Betwixt City and Suburb

Carol Howard Merritt wrote a great piece addressing shifts in religious culture.  You can read the entire article at The Alban Institute's site.  I particularly resonated with this section:

I cannot remember a time when the church was the hub of society and life. I was born in the 1970s, part of Generation X. I never lived in a church-centered world. When older members of my congregation tell me about it, I can imagine what it might have been like, just as I can envision a time when people went to church three times a week. But I have never lived in that reality. I’ve always been in a culture where church was a place my friends visited on Christmas Eve—and now even that tradition is beginning to fade. I grew up in the midst of church news filled with clergy affairs, prostitution, and pedophilia. Throughout most of my ministry, I have worked in the shadow of these dark wounds of Christianity, laboring in a world in which the church is renowned for its sex scandals and conservative politics, a world in which people proclaim, “Religion poisons everything.” 

This is the culture I know. And this, strangely, is the place I feel most comfortable. It is not that I am happy about our current circumstances but simply that I have not experienced anything else. When I introduce myself as a pastor at parties or neighborhood gatherings, I encounter little awe or respect. Instead, I am met with a ravenous curiosity, as if people did not even realize it was still possible to make that career choice.

Much of her focus is placed on the ethos of urban (shrinking, established) and suburban (growing, young) contexts.  She describes Millennial culture as wanting "meaningful worship, an empowered lay leadership, and a spirituality that leads to action...the very things that many denominational churches have been cultivating for decades."  As one who serves a church in the great in between - neither near the urban center or on the outskirts of town - I wonder what the future holds.  We don't have the allure of a revitalized downtown that's close to businesses, concert halls, sports arenas, and funky loft apartments.  On the other hand, our neighborhood is land-locked and removed from the shiny new schools, homes, and shopping campuses that still attract young families en masse.

If nothing else, Merritt's excellent article is a reminder that we are called to be better connected to the people around us and discern how God is calling us to act relationally with the people in our neighborhood.  

What creative and redeeming work is God doing through your faith community?

LIFTing with LYO

Some people have been critical of the lack of youth and young adults on the ELCA's LIFT Task Force...a group that is studying the "eco-system" of the church and making recommendations for the future.  Though it's frustrating being the youngest member of the task force, I'm grateful that, in many ways, the real work of the LIFT initiative doesn't take place in board rooms and conference calls.  It occurs throughout the entire eco-system; in congregations, homes, synod groups, colleges, camps, etc.  We all bear responsibility for discerning what God is calling us to be and do in the future.

I've enjoyed several opportunities in the last few months to be about this kind of conversations.  The most recent of these conversations took place at the NE Iowa Synod Lutheran Youth Organization Assembly in Mason City, IA.  This event is near and dear to my heart, as it was the site of the first assembly I attended as a member of the synod LYO board 16 years earlier.

For my part, the pieces I used to talk about the LIFT Task Force were similar to the ones incorporated at the Oregon LYO Assembly.  One of my favorite exercises is, after an Acts 2 Bible study, to ask small groups of kids to make three lists.

1. Essential elements of a 21st century church
2. Helpful, but not essential, elements
3. Elements that are neither helpful nor essential

Here are some of the themes that emerged from the "essential ~ helpful ~ neither" activity.

• God's Word and faithful people are required to "be church"; but a church building isn't.
• Leaders were considered essential; Pastors were considered helpful.
• Sacraments are central to a faith community.
• Money, music, food, and programs are helpful in proclaiming the gospel, but not essential.
• Several groups lifted up the importance of acts of service and outreach.
• Technology was considered helpful, but the overuse or idolization technology is not.
• Robes, fancy clothes, and sermon notes were popular items on the neither list.

It was a joy to be with these young people and their adult leaders.  They had lots of fun talking, learning, swimming, singing, dancing, and playing together.  I remain pleased and grateful that so many young people have a deep and genuine care for the future of our church.  I pray that we continue to make room for their voices to be heard in our congregations, synods, and throughout the whole church.

Christian Worship in our Local Places

Below are my notes from a presentation made by LSTC professor Dr. Benjamin Stewart at the SE Iowa Synod event, Called Together in Mission.

Deep Roots: Christian Worship in our Local Places

Christian worship has always had a theological emphasis on the LOCAL

Road to Emmaus --  the first post-crucifixion worship service.

