[Oe List ...] 8/01/19, Progressing Spirit: Roger Wolsey Lions, and Tigers, and Progressives - Oh My!; Spong revisited
Ellie Stock
elliestock at aol.com
Thu Aug 1 06:30:35 PDT 2019
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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9710327761 #yiv9710327761templateBody .yiv9710327761mcnTextContent, #yiv9710327761 #yiv9710327761templateBody .yiv9710327761mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv9710327761 #yiv9710327761templateFooter .yiv9710327761mcnTextContent, #yiv9710327761 #yiv9710327761templateFooter .yiv9710327761mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } Why are they afraid of what I’m saying?
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Lions, and Tigers, and Progressives - Oh My!
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| Essay by Rev. Roger Wolsey
August 1, 2019I recently experienced something that is the stuff of many people’s nightmares.
ProgressiveChristianity.org was a sponsoring partner of the annual Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina this year and, as a member of the Board of Directors, I was sent to represent the organization at a booth to distribute our literature, and solicit inquiries about our “A Joyful Path” children’s Sunday School curriculum. Little did I know, as I hadn’t submitted a topic to speak about, I was also listed in the Festival program as being a speaker as well! In fact, I didn’t learn about this until, I kid you not, 1 hour before I was supposed to speak on one of the larger stages! After an initial “Oh $#i+!” moment (which Rev. Mark Sandlin of Progressing Spirit witnessed), I gathered myself. I reminded myself that I’ve spoken at this Festival twice before, as well as at the Embrace Festival that we sponsored in Portland, OR two years ago, along with several other conferences around the country. I reminded myself that I’m capable, I trust Spirit, I don’t need to be afraid, it’s going to go just fine.
I decided to share about some of the events in my life that have happened since I spoke at that festival last summer. As part of this, I shared about how I learned this past March, that 7 of my United Methodist clergy “colleagues” filed heresy charges against me last October. I was accused of “disseminating teachings contrary to established Church teaching.” This was triggered by a blog I posted on Patheos in May, 2018, “It’s time for progressive Christianity.” The 6 page, double-sided, complaint cited that blog, another blog I wrote, and numerous quotes from my book “Kissing Fish: Christianity for people who don’t like Christianity.” Essentially, they didn’t think my Christology was high enough, that I’m wrong to pray to the God who Jesus prayed to instead of to Jesus, that my understanding of the Trinity is too poetic, that I shouldn’t be saying that Jesus wasn’t literally born of a virgin, that there isn’t a literal hell, that the substitutionary theory of the atonement isn’t the only viable one, and that God is fully at work in other religions besides Christianity.
I find myself asking, what would lead conservative Christians who haven’t even met me, and who live in a completely different state (all 7 of them in Texas) to veer from their lane like over-zealous junior high student hallway monitors and hypocritically file charges against someone – directly to a bishop – without even giving me the courtesy of letting me know about this, let alone without seeking to express their concerns directly with me privately first – as per actual Christian teaching.
Why are they afraid of what I’m saying? Why are they afraid of contacting me directly in a Christian, relational, or even collegial way?
What do they fear?
Perhaps they somehow managed to be in the big tent of United Methodism their whole lives and somehow are unaware that our denomination is highly theologically diverse, and that we have 13 seminaries ranging from the conservative Asbury to the progressive Claremont and the Iliff School of Theology (my alma mater). Perhaps, as I understand my bishop told them, they “need to get out of Texas more.” Perhaps they were acting out of actual sincere concern for the best interests of the denomination, and they truly believe that my views are so vile and anathema that they pose grave danger to the well-being of the Church.
I had the opportunity to face the primary accuser via a virtual video conference facilitated by the bishop, and I asked them if anyone in their congregations has been harmed by my writings. “No.” To which I replied, “So, the only one here today that’s been hurt by one of us, is me by having these charges filed against me in such a [cowardly] way.” Silence.
Regarding the Trinity, I said, “Is it not the case that the orthodox understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity is that it’s a mystery of the faith?” “Yes.” “So we’re in agreement!” “No, you don’t understand it the right way!” “Did you hear what you just said? That I don’t understand a mystery the ‘right’ way?”
