April 2021 - Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

4/08/2021, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Irene Monroe We Must Call Out Hate; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 08 Apr '21

08 Apr '21

| | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | We must call out hate | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Irene Monroe April 8, 2021 "There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers." Proverb 6: 16 -19. On March 16, Robert Aaron Long killed eight people, 6 of which were women of Asian descent. Long's action has not yet been classified as a hate crime because the motive, he states, was his sex addiction. The women in the spas were merely collateral damage in Long's effort to eliminate his temptation and guilt. Sex addiction, however, is not a medically recognized diagnosis. And, research has proven there is no correlation between sex addiction and killing. Nonetheless, in looking for an explanation for Long's action other than a hate crime, his church's "purity culture" is being called into question as a possible motive. Perhaps during this recent time of high holy week of Passover and Easter, it might be a good time to examine one's theology. Purity culture became a fast-growing and popular movement in the 1990s in white evangelical churches, like the Crabtree First Baptist Church, to which Long belonged. "Purity culture "purportedly assists teens and young adults in practicing abstinence before marriage. "Believing that true love waits, I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, those I date, and my future mate to be sexually pure until the day I enter marriage," the True Love Waits pledge reads. Purity rings are outward symbols of upholding the pledge. Pop stars once wore them like Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, the Jonas Brothers, and Miley Cyrus before they caved in. Understandably, Long, like many teens and young adults, would wrestle with their sexual urges and purity culture tenets. Given its compulsory heterosexual mandates, its denunciation of present-day gender theories, and its denunciation of the fluidity of human sexuality, purity culture's laundry list of dos and don'ts create an untenable environment. The psychological toll and spiritual harm have made many teens, and young adults like Long leave these churches. While the suffering and confusion in these rigid church environments are undeniable, there is no correlation between purity culture and acting out violently or killing. Since no one yet wants to call Long's killing of six Asian women a hate crime, mass shootings are predominately within a specific demographic group— young white men. The problem of young white males and mass shootings has been screaming out at us for some time. Getting to the why these specific types of shootings are predominately from this demographic group is not as mysterious or elusive as it is purported to be. Neither mental illness nor addiction has been the principal cause. Long, like many of these young men, has made his private hell a public massacre. "I think we need to examine critically the fact that most mass shootings are done by young, white, relatively economically privileged males. What is it about their socialization that results in the manifestation of their mental illness in a rage-fueled carnage of this magnitude? If we don't ask these questions, along with all the others, I fear we are missing an important factor in this and other mass shooting tragedies," wrote an academic administrator from UMASS Boston in an email to me. Entertaining Long's sexual addiction as a believable explanation for the killings diverts attention from his acts of intentional xenophobia and racialized misogyny. The fetishization of Asian American and Pacific Island women has constantly made their lives expendable to sex traffickers and men's violent fantasies. Long's killings could have been part and parcel of a snuff film porn fantasy disguised as removing the source of his sex addiction temptations. "Racism and sexism are partners that stoke each other with frightening ease," Anne Anlin Cheng, a Princeton professor, told The Atlantic. "Here's the thing that many people find hard to accept: Hatred does not preclude desire." As a result of Long's act, six women of Asian descent are no longer with us: Xiaojie Tan, 49; Do you Feng, 44; Soon C. Park, 74; Hyun J. Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong A. Yue, 63. This recent attack highlights the expanse of racist violence in this country on people of color. Also, with Covid-19 derisively called the "China flu" and the "Kung flu," these killings are the consequences of the yearlong verbal and physical attacks ignored against our AAPI brothers and sisters across the country. Sadly, laws in this country have never protected POC until we fought that they do. Hate crimes are challenging to prove. In Long's case, it would have to be proven that he committed the crime solely because the women were Asian. I, however, see Long's actions as similar to that of Dylan Roof's hate crime. In 2015, Roof went into Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in SC and killed nine black parishioners during Wednesday Bible Study. Not to prosecute Long's heinous act for what it is - a hate crime - will merely continue anti-AAPI hate with impunity. Proverbs 8 reminds us that "To fear the LORD is to hate evil." To combat hate, we must do it in unison with one another. I am fervently in solidarity in combating anti-Asian American and Pacific Island racism. I am saddened, pissed, and frustrated by the recent incident. My heart, prayers, love, and condolences go out to our Asian American and Pacific Island community of Atlanta and across the nation because Martin Luther King said, "Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality." As an African American lesbian Christian minister and theologian, I know that the struggle against racism is only legitimate if I am also fighting anti-AAPI racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, sexism, classism, and Islamophobia together, to name a few. I know that all these "isms" are merely tools of oppression that will continue to keep us fractured from one another instead of united toward a common goal. ~ Rev. Irene Monroe Read online here About the Author The Reverend Monroe does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on NPR's WGBH (89.7 FM). She is a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS. Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists. A Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist; her columns appear the Boston LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows, Cambridge Chronicle, and the Boston Globe. Monroe states 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. 