- Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

Nicaragua
by James Wiegel 03 Aug '18

03 Aug '18

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/nicaragua-thousands-flee-violence-costa… Jim Wiegel 401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353 Tel. 011-623-936-8671 or 011-623-363-3277 jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. "But that is not what great ships are built for." Clarissa Pinkola Estes

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8/02/18, Progressing Spirit, Irene Monroe: Radical Inclusion Requires Moral Leadership - Part 3; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 02 Aug '18

02 Aug '18

View this email in your browser Radical Inclusion Requires Moral Leadership - Part 3 Column by Rev. Irene Monroe August 2, 2018 Moral leadership has never been consistent in my lifetime, and I presume for us all. Like most social issues that are shaped by our human actions or inactions, moral leadership has its ebbs and flows. Right now most people today would say that the world is sadly lacking in moral leadership as we listen to the news. As a nation, we are in a state of moral outrage because we have seen our public and religious leaders co-opt morality to push political agendas. We have seen them use moral arguments as a justification to maintain the status quo, the oppression of other people and to keep in place structural injustices. So, to tackle this topic I ask five questions: What is moral leadership? What have been examples of moral leadership in my lifetime? Who embodied or embodies it? What should moral leadership look like today? And, where should I look for it? Moral leadership, for me, is about service to others. It’s guided by core ideals deeply rooted in a praxis of justice and social change that addresses oppressions and its multiple causes and expressions. Motivated by a sense of shared purpose, moral leadership is collaborative and intersectional in building movements and not moments of justice. For example, I am reminded of the last clause in Isaiah 11:6 KJV which states, “…and a little child shall lead them,” as a recent show of moral leadership. This April was the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. It was sadly a searing reminder of unaddressed gun violence in America. And, because gun violence has gone unaddressed for half a century, future generations of children residing in a safer and healthier America MLK spoke about so dreamingly in his speeches now in 2018 live in fear of guns when they are not running scared for their lives from them. During the “March for Our Lives,” student-led demonstration demanding safer gun laws that took place in Washington, D.C., one of the surprise guest speakers was nine-year-old Yolanda Renee King, granddaughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Like the hundreds of thousands of children and teens who came to the nation’s capital with the mission to end school shootings, Yolanda Renee King told the audience, “My grandfather had a dream that his four little children will not be judged by the color of the skin, but the content of their character.” Standing on stage alongside one of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivors, Yolanda continued sharing her dream with the crowd.“I have a dream that enough is enough. And that this should be a gun-free world, period.” As I watched King’s cherubic-looking granddaughter deliver her speech to a cheering crowd, I nearly cried realizing Yolanda never met her grandfather, because a bullet shortened his life leaving us all wondering how long he might have lived. In 2018, no one could have fathomed the number one issue all American school-age children face is an epidemic of school shootings- whether in wealthy suburbs like Newtown and Parkland or urban cities like Chicago and Baltimore. Gun violence is killing our children, and gun reform continues to be that hot-button issue as a country we can’t seem to budge on. Our moral leaders in this movement today are neither adults nor our elected officials but instead our school-age kids. Martin Luther King was an example of moral leadership. Martin Luther King’s civil rights activism began in the unwelcoming “Heart of Dixie” in 1955 when on a cold December evening Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat to a white passenger, birthing the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott was the first of what would be many historic marches and protests that would catapult King onto a national stage. His acts of civil disobedience in the 1950’s and 1960’s helped elevate the country’s moral consciousness as Alabama struggled with hers. Sadly, in 2018 Alabama is still struggling. MLK showed moral leadership, but not many of his white brethren in the South did. As a proponent of the strategy of nonviolent resistance demonstrations, MLK riled the concerns of eight moderate white Alabama clergymen who published their disagreement in their Birmingham town paper. These clergymen lacked moral leadership because they felt racial injustice was better argued in their courts than expressed as public protests. However, MLK disagreed. In his famous 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King felt unjust laws were a moral responsibility not only to break but also to bring to the public’s attention: “First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” Churches can be beacons of moral leadership. However, when they do not work these churches lose their moral leadership and they open themselves not only to the charge of inhospitality, but also to the charge of moral neglect. Theology in these churches, unfortunately, becomes merely ecclesiastical articulations of the status quo where the bible for them functions as their legitimate talking book. Religious intolerance masks their spiritual abuse, and patriarchal clericalism masks the structural oppressions within these churches so that these holy places of worship become sites of ritualized violence. For example, in the early 1980’s, when the AIDS epidemic was labeled as the “Gay Plague” that was thought to affect only white gay men in this country, the Black Church turned a deaf ear to this community’s laments for help. When African American gay men made it known that they too were affected by the disease, the Black church did not offer their sons sympathy or prayer. AIDS is the leading killer of African American gay men between the ages of 25 and 44 and it’s the second leading killer of African American heterosexual women of the same age. The Black Church now understands there is a problem but it nonetheless colludes in the death of our African American LGBTQIA people with its silence on the issue. As a faith community that rests on the theological premise that God is on the side of the oppressed, the Black Church must get the moral courage to rid itself of this demon- homo/transphobia- before it is too late. Or, else the Black Church will have participated in the genocide of its people. Seminaries grow moral leadership. However, seminaries lose their moral leadership when they address only the academy, or address only the institutional interests of their denominational churches. These seminaries may occasionally glance at the world, but never fully engage themselves in the world. Their effort to teach cultural and ethnic diversity- a diversity which is seldom reflected in their faculties or student bodies- mask, at best, their anemic attempt to be politically correct and, at worse, their academic arrogance to exclude from their folds the very people theological education ought to be about. Theology emerging out of these seminaries, unfortunately, becomes inauthentic expressions of the life of God’s people. For example, in 2016, to the shock of many of us LGBTQ people of faith was the Vatican’s decision in the document “The Gift of Priestly Vocation,” to ban gays from the priesthood. And to know that Pope Francis, our LGBTQ pope- friendly pontiff, approved the document have many of us in disbelief. We all recall Pope Francis’s remarks when flying home after a weeklong visit to Brazil in 2013 (which set off global shock waves) where the pontiff was queried about the much talked about “gay lobby” in the Vatican. “When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby. If they accept the Lord and have good will, who am I to judge them?” Pope Frances’ more liberal-leaning pronouncements, however, don’t match his actions Another example, this May, Pope Francis hurled a directive to Italian bishops to block admission to gay males or perceived gay males from entering the seminary. Catholic News Agency reported Pope Francis stating, “If you have even the slightest doubt it’s better not to let them enter because these acts or deep-seated tendencies can lead to scandals and can compromise the life of the seminary, as well as the man himself and his future priesthood.” The problem in the Catholic Church is not its gay priests, and its solution to the problem is not the removal of them from church or seminaries. The problem in the Catholic Church is its transgressions against them. And I ask: Who will remove the church from itself? Scapegoating all gay priests as pedophiles is a cheap and easy solution. It gives the Catholic Church an easy escape hatch that allows the Church not own up to the reality that the reason the Catholic Church exists and will continue to exist in perpetuity is because of the gifts, and dedicated service of its gay priests. Right now, the Catholic Church and its seminaries stand in the need of prayer for moral guidance. And the Pontiff knows it. Francis aptly stated in his a December 2013 interview with 16 Jesuit magazines that “the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards” should the Catholic Church, in this 21st Century, continue on its anti-modernity trek like his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. Within a Christian context, I have come to understand moral leadership as a type of leadership that is rooted in acts of helping others, and it is arched toward justice. It is a leadership that calls attention to the present-day social injustices and institutional ills that bring about particular people’s forced eviction from the Kingdom of God. Within a Christian context, moral leadership is a theology-in-praxis that looks at reality from an involved, committed stance in light of a faith that does justice. Within a Christian framework of moral leadership, God symbolizes for us a unified plurality that helps us create a multicultural society so that no one is left behind and every voice is lifted up. When I think of what moral leadership is it is leaders who have moral outrage that transforms into acts of moral courage. For example, had Rosa Parks, an unassuming black seamstress, not had the moral outrage to refuse giving up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 this nation would not have seen the moral courage of African Americans. Moral leadership is neither gender-specific nor centered around one person. Both Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. were leaders in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, because had Rosa Parks not sat down, King could not have stood up. While moral leadership does not call us to be prophets, where one person leads and all others are to follow, it does call us to be prophetic in this particular time in the life of American democracy. Moral leadership can bring back our democracy. For example, taking a knee at NFL games is an act of moral leadership. However, the litmus test of American patriotism in sports these days is whether or not you stand for the national anthem, ignoring that the protest started as a statement against police brutality and systemic racism. However, since 9/11 the militarization of our sports culture has created a sports-military complex that now many white fans come not only for the entertainment but they come to display fidelity to police and the military, too. With Trump now having an opening to appoint a pro-life Supreme Court justice to the bench in the hope of overturning “Roe v. Wade” women’s reproductive justice issues will no longer be of serious consideration, impacting predominantly poor, disabled and women of color. There is already an erosion of LGBTQ civil rights under the guise of religious liberty. A new Trump Supreme Court justice will likely go after “Obergefell v. Hodges,” returning same-sex marriage to the states. And, while Trump bloviates his isolationist rhetoric to “Make America Great Again” our democracy hangs in the balance, revealing both its hypocrisy and its inhumanity. Many people working for justice today stand on the shoulders of Martin Luther King Jr because of his moral leadership and what he achieved in Alabama. But I believe King’s vision of justice is often gravely limited and misunderstood. Too many people thought then, and continue to think, that King’s statements regarding justice were only about race and the African-American community. We fail to see how King’s vision of inclusion and community is far broader than we might have once imagined. For King, justice was more than a racial issue, more than a legal or moral issue. Justice was a human issue. And this was evident in King’s passionate concern about a wide range of concerns: “The revolution for human rights is opening up unhealthy areas in American life and permitting a new and wholesome healing to take place,” King once told a racially mixed audience. “Eventually the civil rights movement will have contributed infinitely more to the nation than the eradication of racial injustice.” Moral leadership is about the inclusion and involvement of all people, where people are part of a participatory government and movement that is working to dismantle all existing discriminatory laws that truncate full participation in the fight to advance democracy. Where then do we look for moral leadership? I offer two suggestions where you might begin to look for it. First, we must realize that looking for moral leadership only in one person is problematic because it maintains the belief that moral leadership is not out there in the world. However, if we look for moral leadership in brief instances in people ’s lives, in our own lives, we will see it more often. Second, I believe that when we use our gifts in the service of others, we then shift the paradigm of moral leadership from outside of ourselves to within ourselves, and only then can we realize that we are the moral leaders we have been looking for. Moral leadership played a profound role in the justice work that King did. Martin Luther King said there are two types of leadership. There are those who are thermometers, who measure the temperature in the room, and those who are thermostats, who change the temperature. Let’s improve this moral climate we’re in and be thermostats. Why? Because moral leadership provides a promising today as well as a promising future. And, in so doing, we fight until Hell freezes over, and then we fight on the ice, knowing that the power of the people is greater than the people in power. ~ Rev. Irene Monroe Click here to read online and to share your thoughts. About the Author The Reverend Monroe is an ordained minister. She does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on WGBH (89.7 FM), a Boston member station of National Public Radio (NPR), that is now a podcast, and a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS (NECN). Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists (Boston) – Detour Monroe’s a Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist. Her columns appear in cities across the country and in the U.K, Ireland, Canada. Monroe writes a column in the Boston home LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows, Cambridge Chronicle, and Opinion pieces for the Boston Globe. Monroe stated that her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer and religious studies. As an religion columnist I try to inform the public of the role religion plays in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Because homophobia is both a hatred of the “other ” and it’s usually acted upon ‘in the name of religion,” by reporting religion in the news I aim to highlight how religious intolerance and fundamentalism not only shatters the goal of American democracy, but also aids in perpetuating other forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, classism and anti-Semitism.” Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College’s research library on the history of women in America. Click here to visit her website. Question & Answer Q: By A Reader Can Christian liturgies be made to reflect reality rather than nostalgia? A: By Rev. Mark Sandlin Dear Reader, It seems to me not all liturgy is “nostalgia.” There are many groups, like the Wild Goose Worship Group, that write more contemporary liturgies. Of course, there are parts of our religious history or “nostalgia” that have played an important role in getting us to where we are. Some have been healthier than others, but I'd argue they should not be forgotten. Maybe we just need to learn to not allow them to be the “end all be all.” I think it would be much more useful to allow our past to inform our future, but not dictate it. Simply use it as one of the many filters through which we now view our current realities. In the end, I think liturgies should fit the communities in which they reside. Some will be more traditional, and others will be more contemporary. The important part is for them to aid us in our acts of worship and spiritual growth. ~ Rev.Mark Sandlin Click here to read and share online About the Author Rev. Mark Sandlin is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) from the South. He currently serves at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. He is a co-founder of The Christian Left. His blog, has been named as one of the “Top Ten Christian Blogs.” Mark received The Associated Church Press' Award of Excellence in 2012. His work has been published on "The Huffington Post," "Sojourners," "Time," "Church World Services," and even the "Richard Dawkins Foundation." He's been featured on PBS's "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly" and NPR's "The Story with Dick Gordon.” Follow Mark on Facebook and Twitter @marksandlin Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited How Religion defined Women as the Source of Evil Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November 30, 2005 We began this series of columns by searching for the source of the almost universally negative definition of women that is held in religious circles. Somehow it has been imperative for men to portray women as weak, dependent wards, wrapping that portrayal in the garments of patriarchal religion. This definition used what they called God-given facts of themselves as the originators of life. They believed that they alone planted new life into the womb of the woman who was little more than fertile soil that nurtured the male seed to maturity. They took this analogy from the farmer planting his seed into the womb of Mother Earth. The woman, like Mother Earth, was not a contributor to life but a passive receptacle designed to sustain life. This biologically imposed inferiority was thought to have come from God, so to rebel against it was to rebel against God. Next we focused on the biblical story in the Judeo-Christian faith tradition to see how this ancient definition became incorporated into our own religious tradition. The Bible asserts in its oldest creation story, that the woman was created because the birds and the animals failed to satisfy the man’s need for “a helper fit for him.” This secondary status in turn set the stage for the woman to be considered the property of the man, which enabled polygamy to develop since, if women were property a man could have as many wives as he could afford. We noted how this definition actually got enshrined in the Ten Commandments (see numbers 7 and 10). This week I want to examine another biblical strand of our religion-based anti-female bias. It is the idea that the woman is the source of that evil which infects our common humanity. In the biblical story, after God had created the woman, she took her place as Adam’s “helpmeet” in the Garden of Eden. While tending that garden alone, the man had managed to obey the divine injunction not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil on pain of death. Now, however, in this obviously male-authored story, through this weak, subhuman creature called woman, that injunction was destined to be disobeyed. In chapter three of the Book of Genesis, the story unfolds dramatically. Here we see the woman alone in the Garden of Eden. She is staring at the forbidden fruit, probably fantasizing about its taste, and perhaps wondering why it was prohibited. In this weakened state of brooding temptation she is approached by a remarkable snake, which appears to walk on two legs and to be able to speak perfect Hebrew since that would be the only language that Eve understood. Sensing a vulnerable target for this phallic-shaped creature, the serpent confronts the woman. A conversation ensues, “Eve, did God say you shall not eat of any tree of the garden?” “Mr. Snake,” the woman answered, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of that tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.” The snake responded, “You shall not die! For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes shall be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.” The temptation was framed in such a way as to create in the human being a yearning for divine qualities. The temptation developed slowly. First, the woman’s fantasies convinced her that the fruit would be good for food. Second, she observed that this fruit was a delight to look at! Now she is told that it would also make her wise and enable her to transcend the boundaries of her humanity. The combination was something she could not resist. She took of this fruit and ate it. Then she gave it to her husband and, gullible and trusting as this stereotypical husband is portrayed as being, he also ate. According to the Hebrew myth, this was the moment when human awakening arrived. Later it would be described as “the Fall,” the cause of the brokenness of life, the source of “original sin.” In that moment, the writers of the Bible believed that everything changed. Perfection was destroyed. Shame and guilt entered the human mind. Our oneness with God was broken, to be replaced by a sense of alienation. God, who had once walked with the first man and woman in the garden as their friend, was now looked upon as their judge, the elicitor of their guilt. Armed with this primitive understanding of God, the first human couple sought to escape the divine presence by hiding among the bushes of the garden. Befuddled by their sudden absence, God calls out, “Where are you?” Confrontation ensues, “Have you eaten of that fruit?” “It was not I, Lord,” said Adam, “It was that woman, that woman you created, she gave me the fruit and I ate.” Turning to the woman, the divine interrogation continues. The woman claimed the snake had beguiled her. Blame and defensiveness enter the human arena. Punishment is handed out next. The snake is cursed. It will never again walk on two legs but must slither on its belly through all eternity, eating the dust of the earth. The woman is doomed to experience pain in childbirth but will never escape it because her “desire will always be for her husband.” Adam, whose sin is defined as listening “to the voice of your wife,” is condemned to scratch out a living from the hostile earth. The ground will bring forth thorns and thistles, making him sweat to have sufficient bread to eat. All of them would eventually die. Death was thus interpreted as punishment. Because all flesh died, it followed that all flesh must be sinful. Finally, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden. From that moment to this, the Bible asserted, it would be the human destiny to live filled with guilt, shame and alienation somewhere “East of Eden” to borrow a phrase from John Steinbeck. All of this was blamed on that person, the woman, who was understood to be the weak link in creation. Male hostility to women was said to reside in the fact that the woman brought this pain, this sin and this degradation to the man, destroying if you will the perfect original image of God within him. That there is hostility and fear directed toward women by men is beyond doubt. Every religious system seems compelled to explain its origin. The battle between the sexes is a perennial conflict. In almost every culture, man has always sought to subjugate the woman. For most of western history, the woman has had few rights. The husband could quite legally abuse his wife, beat her, rape her, divorce her and even kill her without any threat of punishment. Yet his dominance over this creature was always threatened by her power over him. Her feminine power was based on the woman’s ability to tempt him with desire for her body. The dominant male felt powerless in that attraction. He felt vulnerable since after emptying his sperm into her womb he was left weak, exhausted and sleepy. Patriarchal society was thus organized to keep the male in his position of dominance. That is why the woman’s independence had to be prescribed by local customs. For centuries the woman was not allowed in the workplace. That did not mean that the woman was unemployed, but only that she was not compensated and thus was chronically dependent. She actually worked long and hard to make her family’s well-being possible. She not only bore the babies and nursed the young, but she also cooked the food, made the clothes and cleaned the house. In return she received the protection of her husband to whom she had to promise obedience. Later in history, however, driven by economic necessity, the woman was finally allowed to enter the work place but only as a source of cheap labor. She became the low-paid nurse helper to the male doctor, doing the bedpans the doctor did not want to do. She became the teacher of the children because the teaching profession paid so poorly that males no longer wanted to enter it except as the better-paid principals and superintendents who had authority over the women teachers. She was the dutiful secretary to the male executive, who did not want to do the routine work that business requires. Once outside the home she was always regarded as the potential temptress, who might lure gullible men into ‘sin.’ Sexual abuse in the workplace was so commonplace as to be expected. Males tended to divide women into the two categories of virgin and prostitute. Men sought virgins to be their wives and the mothers of their children, while viewing all other women as prostitutes or potential prostitutes, who were out to seduce them so that their indiscretions were not their own fault but the result of being unable to resist the evil spells cast by the feminine wiles of the opposite sex. It was a fascinating cultural explanation of the source of evil. Women have paid a tremendous price historically for being defined as such in the Bible. We have been very slow in coming out of this definition. Until very recently, spousal abuse was not a crime because a wife owed obedience to her husband. She had promised it in marriage. Rape was something the woman brought on herself by “provocative clothing.” Men kept women under economic control and no woman could own property in their own name until relatively late in western history. Women were not allowed to receive university educations until the 20th century so they could not achieve economic independence. All of these things arise directly or indirectly out of the cultural assumption, based on an ancient biblical story that women are dangerous to men, the source of potential male weakness and of sin. So to keep weakness and sin under control, women must be kept under control. That was thought to be the will of God. The feminist revolution in the last century therefore, has been traditionally viewed by men as anti-Bible, anti-Church and anti-Christian. Can the Christian Church ever escape its sexist past? That will be my topic next week. ~ John Shelby Spong Announcements Finding Common Ground: A Summer of Peace Summit Are you disheartened by the increasing division showing up around the world? Are you concerned for our future — and for the future of generations to come? Join 30+ of the world’s leading peacebuilders and changemakers — including Caroline Myss, Marla Maples, Sister Jenna, Shariff Abdullah, Chief Phil Lane, Jr., Robert Thurman, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Deborah Greene, Shamil Idriss, Khalida Brohi, Daryl Davis and so many more —for this 3-day event that will highlight change-makers and their personal stories of transformations that led them to authentic and powerful action. Finding Common Ground takes place August 7-9 online and it is Free! Click here for more information/registration. Copyright © 2018 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved.

