The Tablet, December 9, 2009

the

tablet

A branch of the WFU School of Divinity Keeping you informed

December 9, 2009

Volume 5, Issue 7

Debbie Collins shares her story By Ben Wright Staff Writer

inside this issue 2 “Ba-Humbug” Alum Steven Fuller shares Christmas message Obama on Santa’s Lap

3 The Div School [Re] Incarnation Celebration

4 Top Ten Bad Choices for the Next Dean

“When I finish, what I want to do is nothing. I don’t want anyone to talk to me about a due date for six months,” said third year Debbie Collins about her post-graduation plans, words that hit home during this time in the semester. She added that she has interests in writing and in grief-related work. Collins, now blind, gradually began losing her eyesight in the fall of 2003. “Losing a function is as much a grief process as losing a person,” said Collins. Debbie’s coming to Wake Div is one filled with what she recalls as “miraculous” circumstances. Growing up a preacher’s kid, Debbie moved around as a child before arriving in Shelby, N.C. She received her Bachelor’s in English at Gardner-Webb where her father was a faculty member. There she met Neal Walls who began her WFUSD journey. Following graduation she had a number of jobs including being a librarian and working with an advocacy agency for people with disabilities. In the summer of 2003, Dr.

Walls informed her about a grant for people with disabilities. The suggestion was for her husband who is legally blind. David was not interested in more schooling. Losing her sight several months later, Debbie remembered the grant and began exploring the Wake Div option. In 2003, she pursued her divinity school desire. “It’s one of those things where once we put that ball in motion, I’m kind of amazed at what fell into place,” said Collins. Debbie and her husband sold their house in a matter of hours. David was able to transfer to the Winston-Salem branch of the Red Cross after discovering the opportunity following a mysterious phone call. She audited Kitty Amos’s “Introduction to Spiritual Life” in January ’06, and became a full-time student the following year. Debbie channels Dickens in response to her time at Wake Div. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” said Collins. In addition to the immense amount of praise she shared about various courses, she also men-

tioned some of the struggles. “I knew I was going to grapple with theology, but I didn’t anticipate that I was going to have the kind of trouble I am having with it,” said Collins. Overall, she is extremely grateful. “Everybody brings such passion and presence and so many varied gifts. People have been so incredibly good to us the whole time, but especially this year,” said Collins, who has not been physically present this semester due to illness. Outside of class Debbie enjoys writing and spending time with people. One of her favorite things is to sit down for a meal and exchange stories with others. Collins said that she continually values what school means during an era when everything has to be so “lock and step.” “We are a bastion of individuality and yet cohesion,” said Collins about Wake Div. While she is ready for the workload to ease, she is not ready to give up WFUSD. “I want to graduate, but I don’t want to leave,” said Collins. Debbie hopes to return to the halls of Wingate soon.

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Ba-Humbug...and waiting: A “Christ-less” Christmas

By Steven Fuller Contributing Writer

I’m only twenty-five years old, and I am already a Scrooge. In fact, my scroogery began several years ago when I let my heart fill with spite directed toward a crappy children’s movie that declared “the real meaning of Christmas.” I get so tired of the blasphemy. I may sound like a fundamentalist preacher here, but there is so much stuff out there that “takes the Christ out of Christmas,” and I’m tired of it. I recognize that Christmas is about 97.5% civic family holiday in our culture, and I don’t mind all of it. In general, I have made peace with the fact that people largely enjoy and celebrate “Christmas” because they’re off work, out of school, and have time to connect warm feelings with happy melodies, fatty cooking, and sentimental moments (despite the familial dysfunction that arises). It makes sense. Even beyond the warm and cuddly things attached to Christmas stands the biological reality that people love babies.

I mean, Easter has much more christological, historical, ecclesiological, and theological significance, but it isn’t nearly as popular because it has no babies. Funerals are significant (the resurrection much more so), but people don’t throw funeral showers. People throw baby showers. We love the very idea of babies and celebrate the protruding abdomen. And then, despite the crying, ugly, and defecating reality that emerges some 40 weeks after conception, we celebrate that event every year for the rest of that baby’s life. Easter’s bloody and disoriented body belongs to an adult male, which is much more difficult to merchandise, although Mel Gibson succeeded to a certain extent. This takes me back to the spited movie. I don’t want to name it because it simply lies in a pile of holiday refuse, but the real thing, the substantial thing that cut me was that they named the “real” meaning of Christmas without mentioning Jesus, God, Sin, Salvation, or anything close to “Christ”-ological. Like the pantheon of Christmas propaganda, the movie equated the “real” meaning of Christmas with “family,” “giving,” “friends,” etc. While these things are nice, and I think Jesus likes them for the most part, these are not the “real meaning of Christmas.” They can be associated with the real meaning of Christmas, but our stories, our Gospel, our hope, our faith, our

love, is not that people will hang out with their families once a year, give away a favorite toy or have a friendly dinner with a bully. Our Gospel demands the world to be changed. That’s a whole lot of families, toys, and bullies. The faith, hope, and love that we preach deny that a nice, Christmas dinner will bring about a happy ending. It demands that the Spirit that conceived a child, drove that child through temptation, trial, persecution, execution, and on to resurrection. That

is the “real” meaning of Christmas, but it means nothing to the majority. It makes sense. Beyond all the preaching, proselytizing, charity, and potluck dinners, have we, the Body of Christ, the fulfillment of the life begun by that baby we celebrate, done anything more than attach some warm feelings to a cold season? While I can be quite a Scrooge, I am quieted by the plank in my eye once again and will wait…I will actively wait in this season of Advent for the Savior I believe in.

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Incarnation Celebration

The Tablet thanks Jenn Fredette for the community photos. Check out Jenn’s Facebook for play-by-play action from the December 4 Incarnation Celebration. Each photo has a corresponding song title or lyric to narrate the action. Thanks, Jenn! Also on Facebook, Tablet Design Editor Christa Chappelle printed a recantation: “Opps! Correction to my last status. I meant Incarnation Celebration not Reincarnation Celebration. I hope this didn’t throw anyone into a theological/christological crisis. =) ”

the

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tablet

a branch of the WFU School of Divinity keeping you informed

Melissa Guthrie-Johnson Editor-in-Chief

Christa Chappelle Design Editor

Charles Smith Copy Editor

Top Ten top 10 Top Ten Bad Ideas for the Next Dean (with contributions from Dr. Atwood) 10. Pope Benedict

Adam Huffman Artwork & Photography Editor

9. Richard Dawkins 8. Miley Cyrus

Barrett Wooten Staff Writer

7. A mug of domestic bug 6. Sarah Palin

Ben Wright Staff Writer

5. Pat Robinson 4. Aerosmith

Brian Layman Staff Writer

Pete Zimmerman Staff Writer The Tablet is a bi-monthly publication of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity and serves as an informative, community-building vehicle. Submissions can be e-mailed to [email protected]. Please include a contact phone number or e-mail address. Submissions must be no longer than 250 words. The right to edit is reserved. Please note that the newsletter content does not represent the views or opinions of the divinity school or all Tablet members.

3. Brad Braxton - because we can’t afford him. 2. A white male Baptist (we’ve already got one) 1. Craig Atwood - because we already make him teach theology and history and run admissions.