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 Jude How can we stop the hate and bring the far right & left together to find the middle we can walk together and work for the USA’s survival? A: By Rev. Jim Burklo Dear Jude, I’ve been asking myself and others this same question for quite a while! And I don’t have the full and definitive answer. But I do believe that the first step toward an answer is the one Jesus inspires us to take – into unconditional, divine “agape” love. To love people with whom we vigorously disagree is to pay attention to them, to listen with open hearts and minds. The goal is not necessarily compromise, but understanding and connection. We don’t need to “find the middle” in the process. There is no “middle” between hatred and compassion. There’s no such thing as being “half racist”. But by asking sincere questions of people we perceive to be haters or racists, and by respectfully receiving their answers - hard as they may be to hear - we model the compassion we hope will prevail, and we establish relationships that may, over time, change hearts and minds. If we spent most of our time in political discussions asking questions instead of spouting out our opinions, we’d go very far toward healing the divisions in this country. As your question suggests, democracy is seriously threatened in this country and many others around the world right now. A major cause is media illiteracy: tens of millions of Americans get their information about public affairs from unreliable sources. Propaganda masquerading as journalism has poisoned political discourse. When I get into a conversation about politics with someone I don’t know very well, often I start by asking them where they get their information. What do they read? What do they watch? Are they consuming long-form journalism, editorial opinion pieces, or both? How and why did they get started following these media outlets? If we share the same kinds of news sources, then we can have discussions about what we found in them – which can lead to meaningful dialogue about issues. But all too often, our sources are drastically different - misinformation from Fox versus in-depth reporting from PBS or NPR. If we start political discussions with conversations about information sources, we can politely invite folks who inhabit the media miasma of conspiracy theories, overheated punditry, and outright falsehoods to pay a visit to the media universe that is committed to reporting facts. There is little point in debating politics with people who aren’t grounded in the realities that public policies address. Good journalism is attentive inquiry: it is a form of love. It is the opposite of the angry invective, whether of the right - or left - wing variety, roaring out of commercial radio and television stations. To heal our politics, let’s start by asking each other serious and thoughtful and honest questions – and by following news sources that do the same. ~ Rev. Jim Burklo Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Jim Burklo is the Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at the University of Southern California. An ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, he is the author of six published books on progressive Christianity, with a new one coming out soon: TENDERLY CALLING: An Invitation to the Way of Jesus (St Johann Press, 2021). His weekly blog, “Musings”, has a global readership. He serves on the board of ProgressiveChristiansUniting.org and is an honorary advisor and frequent content contributor for ProgressiveChristianity.org. | | | | | | | | 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 us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As a non-profit ProgressiveChristianity.org relies heavily on the good will of donors. We want to continue to bring you the messages of progressive Christians via our Progressing Spirit Newsletter; however, the fact is, the cost of a subscription goes towards paying our authors. We therefore rely your generosity - specifically, if you are in a position to contribute to our efforts, we would be grateful for your donation. Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit online and going strong - click here to donate today! * Another way to support us is to leave a bequest in your Will and/or Trust designating us a beneficiary. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited China Revisited, Part I Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong September 9, 2010 I first went to China in 1984. In that year we could only visit Hong Kong and the New Territories. The Cultural Revolution, led by the “gang of four” and fuelled by those called “The Red Guards”, had thrown the nation into a paroxysm of paranoia from which it was still emerging. Suspicions ran high. The mentality of the Red Guards was that anyone who still in any way resisted the revolution was guilty of treason and anything that reflected pre-revolutionary China was subject to their destructive fury. Foreigners were not welcome either. On that trip, the closest one could get to China proper was to walk in the New Territories to the border itself that was guarded by soldiers of the Red Army with their guns at the ready position. Massive red flags were mounted on every parapet and were flapping noisily in the breeze. I went to China again four years later in 1988. The change was impressive. By this time, Mao Zedong had been dead for ten years and China had moved on. It was still a Communist nation, but serving the people not the revolution had become the pressing agenda of the government. The great and disillusioning realisation that I had in 1988 was in regard to how deeply my image of China had been created for me by American propaganda. The China I saw in 1988 was a far cry from what the press, the media and the government of the United States projected. I felt the same way I had felt when I learned that the Gulf of Tonkin episode that had been used to justify the massive build up of American forces in Vietnam was a fabricated event with no basis in reality. It was similar to the feeling I would have years later when high officials in the Bush administration in Washington had justified the invasion of Iraq on the basis of Iraq’s development and possession of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and that had also turned out not to be true. I shall never forget Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s comment that if we did not destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, the next terrorist attack would be marked by a “mushroom cloud”. Most of the citizens of the United States do not travel abroad and sixty percent have never applied for a passport. So the majority of Americans are at the mercy of the way the world is interpreted to us by the policies and spokespersons of our government. Today the vehicle for communicating that perspective is the media, including three competing twenty four-hour-a-day news channels that hype every story in search of ratings. The China I saw in 1988 was very different from the China about which I had