The Happiest Places in Americahttp://lenedge.blogspot.com/

I stumbled upon an article in the AARP magazine entitled, 5 happiest cities in America.  There were some surprises: Boulder, CO; San Jose, CA; Seattle, WA; Madison, WI: and Honolulu, HI. The result was based on a Gallup Survey of the cities’ residents. So, it reveals the perception of the residents that were surveyed.  Certainly, if you perceive or believe that you are happy, then you are. The article stated that the

Gallup survey suggests that, with a few exceptions, the happiest residents dwell in midsize cities — that is, big enough to avoid boredom, yet small enough to feel like a real community (and actually find parking when you need it). Here's a sampling of the happiest cities in America, where overall well-being is the overriding vibe.

In trying to understand the results, I researched several characteristics of the cities – their geographic location, weather patterns, and other physical characteristics – that may contribute to the likability of a particular location. Madison is a northern US city with very cold, and sometimes, long winters.  The average monthly temperatures range from 10oF during the winter to a high of 83oF during the summer.

Honolulu is on a tropical island paradise with average monthly temperatures ranging from 65oF to 88oF. Pleasant year-round temperatures, with tropical beaches, flora and fauna provide a relaxing lifestyle for its residents, and one envied by many mainlanders.  Boulder, Colorado is slightly cooler than Wisconsin in the summers as well as having slightly warmer winter temperatures.  Interestingly, Boulder is 5,344 feet above sea level which makes for thinner air, and surrounding mountain ridges and canyons that facilitate lots of winter sports as a result of its heavy snowfall.  In addition, residents of Boulder and the neighboring environs of Denver are actively engaged in outdoor activities like road biking and jogging.  Although Seattle is located further north than Madison, it is generally warmer with far less snow during the winters but experiences cooler summer temperatures.  Seattle is known for its rainy climate, between 3 and 6 inches during the winter months, but with temperatures warmer than Wisconsin but chillier than Honolulu.  Although the average temperatures between Seattle and Boulder are not very different, the altitudes are remarkably dissimilar.  The city of Seattle is primarily at low altitude ranging from sea level to 520 feet.

So what about San Jose?  The average monthly temperatures range from 42oF to 82oF and experiences rainfall measurements of 2 to 3 inches during the Fall and Winter and less than 1 inch from May to October.  These statistics seem to eliminate rainfall, temperature, altitude, latitude, or longitude as contributing factors to happiness.  Weather appears not to be an overriding factor that influences happiness. 

So what are the factors that contribute to happiness?  Maybe a better question would be, “What are the factors or experiences that do not appear to contribute to happiness?”  I was struck by the fact that none of the top five were located in the South, usually characterized as the Bible belt. These states are often characterized as conservative, and part of America’s heartland; regions that pride themselves on their strong moral values, love of country, independence, love of liberty, and so-called "second amendment rights."

A 2009 Gallup tracking poll revealed that the ten states with the highest church attendance in America are southern states, except Utah which was ranked at No. 5. Mississippi was No. 1. These southern states also exhibit the lowest women’s health outcomes. Lowest ranked were Mississippi, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Texas.  Other studies suggest that these states are generally among the poorest, the fattest and politically conservative.  Residents of the happiest cities are often regarded as liberal, educated, amoral and atheistic.  But is it surprising that the unhappiest people live in regions of America where there appears to be in a perpetual fight against the President, the government, immigration, taxes, their congress, and virtually everything about modern day American society and perpetually engaged in what they call a culture war?

 I consider myself fairly conservative in my lifestyle choices.  My religious beliefs have been a major factor in my outlook on life and I consider myself to be very happy and content with life – all as a result of my religious outlook.  (I am reminded of a song I learnt as a child: “I have a joy in my heart to stay.”) I believe in a Christianity that expresses thankfulness, generosity, and peace of mind; a Christianity that seeks for the happiness of all.  True religion should embody a love of the citizen and the alien, the weak and strong.  Christianity or religion that is meaningful should seek to protect the vulnerable among us; seek to serve the poor and dispossessed and actively demonstrate external serenity.  A religion that simply seeks self-preservation and hoarding of resources is a sad religion and makes for an unhappy people.  So, I end his blog with a question to ponder. Does it mean that religion, or at least the claims of religion, does not play a significant role in happiness among Americans?  Maybe, just maybe, it is the way religion is practiced that generates those unhappy people in those unhappy states and cities. 

Did God Really Do That To Me?

I recently saw a video posted on Facebook entitled “The Night You Were Chosen". Beside the fact that it may have been a morning, midday or afternoon, the video raised a lot of questions that Christians struggle with and that I have considered for a while. First, I hope that you look at the video (linked above) before forming any conclusions either about the message of the video or the opinions I present for your consideration.

The video posits that God not only knew when you were conceived but played a critical role in the miracle of the single unique sperm which fertilized the single unique egg that became you. It accurately suggests that 500 million (yes, half a billion) sperm were deposited in your mother’s reproductive system and only one beat the treacherous odds of competition, a hostile environment and directional targeting to find the egg and donate it’s DNA to form the unique You. Dare I say that every live normal birth is the culmination of a miraculous sequence of events – fertilization, gestation and parturition that produces You. As the video states, “God chose you the night you were conceived…and promises to journey with us all the days we live…”

As a Christian this is quite a remarkable promise and is an awe-inspiring thought to understand that there is a powerful God who has chosen to walk with us. It is a statement filled with hope for those of us (and I suspect all of us) who struggle with the difficulties we encounter on this journey of life. But here I pause to reconsider the foundation of the conception argument. Beside the slightly misleading suggestion that all sperm compete equally (a significant number of sperm are non-functional or deficient), there are legitimate questions that arise from this theory of God’s role in human reproduction.