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8/11/16, Spong: The Unlikely Honored Guest at the Democratic National Convention
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 31 Jul '18

31 Jul '18

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He was surrounded in that reserved and exclusive seating area by the power-elite of the Democratic Party: A former President, the sitting Vice-President and the “second lady,” the spouses and children of the nominees, as well as those especially invited guests, who were uniquely and politically related to the convention’s eventual nominee. This unlikely guest was in his own way quite unique. He was a Republican, one who had been elected to a state-wide office as a candidate of the opposition party. He served as the governor of Virginia from 1970 – 1974 and was the first Republican governor of Virginia since 1869 in the last days of reconstruction. Later he sought his party’s nomination to the Senate of the United States, losing to another Republican, John Warner, who served with distinction from 1979 until he retired in 2008. The name of this mystery quest is Abner Linwood Holton. He is now, and has been since the day I first met him, an extraordinary man. People, unaware of the history of the Democratic Party in Virginia, find it strange that the man I regarded as the best governor of Virginia during the years I lived in that state would be a Republican. Let me tell you his story.</p> <p>Linwood Holton was born in 1923 in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, a town deep in the heart of Appalachia. He was a Republican from the moment of his birth. He was also bright and ambitious. Being a Republican in Virginia in those days was to be part of a distinct minority, perhaps even an endangered one! The Democrats of Virginia were the only cohesive political force in the state. This majority party was run by Virginia’s senior United States Senator, Harry Flood Byrd, who after serving a term as governor from 1926 to 1930, effectively ran the state until he died in 1966. It was said of Harry Byrd that he and a few of his closest political advisors would sit on the porch at his home in Berryville, Virginia, and pick the candidates for every political vacancy in Virginia from governor on down. The electorate was deliberately kept small by poll taxes, which effectively discouraged both blacks and poor whites from voting. A Byrd loyalist was in every county seat in Virginia to run the party. Racism was deep and “States Rights” was a holy slogan designed to make racism seem socially acceptable. Virginia was a one party state. Frequently the Republicans would not even nominate candidates and, even when they did, no one paid much attention to them because whoever won the Democratic primary seldom even campaigned in the general election, since Republicans simply did not win in this state! Linwood Holton made it his life’s ambition to establish two-party politics in Virginia.</p> <p>He graduated from Washington and Lee in Lexington, Virginia, and then entered the law school at Harvard University. Along the way he married a Roanoke girl, named Virginia Rogers, who went by the name of Jinks. She was the daughter of Frank Rogers, an upright, but ultra-conservative, successful and well-connected Roanoke citizen, who was the grandson of the first Episcopal Bishop in Southwestern Virginia. In his mind, the two greatest virtues were to be a conservative Episcopalian and a loyal Byrd Democrat. Jinks, the more rebellious of Rogers’ two daughters, chose to marry a Republican and a Presbyterian! Supported by this remarkable woman, Linwood began his life’s task of strengthening Virginia’s Republican Party. This party’s base, such as it was, had always been in the mountains of the western part of Virginia. As a force in opposition to Byrd Democrats, the Virginia Republican party tilted slightly leftward. There was no room to the right of the Byrd machine. The Virginia Republicans were known for their party’s efforts to improve education statewide and to develop better state mental health facilities. Linwood’s organizational efforts were so successful that in 1965 he was the Republican nominee for governor opposing the Southside, Virginia, Byrd Democrat, Mills Godwin, who had emerged as the new leader of the Democratic Party. The sickness, retirement and subsequently the death of Senator Byrd meant that the torch of party leadership had to be passed to the next generation. It is interesting that Harry Byrd, Jr., always known as “Little Harry,” who was appointed to succeed his father in the Senate, did not succeed him in the leadership of the statewide Democratic Party. Holton was defeated in that first run for the governor’s office, but he garnered a respectable total of votes and succeeded in introducing himself to the state. The day after the defeat, he began planning for his second run in 1969. The governorship in Virginia, we need to note, is limited by the Constitution to a single term.</p> <p>National issues soon began to erode the Byrd majorities. Poll taxes were declared unconstitutional in 1964. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 opened the ballot to people of color. The feminist movement began to galvanize women into an effective political force. A national- thinking Virginia Democrat, named Henry Howell, began to build a liberal political base made up of labor unions, blacks, women and young people. His challenge to the Byrd machine resulted ultimately in his election as Lt. Governor in 1971, but he could go no farther. He remained anathema to Byrd Democrats. In the Democratic Primary of 1969, the Byrd candidate, William Battle, the son of former Governor John Battle, defeated Henry Howell in a bitter contest. The party could not heal this division, so in the General Election, Linwood Holton, supported by many of Howell’s still angry voters, rode to victory with a 65,000 vote majority.</p> <p>In his inaugural address, Holton called for an end to Virginia’s pattern of racial discrimination and its racist politics. No Virginia Governor had ever uttered such words before. Words, however, were not enough. People looked for actions. They would follow soon.</p> <p>In the most dramatic step imaginable, the new governor and his wife made the decision not to put their children in the church-related or independent private schools of Richmond, where all governors’ children had previously attended, but to enroll them in Richmond’s public schools which were at that time about 80% black. It was such a startling action for a Virginia politician that the New York Times covered it with a front page story and a picture of Virginia’s Governor Holton escorting one of his daughters into a school surrounded by a host of black faces smiling broadly. In a state where the official response of the ruling Democratic machine to “Brown vs. the Board of Education,” had been to call for “massive resistance to the law of the land,” a state in which some counties chose to close their public schools rather than to integrate them, here was the highest elected official in the state escorting his children into the majority black public schools of Richmond, Virginia. No action could have announced better that a new day was dawning in what had once been the capital of the Confederacy. One of those Holton children entering those public schools on that day was their oldest daughter, Anne.</p> <p>The white population of Virginia was shocked. They believed and stated that their new governor was sacrificing his children on the “altar of integration.” Many suggested that the “inferior education” that his children would receive in those heavily black schools would cripple them for life. It was a strange argument that gave the lie to the previous white claim that all of its racially segregated schools were “separate, <em>but equal</em>.” Anne, in her early teens, would be an exemplary student. She received a fine education and upon graduation from high school would be admitted to Princeton University, from which she graduated <em>magna cum laude</em>. She seemed not to have been penalized at all in her educational achievements. After Princeton she was accepted into the class of 1983 at the Harvard Law School, from which she now holds a doctor of Jurisprudence degree. From there she went into a legal career that in time would include being a domestic relations judge and Virginia’s Education Secretary.</p> <p>While at Harvard she met, fell in love with and married a fellow law student, who was born in Minnesota and educated at the University of Missouri. His name was Tim Kaine. She lured him back to Richmond, where his earlier life experiences, including his Jesuit high school education, his year as a volunteer missionary to Honduras and his mastery of the Spanish language, prepared him to begin his Richmond law practice as a civil rights attorney. Then responding to an expressed community need, he entered politics at the most local of levels, running for a seat on Richmond’s nine-member City Council. In a majority black city, Tim not only won that seat, but was also later elected by that majority-black city council to be Richmond’s Mayor. Two years later, in 2001 he moved to the state level, being elected Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor. In 2005, he won the governor’s office. His wife, Anne Holton, became the first person to be at one time living in the governor’s mansion as the child of a Republican governor and then a second time as the state’s first lady and wife of a Democratic governor. In 2012, Tim Kaine won a seat in the United States Senate. In 2016, with two years remaining in his first term as senator, he was chosen by the presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, to be her vice-presidential running mate. Anne Holton was there with him, waving to the crowd on the final night. As Hillary Clinton raised Tim Kaine’s hand high, former president Bill Clinton was at her side and Anne Holton was at Tim Kaine’s side. The crowd roared with approval.</p> <p>In the VIP section of that vast Philadelphia arena sat the former Republican Governor Linwood Holton, now 92 years old, with his wife Jinks, both still vibrant and attractive, watching their daughter being introduced to the nation. There is sometimes a reward for integrity. Linwood and Jinks Holton, who would not allow their lives to be twisted by the prejudice of racism, challenged the distorting and debilitating social structures of his generation in Richmond, Virginia. Doing what is right sometimes carries with it intimations of transcendence and even immortality. To this day he remains one of my heroes.</p> <p>John Shelby Spong</p> <p>Read the essay online <a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb2…">here</a>.</p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top"> <div style="color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><h2 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 30px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">Question & Answer</h2> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Alberto Mejia Aguilera from Mexico writes via the internet:</span></p> <h4 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 22px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;"> Question:</h4> <p>I am from Mexico and I would like to know your opinion about Liberation Theology. Do you think that this theology is still an inspiration for the struggle against the social injustice?</p> <h4 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 22px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">Answer:</h4> <p>Dear Alberto,</p> <p>Liberation theology was, I believe, was born in Latin America, so you should be especially proud of it. I associate the name of Leonardo Boff, primarily, with it, but there were others like the murdered Bishop Oscar Romero. It was born in an attempt to apply the principles of the gospel not just to individuals, but also to the structures of our society, which so often drive the masses into poverty. It identifies God with the poor. For those reasons it tended to be resisted in ecclesiastical circles, especially by the leaders of the Roman Catholic during the years of Popes John Paul II and Benedict, both of whom were so politically conservative that they saw it as another manifestation of Communism. I think they were both wrong in this judgment. Liberation theology, I believe, constituted a call to Christianity to see that its alliance with power, both in Europe and the new world, had corrupted the essential justice that Christianity requires.</p> <p>Christianity was born among the poor and the outcasts. It rose to dominate society and so became the religion of kings. Liberation Theology was a necessary correction.</p> <p>I wish you well.</p> <p>John Shelby Spong <a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…">Read and Share Online Here</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top"> <div style="color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><h2 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 30px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">Announcements</h2> <div style="text-align: center;color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb2…"><img align="none" height="262" style="width: 350px;height: 262px;margin: 0px;border: none;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;line-height: 100%;outline: none;text-decoration: none;text-transform: capitalize;display: inline;" width="350" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/e67ac6a0-334…"></a></div> <h2 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 30px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:26px"><span style="color:#000000">Bishop Spong at the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan September 10th & 11th</span></span></h2> <strong>Schedule:</strong> Saturday, September 10, 2016 1:00 pm at the Reynolds Recital Hall, Northern Michigan University 7:00 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Marquette Sunday, September 11, 2016 2:00 pm at the Memorial Union Building , Michigan Technological University At each location, there will be an opportunity for Q&A and book signing.</div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td align="center" valign="top"> </td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></center><center><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" id="aolmail_canspamBarWrapper" style="background-color:#FFFFFF; border-top:1px solid #E5E5E5;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="top" style="padding-top:20px; padding-bottom:20px;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></center></div> </div> <style type="text/css">#AOLMsgPart_2_1c149769-41d3-4c3b-8300-eaccdde19ae7 td{color: black;} @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .aolReplacedBody table[id="canspamBar"] td{font-size:14px !important;} .aolReplacedBody table[id="canspamBar"] td a{display:block !important; margin-top:10px !important;} } </style>

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8/26/18@aol.com, ProgressingSpirit: Sandlin: True Blue Miracle?; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 26 Jul '18

