note: in 2008 I was able to attend one of the weeks of the Chautauqua Institute. Here are some of my writings from that experience:

Chautauqua - Day 1.... Garbage and Road Rage

I'm going to try to chronicle my experiences at Chautauqua this week - the lectures and the studying that I accomplish (or don't accomplish). Today I arrived at the lovely hour of 10:30pm - long story, I'll just share the high-lights. I had to pick up my Chautauqua partner, Pastor Doug, at Binghamton NY and arrived at 5:00pm. Apparently everything closes between 3:00 and 5:00 on Binghamton on a Saturday, and I was left wandering around for two hours with nothing to do. That was not good, but it got better. Having finally left Binghamton, two hours later then we hoped we started making good time, just kinda breaking the speed limit.
We were cruising, not causing trouble, when another car, which had been behind us pulled in front of us, and defenestrated their garbage towards our car. I was a little shocked, and then confused when an arm stretched out the window and planted a certain hand sign towards our direction. This occurred for about a minuet, and we were speechless - expect for the "What the ----" that we kept saying. About a mile later, the car began to slow down to exit and while we left we saw the passenger, the garbage thrower and hand waver leaning over the driver showing us the same middle sign with a great amount of energy and passion. I don't believe I did anything to provoke him, but something must have happened. It was indeed interesting.
With all of that said, we are here now, trying to settle in and getting ready for the Chautauqua experience. Hopefully it will not involve any garbage throwing or finger waving.

Chautauqua Day 2 - Of Sermons and Speeches

Day 2 was a slow, acclimating kind of day. It started with good ole' Baptist worship at the Baptist house. There is something about Baptists and music - when they sing the walls shake. While the preaching was not stellar, it was solid enough and I enjoy worshiping with my folks. Then Chautauqua had its big Sunday worship. It is a service full of pomp, ritual and not much theological focus. The liturgy is nice enough and far from offensive. Sometimes I feel that when we try so hard not to offend anyone we end up not offering anything of substance. That was kind of what the service was like - a bowl of oatmeal. No spice and no flavor, but it wont hurt you. The music is great, polished, well rehearsed, but great. My biggest issue was with the sermon. The Right Rev. John Bryson Chane, Bishop of Washington D.C. was "preaching." He used a gospel text, but he really didn't speak from it. Instead he spoke about the importance of the separation of church and state, the necessary of the church having a voice in the polis and how we need to make sure the separation is ensured and churches continue to have a voice. For the most part I agree with his sentiment and ideas, but I was hoping for a sermon, not a speech. What Chane offered was a speech about religious liberty with a little flourish with scripture at the end. I would hope a sermon would be wrapped with the text, weaving the congregation in and out of the text until the text becomes our story. One could preach about separation of church and state, but in a worship setting (as much as that was a worship setting) is not a place for a speech or a soapbox. When we preach our concerns, our agenda and our ideals we are no longer allowing God to lead us, instead it is as if we are just telling God what to do, where to be and when.
Chane is going to be preaching all week, so maybe I'll still hear a sermon... maybe.

afterthought: There is a lot of emphasis on interfaith stuff this week, of which I am skeptical - not because I am a close minded ass, but because I wonder how deep can one go theologically when one is trying not to offend everyone. I wonder if the interfaith conversations will end us with us all holding a bowl of oatmeal

Chautauqua Day 3 - Apparently Religious Liberity is Important

Today was the first "real" day of Chautauqua in that there was a morning lecture and an afternoon lecture. Saturday and Sunday don't count as much for content - just fluff to ease us all into the Chautauqua experience. It would neat to have a Chautauqua boot camp where we have to do push ups every time a speaker says, "ummm...." or every time the current Administration is criticized (if the criticism draws applause then we have to clap between each push up). So Monday we had morning worship, and another speech by the Bishop of D.C. I am no longer expecting a sermon and hope my soul will still be ok. Then we heard from John Meacham, editor at Newsweek, who spoke at length about the importance of religious liberty and made it very clear that the United States is not a "Christian nation." C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance also spoke with much passion about the importance of the no-establishment clause in the Constitution urging us all to hold closely and dearly to such a freedom that we all enjoy.
I get it, I really do. I get that we need to be aware of the importance of religious liberty in the United States. I have even blogged about this very idea. I agree with the speakers, with the content (for the most part - as a pretentious doctoral student I could never fully agree with someone on anything), and with the importance for our own vigilance with this issue. Yet I left the speakers yawning (metaphorically) because if was nothing new. There was, for me, very little that made me stop and think, little that challenged me and provoked me to a new plane of understanding. I imagine this is the same for the majority of the folks here at Chautauqua. This is not a crowd that questions the necessity and the importance of the establishment clause, so could we go a little deeper, please? Maybe talk about the theological complexities one faces when on the one hand most religions has a call for evangelizing and on the other hand we strive to make room for other religions to exist. What do we do with that. What about the times when religious liberty hurts - like when a child is refused a blood transfusion because of religious beliefs. Or what about people who refuse to fight in a war because of religious reasons and are persecuted by our government for such reasons (see the peace movement of WWI and WWII)? Religious liberty is important, I get it, but it is not a simple, easy stand to support. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get into the nitty gritty of Religious Liberty. Maybe then I wouldn't yawn. Maybe I just need to get more sleep.

I ended the day by watching La Traviata; enjoying my freedom to attend an opera in shorts and a ratty shirt. I think I even heard someone mutter, "I may not agree with the way you are dressed, but I will defend to the death your right to wear those clothes." What a lovely, tolerant place.

Chautauqua Day 4 - The Source of our Rage

Yesterday, Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism spoke about the way in which one's faith informs one's values. He was specifically speaking about those values which effect one's interaction with the public discourse. As a Jew, he claimed that specific values emanate from his faith and inform his actions. He used the Catholics as another example - their faith and understanding of theology informed their interaction and intervention into public discourse. It think the distinction that Saperstein is making is important. One is not trying to impose one's set of values upon the public discourse (i.e. public life/politics), instead one is using one's set of values to inform the way one is a part of that discourse. There is a level to which one will try to bend the moral standings of the polis, but bending and influencing is different from imposing. His big point was that the covenant of Sinai, a covenant to which Jews tend to align with is a covenant between the Jews and God, not the world and God. Thus it is improper to impose the agreement of such a covenant upon the greater population.
This made me think on two points. 1) what are the values of my faith which inform my actions in the public? I think this is an important question because it is easy to allow someone, or a group to tell you what your values are supposed to be. It is easy to be sucked into a "Christendom" mentality assuming that might and empire are a part of the Christian values we are all to ascribe to. I believe such a question needs to be done in prayer, in community, and ultimately through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
2) What aspects of Christianity are specifically for Christians? Or in other words, what separates me from the world because of my faith? What should I not assume the rest of the world will ascribe to?
These are good questions that I think we all should consider before walking into the public discourse, armed with our faith. Instead we should be guided by our faith.

afterthought: Saperstein suggested that all religions will agree with common moral values uniting all people. I wonder if we can accept such an assumption.