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<div>Computer issues the last couple of weeks...sorry for the delay...</div>
<div>Ellie :)</div>
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<span class="yiv7336294376mcnPreviewText" style="display:none;font-size:0px;line-height:0px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;overflow:hidden;visibility:hidden;">Okay, that was harsh. </span>
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This Isn’t for You</h1>
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"> <a title="" class="yiv7336294376" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=d1080d2cde&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> <img width="200" align="middle" class="yiv7336294376mcnImage" style="
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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. Gretta Vosper<br>
October 3, 2019</span></span>
<h1 style="
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padding:0;color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
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letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;"><strong><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Okay,
that was harsh.</span></span></strong></h1>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">In my
<a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=14bf4b49f3&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">last column</a>,
I challenged you to wrestle
with the change I believe is
desperately needed as we
come to accept the reality
of our world as it will be
during and beyond climate
disaster. I didn’t talk
specifically about that
world, but the images we’re
seeing on the nightly news
or on our Facebook feeds
keep me awake at night. They
challenge me to challenge
you, to consider how you
might respond within
whatever communities you
find yourself.</span></font><br>
<br>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">I’m
going to assume you’re with
me on this. If not, I’ll
point you to the decision
made by the </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=37a3a54a71&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Editorial team at
<em>The Guardian</em></a><font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">, one
of the world’s most widely
read and respected sources
of news and opinion. The
Editorial team decided that
using the phrase “climate
change” was no longer a
realistic referent for the
trauma already experienced
by human communities and
ecological systems as a
result of our failure to
address rising global
temperatures. Things have
already changed; we are now
in the place of crisis and
disaster. </span></font><em style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;font-size:14px;">The Guardian</em><font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">’s
Editorial team recognized
that the dramatic changes to
the world’s climate that we
are now seeing are the
greatest threat to our human
community we have ever
faced. So, I need to do what
I can </span></font><em style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;font-size:14px;">now</em><font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">,
even as everything I once
thought was “normal” is
shifting and disappearing
beneath my own feet, as well
as the feet of my children
and their children. I hope
you see the urgency of this
work, too.</span></font><br>
<br>
<font face="georgia, times,
times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">I
wrote, in my last column,
about communities of faith
and the influence they have
had on our civic engagement.
Note the past tense of that
sentence: “the influence
they </span></font><em style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;font-size:14px;">have had</em><font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">.”
Because the liberal faith
communities in Canada are on
the brink of death</span></font><a name="_ftnref1" title="" style="font-family:georgia, times, new serif;
font-size:14px;
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="#_ftn1" rel="noopener noreferrer">[1]</a><font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">, my
article sought to warn my
American readers of the
things I believe led to the
disappearing act of your
northern neighbours’ church
demographic. I warn you not
only because you continue to
see multiple generations in
your worship gatherings, but
because I believe you still
have a chance to strengthen
their impact within the
communities they serve and
beyond. Canadian churches
are well past the seismic
political and social impact
they once had. American
churches are not, though the
evangelical right seems
significantly more engaged
than liberals. Perhaps it is
time you caught the
attention of the media,
believe me, it can be done.</span></font>
<h1 style="
display:block;margin:0;
padding:0;color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:26px;
font-style:normal;
font-weight:bold;
line-height:125%;
letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Practicing
… that thing we don’t do</span></span></h1>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">It is a sad
thing to close the doors of
a church. Hard as it is for
the congregation’s members,
however, the event has a far
deeper, though often unseen
and uncalculated, impact on
the health of the community
in which that congregation
was practicing its
increasingly irrelevant
faith. As churches age and
weaken, their focus
necessarily turns toward
survival and away from the
world outside their doors.