read in my newspapers and heard about on television. This second visit to China was some 25 to 30 years after the Korean War had finally ended. In that war, Chinese soldiers had poured in endless waves across the Yalu River and they had succeeded in driving the American army, commanded by General Douglas MacArthur, out of North Korea and almost into the Pacific Ocean. When the fury of this attack was over, the American forces held only a tiny defensive perimeter around the South Korean port city of Pusan. It was one of the worst defeats that America had absorbed in its history, costing huge numbers of casualties and ultimately ending General MacArthur’s magnificent military career at an unprecedented low point. MacArthur blamed his defeat on the fact that the Truman administration had tied his hands by not allowing him to attack the build up and supply lines north of the Yalu River, but the fact was that in communiqués after the dramatically successful Inchon invasion, he had informed the Truman administration that there was no chance the Chinese would enter this war. He was profoundly wrong. MacArthur was removed from his command by President Truman and a great political debate ensued in America, as always happens after a military miscalculation and a political defeat. For President Truman, the dominant issues behind his decision not to attack China itself were twofold. First, he did not believe he should involve the American military in a land war on the continent of Asia where would-be conquerors have historically been absorbed by the conquered until they have been drained of their power. Second, he was convinced that an attack on China would bring the Soviet Union into the conflict and World War III would be unavoidable. So the Truman strategy was to recoup and re-supply the army and thereby to drive the Chinese and North Koreans out of South Korea after which they would seek a political settlement. That was in fact done and it was under the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower that the Korean War was finally brought to an end. In order to perfume this defeat and to save face, however, it became necessary for this country to portray China as a significant military power. That was what became both blatantly and obviously false to me when I saw China with my own eyes in 1988. Militarily, China was a paper tiger. The China I saw was no more than a third-rate military power. Economically, it was a disaster. Its communication system was primitive. Its army had massive numbers of well-equipped soldiers, supported by Russian tanks. It had, however, almost no navy and its air force, made up primarily of Russian MIG fighters, was hardly a match for a major power. China’s public streets were filled mostly with bicycles and a few motor scooters because cars were very expensive and thus extremely scarce. China’s highways were largely un-travelled except for dated trucks carrying produce from population centre to population centre. Many, if not most, houses in that year lacked both electricity and running water. The highly touted “Great Leap Forward”, engineered by Mao from 1958-1961, had been a colossal failure, resulting in massive starvation that cost the lives of more than forty million Chinese people. The later “Cultural Revolution” from 1966-1976 resulted in the persecution, death and displacement of millions of Chinese and the destruction of much of the artistic heritage of that country. The corporate memory of those events left the Chinese people traumatised and those memories were still present in 1988. There was nothing I saw in China then that gave any evidence of it being a “great power”, let alone a military power. It was important, however, to American military and economic interests for China to be viewed as a huge threat that must be contained. Led by what came to be known as the China Lobby, defending Taiwan and Chiang Kai-shek from Communist aggression became the Holy Grail of the American anti-Communist stance in the eyes of such figures as Senator William Knowland of California. In the presidential election of 1960, defending two relatively insignificant islands off the China coast, Quemoy and Matsu, became the cause célèbre in the debates between Senator Jack Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon. All of this kept the American “military, industrial complex”, the power of which President Eisenhower had warned America about in his farewell address, going at full speed. My second 1988 realisation, derived from seeing China with my own eyes, was that from the vantage point of the masses of the Chinese people, the Communist revolution had brought great hope. American propaganda at the time made it difficult to admit that Communism was capable of anything good. China surely had a long way to go in 1988, but they had begun the march forward. One window into that future was especially visible to me during that visit came when I saw a section of Shanghai, once known as “Millionaires Row”, where the 19th Century drug barons had built palatial homes with the profits from the opium trade that they controlled from the days of the Opium Wars. These huge mansions were juxtaposed to the squalor in which the Chinese poor lived. The Communist revolution literally grew out of this gap between the rich and the poor and closing this gap was a major motif of the revolution. The Communists, in their victory, had confiscated these houses to the distress, I’m sure, of their owners, turning them into buildings dedicated to the educational and artistic expression of the children of Shanghai. One mansion was transformed into a temple for music. Here piano and violin lessons were given to China’s children, along with instruction in all of the other instruments from clarinet to saxophone, from viola to flute and even drums. Thus this mansion began to ring with the youthful sounds of music. In another of these mansions, it was voice and choral music that was the focus. Children as young as six and as old as eighteen were learning the music of their culture and the classics of the world and were even being heard in concert! At another of these mansions, the acrobatic arts were the focus. Today China is world renowned for its skill in acrobatics, with Chinese teams roaming the world, putting on performances. Much of the expertise and success of Chinese artists and gymnasts today is a direct result of this emphasis that I noted on “Millionaires Row” some 22 years ago. I recently attended a chamber music concert in Western North Carolina in which each of the musicians in the quartet, now in their thirties, were natives of Shanghai. A government willing to invest in its children as deeply as I saw the Chinese government doing in 1988 is a government that not only has a vision, but that also believes in the future of its nation. I was amazed and impressed in 1988 when I heard nine-year-olds playing both the piano and the violin at advanced concert levels; when I saw acrobatic feats performed by twelve-year-olds that were breathtaking and when I listened to teenage choral groups that reminded me of Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, a reference that those of you my age will recognise. For those younger, it was like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. These two things were new insights for me in 1988, but these insights were destined to pale beside the things I saw in my visit in 2010. To that story I will turn in my next column. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements The Wild Christ, Wild Earth, Wild Self Weekend Intensive ™ is back by popular demand! This experiential, nature-based, immersive weekend is designed to help you remember your primary participation in sacred Earth. An Online Weekend Intensive: April 15, 2021 - April 17, 2021 READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Fwd: Celebrating Kathleen Hamm Jones