And on it went. I had the chance to educate my detractor informing him that John Wesley intentionally didn’t include one particular Article of Religion adopted from the Church of England in forming the Methodist Church – the one concerning the creeds. Wesley sought to not have the Methodist movement be a creedal one, but rather, one of a truly ecumenical spirit that avoids unnecessary, likely triggers and divisions.
More silence.
The matter of fact, dispassionate lack of affect that I felt from my detractor during that video conference left me feeling that this really isn’t coming from a place of sincere concern about the authentic and transformative good news of the undying life, way, and teachings of Jesus – but more that it’s coming from some other ulterior motives.
What could they be?
Well, let’s stay with sincere concern about “right teachings” for a minute. If someone truly believes that there is a literal hell, and that the only way to avoid going there is for people to believe X, Y, and Z – with believe meaning intellectual assent to certain specific truth claims - then, sure it would be cause for concern if someone isn’t toeing that line and is saying something other than that. “This is a matter of life and death!” A matter of people we love and care about going to Heaven or roasting in the eternal fires of Hell! In such a literal, fundamentalist theological approach, faith is like a house of cards, and if you challenge any of those cards in that house, you risk the whole house coming down. “The possibility of salvation gone.” I can imagine how that might feel scary.
The United Methodist Church, however, isn’t a creedal church. We haven’t adopted any theory of the atonement as the one, official one, and we are in fact called to “test, renew, and elaborate” our theological understandings in ways that help the faith be relevant to our world today. If people are seeking out a more fundamentalist way of being and doing church, there are countless options out there in the marketplace. The UMC isn’t one of them …unless, one is seeking to hijack the denomination in the way that happened to the Southern Baptist Convention in 1980. And what happened then wasn’t purely about matters of faith, but rather, politics. The birth of the so-called “Moral Majority” political movement.
In doing my research I discovered that my accusers learned about me and my writings because they read a reprisal blog written by someone who works for the IRD – the so-called Institute for Religion and Democracy. This organization seeks to undermine the liberal and social justice advocacy wings of the mainline denominations, and they have a lot of money behind them from wealthy conservatives. In a legal proceeding there’s wisdom in “not asking a question you don’t already know the answer to.” So I asked, “Is it not the case that you learned about me and my blog because you read that attack blog written by that guy who works for the IRD? Silence. “I scoured the internet and the only blog that’s out there that refers to that blog I wrote was written by him.” “Um, well yeah maybe that’s how we learned about it.” “That is in fact how you learned about it. Don’t you realize that the IRD is no friend to the UMC? That it’s an entity that doesn’t have our best interests at heart? That by you doing what you’ve done to me, you’re being pawns in their political war games?” Silence. An easy case can be made that the IRD and their supporters aren’t sincerely concerned about proper theology, but rather, doing whatever it takes to sway the populace to create conditions more favorable for the US Congress and Supreme Court to pass ever more and more politically conservative policies, rulings, and agendas.
I was already aware that I have been in the cross-hairs of the IRD as they wrote two blogs about my speaking at the Wild Goose Festival in the summer of 2018, both critical, one before, and one after. But I didn’t think they’d go out of their way to write what they distributed in that chap’s blog of June, 2018 – essentially throwing meat to the sharks, inciting their readers to “who’s going to file charges against him?!”
So what is the fear here?
One fear could be: “If we don’t get enough people on board with our way of articulating the faith, it’ll be harder for us to get our way in the marketplace of ideas and in the democratic governmental process!”
