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| Rev. Emmy Swedlund |
We want all our Christian churches to be beacons of moral leadership. I think the ELCA churches still have a most uplifting message and role. They have lost support. But can they revive themselves? Or more accurately, can the people rise up to make them as strong and relevant as ever? No answer is certain yet.
In Morris we have the most challenged situation of two ELCA churches. Yes, two "in town" ELCA churches, so it's not as if one is the "country" church. These churches are in the old residential sections of Morris. This in itself is cause for some concern because there are signs of blight here and there. It's truly a contrast with the east end of the community out toward the river. Compare the houses out there with what you see around First Lutheran and Faith Lutheran Churches.
Recently we have all gotten the signal that Faith Lutheran has hit the jackpot as it were. In a time when pastors have been hard to come by, "presto!" and Faith Lutheran got a person perceived by all as a real winner.
And so First Lutheran might have been left feeling as though it's flailing away. It seems un-churchlike for our two churches to compete, but we are after all human. Let us admit the impulse. First Lutheran is looking up because of a well-accepted interim pastor. But it's "interim," in other words short-term. So we might be hanging heads somewhat, concerned that all the momentum is going with our brethren on the west side of town, yes "on the other side of the tracks."
Everything is, or was, coming up roses for Faith Lutheran. I personally attended 3-4 services there and found it to be 100 percent vibrant. Definitely they had gotten over the hurdle of the gay rights/ordination thing. People who fled because of gay rights or homophobia went mainly to Good Shepherd, CW has it. (That's "conventional wisdom.") Good Shepherd is out by the dog kennel. You might say it's a "country church."
I'm not sure if I'm teasing or not when I say Good Shepherd is a total bastion for the Trump/MAGA crowd. That is how I perceive it. Would they deny that? I'd be surprised if they did deny it. Americans are insulted daily by the headlines prompted by Trump, his antics and his clear legal troubles. If you simply try pointing to the "hush money" case and how it involves a porn star, the likes of the Good Shepherd people would probably just laugh, write you off as someone who just can't handle Trump. We have heard the term "Trump Derangement Syndrome" or TDS. I have turned this term on the Trump people themselves. They are the ones who have TDS.
We should feel pride on this day (Tuesday) when Kamala Harris has picked Minnesotan Tim Walz as her runningmate.
The Trump people will not back off. There are the "conservative" churches around Stevens County where the people will not back off. Did all of this just grow out of homophobia? When it comes to homophobia, the problem with enforcing a prohibition on gays is that it's like Jim Crow: as a pure matter of policy, it cannot be enforced with anything like legal precision. Jim Crow had to go when it did, because of the coming "rainbow" nature of our racial complexion.
And with gays, what to do about those who truly keep their private life to themselves? Act on rumor? Suspicion? Any lawyer would tell you that it was unsustainable, morally objectionable. So life goes on and "to each their own."
I would feel uncomfortable if my church had an openly gay pastor who showed advocacy. If he/she could simply strive to be a capable professional minister, well then that is laudatory.
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| Faith Lutheran, Morris |
Generally speaking we have the reputation of being "remote." I point out the coyote howls that are so readily heard here. How can we compete with the Rochester coordinate campus of the University of Minnesota? The Rochester community is projected to erupt with growth over the next two decades. Star Tribune recently had article about this.
Meanwhile, Morris? We delude ourselves sometimes. We're in denial. But we really are kind of an outpost. An outpost in the rural Seventh Congressional District where our elected congressperson, Michelle Fischbach, is 100 percent joined at the hip with Donald Trump. Have you seen her little ad promos on YouTube? She totally sells herself this way.
All you need to know about Fischbach is that she supports Trump, the man found responsible in a legal proceeding for sexual assault of a woman, an assault that Judge Kaplan has explained to us as being the same as rape. So that's our man. And Fischbach is our woman.
So maybe I can't blame a women pastor for looking to leave a church here in coyote-land.
I first heard the rumors on Sunday: Pastor Emmy will leave because her husband got a job a considerable distance from here. At first I heard Bismarck. Ah, the rumors. This morning (Tuesday) I spoke with a very well-positioned person with Faith Lutheran and he said the husband's job was in Minot. "Why not Minot?"
This individual further informed me that the husband has already begun there. So wouldn't it seem necessary for Emmy to re-locate? As a former full-fledged journalist I will assume nothing. I wouldn't even assume that they are not separating or getting divorced. I have been around the block multiple times. I was with the Morris newspaper in a time when two members of management began an adulterous affair. They left the paper, got married and later divorced. I still see her original husband at Faith Lutheran, good guy, wrestling advocate.
So, I didn't come into town on a turnip truck. We'll see what happens. But I know how I would lay the betting odds.
Emmy's husband works in "promotion." That's what my prime source said. We smiled as he noted that "this means your job is to make something look better than it is." Ah yes.
Apparently Emmy has been coy with how much longer she'll be at Faith. People seem to be assuming, as I do, that she will be leaving. But when? If she makes clear that her departure is in fact imminent, then I'd advise the church council to tell her to just speed it up. "Don't worry, we can take care of ourselves. We've done it before."
A new minister owes a little more long-term loyalty to "the flock." Having it be so transitory is just depressing. (The Federal Reserve taught us all the word "transitory," remember?)
Hey, did you know that the Lutheran denomination in America did not get its first woman pastor until 1970? What would it do without women now? Maybe in a couple decades we'll be thankful for the gays too.
First Lutheran used to have a big "UMM Sunday" in the fall. That has been gone a long time.
The markets
Well we had the jolt of economic news yesterday (Monday). Sort of a "black Monday." I emailed a query about this to Jim Morrison and I was pleased to get a response from Jim, sort of a local Warren Buffet. Jim wrote:
Brian,
It seems to me that the bond market itself is bringing interest rates down, not the Fed.
The rapid drop in 10 year Treasury yields really surprised me.
I am not buying into the bond bulls’ belief in low long-term rates. I’m rolling over my August Treasury bonds into October maturities.
As long as the highest yields are in short-term bonds, I’m staying with the short maturities.
Jim
And in response to that I'll just nod my head and pretend to understand everything he wrote.
Caitlin Clark Foundation!
I quote here from an email I sent to my fellow UMM advocate Warrenn Anderson on Sunday:
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| Caitlin Clark |
I walk through edge of UMM campus every day. Every day all summer I see people all over the place like on their little golf carts but these are EMPLOYEES who are working to maintain the campus. That is not what UMM is all about. We should see more student activity even in summer. The campus just sits there. And it's expensive for the state to just have it sit there.
We need a "base closing commission" in MN for the closing of some colleges. Of course, we know Morris might be on the list. Rochester is booming while we're just the opposite out here where we hear the coyotes. And look out for bears now too. I wonder if it's actually getting a little dangerous for people and dogs to be out along the biking/walking trail.
The Rochester campus of the U was Tim Pawlenty's big idea. Political?
A hawk has been hanging out in my backyard so maybe it will pick off some critters. Did you know that owls go after skunks because owls have no sense of smell?
- BW
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