Can the church and South Dakota keep her?
University of Sioux Falls student Dannika Nash points to the hopeful example of 5,000 young people in Sioux Falls cheering marrige equality:
I got to go to the Macklemore concert on Friday night. If you want to hear about how that went, ask me, seriously, I want to talk about it until I die. The whole thing was great; but the best part was when Macklemore sang “Same Love.” Augustana’s gym was filled to the ceiling with 5,000 people, mostly aged 18-25, and decked out in thrift store gear (American flag bro-tanks, neon Nikes, MC Hammer pants. My Cowboy boyfriend wore Cowboy boots…not ironically….). The arena was brimming with excitement and adrenaline during every song, but when he started to play “Same Love,” the place about collapsed. Why? While the song is popular everywhere, no one, maybe not even Macklemore, feels its true tension like we do in Sioux Falls, South Dakota....
Before the song, Macklemore spoke really simple words along the lines of: “Hey, you can all have your own opinions on how we treat gay people in this country, but this is mine.” And I held my breath in anticipation of some kind of uproar or walk-out…but the crowd cheered louder than they had yet. In our red state, in our conservative little city, the 5,000 young people in that arena wanted to hear about marriage equality [Dannika Nash, "An Open Letter to the Church from My Generation," blog, 2013.04.07].
Nash reacts to the "hateful preaching" she's heard in her church upbringing. She says that hateful preaching drives 70% of twenty-somethings away from church.
Nash also points to a techno-cultural phenomenon that could keep those young people from leaving conservative South Dakota:
So many of us were brought up in churches and Christian homes, and even if we weren’t, we’ve experienced the traditional Christian culture that just resonates from South Dakota’s prairie land. We know conservatism; we know tradition. But we also have Twitter, we watch SNL, we listen to Macklemore, and we read Tina Fey. We’re more in touch with the rest of the country than the Midwest has ever been. Some of us love the church and some of us hate it, but there aren’t too many people for whom it’s irrelevant [Nash, 2013.04.07].
There's an interesting question: if modern media technology can help South Dakotans feel more connected with a more tolerant national culture, will that give their progressive values enough reinforcement to make living in conservative-soaked South Dakota bearable? Or will that ever-increasing exposure to the big world out there simply entice them all the more quickly to the bluer climes where they can enjoy the better-than-Twitter huggable company of like-minded neighbors?
She is an USF student I believe. The event she went to was at Augustana. If Augie and USF students are communing, I would think liberals and conservatives should be getting along a bit better.
And, while her post was about an issue there is agreement on this site, it was more an emotional rant than an intellectual discussion one would expect when talking about theology.
[CAH: Thanks, Troy! I have corrected the headline and text.]
gawd.
Troy, your moral elitism comes right out of your catechism: just don't touch yourself in an impure manner.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/17/study-belief-in-an-angry-god-associated-with-variety-of-mental-illnesses/
Most liberals I know do not feel at ease here and my generation of gays have mainly gone. It's why low tax rates only mean so much. People in general want a more rounded existence and better weather. We have low unemployment rates, but opportunities are limited. Younger people's attitudes on this issue, however, are encouraging!
I agree John--thanks for pointing the obvious out!! BTW Ms. Nash wrote a wonderful piece--very thoughtful. With this one, take a back seat ,Troy ,to Ms. Nash!
If enough people chose to do wrong, does that make it right.
Lots of people chose to go to a bad war. Lots of people chose to vote for people who lower taxes and interest rates to the point that this economy can not sustain itself. Lots of people chose to build bigger houses than this economy can afford just becuase someone else put the interest rates to low. Does a lot of people agreeing 'make it right.' NOT
But we still have a free country and people can make a lot of choices, even bad ones.
Not sure if everyone knows that Nash was fired from her church camp counselor job after they learned of the wonderful essay she wrote, which is basically the perfect ending to the story.
Open-minded, thoughtful critic of the church wishes the church will engage in conversation with her. Church says no. Progress is coming, but awful slowly in these parts.
http://siouxfallsbusinessjournal.argusleader.com/article/20130416/COLUMNISTS0113/304160008/Callison-USF-student-s-blog-gay-marriage-church-goes-viral
Whose going to provide PP and his campaign bumper sticker business a better living -- a (likely) conservative politician trying to bolster Monsanto and other big corporate ag, or a true statesmen who cares for the little guy who wants to raise his own chickens for home-grown eggs and meat? Like a remora who clamps on as a parasite to a Big White Shark, PP must follow the big money and thus, conform his political views to match the politicians he hopes will serve as his “hosts.” The chance of him standing up for the “little guys” in South Dakota is nil.
Regardless of what anyone thinks of her essay, one thing is certain. Ms. Nash has certainly struck a chord.
Thanks for that link, Brett! That's an important part of this story. I'm surprised that, given USF's very conservative theology, she's not transferring to Augustana.