• The disciples had “no words” – they just stood there looking sad
• Jesus draws the disciples into the conversation
• Luke tells the story in a way that describes God coming to us in our local places
• Gathering ~ engagement on the road
• Word ~ interprets the Scriptures, beginning with Moses
• Meal ~ breaking bread in the house
• Sending ~ disciples run to tell others
• Scholars debate where/if Emmaus exists
• Perhaps it’s not to suppose if Emmaus is anywhere, but that Emmaus is everywhere – our local contexts

The First Pentecost

• People come from all kinds of local contexts, bringing their cultures, traditions, and languages with them
• Christian worship is both local and “more than local” (global)

“Theology is like underwear, you usually want to have it on, but you don’t go around showing it to everybody.”

Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture – Lutheran World Federation, January 1996

• Transcultural – sacraments, proclamation of the Word
• Contextual – musical settings, kinds of bread/wine
• Cross-cultural – Iowans doing Taize worship
• Countercultural – welcoming the stranger, ritual equality

Three Locales – transcultural elements that take root in contextual ways

• Communion Table
• A local table, not a distant altar
• Available to all people each week
• Food pantry donations included at the “setting of the communion table”
• Sarah Miles -- communion table at the center of their free farmers market / food pantry
• Baptismal Font
• Whoever is to be baptized should be put in and sunk completely into the water and then drawn out again.  For baptism signifies that the old humanity and the sinful birth of flesh and blood are to be wholly drowned by the grace of God.  We should therefore do justice to its meaning and make baptism a true and complete sign of the thing it signifies.  ~ Luther
• The power of water to give life and destroy life calls us into an honest understanding of what happens in baptism
• Bring a connection between the local water places and the baptismal font
• ELW -- Thanksgiving at the Font, prayer D, p. 71 (name local bodies of water)

• Earth
• “Death is the completion of our baptism” ~ Luther
• Care for the Body
• Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love
• Undertaken With Love (free download)
• How was Jesus’ body honored and cared for after he died?
• Washing the body as a symbolic event
• Burial Vessels
• Coffins made from local materials
• Trappist Caskets – New Melleray Abbey, Iowa
• Committal to the Earth
• “We don’t bury our dead” – we leave the coffin suspended above the hole
• Burying people in natural settings as a way to preserve local ecologies
• No coffins, no burial vaults
• Images of bodies placed in a hole in the ground in the woods, refilling the dirt in the hole, and planting new seedlings
• Green Burial Council

Themes for Cultivating Local Roots in Worship

1. Tend to the locales within your worship space
2. Expect company (does your posture as a worship leader convey expectancy of visitors)
3. Local neighbors are our teachers
4. Mother nature is your interior decorator (local seasons connect with liturgical seasons)
5. Let local leaders lead
6. Worship in a space you can (mostly) fill
7. Prayers of intercession: deep and wide
8. Bless the (local) holy ground, on the local calendar (blessing backpacks, healthcare workers, etc.)
9. Physically bury your dead
10. Liturgy wider than your walls (bless bikes, local gardens, baptisms in local rivers/lakes)
11. Go in Peace. Serve the Lord (literally…right away)

Worship isn’t window-dressing, it’s central, authentic expression of who we are as the local gathering.

God wants to flood the world with mercy as an extension of our worship.

* * * * * 

We followed up with small-group study of Psalm 104.  One cool thing that was mentioned during the discussion is a young man named Greg Pregracke who is doing amazing work on cleaning up the Mississippi River.

A New Light [God In America]

A New Light is episode 4 from the six-part God In America series which originally aired on PBS in October 2010.  These are notes I made while watching this episode.

With the nation so focused on the war over slavery, many didn’t realize the waves of Jewish and Catholic immigrants that were starting to change the American religious landscape.

Between 1820-1860, more than 5 million immigrants arrived on the eastern shores of the USA.

The big fear among the Jewish community is that the religious freedom in the US would cause Jews to “go soft”; forgetting their God and their faith.

1846 – Isaac Mayer Wise (German Jewish Rabbi) arrived in Albany, NY.  His congregation was one of 40 synagogues in the entire country.  They were a strict, traditional Jewish community.  Wise felt that if American Jews kept the core laws (honoring God, loving humankind, keeping the Sabbath) that other laws were negotiable.  “Wise saw reform as a way to preserve Judaism.”

