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ICA Global Archives Invitation to the Fall 2019 Sojourn, Nov. 11-22, 2019
by Wendell Refior 14 Oct '19

14 Oct '19

Dear Colleague - ICA Global Archives Website Launch Sojourn - Chicago, IL November 11-22, 2019 Please come to join us for any of these dates for a variety of tasks! See the attachment. The next announcement will show the current teams developing each website collection content using digital copies of key ICA Global Archives documents. Grace and Peace, Lynda Cock Beret Griffith Paul Noah Doug Druckenmiller Wendell Refior and the entire ICA Global Archives Advisory Council > -- that is genius." - Emerson in "Self-Reliance" Wendell

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10/10/19, Progressing Spirit, Brandt: How much should we teach our children about the Bible?; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 11 Oct '19

11 Oct '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1677860961 #yiv1677860961templateBody .yiv1677860961mcnTextContent, #yiv1677860961 #yiv1677860961templateBody .yiv1677860961mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1677860961 #yiv1677860961templateFooter .yiv1677860961mcnTextContent, #yiv1677860961 #yiv1677860961templateFooter .yiv1677860961mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } Should we even bother with it at all ...? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | How much should we teach our children about the Bible? | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Cindy Wang Brandt October 10, 2019 The Bible is one of the most dangerous texts in human history. Some of the most egregious acts in civilization find their justification in Scripture, from genocide to slavery to deadly homophobia. History proves that the Bible, read with nefarious hermeneutics, in the hands of powerful figures can cause catastrophe. Perhaps this is why many of us are nervous about how to approach the Bible with children and teens. The stakes feel high, like handing a loaded gun to a toddler. If you have any dose of humility about our limitations with engaging the text, you know this is a weighty task. How much should we teach our children about the Bible? What stories should we highlight? Avoid? When and what developmental stage do we introduce historical context? Genre? Translation? What hermeneutical lens do we give them? In what community? Should we even bother with it at all if the Bible isn’t a children’s book? I think a lot of us wrestle with these questions because of our own discomfort with the Holy Text. Fundamentalists have no problems teaching the Bible to their kids, they happily institute Bible memorization routines at home and endorse sword drills at Sunday School. When you believe the Bible is written by a puppeteering God moving the hands of biblical authors to write down literal facts, you don’t teach the Bible to children with nuance. But for those of us who desire a deeper conversation on the truth and authority of the Bible, we need clarity on our own relationship with it to help guide our children. When it comes to the Bible, just like in all other areas of faith and parenting, the best course of action isn’t to hand neat packages of certain answers to them, but to strive for as much honesty as we can. This builds trust and gives our children permission to respond with equal measure of authenticity, not only in their relationship to you but their own faith journey. The reality is that we all land on different points along a spectrum when it comes to the amount of meaning and authority and impact we ascribe to the Bible. The Bible as we know it today was birthed by a group of believers who agreed together to confer and submit the ultimate authority to a particular set of books, thereby canonizing it. To use a parenting metaphor, when a person adopts a child, how true is it that the child is now that person’s child? It is as true as the level of reverence one ascribes to the adoption laws of the land, as well as the amount of meaning they give to any rituals of adoption. The Bible may not contain literal facts of say, when the earth was formed or historical genealogies, but it is as true as it can be for a mother to claim a non-biological child as her own. As much as the Bible has the capacity to harm, it can also have the capacity to heal and to do good. The text is a “living word,” because the person and the community they are situated in, are living human beings who engage in the task of interpretation. One of the things I have learned from the rich traditions of liberation theologies is that the text can be used to set people free. Feminist readings of the Bible reveal the work of women invisibilized by the text, and empower women to “take back” the text for their own thriving. Childist readings do the same for children. What liberation theologies teach us is that when traditionally marginalized voices join in the task of interpreting Scripture, it opens the text up to revealing biases against oppressed people groups, it gives us permission to tell biblical stories in subversive ways, and it has the tremendous power to upset the status quo, resulting in better theology, more just societies, and a more fulfilling personal transformation. When we consider how to “teach” the Bible to children, the foremost question we should be asking is: are we inviting children, a people group whose personhood and human rights have only been recognized by the United Nations as recently as 1989, into the hermeneutical task? Are communities of faith willing to boldly give children as much power as they need when it comes to approaching the Bible? This means making ample space for children to interrogate the text, not only in curious inquisition about the details of the stories, but to pronounce judgments of it. It’s nothing short of gaslighting to tell a child they cannot say “the Bible is wrong,” should they point out some of the blatantly violent acts of biblical characters, including God. Including children in the hermeneutical task also means allowing them to re-tell traditional stories in ways that benefit them instead of the many ways the Bible brutalizes children. The near sacrifice of Isaac is a classic text of terror against children—that a father would treat his son the way Abraham treated Isaac is abusive and requires condemnation or a subversive re-telling. A dialogue with a ten-year-old with their mother went like this, according to an epigraph of the book, “The Children of Israel,” “Mom, asked the ten-year-old, “can anyone write a Bible?” “Hmmm…that’s an interesting question. Why do you ask?” “Because I have some important things to say about God, and I think I’d like to write a Bible.” “Well, I suppose you could write one. The real question would be, would other people want to read it?” “Why wouldn’t they want to read it? I know a lot about God and the way people ought to treat each other.” “Do you think your perspective on these things would be significantly different from that of the Bible we read in church?” “Mom, really! Just how many ten-year-olds do you think helped write that?” If we are wanting the Bible to be authoritative in any measure for our children, we better ensure they play an equal part in the task of interpretation. In fact, given children’s position of vulnerability in the world, we would do well to afford them even more access and power in order to tip a scale heavily weighted against them. Having established that we are willing to invite children into full engagement with the text, the question remains how we initiate that process. The three main factors to take into consideration is: - The child’s temperament, - The parents in establishment of the family’s values, - The various communities the child inhabits. A child’s temperament would indicate their particular desires for exploration of faith and the texts and traditions that shape the faith. This would help determine how much and how early you want to introduce the Bible to them. It would also help the parent discern whether to introduce images and stories that may be violent. I know many people, myself included, who were traumatized by images of the crucifixion because it was exposed to us at too tender of an age. I think children have remarkable resilience for gritty stories, and we certainly should strive to be as honest as possible about hard topics like death, sacrifice, and evil. But the way we introduce these topics require sensitivity to children’s anxieties, always offering tools to provide security and belonging in addition to tackling hard issues. Protect and guide our children into the world of Scripture, as you would in gentle leadership of their other experiences of life. How early and how often you want to incorporate Scripture into your family life depends on the parents’ relationship with the Bible. If it is part of your everyday routine or weekly/seasonal ritual, or drives your personal values as well as your hopes for your family’s values, then I imagine the Bible would very early on become part of the conversations you have with your child. As I referenced in the introduction, often we are fearful of exposing children to such a complicated text because of our own spiritual baggage of witnessing the damage it can inflict if not treated carefully. But fear is only one of many factors we consult in making parenting decisions. To keep our children from participating in something that means a lot to us feels unnatural