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<span class="yiv1513499527mcnPreviewText" style="display:none;font-size:0px;line-height:0px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;overflow:hidden;visibility:hidden;">There is so much rancor and
hatred in the name of religion...</span>
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<h1 style="
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New State Religion Called Love</h1>
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"> <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Essay by
Rev. Jacqueline J. Lewis,
Ph.D. <br>
November 7, 2019</span></span>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">I’m just
back from a trip to
Chicago to be with my
Dad, who turned 85, and my
siblings. While looking
for birthday presents
that would ship quickly,
I was struck by the
plethora of
ornaments, Santas of
various sizes, red
accessories, and
gold-trimmed dinner wear
with hollies in the
center. Retail
Christmas was in effect,
right after Halloween!!!<br>
<br>
Although that’s annoying,
I love Christmas. The
Christmas story is the
greatest story ever told.
It's why we're still
telling it two millennia
later. We're telling it
all around the world. The
story of God who loves the
world enough to come all
the way down to be present
in the world, not as a
soldier, but as a teeny,
tiny, vulnerable infant. A
baby who needs to be
nursed when he's hungry,
who needs to have his
nappies changed, who needs
his blanket in order to
fall asleep. He can't fend
for himself; he needs a
community to love him into
adulthood.<br>
<br>
This is the greatest story
ever told. The same God
who spoke the universe
into existence; the God
who blew spirit into the
world; the same God who
animated the Ha'adam, "the
human one;” the same God
who sent judges and
prophets to teach and
raise the people comes in
history; the same God that
hears the cries of God's
people and rescues them
from bondage-- that same
God enters into a time of
occupation and oppression
to once again rescue the
ones God loves.<br>
<br>
God showed up in a
particular time and place,
in a particular
politically tough time for
God's people. In a
particular town, God
showed up, hovering over
the one called Miriam. She
is with child. They
travel, she and Joseph, 80
miles from their hometown
to the place where there
is no room in the inn.
It's a particular time and
place and a particular
kind of baby. It's a
Jewish baby. The Gospel
writers help us to
understand, it's an
African-Semitic baby.
That's what Matthew's
genealogy is all about.
It's an African-Semitic
baby, born in a scandal.
"Hello, Joseph; it’s me,
Mary. I'm pregnant, but
God did it." I'm sorry,
that's scandalous.
Somebody believed it, but
lots of people didn't. So,
it's an unwed mother
having a Jewish, poor,
Israeli, Palestinian baby
boy with a stepfather
named Joseph who stuck
around when he didn’t have
to. This is the way God
chose to come.<br>
<br>
That's how God showed up.
To the marginal places, to
the edgy places, to the
scandalous place, to the
un-reputable place. That's
what God chose to do,
which tells us a whole lot
about God, about God's
preference for the edge,
God's preference for the
margins, God's preference
for the dispossessed, the
outcast, the
ne'er-do-wells, the funky
shepherds-- and they were
funky-- finding their way
to the manger where the
baby's lying in the place
where the cows eat. God
goes there. That's God
there.<br>
<br>
This is the greatest story
ever told, and sadly, this
story, this amazing story
of God's intervention to
those occupied, those on
the edges, God coming to
heal the whole world--this
story has been hijacked by
empire and co-opted by
greed.<br>
<br>
What do I mean by hijacked
by empire? As soon as
Constantine sees the cross
in the sky and makes
Christianity the state
religion, it's empired.
The church mirrors the
world, rather than
critique it, or call it to
a higher consciousness.
The church blesses
oppression and derision as
a way to convert people to
a religion that is so far
removed from faith in the
God who is simply called
Love. Let's watch the
crusades march across
Europe and torture Muslims
to be Christians. Let's
exterminate Jews because
they're not Christians.
That's what I mean by
hijacked by empire.