26 Jul '18

True Blue Miracle? Column by Rev. Mark Sandlin July 26, 2018 I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that reports of bonafide miracles seem to have gone the way of dinosaurs about the time cameras came along – maybe doubly true since video cameras were invented. (Of course, during the early days of Photoshop we did see a bit of a revival.) I mean to the thinking person in an age of science, miracles like the ones we read about in the Bible are just a difficult concept to buy into. It only takes a quick Google search to find an expert debunking what someone has claimed to be a true miracle. As a matter of fact, it’s easier than that. Netflix currently has a show entitled, “Derren Brown: Miracle.” The thing is, Mr. Brown is an atheist, mentalist, illusionist, pop philosopher, and debunker of scam artists and mediums. Throughout the show he presents “miracles” that look very much like those one might find at a tent revival or from certain televangelists. He’s remarkably skilled at replicating the miracles. Possibly the most intriguing section of the show is the faith healing that takes place. Brown fully takes on the persona of a faith healer, shouting, “We give you the glory, we give you the praise,” and “Hallelujah.” And he proceeds to heal people of what ails them – from vision problems to back problems. For good measure, he even tosses in a palm to the person’s forehead and folks falling over backwards just like you’ve problably seen on TV. The thing is he thinks the whole thing is a bunch of hooey. Throughout the show, he talks about how we are constantly telling ourselves stories. Those stories, he says, impact what we can and cannot do. The full reality behind his miracle healings is, of course, much more complicated than that, including heightening a person’s adrenaline as well as a few other tricks. But, the thing that struck me the most was the demonstration of how powerful the stories are that we tell ourselves. Bishop Spong’s latest book, Unbelievable: Why Neither Ancient Creeds nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today is put together in a series of theses. Thesis 5 is on miracles. He opens the section saying, “In a post-Newtonian world, supernatural invasions of the natural order, performed by God or an ‘incarnate Jesus,’ are simply not viable explanations of what actually happened. Miracles do not ever imply magic.” Considering that a typical Christian would probably tell you that the Bible is chock-full of miracle stories and would associate some degree of magic with them, what do we do with Spong’s statement? Well, let’s start with the reality that the Bible isn’t actually filled to the brim with miracle stories. As Spong points out, the miracle stories are mostly limited to three sets of people throughout the Christian Bible. The first two sets are in the Hebrew Bible, Moses and his successor Joshua, and Elijah and his protege Elisha. Pre-Moses/Joshua? Not so many miracles. Post-Elijah/Elisha? Nope. Which brings us to the Christian Bible and the miracles that we are most familiar with, those performed by Jesus and then his successors, the disciples. What is important to note here is that these are some of the pillars of our faith. These folks are meant to be understood as larger than life. Not only that, the recording of their lives only happened after being passed down verbally for quite some time. Even though the Gospels come first in the New Testament, they are not the first recordings of Jesus. As a matter of fact, most of the places where Jesus is referenced in the rest of the New Testament actually predate the Gospels. An intriguing reality is that they just don’t mention Jesus doing miracles. It’s a bit odd, don’t you think? I mean, if the person you are forming your religion around is capable of performing actual miracles, don’t you think you’d probably want to mention it from time to time? Obviously, if you look to modern Christians who believe that Jesus performed miracles, the answer is a resounding, “Yes!” But, our earliest recordings of Jesus simply do not. They definitely seem to be late additions to the stories of Jesus. Even more curious is that the miracles that were ultimately credited to Jesus are remarkably similar to those of Elijah and Elisha, and the miracles of Elijah and Elisha are remarkably similar to and build on those of Moses and Joseph. So, what is going on here? As Spong points out, it’s important to understand that in the Jewish tradition these miracles were meant to be understood as “expressing the reality of [an] invasive, supernatural power designed to meet human needs.” They “were never intended to be supernatural stories of divine power operating through a human life.” He goes on to say, “Perhaps we have been defending an idea that even the biblical authors never intended.” As Derren Brown tells us, the stories we tell ourselves are powerful. It stands to reason then that stories as important to us as biblical stories are all the more powerful. For that matter the stories of the largest heroes are probably particularly important. Important enough to tell them in a way that clearly communicates how much larger than life they were. Important enough to even add symbolic meaning to them to ensure we don’t underestimate their importance in our religious heritage. I find Spong’s conclusion to this section of his final book particularly strong and would like to include it fully in his words, “After centuries of laboring to understand stories that made no sense to us, we now discover that the problem was that we did not know how to read those stories. With this insight, our ability to chart a new reformation has passed another huge obstacle!” He goes on to remind us that, “The miracles were interpretive signs.” So, there’s no such thing as miracles? Let me share an answer from one of the wise women in my congregation. We have a feedback time after my messages and on a recent Sunday she spoke of the miracle of the rescue in the Thai cave. She talked about being amazed at the sheer number of people that had to come together to make that rescue happen. For her, that was the miracle – the coming together of so many communities with a focus on rescuing those boys. Frankly, I’m with Albert Einstein on this one, “There are only two ways to live your life: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle.” I tend to lean toward the “everything” on this one. After all, everything we experience is part of our story and stories are powerful things. ~ Rev. Mark Sandlin Click here to read online and to share your thoughts About the Author Rev. Mark Sandlin is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) from the South. He currently serves at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. He is a co-founder of The Christian Left. His blog, has been named as one of the “Top Ten Christian Blogs.” Mark received The Associated Church Press’ Award of Excellence in 2012. His work has been published on “The Huffington Post,” “Sojourners,” “Time,” “Church World Services,” and even the “Richard Dawkins Foundation.” He’s been featured on PBS’s “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly” and NPR’s “The Story with Dick Gordon.” Follow Mark on Facebook and Twitter @marksandlin Question & Answer Q: By Brandon I came across a video of Bishop Spong saying he doesn't believe in hell. He believes in some kind of life after death, but it doesn't have a thing to do with reward and punishment. The indoctrination of Heaven/Hell has been around as far back as the creation of Zoroastrianism, maybe further. It's all through the bible, whether you pay attention to Hell being mistranslated as Sheol/Hades/Tartarus or Gehenna. Or if you find only that those who won't spend eternity in heaven will only be completely erased from existence. To me, this paints God as either an Ogre that was willing to sacrifice his own son in coercion for your belief in them, or as an infinite being who would give up on you after a single lifetime. I want to ask you, what do you believe will happen in the afterlife? Are we as the human race going to be okay? Should I worry about what's going to happen to me after death? My girlfriend who believes in God but struggles with what to believe in exactly, is she going to be okay? I’m terrified right now, and as one of the very few looking past religious Dogma, I need your help, or at least some insight into what I should be doing, praying for, anything. A: By Rev. Irene Monroe Dear Brandon, Various religious and folkloric traditions speak of an afterlife. One belief in the afterlife refers to an individual’s soul or spirit living beyond the life of their physical body. It is the belief that one’s moral choices and actions in life can result in their soul residing -based on divine judgement - in a place of reward or punishment, known as Heaven or Hell respectively, in Christianity. A soul like Socrates, however, lives in an eternal destiny of Limbo. Because Socrates was born before Christianity, he’s deprived of the purported benefits of Christianity, like the salvific advantages of having faith in Christ. And, according to Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” a soul can reside in Purgatory, a temporal punishment for sin, representing the penitent Christian life. You’re correct in stating that Spong doesn’t believe in Hell. In the chapter “Life After Death-Still Believable?” in his new book Unbelievable Spong lays out a cogent argument about the inutility of the concept. “I have no use for life after death as a tool or method of behavior control. …The one thing which we are certain, even as we begin this quest, is that the liberalized post-death images of our religious past cannot be resurrected. There is no hell, no heaven, no limbo, no purgatory, no lake of fire, no milk or honey. Those concepts no longer mark our lives.” Spong understands that many religions create theologies with elaborate and fictive narratives of reward and punishment systems as a form of social control, like the human-made Christian concept of Heaven and Hell. Like Spong, I don’t think after death one is likely to go to Heaven or Hell in an afterlife. I do, however, believe in a living hell created by crushing setbacks, grinding poverty, racial, gender, sexual discrimination, and religious profiling (to name a few), that many Americans, like myself, confront and navigate daily. I also concur with Karen Armstrong, a prolific British religion writer and former Catholic nun, that beliefs of an afterlife can distract attention from and to important issues. For me, the belief in an afterlife can create complacency and/or indifference to present social justice issues and crimes against humanity like the Holocaust, American slavery, lynching, and the immigration crisis presently at the U.S. - Mexico border. In the case of enslaved Africans, the belief in an afterlife was passed on to my ancestors as an intentionally Christian theological concept as a form of social control to maintain the status quo of perpetual servitude. The indoctrination of an overjoyed and jubilant afterlife wasn’t to make them better Christian but instead obedient, subservient and God-fearing slaves. For African American slaves, however, the belief in an afterlife was a coded critique of an unfulfilled life denying them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in this life. The belief in an afterlife functioned as an eschatological hope and aspiration that their future progenies would indeed have a fulfilled life that they could only supposedly experience in death. There is a plethora of material supposedly proving the afterlife, like the New York Times bestseller “Proof of Heaven” by Harvard-trained neurosurgeon Eben Alexander, MD. I feel, however, the concept- real or imagined- can potentially deprive you of living fully present in this life - missing small miracles, random acts of kindness, and the beauty of a sunrise and sunset in a single day. ~ Rev. Irene Monroe Click here to read and share online About the Author The Reverend Monroe is an ordained minister. She does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on WGBH (89.7 FM), a Boston member station of National Public Radio (NPR), that is now a podcast, and a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS (NECN). Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists (Boston) - Detour Monroe’s a Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist. Her columns appear in cities across the country and in the U.K, Ireland, Canada. Monroe writes a column in the Boston home LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows, Cambridge Chronicle, and Opinion pieces for the Boston Globe. Monroe stated that her "columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer and religious studies. As an religion columnist I try to inform the public of the role religion plays in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Because homophobia is both a hatred of the “other ” and it’s usually acted upon ‘in the name of religion,” by reporting religion in the news I aim to highlight how religious intolerance and fundamentalism not only shatters the goal of American democracy, but also aids in perpetuating other forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, classism and anti-Semitism.” Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College's research library on the history of women in America. Click here to visit her website. Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Bias Against Women in the Judeo-Christian Tradition Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November 23, 2005 Last week I began an exploration of the origins of that incessant religious negativity toward women. I located its deepest root in the evolutionary process where survival becomes the ultimate self-conscious value that dominates the human psyche. I suggested that part of this survival process involved the definition of the stronger and faster male as superior to the smaller and slower female. It was a definition based on observable biology since women, especially in the last stages of pregnancy and the period of child nursing, had to be dependent. So the primitive tribe organized its life around this observable reality. Since it was not part of the defined role of the woman to think, education for women was not encouraged, which helped to develop the image of the woman as a less intelligent creature who should not be allowed to participate in the decision making processes of the tribe. The woman’s role, in the tribe’s quest for survival, was to be the supporter of the males who protected them. That God created her only for breeding and the ancillary domestic roles became an ingrained idea. In time sacred stories were composed to demonstrate that these realities were in accordance with the will of God, making it inappropriate for any human being to seek to change them. When feminist rebellion against this stereotype finally arose it was perceived to be a rebellion against God. That is what set the stage for most religious systems to be not just anti-female but to be specifically against any attempt to assert woman’s equality. To continue this analysis, I now seek to look at how this bias found expression in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Bible begins with two contradictory accounts of creation. The opening story of the six-day creation is actually the younger, written in the 6th century BCE while the Jews were in exile in Babylon. In this account human life is made as the final act on the sixth day before God’s Sabbath of rest began. Its primary purpose was to establish for the Jews, the custom and authority of the Sabbath, which was one of the barriers erected to avoid amalgamation with the Babylonians. The second and much older creation story by some 300 years is in Genesis 2:4 – 3:24. It features Adam, Eve and the Garden of Eden. The major reason this became the primary creation story in Christian history was that Paul quoted it, making it part of the tradition that was destined to become the dominant religious system in the Western world. It behooves us, therefore to look at this account in detail in order to discern in it the tap root for Western Christian patriarchy and sexism. It is surprising how few of us really know the details. In this account, God created first the heavens and the earth. God also created separately every plant and herb before God put them into the earth since that was not yet possible because, as the text says, it had not rained and there was no man to “till the ground.” However, God remedied that problem by causing a mist to rise from the earth, enabling God to create the first man out of the dust of the earth now made pliable by the mist. The picture in this text is not unlike that of a child making a mud pie. When the man was fully formed, he was still inert but God came down upon that creature in an act of divine mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, breathing into the nostrils of this lifeless form the very breath of God. Since God’s breath, according to this story was the source of life; this was the moment in which the man became “a living soul.” Next God fashioned a garden in a place called Eden into which God placed this newly formed man. Out of the now moist ground, God then made trees to grow. Some were pleasant to look at. Others produced food to eat. God also placed into the midst of the garden two mysterious trees: one was the Tree of Life; the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Four rivers watered the garden, two of which were named the Tigris and the Euphrates, which means that the writers located the Garden of Eden somewhere in present day Iraq. The garden also had within it both gold and onyx. It is not clear why the man needed either gold or onyx but whoever wrote this story knew that gold and onyx were valuable so felt that both must be present in the Garden of Eden. This being done, God placed the man in the garden to till and care for it with permission to eat of the fruit of every tree save one. On pain of death, the man was not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That, this story asserts, is how human life began. It was very male at its origin, However, the story continues, God perceived that the man was lonely. Perhaps the man complained about that with great frequency, so God decided to “make him a helper fit for him.” God then inaugurated an almost hilarious process of trial and error seeking to fashion a proper friend for the man. No matter how many creatures God made, none appeared to satisfy the man’s yearning for a friend. One gets the sense that God became frustrated with the divine inability to satisfy the man’s wishes. That explains, according to the author of this story, why there is among the animals and birds so much variety. Some creatures were big like elephants. Some were small like cats and rabbits. Some had straight tails, others had curly tails, and still others had no tails. No matter how many varieties of beast and bird God fashioned, none satisfied the man. Adam, demonstrating the human claim to dominance, defined each creature by naming it, but among them all, the Bible asserts, was not found “a helper fit” for the man. This primitive and obviously imperfect God must have said something like: “Adam, you are very hard to please!” To which Adam must have responded: “But, God, how can I describe what I want if I have never seen it?” So, the story says, God reverted to another plan. This time, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, probably using an anesthesia that would not be discovered for thousands of years. With Adam thus out of it, God opened his chest, removed a rib and then closed the patient up. What kinds of sutures were used was not disclosed. With that rib, God fashioned the woman. As one feminist biblical scholar observed, “it was childbirth as only a male who had never had a baby could have imagined it!” God stood this newly formed woman before Adam displaying all of her charm and feminine pulchritude, while gently bringing Adam out of his deep sleep. One gets the impression that Adam’s eyes bulged out of his sockets as if on coiled springs at his first viewing. The King James Bible records Adam as having said, “This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.” It is a rather calm translation for what was in Hebrew a slang expression. It might have been more accurately rendered, “Hot diggety, Lord, you finally did it.” The Bible closes this ancient story by saying that the man named the woman Eve demonstrating male authority over the woman and accepted the divinely appointed destiny to grow up to the point where he will leave his parents and cling to his wife. In the King James English, the woman was designed by God primarily to serve the man, to meet his needs. Unlike the man, the woman was not thought to have been made in God’s image. She was higher than the animals but always meant to be subject to the authority of the lordly male. That is the oldest and most influential definition of a woman in the Bible. Because she existed for the man’s pleasure, she soon came to be thought of as his property. Polygamy in the Bible was justified on this basis. A man could have as many wives as he could afford. Harems were nothing but a sign of wealth. Even the Ten Commandments carried with them this degrading definition of women as property. The 10th Commandment ordered the people not to covet their “neighbor’s wife (Ex. 20:17).” Note there is no injunction in any book of the Bible against anyone coveting a neighbor’s husband! That appears to be proper; one just cannot covet another’s wife. Husbands were not property, but wives were and this commandment was about property rights. The neighbor, who is clearly a male, has his property listed in order of its perceived value: his house, his wife, his slaves, his ox, his ass and his other possessions. One wonders if those who want to put the Ten Commandments in our courtrooms realize that, literally interpreted, 50% of the human race would become the property of the other 50%. Religious emotion covers up so many facts of history. The same definition of women as property is reflected in the 7th Commandment against adultery. People need to realize that the style of marriage present when the prohibition against adultery was promulgated was polygamy. A man could have as many wives as he could afford. Some 300 years after Moses was said to have received the Commandments on Mt. Sinai, King Solomon had one thousand wives. What does adultery mean when one man owns a thousand women? If with a thousand wives you still have some need to commit adultery, you do have a problem! I suspect it is not even a moral problem. When one couples this with the fact that a sexual liaison with an unmarried woman was not considered adultery but rather a crime against the property of that woman’s father, the operative biblical definition of a woman becomes clear. Her journey out of this biblically imposed definition was destined to take centuries. The echoes of this “God imposed” prejudice still are heard in Christian churches in the 21st century. Those churches that still refuse to allow women to become priests and bishops do so, they say, because a woman cannot represent God before the altar. The woman is defective in that she is not created in the image of God. Other churches will not allow women to become senior pastors since the Bible, they say, forbids a woman from having authority over a man. How long, one wonders will a new generation of women tolerate this sexist ignorance? When will some appropriate person say: “What the church calls a ‘sacred tradition’ is nothing more than a lingering prejudice that no living institution in the 21st century can continue to tolerate. Where do we go from here? Stay tuned. ~ John Shelby Spong Announcements Walking on Sacred Earth Online eCourse August 6th - 31st, 2018 “Walking on Sacred Earth” provides guided opportunities for deepening our intimacy with the natural world. When we see all of life as sacred, we also experience ourselves as part of the web of life in relationship with all beings. We are encouraged to establish a respectful connection with the Earth community so that we can move into a just and sustainable way of being on the planet. This is the goal of the movement known as eco-spirituality. Click here for more information/registration. Copyright © 2018 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved.