and unnecessary. However, sharing faith and Scripture is simply that. It is offering the children an invitation to your priorities without any coercion that it needs to be theirs. It’s fair and just to maintain a posture of both inclusion and autonomy in our family relationships. Claim however much value you ascribe to the Bible and share it honestly with your child, always with the addendum that they can grow into their own relationship with it. Lastly, our children operate in multiple spheres of life, increasingly so as they grow and move outward beyond your family unit. And because the Bible is read in conjunction with the community we inhabit, it’s good to remember that our children will engage with the text from the influences of more than one community. This means we can teach our children one way of reading the Bible, with lots of permission to argue with the text as I suggest, and they may go out and see a billboard proof-texting a verse threatening people to hell, and that too becomes part of our children’s hermeneutical lens. They may hear a story told a certain way at the Baptist VBS, and hear a whole other interpretation from their atheist teacher from school. To me, that’s generally a good thing, because multiplicity of interpretations provide somewhat of a check and balance to one dogmatic way, the danger of a single story, as author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warns. But it requires us to be aware and intentional about curating our children’s worlds. For example, I would be reticent to send my child to an interpretive community that does not allow them to question the Bible, or I would be sure to counter balance it with extra time and space to deconstruct that violation of their autonomy. Most importantly, I would want to give them the tools I have at my disposal to engage critically themselves as they begin to operate in the various arenas of their influence. Before I conclude this article, I’d be remiss to not address people/parents who have experienced personal trauma by Scripture. I think of LGBTQ folks who have been “clobbered” by a handful of verses to extensive harm. There are many ways (& many books!) to establish a loving relationship with your children and open them up to a world of critical thinking and engagement with the world, you certainly do not need to pick up the instrument of your trauma. I hope that one day, according to your healing timeline, you’ll be able to share even this painful story of your encounter with Scripture with your children so they may know of the dark ways Scripture is wielded for harm, as well as appreciating the many ways you are breaking the cycle of your past pain for their flourishing. Because if there is one thing I hope to impart to my own children about the Bible, it’s that nothing written on paper ever matters more than living human stories. ~ Cindy Wang Brandt Read online here About the Author Cindy Wang Brandt is a progressive Christian writer, but she has not always identified as progressive. In fact, she grew up conservative evangelical and was a career missionary for 5 and a half years. Cindy's experienced a radical faith shift and writes often about how that shapes who she is today. Along the way, she became a parent. Trying to navigate parenting when your faith has and is evolving has been complicated—but nobody ever said parenting is easy. However, she is convinced that one of the best ways we can make an impact in the world is to invest in the slow, unseen labor of cultivating values of hospitality, creativity, equality, social justice, and deep spirituality in the next generation. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Tom One of the reasons I wanted to reread his book was to see if I could get a different viewpoint on being a Christian within the “church.” I am still flummoxed as to why Bishop Spong is a Christian. He appears to be more of a humanist (non-capitalized). Why is the Bible sacred? It’s like a compendium of authors writing over a thousand years. And, yes, they all seem to be writing about a supernatural entity. But that’s because the only early writers tended to be either state actors or religious leaders. The other reason I read the book was that I started out as a Billy Graham=born-again Presbyterian, moved into atheism, then pantheism, and recently back as an atheist. I am still searching. No one has the answers. If someone could assist me in explaining rationally what makes Bishop Spong a Christian, I would be very grateful. A: By Rev. Gretta Vosper Dear Tom, I understand your confusion around Bishop Spong’s claim to be a Christian and hope that I can help you lay the quandary aside. You see, I am a Christian, too. But I’m also an atheist. And I have been an atheist for most of my life, though I didn’t claim the term until several years ago. Few, these days, would be comfortable hearing me identify as a Christian, and I don’t do it publicly very often. They believe there needs to be a defining line: you’re this or you’re that; you cannot be both. But Jack and I refuse that line. I grew up in the church, too, though my belief system developed far more loosely than either yours or Jack’s. My Christian upbringing was decidedly in the camp yours would have dismissed or maligned as unChristian or heretical. My Sunday School curriculum taught me that God was love and Jesus was this cool guy who taught us that we needed to love one another. As a teenager, I delighted in the psychedelic “Live Love” stickers and adorned my school binders with them. When I entered theological college as an adult, I was relieved when my studies provided the foundations over which my beliefs had already been floating: the Bible was a collection of stories which, as you’ve noted in your question, were written by many different people over millennia; God was a concept we needed to wrestle with as we formulated our own truths; and Jesus was a man who lived a long time ago and taught us some challenging and interesting things, but wasn’t perfect. None of us are. The stories of Christianity, indeed the stories of all religions, are woven and wrapped around human truths; it isn’t the other way ‘round, as many religions continue to proclaim. Awe and wonder, conviction and repentance, gratitude and appreciation, sorrow, lament, and need: all these are human truths and human realities. Over the course of our history, in every corner of the world, we’ve sought solace and encouragement, meaning and destiny. We’ve done it through the tools our religions have handed us, simply because they were there for that use. Jack and I know those tools inside and out; Jack much more intimately and comprehensively than I. We see the world through the templates of Christianity. We engage with it through the roots of our faith. While my congregation no longer celebrates Palm Sunday or Easter, we live the Biblical story that was woven of the truths and metaphors that reside at the heart of human existence: the dreams we have and the elation we know when we achieve them; the desolation of rejection and betrayal when they crash against the violence of reality; and the gift that it is, for each one of us, when we pick up the thread of someone else’s broken dream – an end to violence against women; the forgiveness of crippling national debt; the fight for the future of our planet – and carry it forward. These are basic themes of the human journey; Christianity got them right when they wove the story of persecution, passion, death, and resurrection. The stories bring us back to face and accept those truths in our own lives. Jack’s world is informed, as is mine, by those stories. For decades now, he has looked beneath them and worked to untangle the threads that have held them together. And at the end of his work, he has, every time, grasped the one thread that was worthy of you and me and humanity and lifted it up, offering it to us to hold and use as we will. He calls himself a Christian because he lives his life through the stories to which his life was and remains bound. I am so grateful for his efforts there and for the gift and permission he has given to me to do so as well. ~ 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. | | | | | | | | 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 Origins of the Bible, Part IV: The Story of the Yahwist Document Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong April 9, 2008 Thus far in this series on the origins of the Bible, my efforts have been directed toward how the Torah, which contains the oldest material found in the Bible, came into being. The Torah, also called “The Law” and “The Books of Moses,” is the Jewish name for the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Their creation in the world of literature did not happen the way many people today seem to think. No one, including Moses, simply sat down and started writing. In fact, the Torah was written over a period of about 500 years by a series of authors. Many of the stories told in this part of the Bible were a combination of myths, folk tales and political propaganda with only the slightest bit, if any, of actual historical memory. The opening biblical stories from Adam and Eve through the flood have absolutely no connection with history, despite the fact that some of the world’s more foolish people still try to locate the Noah’s ark on Mt Ararat. The first shred of history appears in the Abraham story and it is slight indeed. If a person named Abraham lived