We’ll see if sweet baby j stays asleep long enough for me to finish this meme which originated here. Ruth’s answers are so great, it’ll be hard to come up with something different…

1. What is your earliest memory of being distinctly Presbyterian?
I only became a Presbyterian as an adult, but I would say it was when I went home with R and visited the churches he grew up in. The order of worship and the whole ethos of the place felt just like the Presbyterian churches we had attended together. It felt like home.

That, and dancing to “Baby Got Back” at the Witherspoon Party at General Assembly with a bunch of other tragically un-hip white folks.

2. On what issue/question should the PC(USA) spend LESS energy and time?
“Policing sexual activity.” That’s Ruth’s answer and I cannot improve upon it.

3. On what issue/question should the PC(USA) spend MORE energy and time? “We should start churches in completely new models — in coffeehouses, house churches, social justice ministries, theaters – whatever emerges when people come together to live out their faith.” Another Ruth answer I cannot improve upon!

4. If you could have the PC(USA) focus on one passage of scripture for a entire year, what would it be? “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways.”

5. If the PC(USA) were an animal what would it be and why?
I started to say a giraffe. Not a very playful animal, nor all that graceful. And yet, though it is easy to miss—a gigantic heart.

But I’m not sure we’re really willing to stick our neck out very far…

So I’d say a turtle. We don’t move fast; we’re quite unglamorous. Yet I know few animals that inspire such affection. You can’t help but love a turtle, almost in spite of yourself.