[Oe List ...] Back issue 10/31/19: Progressing Spirit: Irene Monroe: Rethinking Forgiveness; Spong revisited
Ellie Stock
elliestock at aol.com
Wed Nov 6 10:36:10 PST 2019
Back issue: 10/31/19
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Rethinking Forgiveness
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| Essay by Rev. Irene Monroe
October 31, 2019 "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" in Luke 23:34 has always troubled me, because it is the first of the seven utterances by Jesus on the cross. I've been taught that the act of forgiveness is a sign of spiritual mettle and grace under fire. And, as an African American, the act of forgiveness appears to be our immediate go-to place in the face of unimaginable racial horor done to us.
Black Christians give away forgiveness like it's confetti, and white Trump evangelicals give it away sparingly, if at all. And, in Trump's case, he neither asks for forgiveness, nor does he give forgiveness. For example, in a 2016 interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Trump shared "that he doesn't regret never asking God for forgiveness and doesn't have much to apologize for."
While forgiveness is foundational to growth, healing, and restorative justice- whether religious or non-religious -there are various ways we use forgiveness. Either it can enhance healing and create positive change in our lives, or it can cause tremendous harm by maintaining the status quo. And, there is a distinction between individual forgiveness and institutional forgiveness.
Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger fatally shot Botham Jean in his apartment. His younger brother, Brandt Jean, could have never fathomed a conflagration would ignite offering forgiveness and a hug of his brother’s killer.
Brandt took the witness stand and spoke directly to Guyger, stating, "I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you" and then hugged her before she was led off to prison. Some saw Brandt’s action as demeaning and dismissive of Botham’s murder, especially in light of the numerous unarmed black males killed at the hands of white officers across the country. Many queried, if the roles were reversed, would Guyer’s white family do similarly. Others contested that was not the point because Brandt's action was that of a good Christian. Brandt’s efforts have been compared and lauded to that of the black parishioners of "Mother" Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC, who forgave white supremacist assassin Dylann Roof. Roof's motive was to start another civil war.
Brandt's act of forgiveness I understood as healing himself and honoring his brother. "I love you just like anyone else, and I'm not going to hope you rot and die," Brandt told Guyger in the courtroom. "I want the best for you because I know that's exactly what Botham would want for you. I think giving your life to Christ is the best thing Botham would want for you." Brandt's action is an example of individual forgiveness. Forgiveness, in this instance, is a gift you give yourself for healing. It's a feeling of inner peace, and a renewed relationship with self.
On the other hand, Judge Tammy Kemp giving Guyger a hug and her personal Bible before she was led off to prison I found unforgivable. Kemp turned to John 3:16 and told Guyger, "This is where you start. He has a purpose for you." Kemp’s actions are an example of offering institutional forgiveness on behalf of her actions. As a guarantor of justice, Kemp represents the laws and values of our American court system. Kemp collapsed the separation of church and state in her courtroom by giving Guyger a Bible, further devaluing a flawed judicial system that disproportionately and unfairly treats black and brown lives trafficked through it. Many felt Kemp, who is African American, should have known better in this era of BLACK LIVES MATTER. Her actions toward Guyger would be perceived as absolving a white officer and siding with the country's culture of policing.
In the face of continued racial violence done to us, I now must question if our church teachings of forgiveness of the last centuries are serving us well in this new century, particularly with the resurgence of white nationalism.
Forgiveness is one of the essential tenets that runs deep in the theology, prayers, and songs of Black Christianity. When families of Emanuel church victims stood in court in 2015 and stated one-by-one, they forgive Dylann because their religion advises them to do so, the nation was in awe. In awe, too, Roof's family said, "We have all been touched by the moving words from the victims' families offering God's forgiveness and love in the face of such horrible suffering." However, four years later, family members of the victims are still struggling. Jennifer Berry Hawes captures their struggle in "Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness." Hawes questions the moral mandate of expressing forgiveness by black people as deriving from dominant and racist ideologies that serve the ruling class. "So when one has been irreparably and tragically wronged by another, it bears asking: Who benefits from my forgiveness, and what does being the better person have to do with my loss?," she states.
The expectation of forgiveness is quickly drawn along marginal lines within religion, race, class, gender, and sexuality, to name a few. Within these marginal groups, too often, the theologies and praxis of forgiveness avoid fully reckoning individual or group pain, suffering, and the lingering effects of trauma, grief, and even rage. Also, embracing the Christian belief of redemptive suffering does not symbolize the mettle of one’s strength, but rather, in my opinion, it is participating in one’s own oppression due to an unhealthy and toxic indoctrination about forgiveness.
