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June 2019

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6/27/19, Progressing Spirit: Forrester: Living Christs of Touch; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 27 Jun '19

27 Jun '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv5885945327 #yiv5885945327templateBody .yiv5885945327mcnTextContent, #yiv5885945327 #yiv5885945327templateBody .yiv5885945327mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv5885945327 #yiv5885945327templateFooter .yiv5885945327mcnTextContent, #yiv5885945327 #yiv5885945327templateFooter .yiv5885945327mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } As soon as religion forgets about its roots in the eternal, it fails in its central task. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Living Christs of Touch | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. June 27, 2019 If your life were ending and you were given the chance to write a few words to encapsulate its essence, what would you say? The story wouldn’t have to be historical, or literally true, but it would need to offer an authentic window into your soul and the heart of your heart. I ask this because I am amazed with the story presented in John’s gospel to offer us the essence of Rabbi Jesus. This is the only gospel in which, as Jesus’ death approaches, he is depicted as caring for his friends by touching their bodies – no meal, a few words, and the washing of feet. Of all the possible stories John could have created to convey his convictions – a stunning miracle or a captivating oration – the gospel author simply has Jesus essentially engaging in tender and intimate touch. Inviting his friends to do the same (which is so much more than learning to imitate.) As his prospect for survival fades and the death of his bodily self approaches, Jesus does not retreat, nor does he attack. He surprisingly reaches out. He loves – not abstractly, not theoretically. Jesus teaches his spiritual path through embodiment. The depth of his own realization manifests in the utter simplicity of his action. Being is Loving, even in the face of apparent annihilation. In Jesus, the human survival instinct, where we are driven at almost all costs to preserve our bodily self, is not destroyed. The instinct is transformed as it is subsumed into a larger seamless Reality – within John’s brief account we are offered a vision of a spiritual path for humanity that is one of a revolutionary mystic. I recently finished reading Yuval Noah Harari’s magnificent and provocative book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harari pierces the bubble of the pervasive myth that homo sapiens reign triumphant at the summit of evolution after a rather peaceful, solitary and linear development. On the contrary, he chronicles how the dawn of homo sapiens is marred by our genocide of at least two other human species with whom we shared this earth – Denisovans and Neanderthals. Initially retreating back to east Africa after feeling their survival threatened, our ancient forebears reemerged, attacked and destroyed. Although there was some interbreeding among the various human species, detectable today in our own DNA, this was minimal. But, not only did our ancestors annihilate other humans, they were then responsible for the decimation of the majority of large mammals in Australia and the Americas (once thought to have been due to precipitous climate change). This violent dawn of the history of homo sapiens was a harbinger of countless tragedies to come over the following millennia. Often religion, as a cultural force that binds groups together, reinforced and offered justification for the destruction of others whose presence was perceived as threatening one’s own, and one’s tribe’s survival. Touch was neither tender nor intimate – it was terrifyingly terminal. Harari’s book is a sobering testament: Our species kills, and we destroy the lives of others readily and easily. When we fear for the survival of our bodily self, we feel compelled to retreat to find safety, or we ruthlessly attack: think Christ Church, New Zealand, or Sri Lanka, to name two recent atrocities. Our nervous system feels overwhelmed and we react out of desperation. Apart from Harari’s historical perspective, what I’m describing is not new. But the information does highlight the significance of John’s story about Jesus. Jesus is a wisdom figure in that vein of Axial spiritual teachers (chronicled in such illustrative detail by Karen Armstrong in The Great Transformation) who has realized that another human path is not only possible, such a path is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, our species will likely not survive, and neither will so many of the other magnificent and irreplaceable creatures with whom we share this sphere. John’s story of Jesus is the genesis of a new kind of spiritual path arising in Judaism – a revolutionary mystical path that offers homo sapiens a chance for our survival instinct not to be destroyed (which is impossible), but to be transformed by being incorporated into a larger Reality (John 17:21, “that all may be one”). If this path is to be fruitful, then Christianity will need to discover how to form faith-communities that are sources of instinctual transformation, rather than belief-clubs that reinforce the fear and prejudice and destruction deeply rooted in our species. This is complex, and my focus is simply one questioning thread within evolution’s tapestry: why do we exist as a Christian community? Even more fundamentally, what is it that is utterly unique about spiritual communities? What do they have to offer humanity that is absolutely necessary? The answer, as far as I can tell, has to do with realizing that our love of life needs to mature into the love of Being, which includes, yet transcends, the love of our bodily self. I believe that the one gift that a spiritual community can offer that is utterly unique, is that of being an experiential school providing an effective path for a soul to realize her true nature as a manifestation of Being. My sense is that this describes John’s community (as well as that of Thomas). John’s gospel has its own language to express this realization – Jesus comes to know himself as the Word become flesh. In John’s experience, when God speaks, the Logos manifests, and in history Jesus comes to be as the Logos. (Remember, this is poetry, not prose.) As I unpack the poetic insight of John, the Deep resounds and the song that is life sings. Each creature is a note of the Deep’s voice. There is no gap between the Deep and the Singing. Breath is expressed in sound and sound is shaped as word. Creatures are the sounding Words of God. A spirituality of Being is a radical and revolutionary mysticism in which all gaps disappear. Radical means rooted. Each and every creature is rooted in and as Being. We are each word uniquely shaping the exhalation (the creating flowing forth) of Being. This means that spiritual communities essentially exist that we might realize this truth of our nature, and in this realization become enraptured with the song of creating. Spiritual communities exist to invite us to fall in love with the moist breath of Being arising from our own depths – a Deep Source that never dies. In his captivating book, Resurrecting Jesus: Embodying the Spirit of a Revolutionary Mystic, Adyashanti writes in the spirit of John. He recognizes that “religion’s primary function is not about conveying ethical and moral codes”; it is “not about politics and power and hierarchy.” No, religion’s “primary function is to awaken within us the experience of the sublime and to connect us with the mystery of existence. As soon as religion forgets about its roots in the eternal, it fails in its central task.” And with that failing we are reduced to bestial destruction, with spirituality becoming a hollow shell of strident moral righteousness justifying the ego’s fears and desires to perpetuate the existence of our bodily self at all costs. If we, as homo sapiens, do not awaken to the sublime and realize our connection with the Holy Mystery of existence, which is Being, we will not know how to touch each other, and the creatures of creation, tenderly. Without our connection with the Holy Mystery of existence, we will continue our history of the destruction of life. But, with our direct realization that the mystery of Being is our true nature, then it becomes possible for us to mature, like Jesus, into revolutionary mystics. We become no longer preoccupied with the defensive protection of our small bodily self. We develop the capacity to be open to touch and healing in the face of threat. We become – not imitators of Jesus – but living, creative, Christs, where Word touches Word, and bodily death is incapable of harming or destroying Being. ~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Read online here About the Author Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. is an Episcopal priest, a student of the Diamond Approach for over a decade, as well as a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition. He is the founder of the Healing Arts Center of St. Paul’s Church in Marquette, Michigan, and the author of five books, including “I Have Called You Friends“, “Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms“, and “My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You” and “Beyond my Wants, Beyond my Fears: The Soul’s Journey into the Heartland“. Visit Kevin’s Blog: Essential Living: For The Soul’s Journey | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Helen What do you make of St. Matthew 25? A: By Bishop John Shelby Spong Dear Helen, Since the dominant narrative in the 25th Chapter of Mathew is the parable of The Judgment in which Jesus is purported to tell of that final moment when the Son of Man comes to separate the sheep from the goats, I assume that this is the content to which you are referring. The standard of judgment that is used as the basis of judgment comes as a surprise to both groups. Neither the sheep that were to be rewarded nor the goats that were to be punished seemed to know when it was they had done or not done the determinative deeds of feeding, clothing and visiting the Son of Man. The powerful conclusion was that "in as much as ye have done" (or not done) these acts of kindness "to the least of these" who are our brothers and sisters, you have done them to the Son of Man. It is a provocative parable. It suggests that the only way you can love God is to love your fellow human beings. The only way you can serve God is to serve the people of God's world. It points to the reality, recognized so powerfully by the prophet Amos, that the worship of God is nothing but human justice offered to God, and that human justice is nothing but the worship of God being acted out. This means that a religious system treating any human being out of a prejudiced definition, and thereby diminishing that person's humanity, cannot possibly be of God. It means that no one can rejoice in another's misfortune. It means that in the sight of God Iraqi casualties of war are as precious in the eyes of God as American casualties of war. This parable makes contact with that essential definition of God found in the first Epistle of John. "God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God." I am not impressed with the reward and punishment aspects of this parable. I think they reflect a rather outdated idea of God who is involved in behavior control. I do not think people mature if they do anything for either reward or punishment. The call of God in Christ is in my mind a call to step into a new humanity, beyond tribe and prejudice and all human definition of worth and status, so that each of us might be enabled to give away our love to others without stopping to evaluate whether our love is deserved. That is the meaning of Matthew 25 to me. ~ Bishop John Shelby Spong Published November 19, 2003 Read and share online here | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community! | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Fourth Fundamental: Miracles and the Resurrection, Part V Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong October 10, 2007 Did Jesus literally and physically walk out of his grave, restored to life, on the third day following his crucifixion? Those who drafted the Five Fundamentals thought so and insisted that anyone who did not say a convincing “yes” to that proposition could no longer claim to be a Christian. The resurrection of Jesus in a physical, bodily form was thought of as the central miracle, the one unwavering truth to which all must adhere. It gives one a sense of how badly eroded these fundamental convictions have become in our time when we realize that no reputable biblical or theological scholar today would be willing to assert that the resurrection of Jesus must be understood as a physical resuscitation of his dead body to live again inside the life of this world. Unfortunately, most people are not biblical scholars and they do not realize that this interpretation of the Easter experience that turns it into a narrative about the three days dead Jesus literally walking out of the tomb is the product of the third Christian generation and finds its origin primarily in the late ninth and early tenth decades when the gospels of Luke and John were written. This resuscitated body was never the transformative experience that occurred at some point after the crucifixion and that convinced Jesus’ disciples that something about his life transcended the ultimate barrier of death and opened a pathway into the eternity of God. Paul, the first writer in the New Testament knows of no resuscitated body. He does say that “if Christ be not raised we of all people are the most to be pitied.” The question is, however, what did he mean by the word “raised?” We note first that Paul always uses a passive word for the resurrection. Jesus never rises for Paul, God always raises him. God is the one who initiates the action. Jesus is the one acted upon. So the question becomes: to what did God raise Jesus? For Paul it was clearly that God raised him into what God is, that is into the eternal presence out of whom Jesus could manifest himself to certain chosen witness. In Romans (1:1-4), Paul states this very overtly. God designated or declared Jesus, to be the Son of God by the action of “the spirit of holiness” in raising him, not from death back to life in this world, but from death into God. Resurrection and ascension were two parts of the same action for Paul. Later when resurrection was changed to mean resuscitation, a means to get Jesus back into the life of God had to be developed. That is what accounted for the 10th decade narrative of Jesus ascending into the sky. When the minds of first century Christians tried to conceptualize their experience it was almost inevitable that they would in time literalize these symbols, but that was not the way this life changing experience was first understood. A second piece of Pauline writing develops this point even further with two specific references: In I Corinthians 15, written perhaps three years before the epistle to the Romans, Paul makes it clear that resurrection had nothing to do with a physically resuscitated body. He says, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.” He talks about a spiritual body growing out of the physical like a stalk of corn grows out of a seed. He stretches vocabulary almost to a breaking point to say that resurrection is real, but it is not physical. Later in that same epistle Paul lists those to whom the raised Christ “made himself known.” That word is frequently translated “appeared,” making people think of a physical encounter when the word more closely means “was made manifest” and suggests that the viewer has had his or her eyes opened to see a new reality. It has a sense about it of infinite sight, an insight or a second sight. Paul’s list of those to whom the raised Christ was made manifest is fascinating in many ways: Cephas (i.e. Peter) is first, and then come “the Twelve.” Please note that the group identified as “the Twelve” still apparently includes Judas Iscariot. Paul dates the resurrection “on the third day” by which time it would have been quite impossible for a replacement for Judas to have been elected. Indeed Luke says the choice of Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot did not take place for weeks. It is interesting to trace the origins of the story of the betrayal. It makes its first appearance when Paul dates the Last Supper as having occurred “on the night he was handed over.” It is the word translated “handed over,” that was later rendered betrayed, that becomes the catalyst around which the narrative about Judas Iscariot developed. Judas Iscariot does not appear to have been an original part of the earliest Christian story. There is no other reference to a betrayal in the entire Pauline corpus. It is quite obvious that Paul did not know the tradition that one of the Twelve had been a traitor. That narrative begins only in Mark. Paul’s list of “witnesses” continues with the mention of “500 brethren,” a story that has no counterpart in any gospel. Then it moves to James who is unidentified. Is this James Zebedee, James the son of Alphaus or James the brother of Jesus? The consensus among scholars today is that this is James the brother of Jesus, who became the leader of the church in Jerusalem and Paul’s adversary. Next come “the Apostles.” Who are they? Paul has already listed “the Twelve.” Is this a different group? Finally, Paul lists himself as one to whom Jesus was made manifest. Paul’s conversion is placed by most scholars between one and six years after the crucifixion. Paul could not have possibly seen a resuscitated, physical body. The book of Acts calls Paul’s “seeing of the Lord” a vision on the road to Damascus. While Paul himself does not mention the road to Damascus, he does talk about an ecstatic experience in which he was lifted to the “third heaven,” where he saw things that people do not normally see. Reading Paul convinces the scholars that resurrection understood as a physically resuscitated body was not an idea that Paul ever entertained. Recall that Paul wrote between the years 50 and 64. Mark, writing in the early years of the 8th decade, never relates an account of the raised Christ appearing to anyone. He just confronts his readers with an empty tomb, a symbol of the conviction that death cannot contain him. Matthew, writing in the early to mid 9th decade takes the first step toward a physical understanding of resurrection when he portrays the women in the garden as being capable of grasping the feet of Jesus. My perception is that one cannot grasp feet that are not physical. Two things, however, call Matthew’s accuracy in this instance into question. First, he has quite deliberately changed Mark’s narrative upon which he bases his entire gospel. In Mark the women never see anything other than an empty tomb. Matthew has thus altered his original source. Luke, who also has Mark in front of him as he writes, follows Mark’s text accurately. In Luke the women do not see the raised Christ. Even if one is a biblical literalist one has to face the fact that in the New Testament, by a two to one vote, this story in Matthew is regarded as an inaccurate alteration of the original text. The second thing that calls into question the accuracy of Matthew’s story of the woman seeing a physical, raised Jesus in the garden is that in this gospel’s only other resurrection narrative it is clearly not a resuscitated, physical Jesus who meets with the disciples. It is rather a vision of a glorified Christ who comes out of the sky robed in all of the messianic symbols that were traditionally attached to the Son of Man who would inaugurate the Kingdom of God. This visionary Christ comes to give the disciples the great commandment that launched the church. It is clearly not a resuscitated body, but a transformed, glorified one. Please recall that when Matthew wrote, no account of Jesus’ ascension had yet entered the developing Christian story. When we discover that in our earliest New Testament sources of Paul and Mark there is no physical, bodily seeing of the raised Jesus, then it becomes obvious that the physicality of the resurrected body is a later development of the tradition. Mark’s women confront the emptiness of the tomb, hear a resurrection announcement given by a young man in a white robe and then flee in fear saying nothing to anyone, despite the fact that the messenger had instructed them to go to Galilee with the promise that Jesus would meet him there. Is this to be understood as the promise to meet Jesus in some resurrected, physical form in Galilee? Or is it the eternal command to return home to one’s roots if one is to encounter the holy? In time it was certainly read in the former sense, but the evidence points to the latter sense being the original meaning. When one comes to the late ninth and tenth decades writing of the gospels of Luke and John, the seeing of the raised Lord has surely become physical. The flesh of his raised body can be physically touched. Indeed Jesus invites them to do so, maintaining that he is not a ghost since ghosts do not have flesh and blood. This raised Jesus eats, demonstrating a functioning gastro-intestinal system, he talks, teaches and interprets Scripture, demonstrating functional vocal chords, larynx and brain, and he walks with Cleopas and his friend on the road to Emmaus revealing a functioning skeletal system. The resurrection is now understood as a very physical phenomenon. Yet both Luke and John indicate that these images may be more symbolic than real since they also add very non-physical dimensions to the resurrected Jesus. In Luke, the body of Jesus can materialize out of thin air and it can also disappear in the same manner. In John, Jesus can enter the locked and barred upper room without bothering to open the doors. To turn the conviction that Jesus has somehow transcended the ultimate barrier of death and broken its power into a literal narrative about the resuscitation of a deceased body was probably inevitable, given the human need to use words to talk about life changing experiences. There are, however, great amounts of textual evidence that this was clearly not what Easter meant originally. What then did it mean? That is my topic for next week’s column. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | | | | | | Beloved Festival, August 9-12, 2019 Tidewater Falls, OR Beloved is a 4-Day Sacred Art, Movement, and Music Festival on the Oregon Coast. Beloved is a healing event, intended to experiment with new models for culture. In the troubled times in which we live, people become divided against each other and can more easily feel isolated and separated from the Soul of the World. At Beloved, we become a sudden, mystical community where everyone can feel the touch of spirit while also deepening the soul of community. Click here for more information ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Please help refugees on our southern border
by Robertson Work 22 Jun '19

