- Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

from Cynthia Vance
by Cynthia Vance 17 Jun '18

17 Jun '18

Toronto Star, June 13, 2018 editorial. I thought it was delightful. Cynthia Dear America: Well, isn’t this a fine (possibly soon-to-be-tariffed) pickle we’ve gotten ourselves into? We’re still reeling up here about your president’s whirlwind visit to Canada and its acrimonious aftermath. We feel a little like Dorothy Gale must have after that fabled tornado in Kansas. The landscape suddenly looks a whole lot different. But here’s the thing you need to know. As Sally Field might have put it were she Canadian: We like Americans. We really like you. Even now. There are hardly any of us who haven’t visited the United States, hardly any of us who haven’t been treated wonderfully there. All of us have a special part of America in our heart, whether it’s a beach in Maine, a ballpark in Pittsburgh or Boston, a winter respite in Florida. So we need you to know that we don’t hold all Americans responsible for the recent burst of rudeness and insult bestowed on our prime minister by your boorish president and his lackeys. We know that more of you voted for the other candidate than for him. Like many of you, we expect the distemper of current times to pass along with his temporary occupancy of the White House. We know that many of you are as appalled by him as we are. We understand Robert De Niro’s pithy outburst at the Tony Awards. And we’d be lying if we said some Canadians hadn’t beaten him to the same line. This week we’re particularly gratified by the many Americans who have written to Canadian newspapers to apologize and launch messages of goodwill with #thankyouCanada hashtags. We understand close relationships. Sometimes you hurt the ones closest to you. It’s usually the speech by a weird uncle, not a stranger, that messes up the wedding reception. Still, we won’t say it didn’t hurt to have your president treat old friends like enemies at that G7 summit meeting in Quebec, and then fly off to Singapore to embrace dubious strangers as bosom pals. What can it mean when an American president dismisses the Canadian leader as “weak” and “obnoxious” and then gushes over the North Korean dictator as “very smart” and “talented”? We get that the president’s job is to stand up for his own country’s interests. But it’d be nice if he extended as much courtesy to his closest allies as he does to those who threaten to incinerate his cities. But we’re trying hard to keep things in perspective. Trump will eventually be gone, and in any event our relationship is a lot bigger than any president, however loud and obnoxious. Our true relationship was demonstrated recently when so many of you contributed to help the Humboldt Broncos, the junior hockey team in Saskatchewan involved in the devastating crash that killed 16 people. Just as it was shown when we helped you out in Tehran in 1979. And again after 9/11 when the town of Gander took in scores of planes and thousands of passengers when American air space was closed. Go see Come From Away. We were happy to do it then. We’d do it again in a heartbeat. At this point, we understand the impulse some here might feel to stop going south, to stop buying American. But throwing snits is not really the Canadian way. We know we’ve gotten a bit cocky lately at Olympic Games and such. But usually we just smother folks in niceness. No, we’re not about to sulk up here in the attic while there’s a party going on downstairs. And as far as we can tell, there’s always something going on downstairs. Just remember, you’re always welcome here. In fact, we’d like to invite all of you to come on up this summer and renew acquaintances if you’ve visited before, or get to know us better if you haven’t. We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. If you’ll excuse our spelling honour with a “u,” some French here and there, our dearth of gun shops, and the odd fact that we pay $40 for a case of beer and nothing for a heart transplant. We promise you a great time. Our weather’s turned. Our dollar’s low. With our diverse culture, there are few better places on Earth — no matter what country you cheer for — to watch the World Cup. We’ve got a world-class Pride Parade coming up and more than enough urban attractions and natural wonders to suit any taste. But let’s be clear. We’re comfortable with ourselves, our values and our role in the world. We’re not changing, any more than we expect you to. We’re used to hunkering down in some pretty inhospitable climates. So if our prime minister is going to a special place in hell, we’re going with him. We know you carry a big stick. The whole world knows that. We just thought your man Theodore Roosevelt had it right when he said that kind of clout was best wielded while speaking softly. So this is just to know we want our old friends back. See ya this summer. Yours truly, Canada. Sent from my iPad

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Trump and the Dark Side of Image Change
by Karen Snyder 16 Jun '18

16 Jun '18

From: Jim Troxel As I am not a member of this august group, I have been encouraged by my wife, who is a member, to make available to it the attached article I have spent the last several months working on. I have already shared this with some of you one-on-one and the feedback I have gotten has helped me clarify my thoughts. One of them is this, which I think this group will grasp easier than the general public: Trump won the 2016 presidential election NOT because he had a better political message, platform, or apparatus. He won because he – instinctively – captured a “spirit issue” among many of the American people. The issue being that many people in our country right now feel as if they have been left out, behind, and forgotten. They were/are captives of the Victim Image. He sensed that vulnerability and exploited it with the crafty articulation of messages that shaped an image among the electorate that people resonated with: namely, he and he alone could rescue them from the clutches of forces outside their control. The political landscape of America can be viewed through a spiritual set of eyeglasses better than it can a political set: conservative / liberal; democrat / republican; and so forth. The Democrats who run against Trump need to understand this lest they fall into his trap. A better healthcare legislation, a more tolerant immigration policy, and stricter gun control laws alone will not win the election of the next candidate the Democrats put forth, nor will it win for the 2018 congressional candidates. Hope you enjoy the article and if you wish to send me feedback, email it direct to me as I do not monitor the traffic on this channel. My email is: jtroxel49(a)gmail.com <mailto:jtroxel49@gmail.com>.

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6/14/18, Progressing Spirit: Forrester: Celebrating the Curious Christ Soul; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 14 Jun '18