at all it would have been about 900 years or 45 generations prior to the writing of the Abraham story in the book of Genesis. Moses, the greatest hero in the Jewish story, lived about 300 years or 15 generations before the Moses narratives in were written in Exodus and as many as 700 years before the Moses stories that appear in Deuteronomy. This means that most of these biblical accounts are not history at all, at least not in any technical sense, but are rather interpretive folk lore. That needs to be said again and again. Even after constant repetition it is hard to make this truth heard, since most people have grown up in the power of 2000 years of literalization that continues to affect our reasoning today. In this column, I want to trace in more detail the beginning of what is called “The Yahwist Document” that scholars today designate as the oldest part of the Torah and thus the oldest part of the biblical story. Writing history, which is what the Torah purported to be, is an activity that normally starts only when a nation has become established and secure enough to begin to look at itself with some objectivity. While the Jews were fleeing Egypt, journeying through the wilderness, or invading and conquering the land of the Canaanites, there was little time or interest in transforming its experienced history into a written narrative. It is also important to note that in the ancient world, one who could write was first of all rare, a skill possessed in the tenth century BCE in the Middle East by less than one tenth of one percent of the entire population. Thus the one who wrote this first part of the Torah can be accurately presumed to have been high in either government or ecclesiastical circles. Writing also required considerable wealth, or at least access to wealth, since both parchment and ink were very expensive. We can assume, therefore, that both education and wealth were the marks of this original author of biblical material. Inevitably, such a person would reflect the attitudes and biases of the ruling classes which he represented. I use the word “he” not to be insensitive, but to recognize the fact that in this period of history the privileges of education and status had simply not yet been conferred upon women. The Yahwist Document got its name from the fact that this narrative referred to God by the name Yahweh (YHWH), the name it claimed had been revealed to Moses at the “burning bush.” Those letters in Hebrew were in some way identified with the verb “to be” and it was translated in the book of Exodus to mean, “I am that I am.” Since the verb “to be” is the foundation verb of any language, it seemed to be a fitting name for the deity who was regarded as the foundation of the tribe’s identity. When this strand of material is lifted out of the Torah and separated from the later strands, its historical setting becomes immediately visible. The Jewish nation has been established. Saul, the first king, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, had been unable to secure his throne. The narrative describes Saul as a melancholy, depressed man, who could not unite the various tribes of Israel. When all of Saul’s sons, save for a crippled child, were killed along with the King in a battle against the Philistines at Mt. Giboa, his throne was claimed by his military captain, a man named David. It is David who is the clear hero of this Yahwist writer. David was portrayed as chosen by God and anointed by the prophet Samuel to be king of the Jews at a very early age, indeed while still a shepherd boy keeping the flocks of his father Jesse. Heroic tales had obviously gathered around him in the memory of the people as tends to happen to a popular leader. It was said of the young David that he had killed a lion, a bear and finally that he had killed Goliath, a Philistine. When David moved to claim the throne for himself, the Yahwist writer suggests that he immediately instituted a series of political moves to solidify that claim and to win popular support. He ordered a national time for mourning the deaths of King Saul and his sons, punished anyone who appeared to take pleasure in Saul’s demise and made plans to conquer the city of the Jebusites, called Jerusalem, to make it his new capital. If he was going to unite the disparate tribes of Israel into a single political entity he needed a neutral city as a symbol of that new unity into which he intended to call the people of his nation. These tactics appeared to work. With his power at home firmly established, David began to expand his realm with a series of military victories. In the final test for a monarch, David completed a forty year reign and then was able to pass his throne on to his son Solomon, thus establishing the continuity of his nation in a continuing royal family. Among his last acts according to this narrative was to delegate to his son Solomon the task of building the Temple in Jerusalem, which would make that city not just the political, but also the spiritual capital of the Jewish people. With these three institutions now established, the throne of David, the city of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon that was finished in the first decade of King Solomon’s rule, the time was right for someone to set this nation into the stream of history by telling their national story. That was the setting in which a court historian, perhaps a member of the royal family, perhaps a priest associated with the Temple, or perhaps someone who was both, was commissioned, probably by the king, to write the history of this Hebrew nation. This is how the first strand of that material, which would later be called “Sacred Scripture,” came into being. The date was some time around the year 950 BCE. Solomon had been on the throne for about a decade. The Jewish people had become wealthy because tribute money from David’s conquests was now flowing into Jerusalem. This part of the Middle East was at peace. The Temple, thought to be God’s earthly dwelling place, was complete and the life of the nation was widely believed to be resting safely in the arms of its two protectors, God and the King. This was the time to write the story of their origins. So the work of the Yahwist writer was begun. When his story was complete, the image of Israel as God’s chosen people was secure. It was buttressed by the claims made in this narrative. They were basically three: God had chosen the House of David, and thus the tribe of Judah, to rule over the chosen people, the will of God was expressed through the Temple in which God lived as a protective presence, and the high priest specifically and the Temple priesthood in general were alone designated to order the religious life of the nation as the sign of God’s continuous blessing. As soon as this narrative was complete, it began to be read as part of the liturgy of the people gathered in the Temple for worship, as is the destiny of all sacred scripture. In that process this narrative with its power claims achieved the status of being “God’s revealed truth.” This idea was certainly encouraged by the priesthood, who were well served as the aura of sanctity began to grow around these words. It also served the interests of the royal family since what came to be called “God’s Word” affirmed their divine right to rule. The role of Jerusalem in the national life of the Jews as a symbol of the people’s unity was established. In this manner the vested interests of each of Jerusalem’s power centers were solidified. The Jewish people, so recently a loose knit confederation ruled by local judges and worshiping at shrines located in Hebron, Beersheba and Bethel, now found unity in a new federation that was being imposed on them as nothing less than an expression of the will of God. In a world in which there was no division between Church and State (i.e. religion and politics), this first text to become part of the scriptures of the people was in fact a very political document. By tracing the Jewish story from creation to the call of Abraham, this narrative had gone from the universal beginning of human history to the dawn of their own national history. By relating the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph this narrative established, as both legitimate and moral, the Jewish claim to the land that they had in fact conquered. By incorporating the ancient shrines of Hebron, Beersheba and Bethel into their story they identified the religious traditions of the past with a new center in Jerusalem, which was their ultimate and grander successor. By telling the story of the noble history of the Jews prior to falling into slavery in Egypt, this narrative rebuilt their national reputation. It was political propaganda at its best, a powerful and effective attempt to define what it meant to be a Jew, a member of the “Chosen People.” What would happen, however, if and when the Jewish nation was ever to be divided in civil war? Such a rebellion would have to be against the scriptures as well as against the Temple and the King. That was destined to occur sometime after 920 and the death of Solomon. That was when the second strand of material that composes the Torah today came into being. To that story, I will turn when this series continues. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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10/03/19, Progressing Spirit: Vosper: No, This Isn’t for You; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 11 Oct '19