22 Jun '19

Kaze (Kaye Hayes) Gadway and I just had a conversation concerning what the refugees need on our southern border. To buy these items below please send a Walmart, Amazon, or Visa gift card to: Kaye Gadway, 1111 Cardenas St., SE, Apt. 222, Albuquerque, NM, 87108. The most needed items are: pedialyte packets, sippy cups, short baby bottles, backpacks, underpants, full length socks, tee shirts in small or medium, shoe laces, cough medicine, children's aspirin, cough drops, Vaseline, and anti-biotic cream. Kaye is on the southern border now, and will return next month. She will post photos and stories next week. The refugee's suffering is heart breaking, but many people are helping as they can. Volunteers are also needed. Thank you. ................................................................................................ Recent book: A Compassionate Civilization: The Urgency of Sustainable Development and Mindful Activism - Reflections and Recommendations https://www.amazon.com/dp/1546972617 Blog: https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/<https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/><https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertsonwork/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/compassionatecivilization/ ________________________________ From: OE <oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of Frank Knutson via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2019 6:37 PM To: ORDER ECUMENICAL Cc: Frank Knutson Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Colleagues in Dallas? Randy Williams [cid:3602836d-ee96-477e-93bd-88cd7ca0e6d1@lamprd80.prod.outlook.com] [cid:404b8670-e42a-453a-97cd-4ebc74b0e559@lamprd80.prod.outlook.com] ❤ On Jun 22, 2019, at 3:03 PM, Wesson Gaige via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net>> wrote: Wesson Gaige is in Denton. On Jun 21, 2019, at 9:05 PM, James Wiegel via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net>> wrote: Strange situation. Who are colleagues in the vicinity of Dallas? With respect, Jim Wiegel _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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Colleagues in Dallas?
by James Wiegel 22 Jun '19

22 Jun '19

Strange situation. Who are colleagues in the vicinity of Dallas? With respect, Jim Wiegel

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6/20/19, Progressing Spirit: Brian McLaren: Looking, Leaning, and Leading Forward; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 20 Jun '19

