What's Tony Thinking

At Week’s End, September 27

Here’s a New Yorker cartoon that is just too good to pass up. (Thanks to Cali Yee at MBird.com)

 

 

Young Men and Church. Ruth Graham who covers religion for the NYT writes about a surprising trend among Gen Z young men: they are going to church. And in greater numbers than their female counterparts.

For years, church has been seen as the province of women, with churches trying various strategies to persuade reluctant men to darken the door. Is that changing? According to the trend-watchers that Graham spoke with on this, it may be.

In some ways, this isn’t totally surprising. As many have noted men and boys in our society are in trouble. Lower educational attainment and lower salaries (in comparison with women) are now the norm. And more isolation. Guys with something on the ball may be looking for 1) meaning, 2) good role models and 3) community and connection. Church — some churches — can be a place to find all those.

In Joseph, Oregon where we hang out in the summer, we go to a United Methodist Church that is doing great things in the community. Nevertheless, it is about 35 people (on a good Sunday), at least 75% female and all of us older. I’m on the young side! Yikes!

One Sunday this summer I visited a new church in town, a non-denominational start up. There were 150 in worship, a lot of them men and boys, all ages. Some say the attraction is an emphasis on traditional male and female roles and so write it off.

I have a different take. In a world of so much change and uncertainty, many people need something with structure and direction to it. Yes, that can go too far, but you can make a good argument that as a society we are way off the other end of that spectrum, the lack of structure and direction pole.

Good News. You my readers and friends may recall that I worked for the Vancouver School of Theology in Vancouver, B. C. over the past three years, where my friend Richard Topping is the very able President. Speaking with Richard the other day I asked how the fall term was going. He told me they have their highest enrollment ever, 190 students.

That’s a big turn-around since the late 90’s when VST was, frankly, on the ropes. Richard, whose leadership has a lot to do with the turnaround, is unabashed about paying attention to numbers. He tires, he says, of those in the declining mainline who dismiss quantitative measurement. “I think it’s rationalization.” Sure, numbers aren’t everything, but they are something. He also told me that he has forty students in his “Introduction to Christian Theology” class. Wonderful!

Remember That Election? Does it seem to anyone else that we’re in a kind of limbo here? Waiting for some other shoe to drop, while every poll shows the race a a toss-up, and “within the margin of error”?

Without another debate between the Presidential candidates (it appears that the well-known tough guy, Donald Trump, is afraid of being in the ring with Kamala again) there isn’t any real milestone to look forward to. While I will vote for Kamala, I worry that the Democrats may have made the same mistake they did in 2016, i.e. opting for the “next in line,” and for a campaign that is long on puff (remember “Stronger Together”?) rather than a candidate who moves the party aggressively toward a centrist position as I think Whitmer or Shapiro would have done.

True there is a Vice-Presidential debate next week, but doubt it will move things one way or the other. All the action is in the seven “swing states.” The rest of us might be forgiven for feeling like by-standers, waiting to cast our ballots on Nov. 4, but knowing that the votes of people in Pennsylvania and Arizona count more than our own.

I do have one hopeful theory to put out. In 2016 we were told that people who didn’t want to admit to it voted for Trump as kind of a “what the hell, why not?” vote, for something different and to shake things up. My theory, perhaps wishful thinking, is that the moment of the closet Trump voter has passed. He’s a known quantity. You’re with him or against him. No sleepers.

Linda and I are off to Japan soon, part of our celebration of her 75th birthday on October 1. The first of our two weeks there will be a “Walking Pilgrimage” with an outfit called “Walk Japan.” We will be on the southern-most island of Kyushu. As we walk we will visit ancient Buddhist temples and traditional tea houses and inns. After that we’re on our own for a week, going to Hiroshima and Kyoto, among other locations. I don’t know if or how frequently I will be posting while we are on the trip. We’ll see.

A blessed autumn to you all!