Not that they stop doing
important missional and
justice work, maybe offering
a food bank, a clothing
swap, or setting up a kids’
homework program. What
churches stop doing as they
shrink is serious
evangelism. <br>
<br>
Say what? “Serious
evangelism”? I’m writing for
those who would station
themselves on the
progressive side of liberal
and for whom evangelism is
practically a dirty word, if
it is heard at all within
their congregations. As
liberal Christians, we’ve
long avoided such language,
going so far as to
deconstruct and apologize
for the roots of our
evangelical missions to
foreign lands and the
Indigenous peoples of our
own.<br>
<br>
Take a breath. I’m not
suggesting you reclaim the
word. Remember, I’m the
person who thinks that
coming up with new
definitions for old words
has very likely been the
death knell of liberal
Christianity. So, don’t come
up with a shiny new
definition for evangelism
that makes it feel right for
you. Leave it with the old,
stinging, and offensive
meaning it already has. What
I want you to embrace isn’t
the word, it’s the spirit of
what the evangelical
movement was and remains
about: a call to the radical
transformation of one’s
life. That <em>is</em>
something we can get our
heads around; we don’t need
the word “evangelism” to do
that.</span></span>
<h1 style="
display:block;margin:0;
padding:0;color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:26px;
font-style:normal;
font-weight:bold;
line-height:125%;
letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Assumptions:
hidden in plain sight</span></span></h1>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Still, I
use the word “evangelism”
because I want to ground
what it is I am calling you
to within the foundations of
our faith tradition. The
word “evangelism” helps make
that link. If we think about
it, Jesus spoke to a world
not unlike the one we are
struggling to understand
now. The power
differentials, the
injustices imposed on the
poor by the rich, the
assumptions of privilege:
all these things are part of
our day to day lives just as
they were part of the day to
day realities against which
he spoke. Most of us, like
those in power in Jesus’
day, simply assume these
assumptions without much
critique: I live in a home I
own; I drink my coffee
strong, with cayenne, and
whenever I want it; I could
have a dog, or three if my
husband would agree to it;
he shops for groceries where
and when he wants; I drive
20 minutes up the road so I
can buy eggs from a no-kill
farm; we can read whatever
books we want, listen to
music we enjoy, and vacation
wherever we choose, all
without restriction.<br>
<br>
We are not the downtrodden
to whom Jesus’ message was
electrifying. His message
was one of radical
transformation, something
many of us no longer presume
important in our lives.
Perhaps we are so privileged
that the cataclysmic message
of Jesus to his time has
become – y.a.w.n – boring.
It takes effort to consider
our privilege and its impact
on the lives of others, at
home or elsewhere in the
world. It takes an even
greater effort to consider
the impact our privilege has
on the lives of those not
yet born but who will live
in the world our privilege
bequeaths them, along with
all its “sham, drudgery, and
broken dreams.”<a name="_ftnref2" title="" style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="#_ftn2" rel="noopener noreferrer">[2]</a> We can
choose to add to those
broken dreams, or, with a
little of our own dreaming,
mitigate the damage our
privilege currently
promises.<br>
<br>
In my <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=1553296847&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">previous
article</a>, I challenged
those of you who are not
clergy to do the work of
creating communities of
resilience that do not rely
upon – or even use – the
language and liturgical
traditions of your church
heritage. Only through
engagement that looks
n.o.t.h.i.n.g like church
will those who have never
considered becoming church
attendees have the privilege
of experiencing what made
you church converts: falling
in love with being together.
I wrote about why being
together is so important to
our social well-being, to
the work we will have to do
in the future, to our
relationships, which are,
above all, the most sacred
of our human undertakings.</span></span>
<h1 style="
display:block;margin:0;
padding:0;color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:26px;
font-style:normal;
font-weight:bold;
line-height:125%;
letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">No, don’t
change anything; just be
courageous</span></span></h1>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">I know, I
was harsh. I told you that
almost everything you loved
about church would have to
go. That’s not entirely
true. You can keep
everything exactly as it is
in your own gathering, just
don’t expect to add to your
numbers because that isn’t
where these people will find
one another. You do not need
to change anything about
what you love about church;
you <em>do</em> need to
accept the fact that nothing
you love about church will
bring together those who
have yet to find out what
falling in love with being
together means, does, and
feels like. <em>They</em>
have to mix and taste that
magic elixir on their own
terms. Dance it in their own
space. Sing the songs they
want to sing. Find what
makes them cry in public and
lets them feel good about
doing so. You just have to
get out of the way and let
it happen. Or be courageous
enough to test ideas, be
wrong, test more, and so on
until they – not you – find
one another.<br>
<br>
In reality, this has little
to do with you, personally,
and everything to do with
the vast amounts of space
and money your church has at
its disposal or can access
and mobilize. Provide space;
pay for secular
facilitators; give them
prime time access; let your
leaders teach the beauty of
community leadership; share
your best gluten-free vegan
chocolate chip cookie
recipes; let secular music
be played at the decibel
level your sound system was
built for. Love what
emerges, even and especially
if it isn’t what you
expected; we love our
children even when they
become people we don’t
really know.<br>
<br>
Give. Give. Give. Allow.