20 Jun '19

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.yiv5913300782mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv5913300782 #yiv5913300782templateBody .yiv5913300782mcnTextContent, #yiv5913300782 #yiv5913300782templateBody .yiv5913300782mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv5913300782 #yiv5913300782templateFooter .yiv5913300782mcnTextContent, #yiv5913300782 #yiv5913300782templateFooter .yiv5913300782mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } In this third column, I’d like to share a bit about what I see and hope for progressive Christianity looking forward. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Looking, Leaning, and Leading Forward | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Brian D. McLaren June 20, 2019 [In two previous columns: How I Got Here and What Am I Now?, I shared a bit about my own backstory and where I am now as a progressive Christian. In this third column, I’d like to share a bit about what I see and hope for progressive Christianity looking forward.] In my 2016 book, The Great Spiritual Migration, I explained the ambivalence I feel when people ask me what I think is ahead for the Christian church in the West in general and America in particular. On the one hand, it’s natural for people who care about Christian faith to want to sort through the welter of statistics and get some sense of trendlines and forecasts. On the other hand, I think we humans have a bias to complacency, and we often use trendlines and forecasts to reinforce that bias. For example, if I tell people that I am hopeful regarding the future, I inadvertently reassure them that everything is going to be fine, which gives them permission to remain complacent. But if I tell them that I am deeply concerned, maybe even pessimistic, they interpret that bad news to mean that it’s too late for change, which gives them permission to give up and … remain complacent. And here’s the thing, that complacency easily becomes the deciding factor that leads to less desirable outcomes. Complacent progressive Christians will not thrive, especially when their conservative and regressive counterparts are energized, active, unified, and organized. I think in recent decades, progressive Christians have had a success hangover, and this success hangover has made complacency such an appealing temptation. What do I mean by success hangover? The progressive movements of the 60’s and 70’s began to bring women and LGBTQ persons into leadership (although both groups are still a long way from equality and equity), got racism and white supremacy on our radar (although we’re still such a long way from equality and equity in this regard too), made the environment a valid spiritual concern (although, once again, we have so far to go), and brought the vision of social gospel and liberation theologians to more people in the pews (again, that was only a beginning). Many mainline Protestant institutions welcomed these gains, and as a result, trust among progressive Christians in their institutions remained strong. Meanwhile, a counter-movement took shape in the late 70’s and has organized and grown for a full generation now. Sadly, many progressive Christians have been passive, complaining about the gains of this conservative resurgence, but failing to out-organize and out-energize it. The rise of Trumpism has begun to awaken some progressive Christians (although many still remain un-activated, preferring endless study and opinion-rendering to organizing and movement-building). But the pull back to complacency is strong, as evidenced in statements like “This is conservatism’s last gasp,” or “We’re dying, but they are too,” or “I hope our denominational leaders solve this,” or “I hope the church lasts long enough to pay my pension and host my funeral.” That’s why I think asking the wrong question in the wrong way actually helps determine a depressing answer to the question. A far better question, for me, is what vision of a desirable future would motivate the progressive Christians of today to abandon complacency and maximize our time, intelligence, money, and energy to build a spiritual movement to bring that desired vision to full fruition. So here’s my “elevator speech” for a vision of the future. (This better be at least a seven-story building so I’ll have time to get the whole speech out before the elevator doors open.) 1. An ecological civilization: It’s not that our churches are a problem and all other institutions are working OK. (Watched the news lately?) Virtually every institution in our society was developed to serve an extractive, exploitive, militaristic economy that now threatens our survival. Saving those institutions in their present form simply serves to prop up the present suicidal system. Our challenge in the years ahead (starting, like, yesterday) is to thread the needle … to let institutions reach a sufficient level of disequilibrium (and in some cases, full collapse) to be re-tooled or resurrected, without falling into complete chaos (a bigger danger, I fear, than most of us realize). We have to envision a whole new era of human civilization that lives within ecological (i.e. God-given) limits (remember the tree of destructive knowledge in the garden of Eden story?). And we have to envision churches that proclaim that vision, because a vision of genuine harmony among people, within people, with creation, and with God is, very literally, what Jesus meant when he said “the kingdom of God.” Were he here today, I imagine he would proclaim, “the eco-civilization of God.” This vision is not simply of a better church. It’s a vision of a better world. 2. Revolutionized and realigned local congregations: With such a vision to live into, our congregations would be revolutionized. There would not be one Sunday of “ordinary time,” in the sense that every Sunday we would have explicit, urgent goals in mind, seeking to bring our people along and spiritually activate them to activate others. I often say in my public speaking that fundamentalists are clear and certain about what they stand for, and mainline Christians are clear and certain of one thing only: that they are not fundamentalists. Many of our churches survive by ambiguity alone. By remaining utterly unclear about God, Jesus, gospel, mission, spirituality, and purpose, we hold people together for a weekly ritual of lightweight belonging. That would change. We would need new clarity about God as the creative and personal love by whom, through whom, and in whom we are connected to one another and all creation. We would need new clarity about Jesus, as the revolutionary leader who proclaimed the earth-saving gospel of the new civilization of God that is, indeed, still at hand and still within reach. We would need new clarity about our mission of joining God in the healing and restoring of the world. We would need new clarity about the absolute necessity of spiritual practices and a spiritual life that helps us become catalytic people. And we would align everything — absolutely everything — with that urgent, life-and-death purpose. No liturgy, polity, policy, or asset would be off limits in this radical realignment. 3. Streamlined and interdependent denominations: Denominations organized for individual self-preservation are expensive and slow-moving. Denominations organized for interdependent mission are expensive (in a very different way) and agile. In order to help bring to birth the next phase of the “new civilization of God” that the Spirit is hovering over the current chaos to create, we need to envision, not the abolishment of denominations, but the abolishment of denominationalism, i.e. denominations that exist for their own perpetuation. Imagine if the heads of communions spent forty to eighty percent of their time in collaboration, not as bureaucratic managers but as collaborative strategists. Imagine if leaders of mid-level judicatories became, instead, regional movement leaders, announcing a new kind of Christianity characterized by justice, generosity, and a commitment to the common good. 4. Creative difference and constructive division: Progressive Protestant and Catholic Christians need to end our denial (or recover from the “success hangover” I mentioned earlier). We are no longer mainline or mainstream. Our choice going forward is between being sub-cultural (a nostalgic remnant of some bygone era) or counter-cultural (visionary agents of a new day). Right-wing Evangelicals and Charismatics and right-wing Catholics have forged an effective forty-year alliance. They’ve made a deal with deal-maker Trump, the Republican Party, much of corporate America, and the weapons-industrial-complex (symbolized by the NRA) to create an alternative power structure that possesses abundant zeal, wealth, and weapons. They have a win-lose vision that is nationalistic, patriarchal, militaristic, white-supremacist, environmentally exploitative, and economically inequitable, and they are in charge, so deeply in charge that no single election will be a solution. Progressive Christians have to have the courage to say, “No. We are different. That is not us. We will not comply. We will not only resist, we will organize and build generations of spiritual activists for a better win-win vision, a vision for the common good that will in the long run benefit even our antagonists.” The word division obviously has negative connotations. But at its root, it means “different vision,” and we need to be confident and clear enough about our vision that we’re not afraid to be rejected and even persecuted for it. 5. A massive promotion for everyone, with massive re-invention to support the promotion. I am not joking when I say that we need to give everyone a promotion. First, we need to promote our members from consumers of religious goods and services to spiritual activists who bring our message and vision to their homes, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, political and economic systems, and social networks. Not only that, but we’ll rediscover the joy and proper meaning of “the e-word” (evangelism), deploying every spiritual activist as a community organizer and recruiter, inviting people into God’s new ecological civilization and economy of revolutionary love. Then, we need to promote our local pastors to quasi-bishops and seminary professors who are training member-ministers for their work as spiritual activists. They will stop simply teaching and instead train people to train others. They will stop simply curating a weekly worship event and instead gather people for a weekly (or monthly, or whatever) empowerment event to build momentum for a spiritual revolution, not just 52 times a year, but 365 days a year. The gravity pulling them back into conventional pastoral roles will be strong, and frankly, many will not be able to manage the change. That’s OK. We’re on the cusp of a massive turnover in professional ministry as the baby boom generation retires. We just have to be sure that we recruit as few younger leaders as possible to fill conventional roles and as many as possible to pioneer the new role. Seminaries will go through a revolutionary promotion as well. Instead of training people for conventional pastoral roles through conventional curriculums and accredited programs, they (or some of them) will become training centers for this new vision. Many seminaries, congregations, and denominational offices will, no doubt, divest of current properties and assets that were bought and developed for an old model and the dying era. Those assets can be redeployed for the new context. Then, regional and national denominational leaders will be promoted to the role of movement leaders, collaborating for the common good, building deep relationships first with their Christian counterparts and then with their multi-faith counterparts, working together to build a trans-denominational and multi-faith spiritual movement for justice, joy, ecological restoration, and peace in the Holy Spirit. By the way, the promotion includes all the people in the community who do not currently participate in the church. They become the new congregation, and they are seen as the beneficiaries of the vitality and vision of the collaborating congregations. 6. A creative collaborative mindset and skill-set I once met a Methodist minister who successfully ran for congress. After serving her term, she told me, “Conservatives can unite around a lie, but progressive can’t unite around the truth.” I think she spoke a sobering truth. For reasons I hope to explain in my upcoming book, “Faith After Doubt,” progressives of recent decades have been stuck in a critical, suspicious, and deconstructive stage of immature progressivism. In that stage, there is constant virtue-signaling and posturing as “moral progressive than thou,” with people constantly checking one all kinds of progressive purity tests. Beyond that necessary but insufficient stage, there is a broader and deeper mindset, enriched by contemplative and non-dual practices, that will develop the skill-set to walk and work together. May that day come quickly. 7. A bold announcement Once momentum is building in the previous six ways, it will be time to announce that something new is present, a new kind of church, a new kind of Christianity, a new understanding of God, gospel, and everything everywhere. This announcement needs to be local and regional, bubbling up simultaneously in rural areas, small towns, and big cities. Once this new kind of Christianity is being modeled anywhere, it can spread everywhere. The necessary conditions for this vision to be born are in place more than ever, I think. A vibrant and integrative progressive Christian theology is taking shape, more and more leaders know that the future will not be a revival or continuation of the past, people are rediscovering vital spiritual practices, and nostalgia for some supposed golden age is being replaced with a sense of urgency and opportunity. Things may be getting bad enough, finally, that they are ready to get better. The one obstacle that I see is complacency, the temptation to yield to either pessimism or optimism rather than opt into a sense of empowerment. If there is to be a hopeful future, not just for the church, but for the whole planet, it will depend on you and me becoming God’s collaborators, God’s agents, God’s embodiment to bring it to be. We can’t wait for someone else to fix things. Everything hangs on our faith, hope, and love ... our congregations, our networks, and our hearts, voices, and hands. This truly is a moment of great danger and ultimate opportunity, a time to look, lean, and lead forward. ~ Brian D. McLaren Read online here About the Author Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is an Auburn Senior Fellow and a leader in the Convergence Network, through which he is developing an innovative training/mentoring program for pastors, church planters, and lay leaders called Convergence Leadership Project. He works closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group. His most recent joint project is an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story. Other recent books include: The Great Spiritual Migration, We Make the Road by Walking, and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? (Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World). Brian has been active in networking and mentoring church planters and pastors since the mid 1980’s, and has assisted in the development of several new churches. He is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings – across the US and Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He has written for or contributed interviews to many periodicals, including Leadership, Sojourners, Tikkun, Worship Leader, and Conversations. A frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs, he has appeared on All Things Considered, Larry King Live, Nightline, On Being, and Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. His work has also been covered in Time, New York Times, Christianity Today, Christian Century, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN.com, and many other print and online media. Brian is married to Grace, and they have four adult children and five grandchildren. His personal interests include wildlife and ecology, fly fishing and kayaking, music and songwriting, and literature. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Vicky How can I feel the presence of Jesus in my life? Every time I want to know Jesus, I suddenly start having doubts he ever existed. A: By Rev. Irene Monroe Dear Vicky, Evidence of the “Historical Jesus" has been debated for millennia. Doubts about Jesus’s existence can be seen by many hard-line Christian conservatives as a sign of apostasy- resulting, at best, in harsh condemnation, and, at worse, in excommunication. With the lack of reliable early sources, the anonymity of the scribes, each promoting their gospel spin, and records of how soon after Jesus’s crucifixion his life was documented, the search for the ‘Historical Jesus” will go on for many more millennia. However, early sources do indicate that Jesus lived in the 1st century C.E. in Palestine. Each of the four gospels consistently depicts the type of man Jesus was: he walked fiercely in the face of danger; he spoke truth to power, and he demanded justice. I feel the presence of Jesus in the work of social justice that takes place out in the world, like at soup kitchens, battered women's shelters, and shelters for the homeless, to name a few. The foundation for my life’s work is the biblical mandate in Matthew 25:35-45 where Jesus said: “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you took me in… In truth I tell you, in so far as you failed to do it for the least of these, however insignificant, you failed to do it for me." Social justice provides the foundation for a healthy and multicultural society which Jesus wanted. Social Justice grows out of the sense that each person - regardless of their race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and religious belief - is of equal value which we read in John 4:1-42 about the Samaritan woman at the well . And, social justice challenges us with the demand and moral imperative that we must provide all people with equitable opportunities and rights that do not truncate their life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, which would enable them to realize their full human potential, and capacity to participate in society. >From the depiction of Jesus in the Bible, we learn that Jesus who - hung out with the wrong people, healed at the wrong time, visited the wrong places, and said the wrong things - was about radical inclusion. The Gospels are replete with examples of Jesus listening to the voices of the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the dispossessed. For me, the presence of Jesus is felt the most when our acts of social justice appropriately address the rights of the most disadvantaged in our society. Our job out in the world is to remember that our longing for the presence of Jesus is also inextricably tied to his biblical mandate in Matthew 25. ~ Rev. Irene Monroe Read and share 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. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community! | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited If Christianity Cannot Change, It Will Die Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong September 12, 2007 Christianity as a religion of certainty and control is dying. The signs of that death are present in the emptiness of the churches of Europe, in the decline of candidates for the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church, in the increasing obsession about issues of sexuality that bedevil church leaders, and in the rising secularization of our society. It is also seen, however, in the hysterical fundamentalism that marks conservative Evangelicals and Catholics alike in our world today. Fundamentalism is not a virtue; it is a sign of being out of touch with reality. Christianity is not dying because people are abandoning “revealed truth,” as conservatives like to argue, but because the three major concepts of what was once called “revealed” truth are no longer credible today. These three concepts are: Christianity’s definition of God, Christianity’s definition of human life and Christianity’s understanding of life after death. In this week’s column I want to examine each of these concepts. The traditional understanding of God has defined the deity as “a Being” supernatural in power, dwelling somewhere outside this world, understood after the analogy of a human parent and capable of acting in protective and miraculous ways. I call this “the theistic definition of God” and so deeply has it dominated Christian thought that one who cannot still believe in this theistic deity today is assumed to be “an atheist,” and thus is said to believe in no God at all. That accusation makes sense only if theism is the only way in which God can be conceptualized. I do not believe that this is the case. Theism is dying because the expansion of human understanding about the size of the universe, begun with Copernicus and aided by Einstein and the Hubble telescope, has destroyed what we once assumed to be the theistic God’s dwelling place above the sky. That has the effect of dislocating our theistic mentality in a total way. When Isaac Newton, some 50 years after Galileo, revealed to us the precise ways in which the laws of the universe operate, the arena in which our claims about miracles, magic and God’s ability to act on our behalf shrank perceptibly. The power of God to determine the weather patterns, so prominent in the biblical stories of Noah, Moses and Elijah, was destroyed by our knowledge about weather fronts, low pressure systems, El Nino winds and the ways in which tectonic plates collide far beneath the earth’s surface. The power of God to control behavior by dispensing sickness and health was destroyed by the rise of medical science and its understanding of both the causes and cures of sickness, none of which had anything to do with punishment for not offering proper sacrifices or not obeying the divinely inspired laws. As each new insight removed one more arena in which the theistic God was thought to operate, this God increasingly was reduced to impotence and had no more divine work to do. Thus God became quickly and frighteningly an almost irrelevant and fading presence in modern life. If there is no way to define our experience of God except in theistic language, then there is little hope for this God’s continued survival. Next Christianity defined human life as that which had been created perfect in God’s image at the dawn of history, but falling into sin by an act of willful disobedience. This idea meant that human beings were now theologically defined as lost and incapable of achieving salvation unless rescued by an external divine power. Salvation meant being restored to our pre-fallen status and the “savior” had to be seen as the emissary or even as the incarnation of the theistic deity. It was against this background that the story of Jesus has traditionally been told. In that narrative, the cross became the place where our salvation was procured by the death of Jesus. It was strange theology transforming God into a merciless judge, Jesus into the perpetual victim and you and me into being guilt ridden creatures. It was, however, so popular that the words “Jesus died for my sins” became the Protestant mantra and this understanding of the cross as the place of divine sacrifice came to be reenacted weekly in the Mass as the heart of Catholic worship. It was the work of Charles Darwin, now deeply affirmed by the discovery of DNA that links all life into one unfolding whole, that rendered this Christian understanding of the origins of human life to be obsolete at best, dead wrong at worst. Human beings have never possessed a perfection from which they could fall. Original sin is thus a theological hoax. Click here to read full essay. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Beloved is a 4-Day Sacred Art, Movement, and Music Festival on the Oregon Coast. Beloved is a healing event, intended to experiment with new models for culture. In the troubled times in which we live, people become divided against each other and can more easily feel isolated and separated from the Soul of the World. At Beloved, we become a sudden, mystical community where everyone can feel the touch of spirit while also deepening the soul of community. READ ON... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Winds&Waves reminder for June
by ICA International 19 Jun '19