Neither that brown, Jewish
baby in the crib nor the
man he grew up to
be demanded allegiance to
power and greed. He didn’t
ask for Christian armies
to destroy the world in
the name of God. I'm
talking hijacked by
empire.<br>
<br>
And what do I mean by
co-opted by greed? Who is
that little white, shiny
baby on the Christmas
cards with sparkling snow
cascading on his blond,
haloed head? I don't mean
any harm, white people,
but really. Have you been
to Israel? There might be
one blonde baby in the
whole state. What
happened? How did this
story get commodified? How
did Europeans get to be in
the center of it? How did
shopping get to be the
main event in so many
so-called Christian
spaces? God came to the
margins, my friends. God
came to the powerless, to
the poor, to the
disenfranchised, to the
ones overtaxed and
overburdened. That's where
God chose to show up.<br>
<br>
We only have a Christmas
to celebrate because Mary
and Joseph took their
little Jewish baby to
Egypt and were welcomed
there. That's a poor,
brown, homeless, refugee
baby. How in the name of
Jesus can we cage
migrating children, profit
off the suffering of
migrating people, and
build jail cells to
enlarge the coffers of the
prison industrial complex?
How in the name of the
brown one, the poor one,
are brown and black people
dying from
state-sanctioned violence?
How dare we not welcome
the stranger when it was
the stranger who taught us
how to love?<br>
<br>
We need to get back to the
story. If we go back to
the story, if we skip the
Christmas cards, if we
skip the tinsel and go
back to the story, we find
there the meaning of life.
Love comes all the way
down and puts on baby
flesh. That’s Love in the
manger, wrapped in little
Afro-Semitic baby flesh,
swaddled in bands of
cloth. That's <strong><em>Love</em></strong>
in the manger, needing a
mommy and a daddy and a
village to hold it. That's
Love in a manger needing
us to raise Love, to make
Love everywhere.<br>
<br>
There is so much rancor
and hatred in the name of
religion, in the name of
Jesus, in the name of God.
What if this story is not
about running up our
credit cards to buy things
people don’t want or need,
and is actually about a
bold new religion simply
called Love? <em>What if
Love were the state
religion? </em><br>
<br>
When the baby grew up and
was asked, "What does it
mean to be faithful? How
do we do this?" That
rabbi, that
African-Semitic rabbi
said, "Love God with
everything you have, and
love your neighbor as
yourself." Love God with
everything. Love your
neighbor as yourself. In
other words, Love, period.
I think Jesus was saying
that everything else is
commentary. Everything
else.<br>
<br>
So, we are on the way to
the Christmas holiday.
People of many faiths and
people of no faith will
put up a Christmas tree,
and stimulate the economy
with the purchases of
gifts. I’m not saying
don’t buy a tree or gifts,
I am saying let’s get back
to the story. Let’s
reclaim the story of God <strong><em>loving
us enough to come as
us to change us.</em></strong>
Recall when asked to
explain what love looked
like, Jesus told the story
of a so called other—A
Samaritan. Even more
striking is God chose to
come as an “other,”
someone outside the power
structure of Rome, to
teach us how to love the
outsider in.<br>
<br>
I serve this amazing
congregation in the East
Village of New York—Middle
Collegiate Church. I came
to study Middle Church and
its leadership when I was
earning my PhD at Drew
University. I wanted to
understand how to disrupt
the racial inequities and
tensions in our nation by
building the beloved
community. My dissertation
became a book, <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=0d660ad139&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The
Power of Stories: A
Guide for Leading
Multiracial and
Multicultural
Communities</em> </a>.
I also wrote a book with
my husband, John, called <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=e157aa6ecf&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The
Pentecost Paradigm:
Ten Strategies for
Becoming a Multiracial
Congregation</em></a>
.</span></span></div>
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font-family:Helvetica;
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<div style="
text-align:center;margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;line-height:150%;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><img width="400" height="161" style="
border:0px;width:400px;
min-height:161px;
margin:0px;
outline:none;
text-decoration:none;
" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/15758d1b-1a03-440d-928f-18c7c6979ec7.jpeg"></span></span></div>
<div style="
text-align:left;margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;line-height:150%;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">On any
given Sunday, I wish you
could see what I see from
my pulpit. We are Black,
White, Asian, Hispanic and
Indigenous. We love
everybody. We look all
kinds of different ways.