11 Oct '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv7336294376 #yiv7336294376templateBody .yiv7336294376mcnTextContent, #yiv7336294376 #yiv7336294376templateBody .yiv7336294376mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv7336294376 #yiv7336294376templateFooter .yiv7336294376mcnTextContent, #yiv7336294376 #yiv7336294376templateFooter .yiv7336294376mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } Okay, that was harsh. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | No, This Isn’t for You | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Gretta Vosper October 3, 2019 Okay, that was harsh. In my last column, I challenged you to wrestle with the change I believe is desperately needed as we come to accept the reality of our world as it will be during and beyond climate disaster. I didn’t talk specifically about that world, but the images we’re seeing on the nightly news or on our Facebook feeds keep me awake at night. They challenge me to challenge you, to consider how you might respond within whatever communities you find yourself. I’m going to assume you’re with me on this. If not, I’ll point you to the decision made by the Editorial team at The Guardian, one of the world’s most widely read and respected sources of news and opinion. The Editorial team decided that using the phrase “climate change” was no longer a realistic referent for the trauma already experienced by human communities and ecological systems as a result of our failure to address rising global temperatures. Things have already changed; we are now in the place of crisis and disaster. The Guardian’s Editorial team recognized that the dramatic changes to the world’s climate that we are now seeing are the greatest threat to our human community we have ever faced. So, I need to do what I can now, even as everything I once thought was “normal” is shifting and disappearing beneath my own feet, as well as the feet of my children and their children. I hope you see the urgency of this work, too. I wrote, in my last column, about communities of faith and the influence they have had on our civic engagement. Note the past tense of that sentence: “the influence they have had.” Because the liberal faith communities in Canada are on the brink of death[1], my article sought to warn my American readers of the things I believe led to the disappearing act of your northern neighbours’ church demographic. I warn you not only because you continue to see multiple generations in your worship gatherings, but because I believe you still have a chance to strengthen their impact within the communities they serve and beyond. Canadian churches are well past the seismic political and social impact they once had. American churches are not, though the evangelical right seems significantly more engaged than liberals. Perhaps it is time you caught the attention of the media, believe me, it can be done. Practicing … that thing we don’t do It is a sad thing to close the doors of a church. Hard as it is for the congregation’s members, however, the event has a far deeper, though often unseen and uncalculated, impact on the health of the community in which that congregation was practicing its increasingly irrelevant faith. As churches age and weaken, their focus necessarily turns toward survival and away from the world outside their doors. Not that they stop doing important missional and justice work, maybe offering a food bank, a clothing swap, or setting up a kids’ homework program. What churches stop doing as they shrink is serious evangelism. Say what? “Serious evangelism”? I’m writing for those who would station themselves on the progressive side of liberal and for whom evangelism is practically a dirty word, if it is heard at all within their congregations. As liberal Christians, we’ve long avoided such language, going so far as to deconstruct and apologize for the roots of our evangelical missions to foreign lands and the Indigenous peoples of our own. Take a breath. I’m not suggesting you reclaim the word. Remember, I’m the person who thinks that coming up with new definitions for old words has very likely been the death knell of liberal Christianity. So, don’t come up with a shiny new definition for evangelism that makes it feel right for you. Leave it with the old, stinging, and offensive meaning it already has. What I want you to embrace isn’t the word, it’s the spirit of what the evangelical movement was and remains about: a call to the radical transformation of one’s life. That is something we can get our heads around; we don’t need the word “evangelism” to do that. Assumptions: hidden in plain sight Still, I use the word “evangelism” because I want to ground what it is I am calling you to within the foundations of our faith tradition. The word “evangelism” helps make that link. If we think about it, Jesus spoke to a world not unlike the one we are struggling to understand now. The power differentials, the injustices imposed on the poor by the rich, the assumptions of privilege: all these things are part of our day to day lives just as they were part of the day to day realities against which he spoke. Most of us, like those in power in Jesus’ day, simply assume these assumptions without much critique: I live in a home I own; I drink my coffee strong, with cayenne, and whenever I want it; I could have a dog, or three if my husband would agree to it; he shops for groceries where and when he wants; I drive 20 minutes up the road so I can buy eggs from a no-kill farm; we can read whatever books we want, listen to music we enjoy, and vacation wherever we choose, all without restriction. We are not the downtrodden to whom Jesus’ message was electrifying. His message was one of radical transformation, something many of us no longer presume important in our lives. Perhaps we are so privileged that the cataclysmic message of Jesus to his time has become – y.a.w.n – boring. It takes effort to consider our privilege and its impact on the lives of others, at home or elsewhere in the world. It takes an even greater effort to consider the impact our privilege has on the lives of those not yet born but who will live in the world our privilege bequeaths them, along with all its “sham, drudgery, and broken dreams.”[2] We can choose to add to those broken dreams, or, with a little of our own dreaming, mitigate the damage our privilege currently promises. In my previous article, I challenged those of you who are not clergy to do the work of creating communities of resilience that do not rely upon – or even use – the language and liturgical traditions of your church heritage. Only through engagement that looks n.o.t.h.i.n.g like church will those who have never considered becoming church attendees have the privilege of experiencing what made you church converts: falling in love with being together. I wrote about why being together is so important to our social well-being, to the work we will have to do in the future, to our relationships, which are, above all, the most sacred of our human undertakings. No, don’t change anything; just be courageous I know, I was harsh. I told you that almost everything you loved about church would have to go. That’s not entirely true. You can keep everything exactly as it is in your own gathering, just don’t expect to add to your numbers because that isn’t where these people will find one another. You do not need to change anything about what you love about church; you do need to accept the fact that nothing you love about church will bring together those who have yet to find out what falling in love with being together means, does, and feels like. They have to mix and taste that magic elixir on their own terms. Dance it in their own space. Sing the songs they want to sing. Find what makes them cry in public and lets them feel good about doing so. You just have to get out of the way and let it happen. Or be courageous enough to test ideas, be wrong, test more, and so on until they – not you – find one another. In reality, this has little to do with you, personally, and everything to do with the vast amounts of space and money your church has at its disposal or can access and mobilize. Provide space; pay for secular facilitators; give them prime time access; let your leaders teach the beauty of community leadership; share your best gluten-free vegan chocolate chip cookie recipes; let secular music be played at the decibel level your sound system was built for. Love what emerges, even and especially if it isn’t what you expected; we love our children even when they become people we don’t really know. Give. Give. Give. Allow. Allow. Allow. For the sake of those who need to find one another. That they might fall in love and find, in the loving, radical transformation and the courage it takes to face the brave new world we have created. Afterword This was not the article I had intended to write. My brain took over my fingers and punched out a different article than the one I had considered. So, I am sharing, here, a few of the song that had emerged as I did my lead up to the actual writing. I meant to provide some resources about setting up a secular gathering at which those who do not want to go to church might find a place of resilience and growth – might fall in love with being together. I promise to do that in my next article. In the meantime, listen to some of these songs, all of which are available online and none of which have ever likely been sung or danced to in a church (except at West Hill). Play them loudly. Very loudly. And if you dance, well, all the better. If you cry, all the better still. Bon Jovi, Love’s the Only Rule Keala Settle, This Is Me Sarah Bareilles, Brave Andra Day, Rise Up U2, One Queen, We Are The Champions ~ 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. [1] Evangelical churches are on the decline too but their mission is less focused on the state of the world so I don’t consider them allies in this work. [2] Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Joyce “I'm curious where the idea came from that if a person commits suicide that person does not go to heaven. I don't recall anything in the Bible saying that.” A: By Joran Slane Oppelt Dear Joyce, Thank you for your question. You won’t find this idea anywhere in the Bible. The earliest argument (using biblical justification) against suicide was in St. Augustine‘s fifth century book, The City of God. His reasoning came from the commandment, “thou shalt not kill.” Simply put, because this commandment didn’t mention the “neighbor“ he understood it to include the self. He also referenced the arguments made by Plato in the Phaedo (On the Soul) regarding Socrates’ suicide while awaiting execution. While Socrates made explicit arguments for the idea of an afterlife and the soul’s immortality, he expressed that suicide should be forbidden except under extreme circumstances because the body does not belong to man, but to the gods. The act itself is still debated as one of either cowardice or self-determination. Suicide is commonly seen as a result of disconnection, isolation and abandonment. It’s regarded as the last best option for those who feel they’ve run out of choices. It’s seen frequently in the hopeless and the outcast. It shocks families and communities because people rarely talk about having these thoughts. They carry them around, like burning embers, until a hole is created that cannot be filled. Suicide then turns that aching hole into an all-consuming force. It tears into an unsuspecting family or community as if a bomb has gone off, leaving only a smoking crater. It is a black hole that suddenly opens in the midst of a small village, swallowing everything in its path, including the light. There is no escaping the feeling of anger or betrayal (at God or loved ones) or the “selfishness” of the act. Family and community are left to caress the raw, frayed edges of that gaping hole. And, over time, the hole eventually gets smaller. But it never closes completely. The soul may live on after death, but a suicide will leave the surrounding souls darkened, colored and bruised (and a trail of generational pain in its wake). First and foremost, don’t let any priest or philosopher (including myself) decide for you what suicide is or isn’t – or whether your soul will live on when your body has taken its last breath. That is for you to determine, through the formation of your faith. And, Joyce, I say this last part as someone who every day gives thanks for the anonymous hotline staffer who somehow convinced my now teenage son to muster the courage to talk to his parents instead of ending his life at 11 years old. I am now blessed with a life where I can turn to see him, talk to him, and hold him (sometimes too tightly). That life was nearly a fantasy. If you are having thoughts of suicide, talk to someone. Literally anyone. Your story isn’t over. You are not yet out of choices. You are not alone. ~ Joran Slane Oppelt P.S. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1 (800) 273-8255. They also provide free anonymous chat at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/. Read and share online here About the Author Joran Slane Oppelt is an international speaker, author, interfaith minister and award-winning producer and singer/songwriter. He is the owner and founder of the Metta Center of St. Petersburg and Integral Church – an interfaith and interspiritual organization in Tampa Bay. Joran is the author of Integral Church: A Handbook for New Spiritual Communities, Sentences, The Mountain and the Snow and co-author of Order of the Sacred Earth (with Matthew Fox) and Transform Your Life: Expert Advice, Practical Tools, and Personal Stories. He currently serves on the board of Creation Spirituality Communities and has spoken around the world about spirituality and the innovation of religion. | | | | | | | | 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 Origin of the Bible, Part III: Breaking Open the Books of Moses The Torah Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong April 2, 2008 The Bible began to be written, relatively speaking, only a short time ago. When one considers the fact that the universe is some 13.7 billion years old and the birth of the planet Earth can be reliably dated between four and a half and five billion years ago, the beginning of Bible writing near 1000BC is very recent. Scientists now date the appearance of human life on this planet somewhere between two million and 100,000 years ago, depending on how one defines human life. The beginning of civilization is placed by anthropologists about 15,000 years ago. The person we call Abraham, who is regarded in the Bible as the founder of the Jewish nation, is generally dated about the year 1850BC. Yet the earliest strand of continuous material in the Bible appears to have been written in the 10th Century BC, making it a relatively late arrival on the scene. People have been trained by the Bible itself to think that the biblical story begins at the moment of creation. Bishop James Ussher of Ireland, using the Bible’s “inerrant words” and dates, asserted that creation actually occurred on 23rd October 4004BC. One of his later contemporaries, James Lightfoot, added the note that it was at 9am GMT! If we want to analyze the Bible, first we need to comprehend the fact that the earliest part of the Bible to be written was only about 3000 years ago, between 950 and 1000BCE. That fact alone immediately introduces a note of radical relativity into the biblical assertions of many people. Next comes the realization that if Abraham lived around 1850BC and the earliest written part of the Bible is after 1000BCE, then everything that we learn about Abraham in that story had to have been passed on orally for about 900 years or through as many as 45 generations before entering written form. That knowledge forces us to embrace the fact that this biblical story cannot be historically accurate, but has the character of folk tale and myth in which the facts of history are all but lost inside the developing tradition. Abraham might well not even have been a Jew. He was identified with the shrine at Hebron. Isaac, who is described as his son, was identified with the shrine at Beersheba and Jacob, called his grandson in the Bible, was identified with the shrine at Bethel. Their identifications with specific shrines opens up the possibility that these three patriarchs may originally have been unrelated Canaanite holy men, whose lives were later intertwined and interpreted as the founding generations of the Jewish people to provide justification for the Jewish invasion of this land that occurred around 1250BC. The purpose of these patriarchal tales in Genesis was to establish the Jewish claim that they were only taking over this land that God had promised to their ancestors hundreds of years earlier. As rational claims these things make no sense, but as propaganda they constituted then and still do now powerful influences in human history. Other facts about the biblical story are even more threatening to those who treat the Bible magically and who pretend that in its words both historic accuracy and literal truth have been captured. Moses, who is an even more pivotal person in Jewish history than Abraham, lived some 300 years before the earliest part of the Old Testament was written. This means that we must embrace the fact that everything attributed to Moses in the Bible, including the Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Law at Sinai, are sacred traditions that passed through oral transmission for as many as 15 generations before achieving permanent status in a written form. How much did these crucial Moses stories grow in that oral period? Did the Red Sea come to replace the Sea of Reeds as the center of the splitting of the waters story? Did the discovery of the droppings of the Tamarisk tree in the wilderness, with its white flaky residue lying on the ground, give rise to the story of God raining heavenly bread called manna down on the hungry Hebrew people? Did an eruption of burning natural gas in that oil and gas rich desert give rise to the story of God’s call to Moses at a burning bush that was not consumed? What was the process through which the community’s code of laws, including the Ten Commandments, went before they settled into the familiar form that we find in Exodus? Is the number “ten” for the commandments more important than the content of the ten? Is the fact that the Bible contains a multiplicity of versions of the Ten Commandments an attempt to explain the biblical story that Moses broke the clay tablets containing the Ten Commandments when he saw that the people of Israel had forsaken the God who had brought them out of Egypt for a Golden Calf and that he, therefore, had to return to Sinai to get a second version? How much of the story of Exodus is history and how much of that narrative has been bent to conform to the developing liturgy of the Passover that was designed primarily to let the Jewish people observe the moment of their national birth liturgically? None of these were questions that could be raised until the idea that the Bible is not an eyewitness account of ancient history was both faced and accepted. With each new discovery the Bible began to be viewed as a quite human book that needs to be examined critically and not as the divinely-inspired literal word of God that was inerrant because it had been revealed by or even dictated by God on high. In the late 1800s, a group of scholars in Germany led by Professors K. H. Graf and Julius Wellhausen began to study rigorously the details of the first five books of the Bible – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These books, called the Torah or the Books of Moses, constitute the most sacred part of the Hebrew Scriptures and were traditionally required by the Jews to be read in their entirety on the Sabbaths of a single year in the synagogues of the Jewish world. These scholars began to apply to these texts the insights of literary criticism. To do this, they had to set aside the claims that these works constituted the “Word of God”, or that they possessed some magical relationship with truth. The results were salutary and more than anything else opened the doors to a new academic interest in the Bible itself. Analyzing these texts carefully, these scholars discovered that there were many observable differences that could be noted which led them to the conclusion that the Torah consisted of several strands of what had once been independent material. One strand referred to God by the name Yahweh, or at least by an unpronounceable set of consonants that were written as YHWH and it called the holy mountain of the Jews Mt. Sinai. Another strand of material called God by the name of Elohim and it called the holy mountain Mt. Horeb. A third strand of material reflected life in the Kingdom of Judah in the 7th Century BC. Still another strand appeared to be dated during the time of the Exile and perhaps even later. When they began to separate these strands from one another, other insights became available. The material that called God YHWH appeared to be centered in Jerusalem for it extolled the institutions identified with Jerusalem, such as the King, the High Priest and the Temple. It reflected that period of Jewish history in which the nation was undivided and was ruled from Jerusalem. The strand that called God Elohim reflected the values of the northern part of the land of the Jews that achieved independence from Jerusalem rule in a rebellion led by a military general named Jereboam against the newly crowned Jerusalem king named Rehoboam, who was, the Bible tells us, the son of Solomon and the grandson of King David. That rebellion, which occurred around the year 920BC, was successful and brought into being a new Jewish state called the Northern Kingdom, or Israel. Ultimately, this new nation had its capital and worship center in the city of Samaria and traced its Jewish roots back primarily to Joseph, whom it called the “favorite son” of the patriarch Jacob. Joseph was said to be the child of Jacob by his favorite wife Rachel and his father was said to have endowed him, among other things, with a coat of many colors. The patriarch Joseph in this narrative of the Elohist writer was always juxtaposed to his older brother Judah, who remained the dominant ancestral figure of the Jewish people whose life centered in Jerusalem. Judah was the son of Jacob by Rachel s older sister ‟ Leah. According to this story Jacob had been tricked into marrying Leah instead of Rachel by their father Laban. Only by marrying Rachel’s older sister did Jacob also manage to win Rachel as his second wife. Leah was described in this text rather cruelly as being unloved and even as having eyes that popped out of her head like those of a cow. This Elohist document was designed on many levels to counter the claims made by the tribe of Judah that they were destined to rule over these northern ten tribes. In the service of this theme the Elohist writer went so far as to assert that Judah betrayed his younger brother Joseph by selling him into slavery for twenty pieces of silver. In time, however, Joseph was said to have used this act of treachery to save all of his brothers, including Judah, from death by starvation, which he did by taking them down into Egypt, where they remained for 400 years, eventually falling into slavery, from which Moses would ultimately lead them to freedom in their “promised land”. As these strands came to be viewed as quite different stories written to reflect quite different times in history, these scholars began to recognize that they had cracked the code of biblical origins. The first five books of the Torah were not written by Moses or indeed by any single author. They were a composite of written materials that had been blended and intertwined into a single story over a period of as much as 500 years. Biblical scholarship had taken an enormous leap into modernity. The old claims, held so tenaciously for so long by so many, were shaken to their very foundations. The era of critical biblical scholarship was being born. We will return to this brief overview later and develop each of these four strands of the Torah in much greater detail, so stay tuned. ~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Join Mike McHargue to record the 200th episode of Ask Science Mike The 200th Episode of Ask Science Mike at the Amp Studios, Los Angeles, CA is coming up November 9th, and we’d like you to be there for a small, intimate live recording. Space is extremely limited, so sign up soon. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Archives "Communities" work
by Jim & Oliveann Slotta 08 Oct '19