19 Jun '19

Any problem reading this message please click or paste this URL in your browser's address bar http://windswaves.icai-archives.org/new-ww/ en français en español June 2019 This is a reminder for entries to our new Winds and Waves Magazine We are delighted to invite you to share your stories here via this link medium.com/winds-and-waves We also welcome videos that show the work you are doing. And we would be delighted if you would share stories from Winds and Waves on your own social media networks. For information about how to work with Winds and Waves on Medium: Please see attachment here Please be sure to send this invitation on to your ICA members and friends, colleagues, partners, family, so they too can participate. You can get further information by contacting us at icawindandwaves(a)gmail.com Best wishes, Robyn, Dharma, Roma, Rosemary, Isabel, Peter, for W&W team Published by The Institute of Cultural Affairs International, 401 Richmond Street, West, Toronto, ON. M5V 3A8, Canada All rights reserved. For more information or to unsubscribe, email: inform(a)ica-international.org

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6/13/19, Progressing Spirit: The Concepts of the Virgin Birth and Physical Resurrection; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 13 Jun '19

13 Jun '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0137801257 #yiv0137801257templateBody .yiv0137801257mcnTextContent, #yiv0137801257 #yiv0137801257templateBody .yiv0137801257mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0137801257 #yiv0137801257templateFooter .yiv0137801257mcnTextContent, #yiv0137801257 #yiv0137801257templateFooter .yiv0137801257mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } Many Christians struggle with both concepts. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Concepts of the Virgin Birth and Physical Resurrection | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Irene Monroe June 13, 2019 Both the virgin birth and physical resurrection are the pillars of the Christian faith, and many Christians struggle with both concepts. The Virgin Birth As a present-day feminist theologian, I take issue with the androcentric canonization of the virgin birth narrative as either a misinterpreted text, at best, or a fictive tale, at worst. Jesus born of a virgin upholds religious patriarchy at the expense of demeaning women and justifying keeping us in non-powerful positions within the church. The traditional rendering of this narrative creates two competing and unrealistic female archetypes - sinful Eve and virginal Mary. Both of these archetypes denigrate and dismiss women’s sexuality and sexual desire; they spill out into society, impacting social issues like reproductive justice, sex work, same-sex relationships, to name a few. And these archetypes are harmful in the psychosexual development of young girls. Mary’s miraculous pregnancy, the Christian belief that Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born to a virgin mother, conceals a reality that Mary might have been sexually active, seduced or raped-that would not be contested in today’s #Me Too Movement. A virgin birth is not biologically possible. Without Matthew 1:23 and Luke 1:27 we would know nothing about it, because it’s not mentioned in the rest of the New Testament, and never mentioned in Paul’s epistles. This narrative man-splains a religious shift toward biblical inerrancy and blind obedience of scripture, versus employing a reasoned faith that asked questions. “The faith in the Virgin Birth reflects the way American Christianity is becoming less intellectual and more mystical over time,” the New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof, wrote. “The Virgin Mary is an interesting prism through which to examine America’s emphasis on faith, because most Biblical scholars regard the evidence for the Virgin Birth … as so shaky that it pretty much has to be a leap of faith.” The Hebrew meaning of the word ”virgin” means a young woman of childbearing age, which has nothing to do with virginity. The 1970 version of Isaiah 7:14 says “the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” In translation it would read the following: A young woman of childbearing age shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”). Mary was an unwed mother who gave birth to a child. This phenomenon occurs in everyday life, and has been occurring since before Jesus was born. The Physical Resurrection Jesus’s physical resurrection from his crucifixion is a fantastical tale. The narrative is framed within both Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature as both metaphoric and mystic. I preach about Jesus’s resurrection as a way to examine social injustices confronting marginal and disenfranchised people; for socially conscious Christians to think anew about a topic, and then act to bring about change. For example, it would be an egregious omission to gloss over the unrelenting violence that took place during Jesus’s time, especially in light of the ongoing violence in today’s society toward people of color, women, Jews, Muslims, and LGBTQ people, to name a few. However, the deification of violence as a resurrection narrative that has been spun as redemptive suffering has deleterious implications that are not-so-benignly played out today from the playground to the courtroom. The normative rendering of the resurrection text, in my opinion, desensitizes killing, giving rise not only to a cavalier attitude to kill those who pose a physical threat to our lives, but also giving rise to a self-righteous attitude to kill those who are believed to pose social and political threats to the status quo. In other words, the notion of equating violence to redemptive suffering is not only bad theology, it is also a bad paradigm to demonstrate how God, who so loved the world that he offered up his only begotten son to save all of humanity, sacrificed him in the form of a sadomasochistic flogging. Jesus suffered before and during his walk up the hill to Golgotha at Calvary. Without the contextualization and accountability of the violence enacted upon Jesus, cycles of violence continue in the world. As a figure that has dominated Western culture and Christianity for over 2,000 years, too little attention is paid to Jesus's death. If more focus was spent on the reasons for his death and the systems of oppression that brought about his demise, violence against marginalized people would cease to exist. However, by focusing on the death of Jesus, and how justice might be adjudicated from it, we are forced to remember history. In the year 33 A.D., Jesus was unquestionably a religious threat to conservative Jews because of his iconoclastic views and practice of Jewish Law. He was viewed as a political threat to the Roman government simply because he was a Jew. In other words, in conservative Christianity, the cross as the locus of God’s atonement for human sin raises a myriad of questions for those of us on the margins of society. As an instrument for execution by Roman officials during Jesus's time, the cross's symbolic nature and its symbolic value can both be seen as the valorization of suffering and abuse, especially in the lives of the oppressed. For those of us on the margins, a Christology mounted on the belief that "Jesus died on the cross for our sins," instead of "Jesus died on the cross because of our sins," not only deifies Jesus as the suffering servant, but it also ritualizes suffering as redemptive. While suffering points to the need for redemption, suffering in and of itself is not redemptive, and it does not always correlate to one's sinfulness. For example, the belief that undeserved suffering is endured by faith, and that it has a morally educative component to, it makes the powerful insensitive to the suffering of others, and it forces the less powerful to be complacent to their suffering - therefore, maintaining the status quo. Jesus' suffering on the cross should never be seen as redemptive any more than the suffering of African-American men dangling from trees in the South during Jim Crow America. The lynchings of African-American men were never as restitution for the sins of the Ku Klux Klan, but were, instead, because of their sins that went, for decades, unaccounted for. In other words, Jesus's death on the cross and the lynching of African-American are synonymous experiences. As a profoundly controversial icon in Christian liberation theologies for many feminists, womanists, African Americans, and LGBTQ people, the cross is the locus of redemption, insofar as it serves as a lens to critically examine and make the connections between the abuses of power and institutions of domination that brought about the suffering Jesus endured during his time. As well as, to the abuses of power and institutions of domination that bring about the suffering which women, people of color and sexual minorities are enduring in our present day. When suffering is understood as an ongoing cycle of abuse that goes on unexamined and unaccounted for, we can then begin to see its manifestation in systems of racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism in our everyday lives. With a new understanding about suffering and how it victimizes the innocent and it aborts the Christian mission of inclusiveness, Jesus’s death at Calvary and his resurrection invite a different hermeneutic than its classically held one. Many Christians do not realize that with the classical view of the cross held by many conservatives in their denominations as the exaltation of Jesus as male, Jesus as white, and Jesus as heterosexual, this view not only disinvites the many faces of God that should appear on the cross with Jesus, but it also disinvites solidarity among diverse groups of people who do suffer.~ 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. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Marlon What “exactly” is an atheist? A: By Rev. Gretta Vosper Dear Marlon, Just as the term “believer” means very different things to those who use it, so do to does the word “atheist” include a wide set of definitions. I’m digging into it in a fairly technical way here, but I hope it helps. There are different groups who use the term “atheist” and each uses it in a different way. Theologians Theologians might use the word "atheist" to describe a belief system that excludes the idea that the god called God is a being and is supernatural. They may acknowledge an idea of god, but not one that intervenes in human affairs (directly or by changing people minds so that they act differently). In my first book, I identified as a nontheist. In my second, having realized that many nontheists still held onto the idea of intervention, I identified as a theological non-realist which meant that I do not believe there is a god out there doing anything.[i] A decade into my ministry, however (and long before I wrote my first book on the subject or identified as an atheist), I realized that the idea of god that I held was invisible to others if I used the word "god" to talk about it. Everyone listening to me had a different concept of god, many of which got in the way of what I was trying to convey. My conception of god is one of relationship, represented in the United Church's most recent statement of faith by the term "Bond of Love": I do not believe in a being but I do believe in the enormous power of human community and the "god" created within meaning-making community. The “power of god” is the power created in human relationship, not something outside of it. I no longer use the term, however, for the simple reason that I want to be understood. Humanists There are those who use the term “atheist” to make it clear they do not believe in religious doctrine but hold a scientific view of the universe. “Humanist” is a term very closely aligned with “secularist,” but the two often differ. A secularist may hold religious beliefs but still argue that religion and state should remain separate - one of the fundamental definitions of secular. Additionally, the term humanist was often (if not originally) used to argue that humans are the most advanced of all life on the planet. Most humanists I know are humble folk who see humanity as part of the web of life, not as its crowning glory. Humanists may or may not use the term “atheist” to describe their beliefs. Atheists Atheists themselves, are divided on the meaning of term and use the words "strong" or "weak" to describe themselves. Many, even including Richard Dawkins, refuse the term "strong" atheist because it conveys that you "know" for a fact that there is no god. Dawkins even calls believers "weak atheists" because he argues that even very strong believers cannot possibly know if God exists. I'm pretty sure believers would argue he was wrong, but Dawkins would probably win since the burden of proof would be on the shoulders of the believers, and they wouldn’t be able to provide it. I'm a weak atheist; I do not see any proof for a god in our world[ii]. But, like Dawkins, I cannot identify as a strong atheist because I couldn't possibly know, as a matter of fact, that there is no god. The evidence against one, however, is pretty damning, I must