Wise formed a coed choir, taught in English and German, and modified ancient rituals to make them more accessible for Americans.  Some felt that he had watered-down Judaism.  He was fired the day before Rosh Hashanah – but he showed up to preach/teach anyway.  The president of the congregation punched him and a fight broke out. 

Fundamental question -- “Who’s in charge of the congregation: the congregants or the Rabbi?”

He left the congregation and started his own “house church”.  Wise traveled the East Coast, preaching, teaching, and raising money.  He took his message of radical reform with him.  Wise felt that the only way for Judaism to survive was to unite under reformed practices.  He formed new congregations and a Hebrew school.

Jewish immigrants kept arriving, most of them more conservative / traditional in their doctrine and practices.  These groups grew stronger and tried to “take back” European Judaism.  They believed the laws in the Torah were absolute and unchanging – with no room for interpretation or negotiation.  Despite their protestations, by 1880, 90% of America’s synagogues had adopted “Reform Judaism”. 

1883 – Wise presided over the first graduating class of his rabbinic school, his proudest accomplishment.  Afterwards, he hosted a dinner with 200 of the most distinguished Jewish leaders from across the country.  The menu violated several Biblical laws, including clams (shellfish), shrimp salad (shellfish), beef in a cream sauce (milk & meat products together), lobster bisque, etc.  Many of those in attendance saw this as a slap in the face of traditional Jewish beliefs.  Wise refused to apologize.  His attempt at unifying American Judaism had failed.

Money Quote:  “There’s something about the American context that seems to encourage particular expressions of the faith rather than any one unified expression of the faith.”  ~ Rev. Randall Balmer

Every religious group had to struggle with similar issues – do we accept/embrace modernity or cling to the old expressions and traditions.

*                  *                  *                  *                  *

Charles Augustus Briggs (American Presbyterian minister) traveled to Berlin to engage the scientific debate, most specifically, Charles Darwin’s recent publication Theory of Evolution.  The emergence of rational thought challenged the church’s literalist perspectives.

It became permissible to question Biblical inconsistencies…

·       How could Moses have written the first five books of the Bible if it describes things that took place after his death?

·       Why are there two creation stories in Genesis?

·       If David wrote the Psalms, how could he have used words that didn’t exist while he was alive?

Briggs tried to look beyond literal inconsistencies and find larger themes in Scripture.

·       If Jonah wasn’t swallowed by a whale, what did God mean to teach through this story?

Briggs soon believed that the Bible and scientific reason could “illumine each other.”  In fact, he asserted, science can actually bring a Christian closer to the Truth/truth.  “The Bible is lit up with a new light”  ~ Briggs

January 1891 – Briggs decided to share his “new ideas” with people at Union Theological Seminary.  Among these ideas was that the Bible, like all things, had evolved and changed over time, and that the Bible had to be scrutinized and analyzed.  Only his students liked it – everyone else sat in silence.  The Presbyterian Church charged him with heresy.  They held many public trials spanning two years.  Briggs was suspended indefinitely.

This started a national debate among American Protestants: Is the Bible “divinely inspired yet imperfect” or “God’s literal, perfect Word”?  In other words, can “reason” be applied to a view of Scripture?

William Jennings Bryan (congressman from Nebraska) led the charge to preserve the traditional view of Scripture, and wanted to see the Bible return to the center of American society.

(In the meantime, religiously diverse immigrants continued to pour into the United States – over 10 million between 1880-1900.  By the turn of the century, 1 in 8 Americans lived in poverty.)

1896 – Bryan became the Democratic Party’s candidate for President.  He was the champion of the poor, oppressed, small-town, farmer, etc.  He lost the election, but continued to travel the country speaking (preaching?) to massive crowds.  Bryan was a throwback Evangelical Protestant, beloved by people who lamented the sad state of American life.

*                  *                  *                  *                 

1914 – World War I.  Many believed the forces of Modernity were to blame for the catastrophic loss of life brought on by human ingenuity. 

Traditional Protestants saw WWI as a warning from God that Christians had strayed from God’s perfect plan (a literal reading of the Bible).  A new group was formed – Fundamentalists.  William Jennings Bryan became the spokesperson for the Fundamentalists. 

