Friday, February 10, 2006

When it rains it pours!

I got an email from my pastor yesterday, and he asked me if I would be available to preach on March 12. He has planned a lenten series on Gandhi's "Seven Blunders" - the traits most spiritually perilous to humanity. They are:

Wealth without Work
Pleasure without Conscience
Science without Humanity
Knowledge/Education without Character
Politics without Principle
Commerce without Morality
Worship without Sacrifice.

Here is a link for Gandhi's grandson's interpretation of the seven blunders:
http://www.gandhiinstitute.org/Library/LibraryItem.cfm?LibraryID=780

My pastor allowed me to select one of five (Knowledge {Dr. McCoy - Palm Sunday} and Worship {retained for Easter} were spoken for) so I chose Science without Humanity. As a recovering civil engineer, I am somewhat familiar with science. At least that is the reason I told myself.

So now I'm in deep. I have a few things that I've thought of for illustrations, considerations, etc. Among them: Thoughts I had while visiting Los Alamos while on my immersion last year (Thanks God for once in my life I actually kept a journal!); The Tuskegee study some years back (Needs more research - Only a vague recall of major ethical issues having to do with subjecting African American males to some sort of harmful medical or radiological testing without their knowledge or consent); experiences in mission and using "appropriate technology". I'm still looking for ideas...feel free to post.

I also need a scripture that fits. A Psalm would be good, then I could possibly use the exegesis for a class that I'm taking this semester. Again, any ideas would be more than welcome!

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I've been finding some other friends blogs, and as soon as I get their permission I will link to them as well. I added links for Hipchickmamma and Deaconess_grrl. Never played with html before. I was really thrilled when it worked!

5 comments:

revhipchick said...

good luck! it seems as if you've "caught on like wildfire!" i think it's awesome!

i look forward to hearing about the sermon,as well as the process behind it!

i don't think i could be the one to tackle the technology one. but i know that you will make it amazing.

hope to see you around in person again next week--that was soo cool to see you!

are you going to get a tape of the bondi lecture? it was pretty good, but i must admit i was confused about the arrangement--it was more like an 40 minute promo on sr. nonna's book yet, still a lecture. i'd rather heard them dialogue about the book and just have bondi lecture--but as i'm the one in charge...ha!

mandyc said...

Wow! I'm impressed with this understaking and definitely interested in hearing about the final product. What a cool idea for a sermon series!

There are a ton of things you could use to talk about - I heard something the other day about the FDA using poor children as research subjects (something around pesticides in our food supply I think). If you're interested, I can give you a website for more info. There are also the overdone topics of stem cell research, genetic cloning, and what about the healthcare system in this country? We have the science to make people better yet lack the humanity to give everyone access. Just my quick thoughts (and rants). Good luck with it and I'll see you at school!

Kim in KCK said...

Yes, please send info my way. The pesticide research sounds interesting. Most of the stuff I've come up with so far is thirty years old or more.

As far as process, I use my husband as a sounding board. When I think I've found a scripture that may work, I bounce it off him. He's real quick to let me know if he thinks it will fly or not. I know that when I can convince him, it's a go!

mandyc said...

Here's the link to the Organic Consumers Association article (from November) on the EPA (not FDA, sorry I got my govt agencies confused) testing on poor kids. There are a lot of links and other related stories but this should giv you a lot to start with.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/epa-alert.htm

Kim in KCK said...

Thanks for the link. I had found it beore based on teh info you gave me. I printed out the final rule and am going through it trying to find the pertinent sections, and have so far been unsuccessful. I've gone through EPA rules before, and the Federal Register version is often very difficult to decipher. It involves finding the proposed rule and tracking the changes as published inteh final. They can't just republish the final rule as a whole in its final form. I'm having lunch today with a friend from the EPA, so I will ask her if she is aware of it.