[Oe List ...] 8/08/19, Progressing Spirit: Lauren Van Ham: And Like the Sun, Our Generosity Continues
Ellie Stock
elliestock at aol.com
Thu Aug 8 04:45:13 PDT 2019
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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv6964385742 #yiv6964385742templateBody .yiv6964385742mcnTextContent, #yiv6964385742 #yiv6964385742templateBody .yiv6964385742mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv6964385742 #yiv6964385742templateFooter .yiv6964385742mcnTextContent, #yiv6964385742 #yiv6964385742templateFooter .yiv6964385742mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } All around us we feel the well-worn groove of capitalism and competition
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And Like the Sun, Our Generosity Continues
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| Essay by Lauren Van Ham
August 8, 2019
It has become so easy now to feel anxious, worried or irritable by the state of things, by the frantic commotion modeled all around us, focusing on just about everything except what’s actually important.
Many of us have been following Greta Thunberg of Sweden; I consider her to be one of our new prophets. At 16 years of age, Ms. Thunberg is clearly, passionately speaking for humans everywhere when she asks the members of the European Parliament to panic. Greta says, “To panic, unless you have to, is a terrible idea. But when your house is on fire and you want to keep your house from burning to the ground then that does require some level of panic.”
She then succinctly summarizes the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change scientists’ report that states we have 10 years to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 50%. Fifty percent in ten years is a very tall order in a very short time.
In the Gospel of Matthew (6:25-33), we are instructed not to worry. At first glance, this text might appear to contradict with what I have just said: that we have only 10 years to figure out a lot of stuff if we want our children to have a planet that’s livable. And this juxtaposed with, “Don’t worry. God is going to take care of it.”
A closer read, however, reveals a deeper truth. Jesus observes the flurry of busyness surrounding what we will eat, how we look, or the clothes we wear. He describes the, striving Gentiles, who become consumed by the “who’s who.” And then, he presents an alternative. He suggests that, instead, we see the world through the eyes of Creation - the living world - where things happen according to cycles and seasons. Within Creation’s creativity, there is an order and flow that provides trustworthy results.
Do you know this poem, by the 12th century poet, Hafiz?
Even
After
All this time
The Sun never says to the Earth,
"You owe me."
Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It Lights the Whole Sky
All around us we feel the well-worn groove of capitalism and competition. Like an addiction, even when we want to stop, even when we voice our yearning for something different, the hugeness and inefficiency of the system can leave us feeling trapped in its maze. Eight years ago, His Holiness the Dalai Lama convened a climate crisis think tank with a group of religious leaders. Christian theologian Sallie McFague was in attendance and said, “The culture of consumerism… has now become like the air we breathe, and this is the nature of culture… it becomes natural…” She described our current, individualist, self-fulfillment practices as a new religion and as a lie.
And it is here where language and behavior become entangled and tricky. The dominant worldview for our species is dependent on growth and competition but it is NOT the worldview embodied throughout creation… and there are plenty of humans who, for thousands of years have recognized this and lived abundantly within creation’s rhythms. Each one of us has examples of this from rural communities, villages we have visited around the globe, and the stories we are beginning to retain from our brothers and sisters who were raised to learn and honor the ways of the living world. One of my favorite examples comes from our relatives in the Pacific Northwest, the people of the Salmon Nation. In her incredible book, Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer paints the scene of the joyful ceremony created annually to welcome the salmon’s return. Mindfully burning the headland grasses, the native people establish a ring of fire on the coast to serve as a beacon of hospitality for the fish, still out in the ocean, assembling for their big and final journey upstream. By sunrise, in their finest dress, the humans gather alongside the river, singing songs to welcome the salmon home. Kimmerer writes,
“The nets stay on the shore; the spears still hang in the houses.
.....The hook-jawed leaders are allowed to pass, to guide the others and
......to carry the message to their upriver relatives that the people are
..... grateful and full of respect. The fish course by the camp in great
.. ...throngs, unmolested as they make their way upstream. Only after four
......days of fish have moved safely by is the First Salmon taken by the most
......honored fisher and prepared with ritual care. …The salmon bones are
......placed back in the river, their heads facing upstream so that their spirits
......might follow the others. They are destined to die as we are all destined
......to die, but first they have bound themselves to live in an ancient agreement
......to pass it on, to pass it on. In so doing the world itself is renewed.”
