Trudy J. Morgan-Cole's Blog, page 62

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Writing Wednesday 54: Draw My (Writing) Life

For this week’s video I decided to have a little fun illustrating my life as a writer. A lot of YouTubers do these “Draw My Life” videos, a trend I wasn’t aware of till Chris did a really great one several months ago. While I don’t know that my actual life would make a very interesting video, I thought that people interested in the writing journey might like to see a writer’s life — illustrated.

Writing Wednesday 53: What You Don’t Want to Know

I’ve long said that the most useful advice in a critique of your work is the advice that accords with what you already know. Here I try to pick apart that idea and take it a step further. I think that often, in writing as in our everyday lives, we try to fool ourselves sometimes — tell ourselves that things are working when they really aren’t. It may take a nosy friend — or an honest critique partner — to make you face the unpleasant reality.

No Billboard Required

This week I had an experience that I usually have several times every fall. I took my little group of World Religions students to the local Hindu Temple for a talk and tour by a member of the Hindu community. The man who had given us our tour the last couple of years was out of the province and a woman I hadn’t met before greeted my students, showed them the temple, and talked for about 45 minutes about what Hindus believe and how they worship.

As we returned to school and over the next day or two as they talked about the visit and handed back their response sheets to me, I noticed the same absolutely predictable formula that I see every time I do one of these visits (I routinely take groups to a Shambhala Buddhist meditation centre, to the synagogue, and to the mosque as well as to the Hindu temple). Because the woman giving the tour was warm and friendly, students came away with a positive impression of Hinduism. I’ve seen this over and over — a friendly, likable presenter leaves students with the impression that theirs is a good religion, tolerant and promoting positive beliefs. If the presenter comes across as dismissive, judgemental, or rude in any way, students come away with a negative impression of the religion. They focus far less on what the religion actually teaches, than on the demeanour and attitude of the person telling them about it.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to me after years of growing up in church and hearing “You are the only Bible some people will ever read,” and “Your life is preaching the Gospel According to You” and similar slogans. But it struck me with extra force after a week when a few eyebrows were raised by a “Christian” billboard (sponsored by Answers in Genesis) appeared among the flashing ads in New York’s Times Square:

I guess that’s OK though, because those same “atheist friends” have long been in the business of winning hearts and minds through billboards themselves:

I wonder how many people have ever looked at a billboard and said, “I’ve been wrong all along! There is (or isn’t) a god!! I must change my entire worldview!!!”

I don’t think billboards are an effective way of changing the way people think, or even the way they view our religion (or lack thereof). And although I would hope that most people who are moving either towards or away from a particular religion give it more thought than my World Religions students give to a one-hour field trip, I do think my students are essentially on the right track. More right than the billboard-makers, at least.

There is simply no more effective “advertisement” for (or against) any religion or belief system, than the lives of the people who practice it.

That’s not to say that a lot of people around me are going to suddenly say, “Trudy seems like a decent person; I should become a Seventh-day Adventist!” It may be as simple as the fact that a well-lived life with genuine kindness and concern for others breaks down barriers. I’ve written before about the fact that the prejudice many Christians have against atheists never had a chance to get a foothold in my mind because of the loving and generous spirit of an atheist family member. The best defense against the belief that “all Muslims are terrorists” is a getting to know a decent, honourable Muslim neighbour or co-worker. And yes, if you’re a Christian, the best advertisement for your Christianity is not the pamphlet you distribute or the billboard you pay for, but the life you live.

This week’s social-media news out of the US has included not only the billboard kerfuffle, but news stories that have made me at the same time proud of one fellow Seventh-day Adventist who holds a high profile in American life, and embarrassed by the views of another high-profile Adventist. And that, along with the visit to the Hindu temple, has made me think a lot about how I represent my faith to those around me. No matter what your belief — or lack of belief — you probably underestimate how much people judge that belief system based on what they see in you. And, of course, in me.

 

Writing Wednesday 52: One Year

It’s been a year since I started this project. To see where I’m going from here, you can watch this week’s video. And add some comments below.

Searching Sabbath 28 (and final!): The New Earth

It’s the end of an era! OK, no, it’s just the end of my series of 28 videos exploring the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I started this because it’s a requirement for the Master Guide certificate (the highest certification for lay youth leadership in the SDA church) that I’m working towards. But I also thought it would be useful for me, as a lifelong Adventist in midlife, to go back and take a closer look at the doctrines of the church to which I belong. I looked forward to (and enjoyed) some discussion with others about these issues as I posted the vlogs and accompanying blog posts here and on Facebook, and it has, indeed, been a valuable experience for me to re-evaluate and explore exactly what it is our church teaches, what I hold dear in those teachings, what I struggle with, and why. Thanks to all those who have joined me on this journey. The journey doesn’t stop, of course — I hope it never does — but the weekly videos will. I’ll still be searching, and I’ll still be observing Sabbaths, but as of now, Searching Sabbath (the video series) is at an end!

Writing Wednesday 51: Q and A

In this week’s Q and A episode I talk a bit about the inspiration to start writing, the fuel to keep going, and … The Ladies of Missalonghi.

Searching Sabbath 27: The Millennium

Second-last vlog in this series. I won’t deny that I’m getting eager for this series to end, not because I haven’t enjoyed doing them (I’ve particularly enjoyed the discussions with people in the comments) but because between this and my Writing Wednesday videos, I’m not getting much non-video blogging done, and I want to get back to doing some more of that. So this week’s vlog focuses on Adventist teaching about the end of time — what happens after the second coming. As always, there’s a lot more here to discuss than can be covered in a short video so I’m hoping to hear from you in the comments.

Writing Wednesday 50: Critiqual Condition

This week, for reasons explained in the video, I didn’t do a Q&A vlog like I intended to. Instead, I got a good critique of my novel, and a cold. And that’s all I have to say for today!

Searching Sabbath 26: Death and Resurrection

There just two more to go in this series on Adventist beliefs and while I’ve enjoyed doing it I’m glad in a way that they’re coming to an end, because I haven’t really had time to do any blogging except the Wednesday and Sabbath videos, and I’d like to get back to more actual writing here on the blog, much as I like doing the videos.

This week we’re on a topic about which I am a very traditional Adventist. I am heartily in agreement with the Biblical nature of our teaching about death and the afterlife — I don’t believe the idea of an immortal soul is Biblical, which does away with the (evil, in my opinion) doctrine of an eternally burning hell. I wrote a column for Adventist Today  a couple of years thing that talked about the odd gaps that occurrences that sometimes make me question this belief — the people who genuinely believe, for example, that they have received a sense that a dead loved one is present with them. Yet in the end I always come down firmly on the side of one of the first “proof texts” I ever learned — “The living know that they shall die, but the dead know now anything” (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

Everything else I have to say on this topic is in the video; everything you have to say can be put in the comments.