say. Emotional Definitions All of the above are rational definitions of the term. The more common use of it is, I believe, emotional. For whatever reasons – fear, anger, arrogance – the term "atheist" is often used as a pejorative. Although my choice to identify as an atheist came long after I made it clear in my books that I did not believe in a supernatural god, or a being that could intervene in human affairs, people have reacted dramatically to the word. Even colleagues trained in theology have assumed what I mean and chosen to laden that assumption with negative stereotypes, primarily believing I am a religion-hater. They miss the more important facet of the work we do at West Hill, which is to take the core message of liberal Christianity – love one another – and deliver it without religious language for those who would embrace the work of loving one another but not the virgin birth, the Bible as God’s word, Jesus as Saviour, etc. By not using religious language, we welcome both believers who do not require it and everyone else, even those of other faiths. The emotional reaction to the word “atheist” has made many blind to the importance of our work. I chose to describe myself as an atheist as an act of solidarity with those around the world who are dying for the right to freedom of expression. People continue to be assassinated by religious zealots in Bangladesh and imprisoned elsewhere simply for being humanist or identifying as atheist. The bigotry that was revealed in my own denomination by my use of the term reminds me that we must all be advocates for those who identify as atheists, and consistently work to bring the emotional response down to a more considered and rational one. ~ Rev. Gretta Vosper Read and Share Online Here About the Author The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada minister who is an atheist. Her best-selling books include With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three books of poetry and prayers. [i] Philosophical non-realists argue that nothing exists; for example: I cannot prove my keyboard is beneath my hands; everything exists only in our minds. I am only a non-realist as far as gods go, so I call myself a theological non-theist: I do believe the keyboard is beneath my hands ... though I must admit, I have still not been able to answer the question, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound?"[ii] If you come across a youtube video in which I say I am a strong atheist, that’s simply because I mixed up the terms! | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community! | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Why Should People Pay Any Attention to the Christian Church on Sexual Matters? Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong August 29, 2007 In recent decades the primary battles that have been fought in the Christian Church have not been about theology, but about issues of human sexuality. Huge debates polarize the Church on whether priesthood will be limited to males; the morality of birth control and abortion; who has the right to decide on what birth control will be legally available; whether celibacy for priests should be required, and the role and place of gay and lesbian people in the Church. These debates have received front page treatment in newspapers across the world as the media, and presumably their audiences, continue to regard them as newsworthy. Those parts of the Christian Church that move ahead by ordaining women or qualified homosexual candidates into their ministry are portrayed as doing very controversial and extraordinary things. The attempt to excommunicate the ones who are initiating the change or to threaten the church’s fabric with schism is also regarded as newsworthy. The presumption behind this media coverage is that the Church is actually qualified to speak with competence on matters of sexuality. I challenge the correctness of that presumption. >From where does this presumption come? Why do people think that the Church has sufficient expertise in matters of sexuality to warrant any attention? Is this not the same institution that has taught us that sex is both evil and dirty, and that ‘sexlessness’ is the higher calling into holiness? The Christian Church has actually defined marriage as a compromise with sin. Is a sexless world imaginable or even desirable? This institution has so deeply attached guilt to sex that it has produced in Christian countries either a repression of healthy sexuality among the faithful or an irresponsible free love among the dismissive. Is either a healthy alternative? Throughout its history the Church has also systematically filled women with deep feelings of inadequacy by declaring that menstruation produces a state of uncleanness. No one today believes that attitude to be based on anything other than ignorance and prejudice. One unspoken, but always present, argument used to prevent women from being ordained in several churches is that menstruation makes women a potentially polluting presence in holy places. That is also why the choirs in the great European Cathedrals consisted only of men and boys. This institution has even informed the world that the ideal woman is a “virgin mother.” Since it is impossible for anyone to be both a virgin and a mother, no woman could ever live up to the ideal. Thus in one stroke all women were made to feel morally compromised. With the ideal not possible, this Church then proceeded to offer women a consolation prize. They could be virgins who joined the nunneries (as the brides of Christ and clearly the higher calling) or they could be mothers. If they chose marriage and motherhood they were still taught that the only redeeming purpose for sex was procreation, so any birth control practice that inhibited or minimized the possibility of pregnancy was a mortal sin. That is where the prohibition against birth control had its origin. In an overpopulated world is not the absence of effective family planning itself immoral? It was out of the Roman Church’s visceral negativity to birth control that it recently instructed its adherents in Africa that condoms were not even morally acceptable for use even inside marriage to protect a wife from becoming infected by her HIV positive husband. Is it not a sign of distorted values to place a religious rule ahead of a woman’s life? There is no end to this litany of ecclesiastical malpractice, that reveals both contradictory and incompetent behavior. This institution first limited its priesthood to unmarried men, and then refused to acknowledge the fact that vast numbers of homosexual males found in this celibate priesthood a place in which to hide. Attempts to deny the fact that “mandatory celibacy” created the largest closet in which gay men have found sanctuary in Western history are laughably naive. When a gay man, however, dares to be honest about his priestly identity, the Church reacts with ecclesiastical uproar. Does anyone really believe that Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire is the first gay bishop in the Anglican Church? He is not even the only gay bishop currently serving in that Church! His distinction is that he is the first honest gay bishop. Indeed to illustrate the total duplicity present in church hierarchies, some of the fiercest critics of homosexuality in the Church today are closeted homosexual bishops! I can name them on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. They have occupied the highest positions of ecclesiastical power. Repressed and dishonest homosexuality is never healthy, but that has been what the Church has practiced for centuries and yet people, for reasons that defy rationality, continue to listen to church leaders for guidance on sexual issues. The sexual values of the church are so deeply confused that travesties occur frequently. When the rampant abuse of children by priests was revealed, the church responded by covering up the evidence, transferring the violators and promoting their protectors like Cardinal Law. In England recently a man who was the trainer of clergy for one of that nation’s largest Anglican dioceses was forced to resign his appointment as a bishop because he was honest about his sexual orientation. No one seemed upset about that, however, when he was the trainer of clergy. Is this not a mixed message totally lacking in credibility? In the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI began his pontificate promising to remove homosexuals from the priesthood of his Church. When the fine print was read, however, he only wanted to prevent “activist” gay males from “entering” the priesthood. If he went beyond that, the shortage of priests in that church would become unbearable. Estimates are that fully half of their ordained clergy throughout history, including bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes have been closeted gay men. I would not bet against the truth of that estimate. To bolster these irrational stances on sexual behavior, Church leaders regularly use the Bible as their final authority. In doing so, they reveal an amazing ability to be quite selective, while appearing oblivious to centuries of biblical scholarship. They seem not to notice that the Bible has been quoted through the ages on the wrong side of every social change, including ending the “divine right of kings” while clothing sexism inside high sounding phrases like “sacred tradition.” The Bible has also been used to promote immoral wars like the Crusades and to undergird the tyranny of right wing dictatorships in the third world. The Bible has even been quoted to justify the corporal punishment of children, producing in the process scandalous examples of abuse in both church and church related schools. In the light of these things why there any surprise that the Bible’s credibility has become minimal? With a record like that, why does anyone still listen to the public proclamations about sex emanating from the Christian Church? Why would any woman be willing to heed the “moral opinion” of an all-male ecclesiastical group that pontificates in the name of a God called “Father,” about what is moral for a woman to do with her own body? Women, who are precluded from the decision making ecclesiastical processes, are quite rightly refusing to be subjected to such uninformed ignorance. With these sexual battles draining its energy in hopeless conflicts they are destined to lose, no one seems to notice how little attention the Church leaders pay to the Christ figure, who identified himself with the marginalized of his society, the lepers, the Samaritans and even the woman taken in the act of adultery. He broke the bands of religious prejudice against women by engaging the woman by the well in conversation, by encouraging Mary, the sister of Martha, to choose the role of a pupil for herself and by having female disciples who “followed him all the way from Galilee.” How was it then possible for Christianity, formed by the followers of this Jesus, to diminish throughout its long history and always in the name of God, the lives and the humanity of so many? I think of the Church’s traditional victims: the Jews, the “heretics,” the scientists who introduced us to a new understanding of the world and finally people of color, women and homosexual persons everywhere, and wonder what these ecclesiastical victims think when they hear church leaders say: “the Bible is the inerrant word of God.” The gospel of John quotes Jesus, I think correctly, as saying “I came that they might have life, abundantly.” One cannot give life and diminish people’s humanity at the same time. Yet in spite of that record many people still seem to think that institutional Christianity must be listened to in the debate about changing sexual patterns among human beings. In the light of this record, I wonder why. I am a bishop in the Church. I am deeply devoted to the Christ who stands at the heart of the Christian story. I treasure the sacred scriptures of my faith tradition and study them daily. Nonetheless, I am repelled by so much that I see emanating from within institutional Christianity today. Everywhere I go I confront a spiritually hungry population, but one that is increasingly unwilling to listen to the religious claims of those who have done such evil to so many while claiming that they are speaking for Christ. Most people I meet think that their only options are to continue to be part of this kind of abusive tradition or to rid themselves of all religion. That is why atheism has become such a popular subject for books today. I think a better alternative is to call the Christian Church into a new reformation that will transform it from being a power-seeking institution designed to create religious conformists to one whose goal is to enhance our common humanity. That would be for the Church to walk in a vastly different direction. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Wild Goose Festival "At Wild Goose, people flock together to celebrate a way of life rooted in faith, justice, creativity, and beauty. It’s like a family reunion … .” Brian McLaren Click here for more information. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Schubert Ogden
by W. J. 12 Jun '19