I applaud this young woman. It is my hope that more open-minded South Dakotans will stay and fight rather than leave to join like-minded people in another state. I think the blue dots in this sea of South Dakota red are growing. We need to band together and make our voices heard. A new Facebook page exists called Living Blue in South Dakota. If you want to join the open-minded people of South Dakota, I invite you to check it out. (Sorry about the shameless plug Corey.) :)
Speaking of theology, contrary to my expectations, Nash says it was an ELCA camp that canned her. The ELCA is a relatively big tent... but that tent includes some folks who'd like a smaller tent.
It's an interesting piece that follows my reading Josh Garrett-Davis' book, Ghostdances, which deals with many of the issues that thinking youth have growing up in South Dakota. Read it.
Ms. Nash's piece is anything but a rant. And it did not attempt to get into theology. It was a report on an event and the way that a large group of young people responded to it, and it gave a very clear perspective on the reasons for that response in relation to the churches which so often try to give theological justification to their outworn bigotries, Ms. Nash gave a very encouraging account on how the march toward equality is moving forward on the front of marriage just as the marchers in Selma moved it in education and voting rights. Ms. Nash's post is much more eloquent, literate, and effective than any of the demeaning rubbish that is the fare of that wretched War Collage. Its perpetrators are not satisfied with having demolished any respect and credibility that the Secretary of State's office once possessed. It would be nice if its authors would confined their besmirching to their own room. People who read more literate blogs will recognize and understand Ms. Nash's superior effort at actual discussion.
Sadly, what the people who show their scorn for Ms. Nash and her courage fail to realize is that they are pushing more and more youth away from the church.
Sadder yet, is that those same youth see through the elders and their selected sins of outrage.
Usury? No problem here in pious SD.
Greed and avarice? Hey we call it free market here and the people who are good at it win and we want their money for the church...and political campaigns.
The Beatitudes...please...that's socialism.
And guess what...they've read all of Leviticus and are well aware of the hypocrisy.
They've read Timothy and Corinthians and how women should be silent in church and watched as religious leaders backtrack on one issue and not another.
They lived through the predators that wore the collar, abused children and were then protected by the Church.
They've seen whole religions demonized for the actions of a few.
They are smart.
They don't like being lied to.
I might add that they have seen the "Race to the Top" represents only their soaring tuition rates while foreign companies grab millions to take their profits out of the state and the country while providing jobs well below their high priced aspirations.
They've had flashbacks to the petty middle school cliques that now dominate the political discourse.
They've watched as the teachers who they trusted, learned from and admired were demonized and reduced to mere commodities with little value from Pierre.
And now a young leader expresses an opinion based on her observation and the church decides to not listen to her, but punish her for thinking out loud.
The times they are a changing...and those that will despise the change will only have themselves to blame.
One more thought.
I hope that someone holds the ELCA's feet to the fire on firing someone for expressing an opinion and standing up for an oppression they find to be unjust.
I wonder if the Bishops of the ELCA are comfortable with the decision to punish this young woman for speaking out?
Bishop Zellmer? Care to weigh in? Or at least comfort a member of your flock who has been beat down for thinking out loud? Or are you thinking that the new ladies circle for young women should be called the Stepford Circle.
Heck...what was I thinking. The ELCA should throw someone out who would nail this type of theses to the door of the church...wait...what?
Keep in mind, Jana, the ELCA as an organization did not fire this gal. One camp within the ELCA did so. Other ELCA camps are apparently offering her work. It would be interesting to hear Bishop Zellmer's opinion, although I'm not sure the camp is in the South Dakota Synod, so he may not be the authority figure on whom to harp. And remember that we're talking the ELCA, not the Catholic Church. The ELCA does not operate with the same strict hierarchy. Local Lutheran churches and camps have much more leeway to do their thing than their Catholic counterparts.
The constitution states that the political winds of the day are not supposed to steer the church. But as people are human, they follow the thought of the day if they are in a church or not.
Now the two biggest denominations in SD both have major problems. One covered for priets being gay with alter boys and now the other wants pastors who are gay. If you learned basic values from your parents and grandparents, this become a huge disaster. Our country was founded on freedom from government so if the government wants to go another way because of the will of the people, that is what we want government to be. But to ridicule churches for not blowing in the political winds is not appropriate.
Roger, I can roll with that thought. So can Ms. Nash: in the essay under discussion here, she says "DON’T hear me saying that we can’t fight culture on anything. Lots of things in culture are absolutely contradictory to love and equality, and we should be battling those things. The way culture treats women, or pornography? Get AT that, church. I’ll be right there with you."
A healthy Christian church necessarily stands to some extent outside the culture, in a position to critique and challenge it. (That's an important reason the church must be separate from the state: it's good for both of them!) But churches must also always be prepared for the consequences of that stand, and for the possibility that the culture may win. Even if some God is sitting upstairs chuckling, "Oh, that silly Macklemore and those goofy kids singing along," churches holding the Levitical line on homosexuality will lose those silly kids. Churches can't just consign those kids to heck; smart churches need to figure out how to keep young believers like Ms. Nash and her 5,000 fellow concert-goers in conversation and in the pews, contributing to the churches' finances and vitality.
Which churches can do that? Which churches can stomach some doctrinal disputes and the occasional gay couple walking in the front doors holding hands?