Where, in this practice, do we find scarcity? Where do we feel worry? Is there any place, in this way of living that we feel anxious or threatened by competition? On the contrary, there is collaboration and appreciation! There is community and joy! There is abundance and dance and song! Furthermore, there is an understanding, among the humans, that our lives are woven into this story – it is with our tending that the grasslands are renewed, that the soil receives the nitrogen it needs, and that the salmon are sung to, encouraged to flourish and provide renewed sustenance for the seasons and years to come.
It feels a little slippery, doesn’t it? The earliest humans didn’t need Einstein’s theories to know that the stars were in them. But we have been so schooled in the concept of separation that leaning in to Creation’s understanding of belonging can almost feel like a fairytale.
Upon hearing Rev McFague’s analysis that consumerism has become a religious way of life, the Dalai Lama took the think tank in a new direction. He offered that, while everyone understands there to be theistic and nontheistic religions, that it is time now for a third one – a religion without scripture, that is based simply on common sense, our common experience, a warmhearted sense of concern for the well-being of all, and respect for the rights of all beings.
I believe this is where our sun comes in. Every day, whether it’s frustrated with us or not, it generously pours its sustaining light upon us, with non-discriminating extravagance! Each second our sun transforms four millions tons of itself into light, which becomes photosynthesis in the plants, which become our dinner salad, which becomes us – each of us, made from and radiating the sun’s light. And because of this magnificent stellar generosity in the center of our solar system, human generosity becomes possible… yes, that’s right, because the sun is IN us! The sun’s light readily translates into creativity -- the creative potential to grow the seeds, to dry what’s wet, to heat what’s cold, and our task is to embody it for ourselves. We are filled with this Holy Spirit – a sustaining light, a Living Christ, our Chi, our Prana…
Filled with the urgency to live according to the renewable, sustaining cycles of creation, Greta Thunberg’s words speak truth to the false emptiness all around us. Again, her words: “If our house was falling apart… you wouldn’t talk about buying & building your way out of a crisis that has been created by buying and building things. Well, our house IS falling apart… Everyone and everything needs to change… The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty.”
Mary Oliver’s poem “The Sun,” is a prayer of confession when she asks,
.....do you think there is anywhere, in any language, a word billowing
.....enough for the pleasure that fills you as the sun reaches out, as it
.....warms you as you stand there, empty-handed -- or have you too turned
.....from this world – or have you too gone crazy for power, for things?
Her words beg me to admit my wild love for this massive burning star (For Life! The Cosmos! Living Spirit!) , to attempt to describe the contentment I feel basking in the glow that allows plants to make sugar; and to admit how routinely I take it all for granted, my sheer dependency on the steady stream of life it provides.
When we transform the sun’s gift of energy into creative action, we too become the lilies Jesus was speaking of. This is how we re-member ourselves to our roles in the interdependent belonging of Creation. Like the lilies, our lives blossom into the unique offering that makes us who we are, and that informs the life and action we are called to create. Living faithfully as lilies (easier said than done), it just might be that we can call others back to the trustworthy lens of Creation. As lilies, we just might change the course of things in our communities, our marketplace, our bio-sphere. It is time to view our world through the eyes of Creation. Let us be those lilies receiving the sun, and turning the holy light that is us, into Right Action. This is the way of Life! And like the sun, our generosity continues…
~ Lauren Van Ham
Read online here
About the Author
Born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest, Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Her passion and training in the fine arts, spirituality and Earth's teachings has supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Lauren's work with Green Sangha (a Bay Area-based non-profit) is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of environmental activism taking place in religious America. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women. Lauren tends a private spiritual direction practice and serves as Dean for The Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley, CA.