This is what is required
of us. This is the
religion that's simply
called Love. This is the
religion of Yeshua ben
Joseph-- Mary's boy,
Joseph's baby.</span></span></div>
<div style="
text-align:left;margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;line-height:150%;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"> <br>
When asked how to do this
thing called the way,
Jesus said love God,
neighbor and self. You are
not required to speak any
particular language. You
don't have to say any
particular creed. You
don't have to come from
any particular ethnicity
or race. Your culture
doesn't matter. Your
gender doesn't matter.
Your sexual orientation
doesn't matter. All that
matters, that you love God
with everything and love
your neighbor as yourself.
He means love, period.
Love, period. Love,
period. Love, period.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">~ Rev.
Jacqueline J. Lewis, Ph.D.<strong> </strong></span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Read
online <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=1de370abb3&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a><br>
<br>
<strong>About the Author</strong></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Rev.
Jacqueline J. Lewis, Ph.D.<strong> </strong>is
the Senior Minister of <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=a8c6b9f60a&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Middle
Collegiate Church</a> in
New York City. She is a
nationally acclaimed
activist, author, public
theologian, and organizer
of an anti-racist
multicultural movement of
love and justice. She has
been featured in <em>The</em> <em>Washington
Post</em>, <em>Wall
Street Journal</em>, <em>The
New York Times</em>, and
on <em>The Today Show</em>,
CBS, and MSNBC.</span></span></div>
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<h1 style="
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& Answer</span></h1>
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<div style="margin:10px 0;
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color:#202020;
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px;">Q: By
A Reader</span></strong><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><em>Was
Jesus’s treatment of
women radical enough to
call him a feminist? </em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px;">A:
By Rev. Irene Monroe</span></strong></span></h3>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
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color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=a999eab6a8&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img width="150" height="129" align="left" style="border:0px;
width:150px;
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outline:none;
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<div style="margin:10px 0;
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color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Dear
Reader,</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">The
human picture of Jesus and
his relationship to women
we may never know.
However, the
Christological depiction
of Jesus in the Gospels
shows an itinerant rabbi
whose ministry was
inclusive, intersectional,
and iconoclastic. Jesus
ministered to women, the
physically challenged, the
poor, and all of society’s
outcasts, meaning the
damned, the
disenfranchised, and the
dispossessed. He exhibited
pro-feminist male
sensibilities that
violated the gender norms
of his day. For example,
in Luke 13:10 - 17, Jesus
healed an infirm woman on
the Sabbath, which was
prohibited in Judaism.
Another example is John
4:1-42, when Jesus talked
with the Samaritan woman
at the well. In this
pericope, Jesus did three
things unconventional and
disturbing to the status
quo of the day: </span></font><br>
<br>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">In
public, Jesus spoke to the
Samaritan woman knowing
she had five husbands and
was presently cohabiting
with another man.</span></font><br>
<br>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">Jesus
asked to drink water from
the bucket of a Samaritan
at a time it was perceived
to be ritually unclean
because of the schism
between Samaritans and
Jews.</span></font><br>
<br>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">In
verses 21-26, Jesus and
the Samaritan woman
discuss theology that was
solely the province of
men. </span></font><br>
<br>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">Women,
unquestionably, were a
part of Jesus's ministry.
Sources suggest that Mary
Magdalene, Joanna, and
Susanna assisted in
bankrolling his ministry.
Each of the gospels states
that women were the first
Jesus revealed himself to
as a resurrected Christ.
Mary Magdalene traveled
with Jesus and his
disciples as one of his
followers, and was a
witness to his
crucifixion, burial, and
resurrection. </span></font><br>
<br>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">However,
a different Jesus appears
in Matthew 15: 21- 28 when
Jesus calls a Canaanite
woman a dog. For any
feminists, Jesus’s remarks
are both troubling and
problematic, and calling a
woman a “dog” is no minor
insult even in the 1st
Century. </span></font><br>
<br>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">Nonetheless,
there continue to be
various hermeneutical
spins on this text. Some
feminists suggest Jesus
was expressing both
ethnocentric and
misogynistic sentiments.