Allow. Allow. For the sake
of those who need to find
one another. That they might
fall in love and find, in
the loving, radical
transformation and the
courage it takes to face the
brave new world we have
created.</span></span>
<h1 style="
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font-family:Helvetica;
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font-weight:bold;
line-height:125%;
letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Afterword</span></span></h1>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">This was
not the article I had
intended to write. My brain
took over my fingers and
punched out a different
article than the one I had
considered. So, I am
sharing, here, a few of the
song that had emerged as I
did my lead up to the actual
writing.<br>
<br>
I meant to provide some
resources about setting up a
secular gathering at which
those who do not want to go
to church might find a place
of resilience and growth –
might fall in love with
being together. I promise to
do that in my next article.
In the meantime, listen to
some of these songs, all of
which are available online
and none of which have ever
likely been sung or danced
to in a church (except at
West Hill). Play them
loudly. Very loudly. And if
you dance, well, all the
better. If you cry, all the
better still.<br>
<br>
Bon Jovi, <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=6904bd1826&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Love’s the
Only Rule</a><br>
Keala Settle, <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=84b6548093&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">This Is Me</a><br>
Sarah Bareilles, <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=20bdfd3eb4&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brave</a><br>
Andra Day, <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=381a46aafb&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rise Up</a><br>
U2, <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=9a52cec73e&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">One</a><br>
Queen, <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=58af8e9fc1&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">We Are The
Champions</a></span></span><br>
<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.
Gretta Vosper</span></span><br>
<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=5152333609&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;">The Rev.
Gretta Vosper is a United
Church of Canada minister
who is an atheist. Her
best-selling books
include <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=47521375ab&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>With or
Without God: Why The
Way We Live is More
Important Than What We
Believe</em></a>, and <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=ef8680331d&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Amen:
What Prayer Can Mean
in a World Beyond
Belief</em></a>. She
has also published three
books of poetry and
prayers.</span></span><br>
</div>
<div>
<hr width="33%" size="1" align="left">
<div id="yiv7336294376ftn1"><span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><a name="_ftn1" title="" style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="#_ftnref1" rel="noopener noreferrer">[1]</a>
Evangelical churches are
on the decline too but
their mission is less
focused on the state of
the world so I don’t
consider them allies in
this work.</span></span></div>
<div id="yiv7336294376ftn2"><span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><a name="_ftn2" title="" style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="#_ftnref2" rel="noopener noreferrer">[2]</a>
Max Ehrmann, Desiderata,
Copyright 1952.</span></span></div>
</div>
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<h1 style="
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letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Question
& Answer</span></h1>
<h3 style="
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<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;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px;">Q: By
Joyce</span></strong><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><em>“I'm
curious where the idea
came from that if a
person commits suicide
that person does not go
to heaven. I don't
recall anything in the
Bible saying that.”</em></span></span></div>
<h3 style="
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<span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px;">A:
By Joran Slane Oppelt</span></strong></span></h3>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
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=5a82334059&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><img width="150" height="146" align="left" style="
border:0px;width:150px;
min-height:146px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;
outline:none;
text-decoration:none;
" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/00a7abd1-4f8b-470f-91f5-5d1074d73d87.png"></span></a></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;">Dear
Joyce,</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;">Thank you
for your question. You
won’t find this idea
anywhere in the Bible.<br>
<br>
The earliest argument
(using biblical
justification) against
suicide was in St.
Augustine‘s fifth century
book, <em>The City of God</em>.