by Timothy Wegner 07 Apr '21

07 Apr '21

From: <aiseayew(a)netins.net> Date: Mon, Apr 5, 2021 at 7:57 PM Subject: Celebrating Kathleen Hamm Jones Tim, Please forward this to all OE and ICA lists. Thanks, Margaret Aiseayew [image: KHJ-June-2010 copy.jpg] *Kathleen H Jones Obituary 04/04/2021* Reverend Kathleen H Jones who lived life as ‘An Unfolding Journey’ reached her final destination when she died peacefully March 7. Since 2010, her last earthly stop was in South Berwick, Maine. Upon her arrival, she networked with the York Association of the UCC, explored interim calls, did supply preaching, and maintained Quaker connections through New Hampshire congregations. She merged her life-long love cooking and local community life as a supporter of York Community Supported Agriculture, Common Ground, and many Farmer’s Markets. She enthusiastically promoted natural, organic produce which she incorporated into a wide variety of cuisines she had encountered during her many global travels. This combined with an impressive mastery of digital technology resulted in a recent e-Book *Cooking for One, 6 Super Tools for Single-Person Homes or Small Kitchens.* Kathleen started her life journey on January 29, 1944 in New Tripoli, Pennsylvania as the first child of Willard B and Myrl L Hamm. Life on a bilingual Pennsylvania German dairy and potato farm shaped her future by exposing her to diverse cultures via interactions with Fresh Air youth from New York City, an exchange farmer from India, and Puerto Rican and black seasonal workers. As the 1961 Dairy Princess of Pennsylvania she travel extensively representing the State’s largest and politically influential agricultural industry. Upon graduating as the 1961 Northwestern High School Valedictorian and member of the National Honor Society, she enrolled at Hood College majoring in Home Economics. As a senior she was chosen as an intern at the Merrill-Palmer Institute in Detroit the year it developed the philosophy and national standards for the Head Start Program. It was there that she met and worked with Pastor Nicholas Hood of Detroit’s Plymouth UCC. Her work with poor urban youth and the 1968 riots spurred by the assassination of Martin Luther King opened the road to ministry Kathleen’s journey’s next stop became the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) and extensive activities with local community outreach and immersion in the social struggles over civil rights and the Vietnam War. She graduated from CTS *magna cum laude *in 1969 and was ordained a UCC pastor on Easter Sunday 1972. Her community activism in 1970 brought Kathleen to full time work with the Ecumenical Institute and Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA). She was deeply involved as the ICA expanded from its Chicago base to over 100 Houses in 30 countries delivering highly visible and significant programs worldwide. The ICA programming generated resulted in Kathleen’s move to live and work from 1980-1986 in Washington DC. There she prepared for her next Journey by taking University taught Mandarin Chinese courses. Kathleen’s intellectual and spiritual curiosity was so raised that she set on a journey to understand Christian concepts in the traditional Chinese cultural contexts, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Working with ICA programs in Taiwan, she immersed herself in full-time Mandarin language studies aided by teaching and writing in numerous Chinese/English venues. One program included interviews with scores of Westerners working in Chinese companies wanting to understand the business implications of cross cultural differences. That program sparked a new flame of curiosity, the light of which drew her three and a half year stay in Taipei to an end in late 1990 and started her 15 year stop in Hong Kong. Kathleen took on support and management roles at ICA regional headquarters Hong Kong. Her cross cultural understandings allowed her to develop cultural and market research expertise and skills. Starting as an independent cultural researcher, she went on to be a principle in the Hong Kong based Asian Commercial Research Limited (ACR Ltd.) consultancy. In her travels to Chinese and Asian cultural centers, such as Beijing, Kashgar, Urumqi, Angkor Wat, and others, Kathleen conducted focus group, market surveys, training programs in effective research methods, and strategic planning for multi-cultural boards of directors. Of course, her intellectual curiosity synergistically led to more than passing interests in Chinese cultural history, traditional Chinese music, contemporary Chinese art, principles of Eastern medical modalities, and New Age energy medicines. In 2005, while continuing to do some training and consulting work for Chinese and Hong Kong companies, Kathleen returned to her family farm home in New Tripoli, Pennsylvania to help care for her aging father. Her extensive face-to-face research skills and knowledge of the cultures of small eastern and midwest communities led to extensive travel as a field interviewer for LHK Partners Inc. Upon the death of her father and the subsequent sale of the family farm, Kathleen moved to South Berwick, Maine. There, until the day of her death, she enjoyed the richness of the intellectual harvest from her spiritual, cultural, food, and alternative healing, sharing these with her local friends and through her proficiency and comfort in the globally connected digital world. Her the ‘Unfolding Journey’ was unique in how it was both a citizen of her local community and the world. Kathleen H Jones is survived by her brother Larry Hamm and sister-in-law Susan from Cave Creek, AZ; three nephews (Brian Bachman, New Tripoli, PA; Nicholas Hamm, Cornelius, NC; Matthew Hamm, Zionsville, IN). She was preceded in death by her sister Renee Bachman. Kathleen’s final stop on her earthly Journey will be to the family burial site at the St. Peter's Lynnville UCC Church <https://www.facebook.com/stpeterslynnville/?hc_ref=ARSVVWgrWcDFr2UmfcX56qHW…>, New Tripoli, PA.

