Thanks for the book suggestions for my July vacation. I just finished another really good book, about China from the thirties through the nineties: Wild Swans (thanks Liz!). Absolutely unbelievable what that country went through in the twentieth century. Reading the book made me a lot more sympathetic to China’s current issues.

I’m going offline for a month, taking time away from constant technology and media saturation, doing some hiking, swimming, Scrabble-playing, and seeing friends and family. I wish you all a good and happy month. (If you’re a member of the Ethical Society and have a pastoral emergency while I’m gone, contact the Society office and they’ll let me know.)

I just finished another great book that recently came out in paperback: The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, by Paul Collier.

A little over ten years ago I was arrested for protesting the World Bank, IMF, and general villains of globalization. I don’t regret my youthful passion, but since then I’ve done a lot more reading about economics and have realized that development is much more complicated than “fair trade vs. free trade” slogans. Paul Krugman’s writings on trade have helped.

The Bottom Billion is very well-written and clear, though not always easy since some of the concepts are counter-intuitive and it does have some jargon. But the writer is careful to explain what research his positions are based on, when that research has yet to be peer-reviewed, etc. He is trying to find pragmatic solutions to seemingly intractable problems of global and primarily African poverty, without falling into left or right ideology.

If you have any interest in macroeconomics, international trade, global poverty, Africa, development . . . I highly recommend this book.

What are you all reading this summer? I could use some lighter fare for my July vacation. . . .

There’s a clip on Youtube of part of Emily Lyons’ speech before the opening-night performance of “Becoming Emily.” Tonight is the last performance and I hear there are still some tickets available. With lights and music it’s much more powerful even than the experience at the Ethical Society a couple Sundays ago. Watch Emily in her own words and I hope you can go the show.

It’s been too hectic for me to blog lately, what with last week’s trip to the American Humanist Association conference (which you can read about on their web site) and this week’s American Ethical Union conference (which you can read about on their web site–and if you’re in the area, you can still register for workshops or attend other events, so read all about it).

But luckily, you have something much more interesting to read than my musings anyway. Namely, the musings of Laurie Pickard, who grew up in the Ethical Society and is now serving the Peace Corps in Nicaragua. Her blog, Wanderphilia, details her new life and is thoughtful and fascinating. And she could use some reading material down there. Bookmark her blog.

Yesterday, Dr. George Tiller, one of the few doctors left in America who performed legal late-term abortions for desperate women, was murdered in front of his family and community. Whatever one’s feelings about abortion, the killing of Dr. Tiller is a chilling and evil act. It was clearly meant not only to end a person’s life and destroy his family, but also to terrorize doctors, leaving women with empty “rights” they cannot exercise, if doctors are too afraid to help them.

As it happens, this Sunday’s platform at the Ethical Society is a special presentation of “Becoming Emily,” a theater and dance performance by That Uppity Theatre Company about the 1998 bombing of a women’s clinic and its aftermath in the life of Emily Lyons, a nurse at the clinic who was severely hurt and who became an outspoken advocate for women’s rights. This powerful performance explores the lives touched by the clinic, how the media covers violence, and Emily’s triumph over her tragedy. I hope that you and your friends can join us Sunday for this platform performance to honor Emily Lyons, Dr. George Tiller, and all people who work to protect women’s health and lives.

I’m sad about the ruling upholding Prop 8, though I’m very glad that the 18,000 (!) couples who married in California during the legal window will continue to be legally married. I understand the court’s reticence to overturn the voters, but democracy differs from simple majority rule in that it protects the basic rights of minorities. Majorities can’t just vote to take away civil rights, and civil marriage is a civil right.

What happens now? A long campaign for another ballot measure. . . . California is too expensive and crowded, anyway–how about you cool Californians move to Maine?

I was disturbed to learn that a recent Pew Forum poll on attitudes toward torture reveal that more-religious people are more likely to condone torture. Pew researchers point out that ideology is the strongest predictor of acceptance of torture–that is, conservatives are more likely to both be religious and to condone torture. But to me this certainly puts to rest the idea that the non-religious are less moral. Turns out, at least on torture, the non-religious are a lot more moral.

I just read the most surprisingly fascinating book: The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters, by Rose George. I did know that sanitation engineers and plumbers are the unsung heroes of civilization, but this book really opened my eyes to the huge ongoing problems with sanitation–both for places that have none, and also for places that think they have it all figured out but really don’t.

I was so enthralled with a topic I previously might have avoided that I’m going to give a platform based on George’s book in November, in recognition of World Toilet Day (really). But if you can’t wait until then, or like great nonfiction books, I highly recommend The Big Necessity. Do you have any surprising nonfiction recommendations to share?

I hate to call attention to anti-science/anti-atheist strawman tirades like Stanley Fish’s op-ed in the Times today, but I can’t help but point something out. Religious apologists like Fish and the author whose book he’s summarizing assert that science can’t answer The Big Questions, such as “What is the meaning of life?” But, (a) that’s not necessarily true, as science can, for example, explain the process of evolution that lead humans to have concepts of meaning, etc., and (b) questions that have no objectively discoverable answers are not “answered” by religions, any more than they’re “answered” by poetry. No religion can tell everyone the Meaning of Life–each religion, sect, individual follower has their own interpretation of the Meaning of Life, based on unanswerable assertions of “faith,” just “knowing,” revelations, etc.

Science may or may not be able to answer the Big Questions, but at least scientific answers have to be based on common criteria that are available to everyone, and therefore science is a lot better at saying, when necessary, “We don’t know and by definition can’t know.” Religions don’t answer the Big Questions; they do allow people to philosophize and make art about them, which is valuable. But people who think that religion provides “truth” that is unavailable to science don’t understand what truth means.

I am thrilled to share that this Friday, I’ll be joining at least three other clergy of various denominations and traveling to Iowa to officiate the marriages of 17 same-sex couples from Missouri–folks of all ages, backgrounds, and beliefs who just want to marry their beloved. I wish they could wed here in Missouri, or that their Iowa marriages would be respected on their return to their home state, but despite the long way we still have to go, Friday will be a joyous day, and I look forward to riding with everyone to Iowa on the bus of love.

If you’d like to know more, or how to support this trip, see the Show Me No Hate web site.

UPDATE:

May 1, 2009 - Center, Shonda Garrison and, right, Jolie Justus hug as they confirm their wedding vows with, left, Kate Lovelady, ordained leader of the Ethical Society of St. Louis, on the bus to Iowa City. Seventeen couples from the St. Louis area came to Iowa City to get legally married in what they were calling the Show Me Marriage Equality Bus. (Emily Rasinski/P-D)