14 Jun '18

View this email in your browser Celebrating the Curious Christ Soul Essay by Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. June 14, 2018 When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the Living Father. If, however, you do not come to know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty and you are the poverty. Gospel of Thomas [Bodhidharma] was uncompromising in that he wanted to know what was true, and he wasn’t going to take anybody else’s word for it. His big discovery was that by looking directly into our own heart, we find the awakened Buddha, the completely unclouded experience of how things are. Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart I am the vine. . . Gospel of John You are no longer a Christian but Christ. Gospel of Philip Not long ago I was at the department of motor vehicles to get the tags for my motorcycle. As I sat in the chair, with my little numbered paper stub in hand, I noticed out of the corner of my left eye a broad-shouldered person sit down a row behind me. Shoulder length hair, lovely black pant suit with purple and mauve accents, my sense was that she was a transgendered woman. Here we sat in this common public space, in a relatively small and rural midwestern town, early in the morning, needing to transact our personal business. My number was called, but I was informed I needed to have my insurance company fax a document. I left the counter to make my call and request. Upon my return, beside me with another attendant was the woman in the striking pant suit. There is not much privacy standing in close quarters at the counter, and so I became aware that she was seeking to have the gender of her driver’s license changed. I became very curious, as well as concerned. How would this play out? How would the female attendant respond? How safe was this woman? She had no idea when she had walked into the waiting area a few minutes earlier how she would be seen (if she would be seen) and received (or would it be ridicule and rejection)? I search for words to describe the interaction, but it was simply ordinary – humane and human. A public servant was helping a citizen change the gender of her driver’s license so that it might reflect who she knew herself to be. Such a simple and straightforward interaction, and yet nothing about their conversation in that public space, in which the woman was utterly vulnerable and at the mercy of the many she did not know, was simple or straightforward. I wonder now what this woman’s journey has been thus far. In viticulture for a vine to take root and flourish and produce luscious and juicy fruit requires intense and focused and sustained (we could say, uncompromising) labor. Threats to the vine’s health take various forms – from molds to pests to weather to ignorance. Without the wise cultivator, a healthy vine can wither or be mistakenly pruned and killed. When we are young, our families and various communities are supposed to be present in a way that nurtures our growth. To play with the Gospel of John’s metaphor, they are to guide the planting of our soul in rich and loamy soil, watered with the tears of joy and sorrow and loss and hope, so that we might take root and flourish. So that the juices of our soul flow freely and fully. So that we come to enjoy and relish and trust the unfoldment of our soul as sacred and beautiful. We are to be tended so that we ourselves – in all our uniqueness – become the precious fruit. Who nurtured this woman as a child? Who encouraged her to attend to her mysterious emerging life? When did her curiosity arise as to whom she liked, to whom she was drawn, whom she loved? When had she first realized the disparity between her genitalia, the culturally expected gender roles laid upon her, and her own soul’s longings? At what point, like Bodhidharma, had she begun to become uncompromising in wanting to know what was true about her soul and not take anyone else’s word for it? When had she begun to realize she was an irreplaceable vine, a Christ coursing with vitality? When had she begun to awaken to the truth that being the poverty of ignorance would be no life? As Pema Chödrön so poignantly writes, when did she trust herself enough to begin to look directly into her own heart and become her own mother and father to her own birth as a beautiful woman who could one day walk clearly and crisply into the public space of a small, rural, midwestern town, and casually and confidently ask that the gender of her driver’s license be changed? Curiosity. I clearly have no idea when her awakening began to unfold. Yet I was the recipient of her graceful presence. I was witness to the fruit of her unfoldment – unmistakably bold and bright. But the unfoldment began years before with curiosity within her soul to come to know the truth about her own experience of herself. Might we speak of some kind of uncompromising curiosity to discover the source of her desires? A thirst to know the pulsation and flow of her longings, and the sacred beauty of her wantings, that manifested in the strong and sure lovely woman – Christ – who conversed with an attendant on an early morning in a midwestern town? The Gospel of Thomas reminds us, When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the Living Father. Sooner or later, if we are to realize our Christhood, we must come to know ourselves. No one else can do the knowing for us. But – what a tremendous grace it is when we don’t have to ceaselessly contend with supposed faith communities about the sacred fruit we are, nor fear that they desire to prune away our life. You are no longer a Christian but Christ. We are not facsimiles; each of us is an original vine of luscious Being. We enjoy the taste of our soul when it is relaxed, spacious, creative, spontaneous, joyous and free. This is the taste of truth – not truth as theory or as abstraction, but truth as a concrete and utterly intimate realization. Thomas, Bodhidharma, John, Philip, are all speaking of this journey of realizing our basic humanity, coming to know that the truth of our being is a vine coursing with the very vitality of Being. This woman is realizing I am the vine, I am the soul through which Being pulsates with life, my life. My sense is that for her to do the utterly ordinary act of walking into the public space of the department of motor vehicles is an embodiment of uncompromising courage flowing from the uncompromising curiosity of a child – whose desire to live as the Christ is now the heart of an amazing woman. ~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. Click here to read online and to share your thoughts About the Author Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. is a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition. He is the founder of the Healing Arts Center of St. Paul’s Church in Marquette, Michigan, and the author of five books, including “I Have Called You Friends“, “Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms“, and “My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You” and “Beyond my Wants, Beyond my Fears: The Soul’s Journey into the Heartland“. Question & Answer Q: By Andy Alexis I read Bishop Spong's fine book "Unbelievable"; in one chapter, he talks about advances in science (such as the size of the universe) that have forced us to reconsider the tenets of our faith that were codified before those things were understood.   