12 Jun '19

Another theological giant has fallen.Marshall Theologian Ogden pushed himself and his students | United Methodist News Service | | | | | | | | | | | Theologian Ogden pushed himself and his students | United Methodist News... Longtime Perkins professor offered challenging ideas about Christian faith and was a taskmaster for students, le... | | |

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Fwd: The Transestablishment Stance
by James Wiegel 08 Jun '19

08 Jun '19

I am scared about the future, too, Carleton—especially when imagining the world my grandkids may live in. In some ways, it is a relief to me to follow our national news and just focus on the squabbles in Washington — and not just any squabbles, but the ones JUST NOW, the ones that JUST MIGHT HAPPEN later this morning or this week. I get lost in the flood of information. Trying for a bigger picture seems scarier. I read a poem in the book Bratsk Station that had a line in it that keeps coming back to me. It went something like this: > “I am past 30. I fear the future. At night I hug the sheets between my knees.” > > Working on the ICA Global Archives website on social change, I ran across this video clip from 1965 — seems relevant > A Brand New World That We Didn't Ask For The Bold Community 1965 > > > A Brand New World That We Didn't Ask For The Bold Community 1965 > > https://icaglobalarchives.org/collections/analyzing-social-dynamics/ This would be an example for me of Transestablishment — https://reform.ps/ > > Jim Wiegel > “That which consumes me is not man, nor the earth, nor the heavens, but the flame which consumes man, earth, and sky." Nikos Kazantzakis > > 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353 > 623-363-3277 > jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com > www.partnersinparticipation.com >

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Global Buzz for June
by ICA International 08 Jun '19

08 Jun '19

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... Global Buzz Report: June 2019 Click above or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-19/2019-06-01.php And: read the latest ICAI Winds & Waves Magazine brought to you now on Medium.com See here: https://medium.com/winds-and-waves ICAI Communications

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7/6/19, Progressing Spirit: Gretta Vosper: The Future Church: Over to You; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 06 Jun '19