08 Oct '19

Greetings, All! I am working on one of the collections for the Global Archives called “Communities.” We are soliciting short descriptions of how the EI/ICA methods have been applied to awaken a local community—urban neighborhood, small town—to possibilities. For example, here in Denver now, we are doing customized Community Forums to address the Climate Crisis at the neighborhood level with 35 action plans (aka proposals) underway to lower the carbon footprint of 11 neighborhoods. If you have a past or present story about work in a community, please send it as attachment to me at OSlotta(a)msudenver.edu <mailto:OSlotta@msudenver.edu>. Blessings!

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Global Buzz October
by ICA International 05 Oct '19

05 Oct '19

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... Global Buzz Report: October 2019 Click above or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-19/2019-10-01.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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Grows?
by Seth Longacre 03 Oct '19

03 Oct '19

Is anyone in contact with Bill & Nan Grow? Are they on either of these email lists? The parish where I serve just got an email purporting to be from them wanting to make contact with me. Seems very odd to go to so much trouble to find me rather than check in here. And the message was a bit disturbing as it was disrespectful and frankly, potentially dangerous. (Though the sender could possibly be ignorant of that). Thanks. Seth Longacre sethlongacre(a)gmail.com Sent from one of my iThingies

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Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] Jim Bishop at 90 October 1.
by Ellie Stock 02 Oct '19

02 Oct '19

Happy Birthday, JIm! We celebrate your Being You with Being itself in History! Grace and peace ~ Carleton and Ellie :)elliestock@aol.com -----Original Message----- From: isobeljimbish--- via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> To: oe <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: isobeljimbish(a)optusnet.com.au <isobeljimbish(a)optusnet.com.au> Sent: Wed, Oct 2, 2019 8:55 pm Subject: [Oe List ...] Jim Bishop at 90 October 1. Dear colleagues far and wide, I hope life treats you gently, and there are special moments each day you savour. Here is Jim at his 90th Birthday Dinner. He began his Birthday in August, when the extended family gathered at a French inspired restaurant in a nearby suburb. 38 family came together, only two nephews missing! On Saturday he will be special guest at our weekly Neighbours brunch with cake included! The very last Celebration will be this coming Sunday. His 88 year old sister will bake a special Birthday cake and the Church community will wish him well. A life well lived. The Order EI and ICA experiences completely changed Jim’s life, as his Memoirs testify. Journey on, journey on dear colleagues. With love and blessings to each one, Isobel Bishop. Sent from my iPhone_______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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how to see the list archives
by Timothy Wegner 02 Oct '19

02 Oct '19

Several folks have asked me how to access old list messages. You might want to do this if there was some event or person you want to research. Here is the secret. At the bottom of every message are two links, one gives the address to post to the list, and right under it is a web page of information about the list. If you go to that second link, at the very top of the page is a link to the mailing list archives. Just to make it easy for you, I have put the links below saving you one click. But you can always rediscover the archives by looking at the bottom of any message for that information page link. Dialogue List (2012 to present): http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue-wedgeblade.net/ OE List (2012 to present): http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe-wedgeblade.net/ These archives only go back to when the current list was started in April 2012. But before we migrated off the previous lists, I saved the archives and put them online. You can find these on the wedgeblade.net website here: Dialogue List (2004 to 2012): https://wedgeblade.net/dialogue_archive/wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_w… Oe List (2004 to 2012): https://wedgeblade.net/oe_archive/wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe_wedgeblade.ne… Tim

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looking for an actual book (or PDF or link to it somewhere
by Sunny Walker 01 Oct '19

01 Oct '19

Does anyone know where I can access the following: West, George Randall - Creating Community: Finding meaning in the place we live - A Handbook for Comprehensive Community Development (2012) Sunny Sunny Walker sunwalker(a)comcast.net <mailto:sunwalker@comcast.net> 303-587-3017 (business cell) 303-671-0704 (personal landline) www.virtualfacilitationcollaborative.com <http://www.virtualfacilitationcollaborative.com/> www.accelerateclimateaction.com <http://www.accelerateclimateaction.com/> Be bold, take healthy risks, and delight in the miracles!

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9/26, Progressing Spirit, Oppelt: Jesus: A Mutation of Consciousness - Part 2; Spong revisited: Evolution and Homosexuality: Twin Errors of the Christian Church
by Ellie Stock 26 Sep '19