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Please support ICA Nepal
by Robertson Work 06 Apr '21

06 Apr '21

Dear colleagues, Please support the wonderful work of ICA Nepal in improving 50 schools in rural Nepal. I have been to Nepal several times, and ICA Nepal is making a big difference in people's lives. https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/promoting-innovation-in-50-schools-of… [https://files.globalgiving.org/pfil/51026/pict_featured_jumbo.jpg?t=1617627…]<https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/promoting-innovation-in-50-schools-of…> Promoting Innovation in 50 schools of Rural Nepal<https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/promoting-innovation-in-50-schools-of…> Nepalese students are unable to excel in innovation and creativity due to inadequate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) equipment and innovation orientation. ICA Nepal plans to conduct innovative awareness training workshops and provide STEM equipment in 50 rural schools of Nepal. This project will help to promote innovation and creativity among 2000 students through orientation, training and equipment support. www.globalgiving.org Take care, Rob ............................................. Author page for my books: https://www.amazon.com/Robertson-Work/e/B075612GBF Blogsite: https://compassionatecivilization.blogspot.com/ Website: https://www.robertsonwork.com/

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Global Buzz April 2021
by ICA International 06 Apr '21

06 Apr '21

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... And please click the link below for the latest issue of the Global Buzz Global Buzz Report: April 2021 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-21/2021-04-01.php 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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4/01/2021, Perogressing Spirit: Rev Jim Burklo: Otherdoxy: A Questionable Faith; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 01 Apr '21

01 Apr '21

| | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Otherdoxy: A Questionable Faith | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Jim Burklo April 1, 2021 Trust the science." It's a phrase on many lips these days, as the United States recovers from a presidency notorious for basing public policy and pandemic strategy on lies and hearsay. It is a huge relief to have national leadership that takes science seriously again. The health of Americans, of humanity as a whole, and of the planet depends on it. The problem with the phrase is that science is not about trusting science. On the contrary. Science is the disciplined distrust of science. Theories arise to explain phenomena, based on evidence. Scientists question the theories and the evidence, perhaps posing alternative theories. Over time, in this process of organized skepticism, a scientific consensus often emerges - a theory that works, at least for the time being - providing a scaffold for further scientific inquiry and progress. That progress may result in new evidence and insights that could undermine the consensus and lead to a new theory that accounts for a broader base of evidence, around which a new consensus can form. In contrast to this process, disorganized skepticism of science is a mounting threat. Anti-vaxxers cling to disconnected shreds of evidence and discredited theories that confirm their convictions. The same applies to climate-change deniers. And to 6-day-creationists and "intelligent design" advocates. These are literally unhealthy forms of skepticism. The healthy version is called science. There are many questions that mainstream science can't answer, at least at the moment. Ethical and moral questions, such as: who should get the Covid vaccine first? And how can such a prioritization be made understandable and acceptable to the public? Science provides data upon which such judgments can be made, but ultimately we can't trust science itself to sort them out. The scientific consensus is overwhelming that humans are causing catastrophic climate change with CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. But scientists can't tell us exactly what to do about this reality. Ethical and political calculations must be made that will rely on information from scientists, but are beyond their purview to decide. In this fuzzier realm of ethics and values and public decision-making, skepticism has its place as well. In politics, questioning authority should not just be allowed, but required. Democracy at its best is disciplined, organized skepticism. Does this policy really distribute resources effectively and ethically? Or is another one better? Transparency is essential in government, in order to facilitate this kind of questioning. And disciplined skepticism is necessary in religion, too. Not only to keep churches and their leaders honest, but to refine and deepen faith itself, re-interpreting or releasing doctrines if they no longer rise to the standard of Jesus' simple law of love. Progressive Christianity is a form of the faith that never stops asking questions about the Christian tradition: healthy skepticism is integral to our faith. To claim to be orthodox is to assert that you hold the correct doctrine of the faith. The Greek root words are “ortho,” which can be translated as “straight,” and “doxa,” which can be translated as “opinion.” By the time of the early Christian church, the word “doxa” had developed the connotation of “glory.” An opinion of high regard. But to follow Jesus is to hold him in much higher regard than orthodoxy can express. And in any case, the faith has had many different orthodoxies. Jesus said that his Father’s house had many mansions, many rooms. Lots of room for creative spiritual expression and practice. The Christian house is not defined by an outer edifice of fixed, hard doctrine. Rather, it is defined by its inner dining room, where the bread and wine of spiritual communion with the Christ is offered to all. The Love that is God, as revealed by the words and deeds of Jesus - a man who lived for others - leads to what we might call otherdoxy. Otherdoxy was the way of this unorthodox rabbi. The