Tag: Ask Roger Anything

Roger Answers Your Questions, Tom the Mayor and Jaquandor

Presbyterians are much more deliberative than Methodists.

Jaquandor, the Buffalo area’s finest blogger, asks:

1. Are there any words you dislike, just because of the sound of them and not necessarily the meaning?

Used to be that German words I tended to dislike as too guttural. The K sound would get stuck on the roof of my mouth. But I’ve mellowed, and nothing immediately comes to mind.

2. Are there any subjects you really want to know more about and yet never seem to get around to learning about?

Oh, yeah, dozens, everything from various sciences, such as astronomy and botany; to languages, which I do not seem to have a talent for, starting with Spanish and Latin. But I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I probably won’t do anything about it unless I give up something else, and evidently, I’m not willing to do that.

3. Are you surprised that gay marriage passed in New York? (I am, a little….)

Heck, yeah. It failed miserably some 600 days earlier when the State Senate was controlled by the Democrats. OK, “controlled” is probably an overstatement, since it was pretty chaotic. The last two governors supported it, and it didn’t matter. And it passes with a Republican-controlled Senate? More like shocked.
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Tom the Mayor, once a mail order whiz at FantaCo, among other attributes, asks:

Are all the members of your church as Liberal as you are? could you be a good Christian, yet disagree with the beliefs of your church’s leaders?

Tom asks simple questions which I will complicate in answering.

Somehow, as a result of singing in my old church choir at my grandmother’s funeral in May 1983, it got me to decide to start attending church again, after more than a decade of mostly not going. But I couldn’t just go back to a church like the one from my childhood, which I loved then, but found that my theological development was not in tune with that church’s theological positions.

So I went church shopping.

When I first attended Trinity United Methodist Church, it was June 13, 1982. I remember this quite well because the day before, I was at an anti-nuke rally in New York City. The minister, the late Stan Moore, said something quite positive about the rally in his sermon, and this endeared him, and the church, to me. While the shopping continued for some months, I decided I wanted to be there by the end of the year, though I didn’t actually join until December 1984.

In that congregation, I did have leadership roles, first as vice-chair, then chair of the Administrative Board, which was the church’s meeting of the whole, then chair of the Council on Ministries, which was the chairs of the major service committees. I left, not because of theology, but autocracy, involving a change in church structure under a subsequent minister which made it less accountable to the congregation.

I started attending First Presbyterian in the spring of 2000 and joined in 2002. At some point, I was an elder there, but didn’t enjoy it; I think I’m all meetinged out.

So to your actual question: if by the church, you mean the congregation, most of them are as liberal as I am, though by no means all of them. I remember having a conversation with one of them at the (late) YMCA, where you used to work. He mentioned that one of the Clintons, Bill or Hillary, was having a book come out, and he, who reads the New York Post, a conservative tabloid, every day, said he was sure that I would be buying the book from that “liberal”. I surprised him by stating that I didn’t think the Clintons were liberal at all.

If you mean the Presbyterian Church USA, our congregation is definitely more liberal than some. But of course, this depends on your meaning of liberal. If feeding the hungry, clothing the needy is “liberal”, then it’s almost the whole denomination that is liberal. If it’s something such as the role of gays in the life of the church, the Albany Presbytery, which represents our church, is more progressive than others. But given the fact that the PCUSA denomination in 1997 created MORE restrictive language re participation of gays as ministers, elders, and deacons, then in May 2011 agreed to less restrictive language, not many people bolted the church when either event occurred.

Presbyterians are much more deliberative than Methodists. The fact that our Presbytery was at odds – no, too harsh, disagreed – with the PCUSA on gay ordination for over a decade was surprisingly not a big deal.

Oh, one other thing: I wanted Trinity UMC to take more of a stand on gay rights issues when I was involved there in the 1990s. It was downplayed because the church had “made a proclamation” back in 1979 or 1975, or whenever, which preceded my tenure there, and that seemed, to some, to be enough. So it’s not just a matter of beliefs; it’s acting on the beliefs, regularly. My current congregation participates in the Gay Pride parade annually, with our rainbow tapestry hanging from the bell tower as well as over the entrance, as an ongoing, living, breathing statement of faith.

Did I actually answer the question?

A Solstice Sensation: ASK ROGER ANYTHING

I know this is a tremendous responsibility, but you CAN do it. I have faith.

Because I have no idea what I should be writing about that I’m not writing about – my psychic powers have been gravely diminished by global warming – periodically, I request that you fine folks Ask Roger Anything. That’s A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G. And I have to answer. Honestly.