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Fwd: Mamie Tucker
by Timothy Wegner 24 Jul '18

24 Jul '18

- From: ML Jones <mljones2022(a)gmail.com> Dear Colleagues, Mamie Tucker died recently in Chicago. She was in hospice at her daughter Brenda's home in Matteson during the past several months. Mamie graduated from the Training Inc. on the West Side in the early 1980s. She interviewed to be the ICA Receptionist on the North Side and served faithfully until she retired in 2005. Mamie was competent, considerate and kind to thousands of people - tenants, agency clients, conference participants and a legion of ICA staff and families entering the 4750 building for 25 years. Mamie will be remembered fondly by many. The funeral service will be held on Saturday, July 7 at A.R. Leak Funeral Home 18400 S. Pulaski Avenue <https://maps.google.com/?q=18400+S.+Pulaski+Avenue+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2…> Country Club Hills, Illinois <https://maps.google.com/?q=18400+S.+Pulaski+Avenue+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2…> Flowers or remembrances may be sent to the funeral home in memory of Mamie Tucker - care of her daughter Brenda. Mary Laura Jones Tim, could you please post the above information to the Dialogues? Thank you Mary Laura Jones Grants Resource Development Consultant 1454 W. Fargo Avenue <https://maps.google.com/?q=1454+W.+Fargo+Avenue+%0D%0A+Chicago,+IL+60626&en…> Chicago, IL 60626 <https://maps.google.com/?q=1454+W.+Fargo+Avenue+%0D%0A+Chicago,+IL+60626&en…> cell: 773 636-2022 mljones2022(a)gmail.com

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Transformational Strategy: Facilitation of Top Participatory... Bill Staples
by George Holcombe 23 Jul '18

23 Jul '18

Got a notice in my email today from Amazon with Staples' book at the top of the list. I’m way behind the curve. George Holcombe geowanda1(a)me.com "Whatever the problem, community is the answer. There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about." Margaret Wheatley

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7/19/18, Progressing Spirit: Irene Monroe: Building a “beloved community” is an act of radical inclusion - Part 2; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 19 Jul '18

