- Dialogue - lists.wedgeblade.net

Death of Peggy Heng
by Dharmalingam Vinasithamby 13 Nov '17

13 Nov '17

Dear colleagues, Peggy Heng(Heng Tsu Chen) died yesterday in Sydney, Australia. She was part of the KLReligious House in the 70s and was a member of the Sahaja Yoga group in Sydneywhen she died. Sahaja Yoga has posted a lovely photo tribute to her onFacebook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXeZE7eK_E8&feature=youtu.be regardsDharmalingam

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11/09/17, Felton/Spong/Fox: A New Template for Religion: A Conversation with Michael Morwood, Part 3 - Worship, Prayer, & the Other Side of the Story; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 09 Nov '17

09 Nov '17

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR A New Template for Religion: A Conversation with Michael Morwood, Part 3 Worship, Prayer, & the Other Side of the Story Rev. David Felten What follows in interview form is the final installment of three columns inspired by a presentation Michael Morwood offered at the Common Dreams Conference in Brisbane, Queensland, in 2016. In this final segment, Morwood offers a new perspective on worship and prayer – along with some concluding thoughts on religion in general and recommendations on a way forward. ____________________________________________ David Felten: We’ve moved away from using the word “worship” in our local faith community, opting for words like “celebration” or “gathering” instead. The concept of “worship” has so much baggage: all those ancient formalities and royal protocols that don’t fit post-Enlightenment ways of thinking – yet people are somehow loathe to give it up. Michael Morwood: Personally, I would stop using the word “worship,” too. The notion of “worship” belongs to an old paradigm, an outdated template for religion. I was in Canada not long ago conducting a weekend for a progressive United Church community. The audience was very on-side with what I presented. At the end of the weekend, I asked some of the community leaders, “Why, with such a progressive community, do you have the large ‘WORSHIP HERE 10:00 am SUNDAY’ sign outside the church?” I was met with puzzled looks, as if to say, “Why wouldn’t we have this sign?” So I asked some questions: .....• Worship whom? .....• For what reason? .....• What do you imagine is at the other end of your worship? A deity taking notice? A deity taking some delight in homage being paid? .....• Is your Sunday gathering for God’s sake? .....• Where did this imagination come from? I’d ask the same questions regarding “the Mass” and what Catholics imagine “Mass” is all about (but I don’t get invitations to Roman Catholic parishes these days!). Overall, I prefer to use words like “liturgy” or “service” for a new template. The roots of the word “liturgy” (leit, people; ergon, work), means the “work of the people.” For me, this understanding of liturgy expands beyond ritual to mean participation in a sacred or divine action. David Felten: So what’s the “work of the people” and the “divine action” you have in mind? Michael Morwood: I think our primary task is to gather around the story of Jesus and seek to understand its full implications for all human interactions. Our challenge is to let it reveal to us the truth of who we are, to challenge us to commit ourselves to being the best possible human expressions of the Great Mystery, and to do this as faithfully and as courageously as Jesus did. And none of this has anything to do with reception of a sacred object, with a priesthood with special powers, or being “fed” at an altar – it certainly has nothing to do with Jesus shedding his blood for the sins of the world. It has nothing to do with singing songs to or addressing prayers to a listening deity. What it does include is: .....• Remembrance of Jesus and of others who shared his vision .....• Awareness of the presence/power within us .....• Commitment to working for a better world. David Felten: So, what about the songs we sing and our liturgical prayers? What about the efficacy of the prayers we offer in our faith-sharing groups? Michael Morwood: What are we being asked to imagine when we ask God to listen? When we thank God? When we address God with personal pronouns? We know where this imagination comes from. The question is, how does this image resonate once the notion of a “God in the heavens” has been abandoned? By all means, let us sing hymns and address prayers to “God” that suggest this divine “being” is listening in and taking note. But, let us do so mindful that whatever words we use are metaphor and poetry. They’re not to be taken literally, but as a means of giving expression to longing, pain, gratitude, joy – all those movements our minds and hearts struggle to convey otherwise. Then let us embrace one of the key challenges that faces us today: to shape prayers (the hymns may take a lot longer!) that affirm a “presence” within and among us. We need a growing collection of metaphors and images that help develop our awareness that this “presence” is not only here with us in the ordinariness of our everyday lives but challenges us to live out the best possible human expression of this “Great Mystery.” David Felten: For as long as I can remember, one of my mentors, Bill Nelson, has advocated that we simply stop using the word “God” altogether. We need images that are free from so many centuries of the theistic and human-centric God that is “out there” somewhere. Michael Morwood: Exactly! In practice, stop addressing prayers to “God.” Just stop doing it. If you still practice a traditional style of spoken prayer, all it takes is the determination to not begin as if you’re speaking to a theistic God. Try it and see what happens! I resolved to do this 15 years ago. It resulted in my book, Praying a New Story which Spirituality & Practice included in its list of “Best Spiritual Books” of 2004. With regard to their own private prayer, many people ask me, “If I let go of the idea of praying to “God,” how do I pray now?” One way I think about it is remembering a Syrian monk known as “the golden speaker.” St John Damascene was born and raised in Damascus in the early 8th century, but he’s given the church words that have been carried down through the centuries: “Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God.” Today, if we substitute “great mystery” or “power” or other similar concepts for the word “God,” the definition still holds – understanding it to mean raising our minds and hearts to a presence here, all around us; in the depths of our being. So a key concept for any prayer becomes “awareness.” The goal of my personal prayer is to deepen my awareness, to be conscious of the reality that I embody this “great mystery” in human form. It’s also important to acknowledge that my personal prayer is not for God’s sake. It is for my sake, it is meant to change me. Someone recently asked me, “Can prayer change the world?” and I said, “Of course! If prayer is intended to change us, then we can change the world.” Otherwise we become trapped in the religious cop-out version of prayer: “Let’s leave the fate of the world in God’s hands.” I think Jesus had the same conviction about personal prayer. It’s what motivated his ministry to “the crowd.” He wanted people to become aware of the power and the presence within them and use it to change the world. That was his dream. What a pity that this fundamental stance of Jesus has been buried beneath a layer of prayer asking God to “deliver us from evil.” That’s not God’s task; it’s our task. David Felten: Well that should give the proponents of conventional Christianity heartburn. The Church has thrived for centuries convincing people that they are but loathsome sinners and depraved worms, incapable of any good without Jesus vouching for them. It sounds like your new paradigm puts some pretty high expectations on us lowly humans. Michael Morwood: The major shift in my theological thinking and prayer life in the past 25 years has stemmed from a growing – and a completely new – appreciation of what it means to be human. Much of my appreciation is grounded in the scientific story of our origins in stardust and the four billion years of atoms undergoing transformation after transformation until the 60 trillion atoms that are Michael Morwood enable me tell the story of who and what we really are. Now that’s a truly remarkable story. But what I find just as remarkable is to have discovered that throughout human history the other side of this story – without the great scientific story we have today to back it up – has made itself known. Call it “enlightenment”; call it whatever you will, but there has been this constant awareness, insight, revelation – in both religious and non-religious people – of an awareness of a power, an awesome reality beyond our imagination, within and among us, a presence that binds together everyone and everything. Rumi, the great Muslim scholar, teacher, and poet said it well 800 years ago, “You are the fearless guardian of Divine Light, so come, return to the root of the root of your own soul…”. “Why are you so enchanted by this world when a mine of gold lies within you? Open your eyes and come, return to the root of the root of your own soul.” Here is the proper focus for religion, today and in the future. Here is where religion can get beyond dogmatism, thought control, the disregard for common decency, and claims of exclusive access to the divine. Jesus is not alone in urging men and women to “return to the root of the root of your own soul” and use what is discovered there to create a profoundly better human community. And here is why the “Christ” religion needs to change its thinking about Jesus so dramatically: Jesus is not and was not a god-figure essentially different from the rest of us because only he could gain access to God’s dwelling place. Rather, he presents a movement, a presence, a reality – a great mystery – that is within every woman, man, and child. That is the good news that needs to be proclaimed and acted upon. David Felten: So what’s next? Can the Church – can we – actually change our thinking? Michael Morwood: Thirty years ago I wrote that if I were to recommend one book for Catholics to read, it would be Karl Rahner’s The Shape of the Church to Come, written in 1974. Rahner is regarded as one of the greatest Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century – and while much of his writing is too academic for the people I had in mind, this book is a gem from such an academic. Rahner wrote: “Our present situation is one of transition … to a Church made up of those who have struggled against their environment in order to reach a personally clear and explicitly responsible decision of faith. This will be the Church of the future or there will be no Church at all.” “It seems to me that the courage to abandon positions no longer tenable means asking modestly, realistically, and insistently, whether it is always possible to take with us on this march in to the Church’s future all the fine fellows whose out of date mentality is opposed to a march into an unknown future … we shall also estrange, shock, and scandalize not a few who feel at home only in the Church as they have been accustomed to see it in the past.” And, he writes, “If we are honest we must admit that we are to a terrifying extent a spiritually lifeless Church.” Overall, Rahner lamented the failure of the Church to address the life experience and questions of the faithful. And along with this failure, he said we fail to proclaim Jesus “vigorously.” We neglect, he wrote, to start with “the experience of Jesus” and we talk about Jesus and God “without