His reasoning came from
the commandment, “thou
shalt not kill.” Simply
put, because this
commandment didn’t mention
the “neighbor“ he
understood it to include
the self.<br>
<br>
He also referenced the
arguments made by Plato in
the <em>Phaedo</em> (On
the Soul) regarding
Socrates’ suicide while
awaiting execution. While
Socrates made explicit
arguments for the idea of
an afterlife and the
soul’s immortality, he
expressed that suicide
should be forbidden except
under extreme
circumstances because the
body does not belong to
man, but to the gods. The
act itself is still
debated as one of either
cowardice or
self-determination.<br>
<br>
Suicide is commonly seen
as a result of
disconnection, isolation
and abandonment. It’s
regarded as the last best
option for those who feel
they’ve run out of
choices. It’s seen
frequently in the hopeless
and the outcast. It shocks
families and communities
because people rarely talk
about having these
thoughts. They carry them
around, like burning
embers, until a hole is
created that cannot be
filled.<br>
<br>
Suicide then turns that
aching hole into an
all-consuming force. It
tears into an unsuspecting
family or community as if
a bomb has gone off,
leaving only a smoking
crater. It is a black hole
that suddenly opens in the
midst of a small village,
swallowing everything in
its path, including the
light. There is no
escaping the feeling of
anger or betrayal (at God
or loved ones) or the
“selfishness” of the act.
Family and community are
left to caress the raw,
frayed edges of that
gaping hole. And, over
time, the hole eventually
gets smaller. But it never
closes completely.<br>
<br>
The soul may live on after
death, but a suicide will
leave the surrounding
souls darkened, colored
and bruised (and a trail
of generational pain in
its wake).<br>
<br>
First and foremost, don’t
let any priest or
philosopher (including
myself) decide for you
what suicide is or isn’t –
or whether your soul will
live on when your body has
taken its last breath.
That is for you to
determine, through the
formation of your faith.<br>
<br>
And, Joyce, I say this
last part as someone who
every day gives thanks for
the anonymous hotline
staffer who somehow
convinced my now teenage
son to muster the courage
to talk to his parents
instead of ending his life
at 11 years old. I am now
blessed with a life where
I can turn to see him,
talk to him, and hold him
(sometimes too tightly).
That life was nearly a
fantasy.<br>
<br>
If you are having thoughts
of suicide, talk to
someone. Literally anyone.
Your story isn’t over. You
are not yet out of
choices. You are not
alone.<br>
<br>
~ Joran Slane Oppelt<br>
<br>
P.S. The National Suicide
Prevention Hotline is 1
(800) 273-8255. They also
provide free anonymous
chat at <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=74ebc2362b&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/</a>.</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 and
share online <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
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<br>
<strong>About the Author</strong><br>
Joran Slane Oppelt is an
international speaker,
author, interfaith
minister and award-winning
producer and
singer/songwriter. He is
the owner and founder of
the Metta Center of St.
Petersburg and Integral
Church – an interfaith and
interspiritual
organization in Tampa Bay.
Joran is the author of <a style="
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Church: A Handbook for
New Spiritual
Communities</em></a><em>, </em><a style="
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text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=6c2a8d250d&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Sentences</em></a><em>,
The Mountain and the
Snow</em> and co-author
of <a style="
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text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=9ed356a4e4&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Order of
the Sacred Earth</em></a> (with
Matthew Fox) and <a style="
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text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=6c5a389ac0&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Transform
Your Life: Expert
Advice, Practical
Tools, and Personal
Stories</em></a>. He
currently serves on the
board of Creation
Spirituality Communities
and has spoken around the
world about spirituality
and the innovation of
religion.</span></span></div>
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<h1 style="
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line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;"><span style="font-size:22px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Bishop
John Shelby Spong
Revisited</span></span></h1>
<h3 style="
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<span style="font-size:18px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The
Origin of the Bible, Part
III:<br>
Breaking Open the Books of
Moses The Torah</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>
April 2, 2008</span></span><br>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
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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;"><img width="125" height="132" align="left" style="
border:0px;width:125px;
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" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/84fbd945-363f-48e0-97f1-129010755fed.jpg"></span></span><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;font-size:14px;">The Bible
began to be written,
relatively speaking, only a
short time ago. When one
considers the fact that the
universe is some 13.7
billion years old and the
birth of the planet Earth
can be reliably dated
between four and a half and
five billion years ago, the
beginning of Bible writing
near 1000BC is very recent.
Scientists now date the
appearance of human life on
this planet somewhere
between two million and
100,000 years ago, depending
on how one defines human
life. The beginning of
civilization is placed by
anthropologists about 15,000
years ago. The person we
call Abraham, who is
regarded in the Bible as the
founder of the Jewish
nation, is generally dated
about the year 1850BC. Yet
the earliest strand of
continuous material in the
Bible appears to have been
written in the 10th Century
BC, making it a relatively
late arrival on the scene.