19 Jul '18

View this email in your browser Building a “beloved community” is an act of radical inclusion - Part 2 Column by Rev. Irene Monroe July 19, 2018 A pall hangs over many Americans since Trump has taken office. One sign of this dark cloud has been an uptick in dystopian novels. Classics like George Orwell’s “1984”, Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” Sinclair Lewis’s “It Can’t Happen Here,” and my favorite, Margaret Atwood’s “Handmaid’s Tale,” a drama web television hit on “Hulu” are now all horrifyingly prescient. Our devouring of these tomes is a search for answers to potentially a frightening new normal. While I am nervous where we are in 2018 after an Obama presidency, I am also reminded, however, of MLK and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. My looking back at that era gives me hope to look forward beyond this moment. Martin Luther King, Jr. articulated his dream of wanting every town and city throughout the world “Building the Beloved Community.” The King Center explains the concept: “In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger, and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood.” During the time of King’s dream of “Building the Beloved Community” Southern states had long systematized a peculiar brand of justice with its “separate but equal” laws that allowed for separate drinking fountains, restrooms, restaurants, hotels, to name a few. The South during the civil rights movement was a place where the entire country could watch African Americans being subdued by blazing-water hoses or being charged by aggressive German shepherds on national television. And at night, when no one was watching, the Ku Klux Klan rode through black neighborhoods to burn their property and/or them, brandishing fire and terror as symbols of white supremacy. However, racism did not just situate itself unabashedly in the South; it, also, tainted life in the North for African Americans, albeit differently and less visible. And, although segregationist practices directly violated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the federal government exerted little to no effort to enforce these amendments -- in either North or South. For example, Cambridge is my community, but it falls short of King’s dream. Cambridge, proudly dubbed as “The People’s Republic of Cambridge,” is ranked as one of the most liberal cities in America. And with two of the country’s premier institutions of higher learning -- Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- that draw students and scholars from around the world, Cambridge’s showcase of diversity and multiculturalism rivals that of the UN. Cambridge is no doubt a progressive city. However, when you scratch below Cambridge’s surface, there is also liberal racism that is as intolerant as Southern racism. Just like Southern racism that keeps blacks in their place, liberal racism does, too. For example, Cambridge’s liberal ruling class maintains its racial boundaries not by designated “colored” water fountains, toilets or restaurants, but rather by its zip codes; major street intersections known as squares, like the renowned Harvard Square; and residential border areas that are designated numbers, like Area 4 (now known as the Port) -which was a predominantly black poor and working-class enclave - that is now gentrified by the biotechnology and pharmaceutical boom. Cambridge’s liberal ruling elite exploit these tensions by their claims not to see race until, of course, an unknown black man appears in their neighborhood. Segregation in this city is not only along racial lines but class, too. With Cambridge’s tony enclaves sprinkled with homes at starting prices over a half million dollars, Cambridge has become a city that is predominately white and upper class. Poor working-class whites and white immigrants do not experience the fullness their white skin privilege would abundantly afford them if they too were part of Cambridge’s professional and/or monied class. As Christians, we have to be careful not use scripture to tear us away from building MLK’s concept of the “beloved community.” For example, Christians like U. S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions like to smugly recite biblical scripture to promulgate their self-righteous acts of discrimination. In defending Trump’s indefensible policy of separating children from their families - even a child while being breastfed - Sessions cited a passage from Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans: “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order,” Sessions said. “Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful.” While clearly, Sessions is no biblical scholar evident in his bastardization of Paul’s message, Sessions knows Romans 13 is nonetheless used as an edit to obey authority. The scripture has been used as a text of terror by miscreant thugs in power throughout history: slave owners, Nazi sympathizers, apartheid-enforcers, supporters of Japanese-American internment and loyalists opposed to the American Revolution, to name a few. Christians like Sessions are now trying to apply Romans 13 to present-day issues like abortion, taxes and same-sex marriage. If Apostle Paul were alive today I know he would be apoplectic with rage by how Sessions used his sacred text. Apostle Paul was about building a beloved community, evident in his writing in Ephesians 2: 15, 19-22. The text talks about the ongoing struggle for human acceptance at a difficult time along the human timeline for the Ephesians. The Ephesians were a people of various backgrounds and nationalities. The two largest and warring ethnic groups in this city were the Jews and Gentiles. The temple the Jews and Gentiles attended was a divided place of worship. The inner court of the temple was only opened for the Jews while the outer court was where Gentile visitors were admitted. The wall of partition in the temple symbolized the temple’s system of segregation. When Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians, “Jesus abolished the Law with its commandments and rules, to create out of two races one new people in union with himself," Paul is referring to Jesus lifting the legal restrictions that maintained a system of segregation and perpetuated a state of hostility between Jews and Gentiles. When Paul later pens in this epistle “you Gentiles are not foreigners or strangers any longer” the Gentiles no longer had temporary or limited rights in the community. Gentiles were now allowed every privileged and status the Jews had, like being known as the people of God, and being accepted into the family of God. There was no longer a group of people who were insiders and outsiders, no system of “separate but equal." The belief was if anyone comes into this temple, no group of people is better than another. In breaking down the wall of partition that existed in the Temple, Paul had not only broken down the hostility between the Jews and Gentiles, but had reconciled both groups to God as one body known as the church. Walls of partition have always existed in our churches. They are never erected as part of the actual physical blueprint of the church, but the walls are built as the result of our spiritual brokenness within the body of Christ. In this present administration, we hear a lot from our president about building “The Wall” and making "Mexico pay for it." We shake our heads in absolute disbelief. But we build walls in our community, too, and we have and are paying the price of it. For example, I went to see a play recently titled “Allegiance. ” “Allegiance” is both a play and a history lesson of the forcible incarceration of 120,000 Japanese-Americans in 10 U.S. internment camps during World War II, and it is a cautionary warning about today. The play is inspired by the true childhood experience of the brilliant and renown George Takei. If you’re a Baby Boomer, you may know Takei as Hikaru Sulu, the chief helmsman of the Starship Enterprise. Today we know Takei as one of the country’s leading LGBTQ activists, especially in the fight for marriage equality. What many of us are now learning about Takei is his childhood memories of being incarcerated in the Japanese internment camps - another shameful time in American history. "I was 5 years old at the beginning of our internment in Arkansas. I remember every school morning reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, my eyes upon the stars and stripes of the flag, but at the same time I could see from the window the barbed wire and the sentry towers where guards kept guns trained on us,” Takei wrote in a New York Times op-ed “Internment, America’s Great Mistake.” “Allegiance” is also about the love of family and country, and the deleterious effects racial profiling has on innocent Americans. The play takes you into the harsh day-to-day life of the fictional Kimura family in the internment camps. It reveals some of the daily indignities many Japanese-American families endured - no private bathrooms, housed in horse stables, and if lucky, housed in barracks - in uninhabitable swamplands like Rohwer, AR, and Tule Lake, CA. Sadly, loyalty to the country for Japanese-American males rested solely on their responses to questions on the “Application for Leave Clearance” form that registered all male citizens of draft age. It was also used for volunteers to serve in an all Japanese-American combat team, which is an essential plot in the play. Their responses - young and old - on the form would seal their family’s fate in the internment camps. And, these two highly divisive questions were designed to achieve this goal: Question 27: Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered? Question 28: Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any and all attacks by foreign and domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or disobedience to the Japanese Emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization? A “no-no” response to the questions, as the patriarch of Kimura family gave, sent him to one of the harsher and high-security internment camps, which happened to Takei’s family, too. Because topics of race in this country too often is talked about in “black and white" terms, the history of discrimination against other minority groups gets overlooked. Case in point, the Japanese-American internment is not talked about and not often taught, if at all, in American history books. "Allegiance" is both courageous and dangerous: it speaks truth to power in this xenophobic-stricken political times of building walls, closing borders and banning immigrants of color from “shithole” countries. Watching the play one can easily see how President Trump’s Executive Order 13769, titled "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, "referred to as the “Muslim Ban” is eerily reminiscent of FDR’s 1942 Executive Order 9066. The Order 9006 authorized the immediate incarceration of Japanese-Americans following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. President Trump’s proclivity for racist remarks comes as no surprise with his comment about building a wall along the U.S.- Mexico border, but I advise Trump read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in order to “Make America Great Again.” One wall that Paul tore down was bigotry toward Christians. And in so doing, he was then able to build up his ministry to the Gentiles; and, therefore, build a better church. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians emphasizes the inclusivity of the church as the body of Christ. These letters to the Ephesians are the earliest evidence of the missionary expansion of Christianity because they were circular letters. As circular letters, they were never intended just for one church and its problems, but they were expected to circulate from church to church in the region. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians speaks to us who as Christians must carry on the work of building up the body of Christ by tearing down the existing walls of partition in our churches, communities or anywhere in the world. They remind us that the Christian life is not static but instead requires constant growth. In Paul removing the wall of partition between the Jews and Gentiles in their place of worship, he extends that act to us all by inviting us in communion with one another, so we are not foreigners or strangers any longer. MLK shared his dream of the beloved community. Paul showed us how to build a beloved community. Where does your community measure up? ~ Rev. Irene Monroe Click here to read online and to share your thoughts About the Author The Reverend Monroe is an ordained minister. She does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on WGBH (89.7 FM), a Boston member station of National Public Radio (NPR), that is now a podcast, and a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS (NECN). Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists (Boston) – Detour Monroe’s a Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist. Her columns appear in cities across the country and in the U.K, Ireland, Canada. Monroe writes a column in the Boston home LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows, Cambridge Chronicle, and Opinion pieces for the Boston Globe. Monroe stated that her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer and religious studies. As an religion columnist I try to inform the public of the role religion plays in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Because homophobia is both a hatred of the “other ” and it’s usually acted upon ‘in the name of religion,” by reporting religion in the news I aim to highlight how religious intolerance and fundamentalism not only shatters the goal of American democracy, but also aids in perpetuating other forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, classism and anti-Semitism.” Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College’s research library on the history of women in America. Click here to visit her website. Question & Answer Q: By John What are your thoughts about where progressive Christianity is going from here? In some groups I find it barely different than other evangelical sects, and other expressions seem to feel completely new-age without hardly a remnant of Christianity. A: By Eric Alexander Dear John, I very much understand that perspective. Over the past decade I have seen progressive Christianity trend from a more academically advanced group of people, toward a much broader type of “Evangelical Lite,” where the core tenets are to lean Democrat, sympathize with gay rights, and reject the idea of an eternal hell. And while that is all good stuff, if one suggests something like the physical resurrection of Jesus as being non-historical, some still struggle with that and want that person to leave Christianity all together. As progressive Christianity has absorbed the Emergent label it has inherited even more of a tension between those two macro factions. Mainly, those who still see Jesus as ontologically unique in divinity in comparison to every other human ever to live, and those who don’t. Those who lean very progressive sometimes feel pushed out and unwelcome within this big tent they founded as their sanctuary from closed-mindedness. And some of those who are less progressive want to draw lines within that sanctuary and ensure that other progressives don’t dismantle Christianity to a point that is uncomfortable to them. I think that path of evolution will continue to take its course. Only time will tell whether progressive Christianity trends toward a huge tent that caters broadly to most left-leaning Jesus followers. Or whether progressive Christianity stays closer to its roots as a theologically progressive leading-edge that champions truth and integrity wherever it may lead. My bet is that the big tent model will prevail, and those who originally labeled as progressive Christians will become more uncomfortable in the growing tent. My hope however is as the new breed of progressives come into the fold they become humbled enough to learn from the veterans who have spent years studying and wrestling with this stuff. And likewise, I hope that those veterans can still see value in the passion that those newer progressive Christians express within their still-somewhat-creedal faith. ~ Eric Alexander Click here to read and share online About the Author Eric Alexander is an author, speaker, and activist. He is a board member at ProgressiveChristianity.org, and is the founder of Jesism, Christian Evolution, and the Progressive Christianity and Politics group on Facebook. Eric holds a Master of Theology from Saint Leo University and studied negotiations at Harvard Law School, and authored the popular children’s emotional health book Teaching Kids Life IS Good. Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Women: Religion's Traditional Victims Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November 15, 2005 Have you ever noticed that organized religion has historically been a major force in the oppression of women? Have you ever wondered why? The battle over abortion being waged in America today, with the support of both the Vatican and the religious right is simply the latest chapter in this perennial war. Since ‘religion’ is assumed by many to be something that is basically good, its negativity toward women is thought of as proper and justified. So the irrationality of sexism is first hard for some to understand and second even harder to banish. So let me begin by establishing the reality of the sexist hostility that permeates religious traditions. Throughout the world, a quick survey will reveal that the more religiously oriented a nation is, the lower the status of women is in that country. In Europe one can document a direct correlation between those countries where people still largely honor and even worship the Virgin Mary and the entrenched second-class status of women in those nations. In most religious systems women are regarded either as less than complete or as actually flawed human beings. In the United States, during the struggle in the early part of the 20th century to amend the constitution to enable women to vote, the primary opposition came from the Christian Church, with the suffrage movement being condemned regularly from most Christian pulpits. The later defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1982 was brought about by the combination of religious forces together with a right wing Republican administration. It is worth noting that the impetus toward equality for women in the Christian West did not begin in earnest until secularism’s rise signaled the decline of religious power. In the Islamic Middle-East the impact of Shariah law on women reflects the same pious hostility by stripping basic human rights from women. Shariah law says that girls can be married at the onset of puberty and that a man may divorce one of his multiple wives by simply saying: “I divorce you,” in the presence of two male witnesses. The Taliban in Afghanistan acted out these laws with a terrifying severity producing a “Catch 22” situation for women in that women could not become doctors and no male doctor was allowed to treat Islamic women. In China, where the principal religions were Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, binding the feet of girls and women developed in response to cultural pressure informed by religious rules. This practice kept women weak, out of power and under male domination. In India, a land shaped primarily by Hinduism the religious custom for centuries called for the widow to throw herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, since the loss of a husband was deemed to be tantamount to a proclamation of the surviving widow’s worthlessness. How did this universal human negativity toward women develop? Why was it endorsed and thus blessed by almost every human religious system the world over? What is there about women in general and women’s bodies in particular that appears to be so threatening to males that they have to employ religion to help in the process of female suppression? These are the questions I would like to raise and address. I begin this quest by looking for clues in our human origins. Human life has been on this planet for no more than two million years and no fewer than one hundred thousand years, depending on how one defines human life. I tend to lean toward the more recent number since full humanity to me requires a brain sufficiently developed to become both self-conscious and self-aware, including the ability to live in the medium of time, which allows us to remember the past and to anticipate the future. It also involves the ability to think abstractly so that sounds can be turned into symbols called words, which in turn enables language to develop. However, there is a huge emotional price that self-conscious, self-aware, time-oriented abstract thinking human beings must pay for these evolutionary advances. That price involves living with chronic unabated anxiety, having to anticipate our own deaths and thus to be forced to wage an unending, but always losing, battle for our own survival. It takes enormous courage to be human and our constant fears force us to seek security in a variety of ways. Our first response is to become deeply tribal in our thinking, since tribal membership gives us a better chance at survival than we have as individuals. The tribe then defines what is needed for survival and forces those definitions on the people. Assigned roles for both men and women are part of that. Tribal religion is always the enforcer of these behavior patterns since it teaches the people to accept our assigned places in this tribal pecking order. That order, we are told, was set, by God. God chose the tribal chief to be God’s earthly ruler. The Divine Right of Kings was born here. In our hard-wired tribal mentality, we learned to fear and to hate those who were strangers with whom we were destined to come into contact periodically. An alien would be outside our organized structures and thus a threat to our tribe. That fear still feeds our xenophobia and our irrational prejudice against those who are different by race, language or physical characteristics. This same value of tribal survival also compelled our ancestors to define women biologically and to reduce them almost universally to a second-class status. Women were clearly recognized as the bearers of life and as those whose lactating skills insured the life of the tribe’s progeny. Those were essential functions for tribal survival but they were not valued in the same way as were strength and speed, which were the male values that assured survival in warfare and success in the hunt. Women, particularly when pregnant or nursing, were liabilities in this survival struggle. Since they needed to be protected and defended, they came to be thought of as childlike, helpless and dependent. So women were taught from the very dawn of civilization that their role had been defined, handed down and circumscribed by God, who made them the way they were. As dependent, second-class creatures their need to be educated was minimized and that in turn caused them in time to be viewed as incapable of learning. A women’s potential was thus effectively muted. The clear law of nature said that women were divinely fashioned to serve the needs of the male for support, sexual pleasure, comfort and the flattery of ego fulfillment. The male was obviously meant to be the dominant member of the species. Tribal religion enforced these survival patterns and explained them in mythological language. The sun was thought of as a symbol of the male deity who lived beyond the sky and who ruled the day. The moon became the symbol of women, smaller, less illuminating, dark and even seductive. The sky, as the abode of the male God brought forth powerful male-like things: thunder, lightening, wind and rain. The earth was seen as passive and feminine. It absorbed the fury of the sky god, received the falling rain that came to be thought of as divine semen sent to impregnate mother earth, causing her to bring forth life. Since the woman was defined as subhuman, it is easy to see how polygamy developed. Powerful men laid claim to many wives. Harems were a fact of life. The woman’s destiny was to go from being subservient to her father to being subservient to her husband. She had few rights. It was her duty to obey the dominant male in her life. Her body belonged to her husband whenever he desired it. In most ancient cultures, the husband had the right to punish his wife even to the point of death. She had no right of appeal since nothing he did to her was a crime. It was inevitable that women, who are also driven by the ultimate human battle for survival, would develop survival skills of their own. They would take the only asset that they possessed that seemed to have value, namely the allure of their bodies and use it to gain some control over their lives. They would flirt, tease, seduce, withdraw, taunt until they achieved power. Since women were relegated to managing the hearth, they developed the intuitive skills required to allow them to live in close interdependent communities, while the males developed the individualistic skills that enabled them to be successful in their quest for food or victory. The stereotypes that still underlie our sexist prejudices were born in this primitive context. The stronger male almost inevitably translated different as inferior and complementary as unequal. To make it even more difficult to escape these survival-imposed definitions, tribal religion almost universally asserted that these patterns were God-given, God-imposed and God-ordered. To question them, to undermine them in any way, to rebel against them was to oppose God and all that was holy. Sexism thus came to be thought of as ‘the will of God.’ This is why the feminist revolution is today so viscerally opposed by both the Vatican and right wing religious leaders. This is why Pat Robinson can say on the 700 Club: “The feminist agenda is a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” That is why religion has always been a foe of the female struggle for equality. That is why even today, that male-dominated institution we call the Church believes that its leaders have a right to sit in all male circles, wearing the frocks of their religious profession and to pronounce, in the name of a God called Father, what a woman can do with her own body. This is also why organized religion is so viscerally opposed to homosexuality, leading as it does to persecutions, purgings and constitutional amendments. The religious definition of a male homosexual is that he, though a man, condescends to act like a woman. Sexism is a very complex mixed bag of irrational and emotional elements. However, that is where the religious negativity toward women originates. We must embrace this insight first before we can move on to others. ~ John Shelby Spong Announcements The Eckhart at Erfurt Retreat June 16 - 21, 2019 join Matthew Fox and Others for a UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY to study the great medieval mystic MEISTER ECKHART in Erfurt, Germany in the very rooms where he lived and taught and prayed as a Dominican! Our week will consist of body prayer in the mornings followed by teachings and discussions on Eckhart by Matthew Fox; and art as meditation classes in the afternoons. Participants will choose for art as med either “Moving to Eckhart’s Words” led by dance instructor Meshi Chavez; or “Dreams and Journaling with Eckhart” led by Jungian therapist and author Steve Herrmann. An optional Process Seminar will be offered daily after art as meditation by Claudia Picardi. Register by October 15, 2018 for special retreat price of $1250. Click here for full details...