Offering absolution is a personal matter. However, as one whose identity intersects several marginal groups- black, female, lesbian- I must raise Hawes question.“Who benefits from my forgiveness?
I no longer allow my Christian indoctrination to forgive to automatically override my self-interrogation of why I should. I now make the distinction between blind obedience versus reasoned faith. And, I must remember, while Christianity is not a toxic religion, the form of Christianity taught to my ancestors was not to make us better Christians but rather better slaves. ~ Rev. Irene Monroe
Read online here
About the Author
The Reverend Monroe is an ordained minister. She does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on WGBH (89.7 FM), a Boston member station of National Public Radio (NPR), that is now a podcast, and a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS (NECN). Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists (Boston) – Detour.
Monroe’s a Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist. Her columns appear in cities across the country and in the U.K, Ireland, Canada. Monroe writes a column in the Boston home LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows, Cambridge Chronicle, and Opinion pieces for the Boston Globe.
Monroe stated that her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer and religious studies. As a religion columnist I try 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 I aim 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’s research library on the history of women in America. Click here to visit her website. |
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Question & Answer
Q: By Quinton
It is Written in The Message, Ephesians Chapter 1, that Christ rules the Universe, all of it, from galaxies to governments, no one exempt from His power, He has the final say on all things. I have been trying to reconcile this for two years, to understand if this is a metaphor or actual truth, what is your perception? With all I see and hear in our world, it is difficult to reconcile our reality and the Word.
A: By Rev. Jessica Shine
Hi Quinton, and thank you for your thoughtful questioning.
And also, I totally get it. There’s really not much encouraging right now that feels like this text could be true. In many ways it feels like a pipe dream or wishes for the distant future. So then…?
Well, let’s talk about “The Message”. According to wikipedia, “The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language is a highly idiomatic translation of the Bible by Eugene H. Peterson and published in segments from 1993 to 2002. ... The Message is a personal paraphrase of the Bible in English by Peterson from the original languages.” Why is this important? Because Peterson was a lover of scripture and yet all interpretations have biases. However, The Message is not an interpretation of the text, it is a paraphrase. I’ll let you research the difference here as it is quite significant. The bottom line is that it’s most helpful to read Peterson’s paraphrase as one would a diary rather than a textbook or literal code book (see your states driver manual). An interpretation is relevant for a specific time, place, and location, as was the original text. When I’m studying scriptures a helpful exercise (for me) is to compare translations side by side. A few of my favorites are ASV, NASB, and TNIV. Although I have the luxury of having learned Biblical Greek and Hebrew and often refer to the original text (my preference), most people don’t have 3-4 years to learn these and their nuances, so we rely on a translation. A snapshot for a specific time. With all that, how do we interpret this text in a helpful way? Particularly since most of us don’t live with rulers or use this language? Well, did a ruler always get his or her way? No. Well, what was the point here? When we try to apply this literally we can run into speed bumps. However, in metaphor this becomes a bit simpler to understand and apply. In my opinion, one point of this text is that the author is trying to demonstrate how far reaching the Christs’ power was. Why? Because the author lived in a time when power demonstrated strength and authority, as well as legitimacy of a ruler. It’s what made you believable as a leader. Sometimes through sheer brute force or the ability to dominate a vast number of people. Yet if we look to Jesus’ life, that doesn’t seem to fit a literal interpretation. So, how does he rule? With kindness and compassion. Fierceness, yes, but also Jesus leads within community. In other words, he can (and does) change his mind (see the story of the woman in Matt 15 and Mark 7). Jesus also includes people that the dominant power try to leave out, namely women and other people beyond Judaism. The ‘energy’ (vv20-23) is defined just a few sentences earlier as the energy we receive by communion and friendship with Christ. While it seems that the writer is asking us to believe the legitimacy of Christ to rule Everything, it’s clear from the context that where Christ is most influential (and most impactful to Everything) is actually through the Church (people not place). In other words, Christ is powerful enough to have control over Everything, yet he is most interested in you. In giving you strength, and in mutual relationship that creates freedom not oppression. Where communities and individuals are living like this, and setting each other free, that is where Christ is alive and well. ~ Rev. Jessica Shine
Read and share online here
About the Author
Reverend Jessica Shine earned degrees in theology and divinity, but still hasn’t figured out how to walk on water. Despite this, she was ordained to ministry by the Seventh-day Adventist church and continues offering spiritual care as a clergy member of The CHI Interfaith Community (based in Berkeley, CA). With two decades of experience serving church communities, police officers, hospital staff, and teenagers, Shine has a passion for people and a skill for communicating in transformative ways. Her spirituality began in childhood, was influenced by Jimmy Swaggart and Mother Theresa, and continues in the Pacific Northwest where she resides on Kalapuya land. |
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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited
The Origins of the Bible, Part VI:
The Third Document in the Torah
Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
May 14, 2008 The name of the Torah’s fifth and final book according to the Bible is Deuteronomy. That name comes to us from the combination of two Greek words: “deutero,” which means second, and “nomas,” which means law. Deuteronomy thus means the second giving of the law and in that title the story of the book’s origin is revealed.