The greatest challenge to the cause of Fundamentalists was Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.  They launched a national campaign to remove the teaching of Evolution in all American schools. 

July 1925 –  "The Trial of the Century” came to the small town of Dayton, TN.  Local biology teacher, John Scopes, defied the state law banning Evolution teaching in his classroom.  Chicago lawyer, Clarence Darrow, defended Scopes; Bryan was the lead attorney for the prosecution. 

“Science is something liberal Christians can embrace, because it shows how brilliant God was and how amazing the world God made is.  They’re not threatened by Darwin.”

The trial became known as “The Monkey Trial”.  It was broadcast nationally on WGN radio. 

“Who has authority?  Is it God / the Bible?  Or is it reason / science?”

Darrow wanted to put many liberal Christians on the stand to articulate that the application of reason / science was compatible with a faithful interpretation of Scripture.  The judge didn’t allow these experts to take the stand.  So he puts Bryan on the stand as the Biblical expert.

Darrow was able to get Bryan to admit that he didn’t think “a day” in Genesis necessarily meant a “24 hour day.”  He also indicated that creation “may have been going on for millions of years.”  The judge adjourned immediately.  The next day, the judge erased Bryan’s testimony from the record.  Scopes was found guilty. 

But in the court of public opinion, Darrow and the age of reason were the winners.

The next week, Bryan died in his sleep.  The Fundamentalists lost their national spokesman.

The divide was no longer between Jews / Catholics / Protestants…but between Fundamentalists (conservatives) and Modernists (liberals).

A Nation Reborn [God In America]

A Nation Reborn is episode 3 from the six-part God In America series which originally aired on PBS in October 2010.  These are notes I made while watching this episode.


In the 19^th century, most people believed that God had a special purpose for America; but there was disagreement about what God wanted.  This came to a boiling point around the issue of slavery.  Ironically, Abraham Lincoln was President during this time. 

“What is the will of God in this crisis?”

1844 – Methodists were the largest religious group in the country.  Bishop James Osgood Andrew was on his way to New York for their national assembly; worried about infighting among Methodist pastors and congregations about slavery.  Abolitionists believed that clergy should speak out against the “sin” of slavery, in the same way they were outspoken about other sins.

One of leading Abolitionists was Frederick Douglass, a former slave that had fled to the North.  He saw Christianity as liberating – both spiritually and physically.  He believed that the Christian church was “in bed” with slave owners. 

Bishop Andrew was a slave owner and was brought into question at the assembly in New York.  There was much proof-texting regarding the subject of slavery.  People “for” slavery cited examples in scripture where slave owners were among God’s chosen people (and, therefore, were bound for heaven).  People “against” slavery could not point to any text which indicated slave ownership as incompatible with a Christian lifestyle.

The northern clergy voted to remove Andrew; the southern clergy wanted him to remain.  The North prevailed, and the South broke away and formed the Methodist Episcipal Church South.  Other Protestant denominations splintered as well.

Enter religious skeptic, President Abraham Lincoln.

“He had a deep and abiding suspicion of, and hostility to, that notion that there’s no possibility that I’m wrong.  I’m absolutely right and, therefore, righteous.”  (When his family joined a Baptist church, 14-year old Abe refused.)

Spring 1861 – seven southern states seceded from the Union.  “Lincoln believed that Democracy should trump self-righteous religious conviction.”  Southern leaders drafted a Constitution that, unlike the United States Constitution, “invoked the favor and guidance of Almighty God.”  It wasn’t just a war about slavery; it was a religious war.  Southerners felt that God was on their side…and that their cause was God’s cause.  Nothing less than eternal salvation was at stake.

“For Frederick Douglass, the war was proof that God condemned America for the sin of slavery.”  This notion was embodied in the new Christian hymn, The Battle Hymn of the Republic.  (“As he died to make men holy / Let us die to make men free.”)

As the war played out, and casualties mounted, both sides had to wrestle with the idea that God wasn’t choosing sides.  “Good and bad” people were dying.

1862 – Lincoln’s 3^rd son, Willie, died of typhoid fever.  The words delivered by a Presbyterian minister at the funeral (God is both mysterious and comforting) provided a real religious turning point for Lincoln.  He began to reexamine his relationship with God.  Lincoln begins to write out his own feelings regarding God’s will and role in the war.  “Out of this affliction, what good can come?  If God is doing something new, what could it be?”