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Completed life of James Moffett
by Timothy Wegner 17 Jul '18

17 Jul '18

>From Mary Laura Jones : ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Dear Colleagues, James Moffett, son of Mary Warren and Don Moffett died on July 9 in New York City. Jim owned and was the proprietor of the Great Jones Cafe for 20 years. He was dearly loved by family, co-workers, guests and friends. Jim was born in 1968 in Bryn Mawr, PA. He graduated from New Trier HS in Winnetka and spent two years at Boarding School near Munich, Germany. Jim attended Pomona College in Claremont, California. He worked on Wall Street for 25 years before purchasing the Great Jones Cafe. Jim is survived by his mother, Mary Warren, his brother D.W. Moffett (Crystal), his niece Lilly, his nephew, Harry and his cousins, Dan (Parry) and Steve (Beth) Slattery. A service will be held in Siasconset, MA on Nantucket Island on July 25. His remains will be interred in the Columbarium at 'Sconset Union Chapel. Cards and memorials may be sent to Mrs. Mary Warren Moffett The Admiral at the Lake 929 W. Foster Avenue - Apartment 1115 <https://maps.google.com/?q=929+W.+Foster+Avenue+-+Apartment+1115+%C2%A0+%C2…> Chicago, IL 60649 <https://maps.google.com/?q=929+W.+Foster+Avenue+-+Apartment+1115+%C2%A0+%C2…> Mary Laura Jones Grants Resource Development Consultant 1454 W. Fargo Avenue <https://maps.google.com/?q=1454+W.+Fargo+Avenue+%0D%0A+Chicago,+IL+60626&en…> Chicago, IL 60626 <https://maps.google.com/?q=1454+W.+Fargo+Avenue+%0D%0A+Chicago,+IL+60626&en…> cell: 773 636-2022 mljones2022(a)gmail.com

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7/12/18, Progressing Spirit: Irene Monroe: Moving Toward Radical Inclusion- Part 1; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 12 Jul '18

12 Jul '18

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.aolmail_mcnTextContent,.aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateHeader .aolmail_mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; }} @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateBody .aolmail_mcnTextContent,.aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateBody .aolmail_mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; }} @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateFooter .aolmail_mcnTextContent,.aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateFooter .aolmail_mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important; line-height:150% !important; }}</style><div style="height: 100%;margin: 0;padding: 0;width: 100%;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;background-color: #78a3b4;" class="aolReplacedBody"> <span class="aolmail_mcnPreviewText" style="display:none; font-size:0px; line-height:0px; max-height:0px; max-width:0px; opacity:0; overflow:hidden; visibility:hidden; mso-hide:all;">Radical inclusion must not be intellectualized but instead connected deeply with our need for personal healing...</span> <center> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%" id="aolmail_bodyTable" style="border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;height: 100%;margin: 0;padding: 0;width: 100%;background-color: #78a3b4;"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center" valign="top" id="aolmail_bodyCell" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;height: 100%;margin: 0;padding: 10px;width: 100%;border-top: 0;"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_templateContainer" style="border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;border: 5px solid #363232;max-width: 600px !important;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" 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href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…"> <img align="center" alt="" width="595" style="max-width: 600px;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline !important;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" class="aolmail_mcnImage" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/8dff27ce-c4d…"> </a> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" id="aolmail_templateBody" style="background:#FFFFFF none no-repeat center/cover;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;background-color: #FFFFFF;background-image: none;background-repeat: no-repeat;background-position: center;background-size: cover;border-top: 0;border-bottom: 2px solid #EAEAEA;padding-top: 0;padding-bottom: 9px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;">Moving Toward Radical Inclusion- Part 1</h1> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><img align="left" height="108" style="border: 0px;width: 125px;height: 108px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/c5ed3e3e-57d…">Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on July 12, 2018</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Radical inclusion must not be intellectualized but instead connected deeply with our need for personal healing which requires us to heal our “isms.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Since September 11 America has changed radically. We have become a country where partisan politics rule the day, that we can no longer agree to disagree and shouting matches laced with expletives has taken the place of civil discourse. And this ugliness has imploded on us.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">To build a huge tent of radical inclusion, we must challenge ourselves to hear each other and to understand not just our oppressions but those of others. Understanding the intersections of oppression allows us to develop relationships and allies.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">“We don’t socialize together. There are very few places where black and white socialize together, which is the basis of relationships and friendships, the basis of understanding,” Earl Fowlkes told the Washington Blade last year, explaining why Pride events are segregated. Fowlkes is executive director of the Center for Black Equity, a national D.C.-based group that advocates for African-American LGBT people and helps organize Black Pride events in the U.S. and abroad.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">“And until we start doing that and creating those spaces to do that we’re going to have misunderstandings and a lack of sensitivity toward issues of race.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">We must address deep-seated biases that impede authentic, respectful and enriching relationships as a Christian body. I am reminded of Paul’s letter to the Galatians in chapter 3 verse 28 where he wrote: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female for we are all one in Christ Jesus.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">But the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., reminds us that “it is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” We see that still in 2018.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Segregated churches began in the 1800’s. Richard Allen, born in 1760 in Philadelphia, was the slave of a Quaker master. As a free black in the 1780’s, he converted to Methodism and became an itinerant Methodist preacher. Allen could not sit in the all-white historic St. George’s Methodist Church. In 1797 Richard Allen founded Mother Bethel African Methodist Church, the first black Methodist Church in Philadelphia, and in 1816 Richard Allen led African Methodists into a separate denomination after many years of struggle against white control. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is now the oldest black denomination in this country.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Radical inclusion is an ongoing process that allows us to see, along this troubling human timeline, those faces and to hear those voices in society of the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the dispossessed. And radical inclusion can only begin to work when those relegated to the fringes of society can begin to sample what those in society take for granted as their inalienable right. And sometimes for that to happen, it must start with Christians who understand the biblical mandate in Matthew 25:35 where Jesus said: “For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">With today’s nativist spirit of patriotism and isolationist rhetoric to “Make America Great Again,” we close our doors and heart to refugees. Evangelical Christians, in particular, fail to see Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph, were Middle Eastern refugees. Soon after Jesus’s birth Mary and Joseph fled with their newborn to Egypt as refugees fleeing from violence, as undocumented immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into the U. S. are today. And oddly, this isolationist rhetoric fails to recognize that the first group of settlers in America were refugees- the Pilgrims</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center,” African American cultural critic bell hooks states that she begins her analysis at the margin because it is a space of radical openness, and it gives you an oppositional gaze from which to see the world, unknown to the oppressor. It is at the margin where you can see injustice being done. It is not only a site where you can honestly critique the oppressive structures in society that keeps us wounded as a people, but it is also a site that can heal us as a people — both the oppressed and the oppressor.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In other words, it is not enough only to look outside ourselves to see the places where society is broken. It is not enough to talk about institutions, churches, and workplaces that fracture and separate people based on race, religion, gender and sexual orientation, to name a few.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">We must also look at the ways we as an individual and a community are both the oppressed and the oppressor. We must look at ways that we manifest these bigotries, how we are the very ones who uphold and are part of these institutions and workplaces. Often, we find that these institutions and workplaces are broken, dysfunctional and wounded in the very same ways that we are. And the structures we have created are mirrors not of who we want to be, but who we sadly really are.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">We cannot heal the world if we have not healed ourselves. So perhaps the most significant task, and the most challenging work we must do first, is to improve ourselves. And this work must be done in relationship with our justice work in the world.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In “The Old Man and the Sea,” Ernest Hemingway said that the world breaks us all, but some of us grow strong in those broken places. Jesus invites us to become strong in our broken places – not only to mend the sin-sick world in which we live in, but also to mend the sin-sick world that we carry around within us. And we can only do that if we are willing to look both inward and outward, healing ourselves of the bigotry, biases and the demons that chip away at our efforts to work toward justice and diversity in our churches.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I know that the struggle against racism is only legitimate if I am also fighting anti-Semitism, homophobia, sexism, and classism – not only out in the world but also in myself. Otherwise, I am creating an ongoing cycle of abuse that goes on unexamined and unaccounted.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">When suffering is understood as an ongoing cycle of abuse that goes on unexamined and unaccounted for, we can then begin to see its manifestation in systems of racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism in our everyday lives. With a new understanding about suffering and how it victimizes the innocent and its aborts the Christian mission of inclusiveness, Jesus’ death at Calvary invites a different hermeneutic than its classically held one.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">As an instrument for execution by Roman officials during Jesus’ time, the cross’s symbolic nature and its symbolic value can both be seen as the valorization of suffering and abuse, especially in the lives of the oppressed.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">For those of us on the margins, a Christology mounted on the belief that “Jesus died on the cross for our sins” instead of “Jesus died on the cross because of our sins” not only exalts Jesus as the suffering servant, but it also ritualizes suffering as redemptive. While suffering points to the need for redemption, suffering in and of itself is not redemptive, and it does not always correlate to one’s sinfulness. For example, the belief that undeserved suffering is endured by faith, and that it has a morally educative component to it makes the powerful insensitive to the plight of others, and it forces the less powerful to be complacent to their suffering – therefore, maintaining the status quo.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Trans issues in our churches are not addressed enough. However, trans activism is taking afoot in DignityUSA, an organization that focuses on LGBTQ rights and the Catholic Church. And their voices want to be heard in Catholic dioceses across the country that will eventually inform and impact the Vatican. They must be heard in our Protestant churches, too. Of the many breakout sessions at the DignityUSA conference in 2017, I wished Pope Francis could have sat in on “Trans Catholic Voices,” because his transphobic pronouncements have been hurtful. Francis compared transgender people to nuclear weapons. His reason is that transgender people destroy and desecrate God’s holy and ordained order of creation.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">“Let’s think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings,” Francis stated in 2015 in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter “Let’s think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">During the “Trans Catholic Voices” breakout season an African American transwoman pointed out that Francis statements about transpeople deny them of basic human dignity and perpetuates violence against them. The life expectancy for black trans is 32 years old.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In her closing remarks, the African American transwoman in “Trans Catholic Voices” asked for help from advocates and allies in the room that nearly brought me to tears.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">“Trans lives are real lives. Trans deaths are real deaths. God works through other people. Maybe you can be those other people.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">As Christians, we fail to realize that our gift and our struggle are that we are a diverse community within ourselves, and our diversity should not dilute our commitment and love toward one another, but rather our diversity should teach us more about its gift of complexity, and by extension teach the larger society.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The Kwanzaa principle of Umoja- unity-must take root in our self-understanding of who we are and what we decide to be as both a people and a Christian community. In understanding the interconnectedness between himself as the individual and himself as the community, African historian John Mbuti said, “I am because we are; and since we are, therefore, I am.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">We must cure ourselves of our indifference to each others’ oppressions. As a community, we must all pitch in. The belief among us that one oppression – ours – is more significant than another persecution sets up a hierarchy of oppression and keeps us fighting. The moral and spiritual challenge before us is that united we can stand as a Christian community or divided we can fall as a petty people.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Our job, therefore, is to remember that our longing for social justice and radical inclusion is also inextricably tied to our longing for personal healing.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">~ Rev. Irene Monroe Click <a target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">here</a> to read online and to share your thoughts </p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><strong>About the Author</strong></p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The Reverend Monroe is an ordained minister. She does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on WGBH (89.7 FM), a Boston member station of National Public Radio (NPR), that is now a podcast, and a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS (NECN). Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists</a> (Boston) – Detour</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Monroe’s a <em>Huffington Post</em> blogger and a syndicated religion columnist. Her columns appear in cities across the country and in the U.K, Ireland, Canada. Monroe writes a column in the Boston home LGBTQ newspaper <em>Baywindows</em>, Cambridge Chronicle, and Opinion pieces for the <em>Boston Globe</em>.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Monroe stated that her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer and religious studies. As an religion columnist I try to inform the public of the role religion plays in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Because homophobia is both a hatred of the “other ” and it’s usually acted upon ‘in the name of religion,” by reporting religion in the news I aim to highlight how religious intolerance and fundamentalism not only shatters the goal of American democracy, but also aids in perpetuating other forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, classism and anti-Semitism.” Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College’s research library on the history of women in America. Click here to visit her <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">website</a>.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; !important;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockOuter"> <tr> <td class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockInner" style="min-width: 100%;padding: 10px 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table class="aolmail_mcnDividerContent" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="min-width: 100%;border-top: 5px solid #694F0D;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <span></span> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;">Question & Answer</h1> <h3 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;"> </h3> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px">Q: By Kevin</span></strong> <em>Has humankind invented God to look after life after death? One can say this in connection with many of the Gods in the Bible and elsewhere in man’s evolution, but is there a Creator of the Universe? If so, after studying the cosmos, one must conclude that it must be entirely different from what we have assumed, so far. If so, this might explain why we have produced such a cruel world with most of us thinking only of our own survival. But, again, there are so many examples of selflessness and good!</em></p> <h3 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;"> <strong><span style="font-size:18px">A: By Toni Reynolds</span></strong></h3> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><img height="156" style="width: 125px;height: 156px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;float: left;border: 0;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/_compresseds/273ef4…">Dear Kevin,</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I think there is something of a God vs. Science question beneath the ones you’ve posed.