“A Mysterious Gift of God’s Grace:” Sexuality and Ordination in United Methodism

The United Methodist Church (UMC) has officially denounced homosexuality since 1972. The Bishop Melvin E. Wheatley, Jr.’s pioneering work toward LGBTQ inclusion, however, remains significant almost forty years later. Wheatley was the leader of the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference (regional body) of the UMC from 1972–84.[1] After appointing the UMC’s first openly gay pastor in Denver in 1981, Wheatley wrote a letter to his clergy colleagues that explicitly stated his conviction that homosexuality is not a sin, despite the church’s anti-homosexual teachings. In this incendiary statement, Bishop Wheatley challenges the audience’s conceptions of LGBTQ identities and religion by disassociating sexual orientation from the spiritual gifts that make an individual fit for ministry in the UMC. Wheatley’s actions set a precedent of dissent within the UMC, forging a path towards LGBTQ ordination, although the official stance of the church remains exclusionary. [1] Elaine Woo, “Melvin E. Wheatley Dies at 93; Methodist Bishop Caused a Stir by Appointing Gay Pastor,” Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), Mar. 15, 2009

Who Do You Say That I Am?: Race, Iconography, and Jesus in Twenty-First Century America

This paper examines race, iconography, and Jesus imagery in the twenty-first century United States. After examining why iconography and Christology have such a strong effect on viewers of religious imagery, I trace the history of racialized Jesus imagery over time. I then examine two recent popular sources that feature Black Jesuses to see how they might influence belief and practice. These popular sources are the Adult Swim tv show Black Jesus and NBC’s live performance of Jesus Christ Superstar with John Legend playing Jesus in April 2018. Finally, I briefly introduce some other alternative Jesus imagery and situate my essay in the larger discussion of how and why art and iconography influence belief and practice, and why it matters

The Sacred, The Profane, and The Spirit

While we may like to think that they no longer exist in today’s United States, cultural tensions are still overwhelmingly present. One example of such tension in the recent history of the United States is beautifully illustrated in Anne Fadiman’s 1997 book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures.[1] Fadiman tells the true story of a young girl, Lia Lee, diagnosed with epilepsy, and the tensions between her parents’ traditional beliefs and her Western-educated doctors’ ideas about medical care. Though a variety of approaches may be helpful to use in interpreting this text, I found Mircea Eliade’s theories in The Sacred and the Profane especially so.[2] Eliade writes about “two modes of being in the world” (one being “the sacred” and the other “the profane”), and advocates for the merits of maintaining religious practice and belief in a secular world.[3] After introducing Eliade’s work more completely, I will summarize the important ideas brought up by Fadiman. I will then argue that Eliade’s theories provide a helpful framework through which to understand the case presented in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. [1] Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997). [2] Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, trans. Willard Trask (New York: Harcourt, Inc., 1959). [3] Ibid., 14

Response Adaptive Design using Auxiliary and Primary Outcomes

Response adaptive designs intend to allocate more patients to better treatments without undermining the validity and the integrity of the trial. The immediacy of the primary response (e.g. deaths, remission) determines the efficiency of the response adaptive design, which often requires outcomes to be quickly or immediately observed. This presents difficulties for survival studies, which may require long durations to observe the primary endpoint. Therefore, we introduce auxiliary endpoints to assist the adaptation with the primary endpoint, where an auxiliary endpoint is generally defined as any measurement that is positively associated with the primary endpoint. Our proposed design (referred to as bivariate adaptive design) is based on the classical response adaptive design framework. The connection of auxiliary and primary endpoints is established through Bayesian method. We extend parameter space from one dimension to two dimensions, say primary and auxiliary efficacies, by implementing a conditional weigh function on the loss function of the design. The allocation ratio is updated at each stage by optimization of the loss function subject to the information provided for both the auxiliary and primary outcomes. We demonstrate several methods of joint modeling the auxiliary and primary outcomes. Through simulation studies, we show that the bivariate adaptive design is more effective in assigning patients to better treatments as compared with univariate optimal and balanced designs. As hoped, this joint-approach also reduces the expected number of patient failures and preserves the comparable power as compared with other designs

Effects of lasalocid on coccidial infection and growth in young dairy calves

Effects of lasalocid on coccidial infection and growth were examined using 16 Holstein bull calves. Animals were assigned randomly to a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of starter containing 0 or 40 ppm lasalocid beginning at 3 d of age (SE = .46) and single oral infection with 0 or 30,000 oocysts (Eimeria bovis) at 28 d. Pelleted calf starter was fed for ad libitum consumption from d 1; milk replacer was fed at 3.6 kg/d to 28 d. Average daily gain, dry matter intake, and body weight were increased in calves fed lasalocid and decreased in calves dosed with coccidia. Addition of lasalocid to the feed improved gains by 8% in uninfected calves and by 50% in infected calves. Fecal oocyst numbers were increased by administration of coccidia and decreased by lasalocid. Calves infected with coccidia had greater fecal scores, indicating abnormal or diarrheic feces. Respiration, rectal temperature, hematocrit and serum sodium and potassium concentrations were unaffected by treatment. Data indicated that lasalocid minimized effects of coccidial challenge and increased growth in this study

A pilot field evaluation on heat stress in sugarcane workers in Costa Rica: What to do next?

BACKGROUND: Climate change is producing major impacts including increasing temperatures in tropical countries, like Costa Rica, where the sugarcane industry employs thousands of workers who are exposed to extreme heat. OBJECTIVES: This article outlines a pilot qualitative evaluation of working conditions and heat in the sugarcane industry. DESIGN: A literature review, direct observations and exploratory interviews with workers were conducted to reach a preliminary understanding of the dimensions of heat-related health issues in the sugarcane industry, as a basis for the design of future studies. RESULTS: The industry employs temporary workers from Nicaragua and Costa Rica as well as year-round employees. Temporary employees work 12-hour shifts during the harvest and processing ('zafra') season. In many cases, sugarcane field workers are required to carry their own water and often have no access to shade. Sugar mill workers are exposed to different levels of heat stress depending upon their job tasks, with the most intense heat and workload experienced by the oven ('caldera') cleaners. CONCLUSIONS: Research is needed to achieve better understanding of the multiple factors driving and interacting with heat exposures in the sugarcane industry in order to improve the health and safety of workers while maintaining worker productivity