[Another in a series of posts highlighting testimony supporting evolution offered to the Texas State Board of Education this week.]
Joe Lapp, Testimony to the Texas SBOE, January 21, 2009 - click picture for link to original image at Teach Them Science.com
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Creationism, Darwin, Evolution, Religion, Science, State school boards, Teach Them Science.org, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: Creationism, Darwin, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science, Texas, Texas SBOE | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
I oppose the inclusion of strengths and weaknesses in the TEKS and I’m going to do a show and tell about why.
At the last public hearing, Board member Gail Lowe asked me whether I was familiar with “polystrate fossils.” I had to admit that I wasn’t.
I Googled the term, and found creationist Paul Ackerman writing: “Polystrate fossils in numerous places around the world are one dramatic piece of evidence that the [young earth] creationists may be right [about earth’s history].” (Footnote [1])
Now I know why I wasn’t familiar with them. Geologists don’t refer to polystrate fossils – creationists do.
Ms. Lowe questioned me about the Lompoc whale fossil that was supposed to be “standing up” within many strata, that is layers of rock. How could this happen, she asked if the strata accumulated over millions of years. (See Figure 1 – next page and Footnote [2].)
That’s the kind of question a student might ask to demonstrate weaknesses of geologic theories.
I didn’t have an answer, so I researched it and here’s what I found.
The fossil is found in Miocene-age rocks about 10 million years old near Lompoc, California.
Creationists have cited it as an anomaly ever since it was uncovered.
Creationists explain it by saying a catastrophe, such as Noah’s flood, buried the whale very quickly.
Here’s what really happened.
Lompy, the whale, is eating plankton in a lagoon off the California coast 10 million years ago.
The ones he doesn’t eat die and their shells drift down to make a silica-rich, oozy sediment.
OH!. OH! Heart attack. Lompy dies, rolls over and sinks to the bottom of the lagoon. (Figure 2)
He rots away, and his skeleton gets covered with more sediment. (Figure 3)
The sediments harden to rock. Along comes a mountain-building force and the rocks are tilted up.
A company mines the rock, called diatomaceous earth, and uncovers Lompy’s skeleton. (Figure 4)
Creationists go wild – it’s a miracle – a whale on its tail.
I’m a PhD geologist and I didn’t have a ready answer to Ms. Lowe’s questions about polystrate fossils.
Do you think a high school science teacher would be able to answer a student’s questions about Lompy?
Members of the Board: Do you really want students to waste time discussing this kind of creationist nonsense in science class? Not weaknesses – just nonsense.
Every other creationist so-called “scientific weakness” can be explained just like this by real scientists — but not necessarily by high school teachers.
PLEASE! PLEASE! DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS EDUCATION. IT’S TOO IMPORTANT TO AMERICA’S FUTURE.
PLEASE BE PATRIOTIC. THANK YOU.
ANY QUESTIONS, CLASS?
[Pictures coming when I can get them to stick in the file! — E.D.]
3 Comments | Creationism, Evolution, History, Science, State school boards, TEKS, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: Creationism, Darwin, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Texas, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
On a one-vote margin, the Texas State Board of Education stripped out of Texas science standards for public schools, creationist language that suggests there are weaknesses in evolution theory that make the theory sound like less than it is.
So far, that’s all the news I have, via the Quorum Report (January 22, 2009). Tip of the old scrub brush to Annette Carlisle of Texas Citizens for Science.
Huge win for Texas Citizens for Science, the Texas Freedom Network, the National Center for Science Education, and the newly-formed Teach Them Science.org. Huge win for Texas students, Texas high schools, Texas colleges and the Texas economy.
But of course, there’s still a chance to lose. Final More votes expected on the adoption of the standards, tomorrow; final vote in March.
Update – Not all news is good: Among amendments adopted Thursday are amendments that call into question Big Bang in physics and common descent in biology. Watch for update post. Oy.
Resources:
28 Comments | Creationism, Education, Education quality, Evolution, Religion, Science | Tagged: Creationism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Obama promised to put science in its proper place, in federal policy.
In Texas, however, evolution and science education are under assault today as the State Board of Education (SBOE) looks at revising science standards for public schools. Creationists have been sharpening their knives for months, with a stiff-necked creationist heading SBOE as a fifth columnist.