Within that fear, there are two possible sub-fears. With one of them being employed as a tactic to assuage the other. People who fear the gradual movement of increased social justice and seek to instead adopt conservative political platforms that reduce taxes, reduce the role of government, and embrace a more so-called strict constitutionalist form of Federalism, intentionally appeal to base fears of the “useful idiot” minions – namely, homophobia, racism, misogamy - gay people, people seeking asylum, and women seeking reproductive rights and control of their bodies. These Powers and Principalities stir up the masses via scapegoating each of those oppressed people groups, rallying their base, and getting them to the voting booths to try to return our nation to some fictitious ideal – to “Make America Great Again” – which for them means no weddings for same-sex couples, no more gays on TV, fewer people of color in the electorate, and no abortions. Having those be “THE moral issues” is a cover and distraction from their real work, which is to cut taxes on the wealthy, prevent universal health care, grow the war machine and military industrial complex, and reduce governmental regulations on industry – including their ability to pollute the environment.
And, frankly, when it comes down to it, the IRD and other such groups, are motivated by the fear of losing their cottage industry of fear-mongering. Like parasitic vampires, they feed, exploit, and capitalize on the fear of others. Simply put, they truck in fear. It’s their M.O. It’s their business. And they don’t want to see it threatened by Christians who actually are transformed by the good news of the Gospel to see that they don’t need to live in fear, but rather in faith. They thrive on people’s fear.
After several uncomfortable months of effectively holding my breath wondering what would happen, the charges filed against me were dismissed as my accusers weren’t interested in signing any of the proposed just resolutions.
So how are we to respond?
Not to what happened to me, but to this constant raging from that part of the Church that would seek to limit our theological explorations – even to the point of seeking to clip our wings, control us, and even excommunicate us? We could seek to rally our own base and to fight fire with fire. We could assertively argue with them point by point. We could engage in proof-texting of our own. Yet, all that does is perpetuate bad theology and ecclesiology and fuel their fires and ire. No, instead what is needed is to truly be our transformed, faithful selves. To live out the fruits of the Spirit. To show self-control. To be as much of a non-anxious presence as possible. To be with our detractors, to hold space for them just as they are – including their fears. To seek less to argue with them, and more to love. We can’t argue anyone away from fear and into real, transformative faith, we can only love them there.
There’s a song from the 1990s band Toad the Wet Spocket, called, “Pray your gods” with these lyrics:
...Is it that they fear the pain of death?
Or could it be they fear the joy of life?
Pray your gods who hold you by your fear
For they are quick and ruthless punishers
Or lay upon my altar now your love
I fear my day is done
There are armies moving on
Be quick, my love
It seems to me, when it comes down to it – there are fellow Christians who “fear the joy of life.” They (and likely we to some extent) fear that life might just possibly be bigger, more generous, and more gracious than they can fathom. There are people who fear being exposed to themselves for devoting countless hours of their lives, donating thousands of dollars, alienating themselves from members of their families – all for the cause of a false religiosity that isn’t an authentic faith that transforms lives. They fear that the legalism and nationalism that they’ve made into idols are in fact false gods – adventures in missing the point, dabbles in spiritual by-passing, and avoiding real transformation. They fear that maybe Christianity doesn’t have a monopoly on God, and that the Holy Spirit is in fact at work in healing modalities and venues outside the Church (yoga, shamanism, kirtans, tarot, shadow work, EMDR, therapy, etc). They fear experiencing agape love – for fear that it might not actually be unconditional. They fear being real before their Maker – they fear possible rejection by “Him” as they fear that “He” is as petty and vindictive as they tend to be. They assume (in truth rightly) that progressive Christians also contain some pettiness in them, and, as an analogy, like the white people of South Africa (“conservatives”) after the end of Apartheid, they project and fear that the black majorities (“progressives”) will do unto them as they’ve been doing unto them.
I can be petty. There are vindictive feelings within me. I’ve considered filing reprisal complaints of my own. I’ve imagined donating money to church youth groups near my detractors to toilet paper the trees outside of their homes... But I’m a product of my Mother and the United Methodist Church that I love. At their best – they bring out my best. For years, my mother has had a bumper sticker that reads, “Save the World, Hug a Republican.” I finally get it. And it isn’t about politics. It’s about love. Soulful, agape love, that while it may involve boundaries for self-care, primarily means presence. If nothing else, Jesus’s work was a ministry of incarnation, a ministry of presence, bold, heart-felt, sincere, genuine, compassionate presence. Being present to people and their fears. Owning and welcoming our own fears and wounds, to model for others how this is done, so we can transmute them – so we don’t transmit them.