26 Sep '19

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0093154852 #yiv0093154852templateBody .yiv0093154852mcnTextContent, #yiv0093154852 #yiv0093154852templateBody .yiv0093154852mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0093154852 #yiv0093154852templateFooter .yiv0093154852mcnTextContent, #yiv0093154852 #yiv0093154852templateFooter .yiv0093154852mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } If we take the Godhead out of Jesus, what are we left with? | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jesus: A Mutation of Consciousness - Part 2 | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Joran Slane Oppelt September 26, 2019 Click here to read Part 1. For most Christians, the question is, “Can you strip Jesus of his supernatural powers and still achieve salvation through Christ?” If we take the Godhead out of Jesus, what are we left with? Is there some other element that we enter into or move through by knowing him? Other than the transfinite mashup or disruption of spacetime that he represents, is there something else that we encounter or achieve by dedicating our lives to “The Way?” This is one of the redeeming qualities of religion, the power of faith or belief, and the impact that a community of practice can have on the individual. It obligates the singular to the plural and puts the responsibility on the individual, not only for their own destiny but for one another – socially and politically. It puts the onus on us. Religion may give us an identity and a box to check, but spiritual community (and real accountability) asks that we play out the actual ideas by which we live. It means that we will resist and rebel against ideas that don’t fit our worldview – a worldview that is constantly dynamic and changing. And, ideally, we will transcend those ideas and give birth to new ways of idea generation. We become responsible for Creation – ecologically. As we evolve, God evolves with us – biologically and cosmologically. As we know a greater Love, we love greater – ethically and psychologically. Humanism and panentheism are just the beginning of a religious innovation and spiritual evolution that represent the visible (and invisible) multiplicity of form and faith that we experience today. THE RESURRECTION “The Resurrection,” wrote Patriarch Athenagoras, “is not the resuscitation of a body; it is the beginning of the transfiguration of the world.” Jesus’s death and resurrection (like Krishna and Osiris before him) is one of the most argued ideas in Christianity. With no evidence or eyewitness accounts of this miracle, it is tempting to find scientific explanations for Jesus’s anastasis. Regardless of its historicity, by attempting to explain away his resurrection on a physical level, we rob the event of its meaning and its impact. Mythically, we rob Jesus of his ability to “overcome the world.” The primacy of the resurrection and the days that follow are pivotal in this story. Jesus “lived on” in the hearts and visions of those who knew him. That is where we must still look for him today. Metaphysically, we rob ourselves of the ability to achieve salvation through Christ. This momentous healing (actualization, forgiveness) can happen once-in-a-lifetime or it can happen daily. We must be able to surrender ourselves and give over all of our pain and suffering and “sin” to Jesus in his ninth and final hour. We must commit ourselves to entering the dark night of the soul – the via negativa – with Jesus at his crucifixion. Because on the other side of that is the via creativa. On the other side of that is something new in ourselves, something resurrected and reborn. Finally, we rob the women who witnessed the resurrection of their stories. Why were these women the first to see (and hear) Jesus after his death? Why were they chosen? What did they have in common? What is the feminine experience of this witnessing and this resurrection? There is a social and spiritual significance to the shared vision of these women who were the first to enter into the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. And there’s been enough silencing and robbing of women of their stories throughout history. If Jesus is a mutation – a leap in consciousness, politics and humanity – then how is that mutation being expressed today? Where are Jesus’s ideas alive? Where is his movement (liberation, radical love, direct connection to the divine) growing and flourishing? THE FUTURE As some churches move away from Jesus’s original teaching, and others move ever-Christward, the spiritual direction (and value) of Christianity will always be in question. We do know that it sprang from a Jewish community in the Middle East at a time when people needed to hear this “good news.” Is this not the same evolutionary leap we see in the emergence of Buddhism from the hierarchical and caste system of Hinduism in its own age and ZIP Code (i.e. awakening to attachment and liberation from suffering)? Postmodernism has given us ideas like the “Cosmic Christ” or “Universal Christ” that equate the spirit of Jesus to a sense of everywhereness, akin to the Buddhist dharmakaya (ground of being) and the teachings of the Christian Mystics (Aquinas, Eckhart, Hildegard). Perhaps this is to lay the spiritual groundwork for the next unfolding of the fractal in physical space. The evolution of technology, after all, points to a world filled with cybernetic organisms – half-man, half-machine – perpetually plugged into an “internet of things.” If the future of spirit is everywhere (including this matrix) and Christ is universal, then we will need programs to run on this new spiritual operating system. We will need stories of “superhuman” ability, liberation and transcendence. We will need new moral and ethical systems that include the most truth. We will need both history and mythology. One is a timeline of facts, agreed upon by scholars and academics. The other is a living library of rich mental archetypes that hold the power to transform simply by us being near them and hearing their story. We need the square, rigid, steel and concrete forms of institutions (these are how we scale) and we also need the green, mossy stone circles of a self-directed spiritual practice (this is how we transform). Matter and spirit arise together, co-evolving as both psychic objects and responses to the current reality. The “liminal” spaces (spaces between worlds) of the 19th century were Earth-based (looking down and in). The dark green hedgerow was where children were warned not to venture. They could fall down a hole into some other realm or be abducted by fairies. The veil between those worlds was thinner at certain times of day (and certain times of the year). The liminal space of the 20th century, as Carl Jung wrote, was extraterrestrial (looking up and out). What we feared was the darkened sky, the vast and unknown inhabited by strange technology (unidentified, flying silver objects). We feared the backroads and bedrooms where adults might be stolen away by those objects. We feared what this new, alien technology might do to our bodies. These spaces (what we believe, fear, or are fascinated by as a collective) are a response to our changing world and a hall of mirrors of our own design. The alien technology is here. We use it and wear it every day and it is, indeed, affecting our bodies and minds. Social media has introduced a new fear for the 21st century – the stranger and the “other” (the individual and the community). As our world becomes more diverse, connected and immediate, we are experiencing a rise in political extremism, nationalism and hate-based violence. As we move toward a global society, more people are willing to lay down their lives to preserve borders and boundaries, as well as their own customs and traditions. They are moved and motivated by fear – the first rung on Maslow’s hierarchy. The first step to peace is by claiming victory over this fear. We must go willingly into that hedgerow or night sky, entering into the void of grief and suffering, knowing that after we are submerged, we will be resurrected. We must march into jihad (our internal struggle) knowing that there is a future version of ourselves struggling to be born. We must allow the virus of the mind to wreak havoc on the collective unconscious. A new multiplicity of forms (and faith) is straining inside the cocoon, waiting to unfold. The question is not, “How might I identify as a Christian or an Atheist or a Buddhist?” The question becomes, “How might I live and embody The Way – whether it’s through the Kingdom of God movement, the eight limbs of yoga, The Four Agreements, the Four-Fold Path, non-violent communication, the Tao, the Torah or psychedelics?” Are you walking confidently into joy, reverently toward mystery, mindfully with creation and faithfully following justice? What is the one transcendental idea that you are contributing to the future mutation of consciousness? What is the new idea that you will birth and bear and invite us to live inside of together? ~ Joran Slane Oppelt Read online here About the Author Joran Slane Oppelt is an international speaker, author, interfaith minister and award-winning producer and singer/songwriter. He is the owner and founder of the Metta Center of St. Petersburg and Integral Church – an interfaith and interspiritual organization in Tampa Bay. Joran is the author of Integral Church: A Handbook for New Spiritual Communities, Sentences, The Mountain and the Snow and co-author of Order of the Sacred Earth (with Matthew Fox) and Transform Your Life: Expert Advice, Practical Tools, and Personal Stories. He currently serves on the board of Creation Spirituality Communities and has spoken around the world about spirituality and the innovation of religion. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Brian This is about prayer. As a Buddhist (40 years), I would practice an oral meditation every morning and evening. It was, as one writer mentioned, a kind of physical workout – using the voice while sitting bolt upright facing a mandala. Although I’m now trying to be a Christian, I would like to be able to do something to bring myself closer to our Lord, other than sitting still while trying to keep invasive thoughts from disturbing my prayer session. What could you suggest? I’m a case requiring a lot of work (a long story) – if you understand what I mean. I just want to have God’s mercy and feel him with me in my struggle to express that mercy in all what I do. A: By Jennifer Berit & Skylar Wilson Dear Brian,Thank you for your question. I'd like to respond to your question about prayer, but first I want to address something else you said that caught my attention. You said that you have been a Buddhist for 40 years and now you are "trying" to be a Christian. What I'm most interested in is your use of the article "a" here. Being "a" Christian seems like such a final, permanent and immovable thing to be. I am afraid it means you are putting yourself, or trying to, into a box - the box of what it means to be "a Christian" and therefore you could be limiting all of the other many ways that Spirit could be wanting to express through you. Perhaps this is what is happening with your prayer practice, and why you are finding it difficult? I don't believe that being Christian, or being Buddhist, or praying needs to be any one thing, or looks a certain way. Mary Oliver says "I don't know exactly what a prayer is. But I do know how to pay attention." If sitting silently, letting your thoughts get the best of you doesn't feel like praying, then maybe for you it is not. Maybe for you praying is chanting, or singing? Maybe it is walking through the woods and noticing the way the light hits the treetops, or paying attention to the ant crawling across your toe. Maybe sometimes praying is simply tuning into your heart and feeling the simple desire to connect with the Great Mystery? Maybe that desire is God speaking to you, telling you "I am here." I wonder if accepting yourself and your own spiritual process is God's mercy acting through you? You say you require a lot of work - I believe you are doing the best kind of work, continuing to quest for a deeper connection with your unique sense of the Divine. ~ Jennifer Berit and Skylar Wilson Read and share online here About the Authors Jennifer Berit is the co-author of Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action and works in book publishing as a private consultant for authors assisting with manuscript editing and book publicity. She is also the co-director of Wild Awakenings, an adult Rites of Passage organization dedicated to fostering the thriving of Earth, life, and