It was quite common for
1st Century Jews to call
Gentiles “dogs.” Feminist
apologists contest that
Jesus’s remarks to the
woman were testing her
faith. I suggest the
woman’s boldness of not
cowering to Jesus was a
catalyst for Jesus to
examine the true meaning
of his all-inclusive
ministry.</span></font><br>
<br>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">This
scripture still leaves me
scratching my head. One
bad incident, if out of
character, doesn’t erase
Jesus's ministry. However,
I wonder when I read this
Matthew pericope, which
Jesus was present- the
human one or the
Christological one? </span></font></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Thank you
for your question.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:14px;">~
Rev. Irene Monroe<br>
<br>
Read and share online <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=4edd8db7a6&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a><br>
<br>
<strong>About the Author</strong></span></span><br>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">Rev.
Irene Monroe is an
ordained minister. She
does a weekly Monday
segment, “All Revved Up!”
on WGBH an NPR station,
that is now a podcast, and
a weekly Friday
commentator on New England
Channel NEWS. Monroe is
the Boston voice for </span></font><a style="font-family:georgia, times, new serif;
font-size:14px;
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=298da1f0d1&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Detour’s
African American Heritage
Trail, Guided Walking Tour
of Beacon Hill: Boston’s
Black Women Abolitionists.</a> <font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">She
is a </span></font><em style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;font-size:14px;">Huffington
Post</em><font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;"> blogger
and a syndicated religion
columnist in cities across
the country and in the
U.K, Ireland, Canada. She
writes a column in the
Boston home LGBTQ
newspaper </span></font><em style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;font-size:14px;">Baywindows</em><font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">,
Cambridge Chronicle, and
Opinion pieces for the </span></font><em style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;font-size:14px;">Boston Globe</em><font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">.</span></font><br>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">Monroe
stated that her “columns
are an interdisciplinary
approach drawing on
critical race theory,
African American, queer
and religious studies. As
a religion columnist she
tries to inform the public
of the role religion plays
in discrimination against
lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and queer
people. Because homophobia
is both a hatred of the
“other” and it’s usually
acted upon ‘in the name of
religion,” by reporting
religion in the news she
aims to highlight how
religious intolerance and
fundamentalism not only
shatters the goal of
American democracy, but
also aids in perpetuating
other forms of oppression
such as racism, sexism,
classism and
anti-Semitism.” Her papers
are at the Schlesinger
Library at Radcliffe
College Research Library
on the history of women in
America. Click here to
visit her </span></font><a style="font-family:georgia, times, new serif;
font-size:14px;
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=da66a66042&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">website</a><font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">.</span></font></div>
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John Shelby Spong
Revisited</span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size:18px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Christian
Art: Reinforcer of a Dying
Literalism</span></span></h3>
<br>
<span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:14px;">Essay
by Bishop John Shelby Spong<br>
May 21, 2008</span></span><br>
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did not realize how
thoroughly biblical
literature has shaped
Western civilization until
I took a course offered by
The Teaching Company
entitled “Great Artists of
the Italian Renaissance”
taught by Professor
William Kloss of the
Smithsonian Institution. I
was certainly aware that
almost all Western art up
until the Renaissance had
religious themes and
biblical scenes as its
primary content. What I
did not embrace was that
during this time the vast
majority of people could
neither read nor write.