SBOE votes today (perhaps already, but I can’t find the story of a vote). At issue is the recommendations by scientists, educators and parents to teach evolution without creationist language that misleads students. SBOE Chairman Don McLeroy has vowed to insert more religion into science classes. The board is nearly evenly split between creationists and backers of science, so the vote could go either way.
Here at the Bathtub we’ll feature testimony from science supporters in a few posts, as we can snag them from witnesses.
McLeroy and his supporters at SBOE worked hard to stack the witness list, to prevent testimony from parents, teachers, scientists and educators who all favor new standards that eliminate a decade-old statement about “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution theory, hoary old creationist propaganda that has no place in a curriculum for the 21st century. Several science witnesses were bumped from testifying, and the board was quite rude to some of America’s best scientists, appearing to fear what the scientists had to say.
It’s an ugly situation. Say a prayer for Texas.
Resources:i
Leave a Comment » | History, Science, State school boards, TEKS, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: Creationism, Education, education standards, Evolution, Science, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Update: In comments, Mary points to this site at the National Cathedral, for full video of the service. Thank you, Mary!
Full text here.
And here:
Harmonies of Liberty
Isaiah 58:6‐12, Mt 22:6‐40
Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins
National Prayer Service; January 21, 2009Mr. President and Mrs. Obama, Mr. Vice President and Dr. Biden, and your families, what an inaugural celebration you have hosted! Train ride, opening concert, service to neighbor, dancing till dawn . . .
And yesterday . . . With your inauguration, Mr. President, the flame of America’s promise burns just a little brighter for every child of this land!
There is still a lot of work to do, and today the nation turns its full attention to that work. As we do, it is good that we pause to take a deep spiritual breath. It is good that we center for a moment.
What you are entering now, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, will tend to draw you away from your ethical center. But we, the nation that you serve, need you to hold the ground of your deepest values, of our deepest values.
Beyond this moment of high hopes, we need you to stay focused on our shared hopes, so that
we can continue to hope, too.We will follow your lead.
There is a story attributed to Cherokee wisdom:
One evening a grandfather was teaching his young grandson about the internal battle that each person faces.
“There are two wolves struggling inside each of us,” the old man said.
“One wolf is vengefulness, anger, resentment, self‐pity, fear . . .
“The other wolf is compassion, faithfulness, hope, truth, love . . .”
The grandson sat, thinking, then asked: “Which wolf wins, Grandfather?”
His grandfather replied, “The one you feed.”There are crises banging on the door right now, pawing at us, trying to draw us off our ethical center – crises that tempt us to feed the wolf of vengefulness and fear.
We need you, Mr. President, to hold your ground. We need you, leaders of this nation, to stay centered on the values that have guided us in the past; values that empowered to move us through the perils of earlier times and can guide us now into a future of renewed promise.
We need you to feed the good wolf within you, to listen to the better angels of your nature, and by your example encourage us to do the same.
This is not a new word for a pastor to bring at such a moment. In the later chapters of Isaiah, in the 500’s BCE, the prophet speaks to the people. Back in the capital city after long years of exile, their joy should be great, but things aren’t working out just right. Their homecoming is more complicated than expected. Not everyone is watching their parade or dancing all night at their arrival.
They turn to God, “What’s going on here? We pray and we fast, but you do not bless us. We’re confused.”
Through the prophet, God answers, what fast? You fast only to quarrel and fight and strike with the fist. . .
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice . . . to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house . .? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly . . .
At our time of new beginning, focused on renewing America’s promise –yet at a time of great crisis – which fast do we choose? Which “wolf” do we feed? What of America’s promise do we honor?
Recently Muslim scholars from around the world released a document, known as “A Common Word Between Us.” It proposes a common basis for building a world at peace. That common basis? Love of God and love of neighbor! What we just read in the Gospel of Matthew!
So how do we go about loving God? Well, according to Isaiah, summed up by Jesus, affirmed by a worldwide community of Muslim scholars and many others, it is by facing hard times with a generous spirit: by reaching out toward each other rather than turning our backs on each other. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “people can be so poor that the only way they see God is in a piece of bread.”In the days immediately before us, there will be much to draw us away from the grand work of loving God and the hard work of loving neighbor. In crisis times, a basic instinct seeks to take us over – a fight/flight instinct that leans us toward the fearful wolf, orients us toward the self‐interested fast . . .