humanity. Jennifer was on the Board of Trustees at the Unity in Marin Spiritual Community for three years, serving as the Board President for 18 months. Also at Unity in Marin, Jennifer was a guest speaker for Sunday mornings, she led Rites of Passage groups for teenagers, and founded a young adult interfaith group committed to conscious connection, community service, and social activism. She is a passionate hiker, reader, writer, and public speaker. Skylar Wilson, MA is the founder of Wild Awakenings, a conscious community of change-makers dedicated to the thriving of Earth, life, and humanity. He has led wilderness rites of passage journeys as well as ecological restoration teams for 18 years, specializing in creating sacred wilderness immersion experiences and interfaith ceremonies. Skylar is the cofounder and co-director of the Order of the Sacred Earth, a network of mystic warriors and activists dedicated to being the best lovers and defenders of the Earth that we can be. Skylar is the coauthor of the book by the same title as well as the co-host, with Jennifer Berit, of the podcast: "Our Sacred Earth" on Unity online radio. Skylar works closely with schools and organizations including the Stepping Stones Project in Berkeley, CA over the last 8 years while guiding organization-wide retreats, mentoring youth, group leaders, parents and elders. He also produces transformational events for thousands of people around the country including the Cosmic Mass, an intercultural healing ritual that builds community through dancing and the arts. He lives in Sebastopol, CA with his wife, son, two affectionate cats and a white wolf named Luna. | | | | | | | | 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 Evolution and Homosexuality: The Twin Terrors of the Christian Church Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong Mary 28, 2008 Where is it that Christian people today focus their anger? One has only to look at the content of current ecclesiastical debates, listen to the rhetoric of church leaders or examine the issues upon which the church divides into two competing camps to have your answer. The two things that elicit the most fear, that bring the deepest threat to Christian people, are evolution and homosexuality. First, look at the data regarding evolution. The ink was not dry on Charles Darwin’s book The Origin of the Species before the Christian Church mounted a counterattack. It came in the person of Samuel Wilberforce, the Anglican Bishop of Oxford, who challenged a Darwin spokesperson, Thomas Huxley, to a debate, held at the Oxford Museum of Natural History. The record of that debate, however, reveals that Wilberforce engaged in the tactics of ridicule. Unable to deal with the message, he attacked the messenger. From that day to this the English speaking world has been increasingly aware of Darwin, while Wilberforce has long been forgotten. That is what happens to losers. Between 1910 and 1915 Darwin’s thought began to trickle down to Middle America, giving birth to a new attack. This time it was evangelicals associated with Princeton Theological Seminary, who felt compelled to counter evolution in the name of “true” religion. They began a world wide assault on Darwin by publishing weekly tracts that went to hundreds of thousands of religious leaders across the world making their case for biblical literalism and its anti-Darwinian bias. Two things were noteworthy about this early 20th century effort. First, these evangelicals called their tracts “The Fundamentals,” thus giving that word its birth as the name of literalistic Christianity. Second, this effort was funded by a massive grant from the Universal Oil Company of California, or Unocal. It would not be the last time in American history when oil money would unite with right wing religion to achieve a political agenda. Next came the Scopes Trial in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, that pitted Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan, riveting the nation’s attention to a battle described as pitting Satan and evolution against God and the Bible. John Scopes was found guilty of teaching something “contrary to the revealed word of God in Scripture” in the public schools of Tennessee. He was fined $100, a fine that was never paid. The primary effect of this trial was to cause evolution to be discussed around American dinner tables across the land. Then came the evangelical effort to get “Creation Science,” later repackaged and perfumed as “Intelligent Design,” taught by command of State Legislatures as an alternative to what they called the “Theory” of Evolution. Massive money was poured into this effort, but it also failed when these state laws were struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on which seven of the nine sitting judges were the appointees of conservative Republican presidents. There can be no doubt that Christian leaders felt and feel threatened by Darwinism. The second threat felt in the church today is over homosexuality. In every church throughout the nation a debate rages that is so intense that churches are literally splitting apart. International Anglican leaders have sacrificed their moral competence and their credibility by suggesting that “church unity” is more important than confronting ignorance and prejudice. The Vatican consistently issues statements calling homosexuals “deviant” and refusing to support ordinances at every political level requiring homosexuals to be treated equally in areas of employment and benefits. Roman Catholic rhetoric has attempted to defend that church against child abuse by blaming it on “a few homosexual priests,” as if pedophilia were the same as homosexuality. Benedict XVI’s first act as pontiff was to announce a purge of homosexuals from the priesthood. After the priestly abuse scandal faded a bit from the news, this order was modified to keep “aggressive homosexuals” from “entering” the priesthood, a tacit admission that if homosexual clergy were to be removed from the church, the number of priests, bishops and cardinals, already in short supply, would be diminished to unsustainable levels. Evolution and homosexuality are clearly the twin terrors that grip Christian emotions negatively today. I believe these two fears are more deeply related than most imagine. Darwin’s threat to Christianity went far beyond the perceived assault on the accuracy of the seven day creation story, which was the focus of the first Christian attack. The real threat lay elsewhere. Darwin had challenged the fundamental Christian understanding of both human life and salvation in so profound a way that he could not be ignored. If Darwin was correct, Christianity was wrong. Christianity talked of a God who had created a perfect and finished world. Darwin spoke of an ongoing creative process, continuous evolution, and a universe still expanding. Christianity defined human life as “just a little lower than the angels.” Darwin saw human life as arising out of a four plus billion year process involving a tooth and claw struggle until we achieved the status of being defined as “just a little higher than the apes.” Christianity said human life began in perfection, but soon fell into sin by disobeying God’s command, which resulted in our alienation from God. This loss of perfection was called “Original Sin,” from which we were told that we could never extricate ourselves. Only an invasive act on the part of a supernatural deity could rescue us from our brokenness. Jesus was that divine rescuer. He was referred to as the savior of the sinful, the redeemer of the lost, and the rescuer of the helpless. Darwin’s thought countered this idea. Life for Darwin had never been perfect so it could not have fallen, which of course means that it also could not be restored to a status it had never possessed. Original sin was thus out, the depravity of human life was out and the necessity for divine rescue was out. Human evil did not emerge from the fall, said Darwin, it was a product of our evolutionary history, an expression of the fact that we are still struggling to achieve full humanity. God’s act in Jesus could not be for the purpose of rescuing the fallen. Thus Darwin challenged the basis on which the Christian religion was understood and proclaimed. Only by convincing human beings of their fallen, sinful states could the church’s message of divine rescue be possible. In the theology, liturgies and hymns of the church the sense of sin and depravity was drilled into the human consciousness. No Christian was allowed to escape the chronic sense of unworthiness. Throughout history the Church has trafficked in guilt, the gift, we note, “that keeps on giving.” Christian theology begins not with the love of God, but with human sin and its fall. When we sing of God’s amazing grace, we discover it is amazing only because it saves a “wretch” like you and me. Our liturgies pronounce us “miserable offenders,” people in whom there is “no health” or wholeness, those not worthy to gather up the crumbs from the divine table. Worshippers are made to say “Have mercy on me” constantly. The church has told babies that they were “born in sin” and thus must be baptized lest they perish, and that as adults that they can do nothing good without God. It is a debilitating message and it comes at us from every corner of church life. Protestants are told that “Jesus died for your sins;” Catholics are told that the mass reenacts the sacrifice that Jesus made for their sinfulness. Both are little more than guilt messages. One sometimes wonders how congregations absorb this negativity so passively or why it has any appeal. >From the insights of psychiatry we now know the powerful truth that people who are abused, hurt and violated tend to become those who abuse, hurt and violate. It should not surprise us, therefore, to find in Christian history a pattern of constant and consistent victimization. Victimized people must always have a victim onto whom their defined negativity can be transferred. That is why the Christian Church throughout its history has always had a “designated victim” who could be publicly persecuted, someone to absorb the self hatred that this understanding of God forced us to bear. First it was the Jews and we Christians made anti-Semitism a shameful fact of history. Then it was the heretics whom we burned at the stake with clear consciences. Then it was the scientists who keep whittling away at our certainty. Next, in rapid succession, it was people of color whom Christians enslaved, segregated, dehumanized and isolated; then it was women who were forced to accept second class status; and finally, it was the homosexual persons, who became the newest victims of our guilt-laden religion. Our definition of homosexuality as “a deviant, immoral and evil lifestyle” justified our hostility. Darwin’s ideas threatened this strange, hostile theology on which the Christian Church built its power. Homosexual prejudice is thus only the newest battleground on which the church seeks to preserve its view of life and to justify its continued negativity toward its human victims. It is no wonder that resisting Darwin and repressing homosexuality elicits both the energy and the anger that it does in Christian circles today. What is really going on underneath the church’s attempt to defeat evolution and to repress homosexual persons is a struggle between a dying theology, based on false premises and manifesting itself in centuries of abuse, and a new, human, celebratory theology that is struggling to be born. In this new theology the call of the Christ figure is not to rescue the sinner so that the sinner can become the abuser of others; it is rather to empower us to become so fully human that we do not need a victim to victimize, but can become a new humanity, people who are not struggling to survive, but who are capable of giving our life and love away. A fully human Jesus, a new way besides sacrifice to view the cross and a new meaning to be found in the earliest Christian creed that in Jesus God has been engaged will be the hallmarks of this new theology. It is time for the Christian Church to make this shift in a conscious way.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Evolving Faith 2019 Our voices still matter. We can still find companionship. There is still hope. If you’re agnostic, please join us. If you’re a recovering evangelical, please join us. If you know what you’ve lost but are unsure what you’ll find, join us. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Copyright © 2019 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. | | | |

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