The Moderates Dive for Cover, Part 2

So, we had a meeting the other day. It was for the duly-appointed church members (otherwise known as the "constituency" of the university) who gather on occasion to hear reports and vote policy matters concerning the institution. [I know this sounds boring, but stay with me.] The meeting was informational, preparing this same group of people to vote changes to the bylaws in May. The university had posted the proposed changes to the bylaws on the web. And the activity on the blogs and discussion boards had accordingly ratcheted up as the date of the meeting drew near.

The critics of the university had been analyzing every word and phrase of the proposed changes, conjecturing that there was once again nefarious activity afoot on our campus, and that the changes were meant to sneak the institution out from under control of the church. (Having read through the changes and heard the internal discussions, I can tell you that the wording changes tie us closer to the church. None of us who work here wants the institution to become one of those "formerly church-related colleges.") The chatter had risen to a screech and the "sky-is-falling" viral e-mails were flying. An open letter to the world church leadership had been posted at the website that's devoted to exposing the perceived evils of the university.

On the other hand, the folk who style themselves as the "progressives" in the church (the other side would call them the Liberals) were gloating that the proposed changes would supposedly put the conservatives in their place and wrest power over the institution from the church leadership, making the institution more independent. Let me say this: Gloating and smugness are just as offensive as screeching and finger-pointing.

So there we sat in the meeting. The chair of the bylaws committee was explaining the proposed edits to the bylaws, every line of which was numbered, legal-style. The air picked up tension as an older pastor from Hawaii and a younger pastor from California voiced expressions of distrust and dismay, repeating the accusations that were flying around the internet. A church official from the regional office proposed significant changes to the wording, the effect of which would put us at odds with our accrediting organization.

The chair of the bylaws committee remained calm, and then at one point made this observation: "You can't believe everything you see in print online. I've seen both sides saying things loudly in the blogs that are not true. And in the meantime, the moderates dive for cover."

That last comment hit me like a brick: "The moderates dive for cover." It kept playing itself in my head over and over as the meeting progressed.  "The moderates dive for cover."

It was a comment that extends much further than to the case study we had in front of us.

[To be continued]

The Moderates Dive for Cover, Part I

Is it typical for people to beat up on their own church-related colleges and universities? I don't know about other communities of faith. But I can tell you that in my eighteen years of working in Christian higher education in my tradition, I have seen and felt the bruises. People can inflict such wounds upon their educational institutions when they believe that those institutions are not doing things the way they would like them to.

The more conservative one's stance, I have seen, the more vicious the attack. It's as if they believe that we really are an ivory tower on an impregnable castle, and their flaming arrows are unlikely to damage the enterprise. So they shoot them more frequently and with much more force.

I have heard some people inside the organization, when they are feeling frustrated and hurt by the critics, harrumph and write these people off as whackos and crazies. But they are not (for the most part). They are dear, sincere people who for the most part agonize over the things they see going wrong with "their schools." They feel that the issues they cite are signs of their own "family" falling away from God, and of their young people not being ready for the second coming. I hear the fear in their voices and understand that they care. They care a great deal, or they would not be so ready to rip and tear, fight to the death, and pass on their concerns in viral emails and blog posts.

My current employing university has been under fire for several years because the biology teachers have been accused of being "evolutionists." * Websites against the school have sprung up, the authors of the posts railing against the insidious evil apparently taking place in the biology classrooms, citing rumors and second-hand stories as truth, expressing opinions that the university is fake and insincere in every action it takes to respond to or address the issues, painting the university president as devious and intent on separating the university from the church, and calling on the church leadership to take disciplinary action. Without getting into the whole long story, I will say that there has been much heat and little light, and it's not over yet.

[to be continued]

*In this case, that term would mean teaching evolutionary theory as historical reality, while dismissing a literal creation as simply a myth. I tend to be a conservative in this area, but these posts are not to discuss our differences on origins. They are to discuss the voices we hear speaking up on these matters.

A Culture of Movement

The video above: Jadie on her Jumper

I didn't grow up in a home where movement was of great value.  It has been a new world for me to marry into a family that is very physically oriented. They juggle. They get involved in sports. They run marathons and half-marathons. And they jump, as you can see in the video of my granddaughter on her trampoline.