In international hard times, our instinct is to fight – to pick up the sword, to seek out enemies, to build walls against the other – and why not? They just might be out to get us. We’ve got plenty of evidence to that effect. Someone has to keep watch and be ready to defend, and Mr. President – Tag! You’re it!
But on the way to those tough decisions, which American promises will frame those decisions? Will you continue to reason from your ethical center, from the bedrock values of our best shared hopes? Which wolf will you feed?
In financial hard times, our instinct is flight – to hunker down, to turn inward, to hoard what little we can get our hands on, to be fearful of others who may take the resources we need. In hard financial times, which fast do we choose? The fast that placates our hunkered‐down soul – or the fast that reaches out to our sister and our brother?
In times, such as these, we the people need you, the leaders of this nation, to be guided by the counsel that Isaiah gave so long ago, to work for the common good, for the public happiness, the wellbeing of the nation and the world, knowing that our individual wellbeing depends upon a world in which liberty and justice prevail.
This is the biblical way. It is also the American way – to believe in something bigger than ourselves, to reach out to neighbor to build communities of possibility, of liberty and justice for all. This is the center we can find again whenever we are pulled at and pawed at by the vengeful wolf, when we are tempted by the self‐interested fast.
America’s true character, the source of our national wisdom and strength, is rooted in a generous and hopeful spirit.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, . . .
Send these, the homeless, tempest‐tost to me,1Emma Lazarus’ poetry is spelled out further by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,: “As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty‐eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made.”2
You yourself, Mr. President, have already added to this call, “If there’s a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. . . . It’s that fundamental belief — I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper — that makes this country work.”
It is right that college classes on political oratory already study your words . You, as our president, will set the tone for us. You will help us as a nation choose again and again which wolf to feed, which fast to choose, to love God by loving our neighbor.
We will follow your lead – and we will walk with you. And sometimes we will swirl in front of you, pulling you along.
At times like these – hard times –we find out what we’re made of. Is that blazing torch of liberty just for me? Or do we seek the “harmonies of liberty”, many voices joined together, many hands offering to care for neighbors far and near?Though tempted to withdraw the offer, surely Lady Liberty can still raise that golden torch of generosity to the world. Even in these financial hard times, these times of international challenge, the words of Katherine Lee Bates describe a nation with more than enough to share: “Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain . . .”
A land of abundance guided by a God of abundance, generosity, and hope – This is our heritage. This is America’s promise which we fulfill when we reach out to each other.
Even in these hard times, rich or poor, we can reach out to our neighbor, including our global neighbor, in generous hospitality, building together communities of possibility and of hope. Even in these tough times, we can feed the good wolf, listen to the better angels of our nature. We can choose the fast of God’s desiring.
Even now in these hard times let us
Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring,
. . . with the harmonies of Liberty;Even now let us Sing a song full of hope. . .
Especially now, from the center of our deepest shared values, let us pray, still in the words of James Weldon Johnson:
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us . . . in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our God,
True to our native land.3_________________________________
1 Emma Lazarus
2 The Words of MLK, Jr., selected by Coretta Scott King, 21
3 James Weldon Johnson
9 Comments | Barack Obama, Religion, Separation of church and state | Tagged: National Prayer Service, President Obama, Sharon Watkins | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Teachers are public employees (most of us). Should we blog about education and teaching?
Interestingly, there is a good case to be made that public employees have more First Amendment protection than private employees (should teachers in KIPP, charter and parochial schools blog?).
Larry Solum at Legal Theory highlights Paul Secunda’s article:
Paul M. Secunda (Marquette University – Law School) has posted Blogging While (Publicly) Employed: Some First Amendment Implications (University of Louisville Law Review, Vol. 47, No. 4, 2009) on SSRN.
I’ll wager most teachers are not common users of SSRN, so let’s steal Solum’s posting of the abstract of the article, too:
While private-sector employees do not have First Amendment free speech protection for their blogging activities relating to the workplace, public employees may enjoy some measure of protection depending on the nature of their blogging activity. The essential difference between these types of employment stems from the presence of state action in the public employment context. Although a government employee does not have the same protection from governmental speech infringement as citizens do under the First Amendment, a long line of cases under Pickering v. Bd. of Education have established a modicum of protection, especially when the public employee blogging is off-duty and the blog post does not concern work-related matters.
