No Longer Jew or Greek, Male or Female, Gay or Straight

To be perfectly honest, if I do not care about an assignement I do not put a whole lot of effort into it. I do the assignment because it needs to be done. I do exactly what the assignment requires, nothing more, nothing less. Today I turned in an assignment that I cared about. I spent nearly a month doing research. I looked at obscure articles, I read books, I looked up theologians. I went to the More Light Presbyterians website and utilized their research section. I emailed the directors of a documentary on gay Sevneth Day Adventists. I asked people for their opinions on resources and I order books off of Amazon.com.

I sat and stared at my reseach for hours on end. I had all of this amazing research and phenomenal quotes from theologians and pastors. But I had no idea where to start. And once I started, I wrote and erased and rewrote and deleted and rewrote. Finally I spent an entire weekend working on the paper. Not doing work for any other classes, but simply focusing on this paper. By the end of the weekend it was finished. It measures slightly over ten pages. I wrote it knowing that the primary audience is my professor and classmates who come from an extremely conservative Seventh-Day Adventist background. I wrote it, not wanting my classmates to stone me, knowing what the main view of homosexuality is in this setting.

I decided to upload my paper to Scribd so that any who might want to read it may. Here is my paper: No Longer Jew or Greek, Male or Female, Gay or Straight. Comments are appreciated!

The Glories of Being Irish

Today I was congratulated for being Irish.  I thought it was weird to congratulate someone for their ethnicity. Congratulations for being Mexican? Congratulations for being African America? Your ethnicity isn't something you really have any control over. In my case: one Irish person met another Irish person and they procreated and then along came me. I don't recall there being a questionnaire asking me what ethnicity I wanted to be. I was informed that St. Patrick's Day (Lá Fhéile Pádraig) is not a real holiday. It is just an excuse for people to drink alcohol and run around stupid and drunk. I disagree. In my eyes, St. Patrick's Day is the day to celebrate all things Irish and Ireland.

According to a census conducted in 2008, I am one of 36,278,332 Irish Americans. Eight of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Irish American and 22 Presidents have been partly Irish (the most famous, obviously being JFK). Descendants of Ireland have produced: Bing Crosby, Walt Disney,Gene Kelly, Grace Kelly,  Maureen O'Hara, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Georgia O'Keeffe, Robert F. Kennedy,  Billy the Kid, Dropkick Murphys, The Decemberists, Flogging Molly and me...amongst others.

Just like almost every other ethnic group there are Irish stereotypes. We drink too much, we're loud, and we fight. Well, those do apply to my family. All Irish are super holy...In my family that only applies to two people. My Nana goes to mass every Saturday and goes to every funeral and wake of anyone who she has ever come across in her life. The other, according to my family, is me. I'm the person in my family that goes to church regularly, is involved with church, and when someone in the family has a question about anything religious,it's me they go to.

Catholicism is huge with us Irish. I'm the only one in the family that didn't make their confirmation in the Catholic Church. (Huge Scandal) When a friend was amazed at the number of first cousins I have, my response was "two words: Irish Catholic". According to Wikipedia: New Light Presbyterians founded the College of New Jersey, later renamed Princeton University, in 1746 in order to train ministers dedicated to their views. The college was the educational and religious capital of Scotch-Irish America. By 1808, loss of confidence in the college within the Presbyterian Church led to the establishment of the separate Princeton Theological Seminary, but deep Presbyterian influence at the college continued through the 1910s, as typified by university president Woodrow Wilson. So as a proper Irish girl it is only proper that I am attending Princeton Theological Seminary in the fall. :)

So tonight I am going to have my corn beef, my cabbage, and my boiled potatoes. Today I proudly wear my green: Shirt, Cami, fingernails, eyeshadow, socks, and sneakers. I rock my protestant orange shoelaces on my bright green sneakers. I will listen to Celtic rock and traditionally Irish folk music on my iPhone at work. I will put my red hair up into pig tails.  I am going to read Irish proverbs and blessings. And I may or may not imbibe a green beverage or two.

"I've never been to Ireland but I know it's in my Blood!"

-Raised on Black and Tans (Gaelic Storm)

What Am I Doing With My Life?

Today I freaked out! I don't really know what happened. One second I was working on seminary applications and looking at different seminaries' websites, and the next I was freaking out and thinking that there is no point in going to seminary and I would be better off becoming a hobo.

Applying for seminary has been so stressful. There are so many different factors to consider. My list has also been shortened dramatically because of the cost of applications. Princeton's application deadline is February 15th and I am hoping to get the finances together so that I can submit the application by that date. The only thing stopping me is the fees. My back up is Andover Newton Theological School. Part of me wants to go there because it is comfortable. I've spent a lot of time at Andover Newton over the years and it isn't far away. I plan to apply to Iliff School of Theology in Denver. It doesn't have an application fee is I apply prior to March 31. While on their website today I saw that they have a program in conjunction with the University of Denver for the Doctor of Philosophy in Religious and Theological Studies degree program. The concentration that truly interests me is Religion and Social Change. But can I picture myself with a doctorate? Dr. Devin. That's weird. They also offer a Social Change concentration with their M.Div.

I do not think that I want to be a pastor in the pulpit every Sunday. While I enjoy working with youth I do not see myself as a youth pastor either. The thing that I am truly interested in and would like to, somehow, work with is equality. Economic equality, gender equality, all different types of equality. Organizations like That All May Freely Serve and The Morelight Presbyterians are amazing! I could see myself being involved with groups like these and other groups that address other equality issues. Social Justice is a huge concern of mine. I guess I just want to help the world, as cliche as that sounds. But I suppose there is reasoning behind why my friends have nicknamed me Dix (as in Dorothea Dix).

I can also see myself working with groups like my beloved World Communion of Reformed Churches or maybe the World Council of Churches. I think ecumenical work is cool! Volunteering for the World Communion of Reformed Churches was one of the best ideas I have ever had. So social justice, equality, ecumenism, theology, social change, world religions. These are my interests, but how do I turn those into a career? How do I sustain myself? How do I prove to my family that I am not wasting my life by studying religion and by trying to help others?