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I do think that humans created stories, and rituals to articulate their experiences of/with God. All in attempt to better understand their relationship to their experiences. I am not convinced that humans invented God, most definitely not just so that God could oversee the afterlife. Through those rituals and applications of the stories, I think the civilizations before ours were deciding about the intricate ways in which God works here and out there in the cosmos you speak of. In these ways we got many of the stories found in the Bible as recorded observations from generations as they studied their relationship to God and the people around them. Today, we are more comfortable using the framework of science to explain and relate to phenomena. Experientially, I think the authors of religious stories had a similar project to yours and simply used a different toolbox to work out potential answers.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I don’t quite know what to conclude about the Creator after a study of the cosmos. It seems to me that even among the specialists there is quite a range of conclusions to be drawn about such divine architecture…I would love to know more about what you conclude yourself, as well as how that conclusion informs the way you see the world at work on any given day.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The unknown details of the Creator don’t shift my thoughts when it comes to your final piece about the production of cruelty in our world. When bad things happen it can be easy to say, “what a cruel world we live in” without interrogating the ways we are organized and, therefore, enabling or altogether creating the catastrophes we recognize as “cruel”. Though God has made this world, and us in it, I do not think God should get credit for making or even allowing the evils we experience and perpetuate. We are creators here too. We are not separate from God; blame can’t go on one side and us, blameless on the other. Our decisions have consequences and we can no longer shove the responsibility into the hands of God and fain ignorance. God cannot force us to act in accordance with the rest of nature--partnering with other organisms to live symbiotically. As humans we get to choose to do that, it is no fault of the Creator when we don’t. We can make a better world than this.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">If there is a creator God, and I truly think there is, I imagine that creator God is wondering how we could stray so far off the pattern of creation, blame God for the woes, and seriously expect tomorrow to be better without changing our bad habits.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">You are right, there are so many examples of selflessness and goodness. I hope we can grow those examples so that they become general traits of society, instead of just fringe examples.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">With you in making more examples of goodness,</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">~ Toni Reynolds Click <a target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://">here</a> to read and share online</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><strong>About the Author</strong></p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Minister Toni Anne Reynolds is committed to singing flesh onto the bones of the Christian tradition by incorporating recently found texts of the ancient world into liturgy, sermons, and poetry. Toni’s Christianity forms a holy trinity with the psychological medicine of Tibetan Buddhism and the eternal Life found in Yoruba traditions. Balanced in an eclectic faith and focused in theology, Toni’s ministry offers a unique perspective on life, theology, and spirituality.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; !important;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockOuter"> <tr> <td class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockInner" style="min-width: 100%;padding: 10px 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table class="aolmail_mcnDividerContent" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="min-width: 100%;border-top: 5px solid #694F0D;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <span></span> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;">Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited</h1> <h3 style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;"> Troy D. Perry - One of God's Original Saints</h3> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><img align="left" height="132" style="border: 0px;width: 125px;height: 132px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/84fbd945-363…"> Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong November 9, 2005 It all began on October 6, 1968. On that day, twelve people gathered in a house in Los Angeles in response to an advertisement in a four-page magazine for homosexuals called “The Advocate.” This ad was addressed to gay men and lesbians who might want to be a part of a Christian Church in which they did not have to hide. The advertisement, signed by the Rev. Troy D. Perry, gave a specific address where this first service of worship would take place. Of the twelve who gathered on that date, two were a heterosexual couple, the other ten were homosexuals. One was African American, one Hispanic; seven were males and five were females. That was the founding moment for what came to be called The Metropolitan Community Church, which now has 330 congregations located in 22 countries. Troy D. Perry, then a 28-year old Pentecostal preacher, is now a world figure, the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, a person from whom presidents and presidential candidates have sought advice, a friend of Desmond Tutu and a religious leader invited to meet with John Paul II on one of his visits to the United States. On October 30, 2005 in the National Cathedral of the Episcopal Church in Washington. D.C., the place from which presidents have been buried, Troy Perry’s successor, The Rev. Nancy Wilson, was installed as the second Moderator of the Worldwide Fellowship of The Metropolitan Community Church. That setting and transition was in itself symbolic of the remarkable journey made by this incredible man, whose story needs to be told and whose contribution to the life of the Christian Church needs to be recognized.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Troy Perry was born in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1940, the oldest in what was to be a family of five children. His mother was a Southern Baptist; his father a member of the Pentecostal Church of God, though that membership might have been compromised by his father’s profession. He was, what we called in the South in those days, ‘a bootlegger,’ one who made illegal whisky available to those who were willing to pay for this service. Even as a young child, Troy was deeply drawn to the church and yearned to be a preacher. In Southern evangelical circles, the call to preach was far more important than any academic preparation designed to equip one for that duty. It was quite enough to be “open to the Spirit.” Troy was a gifted boy who spoke well and by the age of 13 he had achieved a reputation of some significance. He preached to his classmates before school every Wednesday with more than a little interest being expressed by the crowds of students and faculty that gathered. Soon, he was given a preaching license by the Southern Baptists and became known in his expanding Bible Belt orbit of North Florida, Alabama and South Georgia as “the Teen-Aged Evangelist.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Like so many people of that era in the South, Troy had no idea what a homosexual was but he knew he had attractions toward other males his age. Fearing that there was something wrong with him, he consulted a written source provided by his church, which informed him that homosexuals were “sick people who wore dresses and molested children.” Since neither was true of him, he breathed a sigh of relief. Later when his fears did not go away, he turned to a Pentecostal preacher and was told that all he had to do was to get married and his fantasies would disappear. Troy responded by marrying that man’s 18-year-old daughter. It lasted five years and produced two sons. When the marriage ended, Troy went into the army. Vietnam was to be his destiny. As part of his medical examination, he was asked to check whether or not he had “any homosexual tendencies.” The question, he said, came right after cancer and tuberculosis. He checked ‘yes.’ Nonetheless, he was taken in, given top security clearance and became a computer expert. He served well, was given an honorable discharge and began to work for Sears. In time, he became a division manager. However, his heart still drew him toward his pastor’s calling, so back to being a Pentecostal preacher he went. By this time, however, he was quite sure he was a homosexual and had had gay liaisons. The church he was serving, however, was quite sure that homosexuality was sinful, depraved behavior. One survived in that atmosphere only by being dishonest. Hiding never works and Troy was discovered, banished from that church and his license to preach revoked. It was for him a moment of great despair. With the help of his first partner he coped with that rejection. When that relationship broke up, his depression was so deep that he slashed his wrists in a suicide attempt that failed. From somewhere, he says, in that moment of darkness, he found an overwhelming sense of God’s love for him. That, he concluded, was the heart of the Gospel – God loves me. He noticed when he read the Bible that even those who forsook, denied, betrayed, tortured and crucified Jesus were still the beloved of God. Aided by this conviction he began to form a new consciousness. His logic went like this: God loves me. I am gay. Therefore God must love gays. “The Lord is my shepherd, he knows I’m gay” became his theme. He still felt a great desire to preach but the churches with which he was familiar were not open to him in his new found honesty. Their fear and hostility toward homosexual people expressed itself in mistaken attempts to turn them into heterosexuals and, if that failed, to assure them that hell was their destiny. Troy understood that sexual orientation is not a choice for anyone; it is part of our identity to which we awaken. Mental health begins, he believed, in self-acceptance not self-rejection. So coming to the conclusion that there must be others just like himself who yearned to practice the faith in which they had been reared, Troy asked himself the question that would change his life: Could there be a worship community in the Christian tradition for those who are honest about their homosexuality? That was the moment when he placed the advertisement in “The Advocate.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">To issue a public call for homosexuals to gather at a specific address was a bold act in 1968. Hate crimes were quite normal in that day. To sign that advertisement with one’s real name and to provide one’s telephone number was thought foolhardy even by Troy’s friends. Having no idea what a vast audience was waiting for this catalyst, he accepted the risk. There are today MCC churches in every major city in America and Canada; some of them bulging at the seams with members. Interestingly enough, their strength is primarily in the South, by which I mean that stretch of states that once constituted the heart of Dixie, from Texas to Florida. The MCC conducts an annual conference each year to which as many as ten thousand are in attendance. Today their pastors are trained in accredited seminaries like The Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Union in New York City, Harvard Divinity School, the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and the Vancouver School of Theology among others. This Church continues to grow and is beginning to attract young gay people who feel alienated from those churches that condemn what they know they are.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I first met Troy Perry in 1991 when the Episcopal National Convention and the MCC National Conference were both meeting in Phoenix. My book, “<em>Living in Sin?</em>” had come out in 1988 and had placed me in the national eye since in that book I called for the State to make homosexual unions legal and for the Church to give these unions the blessing we bestow in marriage. I also challenged the Church to be honest about its gay clergy whose name was and is legion. Acting on this conviction, I ordained to the priesthood in December of 1989 America’s first openly homosexual person living in a publicly acknowledged, committed relationship. The hostility I absorbed was overwhelming. Hate mail poured in; abusive telephone calls, even death threats, were plentiful. The House of Bishops in September of 2000 had voted to disassociate themselves from me for this action by a slender 78-74 margin, with two abstentions, one of which was my own. I honestly did not know how to vote on whether or not I wanted to associate with myself! Prior to this vote, I had carried this battle to the airways of this nation with appearances on CBS This Morning, the Phil Donahue Show, the Oprah Winfrey Show, and even Bill Buckley’s Firing Line. Despite the rejecting anger that engulfed me, I felt compelled to see this battle through. When I prepared to go to the General Convention of my Church in1991 in Phoenix, I was sure the debate would be intense and that I would be abused again in speech after speech. When Troy heard that I was in town, he invited me to speak to his National Conference. Christine and I had dinner with him prior to my talk, at which time I could not help but be aware of the heavy security around him. One manifestation of this was his insistence that we ride in separate cars to the hall where his delegates gathered. When we arrived Troy led Chris and me onto the stage, but before any word of introduction had been spoken, the entire assembly rose as one and gave us a sustained, indeed a thunderous, ovation that lasted for ten literal minutes. It was like having all of our wounds bathed with healing love. We stood there teary eyed, taking it all in. If what we had done meant that much to this many, it was worth all the hostility we had absorbed. From that day to this, Troy has been a close friend. We have dinner with him when in Los Angeles. We consult on the phone on various strategies and opportunities and I have spoken in MCC churches in five countries. I was touched when he asked me to speak at his retirement.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Troy Perry made the Church more whole, inclusive and yes more Christian. MCC had to be formed to show the rest of us how unwelcoming we had been to some of God’s children. Troy knew full well that when Christians sang, “Just as I am without a plea, O Lamb of God, I come,” they had to mean it. He knew that Jesus had said: “Come unto me all of ye,” not “some of ye.” I will always be grateful for the existence of The Metropolitan Community Church and for Troy D. Perry, its enormously talented founder and first moderator.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">~ John Shelby Spong</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; !important;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockOuter"> <tr> <td class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockInner" style="min-width: 100%;padding: 10px 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table class="aolmail_mcnDividerContent" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="min-width: 100%;border-top: 5px solid #694F0D;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <span></span> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 class="aolmail_null" style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;">Announcements</h1> <h2 class="aolmail_null" style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 22px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;"><font size="4"><strong><a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…"><img height="150" style="border: 0px;width: 150px;height: 150px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;float: left;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="150" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/90e0b2c3-84f…"></a> Beloved Festival</strong></font></h2> <strong>Beloved</strong> is a 4-day sacred art, music, and movement festival on the Oregon Coast from August 10th -14th. <strong>Beloved</strong> is a healing event. Beloved is a model for a culture that understands the depth of our connection with each other, to the planet, and to our souls. Beloved is all of the names and forms of the Divine, affirming their Unity. Click <a target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">here</a> for more information/registration. </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" id="aolmail_templateFooter" style="background:#FAFAFA none no-repeat center/cover;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;background-color: #FAFAFA;background-image: none;background-repeat: no-repeat;background-position: center;background-size: cover;border-top: 0;border-bottom: 0;padding-top: 9px;padding-bottom: 9px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnFollowBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 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width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnFollowContentItem" style="border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td align="left" valign="middle" style="padding-top: 5px;padding-right: 10px;padding-bottom: 5px;padding-left: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="" style="border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center" valign="middle" width="24" class="aolmail_mcnFollowIconContent" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <a target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…"><img style="display: block;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" height="24" width="24" src="https://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/icons/social-block-v2/color-twitter-48.png"></a> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="display: inline;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" style="padding-right: 10px;padding-bottom: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" class="aolmail_mcnFollowContentItemContainer"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnFollowContentItem" style="border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td align="left" valign="middle" style="padding-top: 5px;padding-right: 10px;padding-bottom: 5px;padding-left: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="" style="border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center" valign="middle" width="24" class="aolmail_mcnFollowIconContent" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <a target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…"><img style="display: block;border: 0;height: auto;outline: 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0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <span></span> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></center></div> </div>

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Global Buzz July Issue
by ICA International 07 Jul '18

07 Jul '18

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.....If you wish to SEND a report...send to your ICA contact person OR...go to the members section on the ICA International website Please click the link below for the latest issue of the Global Buzz Global Buzz Report: July 2018 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-18/2018-07-01.php ICAI Communications

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