This meant that the only
way they could visualize
the content of their
religious traditions was
through paintings or
pictures. It was for this
reason that the walls of
churches were regularly
decorated with paintings
of biblical stories. These
paintings focused
primarily on the life of
Jesus. Depictions of the
Passion of Christ, with
graphic portrayals of
Jesus’ suffering, are
commonplace. To keep
religious fear at high
levels and to make control
of the behavior of the
masses easier, there was
also an emphasis on the
chilling paintings of the
Last Judgment complete
with the devil, eternal
flames and the torments of
the damned. The reason
that the “Stations of the
Cross” were either painted
or hung on church walls
was to allow the faithful
to envision the meaning of
Jesus’ death, about which
most of them would never
read. With few people
actually knowing the
content of the Bible and
certainly with no one
sharing a modern critical
view of biblical
scholarship, the paintings
of Christian artists
determined for many the
way the Christian story
was communicated.<br>
<br>
What we need to recognize
is that when artists
painted Jesus scenes from
the Bible they also
assumed the first century
view of both life and the
universe that was
reflected in these gospel
writings. Heaven and God
were just above the sky of
a three tiered universe,
deeply and closely related
to this world. One thinks
of the ceiling in the
Sistine Chapel painted by
Michelangelo, which shows
the finger of God all but
touching the finger of
Adam. Angels are treated
by these artists as
important heavenly beings,
who come to earth not only
with divine messages, but
also to inspire human
achievement. These angels
are presumed to have the
ability to care for holy
individuals like Jesus of
Nazareth. So Christian art
portrays an angel
announcing his birth to
Mary, flying above his
manger at birth, attending
his needs at baptism,
guiding him in the
temptations, hovering
around his cross at his
crucifixion, opening his
tomb on the day of
resurrection and, finally,
accompanying him as he
ascends into heaven. The
medieval world lived with
a clear sense of a
heavenly realm just above
the sky and it was the
common assumption that
there was always maximum
contact between the two
realms. Jesus’ parables
were treated by these
artists as literal events.<br>
<br>
This was particularly true
of Matthew’s parable of
the last judgment and
Luke’s parable of the Good
Samaritan. Matthew was a
particular favorite of the
artists of the late Middle
Ages. Such a well known
artist as Michelangelo
Merisi da Caravaggio did a
whole series of Matthew
paintings. Matthew’s
medieval importance seemed
to stem from the fact that
this book was placed by
the church fathers at the
front of the New Testament
and in that pre-critical
time was believed to be
not only the earliest
gospel, but also to be
literally accurate.
Caravaggio’s painting
entitled the “Inspiration
of Matthew” shows him with
an angel telling the
evangelist exactly what to
write, a sign of the
commonly held belief that
Matthew’s gospel contained
inerrant revelations
directly from God. It was
not a human work. Another
Matthew portrait actually
showed the hand of an
angel physically guiding
the hand of Matthew so
that every word of the
text was not just divinely
inspired, but divinely
written. These artists
captured the cultural view
of the literal accuracy of
the texts of the gospels.
This view remains
unchallenged in the minds
of many to this day.<br>
<br>
Contradictions in the
texts between two of the
gospel writers seemed not
to bother the artistic
world. This was especially
true in the popular
portrayal of the nativity
stories. A stable as the
place of Jesus’ birth was
a fixed item in the world
of medieval art. The
stable was assumed to be
populated with a variety
of animals, sheep and cows
in particular. A star was
frequently placed in the
sky above the stable and
wise men on camels were
sometimes portrayed as
among those present at the
stable to worship and
present their gifts. These
items are of particular
interest to me because not
one of them is biblically
accurate in any literal
sense. People did not
embrace then, as indeed
many do not now, the fact
that there are two quite
disparate and highly
incompatible accounts of
Jesus’ birth in the New
Testament, the earliest
one in Matthew and the
other one written some ten
or so years later in Luke.
These birth narratives
have been hopelessly
blended in the common mind
and even filled with
imaginary details. This
process was aided in no
small measure by the great
paintings of Christian
history.<br>
<br>
The facts are that in
Matthew’s first and
earliest version of Jesus’
birth there is no journey
of Mary and Joseph to
Bethlehem because Matthew
assumes that they live
permanently in Bethlehem,
in a specific house, so
well identified that a
star can actually stop
over that house and bathe
it in its light. So in
Matthew there is no
stable, no stable animals
and no manger. Matthew’s
story also gives us no
angels, no shepherds, no
circumcision and no
presentation in the
Temple. Matthew does tell
us that Jesus and his
parents fled to Egypt to
escape the wrath of Herod,
returning to their
Bethlehem home only when
Herod’s death made it seem
a safe thing to do. As a
matter of fact, there is
also no mention of camels
in Matthew’s gospel as the
means of the wise men’s
locomotion. Tradition and
Christian<br>
paintings, not Matthew,
have put the camels into
the Christian memory bank.<br>
<br>
In Luke’s second nativity
story the details are
quite different. Luke has
no star and thus no wise
men to follow that star.