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Question & Answer
Q: By A Reader
How can we keep the Church without having to keep all the doctrines, dogmas and creeds of the religious past? How can we encourage that minority of people who remain inside the Church's fundamentalist majority to stay there? How can we encourage the "Church Alumni Association" members to return, if what they have to come back to is the very thing that made them want to leave?
A: By Rev. Roger Wolsey
Dear Gentle Reader,
You have asked not one, but three very profound questions. I’ll speak briefly to each.
First, re: How can we keep the Church without having to keep all the doctrines, dogmas and creeds of the religious past? The Church has been in existence for over 2000 years – and there have been numerous versions of it over those millennia. There are currently at least 25,000 different denominations within four major sectors of the Church, including The Roman Catholic, The Eastern Orthodox, the mainline Protestant, and, broadly - the Evangelical, Charismatic, and independent denominations. Clearly, not all varieties of Christianity (churches within the Church) hold to the same doctrines, dogmas, and creeds.
I spoke to your question in an earlier piece I wrote for Progressing Spirit, “Where the Rubber Hits the Road” where I brought up the “Ship of Theseus” paradox as an analogy and framing to consider the evolving of Christianity(ies). You may also find the essay “The Baby and the Bathwater?” I wrote last December to be insightful and helpful as well, as it considers how we can call ourselves Christians if we reject many of the things that many Christians tend to view as “essential” to the faith.
Second, re: How can we encourage that minority of people who remain inside the Church's fundamentalist majority to stay there? I’ll begin by reminding us that even though it may be hard for us to fathom, God/Spirit is at work through all sectors of the Church – including the conservative and fundamentalist ones. Sure, we have good reasons to feel that God works far more effectively, and perhaps fully, through the more progressive forms; but, it is the case that many Christian brothers and sisters are being loved by God and experiencing spiritual growth and benefit through their participation in conservative congregations. Yes, there are some members of that tribe who engage in wretched rhetoric and behavior, but many of them are truly kind, compassionate, and lovely people. That said, there’s nothing wrong with us informing people about the more progressive options within the Church family. There’s nothing wrong with us sharing about how we are being blessed by more progressive approaches to the faith. According the thinkers such as Jim Fowler and Ken Wilber, the members of a given society are all at different places in personal growth, development, stages of faith, and perspective, etc. Certain ways of being and doing church appeal to people at those various places. A really high percentage of the population are at what Fowler referred to as stages B and C. That’s reality. But, there is always some portion of the people at those perspectives who are on the fringe and ready to “level up” as it were. We can share what we see as the merit and value of our progressive approach and trust that “those who have ears to hear and eyes to see” – will.
Finally, re: How can we encourage the "Church Alumni Association" members to return, if what they have to come back to is the very thing that made them want to leave? I guess a few things come to mind. First, there’s no need for such persons to return to situations that are exactly the same as what they rejected. In fact, suggesting that they do so could be considered abusive. The good news is that there are more and more congregations around the world that are evolving, with many overtly and outright embracing progressive Christianity. Some congregations even post “The 8 Points of Progressive Christianity” on their websites and as posters in their lobbies/narthexes. Here is something I wrote that many find to be helpful, “7 Ways to Find a Progressive Christian Church.” You will notice that I close that piece suggesting that one also seek to help a moderate congregation move more and more toward embracing progressive Christianity; and one can also start up a house church that meets in people’s homes, a coffee shop, or a community room in a library. There are lots of options. Some progressive Christians have been away from church life for a long time and, while God is with them right where they are and they don’t “need” to be part of a congregation, it is the case that humans are social creatures and we tend to thrive best in community with others. Here’s “Why I’m Spiritual AND Religious.”
I hope these thoughts and resources are of help.