God bless my mother, and my fellow United Methodists (progressive and otherwise), for their increasingly converted hearts. God bless the actual possibility of being people of faith and not fear.~ Rev. Roger Wolsey
Read online here
About the Author
Rev. Roger Wolsey is an ordained United Methodist pastor who directs the Wesley Foundation at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is author of Kissing Fish: Christianity for people who don’t like Christianity; The Kissing Fish Facebook page; Roger’s Blog on Patheos “The Holy Kiss |
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Question & Answer
Q: By Jennifer
How do I find a church community that aligns with my values, like for example, radical inclusion?
A: By Rev. Deshna UbedaHello Jennifer,That is an excellent question! Thank you for asking. This is one of our most challenging tasks as humans today, in my opinion, and one of the most vital. I believe that being a part of Sacred Community is an essential aspect of living a whole and spiritually healthy life. It is what we seek, I believe, when we go to shopping centers or malls, to city squares and even to bars. As a whole, there has not been any new institution that effectively replaces or even improves upon church, so far. So there is a vacuum of sacred community in our societies. As spiritual beings living a human life, we need and yearn for meaningful community.
Unfortunately, church has become more about the business model and saving something that is dying, and less about creating an experience of sacred community and personal transformation; which, I believe, is what we all seek, though we don't all know it. Once mainstream protestant church membership started declining, the focus became more toward saving the business of church. When that shift from community centered, healing and transformative spaces to economic centered and hierarchal businesses occurred something of great value was lost in the church experience. Now we have pastors that are afraid of saying what they really believe and challenging people to grow, because they are afraid that they will lose their old time funders. We have church leaders who are falling back into rigidity because that feels safe. It's the last gasp of a dying organism.
Now, I know that there are many progressive church leaders out there trying to do something very different, and there are some that are succeeding in creating genuine sacred community and meaningful experiences in their churches.
To me community becomes sacred when those that gather together and support each other do so with intentions that are meaningful and support personal and communal growth. Sacred community is the space in which people show up with courage to step forward in growth, to commit to practice loving kindness toward one another, to show up in vulnerability, to attend regularly, and to go deeper. At the heart of a thriving sacred community are shared values, usually around social justice issues. People of all generations are coming together in droves around the aim of shifting our culture toward equality. Because equality is so inherent in younger generations' views of the world, this value is interwoven into any thriving sacred community in which millennials are engaged. When all people are valued as unique and equal - women, men, youth, adult, older, younger, black, white, rich, poor - we are free to find connections with others based on a deeper, more meaningful, even indescribable force.
So, when searching for a church community, I encourage you to look at the values the church states is has, and then look for the ways in which those values are being actively lived out. If, as you say, radical inclusion is important to you, then see if the church has a diverse group of people in leadership positions. Are there people of color? A range of ages? As many women as men? Are there LGBTQ people in leadership? Where does the money go and is it equitably distributed? Who holds the power? Because that is where the true values will be the most visible.
Look at what action this church is taking to positively affect the community and its members? How much growth and transformation is the church willing to go through so that it can be radically inclusive, relevant to an intergenerational community, and be an agent of positive change in the world? Take as much time as you need to ask these questions and move on if you aren't satisfied. It is possible that you can affect change in the church from within, but, like with any institution, that can be fairly challenging. If you can't find a church in your area that aligns with your values, I encourage you to consider starting a small in-home or in the wild church community. Perhaps you meet weekly in a forest or a park somewhere near you and have 20 minutes of quiet contemplation, some songs, and some brave vulnerable conversation. Perhaps once a month you all volunteer somewhere together. Perhaps it's time to think outside of the box of Churchianity.