The first time I saw Jadie on this device, I thought, "Oh, cute idea. But she will lose interest eventually, and then it will sit there, a piece of plastic and canvas, languishing in the corner." I remembering exactly that phenomenon happening with a stepping device I bought after I saw it advertised on TV. A well-meant purchase, but not long-lasting in terms of usage.

Well, Jadie's jumping device has gathered no dust. When we're over there (and let me gloat yet again that being "over there" is a much more frequent occurrence now that we live 15 miles away from them), it's not unusual for Jadie to hop on her contraption, turn on the music and jump for a while. Her parents have done gymnastics, juggling, rock climbing, camping, hiking....  She is growing up in a culture of movement.

If I were a dancer, I'd have 2 left feet, as they say. I have to make myself put down the book or laptop, get off the couch and move around. I have to urge my body out the door in the mornings for our walk, although once I'm out there I enjoy it. I have no desire (to the grief and exasperation of my dear Husband) to learn to juggle. Training to walk half marathons is something I do because I cognitively know that it's a good discipline, not because I just can't wait to walk miles and miles until my feet hurt.  Until the last dozen years, I've never been part of a family that was aware of or delighted in their bodies and enjoyed moving them.

It would have been better for me if I'd grown up with that difference in the way my family did things. I think life would have been richer and my struggles with weight, lesser. I am blessed that in the last half of my life, I'm surrounded by a family culture of movement. Maybe someday it will become second nature to me, too. I hope so.

A Campus Gone Quiet

Yep, that's me right there in the center, at quite a distance.

On Saturday, on our way back from our trip to Northridge, we stopped by the former campus of Ambassador College in Pasadena. The college, originally the school for the Worldwide Church of God founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, closed down its Pasadena campus in 1990, four years after the death of its founder.  The church and the college have both had a tumultuous history, one that is fascinating to read about at Wikipedia.

I used to come visit this beautiful campus with a friend of mine who lived in Pasadena. The gardens and fountains were beautiful, and sitting by the stream and waterfalls on the hillside facing the auditorium (the big pillared building you see in these photos) was so peaceful.

Everywhere you look on the campus, you see that those who planned this place had an eye for beauty. Right now the campus is languishing, as it's been through a number of uncertain years in terms of ownership and development.

The plantings on the grounds are lovely. I would have taken many more pictures if there hadn't been signs posted along the lawn stating that photos may not be taken without a permit, and listing a number to call.  There was fluffy pampas grass,...

banyan trees...

And gorgeous tulip trees all blossomed out in their prettiest pink for spring.

It was a treat to be there, and to show it to Husband. I do hope that someone can buy up this campus someday and love it the way it used to be loved and tended.

Arlington Garden

Arlington Garden is tucked away into a corner of Pasadena. We were passing through, yesterday, and I didn't think we had the $23 apiece to spring for the Huntington Gardens, which are famous and gorgeous. So I looked around on the internet for another garden to see, and found this one, a city garden that's open to the public.

The garden is set up as a set of Mediterranean-type gardens, which works well with the climate and low water environment on the edge of Los Angeles.

We arrived in the early afternoon when the sunshine was flooding the place, so I didn't have the great early morning or evening light that can be so good for photographs. Nevertheless, I got some good ones.

As we walked the trails through this garden, which is probably only 2-3 acres big (I'm not good with what an acre actually means), there were new features around every turn in the path.

The garden has a number of down-home features that you wouldn't find in a Huntington Gardens--bird houses, a gazing ball, statuary, a strange water-nozzle sculpture feature, a labyrinth, a stone dedicated to Earl...

It all works with the character of the place, which tends toward the weedy and kitschy, but in retrospect is rather delightful.

One of the things they offer there is a little grove of orange trees, with signs noting that you can buy their orange marmalade online, if you don't happen to come by for the couple of hours on Saturday morning when someone is actually there, selling it. I wouldn't mind getting some. It's kind of a neat project.

So with that, I think I'll just leave you to enjoy the rest of my photos from the garden, with no further commentary.  

Sunday Morning at the Mission

Being back in California gives us opportunities to see many friends who pass through this area because of their work or family ties. (Our little previous corner of Washington state wasn't on the way to anywhere.) This morning a classmate from my high school years in Singapore took me out to brunch at Mission Inn, in Riverside.  My graduating class was all of 9 students, so that was 22% of our class getting together today!