Blessings,
Rev. Roger Wolsey
Read and share 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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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited
Sexism! Still a Force in American Politics
Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
March 12, 2008
The quest for the Democratic nomination continues to ebb and flow as the two rivals struggle to gain an edge. Senator Clinton was presumed to be the front runner prior to the Iowa Caucuses, but Senator Obama won that state impressively. Then Senator Clinton came back to win the New Hampshire primary and looked poised for a sweep on Super Tuesday. The sweep turned out to be more of a draw and launched Senator Obama on to a string of eleven straight primary or caucus victories from South Carolina to Wisconsin from Washington to Vermont. Once more he seemed on the crest of victory. The super delegates who had been pledged to Senator Clinton began to waver and defect. No one smells blood better than a politician. The pundits were now sure that he would wrap up the nomination on March 4. It was, however, not to be as Senator Clinton roared back dramatically, scoring impressive victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. Next Senator Obama won a caucus in Wyoming and a primary in Mississippi to regain his frontrunner position, but he did not win so decisively that he was able to clinch the nomination. So the struggle now moves on to the key state of Pennsylvania in which Senator Clinton, according to the polls, stands poised to make her third comeback of this primary season.
Beneath the excitement of what is surely the most interesting political contest in recent memory, there is another dynamic, always present, but seldom talked about. Two debilitating prejudices, sexism and racism, are in this political process being routed from their dwelling places deep in the psyches of our citizenry. Both have had long histories in the Western Christian world. Racism, the more overt and obvious of the two prejudices, was once protected by the laws of this nation, but it has had its back broken first by the bloodiest war in our nation’s history and second by a rising consciousness that found expression in the relentless pressure of the Supreme Court. Sexism on the other hand penetrated the culture in an almost assumed way that seemed to many to be appropriate, even proper.
Even though sexism was also protected by the laws of this nation it was always more subtle and its evil less recognized. While no one would seriously argue today that racism in this society is dead, it is recognized at once when it rears its ugly head, while sexism is still widely supported in high places, including an obvious presence in the official statements of organized religion. Many church leaders continue to use a version of the “separate but equal” argument that has no credibility at all when applied in a racial context. No one in the political arena would dare to make an overtly racist comment, but overtly sexist comments have not been absent from this campaign. History tells us that while racism is crueler, sexism is more difficult to root out. Remember that this nation gave the vote to black men many years before it was given to white women. Data from this political season still points to the fact that sexism continues to be less recognized in the body politic than racism.
Senator Clinton, who had been first defined nationally as the “First Lady,” had to establish her professional competence apart from her husband. She did this by winning a seat in the United States Senate, by mastering the intricacies of that most exclusive of clubs, by gaining the respect of her colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and by avoiding the spotlight of the media while doing her unglamorous homework. Her constituents in New York responded to these efforts and rewarded her with election to a second term by an astonishing 64% majority. Senator Obama, on the other hand, had been in the Senate for only two years when he announced his intention to seek the presidency. This is not to say that he is without significant credentials. He was an impressive student in law school, being chosen to be editor of the Harvard Law Review, an honor that goes only to Harvard Law School’s top student. He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago’s Law School for ten years, during which time he was elected to and served in the State Senate of Illinois. Those accomplishments are not to be minimized, but it is to say that no woman with a resume as brief as that of Senator Obama would have been taken seriously as a presidential candidate. A woman still has to be twice as impressive to be viewed as equal. That is an expression of sexism.
Hillary Clinton also had to carry the baggage of her husband in a way that no male politician has ever had to do. She is colored by the foibles of her husband’s administration. His negatives became her negatives. She wanted to keep her maiden name, Rodham, but political pressure on Bill Clinton after he lost the governor’s office in Arkansas forced her to become Hillary Rodham Clinton. The loss of her own identity, a reality that women have had to live with for centuries, has played a significant role in this campaign when people, defining Hillary as a Clinton, realized that in the elections of 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 there had either been a Bush or a Clinton on the presidential ballot. She was thus identified with the Clinton politics of yesterday, not the Rodham politics of tomorrow. She was implicated in what came to be called the Whitewater Affair, which was investigated endlessly and finally dismissed, yet its odor seems to cling to her. When the Clintons left the White House in 2001 charges were made about the Clintons removing things that were not theirs. These charges turned out to be nothing more than political attacks and were demonstrated to be false; nonetheless the stain on her integrity remained.
