notes form my last day at GA

so below are my notes from today. it was an interesting day, with ups and down, static and dynamic periods, monotony and laughter. the numbers simply indicate a timeline, 1 is the beginning of day...

Things I noticed in the afternoon and evening business meeting:
1. this is so much easier to follow when I can follow along online… and on the last day i finally got the website to work on my laptop in the convention center
2. the job of moderator must be very, very tiring
3. i am encouraged by the number of folks I have seen with grey hair who are in support of the LGBT community (signified by rainbow scarves). who says this is a generational difference of opinion
4. i am frustrated by the length of discussion on issues that seem as if the discussion will have no actual impact on the issue at hand. for example, who is going to listen to what the PCUSA says about the war on iraq? maybe folks will, but i am skeptical.
5. on the other hand, the resolution on the war in iraq, overture 11-10, there is a move to take out much of the language that i feel is just (i.e. getting the US permanently out of iraq soon, cleaning up the environmental mess we made, etc.) and true to the gospel, which just waters down what little we are actually saying and what little impact it might have. It does not seem at all radical to me to ask the u.s. government to return the control and revenue from all iraqi oil resources to iraq. and yet, we are not doing that
6. divestment is a much more complicated issue than i was aware of. one of the companies up for divestment is caterpillar. a commissioner made a good point that caterpillar equipment does as much good as damage—cutting fire breaks, rebuilding levees etc. so to divest is to fail to support that good work. and yet, the boycott—and if I understand enough, divestment is basically a boycott—is a tested and effective tool for social change. whereas many of the other resolutions we may make on social issues, divestment may actually have an impact. can you imagine if everyone who wanted significant social change in the middle east withdrew investment from all american companies that perpetuate injustice in that region? oh the change that would be wrought. what to do, what to do?
7. we are not as pacifist as i thought
8. i want to give props to rev. eric ledermann, who reminded us on item 11-33 that we need to actually send these resolutions to those in leadership of our government if these recommendations are to have any effect. he proposed an amendment that passed to require sending the resolution to the president and the congress regarding our opposition to pre-emptive military action against iran.
9. do not reference nuclear power and say we did not use it to destroy anything unless you want to conveniently forget Nagasaki and Hiroshima… where we did in fact drop the bomb. oops. kind of embarrassing… and is that a really a good metaphor for anything that might “destroy” the church?
10. “as Presbyterians, our gift to the world is the matter of covenant…” –rev. carl mazza
11. at the microphone that is up right now, all the people waiting to speak are white men over the age of forty
12. “i was delivered of a spirit of homosexuality.”
13. oh the passion on the floor of the assembly.
14. what does casserole eating have to do with the definition of marriage?
15. “it is time for us to get comfortable being uncomfortable”… an elder
16. i have seen courage today like i have rarely seen. a theological student advisory delegate identified himself as in a loving a same gender relationship on the floor of the general assembly, testifying to his pain and his hope that the church talk and study this honestly… amen.
17. and we are back to the vote that I was sad to miss (to keep or not to keep g 6.0106b… see previous post), but in fact the body is divided over the motion, the body is divided over whether to reconsider, one YAD even called it a “parliamentary stunt”… let’s see how is goes
18. we are not reconsidering… yay!
19. one of the commissioners reminded us to be pastoral and stop calling names… thank you, we needed that