Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 080 (Not a Good Day)

I'm not sure what happened, but I woke up this morning and my stomach wasn't having it. I ended up spending the day in my apartment, a lot of it just lying in bed, because whatever this is was also making me tired and cold. I guess it sort of felt like a really mild version of the flu? I'm pretty much over it now and hopefully will be symptom free tomorrow. I was planning on writing my Intro to Ministry paper today and was going to try another culinary experiment with chicken, tofu and mushrooms, but I just didn't have the energy to do it. Oh well. A day of nothing isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 079 (Surviving Suicide Tuesday)

Second day back from Reading Week and it totally feels like it never happened. I knew the first week back was gonna be hard, but I also knew that if I could just get through Tuesday, I would be okay. See, today wasn't just Suicide Tuesday. It started with a quiz in Old Testament, for which I was up studying until 2:00 this morning. Next was the Hebrew midterm. I was actually good about studying for this one during Reading week. A little here, a little there, but I still felt I had to skip chapel to study because all of yesterday was devoted to studying for Old Testament. Luckily, neither test posed too much of a problem. I had finished the paper that was due for The Sacred and The Substance, but I still had about 70 pages of The Serpent and the Rainbow to read for it in addition to 2 other articles. I actually had a great time in class today. It's amazing how much more interesting classes are when you are actually able to read the material beforehand! Unfortunately, reading week only comes around once a semester.

Now: Trying to finish Lectio Divina homework so I can get to bed

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 078 (First Day Back)

Studying for Old Testament quiz O_o

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 077 (Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Marin)

Today's entry is brought to you by Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Marin: Drawing upon the life of God in order to grow in His character and power.

Gavin woke me up this morning to see if I still wanted to visit this church like I said I did a few nights prior. He shouldn't have had to wake me up because last night was daylight savings time, so we gained an extra hour, on top of which, it was already 10:00 when he sent me the text message. I'm really glad that I went because stylistically, the service was pretty similar in format to the evening service at my home church, Word of Life. They sang a few contemporary Christian songs at the beginning and then the pastor led the group in a discussion. The people were nice and talked to us after the service, telling us about what the church did and asking us about SFTS. Overall, it was a good experience except for the fact that I was still a little drained from the pagan dancing the night before.

The Vineyard congregation is very active with the homeless community in Marin, but they lost several members when they changed location, so they are not sure how much longer they will be able to pay the rent at their current home. Supposedly, some of the families thought the new area was too dangerous or scary. Gavin and I laughed when we heard this, because the area is not dangerous or scary at all. I suppose if you were born and raised in Marin and downtown San Rafael is the scariest place you have ever seen, then it would be considered the "bad" neighborhood, but these people seriously need to get a look at Oxnard. Heck, Oakland is just a hop, skip and a jump away if they want to see what "scary" and "dangerous" can look like! Downtown San Rafael? Please!

I'm still going to be checking out different churches for the foreseeable future, but this church is definitely a contender for a home church while I'm going to school.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 076 (Pagan New Year)

I went to the Spiral Dance Ritual in Golden Gate Park today to celebrate the Pagan New Year. I know, I know, you're all thinking, "Did he just say he celebrated the Pagan New Year?!?!?!?" In a nutshell, yes I did, but to be completely honest, no I didn't. No offense to any pagans who might be reading this, but I just don't share your belief system. I thought the ritual was a wonderful experience. It was beautiful, thoughtful and a great way to build up the community, but since I don't believe what their doing is real in any theological way, I had to experience it in a way that made sense to me, which is actually a very pagan thing to do, so I don't feel bad.

I used the experience as my own personal worship of God. People worship God in all different kinds of ways, so I figured why not worship God by doing the Spiral Dance? It didn't matter that the people around me were worshipping something else. And who knows, maybe they weren't. The main difference was that it felt kind of lonely worshipping that way. I'm sure if I was doing the same thing with a bunch of Christians who were worshipping God, it would have been a totally ecstatic experience for me. As it was, although I was able to connect with God, in really profound ways at times, there was always something missing. Worship really is best when done in community.