When Hillary Clinton was cast in the role of violated wife in the sordid Lewinsky affair, she could not win. She was criticized by some for refusing to leave her husband and by others for standing by her man. None of these things would have been the fate of a male politician. Sexism was clearly operating below the surface. In 1972 when Shirley Chisholm became the first woman to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency, she carried with her candidacy the impact of both racism and sexism. It is interesting to note that she said overcoming her status as a woman was always more difficult than overcoming her status as an African-American. That was an indication that even long ago racism was more overt and easily identified in the public arena than was sexism. In support of that thesis, I cite the following data from this campaign.
When Bill Clinton played the race card in the South Carolina primary, it backfired because people, aware of racism, were embarrassed by it. The sexist rhetoric that commentators let forth on Hillary Clinton, however, did not receive a similar rebuke in the Court of Public Opinion. Carl Bernstein on live national television referred to Hillary’s “thick ankles” and Tucker Carlson, an MSNBC conservative talking head, observed that “every time I get near Hillary Clinton I feel castrated.” Those were weird sexist comments, saying more about both Bernstein and Carlson than they did about Senator Clinton, but the point is that no female reporter could have gotten away with describing Governor Huckabee’s legs or with saying, “Every time I am in the presence of Mitt Romney, I feel like I am going to be raped!”
A male radio host for Station KOA in Denver, Colorado, wondered on a live national network whether Chelsea Clinton “was going to wind up with a big posterior like that of her mother.” Can anyone imagine such a statement being made about a son of John Edwards? When a woman in a political gathering asked John McCain how he was going to “beat the bitch,” he knew to whom the question applied and proceeded to answer it without unloading its hostility. McCain later, however, rebuked a right wing radio host when he spoke of Senator Obama in a derogatory racist manner. Another radio talk show host accused a cable news channel of overreacting by suspending one of its political reporters, who had wondered aloud on national television “if the Clintons were pimping out their daughter as a campaign presence.” Is that not sexism?
Senator Clinton also had the distinction of being the only candidate to be called “the anti-Christ” by a member of the religious right. That was, I believe, a sign of misplaced sexist rage. Why would the three times married, admitted adulterer, Mayor of New York, whose children will not speak to him because of his treatment of their mother, not be a candidate for that title? Yet he was spared this ultimate religious slander.
Many people quite clearly still carry unconscious fears about a powerful woman. Look at the way Sandra Day O’Connor was negatively described by all of the Republican candidates except John McCain. Look at the number done on Geraldine Ferraro when she was the vice presidential nominee. Look at how Margaret Thatcher developed the aura of autocratic masculinity to win in Great Britain and how British male pride was displayed when they described her “as a man wearing a skirt.” Maybe no one ever forgets those years in our lives when we were helpless dependent infants being cared for by that seemingly all powerful woman we called mother. Maybe the fear of being made dependent again on a strong woman is still buried in our psyche. Maybe our sexist, male-oriented society, which still holds to the primary definition of a woman as a sex object, creates an unconscious difficulty in our ability to relate to women in a position of ultimate authority. Maybe women, who were taught how important it is to please a man to get ahead, were also threatened by her potential power. Perhaps that is why there have always been more “Aunt Jemimas” in the women’s movement than there were “Uncle Toms” in the black movement. There is much about which we can speculate, but the fact of which we are certain is that sexist barriers are still potent and that Hillary Clinton, is the current victim.
People uncomfortable about this charge reply, “I am not opposed to women, only to this woman.” However, this woman was the only one who has battled to the place where she has a real shot at the presidency and, in the final analysis, she has not yet won a normal portion of the white male vote while she has consistently lost,, never the majority, but a substantial part of the female vote to her opponent. Hillary Clinton may or may not become our next president. That is yet to be decided. What is clear, however, is that she has taken some of the sexist poison out of the body politic by absorbing it. That will make it possible if she fails in this quest for another woman in another day to climb to the top of the hill.
I am drawn to Hillary Clinton’s ability and to her intelligence. I admire the integrity and independence of John McCain. I am excited about the vision of a potential Obama presidency. I hope, however, that I will live long enough to see my nation and this world be able to celebrate the full humanity and the equal competence of women.
~ John Shelby Spong
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