Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Hi.

OK, so, like, you know I’m dirkster42.  I’ve been here maybe a day or two, and I’m liking it here.

I’m another one of the people who supported the boycott over at DK.  Not sure if I’ll drift back on Monday, but enough about that.

So, who is this “dirkster42?” you ask.  OK, maybe you didn’t ask, too bad.  I will tell you anyway.

I completed a doctorate in theology a little over a year ago.  (No regrets, but the debt is terrifying.)  If doctorates in theology are vaguely interesting to you, I gave a talk a few years back at the American Musicological Society about what I was doing that they put on their website, Queer Musicology in the Work of Constructive Theology.  (Please note copyright.)

I was a not-quite-red diaper baby; my mom took me to my first protest when I was in fourth grade.  In college, I got involved with CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador), and then with the Free Puerto Rico! Committee.  Both groups had similar ideologies; the first group was functional, the second was not.  I honestly can not remember much about what I learned about Puerto Rico from my experience of working with them.

I burned out on activism by the end of college, and spent the 90s delving into seventeenth-century music and culture, barely registering the most basic news items of the day.

The Nader campaign sparked a renewed interest in politics.  MoveOn and AlterNet were my main connection to politics in the early 00s, though eventually the level of hostility to religion on AlterNet turned me off to that forum.  My aunt introduced me to Air America radio, and I think I found Daily Kos that way.  I was a regular on Street Prophets for a couple of years, ended up leaving due to homophobic nonsense being tolerated, and spent the last few years participating on Daily Kos, until well…  

I’m in a phase where I’m trying to reconnect to the level of vitality I felt with music I used to.  Most recently, I revisited Dvorak’s “From the New World” symphony, which I hadn’t listened to all the way through in years.  I’m also fond of two albums by the Scottish band Idlewild.


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 100 Comments

100 comments

  1. Peter Jukes

    I’ve already both been entertained and educated by your comments. But you’ll find quite a handful of people here interested in both your music, AND your interest in theology. No hard core evangelicals here. But also no anti-religious zealotry either. The Moose seems so suit people who doubt.

    I’ll quote one of my own fictional creations here, the Birmingham Police Chaplain who’s lost his faith, Jake Thorne (played by famous Brit comedian/actor Lenny Henry)

    I’d be a hardline atheist, if I didn’t doubt my own doubt

    This is from the second series of Bad Faith, about to be aired on BBC Radio 4 in the next few months. I’ll provide links to the first series on request.

    But from all of the above, I can see you’re going to go down a storm on the Moose.  

  2. sricki

    An excellent introduction 😉

    And if I have not greeted you personally yet (I’ve managed to miss most new people, I’m sure), welcome to the Moose!

  3. Moozmuse

    I just joined yesterday as one of the self-exiles from BOS, the water’s just fine. Glad you agree and as an aside, I’m a Sufi, so I’m sure we could go off in a corner and quietly discuss our respective beliefs some time.

    Cheers.

  5. left rev

    and coveting your doctorate in theology. I made the choice to go into parish ministry, thinking I could indulge my academic aspirations at a later time. Uffda. I barely get the time and opportunity to do continuing ed seminars. And now I’ve got kids looking at college, so I have to put it on the back burner again to simmer.

    Someday, that Doctorate in New Testament Studies with a concentration on synoptic eschatology will be mine! All mine!!! MWAAHAAHAA.

    I remember you well from GOS and Street Prophets, dirkster. Good to see you.

    Now. Can anyone tell a new account holder how to change her password from that random string of fail to something I can remember?

  6. Adept2u

    Yee Haw!  Welcome to the moose!  It’s funny if I had found this place so long ago I would have hung out here!  You are just going to love it.

    This leads my sky watching music list.  The intersection of how music colors my thoughts is interesting.  I always have a sound track going in my head.

  7. Stipes

    It’s wonderful to have you here!

    I really like the fact that you have a background in theology, since I’m very interested in the intersections between religion and science.

    Cheers!

    -Stipes

  8. Chris Blask

    We already have Christianity and Islam represented, I will take a seat in the post-Christian non-theist section.

    I don’t begin to have time to comment worth beans on this topic, though I may just post links to some recent threading on memetics and all that implies.

    Theology is a fascinating topic, I eschew the common wisdom which warns against talking about it.

    Since this is a light and fluffy comment I will stick with the surface. Christianty’s social demonstrations (like the grand pageantry of a Catholic High Mass, or the music of Gospel Evangelicalism) are what I am more intimately familiar with. A good Muslim friend several years ago spent many hours familiarizing me with much of that in Islam, though I just don’t have a similar base of exposure. My knowledge of Sufi ritual, for example, is still mostly limited to Romancing the Stone (and if the ululation is not accurate, please don’t tell me ;~).

    Look forward to discussing all this with you and the interested parties.  

  9. John Allen

    all I can say is, “Oh,boy. Putty tat has a new toy to smack around.”

    /snark

    Actually, I look forward to some intelligent discussions on the subject. I am not a theologian, but I’ve spent half a century observing, reading, and conversing about religion and faith with many theologians including priests, rabbis, reverends, and other religious leaders from many different faiths. The most fascinating discussions have been with two friends, one of whom is no longer with us, who became Jesuits.  

  11. Thoughtful in MA

    Glad to see you here.  I just joined myself a day or two ago.  I like this place too.

    For those of you who don’t know, I’m a parish minister in the UCC (United Church of Christ).  Working on a doctorate myself right now after quite a few years in parish ministry and chaplaincy.  

    I like to check in with dirkster every once in a while to make sure that one can actually survive in a doctoral program in theology (liturgy in my case) 🙂

  13. AaronInSanDiego

    the fact that I am a pretty strong atheist. I grew up with religion (Judaism) and I still have a connection to it.

  15. TrueBlueMajority

    while trying to recommend.

    Sorry.

    still learning my way around here, but I am enjoying wearing the purple and being a New Moose

  17. mahakali overdrive

    I have a short list of people who enrich my online experience, each in different ways. You know that you’re one of them. I love talking to you and feel you have a lot to share about theological philosophy in particular (points of great interest to me, as you know, having grown up in ashrams with very religious Hin-Jew hybrid parents).

    And your love of Literature.  

    That and you rock.

    How did I miss your diary?

    Fixing that!

  18. wader

    blog entry.

    Diary?  Story?  eh.

    My boycott ends at 12:01 AM ET, when I Recommend the Overnight News Digest.  More sensitive to the deep divisiveness that is occurring, beyond socio-political differences, and hopefully more open to hearing the calls for stamping out what has not always been as obvious to me as it should have been.  Learning new perspectives can be good.

    I tend to find those who study theology to be rather open-minded thinkers and conversationalists, even though hard opinions abound on major interpretations at times.

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