I also read Neil Degrasse Tyson's most recent book: he says the universe is estimated to be 90 billion light-years across and contains 100 billion galaxies. My question: where is God in the universe? Is God bigger than the universe? How can God be both so big but small enough for us to have a chance of comprehension?    A: By Rev. Lauren Van Ham Dear Andy, Thank you! Your provocative questions encourage our minds and our hearts to bend toward one another; a great spiritual practice for us all. In my understanding, this is the holy ground where theology, social transformation, and astro-physics (no kidding) happens. We know that science and academics diligently strive for proof, statistically-significant data, peer-reviewed checks and balances, and empirical evidence. In many places, this effort is needed and valuable. It also erodes ancient wisdom held by indigenous minds, other species and even sacred texts explaining astronomy, geology, and botany in ways that science might initially dismiss. Within in our intuition, our star-gazing, or sunset watching, we stumble upon truths. The revelations offered in our dreams, song-writing and poetry often point us toward a deep-knowing that our imaginations have been holding for the moment when we would be ready to appreciate them. Herein lies the answer. God is everywhere in the universe because God IS the universe. The singularity (Big Bang, or Flaring Forth), was God (Godhead) and the indwelling of God. Meister Eckhart, the 12th century mystic, wrote, “God’s darkness is a superessential darkness. A mystery behind mystery, a mystery within mystery that no light has ever penetrated.” Today, we know our universe (God) has been expanding for 13.7 billion years. All that has been, is and will be is born of this one source. As you’ve mentioned, depending on the day, this awareness can feel awe-inspiring, gigantic and pretty impersonal until…. Until we recall that God is IN all of it. Carl Sagan said, “We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” As co-creators with God (cosmos), it suddenly becomes very personal. All of it. My encounter with the crow in the grass is intimacy with Creation. The deep sigh I feel when I hold my friend’s child close is a brush with Divinity. The uplift or relief that overtakes me when I leave the street to enter the hallowed hush of the cathedral, is God’s whisper reminding me that I am safe, whole, and loved. Our acts of love, engagement, and curiosity are precisely how God sees God…and continues to expand. And so, Andy, in this creative tension between the vast and micro, I want to offer a closing suggestion: your reading list is inspiring. If you’re not already in a book group, please form one! When small circles gather to create space and reflection for questions like yours, social transformation happens. May we all bow to the Mystery and celebrate our co-creative responsibility with reverence and wonder. ~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Click here to read and share online About the Author Lauren Van Ham was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest; Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Her passion and training in the fine arts, spirituality and Earth’s teachings has supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief and loss, and sacred activism. Lauren’s work with Green Sangha (a Bay Area-based non-profit) is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of environmental activism taking place in religious America. Her essay, “Way of the Eco-Chaplain” appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women. Lauren tends a private spiritual direction practice and serves as Dean for The Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley, CA. Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Jewish Fundamentalism Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September 21, 2005 Religious fundamentalism is built on the assumption that the truth of God has been captured for all time. It comes in many forms including inerrancy for the words of scripture, ex cathedra utterances of a religious leader and the conviction that the ultimate truth of God has been captured in one’s developed creeds. Fundamentalism is found in both Catholic and Protestant Christianity, in Islam and in Judaism. When any religious system believes it speaks with the ‘Voice of God’ it inevitably turns demonic. Fundamentalism has supported slavery, condemned homosexuals and killed those it defined as ‘God’s enemies.’ Recently, in a full- page ad in the New York Times, Jewish fundamentalism overtly entered the public arena. This advertisement was in the form of an open letter to President Bush urging him to stop the planned exodus of Jewish settlers from Gaza. The letter opened with a text from the Book of Genesis (12:3) that contained nothing less than a veiled threat. In this verse, God was quoted as having said to Abraham, “And I will bless those who bless you and he that curses you will I curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The authors of this open letter seem to believe that quoting the Bible is all one must do to convince others to endorse their cause, suggesting rather pointedly that if they do not, God will curse them. Fundamentalism was apparent in the body of the letter where its authors asserted “that God” had dictated “to Moses 3317 years ago,” that sovereignty over this land was given “to the people of Israel” in perpetuity. “The Word of God,” they contended, “can not be contested.” This advertisement appeared just as the world saw heart-rending pictures of the Israeli army evicting Jewish residents from Gaza. That action represented a huge gamble on the part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. By sacrificing this tangential and hard to defend parcel of land conquered during the Six Days War in 1967, Sharon hopes to justify the West Bank settlements that he is not about to surrender. Dislocating the Gaza citizens was a price he felt able to pay without alienating his own right wing constituency led by his political rival Bebe Netanyahu. The verses referred to in this letter are found in Genesis (12:1-4 and 15:18) describing God’s call to Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees to form a new people. Reading these texts, however, one discovers that the land God was said to have promised Abraham’s descendants was to stretch from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates in what is now Iraq, including both the Sinai Peninsula and most of present day Syria, dimensions for Israel beyond any reasonable political expectations. The authors of this letter, however, were only concerned to demonstrate that the eviction of Jews from Gaza violated the stated purposes of God. It was neither the first nor will it be the last time that a quotation from the Bible has been twisted to fit the issue. The use of these literal texts displayed no recognition of the history of that region and ignored some two hundred years of biblical scholarship. This area, now occupied by both Israelis and Palestinians, has never really been uncontested or the sole possession of any ethnic group. As the land bridge linking Africa to both Asia and Europe, it has always been a major thoroughfare for both trade and advancing armies. Seldom has it been free. When Joshua led the Jewish people in their biblical conquest of what was then called Canaan, they justified their aggression with the same mythology reflected in this open letter. God had