Well... I was about 30 minutes late (still cooking my spinach and potato curry), but I made it to the Dignity potluck with the archbishop of Winnipeg last night. It was an intersting sharing of stories and perspectives on both church doctrine and the role of the church in modern society. All in all, he seems like a very nice guy and was a good listener.

We talked for a while about traditional catholic teachings on the primacy of conscience. The corollary of that teaching is that each individual is called to form their conscience through the teachings of the Church, science, reason, the theologians and the 'sense-of-the-faithful'.

What was troubling to me is that while the bishop seemed to support primacy of conscience, he mentioned that as the archbishop is he bound to serve Rome and only publicly speak the official line. Call me crazy, but doesn't that seem weird? Everyone else in the church is encouraged to reflect and follow their informed conscience, but the top leaders have to shut up and follow party lines? If you're an archbishop and your conscience is telling you something different than Rome, you pretty much have to leave if you disagree (or more accurately, wouldn't be appointed to that position in the first place). All in all, it seems like an institutional structure that breeds unhealthy stifling of discussion and new ideas.

Mostly, I walked away from the meeting feeling sorry for the archbishop. The Church has moved outside of church structures in N. America and there's no way of shoving it back inside that little box.

Ever been slightly terrified of doing something you'd really like to do? That's kind of what I'm going through at the moment. A professor contacted me a week ago asking if I'd like to teach his religious studies course on "Religion and Pop Culture" to 35 undergrads starting in January. He's going on parental leave and needs to either find someone he trusts to teach the course or cancel it.

According to the syllabus, "In this course we will consider the place of religion in North American popular culture. We will consider the ways popular films, television programs, magazines, music, the fashion world, and radio depict religion. We will also explore the ways religious groups have responded to pop culture. This course will introduce students to some of the most interesting ways in which religion and culture interact in contemporary North America. As well, this course should equip students with the critical skills necessary to interpret often extremely ambiguous pop cultural phenomena. This course should help students be more careful critics of and perhaps participants in the two powerful global forces mentioned in the course's title."

I would LOVE to teach this course. But, I'm also terrified. My academic background is in forestry and international relations. I've always loved religious studies and theology, but have treated them more as a hobby. Is it insane to try to get up to speed over the next 3 months (nights and weekends worth of reading) to be able to teach this course at a level that would meet students expectations???

Hint... confuse apples and oranges.

According to an online article, "A staff member of an influential Vatican office has published an article arguing that gay men should not be ordained as priests in the wake of the clerical sex abuse scandal."

How many times do the experts have to explain to people that sexual orientation is not linked to the sexual abuse of children?!?!?!?!?! I get so sick and tired of these arguments. And beyond that, I'm deeply offended at the fact that a Jesuit magazine actually published the original article. I went to a Jesuit university. I went on every retreat I could with them. I never could have made it through the whole coming out process sane without the support of 3-4 Jesuit priests who listened and gave me a shoulder to cry on when needed. Like when the head American priest in Medjugorje tried to convince me that my parents don't actually love me or they would have tried to change who I am.

Grrrrr..... Next Wednesday I'm going to a potluck dinner with the bishop of Winnipeg, organized by friends of mine in Dignity. All I hope is that we can put anger behind us for a nice dinner and sharing of experiences. It's so easy to be angry at an instutition that it can be hard to be open to new people associated with it.

Deep breath. Back to work.

Given the amount of time I've spent in the last two weeks ranting about the US medical system (it doesn't even warrant the title "health care system"), my friends claim that I seem to have become fully Canadian. I don't know... all I know is that I am angry over how much of people's lives in the US are dictated by a medical system that doesn't seem to care for anyone.

What started my rant? Two things:

* My grandfather in New Hampshire is dying from something that the doctors now think is a weird cousin of Mad Cow disease. He was perfectly healthy (except for the normal aches and pains of growing old) until he went into the hospital this summer for back surgery. Two weeks later, his right hand started to move involuntarily... the motions kept spreading. He's now basically in a coma with a virus eating away his brain. How did an 80 year old man contract something like this? Two guesses - either from a lifetime as a deer hunter (although there are no medical cases of people contracting chronic wasting disease from deer) or from the virus being loose in the hospital where he had his back surgery. There is no known treatment. They have sent him back from the university hospital to a nursing home where family and friends can visit until he dies in a few weeks. My mother has been staying with my grandmother for the last month to help out and be there.

* Two weeks ago my father accepted a job in Illinois and moved there from Texas where he had been working as an educational technology consultant. Why? Because, while they were able to pay most bills even with the economy in a complete slump, they couldn't continue to pay $800/month for private health insurance. And they were terrified of living without insurance. So, in the midst of my mother being in NH, my father had to pack up the car and move to IL for a job he was offered.

So, I'm angry. I'm angry at my grandparents and aunts and uncles who grew up believing that hospitals were 100% safe places. Who never asked questions of doctors. Who had surgery because doctors said it might be a good thing to do. I'm angry because my parents are in their mid-50s and living in different parts of the country because of the medical system. I'm angry because they've got it good in comparison to people who are poorer in the U.S.

Somewhere along the way, we lost the idea that health care should be a right. And that we all have responsibilities to take care of ourselves and others. That it's not about money. It's about quality of life. That prevention is better than expensive cures. That no one will live forever, but that the medical system should at least do no harm.

grrrrr.......

I don't think it's possible to make sense out of current American politics without understanding the impact the "Left Behind" series of books has had on America. The Left Behind series is the dramatic updated version of the seven years of struggle described in the Biblical book of Revelation. It begins during an airplane flight over the Atlantic, on which half the passengers suddenly disappear in the Rapture. The same has happened to those on the ground, producing chaos. The pilot and a journalist become leaders of a force opposing the Antichrist, who is the former head of the UN. His evil troops are called the Peacekeepers; his headquarters are in Iraq.

These books are at the top of the US best seller lists. And yet we all seem surprised that Bush didn't go to Jo'burg. And that the American public, by and large, supports an invasion of Iraq. It scares me. Alot.