First, a quick review of what I have covered in this series thus far. We began by identifying the oldest strand of narrative material that is found in the Bible, namely that part of the Torah that is called the “Yahwist” version, written in the middle years of the 10th century. This narrative represented the history of the dominant tradition of the Jews, located in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. It extolled the centers of power in that part of the Jewish world: the Royal House of David that ruled by divine right; the capital city of Jerusalem, which was believed to be the place where heaven and earth came together; the Temple, the very dwelling place of God; and the High Priest, believed to be the authoritative voice of God on earth.
This was the only sacred history the Jews had until a civil war, following the death of King Solomon, succeeded in separating the ten Northern tribes of the Hebrew people from the Kingdom of Judah and its satellite, the little tribe of Benjamin. This successful revolution removed the Israelites in the North from each of those centers of Southern Jewish power, the House of David, the city of Jerusalem and the Temple and its priests. The Jews of the North could thus hardly continue to use the Yahwist document as their sacred story, since that text judged them with its own words as rebels against God, God’s Temple, God’s city and those thought to be both chosen and anointed by God. In time this new country, born in revolution, established its own monarchy, but on a very different and more democratic basis. The king was now chosen by the people and thus was subject to removal by the people. A new capital city of Samaria was built and the ancient shrines in Hebron, Beersheba and Bethel were set up to be worship places to rival the Temple in Jerusalem. In time these tribes even felt compelled to write their version of their sacred history and so a court historian was chosen to do this task. This narrative would focus not on King David, but on the one they portrayed as Jacob’s favorite son, who was the child of his favorite wife, Rachel. His name was Joseph and he was regarded as the patriarch and founder of the Northern Kingdom. Because this new history referred to God as Elohim it became known as the Elohist or “E” version of the Jewish sacred story.
These two rival kingdoms lived together side by side, although not always in peace, until the Northern Kingdom was defeated in warfare by the Assyrians in 721 BCE. The people of the Northern Kingdom were then removed by their conquerors to other lands and disappeared into the DNA of the Middle East. After this disaster, an unknown person brought a copy of the Elohist document to Jerusalem and in time the two sacred stories were merged into one document with the Yahwist tradition clearly dominant over the Elohist story. This merged version was then the sacred scriptures of the Jewish people for about a century.
In 621 BCE in the Southern Kingdom, encouraged and shaped by a group of prophets, among whom Jeremiah was surely one, there was a growing fervor for religious reform. These prophets focused their hopes on a young king named Josiah, who had succeeded to the throne at the age of eight when his father, King Amon, was murdered by his own servants. Josiah was a king who, in the eyes of the prophets, “did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right or the left (II Kings 22:1-2).”
Perhaps that was because King Josiah was attentive to and a supporter of the worship of the Temple. When the king reached the age of 26, he ordered major renovations to be done on the Temple that presumably had fallen into some disrepair and neglect under the reigns of previous kings in the line of David, who had allowed many pagan practices in the Temple. This restoration of the Temple was hugely popular with the religious authorities and the prophets. During this restoration, however, a mysterious event occurred that was destined to shape the worship life of the entire country. First, the Book of Kings tells us that these renovations were to be done with the money collected from the people over the years and presumably not spent by previous kings. Second, it was ordered that no accounting of their expenditures would be required for “they deal honestly (II Kings 22:7).” Next came an “electrifying discovery.” In the renovation, perhaps hidden behind some of the plaster that was being torn away, the workers found a book that purported to be “a book of the law.” The book even claimed to have been written by Moses, who by this time had been dead for some 600 years. The book, discovered by Hilkiah the High Priest, was sent to the king by a man named Shaphan, who was described as “the secretary in the house of the Lord,” and it was read to the king in its entirety.