any real vitality.” Rahner’s words inspired me 30 years ago when I was naïve enough to think that institutional Roman Catholicism could and would change. The ensuing 30 years have taken me on a journey I could never have envisioned – not in my wildest dreams! I’m not so naïve now, but his words still inspire me to work for a more relevant, dynamic, realistic faith or spirituality, faithful to what Jesus really believed and was ready to die for. Theologically, I think we’re living through the greatest theological challenges the “Christ” religion has ever experienced: the old template, used for the past two thousand years, is hopelessly outdated. At the same time, I believe this new template offers a way ahead for humanity – the opportunity for vitality, for engagement with peoples’ lives and questions, for engagement with the exciting scientific knowledge we have on hand, for wonder and appreciation for being human, and a way to bring the message of Jesus – and other men and women of spiritual insight – to a world that is in desperate need of a new template to heal the harm and divisions caused by religion. I love working with this new template. It has proven to generate just the kind of excitement and challenge that opens up the possibilities and dreams that a vital future demands of us. — Rev. David Felten with Michael Morwood About Michael Morwood With over 40 years’ experience as a sought-after retreat leader and educator, Michael Morwood is well known around the world. Bishop John Shelby Spong writes: “Michael Morwood…is raising the right and obvious questions that all Christians must face. He provides fresh and perceptive possibilities for a modern and relevant faith.” With a dozen books to his name (two of which were banned before he resigned from the Catholic priesthood), Morwood brings an extensive background in spirituality to what he sees as the urgent need to reshape Christian thinking for a new millennium. Be sure to visit Michael Morwood’s website by clicking HERE. ~ Rev. David Felten About the Author David Felten is a full-time pastor at The Fountains, a United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills, Arizona. David and fellow United Methodist Pastor, Jeff Procter-Murphy, are the creators of the DVD-based discussion series for Progressive Christians, “Living the Questions”. A co-founder of the Arizona Foundation for Contemporary Theology and also a founding member of No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice, David is an outspoken voice for LGBTQ rights both in the church and in the community at large. David is active in the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church and tries to stay connected to his roots as a musician. You’ll find him playing saxophones in a variety of settings, including appearances with the Fountain Hills Saxophone Quartet. David and his wife Laura, an administrator for a large Arizona public school district, live in Phoenix with their three often adorable children. Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Roland from Sydney, writes: Question: How can the clergy educate its members into contemporary theology and attract back the church alumni without alienating the aging conservatives that finance the local church? Answer: By Rev. Matthew Fox Dear Roland, Thank you for your question. I think it is a very big one as it poses many issues of real importance such as the relationship between generations that is often problematic but especially in our time since we have one foot still in the modern era (most of our institutions are still there including the Reformation churches) and another foot in the postmodern era (where so many young people are located and where pre-modern wisdom is welcomed, not shunned as during modern times). Science and Education also find themselves in this ‘in between’ place today. The British Scientist Rupert Sheldrake told me recently that at Oxford and Cambridge today there is a huge gulf between the professor class and the students specifically around the topic of religion or spirituality. Most professors surrendered all interest in religion generations ago but today’s students are eager to learn more about it. I have written about the difference between modern and postmodern consciousness at the end of my short book on A New Reformation. You might find some food for thought there. It is, I think, imperative for the survival of our species that we learn anew to develop intergenerational wisdom. This means elders must wake up to their calling as elders and must learn to sit down and listen to the younger generation. The benefit will be mutual I am sure. It also means that it is past time to establish rites of passage for elders to assist elders to wake up to their responsibilities. Our secular culture likes to put elders out to pasture after they have passed the age of peak consumer capitalism and are “retired.” I insist however that we retire the obscene word “retirement” and replace it with “refirement.” What we are talking about here—recovering true eldership—could constitute a whole new example of refirement in our churches. In our book on Occupy Spirituality Adam Bucko (who worked for 15 very fruitful years with young adults living on the streets of NYC) and myself interviewed many young adults (ages 21-33) and one of the questions we asked was about elders in their lives. 