Now, I might try to obfuscate, but as anyone who lived through Watergate knows, “It isn’t the crime that’ll get you, it’s the coverup.” Now what that has to do with the price of caviar, I do not know. Maybe I don’t want to know. Maybe the fatigue has made me goofy – or there really IS music playing in my head – and only your questions can put me back on the straight and/or narrow.

I know this is a tremendous responsibility, but you CAN do it. I have faith.

It’s the equinox ASK ROGER ANYTHING

Lydia is very curious about death. Specifically, she was fascinated how my mother’s cremains could fit in such a small container.

It’s finally spring (or autumn) and it’s time for me to relax and you do the heavy lifting. This is the regular segment in which you get to ask Roger (i.e., me) anything you want. Nothing’s off limits.

Now, as I often mention, I AM allowed to perhaps engage in a little bit of clever obfuscation, but I cannot lie outright. If you ask anonymously, the amount of trickery will no doubt increase.

Actually, I already have a question to start. It’s a query that Uthaclena asked last month that I’m too lazy to look up. The upshot was, “How is Lydia coping with her Grandma Green’s death?”

Actually, she’s fine.

A few things are going on:
1) She knew my mother, but not that well. She saw her last year once, the year before once. They talked on the phone rarely. Now, my mother, with my sister and niece, did come up a month after she was born, and my mom and my daughter had been in each other’s presence a few times after that, but the daughter’s not likely to remember most of those.
2) She has had a cavalier, even what others might call an inappropriate casualness, talking about death, e.g., the way she’s spoken about my father and my wife’s brother John being dead (before she was born), which I took as the naivete of a child.
3) She is very curious about death. Specifically, she was fascinated how my mother’s cremains could fit in such a small container. What is the process?

So ask away.

All I Want For Christmas Is You

If it’s always the same, why does it always feel new to me?


I’m serious now. What I would like most from you this Christmas is for you to participate in a little thing I call ASK ROGER ANYTHING, which involves…well, you know. And he -[stop talking about yourself in the third person] – I have to answer your questions honestly, leaving a modicum of wiggle room for obfuscation. You may ask in the comment section or, if youā€™d rather, e-mail me. I will say that responses to e-mails of people who wish to remain anonymous will probably be murkier than those from people who own their requests. I’ll be answering them during Christmastide, which is to say the 12 days of Christmas, that period between tomorrow and Epiphany.

Meanwhile, I’ll be singing tonight at church. No surprise; that’s what I usually do on Christmas Eve. In fact, what’s surprising is when I DON’T, the last time I spent Christmas with my mother a couple of years ago. I’ve gone primarily to two churches in the past 25 years and the way the latter part of the Christmas Eve service plays out is pretty much the same. Hand out candles, light candles, dim lights while singing Silent Night, turn on lights, blow out candles, sing Joy to the World. If it’s always the same, why does it always feel new to me?

Did you see this rendition of one of my favorite seasonal songs; in case the link doesn’t work, try this. Can’t help but think that, at some point, I would have participated too; I mean, I DO know it by heart.
So it is replicated in the largest mall in Albany County; had I known, I might have ventured there for the first time in YEARS.

Getting Ready For Christmas Day by Paul Simon – the mp3 download with a description of the song and the YouTube post.
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Let It Dough

September Equinox ASK ROGER ANYTHING

Now this does allow for me to engage in obfuscation – “depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is” – but I can’t duck it altogether.

Just recently, I was musing what to call it when the daytime and the nighttime are the same lengths. Used to be that, in March, I would describe it as the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the autumnal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. In September, it would be reversed. But that meant too many words. Recently, though someone, I forget who, though I have a guess, suggested calling them the September equinox and the March equinox; brilliant in its simplicity! And it works as well for the June and December solstices as well.

Anyway, this is an occasion when I get REALLY lazy. I decide, “Hey, I write this thing every day; the LEAST my vast šŸ˜‰ audience can do is help me along with the content once in a while.” It is not entirely selfish, either. If I ask you, and you respond, then I answer, I am giving the people what they want. It also gives my fellow bloggers the opportunity to retaliate for the nasty questions I ask them.

Here are the rules: you get to ask me (Roger) any old thing you want to. No boundaries, no limits. Moreover, I have to answer it, and I must do so honestly. Now this does allow for me to engage in obfuscation – “depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is” – but I can’t duck it altogether. You may ask in the comment section or, if you’d rather, e-mail me. I will say that responses to e-mails of people who wish to remain anonymous will probably be murkier than those from people who own their requests.

I will begin replying next week. Here’s a recent example; yes, I promise I won’t take two months to reply.