September 1862 – after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln felt this was a “sign” that he make a declarative statement abolishing slavery in the Confederate states. 

“God has decided this question in favor of the slaves.”  ~ Abraham Lincoln

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation into law, freeing slaves in the rebel states.

This was, for slaves, the “coming of the Lord.”  Southern slave owners ignored this new law.

As the war continued, Lincoln asked people who were suffering losses to think of their sacrifices as not unlike Christ’s sacrifice.  “This redemptive bloodshed is like Christ’s redemptive bloodshed.  It will lead to a new birth of freedom for all people.”  The war will redefine human freedom – and the North must win.

Lincoln found solace in the Book of Job – a righteous man who endured great suffering. 

The North won the Civil War in 1865.  Many in the North felt that the victory was a vindication and justification that God was on their side.  Lincoln, however, did not share their sense of joy.  At his 2^nd Inaugural, Lincoln asserts that the war was God’s punishment for 250 years of slavery.  This was no cause for celebration. 

About halfway through his speech, African-Americans began to chant “Bless the Lord” after every sentence.  Prior to that moment, the crowd was silent.

Lincoln was shot on Good Friday, six weeks after his Inaugural Address.  Religious leaders saw Lincoln’s death as an “atonement” – an offering to God as the last casualty of the Civil War.  He bore the sins of a nation with his death.

“Jesus Christ died for the world; Abraham Lincoln died for his country.”

“It may be the blood of our beloved martyred president will be the salvation of the country.  Though Abraham Lincoln dies, the republic lives.”  ~ Frederick Douglass

A New Eden [God In America]

A New Eden is episode 2 from the six-part God In America series which originally aired on PBS in October 2010.  These are notes I made while watching this episode.




“Who are we as Americans?”

1773 – Jeremiah Moore (Baptist from VA) was put in jail for “preaching without a license.”  Virginian Baptists were “evangelical Christians” who believed that people must have a personal encounter with God/Jesus in order to be saved.  You had to “testify persuasively that you have been converted” and be baptized as an adult. 

The elite, ruling class in VA were Anglicans.  Everyone paid taxes that went to maintaining their local Anglican parish.  Baptists were receiving converts from disenfranchised Anglicans that felt under/misrepresented.  Therefore, laws were enacted to limit when/where non-Anglicans could preach.

The more Baptist ministers were punished, the more popular their cause became. 

The man who advocated for the Baptists in the court was Thomas Jefferson; just a few weeks on the heels drafting the Declaration of Independence.  Jefferson was “spiritual-but-not-religious” – he created his own version of the gospels by literally cutting out the sections he didn’t like (miracles, healings, etc.).  Jefferson and the Baptists made strange bedfellows; disagreeing theologically but agreeing philosophically in the freedom of religion.

“Their idea, which is radical at the time, is you disestablish the church.  You allow every religious sect and denomination to compete in the marketplace of ideas.”    ~ Daniel Dreisbach

Jefferson wrote a bill, calling for the end of government-supported religious institutions and allowing for the freedom of religion.  Many disagreed, including fellow revolutionary, Patrick Henry, who wrote a bill that would use state funds to keep all approved denominations in the black.  Jefferson’s bill prevailed.

When the Constitution was presented in 1787, however, no mention of religious freedom was mentioned in any of the seven articles.  Jefferson wrote a guarantee of individual rights, what we now know as the Bill of Rights.

“With no national church, religion would not be guaranteed a place at the center of public life.  No other nation had ever taken such a step.”

*                   *                  *                  *                  *

By the turn of the century, 200 wagons each day were setting out for the West.  The great religious marketplace would unfold on the American frontier. 

1801 - James Finley went to a “revival” in Cain Ridge, KY…skeptical of this kind of religious expression.  Ministers feared a spiritual crisis in America – fewer people were going to church than before the Revolutionary War.  The religious freedom experiment was failing.  When he got to Cain Ridge, Finley saw 20,000+ people gathered in the wilderness; singing, shrieking, laughing, crying, and being slain by the Spirit.  Finley has a conversion experience, despite his boasts that there would be no such transformation.

For the next 20 years, revivals / camp meetings exploded across the country.

