Increasing distance from the natural world…has almost stripped us of the possibility to talk of ourselves in relation to God’s creation.

Above:  The Middle Oconee River at Ben Burton Park, Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, December 8, 2019

Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

JOSEPH A. SITTLER, SR. (SEPTEMBER 26, 1904-DECEMBER 28, 1987)

U.S. Lutheran Minister, Theologian, and Ecumenist

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

–Joseph A. Sittler, quoted in G. Scott Cady and Christopher L. Webber, A Year with American Saints (2006), 438

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Joseph A. Sittler, Sr., comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via A Year with American Saints (2006).

The overlapping circles of ecology and theology have become increasingly prominent in the age of heightened awareness of Global Warming, Environmental Racism, and other ecology-related matters of human creation and contribution.  Sittler was a pioneer in ecological theology as early as the 1950s. 

Our saint, born in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, on September 26, 1904, was a son of Minnie Sittler and Lutheran minister Joseph Sittler.  Young Joseph graduated from Wittenberg College then from Hanna Divinity School, Springfield, Ohio.  He also studied theology at Oberlin College, Case Western Reserve, The University of Chicago, and the University of Heidelberg.

Sittler, ordained in the United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA) in 1930, spent most of his career as an academic.  However, she spent 13 years (1930-1943) as the pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church, Cleveland, Ohio.  Then our saint taught at Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary (1943-1957) and The University of Chicago Divinity School (1957-1973).  He was also one of the most prominent theologians and sought-after college and university preachers in the United States of America.  

God is interested in a lot of things besides religion.

–Sittler, in Gravity and Grace:  Reflections and Provocations (1986)

Sittler had many interests besides religion, too.  He wrote about theology, ecology, literature, classical music, jazz, and aging, among other topics, in eight books and many articles.  And our saint taught that the reverent care of creation is a central concern in Christianity–or ought to be.  He was also active in the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches.

Sittler was a warm person.  He had a fine sense of humor, knew literature well, related well and easily to many types of people, and enjoyed beer and Polish sausage.  He and wife Jeanne (d. 1991), a musician and a composer, raised six children–four sons and two daughters.

Sittler, aged 83 years, died in Chicago on December 28, 1987.

Sittler once preached:

A world sacramentally received is a world sanely used.

Do we–the human race–believe that?  Apparently not, based on how we have been treating the planet for a long time.  

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 20, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SEBASTIAN CASTELLIO, PROPHET OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

THE FEAST OF CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, HYMN WRITER AND ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN

THE FEAST OF ELLEN GATES STARR, U.S. EPISCOPALIAN THEN ROMAN CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTIVIST AND REFORMER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIA JOSEFA SANCHO DE GUERRA, FOUNDRESS OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE SERVANTS OF JESUS

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL RODIGAST, GERMAN LUTHERAN ACADEMIC AND HYMN WRITER

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Beautiful Creator, you open your hand to satisfy the needs of every living creature:

Make us always thankful for your loving providence,

and grant that we, remembering the account we must one day give,

may be faithful stewards of your abundance,

for the benefit of the whole creation;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom all things were made,

and who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

1 Kings 4:29-30, 33-34

Psalm 145:1-7, 22

Acts 17:24-31

John 1:1-5,. 9-14

—Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 731

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This above all: to thine own self be true

Above:  The Flag of the United States of America

Image in the Public Domain

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I, as one trained in historical methodology, prefer to think, speak, and write in the past tenses.  This tendency spills over into the rest of my life.  Therefore, when thinking, speaking, and writing of an episode of a completed series, for example, I do so from the perspective of one looking at the past.  I also place that episode in context of that series, for context is key to interpretation.  I know this from my historical training.  This is how I think, speak, and write.  To expect me to do otherwise is to expect me to be someone other than myself.

Many people have attempted to transform me into someone other than myself.  All of them have failed.  They have not transformed me into a fundamentalist, a social-cultural historian, or anything else I find repugnant.  I have maintained my integrity as myself, sometimes at a high cost.  I have decided to accept the advice (ironic within the context of Hamlet),

And it must follow, as the night the day

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

I have long been reluctant to issue statements about unfolding events.  I have wanted to watch them play out before commenting on them.  I have had opinions, of course.  I have “cussed and discussed” in private.  And I have kept almost all of that between God and myself.

Today, however, I am ready to make the following statements, in no particular order:

1. I continue to reject debunked conspiracy theories and those who peddle them.  I reject the vast majority of conspiracy theories anyway.  I prefer Ockham’s Razor and have a healthy respect for objective reality.
2. I reject politicians and pundits (especially Donald Trump and cultists thereof) who lie at least every other time they speak or tweet.
3. Donald Trump and cultists thereof are menaces to the republic.
4. Counting votes cast within the scope of the law is crucial to the democratic system.  Doing so is not a threat to that system.  If counting votes in a state in which one’s preferred candidate is winning is okay, so should counting votes in a state in which one’s preferred candidate is losing.
5. Presidents of the United States of America come and go.  The United States of America persists.
6. Nobody who uses totalitarian language and tactics (certainly not routinely) is worthy to be the President of the United States of America.
7. Remember that members of the United States military swear loyalty to the Constitution, not the President, of the United States of America.
8. As many leading Republicans lament, voter suppression has become a major tactic within that party.  Whenever a political party’s base keeps shrinking, that party’s responsible path forward, for the sake of the country, is to broaden its base, not seek to decrease the number of voters.
9. The United States of America will be stronger when both major parties accept objective reality, including science, such as that of climate change and COVID-19.
10. People are entitled to their own opinions, but never to their own facts.  Objective reality is what it is.
11. The United States of America should have a finely-honed election infrastructure.
12. Given the Electoral College and the state (Georgia) in which I reside, my vote may count this year–for the only time since 1992, my first Presidential election.
13. I support the abolition of the Electoral College.  Every vote should count.  I grant that this is easy for me to write, given that the Democratic Presidential nominee has won the popular vote in every election from 1992 to 2020, except for 2004.  I also note that the Democratic Presidential nominee lost the election in 2000 and 2016.  Furthermore, I acknowledge that John Kerry would have become President, despite coming in second place in the popular vote count, in 2005 if he had carried Ohio in 2004.  I try to avoid hypocrisy.  “Every vote should count” is a mater of principle for me.
14. Bigotry should have no place in electoral politics.  It does, unfortunately.
15. I have spent most of the last four years tuning out the news most of the time.  My refuges have included cat videos, Bible studies, hagiographies, and science fiction.  I have tuned out most of the news to preserve my spiritual and emotional health.  I may pay more attention to the news on a regular basis soon, if the political atmosphere becomes less toxic.
16. I stand by every statement I have made about Donald Trump on this and other weblogs I maintain.
17. I anticipate the administration of President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.  I do not envy them, however.  They have their work cut out for them.
18. This country and the world will suffer from the effects of the Trump Administration for a very long time.
19. Whenever a political party becomes indistinguishable from a religious cult, something has gone terribly wrong.
20. I, as a matter of principle, refrain from participating in a political cult.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 8, 2020 COMMON ERA

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++