One Cup Debate Returneth (in a 60 page pamphlet!)

I don't think I would survived Churches of Christ in the 1950s.  Endless debates about whether church members could support orphan's homes, Christian colleges, or have pianos in a house would have driven me to Red China.  I'm grateful that we aren't that so divisive today, though I wonder whether or not we have much of a pulse at all.  Is it better to endless bicker about something peripheral or talk about nothing at all? 

I thought about this as I looked through our church mail today.  In our mailbox was a 60 page booklet that appears to be part of the surprisingly still active debate about whether or not churches can use multiple cups in the Lord's Supper.  And it's not out of nowhere, it seems...it's a response to somebody else's pamphlet on the same thing.  Do I know which side this new mailing is on?  Was I at all familiar with the initial debate that led to the initial pamphlet?  Not really.  But here, on the very edge of the Bible belt several states away from the author, we get to be drawn into this debate.  The cost of mailing what must have been thousands of pamphlets to thousands of churches was probably enough to furnish a reasonable size soup kitchen for week, but hey, what's more important?  Continuing to debate issues to an apathetic audience that hasn't cared about this issue for half a century?  Sign me up!

Funny thing is, I actually probably have sympathy for the one-cup argument.  I think there's a lot more Biblical foundation for this position than there is for defending the absoluteness of acappella music, and there's a lot more Bibilcal foundation for this position than there is for paying located preachers.  But are any of these things core gospel issues?  Absolutely not. 

And I will probably take some time over the next few weeks to read this pamphlet.  Maybe I'll learn something.  Probably not...it will soon end up in the recycle bin, but I'd like to think that I'm kinda open minded. 

Are Mermaids Real?

On my school bus today two of my first graders got into an argument about whether or not mermaids are real.  The girl had a book called "Are Mermaids Real?  (I Want To Know!)".  The Goodreads page for this indicates that this is a 'narrative text' that offers 'possible scientific explanations for the myths'.  She also insisted that when she had gone to the seashore that she saw one, she really did!  A boy, however, decided that this was all hogwash, and claimed that they don't exist, and even though he loves this little girl and tells her almost everyday that he loves her (and do you love me too?), that no way do mermaids exist. 

Of course I got asked what I thought, and I told the boy that if he doesn't want to believe, then he doesn't have to believe, and I told the girl that if you want them to exist, they are very real.  It was a craptacular answer, really, and even now I wish I had gotten into a better discussion with them about how you determine what is real and what is not, and the power of belief and myth and so forth.  But then I think, they are in first grade, why can't I just let them enjoy their little love spat.

It's hard to know how to answer anybody these days, in this time in which people generally believe whatever it is that they want to believe.  Believe in UFOs?  Trump?  Unicorns?  Goody for you!  For all the power of the information age, I am convinced that people are more ignorant than they ever have been.  There's no shortage of books that offer 'possible scientific explanations' for anything, but the explosion of narrative texts means that people now can find support for whatever it is they want to believe.  Not to mention the dozens of channels on TV that cater to whatever fringe idea somebody has, or the internet and its various forms of conspiracy theories and whackjob ideologies.  The information superhighway of the 21st century leads far too many people off of a cliff. 

Fortunately, the Goodreads page of this author who specializes in works for young children has many other works that are of a more serious nature.  And it appears that her knowledge base is as wide as anybody in this age...she has written on Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge (current events(; The Grassland Biome (science!); Counting Coins and Bills (economics), and whether or not King Arthur was real (history).  Oh, and don't forget her books about aliens, unicorns, and countless other creatures of the universe. 

I'm glad that my first graders have such an outstanding base of knowledge to work with.