Pharisees tried to stone Jesus to death for heresy. They colluded and conspired with the Romans to kill him for expressing Judaism in a manner contrary to the dominant paradigm, by declaring love to be the supreme law. So it is orthodoxymoronic for any Christian to claim to practice the once-and-for-all correct version of the faith. Christian otherdoxy makes room for my voice and yours. In loving fellowship, we follow the historic traditions of the Christian faith, questioning, interpreting, and practicing them in light of social and scientific progress: We worship God, who is Love. We follow Jesus’ way of radical compassion. We find grace in intellectual engagement with our faith. We believe there is more value in questioning than in absolute answers. The Bible gives us a beautiful language to express our spiritual experience: we find inspiration in its myths and its poetry. We affirm that other religions can be as good for others as ours is good for us: we are eager to learn from other faiths. We are called to preserve our earth as a heavenly place of peace, justice, kindness, inclusion, and beauty. Ours is the humble faith of a humble man. If common sense, science, and compassion conflict with our beliefs, our faith calls us to change the ways we interpret and practice our religion. If another tradition has something to teach us that could be useful for our walk with Jesus, we are led to be humble enough to take it seriously. Divine love is the Ultimate Reality. Our religion is not. God is "agape" - unconditional love. And unconditional love is open, opinion-free attention. And open, opinion-free attention leads to questions. Kind but unabashed and unfettered questions. When we love others with such questions, we move deeper and deeper into the truth of each other's hearts. This kind of love leads to transparency: "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we shall see face to face..." (Paul, 1 Cor 13:12) All is revealed: our crowning glories, our failings, our frustrations, our hopes, our emotions -- our highest yearnings, our greatest regrets. Like science, love is an endless process that leaves no stone unturned, no assumption unquestioned. Love is a disciplined, compassionate, gentle form of skepticism that always wants to see and know more. Love may reveal painful things, but it also assuages that pain. Love leads us to spiritual, personal, and social progress. May healthy questioning flourish in the realms of science and spirituality alike - in the service of otherdoxy. ~ Rev. Jim Burklo Read online here About the Author Rev. Jim Burklo is the Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at the University of Southern California. An ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, he is the author of six published books on progressive Christianity, with a new one coming out soon: TENDERLY CALLING: An Invitation to the Way of Jesus (St Johann Press, 2021). His weekly blog, “Musings”, has a global readership. He serves on the board of ProgressiveChristiansUniting.org and is an honorary advisor and frequent content contributor for ProgressiveChristianity.org. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Supong If there are many ways to the truth (salvation), can we preach that Krishna (or any other God) as one of the ways to attain salvation? Or, can we proclaim “In the name of Krishna your sins can be forgiven”? A: By Rev. Lauren Van Ham Dear Supong, The answer is YES, at least according to my theology which values an interfaith perspective. I particularly love that you have asked about Krishna since he and Jesus are often seen as similar, complements, or possibly even the same, archetypally. God -- who across cultures, languages, eras, and religions, is called by many names -- always inhabits or points to Truth, even in the ways that surpass our human understanding. When we think about salvation broadly, its Greek root, soter, means “healing.” Religious traditions and spiritual paths, when offered in a healthy and whole way, create practices for enlightenment (truth) and healing. As practitioners of any of these Traditions, we study and learn and do our best to apply our beliefs in everyday moments – the good ones, the difficult ones and the ones where we really mess up and try to address what we wish we would’ve-could’ve-should’ve done. Isn’t it a relief then, that in these moments we have somewhere to turn so that we are not alone, but rather in community with other believers and, ultimately, a Source of Life, who wraps us in compassion and wisdom so that we might discover deeper understanding, reconciliation or peace? In these ways the religious tradition or deity’s name is far less important than the practice itself. May all beings everywhere feel fully welcomed into practices of healing, reconciliation, forgiveness and love! ~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest, Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings have supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. Her ideas can be heard on Vennly, an app that shares perspectives from spiritual and community leaders across different backgrounds and traditions. Currently, Lauren tends her private spiritual direction and eco-chaplaincy consulting practice; and serves as Climate Action Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI), and as guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. | | | | | | | | 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 us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In New Orleans, there’s a unique tradition of parading for funerals. Anyone who comes along is welcome to follow behind the band in a “second line” of singing and dancing to celebrate the deceased person’s life. On Palm Sunday, at least when there’re no COVID restrictions, my congregation has begun observing a New Orleans-style second line parade that we call “Palms and Parasols.” We invite a local jazz band to lead our processional around our neighborhood, as we wave our palms and our parasols joyfully in the air. It’s a way of remembering that while the day is jubilant, the parade that we are joining is also a funeral march. In their book, The Last Week, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan remind us that the decision of which way, which path, we are going to follow is at no point clearer on our Lenten journey than on Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is the day when Jesus staged a planned protest against the principalities and the powers and asked his followers to choose between the path of the world that perpetuates the status quo or the way of Christ that embodies the Reign of God. Tomorrow, as we observe Palm Sunday, we should imagine Jesus asking us to join his parade, even though it leads to the cross. Marching in the Jesus parade challenges us to confront the crosses of poverty, racism, inequality, violence, environmental injustice, oppression of the LGBTQ+ community, a world that values money over all, and a country that has refused to fully welcome the stranger. Now the question becomes for us: which parade will we choose? A financial gift to ProgressiveChristianity.org is a way of choosing to join the Jesus parade. This Holy Week, please join us in marching in the parade that calls for reason, compassion, social justice, and prophetic witness. Thank you for your generosity. The Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines, Co-Executive Director ProgressiveChristianity.org Progressing Spirit Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit online and going strong - click here to donate today! * Another way to support us is to leave a bequest in your Will and/or Trust designating us a beneficiary. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Origins of the New Testament, Part XXXV: The Epilogue of John Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong August 26, 2010 The last chapter of John’s gospel, known as the Epilogue, is not believed by most scholars to be part of the original text of this gospel. A careful reading of chapter 20 makes it clear that this was how the original evangelist chose to end his story. Listen to his closing words: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples that are not written in this book but these are written that you may believe, that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing you may have life in his name.” After that one expects no more. Yet chapter 21 has been added. It seems not to follow from or to fit in with anything said in chapter 20. The scene has shifted from Jerusalem to Galilee. A significant amount of time has elapsed. The disciples seem not motivated at all by the appearances of Jesus recorded in chapter 20. They have clearly passed the stage of mourning and have returned to their Galilean homes and picked up the pieces of their pre-Jesus lives. They have even gone back to the source of their livelihood as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. One other aspect to chapter 21 of John is that it replicates fairly closely the details of a Lucan narrative (see Luke 5:1-16), which Luke asserts was a miracle story not of the risen Christ, but of the Galilean Jesus near the beginning of his public ministry. Despite these problems, I have always been attracted to this Epilogue and it has played a major role in my understanding of the Easter event. I close my columns on John’s gospel by describing how that connection came into being. Earlier in my career, I made an extensive study of all of the resurrection narratives in the New Testament. This study resulted in the publication of a book entitled Resurrection: Myth or Reality?. In that book, I tried to sort out the elements that seemed to culminate in the enormous power that was connected with the Easter moment. I asked four questions: Who was it who stood in the center of the resurrection experience? Where were the disciples when the experience of resurrection dawned? When was the moment in time in which the meaning of resurrection broke through in the lives of the disciples? What was the context, the setting, in which the Easter experience emerged? I then began to explore the clues present in the New Testament that might lead to new conclusions about this central experience in our faith story. As I worked through not only all of the specific resurrection texts, but also anything else that might throw light on the Easter experience, recognizing that every word in Paul and in each gospel was actually written as post-Easter narratives, I came to these conclusions. Peter is the crucial, central figure in the Easter story. Peter is singled out as the one who first saw. Paul says, “He appeared first to Cephas.” Mark, the first gospel to be written, has the messenger say, “Go tell the disciples and Peter.” Luke has the disciples claim, “The Lord has risen and has appeared to Peter.” John portrays Peter as the first one who entered the tomb and saw its emptiness, including the burial clothes neatly placed where his hands and feet would once presumably have been. In Matthew and in other parts of the gospel text, Peter is the one who makes the first confession at Caesarea Philippi. He is always listed first when the disciples are named. In John’s gospel, Jesus is quoted as saying to Peter, “When you are converted strengthen your brethren,” as if Peter would be the first one who would enable the others to see. The primacy of Peter in the entire gospel tradition seems to me to rest on the fact that Peter was the first one whose eyes were opened to see both the meaning of Jesus and his resurrection. Then I searched every Peter story in the gospels looking for resurrection clues. I believe that they are there, from the story of Peter after the feeding of the multitude in John, saying “Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the word of eternal life,” to Peter demanding to be washed all over when Jesus washes the feet of the disciples. All Peter stories I concluded ought to be read as resurrection stories for they show Peter’s coming to faith very clearly. So I filed my first conclusion. Peter stood at the center of the resurrection tradition. Secondly, I pursued the “where” question. The New Testament is divided between the competing claims for primacy in the resurrection tradition between Galilee and Jerusalem. Mark has the Easter messenger direct the disciples to return to Galilee with the promise that, “there