promised this land to the descendants of Abraham. However Abraham, if he was in fact a person of history, lived about 1850 B.C.E. His ‘great grandson’ Joseph was said to have led a Jewish migration from that “promised land” into Egypt to avoid a famine. There the descendents of both Abraham and Joseph lived for some 400 years, first as an underclass and finally as a slave people. It was therefore 16 generations later when they were claiming that their conquest of Canaan, a land populated by other Semitic people, was justified on the basis of God’s ancient promise to Abraham. This strange claim then became the basis of the Jewish “theology of land ownership.” After Joshua secured militarily a Jewish presence in Canaan, Semitic Jews and Semitic Canaanites actually lived side by side as neighbors until the arrival of some Greek settlers called the Philistines or the Palesti (hence the name Palestine), on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. These Philistines created a threat so deep that it drove the Jews and the Canaanites into an alliance at the time of King David. The combined reigns of David and his son Solomon, lasting about 80 years, represented the only time in this region’s long and troubled history that it might be fair to say that the Jews actually ruled the land they now claim, and even then they did it in alliance with the Canaanites. During the rest of their history both the Jews and their Canaanite neighbors were vassals of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Macedonians and the Romans. Later, in the second century (132-135 C.E.), a Jewish rebellion under Simon Bar Kokhba resulted in the Romans expelling all Jews from Jerusalem to Galilee while repopulating Judah with Gentiles, even erecting a temple to Jupiter on the site of the Temple of Solomon. When Christianity became the dominant religion of the Western World in the fourth century, Christians began to move into Palestine to claim the holy sites of their faith story. The Muslims in turn displaced the Christians in the 7th century, that region until the Crusaders banished them only to see the land reconquered by the Muslims when crusading fervor began to fade away in the 13th century. Most Jews, largely exiled from this land from the 6th century BCE on, became a dispersed minority living far from the homeland they claimed. A persecuted religious and ethnic group; they were banished from or ghettoized in the nations of Christian Europe. The Holocaust in 20th century Germany brought the plight of these Jews to the consciences of the West and served to feed the long-held Jewish dream of being restored to their homeland in fulfillment of what they claimed was God’s eternal promise. That restoration took place in 1948 under the terms of the Balfour Declaration from 1918. Since Palestinian people populated this land, they had to be evicted from their homes to accomplish this resettlement, a task achieved only by military might and western dollars. That action led directly to the killing bitterness that marks this land today. Many people thus claim citizenship in that part of the world. The Jews are but one of the claimants. Others are the descendants of the Canaanites, the Samaritans, the Philistines, the Edomites, the Moabites and many others. Few people, other than Christian fundamentalists, salute the Jewish claim that they alone have exclusive, God-given rights to this land. That claim is not dissimilar from the same tribal mentality that marked United States history under the slogan “Manifest Destiny.” Not only did Europeans displace the well-established indigenous population in this new world, but they also kept expanding their claims until the limits of the Pacific Ocean were reached. The Louisiana Territory was bought from France and later Alaska was purchased from Russia, both under threat of our arms. We defeated Mexico in a war of aggression in order to solidify our claim to Texas and to annex New Mexico, Arizona and California. Our expanding nation then threatened the British with war until the Northwest border, dividing Canada from the United States was established on a specific parallel to complete the sweep “from sea to shining sea.” In our history books, we justified each conquest and acquisition with noble sounding rationales just like militarily dominant people have always done the world over. National boundaries have shifted from time immemorial as conquerors dictated terms to the conquered. Poland has come in and out of the maps of Europe. Finland has had its boundaries drawn and redrawn. So have Germany, Sweden, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and the nations of Eastern Europe. People may not like it, it is neither pretty nor moral, but that is human history. The suggestion that quoting from an ancient and sacred text could or should win approval for a national agenda represents an ancient tactic to which no one has ever paid serious attention. They will not on this occasion either. People have moved through history from clan to tribe to city-states to nation states. Tribal identity is deep in the human psyche but it ultimately and always leads to the conflict of rival claims. If tribal thinking is followed consistently the only and inevitable outcome is a war that leads to mutual annihilation. That was the governing principle in the rise and fall of empire after empire in world history. That is what we see in microcosm in the Middle East today. The time has surely come for human beings to move beyond this primitive tribal mentality into a world consciousness and to begin at long last the task of recognizing that a single humanity must be accommodated in a shrinking planet. To accomplish this, the fundamentalist idolatry that claims scriptural authority for acts of violence must be challenged wherever it appears. It matters little whether that fundamentalism is Christian, Muslim or Jewish. Gaza will now become Palestinian. The tinderbox that insensitive world leaders created in the Middle East after both World Wars I and II will continue to express itself in the tensions that always arise when claim meets counter claim. Invoking God to make the aggression of each group appear to be both righteous and holy will only heighten feelings. Perhaps the only positive thing that can be gained from this strange religious mentality is that when people are repulsed by this expression of Jewish fundamentalism they just might be lead to be equally aware of and thus equally repulsed by the counter claims of Islamic fundamentalism and begin to see that the claims made by Christian fundamentalists about our nation and its role in the world are also repulsive. This developing new world consciousness may be the only path that leads to world peace. ~ John Shelby Spong Announcements The Wild Goose Festival July 12th - 15th Hot Springs, N. C. The Wild Goose Festival is a 4-day Spirit, Justice, Music and Arts Festival. But it’s so much more than that. “At Wild Goose, people flock together to celebrate a way of life rooted in faith, justice, creativity, and beauty. It’s like a family reunion where you meet relatives you never knew you had. It’s a wild and wonderful convergence of stimulating conversations, campfires, music, kids, art, lawn chairs, prayer, fun, dance, frisbees, tents, food, sunshine, rain, laughter, and fresh air. There’s nothing like it, and I look forward to it as one of the best weeks of my year.” Click here for more information/registration.