By 1811, over 1 million Americans were attending at least one religious revival a year.  New denominations (and leaders) sprung up in every community.  Methodism grew faster and stronger than any other denomination – it’s a “religion of the heart”, which appealed to the sensibilities of early 19^th century Americans.

James Finley became a Methodist minister and was influential in many socio-religious changes.  His popularity rose form his work as a traveling preacher (itinerant) in the frontier.  (Known as “Circuit Riders”)  People liked these itinerants because they had an everyman quality.

The Circuit Riders didn’t just bring religion, they brought educational infrastructure.

By 1850, more Americans were going to church than ever before…and 2/3 of churchgoers were evangelical protestants.  With this surge in these evangelical expressions of faith came the desire to “Christianize” American society…“make it look more like the kingdom of God”.

Evangelical Christianity was no longer about a personal experience, but about a pervasive Christian culture.  Schools, hospitals, abolition, women’s rights, prisons, orphanages – all were started by evangelical Christians in the mid-1800s.  Evangelical Protestants established the infrastructure that America needed. 

As America grew, it drew hundreds of thousands of European immigrants to the new world.  Most of the immigrants were Irish Catholics – the religion that American Protestants had been resisting for the last 300 years.  Irish Catholicism became a threat to Protestant America.

“They are perceived as alien…as not us.”

By 1840, 25% of New Yorkers were Catholic.  Hostility grew.  Riots raged in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York.

John Hughes (the most outspoken American Catholic Bishop) tried to make Americans “accept that their new Eden had to include Catholics.”  He called the country to live up to the religious freedoms promised in the Constitution.

Hughes felt that the (NYPSS) New York Public School Society (founded by Quakers) were promoting anti-Catholic rhetoric…that they were, in essence, state-sponsored Protestant schools.  (Sang Protestant hymns, most teachers were current or retired ministers, Protestant Bible study etc.)  This became the major issue that inspired him.

“One of the main purposes of the public schools was to create moral citizens…and the only way to create a moral citizen was to give them religion…and the only legitimate religion was Christianity…and the only way to inculcate Christianity was the Bible.”  ~ Stephen Prothero

Hughes petitioned the NY City Council, demanding that if public schools were teaching Protestantism, then Catholics should be given money to set up their own schools.  He is making an American, religious liberty case for school funding; the same case that evangelical Protestants used to establish their own majority.  In the end, John Hughes lost the vote 15-1.  The Protestant establishment thought this was the end of the matter..  Hughes responded by raising tons of money to start parochial schools.  Additionally, Hughes told Catholics how to vote in upcoming elections so he could, eventually, sway the political process in his favor.

The Protestant establishment got angry, but to no avail.  All but 3 of Hughes’ candidates won.  In April 1842, a bill was passed which ended religious instruction in public schools.  Religious liberty prevailed.

Wrestling With Bound Conscience

The State of Iowa High School Wrestling tournament is being held this week in Des Moines.  Most of the pre-tournament buzz around town was that two girls had qualified for the 112-pound weight class.  It is the first time a female competitor had made the tournament.  This quickly became national sports news when one of the girls' first round opponents defaulted from their match today, citing personal and religious convictions.

From CBS Sports:

...in a brief statement issued through his school, (Joel) Northrup said he defaulted on his match with Cassy Herkelman because he doesn't think boys and girls should compete in the sport. 

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan (Black) and their accomplishments. However, wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times," said Northrup. "As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa."

The Iowa High School Athletic Association permits opposite-gender student-athletes to compete in a sport which offers no same-gender option.  (For example, girls can compete in boys wrestling and football, but not in basketball or track.)

This is a fascinating story involving the bound conscience of a young man who doesn't think it's "right" for boys and girls to be engaged in such an intimate and violent sport.  My inclination is to respect Northrup's decision, if for no other reason than because he defaulted honorably.  He didn't whine or complain.  He didn't besmirch the two female wrestlers' accomplishments or say anything pejorative about the presence of girls in a boys sport.  Furthermore, there seems to be mutual admiration between the Northrup and Herkelman families, even though they both wish it would have played out differently.  

It is possible that Northrup and Herkelman could face each other in the consolation round.  In the meantime, there will be no shortage of commentary on this complex issue.  This pushes all of my topical buttons - sports, religion, young people (not to mention that Herkelman is from my hometown of Cedar Falls) - and I, for one, can't wait to see how it all unfolds.