Mission Inn, a former California mission on the Camino Real ("Royal Highway") is just 15 minutes from our house in Riverside. The mission is a truly spectacular hotel now, with several fine restaurants in it.

You approach the Inn through a gateway of bells. We were so focused on breakfast conversation, I didn't take any photos in the restaurant. But after breakfast, we took ourselves on a sightseeing tour of the hotel, at which point the cameras came out to play. The Mission Inn offers guided tours, but we just wanted to wander.

First we took the elevator up to the fourth floor, where we got a lovely view of the buttresses and parapets at the top of the inn.

The covered walkway is a lovely vantage point from which to view the inner courtyard (with outdoor seating for the restaurant) and several other parts of the inn, which includes a Japanese-themed section with the tile roofs and a tower with temple bells on it.

Down in the courtyard the champagne brunch was well underway, with the day warming up nicely enough that the diners didn't even need sweaters. 

As we stood in the covered walkway we saw a Dickensian "English" couple leave their room and come toward us.  She generously offered to pose for a photo, and explained that there was a Dickens festival going on down in the street (we had seen them setting up on our way to breakfast). She also commented cheerfully that coming to the festival each year offers a lovely opportunity to dress up and to stay in the Mission Inn.  Not a bad idea, methinks!

So on we go with our explorations.  There are lovely architectural features everywhere you look at Mission Inn, making it an extremely photogenic place.

Even a window opening provides a place for beautiful lines, colors and textures.  Hmm.  Seems I caught a tad bit of my shadow in that one!

Water features hide around just about every corner you turn, and there are many pretty little courtyards and hallways lined by door to rooms for weary (and wealthy, I'd wager) travelers.

This four-story stairwell in one wing was my favorite architectural feature in the entire inn, although it's very hard to choose. At this spot I felt like Morocco might be nearby. Not that I've been to Morocco, you understand ... yet!

A church/chapel faces in on one of the courtyards.  As far as I could tell the doors weren't open this Sunday morning. Although, come to think of it, we didn't try them to find out.

I love these gorgeous Spanish church doorways on the California missions.  They're so ornate, yet pleasing to the eye.

Up over this doorway looking closer (and you can, too, by clicking on the photo), I took in the detail of the stained glass window. In the square in the middle, I read, "Hast Thou made the mall." 

Say what? I know society has become secularized since the heyday of the missions, but this seemed a bit drastic.  I pondered this, on the verge of pointing it out to my classmate, when it dawned on me.  I had misread it. The wording says, "Hast thou made them all."

Across from the doorway, this lad is forever spitting up. I hear that some folk do that when they have a bit too much of the juice of those grapes he's sitting on.

Not to be at all sacrilegious, but I wondered what happened to the boy Jesus's hand.

I have long been intrigued by trompe l'oeil  paintings, and this, I thought, was a particularly lovely one depicting the inside of the courtyard, which was right behind it. I wondered why the painter chose to paint a scene which you could see "for reals" if you just stepped around this wall.

They have preserved many of the elements of the mission in the Inn, although the building is not currently used primarily for religious services ... with the exception of the many, many weddings that take place there.

There are more things to see in Mission Inn, but you'll just have to drop in there and see them for yourself when you're in town.  My classmate and I wandered on out to the Dickens Festival, and I'll append a few photos here to show what intrigued, horrified and amused me as we ambled along the street festival.

In the "intrigued" category, it was fun to see this chap riding along on his velocipede.  

In the "horrified" category, this banner should speak for itself.

And in the "amused" category, these singing ladies looked quite Victorian... until you looked more closely at the lady who is second from the right. She had a silver piercing through the middle of her nose, with bulbs on the ends of it. Wonder what Charles Dickens would have to say about that?

I'll end this post the way my classmate and I ended our little sojourn in downtown Riverside--with a stop at Casey's Cupcakes. This fine establishment on the back of Mission Inn deserves every bit of its good reputation. My friend chose a carrot cake cupcake, and I chose fresh lemon frosting on lemon cake.

We sat by the fountains in the sunshine and enjoyed our treats thoroughly.

And thus ended a lovely Sunday morning at the Mission.