you will see him.” Matthew says that it was only in Galilee that the raised Christ ever appeared to the disciples. Luke, however, counters this Galilean tradition by asserting that the appearance of the risen Christ occurred only in Jerusalem and its environs, thus overtly refuting the Galilean tradition. John supports Luke by insisting on the primacy of Jerusalem, but then to the end of John’s gospel was attached the Epilogue that centers the resurrection squarely in Galilee. A deeper analysis of these competing texts, however, reveals that the Galilee tradition was not only earlier, but it was the more primitive and the more original. It is noteworthy that all the Jesus sightings, the visions, the aspects of his bodily physicality, the feeling of his flesh and the touching of his wounds are associated with the later and clearly secondary Jerusalem tradition. So Galilee emerged from this study as the answer to the question about where the disciples were when the resurrection experience dawned. Building on that conclusion, I then looked at other stories that might also contain Easter references, from the disciples mistaking him for a ghost coming to them out of the darkness, to Jesus walking on the water, to the account of the transfiguration, which portrays him as translucent. I noted that all of these were set in Galilee. I came next to the “when” question and confronted the familiar time symbol “three days.” A study of the New Testament reveals that this symbol is wobbly at best. Paul and Mark say “On the third day.” Matthew and Luke change that time designation to “after three days,” a variation that sounds similar, but clearly is not, for “on” and “after” do not result in the same day. According to a literal reading of the gospels, the time from burial on Good Friday to the empty tomb at dawn on Sunday morning is only 36 hours, or a day and a half. Mark, however, has the messenger say only that they will see him in Galilee, but Galilee is a seven- to ten-day journey from Jerusalem, so this “seeing” could not possibly occur inside the literal “three day” symbol, whether it is “on” or “after.” Luke stretches the appearance stories to forty days, culminating with the first account of the ascension. John has resurrection appearance stories occur in Jerusalem over a period of eight days, but then in the Johannine Epilogue the resurrection appearances seem to cover a period of months. These were the data that drove me to conclude that the phrase “three days” is not only a symbol, but one that was never intended to be a literal measure of time. That insight opened me to the possibility that the time between the crucifixion and the Easter experience needs to be expanded at least to months. My third conclusion thus became that I needed to destabilize and de-literalize the symbolic time marker of three days and to extend the time between crucifixion and resurrection significantly. Finally, when I searched for the context in which resurrection dawned, I found the key phrase in Luke, “He was known to us in the breaking of bread.” That valuable clue led me to look at all the feeding stories in the gospels for resurrection clues. So I examined the stories about the feeding of the multitude with a limited number of loaves and fishes, I examined the various accounts of the Last Supper, and I even looked at the parables of Jesus that focused on a great banquet. In each of these places I found elements of the interpretive meal in which the risen Jesus made himself known and present. My study drove me to these conclusions: First, whatever Easter was, Peter stood at the center of it and was the first to “see” and was thus the one who opened the eyes of the others so that they could also see. Secondly, Galilee was the original setting in which the meaning of Easter dawned, while the Jerusalem tradition was secondary. That is why the Jerusalem stories feature a supernaturalized Jesus and insist on the resurrection being understood as a resuscitated Jesus. Third, I concluded that the moment of Easter dawned slowly and over a period of months after the crucifixion. Finally, I became convinced that the common meal of the church was designed to be a liturgical reenactment of what the original resurrection experience was, so that liturgical meal must have played a role in the beginning. With these conclusions in hand, I returned to the gospels in search of a resurrection narrative that was based on these four principles. I found it only in the Epilogue to the Fourth Gospel, which I now regard as the most authentic, and maybe even the earliest, of the resurrection narratives in the New Testament. It is about Peter fighting his way through to a new understanding. It is set in Galilee. It clearly occurs some time after the crucifixion. It concludes by suggesting that it was during a beachside, early morning Eucharist that the experience of their living Lord broke through first to Peter, then to the twelve. The Epilogue of John thus grew in significance for me. Further study opened me to the possibility that this narrative might well have been an earlier tradition that floated freely during the oral period and found two very different resting places, first in Luke and then in the Epilogue of John. My supposition is that someone, perhaps a member of the Johannine School, recognized its authenticity and decided to attach it to the Fourth Gospel. That decision preserved, I believe, the earliest and most authentic memory of the dawning of Easter and, at the same time, true to the Johannine principle, it was clear that this experience could never be literalized, for it was not bound inside either time or space. It is fitting that with this story the Fourth Gospel is drawn to its second conclusion and that is why John says that “to know Jesus is eternal life.” ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Poetry for Inspiration and Wellbeing Taught by one of the longest-serving poetry editors of a major national literary journal in American history, this online course includes mini-lectures, videos, polls, Q&A, and written exercises and reflections, as well as peer review.Starting April 5th - May 1st: $30. 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