the contrary...
Here is the question for anyone who wants to respond:
Why is it that, when there is a panel about homosexuality in that very same room, I can't get a seat because there are so many dookies crawling over each other to get there, but when two churchmen come from east Africa to talk about genocide, no one seems to give a damn?
PA
Here is the question for anyone who wants to respond:
Why is it that, when there is a panel about homosexuality in that very same room, I can't get a seat because there are so many dookies crawling over each other to get there, but when two churchmen come from east Africa to talk about genocide, no one seems to give a damn?
PA
posted by Anonymous at 1:48 PM
3 Comments:
Conflict, confusion, and guilt. A panel on homosexuality has the potential for conflict which is lacking in talks on east Africa (I don't mean the irony at all) because no one is favor of genocide. There is a lot of confusion about homosexuality, while there is that same simplicity about Darfur, it is evil. And finally, because of the conflict and confusion, there isn't much guilt involved, but when we go to panels like that, the main result is guilt.
But I think the more tragic thing is not your juxtaposition of this and the homosexuality panels last year, but this and the professorial panel last week which was much more well attended. We seem to be more interested in what people we know who don't know much have to say than in what people we don't know who know can say.
Phil,
I'm sorry that you and Lisa had that experience. I know there is truth in what you and Wilson are saying. But, as you heard me say at our Anglican reflection meeting yesterday, an essential part of great ministry is great execution. We need to hold ourselves accountable whenever our execution of the fundamentals become stumbling blocks. With that in mind, I wonder if there is an alternative explanation for this that had little to do with the wickedness of those not present, but rather has more to do with the execution of those present and president. That is, is it possible the problem is poor execution on the part of the hosts? Was their PR all it could be? I didn't even know about this event; or at least I assumed it was the one that Jo was a part of last week. Compare it to the promotion that our royal highness did for the meeting we hosted with Hays last spring. That was excellence in ministry manifest in attention to the fundamentals of management.
Phil,
You're probably not going to be too happy with the email I just sent to the Socratic Club about planning a dialogue with Sacred Worth on Homosexuality! Its rather ironic the timing of that email (I sent it before I read your post).
I'd like to make a suggestion about this. There is a phenomena in the experience of our world getting smaller: one feels more responsible for responding to all the global ills while one really doesn't have much more power to affect them than someone who lived at a time when the world was "bigger." I certainly am more aware of all sorts of problems all around the world (not to mention in my backyard), but I barely feel like I have any real agency in helping resolve them. What I do feel like I have agency in resolving are the ills in the lives of those around me. Now when I say "feel" I really mean that. I don't mean that I actually have no agency to resolve global issues, but rather I feel like I don't. And at events like the Sudan events, very few real practical solutions are given that one can take. For example, in today's sermon by the same Sudanese Bishop, the solution seemed to me to imply this: "All the Christians in the world should move to Sudan so that we outnumber the Islamic armies...then Sudan will be as great as America." Is this really what we're all being called to do (and is America really that great)? Maybe. I'm not sure though. In fact, I doubt it. Let's not forget the fear motivation: "Once they're (they being Islamic armies) done with Africa, they're coming after you." How do I really respond to this? How do I live my life differently today? What specifically and practically needs to change? I know change needs to happen, but I don't always know what it is.
So I'd suggest the answer to your question is that people get tired of knowing about global ills they feel that they don't have any agency to help resolve.
A fellow sinner.
Tom
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