Sexual Ethics at College - Richard R. Crocker

Sexual Ethics in College
Richard R. Crocker
Rollins Chapel
November 20, 2011
I Corinthians 9:9-20

During the past weeks, the press has given a good deal of attention to sex on campus – the national press covering the scandals at Penn State, the local Dartmouth press printing its annual “Sex Issue”. Since the topic of sexual behavior is so central to many conversations at Dartmouth and elsewhere, or perhaps because the topic of sexual ethics is so absent at Dartmouth and elsewhere, I think it is important for us to consider it in this series on the Bible and the newspaper.

I have chosen to read from scripture tonight a passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians which is, perhaps, the most used and ab-used scripture passage on sexual ethics. In it Paul gives us a list of “wrongdoers” who will, in his words, “not enter the kingdom of Heaven.” Although there is dispute about how some of the Greek words should be properly translated, the list is nonetheless a list that, however we wriggle, delights the hearts of some Christians and appalls many others. “Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers – none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.’ So declares Paul, without qualification. The presence of several sexually related words on this list – fornicators, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites (Greek words which almost every English version translate differently) – has fueled so many blatant condemnations of so many by so many for so long that the presence of greed and drunkeness and revilers in the list has been almost forgotten.

Many of us wish that Paul had been a bit less specific in his list of sins, or that he had been a bit more charitable. Most of us, finding this passage quite problematic, simply ignore it.

Merit, Entitlement, and Grace - Kurt Nelson

Mark 10: 17-27

Rollins Chapel, 11.13.11

This term has been for me,

if nothing else,

an exercise in forcing myself to read the news theologically.

And sometimes an idea takes hold,

which simply will not let go.

Even if I want it to.

I was taken by a very strange op-ed piece by NYTimes columnist Ross Douthat,

called “Our Reckless Meritocracy.”

His article calls out our near-worship of merit,

and the ways it has pushed us to the brink.

And ultimately I was convinced,

convicted.

That I too am a worshipper of merit.

Even thought I'd prefer not to talk about it.

It’s been a big week, after all, for important news.

Friday was Veterans Day.

A day forged by those wishing never to fight again,

since become, in some corners,

a celebration of valor and American exceptionalism.

But thankfully voices ring out

reminding us that this is a holiday

of grief for the horrors war,

and prayer that war should cease.

Even as we remember those who serve so honorably.

The week’s biggest story, probably,

is the unfolding scandal at Penn St.

Why the Church is Divided - Richard R. Crocker

Why the Church is Divided
Richard R. Crocker
Rollins Chapel
November 6, 2011
John 17:20-23

Despite the prayer of Jesus that all his followers might be one, the church is deeply divided. And it is not divided chiefly by denominations (though those divisions are real), but by fundamental attitudes. As is shown by the careful research of Robert Putnam and his associates, in their book called American Grace, conservative American Catholics seem to have more in common with conservative evangelical Christians than they do with Liberal Catholics, and liberal Protestant Christians in some ways have more in common with liberal Catholics than they do with conservative Protestants.[1] Although the words conservative and liberal do approximate the differences in fundamental attitude, they do not adequately describe it. I would say that the divide is more accurately described as those who see the church as the bastion of order and personal morality on the one hand, and those who see it as the advocate of justice on the other.

This conflict is nowhere more clearly and poignantly revealed than by the story, which you might have missed, in this week’s New York Times about the protest occurring at the entrance to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

On Faith and Science (and Zombies) - Kurt Nelson

Rollins Chapel 10/30/11

1 Corinthians 13: 1-2
Psalm 8: 3-6

Two events of cosmic significance occurred,
since last we spoke:
Richard Muller, one of the last good, scientific skeptics of global warming,
concluded a massive, 2 year study,
funded in large part by the Koch brothers
and other oil concerns.
And Muller said to the world
that we no longer have reason to be skeptical.
The world is, in fact, warming.
Some of us, of course,
already believed that.
But it’s nice to be affirmed.

And AMC’s Show “The Walking Dead”
set just after the zombiepocalypse,
began its second season,
opening to the largest audience in the history of basic cable.
As I said, two events of cosmic significance.
worth mentioning together.
And worth mentioning in the context of our term’s discussion
of the Bible and the Newspaper.
Pulling, if we can,
our attention away from
violence on the streets of Oakland and Denver,
and immanent troubles in Thailand, Pakistan, Iraq, and elsewhere,
to ponder briefly the relationship between faith and science
(and zombies.)

