A Presbyterian Meme

I was tagged by Aric Clark in an online game for bloggers. The game was started by Bruce Reyes-Chow across the Bay (at least for me!) at Mission Bay Community Church seeking to be elected as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Here's the rules (I received):
The rules are pretty basic In about 25 words each, answer the following five questions; tag five presbyterian bloggers and send them a note to let them know they were tagged; be sure to link or send a trackback to this post;

1. What's your earliest memory of being distinctly Presbyterian?
I grew up in a church know as ______ Baptist-erian Church in our Presbytery. Never knew what that meant until attending a Vineyard Church during the1st Iraq war and hearing the Pastor go off each Sunday about Sadam Hussein as the Antichrist and the end of days coming at any given time in the next week. (This went on - at least for me - for 5 months until I left.) It was then that I began to understand reformed theology and presbyterian structure of democracy all created to combat abuse, patriarchy and twisted preaching.

2. On what issue should the Presbyterian Church spend LESS time and energy?
Sexuality issues. Split already. G-6. I'm so tired of hearing letters and numbers mixed together to avoid talking about real people with real names and real lives. Let those that want to include do so, and those that want to exclude do so. Let us discover in our follow-through what righteousness means for all of us today. BUT - let's leave the door open to get together to dialogue, discern and maybe even rejoin later down the road.

3. On what issue should the Presbyterian Church spend MORE time and energy?
Serving the poor - in action in our increasingly polarized economy between the uber-rich and the urban poor - and in word in our increasingly secularized and bankrupt culture in which the gospel - if articulated in our cultural vernacular is better than Gatorade.

4. If you could have the PC(USA) focus on one passage of scripture for an entire year, what would it be?
"Jesus wept." John 11:35

5. If the PC(USA) were an animal what would it be and why?
No idea on this one. I'd say a chicken (since I raise them). They travel in groups, plagued by fear of being alone, stepping out, risking to go it alone - or to stand out - or to speak out in a definitive way.

EXTRA CREDIT: Jesus shows up at the General Assembly this year, what does he say to the Presbyterian Church (USA)?
- I'd have to go with my favorite quote from the Peter Parker narrative (the other one I base my life upon) - "With great power comes great responsibility!" Then I think Jesus would look at the crowd and say "pull your head out already would you!"

Here's who I tag in the game:
Karl Shadley, Matt Gough, Sarah Reyes, Sharyl Marshall, Matt Edminster, Steve Whitney and Corn Dog.