06 Jun '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv4794884649 #yiv4794884649templateBody .yiv4794884649mcnTextContent, #yiv4794884649 #yiv4794884649templateBody .yiv4794884649mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv4794884649 #yiv4794884649templateFooter .yiv4794884649mcnTextContent, #yiv4794884649 #yiv4794884649templateFooter .yiv4794884649mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } The Cost of the Future Church | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Future Church: Over to You | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Gretta Vosper June 6, 2019 It was a pretty normal Sunday morning. The pews were still frightfully empty but I’d become accustomed to the behaviour patterns of the West Hill congregation, a last-a minute crowd if ever I’d seen one. With the precision timing of a military drill, they spilled in from the parking lot and lobby just as the first significant bits of the service began filling the space. Normal, that is, except for what was about to happen. I had no sermon prepared to deliver. That isn’t as unusual as it may seem; clergy often have pastoral duties that undermine sermon preparation time. Four weddings and a funeral… It happens. We deal with it. But that Sunday, when I stepped up to preach, rather than inviting the congregation to a deeper understanding of their faith, a stronger belief in God, or richer spiritual practice of following Jesus, I did the opposite. In my defence, I didn’t know I was going to do that. Perhaps my brain, on some channel unfamiliar to me, had blocked me from knowing what it was about to do. As I preached, my words spilled out into a total deconstruction of the concept of a theistic god called God. Founder of the Universe: gone. Creator of All Life: gone. Source of All Goodness: gone. Purveyor of Divine Blessings and Answers to Prayer: gone. Arbiter of Justice: gone. In fact, not much was left at all but a surprised (and possibly appalled) congregation ready to embrace and comfort me as I recovered from whatever burden they believed had overcome my faith that morning. The rest, as they say, is history. Armed with fifteen years of exposure to critical contemporary Christian scholarship, the congregation’s leaders, rather than fire me, embraced the opportunity to explore what church beyond belief might look like. It has been a bumpy ride at times; there is no doubt about that. Still, the work was important, and we have proven that a church built on the values of liberal Christianity neither undermines nor requires belief in a supernatural, interventionist, theistic god called God. So, You Think That Took Courage Over the years since that pivotal moment, I have had opportunity to speak to many about the work we do at West Hill. I’ve heard the word « courage » over and over by those who have come to hear me express awe at my willingness to speak openly and honestly about what we do and do not believe. I was often uncomfortable about receiving that particular compliment, though it took me some time to figure out why: It’s because it wasn’t me being courageous. With my spontaneous deconstruction sermon, I had almost accidentally cracked the door open and expected dire consequences for doing so. It was West Hill’s Board members who threw the door wide open and held the congregation’s hand as it took its first steps into the unfamiliar territory of post-theism. It was the people of West Hill who chose to embrace their inner heretics. It was they who were courageous and it was blind luck that allowed me to pilot their incredible journey. Of course, journeys into the unknown are just that: journeys into the unknown. Not long after we set out, the Board at West Hill began asking for more and more significant changes. They created a committee – Elements of Worship – that became the fulcrum of change in the congregation. Early on, it dismissed the idea of capturing our beliefs in a new statement of faith (which could only ever be divisive) and distilled, instead, the values inherent in the Christianity upon which they chose to model their lives. To quote a member of the first writing team, it was a « daunting » challenge to each of us to live out our faith with integrity. And, while the Elements Committee never used the document it had written to proactively change things at West Hill, it boldly addressed issues raised by congregants and visitors and morphed or removed things that no longer held or represented meaning for the congregation. Why are you still here? If you are reading this, chances are you have long ago left the idea that the Bible is the literal word of God. You probably wrestle with the stories of Jesus and wonder which ones represent what he actually did and said and which represent the prejudices of someone who never even knew him. You have long questioned the idea of a benevolent god who would let people die of diseases we haven’t yet cured, and those we have but refuse to make the cure financially accessible to all. You don’t think you believe in that kind of god anymore. You are very likely a life-long Christian and have been in the church for decades. And decades. And you probably wonder why young people don’t come to your church like they used to. Figuring out why you are still in church may be something to which you haven’t given much thought. I want you to figure that out. But I’m going to spare you the soul-searching and see if I can get this right by suggesting: you aren’t in church because of the responsive calls to worship, or the majesty of the procession of clergy and choir, or the hymns you rise to sing, or your eagerness to find out which Bible passages will be read that week, or the prayers of intercession, or the carillon you’re raising money to repair, or the neighbours who all know you go to church (though they are likely the closest reason listed so far), or the preaching of your oratorically-gifted minister, or the Taize service you attend each month (though that may be another close one). I realize I’m out on a limb here, but I would wager (not allowed in my denomination!) it’s because of the people and the relationships you have developed in that place over all these years. You’ve fallen in love with being together, as I like to put it, and that has strengthened every good instinct you have ever had because falling in love with being together is the healthiest thing you could have ever done for yourself. And that, my friend, is a problem: loving your church is going to kill the church. We Are the Canary in the Belfry Many of you know that I write from Canada. Yes, thank you; we are a lovely people. But we are your church canary, if you will, gasping out our last few notes before folding our wings forever. Two generations ahead of you in the abandonment of traditional congregational life, we started fleeing the pews in the mid-1960s. No, I didn’t lead the exodus; I was five. But I’ve watched it and lived it. And I know that it spells trouble for the socially democratic country y’all admire. You see, subjective well-being is tied to the number of social connections we make and maintain. In church, when people fall in love with being together and create multiple connections on Sunday and throughout the week, they experience a surge in well-being - regardless of what they believe. And that surge in well-being leads to a statistically significant increase in voluntarism beyond the church and in the community, with bigger philanthropic donations, and higher voter turnout. It’s true. The best thing you ever got out of church was the friends you made there. If you look carefully at your denomination’s attendance and membership numbers through the lens of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), though, you’ll find a gently sloping downward curve which is going to head straight down very soon. That curve is being drawn by young adults who are refusing church affiliation in droves. You may have noticed a greying of the pews, a smaller group of children leaving for church school, or learned that your adult grandchild didn’t search out a church when they moved to another city. Your church leaders may have begun trying new programming or rebranding. There may be yoga classes mid-week. One Sunday a month is now « Messy Church Sunday ». The pastoral team is stirring things up a bit with innovative attempts to capture a younger demographic before things tank altogether. Wasting Precious Time Scheduling hip new programming and hiring a gay youth minister is not going to make a difference, believe me. While being hip may not be your forte, it isn’t what is killing your church. It’s loving all the stuff you don’t believe that is killing your church. Not the fact that you don’t believe it; obviously, if you’re still in church, your filters are pretty good. That you have to filter what’s being said, read, and sung: that’s your problem. Fewer and fewer young adults are willing to wade through the premise of belief upon which the church of their parents is built. And while you may be willing to manage the constant translation of scripture, liturgy, hymnody, and theology, they aren’t. Integrity won’t let them. If you are in a mainline Protestant church, you can assume that your pastoral staff know everything you know and more. Liberal mainline seminaries have taught contemporary critical scholarship for decades. In my denomination, it’s been over a century. The President of Union Theological Seminary, Serene Jones, exposed some of it in a recent interview claiming that the virgin birth was a «bizarre claim» and that belief in Jesus’ bodily resurrection was untenable to those who have true faith. She seemed surprised that anyone would think otherwise. .....The pervasive idea of an abusive God-father who sends his own ......kid to the cross so God could forgive people is nuts. For me, ......the cross is an enactment of our human hatred. But what happens ......on Easter is the triumph of love in the midst of suffering. Isn’t ......that reason for hope? Maybe it’s been a while since Jones was in church. Or maybe she is in that self-revered Christian demographic that knows all the secret handshakes and head-nods of the contemporary illuminati who know none of it is true but continue to talk as though it is. After all, what happens every time love triumphs over hatred, suffering, misogyny, racism, arrogance, and greed is reason for hope. But do we still need to read the horror of the crucifixion and the unbelievable story of bodily resurrection to get to the importance of love? I don’t think so. And neither do your grandchildren. Over to You Clergy are unlikely to throw the door open widely enough to welcome those for whom Christian language and theology is a barrier. They will feel the risk deeply. It’s not their fault; their recent memory holds too many stories about discomfited parishioners. It is you who needs to lead the charge. Yes, you. Not your kids. Not your pastor. Not the Presbytery or Deacon’s Board or Diocesan Council. It’s you. «There’s time enough but none to spare.» How many endeavours have been urged along by the word of the African American essayist, Charles Chestnutt? We will never know. But I am using his words to emphazise the truth that mainline American churches have time enough to protect the important work they do. And the other equally important truth: they have no time to spare. So let’s cut to the chase. The cost of your not doing something will eventually be the future of your church community, of the well-being of the community beyond its doors, of the town or suburb you live in, of the world your grandchildren inhabit and in which they will grow old. Because all of that suffers when churches fail, and fail they will. Even in the Christian country that America professes to be, the fastest growing religious demographic is the Nones, those who identify as having no religious affiliation. And those with no religious affiliation miss out on the off-label benefits that affiliation might provide. At the same age you fell in love with being together in the churches of your early adult years, your children or grandchildren are experiencing record levels of loneliness. A recent Economist study notes that over twenty percent of the population now identifies as often or always experiencing loneliness. Many of these people are seniors but a rising number of young people also experience the psychological challenge of isolation on a regular basis. A Cigna study found that over half the population feels that no one really knows them. These are disturbing trends that impact Millennials in challenging ways. The communities which the church has created in the past could provide exactly what young adults now need, but Millennials won’t sacrifice their integrity to solve their isolation. You will because you’ve out-survived the preposterous nature of Christian belief. They can’t. The Cost of the Future Church What will it cost to throw the door open wide and become theologically non-exclusive in a way that welcomes millennials? Theological language, for one. The exclusive use of the Bible for inspiration, for two. The constant reiteration of ancient myths about who Jesus was and what he did… The words of your favorite hymns and choral pieces. All that traditional liturgy, its grandeur, pomp, and ceremony. Almost everything ever accompanied by a pipe organ. A few or a lot of those currently in the pews who are unable to transition the things they lose in the public church gathering to their private spiritual practice. The ease of pick-up and teach lectionary-based Sunday School curricula. And likely lot of other stuff. Those costs will be significant. I won’t gloss that over. But the gains for future generations may be exponentially more valuable. Socially engaged citizens who are confident in their pursuit of truth, justice, and right-relationship. Strong commitment to the values distilled from the mainline Christianity you know and love. Leadership in social action and climate justice. Resilience in the face of great change, much of it catastrophic. The support of charitable causes that make up for civic deficiencies. Fewer people whose loneliness is their most constant companion. A generation that falls in love with being together and reaps all the well-being associated with that. It is a hard sell but I believe it is a crucial one. Remember, we are your canary. We cannot save you, but perhaps we can inspire you to build the future church now. Before it’s too late for you, too. ~ Rev. Gretta Vosper Read online here About the Author The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada minister who is an atheist. Her best-selling books include With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three books of poetry and prayers. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Barb I’ve always heard that Jesus’ ministry was three years long. Now I hear that it was only one year. How does something like that change? A: By Rev. David M. Felten Dear Barb, The short answer is, nothing’s changed. Depending on which gospel you read, Jesus’ ministry was both one year long and three years long. With no physical or archaeological evidence to fill us in on the details of Jesus’ life, the one thing we have to go on are the gospels – and even the so-called “synoptic gospels” don’t agree with each other on order of events and details. But as for the duration of Jesus’ ministry, the “synoptics” (Mark, Matthew, and Luke) share a timeline that includes only one Passover observance, suggesting a ministry of one year. John’s gospel, with a completely different (and some would say narcissistic) Jesus, different message, and different priorities, has also created a completely different timeline. Making mention of at least three annual Passover feasts (John 2:13; 6:4; 11:55-57), John super-sizes Jesus’ ministry into three years. Earnest apologists have tried to consolidate all four narratives into one “harmony” of the gospels, but to no avail. The accounts are just too different. The authors of the synoptics, by-and-large, moved the action right along, committing most of their ink to Jesus’ last week (In fact, I love how much Mark seems to be in a hurry. He uses the word “immediately” over 40 times!). On the other hand, John’s late developing tradition makes the bold choice to stretch out its spiritualized message and ripening anti-Semitism into three years un-syncable with the other gospels. As John’s portrayal of Jesus seems to make it the most popular gospel for many, the expanded timeline has come to be uncritically accepted among traditionalist Christians. However, that very timeline discrepancy is among the reasons why Jesus scholars have placed John into its own take-it-with-a-grain-of-salt category: call it “poetic but problematic.” Meanwhile, proponents of a three-year ministry go to great lengths to ignore the synoptic gospels altogether and try to overwhelm people with spectacularly complex theological gymnastics, interpreting Daniel 9 and the reigns of various rulers as evidence of the legitimacy of their chronological obsession (see examples HERE, HERE, and HERE). The bottom line is that nobody really knows how long Jesus’ ministry was – and it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is whether we’re taking the teachings of Jesus to heart and living them out in our everyday lives. A lot of otherwise very smart people attend churches where the Bible is presented as the inerrant, infallible word of God (“If the Bible says it, it must be true,” regardless of how nonsensical some of it has become thousands of years later). That means a lot of energy has to be spent in covering up or discounting blatantly obvious conflicts and trying to shoe-horn the Bible into supporting unjust and inhumane cultural prejudices. (See more on this from Marcus Borg HERE.) So, check it out for yourself. The Bible is crystal-clear: Jesus’ ministry was both one year and three years long. Don’t get distracted by those who would argue that it has to literally be one or the other. They’re missing the point. What’s important is Jesus’ prophetic call to make the world a more just and compassionate place. Anything that distracts from that challenge, while the very real troubles of the world go unaddressed, is betraying Jesus’ message – no matter how long his ministry was. ~ Rev. David M. Felten Read and share online here About the Author Rev. David M. Felten is a full-time pastor at The Fountains, a United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills, Arizona. David and fellow United Methodist Pastor, Jeff Procter-Murphy, are the creators of the DVD-based discussion series for Progressive Christians, “Living the Questions”. A co-founder of the Arizona Foundation for Contemporary Theology and also a founding member of No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice, David is an outspoken voice for LGBTQ rights both in the church and in the community at large. David is active in the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church and tries to stay connected to his roots as a musician. You’ll find him playing saxophones in a variety of settings, including appearances with the Fountain Hills Saxophone Quartet. David and his wife Laura have three children. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community! | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Fourth Fundamental: Miracles and the Resurrection, Part IV Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong August 22, 2007 The idea that one can raise a deceased person to life entered the biblical story in two narratives from the Elijah-Elisha cycle of stories. It is then picked up and repeated in the gospel tradition. Was this meant to be read literally? Did Jesus really raise the dead? Is it biologically possible to bring back to life one who has been dead for four days? Does one have to make this assertion in order to be a Christian as literal minded believers seem to believe? Fundamentalists say that since stories that make this claim are in the Bible and the Bible is the word of God, they have to be true. They argue that since Jesus was the incarnation of the holy God, he was capable of doing anything that God could do. It is a circular argument which depends, of course, on the acceptance of the first of the five fundamentals, which asserts that the Bible is indeed inerrant since God is its author. People living in the 21st century respond to these absurdities by saying if that is what Christianity is all about then they want no part of it. As universal education grows, more and more people begin to embrace what we know about the way the universe works and more and more educated people take leave of their religious heritage, choosing citizenship in what Harvard’s Harvey Cox called “the secular city,” but I call the “Church Alumni Association.” That sterile choice, which requires a closed mind, has risen in our time, I believe, because Christians have literalized their time bound and time warped explanations of both the God experience and the Jesus experience. Modern people can no longer believe the literalizations, because to believe literally violates their minds giving them the choice of sacrificing their brains or their faith. This week I focus this discussion on New Testament stories where Jesus is said to have raised to life one who has died. There are five biblical episodes that purport to show Jesus raising the dead. However, there are only three people who are raised since one of these stories is told three times, once in each of the synoptic gospels, Mark, Matthew and Luke. That gospel repetition should not surprise us because it is now universally understood that Mark was the original gospel and that both Matthew and Luke copied much of Mark into their expanded stories. The people that Jesus is said to have raised from the dead are: Jairus’ daughter, told in Mark, Matthew and Luke; the only son of an unnamed widow raised from his funeral bier, told only in Luke, and Lazarus, the most dramatic story of all, told only by the gospel of John. As we have done before, the first thing we do is to look for parallels among the miracle stories surrounding the foundational Jewish heroes of Moses-Joshua and Elijah-Elisha. The Moses-Joshua stories, as previously noted, are exclusively nature miracles and they have clearly shaped the nature miracles attributed to Jesus. Besides nature miracles the Elijah-Elisha cycle introduces one healing miracle, but on two occasions presents us with the idea that the dead can actually be raised back to life by a religious leader. When we examine these narratives it becomes clear that the accounts of Jesus raising a person back to life are closely connected to these Elijah-Elisha stories. The gospel account of Jesus raising the child of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, is patterned so totally on the account of Elisha raising a child from the dead, that it is hard to escape the conclusion that the raising of Jairus’ daughter is simply an Elisha story magnified and applied to Jesus. We need to recall that the power to raise the dead was a sign of messiah’s arrival so this story was designed to interpret Jesus as “the one that should come.” Encouraged by that pattern we search for a narrative that might lie under Luke’s unique story of Jesus raising from the dead the only son of a widow. In the Elijah narrative, this time we find a remarkable similarity. First note that Elijah-Elisha stories are a primary interpretive tool for Luke. Luke alone among the synoptic gospels does not identify John the Baptist with Elijah; rather he saves Elijah to be his primary model for Jesus. The one healing story in the Elijah-Elisha cycle in which a foreigner, named Naaman, is cured of leprosy by bathing in the Jordan River shows up in an account only in Luke of a Samaritan who is cured of his leprosy by bathing in the Jordan River. Now, like Elijah, Luke has Jesus raise from the dead the only son of a widow. This occurs, Luke says, in the village of Nain. The details are dramatically similar. In both stories it is an only son; in both stories the mother is a widow; in both stories the young man is ready for burial; in both stories the healing person touches the deceased body, and in both stories the restored son is delivered to his mother. Once again, we cannot escape the conclusion that Luke has simply adapted this Elijah story to serve his image of Jesus as the new Elijah and thus fulfill another messianic expectation. It is interesting to note the placement in Luke’s gospel of the story of this widow’s son. It comes just before the episode in which John the Baptist sends messengers to Jesus asking the messianic question: “Are you the one that should come or do we look for another?” Jesus replies by saying go tell John what you see and hear and then he quotes the prophet Isaiah, who said that when the messiah comes you will know it because the blind will see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the mute sing. To that list Jesus adds the uniquely Christian signs, “the dead are raised and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” Up to this moment, however, Luke has no story about the dead being raised. The narrative about Jairus’ daughter comes later in his gospel. So if Luke is going to have Jesus tell John that in his life the dead are raised, he has to provide an example. So, I am suggesting, he simply adapts Elijah’s story and makes it a Jesus story. The story of the widow’s son is thus not intended to be a supernatural event that actually occurred; it is an interpretive Elijah story, wrapped around Jesus to demonstrate his claim to be the new and greater Elijah, which was one of the images that shaped the messianic expectations of that day. That brings us to the final and best known New Testament story about a dead person being raised. It is the story of Lazarus and it is told only in the Fourth Gospel, a book that was not written until between 95-100 C.E. There are many strange things about this Lazarus story that should raise our suspicions about its historicity. First, Lazarus is introduced as the brother of Mary and Martha. Mary and Martha, as well as their home in Bethany, have long been part of the synoptic tradition, but this is the first time their brother has been introduced. Second, Mary, Martha’s sister, is identified in John’s Lazarus story as the woman who washed Jesus’ feet and anointed them, an identification never advanced before. Third, the episode to which this reference refers has not happened yet in John’s gospel. Fourth, we are told that when Jesus is made aware of Lazarus’ sickness, he makes no effort to go to Bethany. Indeed he waits four days after Lazarus has died. Fifth, both Mary and Martha give voice to their resentment when they say that Jesus’ slowness in arriving doomed their brother to death. Finally, the Johannine author uses this narrative to record one of the “I am” sayings for which this gospel is noted. The “I am” saying combines the name of God, “I am,” with a claim about Jesus’ power, in this case portraying Jesus as “resurrection and life,” and thus as the only doorway to God. We need to grasp in these details the impossibility of this being a literal story. Note the way the story is told. The funeral is a public event attended by many, including some who are enemies of Jesus. The body has been dead for four days, the process of decay is well advanced. Jesus approaches the cave over which a large stone has been placed. He orders the stone removed. Martha objects because of the length of days he has been dead. The King James Bible quotes her as saying, “already he stinketh.” Jesus overrules her objection. The stone is rolled away. Jesus calls Lazarus to come forth. This strange creature wrapped in burial clothes that cover his entire body comes out of the tomb and is unbound. Everyone attending this public event reacts. The enemies of Jesus move immediately to rid the world of Jesus. Yet, despite the public nature of this very dramatic event, no one anywhere records this story for 65-70 years until John does so in his gospel! Surely something else besides literal history is going on here. There are no biblical antecedents to this narrative. No miracle story anywhere in the Hebrew Scriptures is similar to this one. We search the Moses and Elijah cycles for leads in vain. There is, however, one other Lazarus in the New Testament. Could he be a clue? He is a character in a parable told only by Luke. In that parable, Lazarus, a poor beggar, and a rich man both die. Lazarus goes to Abraham’s bosom; the rich man to a place of torment. The rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus with water to quench his thirst. Abraham replies there is no route than can take one from where Lazarus is to where the rich man is. Then the rich man begs Abraham to warn his brethren lest they too come to this place of torment. Abraham reminds the rich man that his brothers have Moses and the prophets. If they don’t hear Moses and the prophets, he says, they will not listen even if one is raised from the dead. This parable of Luke has surely been turned into history by John. Lazarus returns from the dead. No one listens. Indeed the raising of Lazarus, says John, actually sets in motion the crucifixion of Jesus. The story is not a supernatural act, it is another interpretive symbol. This convinces me that there is a way to interpret 1st century miracle stories other than as supernatural events. We have imposed an unnatural literalness on these stories that was never intended by the gospel writers. These miraculous narratives are interpretive signs used to tell the Jesus story. The requirement made by the fundamentalists that miracle stories must be accepted as literally true is thus revealed again to be an irrational fundamentalist claim based on misunderstood realties. Christianity is indeed far more than this. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Two new classes from the Chaplaincy Institute Serving Those Who Identify as Spiritual But Not Religious (SBNR) June 11 - 12, 2019 Berkeley, CA In this 2-day course participants will explore different forms of ministry that may serve the SBNR. Collectively, we will look at where SBNR community is found, or emerging, and envision ways to nurture this part of our communal spiritual landscape. READ ON ... The Intersection of Science & Spirit June 13 - 15, 2019 Berkeley, CA This 3-day course will focus on science itself as a source of wonder, contemplation and transformative meaning. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Copyright © 2019 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You have subscribed to our Weekly Essay and/or Q & A emails. Our mailing address is: 4810 Pt. 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