Public discourse about faith and science has,
in recent memory,
been dominated by two camps.
Who push mirror images of the same essential idea:
That there is not only a singular truth,
but a singular way of knowing.

Being and Dartmouthness - Richard R. Crocker

Being and Dartmouthness
Richard R. Crocker
Rollins Chapel
October 20, 2011
John 15:12-17

As most of you know, the theme at chapel this term is “The Bible and the Newspaper”, which builds upon the words of Karl Barth, one of the 20th century’s most distinguished theologians, who reportedly said that one must preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.

This week, I have chosen to preach from the Bible and The Dartmouth (Dartmouth College newspaper). - more particularly from the passage in John, in which Jesus calls his disciples his friends, and a column in last Friday’s Dartmouth by Kip Dooley, a senior, called Being and Dartmouthness – a title which I have borrowed from him with his permission, and which he obviously borrowed from Jean Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness. The scripture passage, as I said, deals with the notion of friendship, especially the friendship offered by Jesus to those who would follow him, a friendship not of casual acquaintance but of deep commitment. The newspaper column is really about what I consider the deep dark secret of Dartmouth life: Social anxiety – a secret which becomes most prominent at this time of year, when sophomores are undergoing the ritual of rush and experiencing either the elation of acceptance, to be followed quickly by the hazing of pledge term, or the despair of rejection, which can be a life-long wound.

So this is really a sermon – a meditation – about friendship and loneliness, about acceptance and rejection, about elation and despair, framed by the Bible on the one hand, and Kip Dooley’s column on the other.

Faith in our Public Life - Kurt Nelson

Romans 13. 1-7 (and 12. 9, 14-20)
Dartmouth College Chapel, 10-17-11

I hope you’ll take a moment to notice
how clever my sermon title is this week.
Highlighting in just 5 words both the immense question
of the role of religion in political discourse,
and the immense issue of our belief
in political life itself.
Truly a marvel, I know.

I submit that we have in this country a serious problem
regarding our discourse in general.
But particularly about the intersection of
religion & politics.
Faith and public life.
It’s not a new problem.
But it is a relevant problem, in this moment.
Brought into sharp focus for me,
by three events this week:
The least significant and perhaps least hopeful
was during Tuesday's debate
when Michele Bachmann alluded to the
“the devil in the details”
in reference to Herman Cain’s 9 9 9 tax plan,
upside down.
Which might be funny,
in some alternate universe,
in which earnest, similar comments weren't heard so often.
but probably not even then.
We might call it the “weird” approach to faith in public life.

Second, Texas pastor Robert Jeffress,
from the very public pulpit of the Value Voter Summit,
Asked the following question:
“"Do we want a candidate who is a good, moral person
or one who is a born-again follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?"
At first, this might seem like a thoughtful question.
One which we should ponder and wrestle with.
But really it was rhetorical.

Occupy Wall Street? - Richard R. Crocker

Occupy Wall Street
Richard R. Crocker
Rollins Chapel, Dartmouth College
October 9, 2011
Amos 8:9-13

You will remember that the theme for the term is “The Bible and the Newspaper”. Large in the news this week has been the growing protest movement called “Occupy Wall Street.” Now this phrase must be carefully explained at Dartmouth, because many of you might well think it summarizes your ambitions, or the ambitions of your friends. But this is not a movement of young people aiming to be hired by Goldman Sachs; it is instead a growing, somewhat amorphous protest movement that CNN news describes as “a leaderless protest movement made largely of twenty somethings upset with the state of the economy, the state of the war in Afghanistan, the state of the environment, and the state of America and the world in general.”[1] Far from being composed of people who want to work on Wall Street, this movement contains people who have “a dream : to see the titans of Wall Street trade their palatial office suites for a row of dank prison cells.”[2]

This is a growing movement, spreading into cities across the country, but conspicuously absent in Hanover, where the ambition to be among the Wall Street titans seems very much alive and well.

Now I do not intend to say whether or not this protest movement is in all ways justified or correct in its assertions. I will say, however, that in its basic intentions, it is certainly Biblical.