Did God choose us the night we were conceived?
Did He select and direct that 1 in 500 million sperm that united with the preselected egg?
Does God know the genetic content of every egg and sperm?
So, does God knowingly select genetically defective sperm or egg which will then form a malformed or defective You?
Is the process of fertilization a strictly random process?

As an example, two parents who are both heterozygous for the genetic disease cystic fibrosis (that is, each parent possesses a matching pair of chromosomes, one chromosome of which carries a gene for the disease and the corresponding chromosome is normal) have a 25% chance of producing a child with cystic fibrosis at every conception. This result is clearly observed in the numbers of people that express the disease. Medical science has discovered numerous diseases that are the direct result of the fusion of sperm and eggs that contain chromosomes with genetic defects and result in babies born with numerous neurological, physiological, or functional disabilities. Many of the products of genetic diseases may spontaneously abort during gestation, die shortly after birth, or may live for a few years enduring intense pain and suffering. It is a disconcerting conclusion to attribute these dysfunctions to a God who knowingly selects these sperm and eggs, directs them to unite, and mandates them to create individuals who would experience immense suffering for the rest of their lives. This theory seems incompatible with a God of love. It belies the idea of a God of love to suggest that He willingly fosters such debilitating pain and suffering on the objects of His love.

Psalm 22:9,10, Psalm 139:13 and other biblical passages illustrate the ancients understanding of God’s role in gestation and parturition. The Bible however, does not seem to suggest that God plays an active role in fertilization.

So, did God really select you before you were conceived or is the fertilization process a random event which God allows? Can we accept that the process of fertilization is just an event in reproduction that sometimes results in unfortunate circumstances? Are we comfortable with attributing such painful circumstances to a sinful, evil environment? Can we be at peace with a God who does not manipulate every event of life but intervenes in our darkest moments to guide us, sustain us, and nurture us through difficult times? I believe that God, in spite of the results of conception, chooses to intervene in the events of our lives as he walks with the broken, the hurting, and the diseased, throughout the difficulties that life brings. God is a defender of the fatherless, the widows, the sick and diseased, but he does not create them. He cares for, and can use anyone, and seeks to save everyone. Even in cases where births are predicted, for example Isaac, Samson, Samuel, or Jesus, it appears that He may be projecting His omniscience – the all-knowing characteristic of God - rather than manipulating the circumstances.

But the notion that God intervened in my conception is fraught with difficulty and a crunch to the hearts of the genetically disabled who would have a valid question, “God, why did you do this to me?”

A God of Reason

When I was a young boy growing up on the island of Tobago in the West Indies, my parents provided my brothers and me with the responsibility of taking care of animals – sheep, goats, cows and chickens. Our duties included taking the sheep and goats out to pasture in the morning where they were tethered to stakes or trees and allowed to graze. In the afternoon after returning home from school, we would bring the animals home for the night. I recall one afternoon we found one of the goats hanging by its rope – dead. It had been tethered on an embankment and had gotten itself entangled and slid down the bank. Unable to gets its feet safely on the ground below, the rope around its neck formed a noose choking it to death by asphyxiation. We hastily called our Dad. He concluded that because its body was quite warm, the animal had recently died. Because of our religious tradition, Dad indicated that it was unfit to eat. He called the neighbor and offered it to them, which they gladly accepted. “Why did you do that?” I asked my Dad. His explanation shaped my thinking and became the foundation for how I have made many decisions in my life with regard to religious, ethnic and social diversity.

Christians and Jews believe that the Old Testament books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy contain God’s laws for living – instructions that govern health, social interaction, diet, and worship. My Dad’s explanation was based on the following passage found in Deuteronomy 14:21 (New International Version). The passage reads as follows: “Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to the foreigner residing in any of your towns, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to any other foreigner. But you are a people holy to the LORD your God.” In the book of Leviticus, God had previously instructed the Jews to abstain from certain foods, including the flesh of animals that had been found dead. In fact, the process of slaughtering and draining the flesh of all blood is still carefully followed today in Jewish culture (Kosher meat). Leviticus 11: 39, 40 (NIV) reads, “If an animal that you are allowed to eat dies, anyone who touches its carcass will be unclean till evening. Anyone who eats some of its carcass must wash their clothes, and they will be unclean till evening. Anyone who picks up the carcass must wash their clothes, and they will be unclean till evening.”

Given the strict instructions previously given, why did God recommend that such unclean meat could be given or sold to the ‘foreigner’ for food? Did he not care about the eating habits of the non-Jew? Was he subscribing to a double standard? What is meant by the ritual cleanliness suggested in Leviticus? Are these values critical to people living in the 21st century? (In a future blog, I will express my opinion about the relevance and timeliness of these laws for society today.)

Lessons Learned
God is a God of reason. I believe that these illustrations demonstrate a God that respects the power of choice; a God that encourages people to live within the constructs of their understanding of Him; a God who does not legitimize the enforcement of values by one people on another; a God who teaches us to be tolerant; a God who allows us to choose to be wrong; a God who encourages us to reach people where they are based on their understanding of Him. Although God encouraged the Jews to be an example to all people, their example was to be one of personal holiness and personal obedience to Him rather than the imposition of our, or His, values on our neighbors. In that boyhood experience, my father taught me that respect for the choices of others is God’s supreme gift for living in a community of love and respect for each other. The current militarism of fundamentalist religious groups, be they Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Bhuddist, or Hindu, does not demonstrate the will of God for human beings living together in a world of religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity. The fusion of political power with the religious legalism is destined to be the death knell of a constructive and ordered society.