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A fine evolution option of the birthday conversation by a warm and deep ToP colleague
by James Wiegel 14 Jun '18

14 Jun '18

https://www.northstarfacilitators.com/2018/06/what-can-a-facilitator-do-to-… 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 Loneliness does not come from having no people around you. But from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to you. Carl Jung

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wedgeblade symbol on May Wired cover?
by Timothy Wegner 13 Jun '18

13 Jun '18

I was cleaning up getting ready to take off for my 50th Carleton College reunion in Northfield, MN when I noticed what looks like the wedgeblade symbol on the cover of the May 2018 Wired Magazine. Have a look, just to the left of woman's hair. It's pointing up, not to the right. Do you think this is our symbol, or are their other similar symbols? Seems unlikely the artists knews what it was, but he got it from somewhere! See: https://ebook3000.biz/wired-usa-may-2018-download/ Tim

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Global Buzz Now Including ICA Nepal
by ICA International 09 Jun '18

09 Jun '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: June 2018 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-18/2018-06-01.php ICAI Communications

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6/07/18 Progressing Spirit: Van Ham/Wolsey: Ready, Set…RECEIVE!; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 07 Jun '18

07 Jun '18

View this email in your browser Ready, Set…RECEIVE! Essay by Rev. Lauren Van Ham on June 7, 2018 The June sun was shining, but the whipping wind had us under hats and hoods, huddled close to hear the Naturalist’s instructions, “These flowers just poked out of snow last week. Up here, Summer turns to Fall by mid-August. Tundra takes hundreds of years to grow and one sloppily-placed hiking boot can destroy it all.” Then, he pointed across the Alpine carpet, to a collection of immense boulders and we began – adults, grandparents, and children (I was one of those) – hopping rock to rock. A few paused, using their telephoto lenses to capture the blooms mere centimeters wide; the athletic made it into a game of how quickly they could “gazelle” from one rock to the next; and others moved with deference to the altitude, reaching for each inhale of thin air. Other species – marmots, elk, birds – might have been looking on quizzically, but we did all we could to not touch our feet to the strong, fragile life below. It is the launch of Summer. Graduations abound, sleep-away camps will soon begin, and in this season, Earth’s generosity offers strawberries, thundershowers, long days of sunlight, and lightning bugs after dark. Near the Continental Divide, snow may still fall, but underneath, the resilient Moss Campion faithfully await their perennial unveiling in technicolor! Whether we’re there to “ooh,” & “ahhh,” or not, Earth gives and gives and gives. It would appear that our role is to receive, which isn’t the same as consuming or taking. Probably as for many of you, the events and responding events happening in our world today don’t match the teachings I’ve received from National Park guides, indigenous people around the world, and most sacred texts. In the Christian Gospels there is Luke 6:38, Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back. (NRSV) As a child raised in the 70s, I also think about the holy teachings of Sesame Street, Mister Rogers and Mary Poppins all of whom iterated that it was good to enjoy things so long as we ask permission, share, and put them back when we are done. All of this is a start, but in a time when so much has been taken without permission, sold for profit, and with no plan for return or replenishment, I find myself in despair. Taking coal and minerals buried deep in the earth, while depositing plastic bags and last year’s furniture in the landfill is clearly not an honorable exchange, nor is it healthy for any of us. Thankfully (and finally!), we are seeing the errors of our quick-fix dependencies…and we are wondering what this will continue to mean for our children, oceans, forests, and other species. How can we, in this moment, wake up, make amends, and learn from Earth’s practices of giving and receiving? If we paraphrase Luke 6:38, the take-away is that giving begets giving. And when I think back to rock-hopping in the tundra that day, it was the same. We were giving Life the space and honor it needed so Life could give us her abundant show: lacey rivulets of water, verdant greens photosynthesizing and providing fresh air, brilliant colors and patterns that we, in turn, desperately try to mirror in our daily lives through design, art and technology. These offerings that capitalism deductively label, “resources,” are what Native people call, “relatives.” What might feel different for us if, instead of taking, we recognized the abundance of what is being freely given? And what happens if we return the gift by really celebrating the Giver? I don’t know whether Hafiz, the 12th century poet, was foreshadowing photovoltaic potential, but every time I read these words, I smile, ……………………....Even after all this time ………………………The sun never says to the earth, ………………………“You owe Me.” ………………………Look what happens with a love like that, ………………………It lights the Whole Sky. Receiving is an active stance. What, in this moment, is being Given? Start small. The birds singing? The smell of lilacs coming through the window? Your cat, sprawled out and dreaming in the sunbeam? “Thank you, beautiful beings, for all that you are giving! I receive you, and in return I give you my love.” Now make it bigger. Wind, sun and waves are Earth’s ever-present rhythms of giving and receiving. Each, with their own force, create renewable cycles of communication, nourishment, and energy! We haven’t fully received these gifts, not yet. And to do so will require some active giving on our part. What if, this Summer, we give ourselves to receiving Earth’s teachings? Like any spiritual practice that’s worthwhile, it asks for our time and discipline. That’s alright; our relative, the tundra, models the virtues of both. And the promise of a spiritual practice done well is sanity, insight and our return to the sacred experience of Belonging. I hope you’ll join me: ready, set….RECEIVE! ~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Click here to read online and to share your thoughts About the Author Born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest, Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care), and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Her passion and training in the fine arts, spirituality and Earth’s teachings has supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Lauren’s work with Green Sangha (a Bay Area-based non-profit) is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of environmental activism taking place in religious America. Her essay, “Way of the Eco-Chaplain,” appears in the collection, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women. Lauren tends a private spiritual direction practice and serves as Dean for The Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley, CA. Question & Answer Q: By Kenneth No argument: the Christian church was complacent about standing up to Hitler and the holocaust. But ... in the United States, it also failed to stand up to Vietnam. It has tolerated racism, slavery, lynching, torture, and the death penalty. It is substantially failing to stand up to climate change. And now, it is failing to stand up to Trump's immorality, enrichment of the wealthy, military buildup, and trashing of the environment. What should our expectations be? I'm not convinced that saying "thank you" to God is adequate. A: By Rev. Roger Wolsey Dear Kenneth, You certainly raise some valid concerns and offer a critique of much of the Church over the years – and today. There were, of course, all sorts of Church leaders who defied and denounced Hitler, and the same is true for racism, segregation, and the Vietnam conflict. That said, it is the case that there has been a tendency for churches to go along with the status quo and not rock boats that need rocking. While there are prophetic exceptions who have bravely spoken truth to power – they do seem to be in the minority – or at least, the media doesn’t put them in the limelight very frequently. You may respond to what I’m saying thus far with, “Yes, of course and you are minimizing things greatly.” To which I would respond with a reminder that it only seems like the Church in the US is full of moral quietude. The fact is that most denominations do take stands on various matters of the day. The largest denomination in the US is the Roman Catholic Church – roughly ½ of all Christians in the U.S. – and that denomination has a long track-record for social engagement and speaking truth to power. Similarly, most all of the major mainline denominations (United Methodist, ELCA, PCUSA, UCC, Episcopal, etc.) have strong history – and present – of work toward social change and transformation, and advocacy for social justice and the environment. If one’s primary exposure to American Christianity is televangelists, mega-churches, and evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity one might conclude otherwise. For whatever reason, intellectual laziness and simplistic thinking most likely, the media tends to conflate all forms of Christianity with the conservative variety and give those types of church leaders the most voice and visibility. But rest assured, the loyal opposition is alive and well! Let us consider the fine work of Jim Wallis and the Sojourner’s community over the past several decades. Let us consider the bold Moral Mondays movement led by Rev. William Barber III. This movement is now in its 5th year. Let us consider the recent “Reclaiming Jesus” event in Washington, D.C. that was held by many church leaders who are opposed to the policies of the Trump administration and how certain sectors of the Church are blessing those deplorable actions. And let us consider the over 340,000 participants on The Christian Left Facebook page as well as the over 233,000 followers of the Kissing Fish Facebook page – realizing that these are but a small number of the many forums for progressive Christians who are seeking to put their faith into action and allow Jesus (as opposed to Caesar) to be lord/savior/Christ of their political lives as part of their discipleship. Again, your critique is a good and needed one. The growing number of people who are leaving Christianity - or who were never part of it – yearn to see authentic Christianity showing up in a world that so badly needs Christians to truly be Christian and the Church to be The Church. I will close with these words pulled and collaged from the Talmud, “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly now. Love mercy now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” Yours in Pax Christi - not Pax Romana/Americana, ~ Rev. Roger Wolsey Click here