Describing the legal protection for such public employee bloggers is an important project as many employers recently have ratcheted up their efforts to limit or ban employee blogging activities while blogging by employees simultaneously continues to expand. It should therefore not be surprising that the act of being fired for blogging about one’s employer has even led to a term being coined: “dooced.” So the specific question that this essay addresses is: do dooced employees have any First Amendment protection in the workplace? But the larger issue examined by implication, and the one addressed by this Symposium, is the continuing impact of technology on First Amendment free speech rights at the beginning of the 21st Century.
This contribution to the Symposium proceeds in three parts. It first examines the predicament of private-sector employees who choose to blog about their workplaces. The second section then lays out the potential First Amendment free speech implications for public employees who engage in the same types of activities. Finally, the third section briefly considers a potential future trend in this context from Kentucky involving government employers banning employee access to all blogs while at work.
I’ve been wondering where are the cases of student blogs dealing with serious First Amendment issues. I think we’re overdue for more litigation in that area.
4 Comments | First Amendment, Free press, Free speech, U.S. Constitution, Weblogs | Tagged: blogging, First Amendment, Free speech, Public Employees, Teachers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Rev. Richard C. Halverson, 1916-1995, Chaplain of the U.S. Senate; painting for the North Dakota Capitol by Ann Linton Hodge
“In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and women centering on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next, it moved to Europe, where it became a culture. And, finally, it moved to America, where it became an enterprise.”
— Richard Halverson, former Chaplain of the United States Senate
At least, P. M. Summer claims Halverson said it, and I trust him. Tip of the old scrub brush to P. M. Summer, at Una Perla, Por Favor.
4 Comments | History, Quotes, Religion, U.S. Senate | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
At least in some venues.
Try this one — it looks radically different from what it looked like yesterday: http://www.whitehouse.gov/
Tip of the old scrub brush to Earthaid3.
Leave a Comment » | Government, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
. . . from the Washington Post site. Not sure yet if there were any departures from the text.
Leave a Comment » | Barack Obama, DBQ sources, Famous quotes, Quotes | Tagged: Barack Obama, Famous quotes, famous speeches, Inaugural Address | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
At least two kids from Duncanville were at the inauguration in official capacities today. We’re hoping to hear from them. (Send the blog some photos, Michael!)
Michael Rivera, doing graduate journalism studies at Western Kentucky University, got press credentials to cover the events as a photographer. The Riveras live across the street from us, and Michael and his older brother Jonathan dropped in over the Christmas holidays to let us marvel at how tall and handsome they’ve grown.
Daniel Brady is the bass trombone player with the U.S. Marine Band. He graduated with our older son, Kenny, and played in the trombone section with our younger son, James. We saw him 11 months ago as he sat in at a Dallas Symphony rehearsal, but he was pretty busy over the holidays, out of Texas I hear. Some time in the past year he answered the call for a national audition for the Marine Band, and he won the slot. The big question now is how he finishes his degree, I suppose.
Brady is famous among Duncanville’s champion, all-star trombones (and there are a goodly number of them) for sneaking away to get a job for a summer to buy a good bass trombone. The day after he got enough to purchase the horn, he quit the job. To the surprise of his parents, and to the grinning chagrin of the band directors who had hoped he’d stick it out as first chair tenor trombone, he insisted on playing the lower-pitched one. Judging by his success, he made the right choice.
Michael took up photography early in high school, and shot thousands of pictures before he graduated. He’s stuck with it through undergrad, and now seems to be well on his way at one of the nation’s better journalism schools. I haven’t had the heart to tell him it pays so little, monetarily. It’s a great job, other than the pay.
An inauguration is a good event to see, I suppose, though I walked out of the only one I ever attended. Another story for another time.
Good luck, Brady. Good luck, Michael. Let us know what you saw and heard, will you?
3 Comments | children, Family, Personal, Presidents | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
“We will restore science to its rightful place.”
Wow.