More on this topic in some of my upcoming columns. Thanks again for your question.~ Rev. Deshna Ubeda
Read and share online here
About the Author
Deshna Ubeda is Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org and Progressing Spirit and is an ordained Interfaith Minister. She is an author, international speaker, and a visionary. She grew up in a thriving progressive Christian church and has worked in the field for over 13 years. She graduated from UCSB with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Global Peace and Security. She is a lead author and editor on the children’s curriculum: A Joyful Path, Spiritual Curriculum. She co-authored the novel, Missing Mothers. She is the Executive Producer of Embrace Festival. She is passionate about sacred community, nourishing children spiritually, and transforming Christianity through a radically inclusive lens. |
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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited
The Origins of the Bible, Part 1:
Examining the Aura Created Around the Bible
Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
March 5, 2008How did the Bible come to be written? Does it reflect a single point of view, even a single inspiration or has that been an idea imposed upon it by religious devotees? Since what we now call the Bible was written by many authors over a period of about 1000 years, what were the particular circumstances that prompted the writing of each piece? What was the process by which these individual pieces got designated as “Holy Scripture?” Were there other works that competed for inclusion in the Bible, but for some reason were not chosen? If so, who made those decisions and on what criteria? Are all parts of the Bible to be regarded as equally holy, equally valid or does the Bible embrace concepts that are demonstrably untrue and proclaim attitudes that modern sensitivity and an expanded consciousness now find both repellant and repulsive? Amazing as it may seem, these perfectly obvious questions are seldom raised in the various churches of the Christian world and indeed are regarded by some Christians as hostile, faithless and inappropriate. In the great theological centers of learning, however, these inquiries are routine and commonplace. Yet when one leaves these theological centers for a career as a pastor serving people who occupy the pews of our churches, there appears to be almost a conspiracy of silence about biblical knowledge. In the heartland of religious life, these newly minted clergy confront a Bible that has been covered with an aura of sanctity, which is so powerful that it blunts critical questions, regarding them not as a search for truth, but as attacks on holiness, upon God, on the Bible itself. So before beginning to look at the Bible itself, I want us to look first at this defense shield erected over the centuries by pious, but not well informed people, and designed to protect the Bible and its “revealed truth” from erosion.
One runs into this biblical defense shield almost everywhere. It is present in the propaganda emanating from religious fundamentalists. Television evangelists like
Albert Mohler, Pat Robertson, and the late Jerry Falwell constantly refer to the Bible as “the inerrant word of God.”
They quote from its pages to attack evolution, the rise of feminism, homosexuality and even environmental concerns. These contemporary fundamentalists have their roots in a group of Evangelical Protestants who, between 1910 and 1915 in America, published, with the help from the Universal Oil Company of California (Unocal), and spread across the world, a series of tracts called “The Fundamentals,” which in fact produced the word “fundamentalism.” This tractarian movement proclaimed that the only true Christian position on the scriptures was to regard every word of the Bible as both revealed and inerrant truth.
If one looks further back in history, one discovers that this mentality was present even at the time of Galileo in the 17th century, when representatives of Roman Catholic Christianity condemned Galileo’s idea that the earth was not the center of a three-tiered universe and that the sun did not rotate around it. What was the proof that they offered for this condemnation? It was a passage from the Book of Joshua (10:12-14) in which God, in response to Joshua’s prayers, stopped the sun in the sky to allow more daylight in which Joshua could pursue his military rout of the Amorites. This, the church fathers argued, was clear proof from the “inerrant word of God” that Galileo was wrong.
This defensive shield around the Bible is also daily constructed even in those mainline churches that would be embarrassed to be called fundamentalists, since they regard themselves as more learned and sophisticated than those they think of as fundamentalists. Yet at the end of biblical readings Christian churches of all denominations still use some version of the phrase “This is the word of the Lord,” to which the people dutifully reply with some version of the phrase “Thanks be to God.” Click here to read full essay.
~ John Shelby Spong |
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Announcements
John Shelby Spong’s Origins of the Bible:
The Old and New Testament
...The full Series is now
...available as a PDF
...We will continue to post the
...remainder of the Series in our
...newsletter, and, the full
...series is now available for
...$9.00 in one PDF.
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