to read and share online About the Author Rev. Roger Wolsey is an ordained United Methodist pastor who directs the Wesley Foundation at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is author of Kissing Fish: christianity for people who don’t like christianity; The Kissing Fish Facebook page; Roger’s Blog on Patheos “The Holy Kiss” Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Dark Side of Evangelical Religion Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August 31, 2005 I often wonder what Bible it is that people read in America’s Bible Belt. I wonder what the religion is that is practiced by the Religious Right. It certainly does not connect with my understanding of Christianity. Perhaps I am the one who is blind to the things they perceive, but seeing their enthusiasm for war, their lack of concern for the welfare of minorities, their overt homophobia, and their violence (as expressed in the number of legal executions in that region), I cannot help but ask those who live in the Bible Belt and those who hold membership in the Religious Right to help me comprehend the religious understanding that they espouse. This issue was raised sharply for me recently by a remark from Pat Robertson, president and owner of the Christian Broadcasting Television Network. On his 700 Club program, Robertson — one of America’s leading evangelical voices — called for the assassination of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez. Murder, apparently, is a legitimate Christian solution when you have a disagreement with someone. Robertson, who was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 1988, is a major force in the religious base dedicated to the presidency of George W. Bush. (Bush’s “red state” region is the home of the most overtly religious voters in this country.) The president has represented their point of view well with his opposition to abortion, stem-cell research, homosexuality, and the right to make end-of-life decisions. Utterances emanating from Pat Robertson’s lips, however, do not sound to me like the words of a religious leader, at least not a Christian religious leader. This murder recommendation, by the way, was not his only bizarre moral lapse. Writing about the feminist movement in a fund-raising letter, Robertson said: “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” That does not sound like the feminists I know and is especially offensive to those feminists who are my wife and daughters. About homosexuality Robertson has not only been hostile but also uninformed and judgmental. Additionally he has combined his prejudices by adding the faint odor of anti-Semitism to his homophobia. In a Christmas Eve program, he once said: “The acceptance of homosexuality is the last step in the decline of gentile Christianity.” Now he has decided that the murder of Hugo Chavez is within his understanding of Christianity. This is the same man, I remind you, who championed the right of Chief Justice Roy Moore of Alabama to hang the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. Perhaps Robertson has not read those commandments recently, but the last time I looked they still contained the injunction: “Thou shalt not kill.” It was amusing yet frightening to watch some of this nation’s other evangelical leaders dance around these comments by their colleague. One of them tried to justify Robertson’s words by suggesting that they came during “the political side” of Robertson’s television program rather than “the religious side.” This strange logic suggests that murder is okay in the political arena, but not in the religious arena. Somehow murder seems to me to be both terminal and evil in either place. Jesse Jackson’s request that the Federal Communications Commission discipline Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network for his comments, just as they disciplined CBS and MTV over the exposure of Janet Jackson’s breast during the half-time show of the Super Bowl in 2004, was dismissed by the same evangelical leader as not being “in the same category of moral concern,” the implication being that the comments were a lesser offense. That argument’s value escapes me. A performer’s exposed breast is certainly in bad taste but no one died as a result of that insensitive act. To call for the murder of a head of state because you dislike his politics strikes me as of a totally different and far more severe moral dimension. Members of the Religious Right do seem to be more obsessed with issues of sexuality than they are about issues like war and peace or discrimination. Sometimes they remind me of the old joke that “fundamentalists are opposed to sex because it might lead to dancing!” I grew up a Southern evangelical fundamentalist in the Bible Belt. I certainly needed the security it offered me during the early years of my life, as I dealt with both death and poverty. I left that movement, however, because I found it intellectually bankrupt and morally indefensible. It was their indefensible morality far more than their intellectual bankruptcy that bothered me the most even then. Intellectual issues can be debated, facts cited, and minds changed. I know that from my own spiritual journey. When immoral activity done in the name of religion occurs, however, the scars created by both the pain of disillusionment and the loss of integrity are very long lasting. So out of the embarrassment of listening to a person identified as a Christian calling for an act of murder, I seek answers to my searching questions. What Bible do people read in that region of America we call the Bible Belt? In that part of our nation, church going is more popular than it is in any other part of America, and people living there hold to their religious affiliations very deeply. Yet that is the same part of America that engaged in slavery until they were required to give up that inhumane practice by force of arms. Is the enslavement of human beings compatible with the Christian life? Certainly quotations from Holy Scripture were used to justify slavery and to remove any pangs of guilt that might have accompanied that institution in the hearts of the “fine Christian slaveholders” of the South. Yet how does slavery square with Jesus’ words: “By this will all know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Would they have me believe that slavery is simply a form of love that I do not recognize? Is the calling for the murder of a head of state also a form of love that I just do not understand? When slavery was made illegal in the Bible Belt following the American Civil War, its bastard stepchild, known as segregation, took its place. Black people were separated from white people by law. Their children were forced to go to inferior schools. They were not allowed access to public libraries, public parks, or public toilets. They were refused service in both hotels and restaurants, and they were prohibited from trying on clothes in department stores and dress shops. Black people had no standing and few rights in the white-dominated courts. Enforcing these brutal practices was an organization called the Ku Klux Klan, which used the primary Christian symbol, a cross, turning it into an instrument of intimidation and fear by setting it ablaze. The Klan was also served by a “Khaplain,” who invariably articulated the values of what was called white, gentile Christianity, while at the same time seeking to dominate and coerce people of color with physical violence. The great majority of the white people of the Bible Belt supported segregation until it was declared to be illegal in 1954 by a unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court. Even then the white Christians of the South resisted that law by every possible means, legal and illegal. “Massive resistance to the law of the land” was the motto adopted by the church-going political organization run by Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia. It was fully supported by the junior senator from that same state, A. Willis Robertson, who along with his wife, were quite overtly religious, God-fearing, church-going Christians. They were also the parents of evangelist Pat Robertson. Perhaps neither the Byrds nor the Robertsons ever read Jesus’ words describing his purpose as that of bringing life, abundant life to all (John 10:10). Or perhaps they were able to convince themselves that segregation offered enhancement, not diminishment, of the humanity of black people. What kind of religion was being practiced in the Bible Belt of the South when lynching, mostly of black males, occurred there with great regularity until the mid-twentieth century with the full support of both the white law-enforcement officials and the white dominated courts? How was it possible that Southern sheriffs, police officials, judges, and juries, who winked at this murder of black people, were also God-fearing, Bible-reading, church-going Christians? If they could square the lynching of “offensive” black males with the Christianity they practiced in the Bible Belt, then calling for the murder of an offending head of state in Venezuela by a well-known Southern Christian evangelist a generation later should be easy to understand. America’s Religious Right was appalled at the sexual misconduct of President Clinton. So was I. But again their moral compass seems askew when they are not equally appalled at the behavior of a president who has taken us into a war based on blatantly false intelligence data. He has presided over a tremendous abuse of human rights in both Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo for which no persons other than enlisted personnel have yet been convicted. His actions have cost the lives of some 1,900 American service persons, the wounding of thousands more, to say nothing of his responsibility for the deaths of uncounted Iraqis. His religious supporters appear to feel no outrage about this. Yet this president claims that his religion guides his every action. I am glad Pat Robertson got caught with his moral pants hanging at half-mast, for it is time that the citizens of this country awaken to the dark side of the religious coalition that threatens, if it has not already done so, to seize power in the United States. So, I return to my questions: What Bible do they read in the Bible Belt? What kind of religion do those who are said to be members of the Religious Right practice? What kind of Christian evangelist is it who thinks it is moral to call for the murder of a head of state? I would love to have an answer. So would an increasingly larger and larger segment of the citizens of the United States. ~ John Shelby Spong Announcements The Summit 2018 World Change Through Faith and Justice June 13 - 15, Washington, DC. The Summit is a unique cross-sector gathering of leaders committed to world change through faith and justice. Thought leaders and movement makers from a variety of faith traditions and fields will meet to discuss, strategize, and create opportunities to act on some of the most pressing issues in our nation and world. Click here for more information....