12 Comments | Barack Obama, Government, History, Politics, President Obama, Presidents, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Some of the Birth Certificate Obsessed (BCOs) are seeing things (that’s Obama’s birth certificate that they are obsessed with). They claim to see a vision that is attributed to George Washington in a hoax. It’s voodoo history, stuff that never was.
Hallucinations would be bad enough, but what do you have to smoke to see hallucinations other people were supposed to have had, but didn’t?
Looking at the docket of the Supreme Court, I don’t see that any of the anti-Obama suits got an order for certiorari. Will the dismissal of the wingnut lawsuits make the wingnuts go away?
4 Comments | Barack Obama, Citizenship, George Washington, History, Hoaxes, Jurisprudence, Law, Natural Born, Politics, President Obama, Presidential Eligibility, Rampant stupidity, Voodoo history | Tagged: Barack Obama, Citizenship, George Washington, History, Hoaxes, Jurisprudence, Law, Natural Born, Politics, Presidential Eligibility, Vision, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
The United States Armed Forces Color Guard presents the American flag and the different U.S. military service flags at the opening ceremony for the 55th Presidential Inauguration, "A Celebration of Freedom," near the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., Jan. 19, 2005. More than 5,000 service members will take part in the 55th Presidential Inauguration. Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Tracy DeMarco
The law asks us to do it, but we only get the chance every four years.
Fly your flag today for the inauguration of the president, Barack Obama.
The flag flying today bears 50 stars, the 50th in honor of Obama’s birth state, Hawaii.
Today is one of those days we get to see the flag displayed with scrupulous attention paid to the proper methods of display. If you see a flag attached to an automobile, for example, it will probably be on a special attachment on the right front fender of the vehicle, as the Flag Code suggests. The free-for-all flag display methods of small town Fourth of July parades will be reined in. At least, we hope so.
Fly your flag today — you’ll be glad you did.
Resources:
1 Comment | Barack Obama, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, President Obama, Presidents | Tagged: Barack Obama, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Inauguration | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Old Glory and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., addresses the crowd outside the United Nations, April 15, 1967," by Benedict J. Fernandez
Our flags get a double shot of exercise this week. Flags fly on the third Monday of January in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tomorrow, the flags fly in honor of the inauguration of the president of the U.S., a once-every-four-years event. Back-to-back flag fly dates.
We live in a brief period when history piles up deeply, so quickly it is almost beyond our ability to take it in, let alone appreciate the experience. 41 years after the death Martin Luther King, Jr., we prepare to swear in an African-American as president.
For the first time in U.S. history, we fly flags in honor of two different African-Americans, on consecutive days, with sanction from the Congress and laws of the United States.
P. Z. Myers wonderfully reflects on the legacy and thoughts of King here, “There are good reasons to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.,” letting King speak for himself. History is Elementary features a good sampling of materials teachers can use on King, here, “King Day, 2009.” Farm School hightlights King’s advocacy of nonviolence with a good focus on his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.
So, go put your flag up today, and fly it tomorrow, too.
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and President Lyndon B. Johnson, at the White House, on December 3, 1963 - photo by Yoichi Okamoto; public domain, LBJ Library/National Archives
12 Comments | Civil Rights, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Heroes, History, Martin Luther King, Nonviolent protest | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
This will make P. Z. Myers shake his head — apologies, P. Z. — but those of us in the “mainstream,” or “liberal leaning” sect of the Disciples of Christ are quite happy that our general minister, Sharon Watkins, will preach the sermon at the National Prayer Service on Wednesday.
We’re such a politically polyglot group that we can be described as mainstream, liberal, or conservative with some accuracy. Three presidents have Disciples roots — James Garfield, who was a Disciples minister before becoming president of a Disciples college in Ohio; Lyndon Johnson, who was a life-long Disciple, and who built a chapel on his ranch; and Ronald Reagan, whose mother was a devout Disciple, and who attended one of several Disciples affiliated colleges, Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois.
Watkins is the first woman to preach at this service in the history of the nation.
The National Prayer Service is one of those events that underscores the separation of church and state. At the first Washington inaugural, it was held the same day as the ceremony, but after the official ceremony. The attendees concluded the swearing in and other official ceremonies, then adjourned to a church a few blocks away for a sermon, those who wished to.
This year the sermon will be held in the National Cathedral, a majestic building which is actually an Episcopalian venue (where Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller are interred), miles from the federal area at the National Mall, and a day after the inauguration.