When King Josiah heard these words, we are told that he tore his clothes in an act of public penitence because it was obvious that the “Word of the Lord” found in this book had not been obeyed by their ancestors. Next, a female prophetess named Huldah was produced and she declared, in her most solemn voice I’m sure, that unless the commands of this book were obeyed, God would bring “disaster on this place and its inhabitants.” Huldah went on to say that because the good King Josiah had responded with penitence and had “humbled himself before the Lord,” by tearing his clothes and weeping publicly, that so long as he was king these terrible punishments would not occur. This message was then delivered to the king.
Josiah, empowered by the word of God that in this newly discovered book claimed to be the words of the prophet Moses and said by the prophetess Huldah to have the ability of holding back the wrath of God as long as he was alive, clearly now had the authority to proceed. The words of this new book were then read to the whole people and a new covenant, reflecting its values, was adopted and it was established that this book would henceforth govern their common life. A great reformation of the worship practices of the Temple and Judah was then carried out. The reformers removed from the Temple all the vessels made for deities other than Yahweh. All idolatrous priests were deposed. All houses of male temple prostitutes, associated with the fertility rites of the deity known as Baal, were closed and torn down.
Religious shrines suspected of encouraging pagan worship were destroyed. All mediums, soothsayers and fortune tellers were put out of business. Josiah even went into what had once been the Northern Kingdom and destroyed the rival shrines in Samaria and Bethel. This reform also required that the Passover be celebrated only in Jerusalem, where its liturgical purity could be guaranteed. The prophets of Yahweh said of King Josiah that there had been “no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his might, according to the Law of Moses; nor did anyone like him arise after him (II Kings 23:25).”
One purpose of worship is always the human attempt to please the deity and thus to win divine blessing and protection. That was certainly the hope of those who engineered this enthusiastic reformation. They were also the ones who, in all probability, wrote, planted and “discovered” this new book of Moses. They then engineered the political campaign that led to its adoption. We do not know the names of the people who constituted this group of reformers although the prophet Jeremiah clearly seems to have been one of them. They are simply called the “Deuteronomic Writers.” By the power of their leadership in this reformation, however, they took the Jewish sacred story previously known as the “Yahwist Elohist” version of the scriptures and incorporated into it the Book of Deuteronomy, “the second giving of the law.” Then they set about to edit the entire sacred story into a consistent narrative until it became identified as the Yahwist-Elohist-Deuteronomic version of the scriptures. The third strand of material that would some day be called the Torah was now in place.
The great hoped for protection of God that they believed would come to them if they only worshiped God properly, however, did not materialize. The distress and hard times that had fallen on the land of Judah not only continued, but seemed to intensify. The Book of Kings (specifically II Kings 23:26) recorded the fact that despite these wide-ranging reforms: “Still the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, which his anger had kindled against Judah.” The Lord was heard to warn that just as Israel (the Northern Kingdom) had been removed from the face of the earth, so Judah (the Southern Kingdom) would also be removed, but not so long as Josiah lived.
A few short years later, Josiah was killed on the battlefield of Megiddo by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt, who was fighting against Josiah’s ally, the Assyrians. His death was so devastating to the Jews that Megiddo came to be thought of as the site where the ultimate battle that would precede the end of the world would occur. Armageddon is nothing but the modern spelling of Megiddo. The deluge that had been promised by the prophets to come only after the death of King Josiah now began to fall on the Jewish nation. It came in the form of defeat, devastation and an exile into Babylon from their land that was destined to last some three generations. It was in that desperate period of Jewish history that the final strand of material that was to constitute the Torah was written. Again, the earlier strands were edited in the light of this new material reflecting Judah’s new circumstances. We will turn to that story when this series continues. ~ John Shelby Spong |
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Announcements
Beloved Festival presents: Peia’s latest tour Oíche Na nAmhrán – The Night Of Song
A deep dive into cultural transmissions from the ancestral heart of indigenous Europe, Peia pulls a thread from the ancient Irish and Scottish tapestry of music.
Peia Luzzi is an American born song collector, writer and multi-instrumentalist based in the mountains of Southern Oregon. Like water from a deep well, she draws inspiration from her ancestral roots of Celtic and Old World European folk music. With the voice of a lark, Peia dances nimbly from Child Ballads and 17th C. Gaelic laments, to Waulking Songs, and Bulgarian mountain calls.
Location: Eliot Center, Portland, Oregon
Tickets (All Ages) are $23.50 in advance, $30 at the door READ ON ... |
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