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Global Buzz for June
by ICA International 07 Jun '18

07 Jun '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: June 2018 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-18/2018-06-01.php ICAI Communications

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(no subject)
by Mirja Hanson 06 Jun '18

06 Jun '18

http://demand.jessicamariedesigns.net Mirja Hanson

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5/31/18. Progressing Spirit: Wolsey/Vosper: A Call to Spirituality and Religious participation; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 31 May '18

31 May '18

View this email in your browser A Call to Spirituality and Religious participation. Essay by Rev. Roger Wolsey, May 31, 2018 A growing number of people who identify as progressive Christians also identify as being post-Christian, and/or post-Church, or even post-God. While this is of course perfectly okay and welcome, I experience this as less than ideal or optimal. To my mind following the way, teaching, and example of Jesus cannot truly, or at least not easily, be done without also having, nurturing, and tending to an active personal spiritual life communing with God (being present to Source/Presence) as well as an active communal/collective shared spiritual community. While some people may say that forums such as this newsletter and other online resources “meet that need” in their lives, words on a page pale in comparison to actually engaging in centering prayer, meditation, communion, shared singing, potluck suppers, organized community service, and experiencing big loving hugs from gifted kindred spirits. Bottom line: I’m saying that progressive Christians do well to find ways to not just be in our heads, but to be in our bodies and hearts – and to do so with and for others. I’m calling us to be spiritual and religious. I realize that saying this may be swimming against an increasingly common and increasingly strong current, but they each inform and complement the other. Here’s an analogy. I enjoy playing my trumpet by myself and practice it as I have time. This is like my spirituality (in fact, it is a spiritual practice for me). It’s a personal way for me to express myself and to commune with God. And yet I also enjoy and am blessed by playing my trumpet with others in bands and orchestras. This is like religion (which comes from the Latin “religare” – “to unite, to bind together.”) Humans are social creatures and when I play with others, I’m exposed to new ideas and different forms of music and styles and techniques and I play at a higher level than I would experience on my own. I feel invited and inspired to play at my best and to enjoy the exhilarating experience of being a part of something larger than myself and participating in something that I simply couldn’t on my own. It’s a bit like how giant redwood trees grow tall by intermingling their roots with each other in order to support each other. To use another analogy, if we are “fish,” spirituality is awareness of the water, and religions are the currents in the ocean that fish can choose to swim in to go faster and further than they otherwise could or would. (Flying fish are spiritually blessed in that by jumping out of the water they can perceive and maybe even fathom that they’re immersed in it.) Fundamentalisms are aquariums that keep fish confined. Humans thrive best (live longer with more happiness) when nurtured in communities that provide comfort, support, challenge, accountability, inspiration, and fellowship. A person can say that they’re a football player, but if they only practice alone by themselves in their backyard, and aren’t a part of a team that practices and plays together, they won’t be as much of one as they could be. Similarly, as a Christian, I realize that following that radical dude from Nazareth and his Way, teachings, and example – ain’t easy if attempted solo. Jesus banded people together to follow him. We need one another. Sure, it’s possible to come to a place in life where one feels that they no longer need a team. In some ways, that could be true, but there’s often some denial and self-deceit going on. Moreover, there are times when we participate in a group not so much because we need it, but because they need us. People groups don’t change unless people who care about them are willing to actively engage in them – and change them from the inside – which is the only way things ever change. All this said, I couldn’t be a Christian if fundamentalist churches were the only kind of church that there was. Happily, that isn’t the case, they’re actually in the minority. There are plenty of other churches ranging from conservative to progressive. There’s no such thing as a perfect church, and they’re all mixtures of various levels of health and dysfunction. That’s humans for you. That’s you for you. I invite us to choose a congregation/cohort that fits “well enough” and then allow it to change us – as we change it. * Daring to darken the doors of a church might feel a real stretch to many of us. Do I really want to attempt this again? Do I really expect things to be different? Won’t I just be hurt or disillusioned again? A place to start might be when you see someone in the lobby drinking coffee or eating their donut and you notice a tear welling in their eye as you speak with them, invite them to stroll with you down the hallway or to a corner of the room saying “Say, I notice some emotion welling up in you, perhaps something is alive or tender for you, would you like to talk about it?” And be ready for ministry to happen. You never know what’s going to happen, you might be there for someone, or someone might be there for you, just when it’s needed. That’s the magic of community. Blessings as we each do our private spiritual inner work and as we grow in Christ together. ~ Rev. Roger Wolsey Click here to read online and to share your thoughts — Here are links for how to find a progressive Christian congregation near you. 7 Ways to find a progressive Christian church ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressive Christian organizations locator About the Author Rev. Roger Wolsey is an ordained United Methodist pastor who directs the Wesley Foundation at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is author of Kissing Fish: christianity for people who don’t like christianity; The Kissing Fish Facebook page; Roger’s Blog on Patheos “The Holy Kiss” Question & Answer Q: By Reader from the Internet Would it be fair for me to promote the notion that you - a self-declared atheist leading a United Church of Canada congregation - and your church are generally promoting humanist values as well as providing the community benefits that churches normally provide? A: By Rev. Gretta Vosper Dear Reader, Definitely! What we do is build community around humanistic values. I believe very strongly that humans flourish in community and that when humans flourish, they engage beyond themselves investing in the people and the world around them. The liberal church has hemorrhaged from the left for decades, but many who have left have not found their way to communities that support them and offer the broad perspective that the same liberal church they left often does, mostly because those communities don't exist. (The liberal church, in my opinion, had a responsibility to create them, but that is a whole other conversation!) When I speak on Sundays, I'm talking about world issues, personal well-being, parenting challenges, dying with dignity, the whole swath. We deal with it all and still do the stuff of church. For example, we celebrate the birth of a child and gather around a table for communion, served and received in a unique way, consistent with our values. We stand up and sing songs. We hold the typical church fundraising events. But what all these things really do is build relationships. In preparation for our Holiday Bazaar, for instance, a group of women met for almost a year making crafts. Another group came together the week before to put everything together. On the day of, everyone donned Santa or elf hats and laughed their way through the day, dealing with customers with happy faces. Afterward, there was a bunch of stuff left that needed to be dealt with so another group got together and cleared it all out. It sounds like ordinary volunteer work, I know. And it is. But the goodwill and serotonin that is created when people come together in community is transformational. Never let anyone underestimate the importance of what I call the "off-label benefits of religion." ~ Rev. Gretta Vosper Click here to read and share online About the Author The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada minister who is an atheist. Her best-selling books include With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three books of poetry and prayers. Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Dark Side of Evangelical Religion Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August 31, 2005 I often wonder what Bible it is that people read in America’s Bible Belt. I wonder what the religion is that is practiced by the Religious Right. It certainly does not connect with my understanding of Christianity. Perhaps I am the one who is blind to the things they perceive, but seeing their enthusiasm for war, their lack of concern for the welfare of minorities, their overt homophobia, and their violence (as expressed in the number of legal executions in that region), I cannot help but ask those who live in the Bible Belt and those who hold membership in the Religious Right to help me comprehend the religious understanding that they espouse. This issue was raised sharply for me recently by a remark from Pat Robertson, president and owner of the Christian Broadcasting Television Network. On his 700 Club program, Robertson — one of America’s leading evangelical voices — called for the assassination of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez. Murder, apparently, is a legitimate Christian solution when you have a disagreement with someone. Robertson, who was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 1988, is a major force in the religious base dedicated to the presidency of George W. Bush. (Bush’s “red state” region is the home of the most overtly religious voters in this country.) The president has represented their point of view well with his opposition to abortion, stem-cell research, homosexuality, and the right to make end-of-life decisions. Utterances emanating from Pat Robertson’s lips, however, do not sound to me like the words of a religious leader, at least not a Christian religious leader. This murder recommendation, by the way, was not his only bizarre moral lapse. Writing about the feminist movement in a fund-raising letter, Robertson said: “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” That does not sound like the feminists I know and is especially offensive to those feminists who are my wife and daughters. About homosexuality Robertson has not only been hostile but also uninformed and judgmental. Additionally he has combined his prejudices by adding the faint odor of anti-Semitism to his homophobia. In a Christmas Eve program, he once said: “The acceptance of homosexuality is the last step in the decline of gentile Christianity.” Now he has decided that the murder of Hugo Chavez is within his understanding of Christianity. This is the same man, I remind you, who championed the right of Chief Justice Roy Moore of Alabama to hang the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. Perhaps Robertson has not read those commandments recently, but the last time I looked they still contained the injunction: “Thou shalt not kill.” It was amusing yet frightening to watch some of this nation’s other evangelical leaders dance around these comments by their colleague. One of them tried to justify Robertson’s words by suggesting that they came during “the political side” of Robertson’s television program rather than “the religious side.” This strange logic suggests that murder is okay in the political arena, but not in the religious arena. Somehow murder seems to me to be both terminal and evil in either place. Jesse Jackson’s request that the Federal Communications Commission discipline Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network for his comments, just as they disciplined CBS and MTV over the exposure of Janet Jackson’s breast during the half-time show of the Super Bowl in 2004, was dismissed by the same evangelical leader as not being “in the same category of moral concern,” the implication being that the comments were a lesser offense. That argument’s value escapes me. A performer’s exposed breast is certainly in bad taste but no one died as a result of that insensitive act. To call for the murder of a head of state because you dislike his politics strikes me as of a totally different and far more severe moral dimension. Members of the Religious Right do seem to be more obsessed with issues of sexuality than they are about issues like war and peace or discrimination. Sometimes they remind me of the old joke that “fundamentalists are opposed to sex because it might lead to dancing!” I grew up a Southern evangelical fundamentalist in the Bible Belt. I certainly needed the security it offered me during the early years of my life, as I dealt with both death and poverty. I left that movement, however, because I found it intellectually bankrupt and morally indefensible. It was their indefensible morality far more than their intellectual bankruptcy that bothered me the most even then. Intellectual issues can be debated, facts cited, and minds changed. I know that from my own spiritual journey. When immoral activity done in the name of religion occurs, however, the scars created by both the pain of disillusionment and the loss of integrity are very long lasting. So out of the embarrassment of listening to a person identified as a Christian calling for an act of murder, I seek answers to my searching questions. What Bible do people read in that region of America we call the Bible Belt? In that part of our nation, church going is more popular than it is in any other part of America, and people living there hold to their religious affiliations very deeply. Yet that is the same part of America that engaged in slavery until they were required to give up that inhumane practice by force of arms. Is the enslavement of human beings compatible with the Christian life? Certainly quotations from Holy Scripture were used to justify slavery and to remove any pangs of guilt that might have accompanied that institution in the hearts of the “fine Christian slaveholders” of the South. Yet how does slavery square with Jesus’ words: “By this will all know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Would they have me believe that slavery is simply a form of love that I do not recognize? Is the calling for the murder of a head of state also a form of love that I just do not understand? When slavery was made illegal in the Bible Belt following the American Civil War, its bastard stepchild, known as segregation, took its place. Black people were separated from white people by law. Their children were forced to go to inferior schools. They were not allowed access to public libraries, public parks, or public toilets. They were refused service in both hotels and restaurants, and they were prohibited from trying on clothes in department stores and dress shops. Black people had no standing and few rights in the white-dominated courts. Enforcing these brutal practices was an organization called the Ku Klux Klan, which used the primary Christian symbol, a cross, turning it into an instrument of intimidation and fear by setting it ablaze. The Klan was also served by a “Khaplain,” who invariably articulated the values of what was called white, gentile Christianity, while at the same time seeking to dominate and coerce people of color with physical violence. The great majority of the white people of the Bible Belt supported segregation until it was declared to be illegal in 1954 by a unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court. Even then the white Christians of the South resisted that law by every possible means, legal and illegal. “Massive resistance to the law of the land” was the motto adopted by the church-going political organization run by Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia. It was fully supported by the junior senator from that same state, A. Willis Robertson, who along with his wife, were quite overtly religious, God-fearing, church-going Christians. They were also the parents of evangelist Pat Robertson. Perhaps neither the Byrds nor the Robertsons ever read Jesus’ words describing his purpose as that of bringing life, abundant life to all (John 10:10). Or perhaps they were able to convince themselves that segregation offered enhancement, not diminishment, of the humanity of black people. What kind of religion was being practiced in the Bible Belt of the South when lynching, mostly of black males, occurred there with great regularity until the mid-twentieth century with the full support of both the white law-enforcement officials and the white dominated courts? How was it possible that Southern sheriffs, police officials, judges, and juries, who winked at this murder of black people, were also God-fearing, Bible-reading, church-going Christians? If they could square the lynching of “offensive” black males with the Christianity they practiced in the Bible Belt, then calling for the murder of an offending head of state in Venezuela by a well-known Southern Christian evangelist a generation later should be easy to understand. America’s Religious Right was appalled at the sexual misconduct of President Clinton. So was I. But again their moral compass seems askew when they are not equally appalled at the behavior of a president who has taken us into a war based on blatantly false intelligence data. He has presided over a tremendous abuse of human rights in both Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo for which no persons other than enlisted personnel have yet been convicted. His actions have cost the lives of some 1,900 American service persons, the wounding of thousands more, to say nothing of his responsibility for the deaths of uncounted Iraqis. His religious supporters appear to feel no outrage about this. Yet this president claims that his religion guides his every action. I am glad Pat Robertson got caught with his moral pants hanging at half-mast, for it is time that the citizens of country awaken to the dark side of the religious coalition that threatens, if it has not already done so, to seize power in the United States. So, I return to my questions: What Bible do they read in the Bible Belt? What kind of religion do those who are said to be members of the Religious Right practice? What kind of Christian evangelist is it who thinks it is moral to call for the murder of a head of state? I would love to have an answer. So would an increasingly larger and larger segment of the citizens of the United States. ~ John Shelby Spong Announcements Summer Intensive 1: Sacred Space, Sacred Community With Reverends Sid Hall, DMin and Bruce Sanguin, MDiv. Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality (FICS) has a five-day intensive coming up June 11-15th in Boulder, CO that is especially designed for clergy. SPECIAL PRICING OFFER: $500 for the entire five-day intensive, a 70% reduction from the normal intensive price. Click here for more information/registration...

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