But watch: There will be a band of religious radicals, fanatics, who will claim that the mere existence of this service somehow nullifies the First Amendment, and suggests that the government has a religious bias. Do not believe them. You know the history, and you know better. Our government has great tolerance for religious displays, but no tolerance for religious bias, in our government.
I’ve wondered sometimes what would happen were the three Disciples presidents to meet. If Reagan and Johnson ever met, I have not found the record of it. I wonder whether Johnson, Reagan and Garfield could have found between them some subject of common interest for talk of substance. It’s difficult to imagine Reagan and Johnson finding much common ground, one who revered FDR and the New Deal, and the other who campaigned against the New Deal almost from the day FDR died. And yet they shared concepts of faith, and they may have found there common ground on which to stand, and talk.
I marvel at a sect that embraces, and celebrates, such diversity. We think it makes for healthier theology, healthier congregations, and a healthier nation.
We can hope.
Below is the press release from Disciples News Service, with details about the service and how to view it or listen to it. There is also a plea for clips from local papers — maybe some of you could do a good turn and clip any article that appears in your local paper, with the date and page, and mail it in. It’s for the archives, you know — history.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
National Prayer Service Updates
January 17, 2009Dear Disciples,Earlier this week it was announced that Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins will preach the sermon at the National Prayer Service in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Her sermon will conclude Presidential Inauguration activities for our country’s forty-fourth President, Barack Obama. Dr. Watkins appreciates the outpouring of support, prayers and well wishes she has received from Disciples and ecumenical colleagues everywhere since the announcement.“I am so grateful that Disciples have a role in this historic moment,” said Watkins. “I am depending on your prayers for God to use me to deliver an uplifting and appropriately challenging message to our new President, vice-President and all those who will attend the service.”Watkins will be joined by a diverse group of religious leaders at the prayer service, which will take place at the National Cathedral, starting at 10 a.m. EST.A press release listing those who will participate in the service was released yesterday afternoon and includes another Disciples pastor, Dr. Cynthia Hale, Senior Pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Ga. Hale will be among those reading scripture. To read the press release that announces participants at the service, please go to:
www.pic2009.org/pressroom/entry/presidential_inaugural_committee_
announces_participants_of_national_prayer_/
Many of you have asked about opportunities to view the program. Our office has just learned that the program will be webcast in two ways. One is through the National Cathedral website at: www.nationalcathedral.org. The other option is to go to the Presidential Inaugural Committee website at www.pic2009.org.We’ve also had a number of phone calls regarding the availability of tickets for the prayer service. Unfortunately, we have not been able to secure tickets for the service.Please note that DisciplesWorld Publisher and Editor Verity A. Jones will provide special coverage of many Inauguration activities, including the prayer service. Jones will blog from Jan. 18 to Jan. 21 at: disciplesworld.wordpress.com. She also will post news stories to the Disciples World home page and send short updates from the DisciplesWorld “twitter” account. To read more about ways DisciplesWorld will keep you informed, go to: www.disciplesworld.com/dynamic.html?wspID=501
Finally, Associate General Minister and Vice-President Todd Adams asks that Disciples send in hard copies of newspaper articles that have been covered in your community about Dr. Watkins and the prayer service, so that we might keep them in our official archives. Articles can be sent to: Dr. Todd Adams, Office of General Minister and President, P.O. Box 1986; Indianapolis, Ind. 46206-1986.To read the Jan. 11 press release from the Presidential Inaugural Committee that announced Dr. Watkins selection for the prayer service and to learn updates about events taking place during the Inauguration, please visit www.disciples.org.Please keep Sharon and the many other Disciples who will be attending the Inauguration, National Prayer Service and other events in your prayers.
Blessings,
Wanda Bryant Wills
Executive Director of Communication Ministries
Tip of the old scrub brush to Bill Longman, “Bill in the Ozarks,” and the DoCDisc Listserv.
Other resources:
4 Comments | Barack Obama, History, Lyndon B. Johnson, President Obama, Presidents, Religion, Separation of church and state | Tagged: Barack Obama, Charles Garfield, History, Inauguration, Lyndon Johnson, Presidents, Religion, Ronald Reagan, Separation of church and state, Sharon Watkins | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