People have been trained by
the Bible itself to think
that the biblical story
begins at the moment of
creation. Bishop James
Ussher of Ireland, using the
Bible’s “inerrant words” and
dates, asserted that
creation actually occurred
on 23rd October 4004BC. One
of his later contemporaries,
James Lightfoot, added the
note that it was at 9am GMT!
If we want to analyze the
Bible, first we need to
comprehend the fact that the
earliest part of the Bible
to be written was only about
3000 years ago, between 950
and 1000BCE. That fact alone
immediately introduces a
note of radical relativity
into the biblical assertions
of many people.</span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Next
comes the realization that
if Abraham lived around
1850BC and the earliest
written part of the Bible
is after 1000BCE, then
everything that we learn
about Abraham in that
story had to have been
passed on orally for about
900 years or through as
many as 45 generations
before entering written
form. That knowledge
forces us to embrace the
fact that this biblical
story cannot be
historically accurate, but
has the character of folk
tale and myth in which the
facts of history are all
but lost inside the
developing tradition.
Abraham might well not
even have been a Jew. He
was identified with the
shrine at Hebron. Isaac,
who is described as his
son, was identified with
the shrine at Beersheba
and Jacob, called his
grandson in the Bible, was
identified with the shrine
at Bethel. Their
identifications with
specific shrines opens up
the possibility that these
three patriarchs may
originally have been
unrelated Canaanite holy
men, whose lives were
later intertwined and
interpreted as the
founding generations of
the Jewish people to
provide justification for
the Jewish invasion of
this land that occurred
around 1250BC. The purpose
of these patriarchal tales
in Genesis was to
establish the Jewish claim
that they were only taking
over this land that God
had promised to their
ancestors hundreds of
years earlier. As rational
claims these things make
no sense, but as
propaganda they
constituted then and still
do now powerful influences
in human history.<br>
<br>
Other facts about the
biblical story are even
more threatening to those
who treat the Bible
magically and who pretend
that in its words both
historic accuracy and
literal truth have been
captured. Moses, who is an
even more pivotal person
in Jewish history than
Abraham, lived some 300
years before the earliest
part of the Old Testament
was written. This means
that we must embrace the
fact that everything
attributed to Moses in the
Bible, including the
Exodus from Egypt and the
giving of the Law at
Sinai, are sacred
traditions that passed
through oral transmission
for as many as 15
generations before
achieving permanent status
in a written form. How
much did these crucial
Moses stories grow in that
oral period? Did the Red
Sea come to replace the
Sea of Reeds as the center
of the splitting of the
waters story? Did the
discovery of the droppings
of the Tamarisk tree in
the wilderness, with its
white flaky residue lying
on the ground, give rise
to the story of God
raining heavenly bread
called manna down on the
hungry Hebrew people? Did
an eruption of burning
natural gas in that oil
and gas rich desert give
rise to the story of God’s
call to Moses at a burning
bush that was not
consumed?<br>
<br>
What was the process
through which the
community’s code of laws,
including the Ten
Commandments, went before
they settled into the
familiar form that we find
in Exodus? Is the number
“ten” for the commandments
more important than the
content of the ten? Is the
fact that the Bible
contains a multiplicity of
versions of the Ten
Commandments an attempt to
explain the biblical story
that Moses broke the clay
tablets containing the Ten
Commandments when he saw
that the people of Israel
had forsaken the God who
had brought them out of
Egypt for a Golden Calf
and that he, therefore,
had to return to Sinai to
get a second version? How
much of the story of
Exodus is history and how
much of that narrative has
been bent to conform to
the developing liturgy of
the Passover that was
designed primarily to let
the Jewish people observe
the moment of their
national birth
liturgically? None of
these were questions that
could be raised until the
idea that the Bible is not
an eyewitness account of
ancient history was both
faced and accepted. With
each new discovery the
Bible began to be viewed
as a quite human book that
needs to be examined
critically and not as the
divinely-inspired literal
word of God that was
inerrant because it had
been revealed by or even
dictated by God on high.<br>
<br>
In the late 1800s, a group
of scholars in Germany led
by Professors K. H. Graf
and Julius Wellhausen
began to study rigorously
the details of the first
five books of the Bible –
Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy. These books,
called the Torah or the
Books of Moses, constitute
the most sacred part of
the Hebrew Scriptures and
were traditionally
required by the Jews to be
read in their entirety on
the Sabbaths of a single
year in the synagogues of
the Jewish world. These
scholars began to apply to
these texts the insights
of literary criticism. To
do this, they had to set
aside the claims that
these works constituted
the “Word of God”, or that
they possessed some
magical relationship with
truth. The results were
salutary and more than
anything else opened the
doors to a new academic
interest in the Bible
itself.<br>
<br>
Analyzing these texts
carefully, these scholars
discovered that there were
many observable
differences that could be
noted which led them to
the conclusion that the
Torah consisted of several
strands of what had once
been independent material.