There is still no stable
even in Luke. The stable
is a fantasy creation of
storytellers. Luke
mentions only a manger,
literally a feeding
trough, and around that
word our imaginations have
built the stable. Luke
makes no mention of the
presence of animals at
Jesus’ birth, because
there was no stable in
which to house them.
People hearing this for
the first time are so
convinced they will argue
until they actually read
the text. There is also no
innkeeper in these
narratives who offers the
“expecting” couple a barn,
despite the fact that this
character shows up
regularly in our pageants.
The angels appear in the
Bible to Mary in Nazareth
and they appear to the
shepherds in the field,
but nowhere in those
familiar texts does an
angel ever appear at or
near the manger. None of
these facts have stopped
the artists of Christian
history from blending
tradition, fantasy and
mythology into their
paintings. One should not
be surprised that those
paintings were viewed as
literally accurate events
of history.<br>
<br>
The Virgin Mary was also a
popular subject of
medieval art and the
imagination of the artists
built the Marian tradition
quite in opposition to
biblical facts. Neither
Mary nor Joseph receives a
single mention in the
writings of Paul (51-64
CE). In Mark, the earliest
gospel, the name of Mary
is mentioned only one time
(6:3), and then by a
critic of Jesus who
wonders at the source of
his learning, “Is this not
the carpenter, the son of
Mary?” he asks. Mary’s
name is never mentioned
again in the only gospel
the Church had until the
9th decade. The myth of
Mary is a late developing
tradition. Mark did refer
once to “the mother of
Jesus (3:31-35),” but she
is portrayed here as
believing Jesus to be out
of his mind and, with her
other sons and daughters,
tried to have him put
away. It was not a
flattering portrait, yet
this was the only image of
the mother of Jesus in the
first gospel to be
written. In Mark’s gospel
she is not mentioned as
being present at either
the crucifixion or the
resurrection. The mother
of Jesus was also not
present at the cross in
the second gospel of
Matthew or in the third
gospel of Luke.<br>
<br>
Only in the 10th decade
work of John did she
finally get placed at the
scene of the crucifixion.
The Fourth Gospel had
Jesus commend her to the
care of the “Beloved
Disciple,” who, we are
told in that text, took
her immediately to his
home. Even in the Fourth
Gospel, however, Mary is
not present when Jesus
died nor did she have any
hand in taking him from
the cross. One would not
know that from Christian
art. Her grief at the
cross was conveyed in
thousands of paintings.
She was pictured cradling
his deceased body in her
arms in the popular Pietas
and most recently in Mel
Gibson’s biblically
falsifying motion picture,
“The Passion of the
Christ.” Facts do not seem
to matter when a painting
is made or a motion
picture is produced.<br>
<br>
It is the power of these
images that makes it so
difficult for modern
Christians to escape a
culturally imposed
literalism. Stained glass
windows in churches across
the world encourage it.
Paintings in the great
museums of the world
assert it. Liturgies
shaped primarily in the
13th century reinforce it.
The familiar hymns of the
Church imaginatively
reenact it (“Here betwixt
ass and oxen mild, sleep,
sleep, sleep, my little
child,”) In the universe
that we inhabit there is
no heaven located just
above the sky from which
angels can travel
constantly to make divine
pronouncements. The world
portrayed in Christian art
and in regular
ecclesiastical usage quite
frankly no longer exists.
When the essence of our
faith is portrayed as
relevant only inside a
world that to us does not
exist, one cannot help but
wonder whether or not that
faith can have any future.
It does not unless we are
able to lift whatever the
essence of Christianity is
out of the world in which
it was first articulated,
then translate it and
finally cause it to be
heard in the accents of
the world of our knowledge
and experience. That is
the Christian task. There
are grave doubts, I
submit, as to whether we
have the ability to
accomplish this task since
our great artists have so
powerfully reinforced our
cultural literalism.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
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color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">~ John
Shelby Spong</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:14px;">At a
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Honoring Seattle for
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