I have to say, those pagans really know how to put on a show! Ignoring the naked people for a moment (yes, there were a few covered with body paint) there were colorful and imaginative costumes, an outstanding drum routine, and even ribbon acrobats! (You know, those acrobats that use a pair of ribbons attached to a ring suspended from the ceiling and they wrap themselves up, and twirl around and do all kinds of flips and twists and stuff?) The spiral dance itself was pretty neat, too. If you watch the video, all those people are actually part of a single unbroken line twisting around itself. There was one point during the dance when my section of the line was stretching too much and I couldn't hold on the hand of the girl next to me, so I threw her the end of my scarf and we were able to keep the line unbroken that way. I was pretty cool actually! I also noticed a woman who had done the 72 hours of discernment with me last fall, but didn't end up going to seminary, so it was nice being able to catch up with her.

All in all, a really good experience. A lot of the people that went were more dressed up for it, so I felt a little bit underdressed, although there were a lot of people more underdressed than I was. If I go next year, I'm definitely breaking out the blue fairy costume!!!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 075 (The Serpent and the Rainbow)

ZOMBIES!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I'm reading The Serpent and the Rainbow, and it's about zombies. It's a book I have to read for the Drugs and Jesus class. It's really about the drug that the voodoo doctors use to turn people into zombies. The voodoo, or vodoun as it is called in the book, is actually one of the primary religions of Haitian people during the time period of the book. I'm only about a third of the way through, but so far, it's pretty good. It's non-fiction, but reads like a fiction; you just can't believe some of the events and characters are real! There's this high school girl who goes into a trance and dances around with a red hot piece of coal in her mouth for three minutes and she doesn't get burned! The main character in the book is this guy who is trying to figure out the secrets of the zombie poison so that he can bring it back to the United States to use as an anesthetic for surgery. If he is successful, he will make a lot of money. While I'm all for the advancement of medicine, it is rather disturbing how we are so willing to exploit another people's culture for our own gain, basically taking something that is sacred for them and applying it to everyday use.

I guess the question is, and hopefully I'll have the answer by the time I get to the end of the book, is whether or not the drug will even work outside of the voodoo culture. This is one of the things we have been looking at in the Sacred and the Substance class: How much of a drug's effect is based on the context within which it is used? Many of the so-called drugs that seem to be problems for people today, such as heroin, cocaine, marijuana and nicotine, started out as sacred plants that were removed from their sacred context. While they were being used for their sacred purposes, they were never "problems." People did not become "addicted" to them. Outside of that context, used in secular society, these drugs became something very different. They became dangerous. They started to destroy lives.

The other part of drug use that we're learning about in the class is how much culture influences the idea of addiction, but we haven't gotten that far into it yet. In the meantime, especially because tomorrow is Halloween, watch out for the zombies!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 074 (Mystic Pasta)

All you out there reading this, I need help coming up with a name for a new pasta dish I invented.

Mike generously gave me 4 HUGE tomatoes that I think his parents grew in their backyard. I happened to have some dates that my parents brought me when they came to visit, but they weren't the soft squishy kind that are good for eating... they were kind of dry. I remembered when my family was here, my sister, brother and I went to La Coco's for dinner and my sister got this dish with a tomato sauce that had currants and pecans and eggplant in it. It was SO GOOD! So, I had a little bit of kitchen inspiration and decided to put the tomatoes and dates together, along with some pine nuts, olives, onion and garlic. Then I spiced it up with cardamom, turmeric, nutmeg and cinnamon to give it a kind of exotic flavor. It was pretty good, but I think a little too sweet. I had added a tablespoon of gooseberry preserves because that's all I had left of it and it had been sitting in the fridge for almost two months. I figured it was now or never. Next time, I think I'll let the tartness of the tomatoes play off of the sweetness of the fruit, but I might opt for golden raisins next time. I also like the idea of eggplant in the sauce, but I didn't feel like going to the store. I think with those few tweaks, the sauce will be AMAZING!

So, any ideas for a pasta dish with raisins, pine nuts and exotic spices? I thinking some kind of name that evokes the mysteriousness of the middle east would be good...

In other news, I continued Tom's education with magic cards and almost finished Silence.