One strand referred to God
by the name Yahweh, or at
least by an
unpronounceable set of
consonants that were
written as YHWH and it
called the holy mountain
of the Jews Mt. Sinai.
Another strand of material
called God by the name of
Elohim and it called the
holy mountain Mt. Horeb. A
third strand of material
reflected life in the
Kingdom of Judah in the
7th Century BC. Still
another strand appeared to
be dated during the time
of the Exile and perhaps
even later. When they
began to separate these
strands from one another,
other insights became
available. The material
that called God YHWH
appeared to be centered in
Jerusalem for it extolled
the institutions
identified with Jerusalem,
such as the King, the High
Priest and the Temple. It
reflected that period of
Jewish history in which
the nation was undivided
and was ruled from
Jerusalem. The strand that
called God Elohim
reflected the values of
the northern part of the
land of the Jews that
achieved independence from
Jerusalem rule in a
rebellion led by a
military general named
Jereboam against the newly
crowned Jerusalem king
named Rehoboam, who was,
the Bible tells us, the
son of Solomon and the
grandson of King David.
That rebellion, which
occurred around the year
920BC, was successful and
brought into being a new
Jewish state called the
Northern Kingdom, or
Israel.<br>
<br>
Ultimately, this new
nation had its capital and
worship center in the city
of Samaria and traced its
Jewish roots back
primarily to Joseph, whom
it called the “favorite
son” of the patriarch
Jacob. Joseph was said to
be the child of Jacob by
his favorite wife Rachel
and his father was said to
have endowed him, among
other things, with a coat
of many colors. The
patriarch Joseph in this
narrative of the Elohist
writer was always
juxtaposed to his older
brother Judah, who
remained the dominant
ancestral figure of the
Jewish people whose life
centered in Jerusalem.
Judah was the son of Jacob
by Rachel s older sister ‟
Leah. According to this
story Jacob had been
tricked into marrying Leah
instead of Rachel by their
father Laban. Only by
marrying Rachel’s older
sister did Jacob also
manage to win Rachel as
his second wife. Leah was
described in this text
rather cruelly as being
unloved and even as having
eyes that popped out of
her head like those of a
cow. This Elohist document
was designed on many
levels to counter the
claims made by the tribe
of Judah that they were
destined to rule over
these northern ten tribes.
In the service of this
theme the Elohist writer
went so far as to assert
that Judah betrayed his
younger brother Joseph by
selling him into slavery
for twenty pieces of
silver. In time, however,
Joseph was said to have
used this act of treachery
to save all of his
brothers, including Judah,
from death by starvation,
which he did by taking
them down into Egypt,
where they remained for
400 years, eventually
falling into slavery, from
which Moses would
ultimately lead them to
freedom in their “promised
land”. As these strands
came to be viewed as quite
different stories written
to reflect quite different
times in history, these
scholars began to
recognize that they had
cracked the code of
biblical origins. The
first five books of the
Torah were not written by
Moses or indeed by any
single author. They were a
composite of written
materials that had been
blended and intertwined
into a single story over a
period of as much as 500
years. Biblical
scholarship had taken an
enormous leap into
modernity. The old claims,
held so tenaciously for so
long by so many, were
shaken to their very
foundations. The era of
critical biblical
scholarship was being
born.<br>
<br>
We will return to this
brief overview later and
develop each of these four
strands of the Torah in
much greater detail, so
stay tuned.</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;">~ John
Shelby Spong</span></span></div>
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line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The 200th
Episode of Ask Science
Mike at the Amp Studios,
Los Angeles, CA is coming
up November 9th, and we’d
like you to be there for a
small, intimate live
recording. Space is
extremely limited, so sign
up soon. <a style="
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