98% said: “We want elders but can’t find them…..And the few we do find talk too much.” Elders have to get off the golf course and out of their couches and/or playing the stock market and make themselves available to young people. The young today are facing issues of climate change and eco-destruction and gross have/have not discrepancies that are unprecedented. A moral and survival imperative exists to radically change education, religion, politics, economics, art, farming and energy resourcing on this planet. We need all the wisdom they can get. The young and old can and need to put their heads and hearts together in this search for wisdom. In an elder rite of passage ceremony that Creation Spirituality Communities conducted a year ago the young adults assisted in creating it. Of course the young also need rites of passage (and confirmation, I’m sorry to report, rarely cuts the mustard). Our Cosmic Masses, going on now for over 23 years, have proven very valuable for bringing young and old together in a post-modern form for celebrating Liturgy, one that incorporates post-modern art forms (and pre-modern ones) including dance, dj, vj, rap and more. It is not enough that elder worshippers are “at home” or “comfortable” with their (modern) forms of worship that are pre-packaged in Liturgical books. Jesus never said “Blessed are the comfortable” (neither did the Buddha). The question is this: How will future generations—including their grandchildren and great grandchildren—pray? It will not be from merely reading from books and sitting in pews and daring the preacher to keep them awake—that is all very modern because the modern age emerged with the invention of the printing press. It must include the body; the senses; beauty; and grieving together. Yes, there is much to grieve as well as to give birth to. Our new Order of the Sacred Earth, which launches this month, is another effort to bring old and young together around a new (and ancient) vision of spirituality in practice. The book’s subtitle is “Intergenerational Love in Action.” You might check it out on line as well. Best wishes in lighting the fire, Rev. Matthew Fox Read and share online here About the Author Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 32 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 60 languages. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His work is inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and has awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. He has helped to rediscover Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas. Among his books are Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the FleshTransforming Evil in Soul and Society, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved and Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest A new school, adopting the pedagogy Fox created and practiced for over 35 years, is opening in Boulder, Colorado this September. Called the Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality it is being run by graduates of his doctoral program and will offer MA, D Min and Doctor of Spirituality degrees. See www.foxinstitute-cs.org __________________________________________________ Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt - Part 6 If God is not a punishing and rescuing deity, then who or what is God? If the biblical explanation of the source of evil is no longer operative, then from where does evil come? What is its origin? Can the way evil is viewed be changed or transformed? Can we human beings escape our need to view ourselves negatively, which is the interior situation that makes the punishing God necessary? If the task of the Christian faith is not about rescuing and restoring the fallen sinner, then what is the task of this religious system? If behavior control is not the Church's primary social agenda, then so much of the way we portray the content of the Christian faith simply falls away. Can Christianity survive without its doctrines of Atonement, and Incarnation, both of which hang on the sin and rescue themes? Is there any other way to see the divine presence of God in the life of Jesus other than to view Jesus as the incarnate sinless one who entered from the realm of heaven into the arena of the fall to pay the price God required for our sins and thus to rescue us from that fall? Can we dismiss once and for all the ancient Christian symbol of Jesus as a blood offering, a human sacrifice required by God? I believe that we can and must. This riddance will furthermore, cut the ground out from under the manner in which violence has been justified on the basis of this religious system. It is thus a reformation eagerly to be sought. The deconstruction begins by recognizing that the story, which opens the Bible, is not an accurate interpreter of life as we know it. It is a bad, false and inoperative myth. There never was a time, either literally or metaphorically, when there was a perfect and finished creation. That was an inaccurate idea that has helped to develop a guilt producing, dependency seeking, neurotic religion. Whatever else we know about creation, we are now certain that it is an evolving and still incomplete process. So there was no perfect beginning, no Garden of Eden and no first man and woman. We have evolved. We have not fallen from perfection. 'Original Sin' must go! With it goes the superstructure of doctrine, dogma, and theology. The psalmist was wrong. We were not created a little lower than the angels. Rather, we have evolved into a status that is just a little higher than the apes. It is a vastly different perspective. There is an enormous contrast between whether we are fallen creatures or incomplete creatures. Our humanity is not fallen, it is incomplete. The fact is we do not yet know what it means to be human since that is a status we have not yet fully achieved. What human life needs is not to be saved it is to be called and empowered to enter a new being. The idea that Jesus had to pay the price of our sinfulness becomes an idea that is bankrupt. When that idea collapses, so do all of those violent, controlling and guilt producing tactics that are so deeply part of traditional Christianity. The dominos begin to topple. Baptism, understood as the sacramental act to wash from the baby the stain of that original fall, becomes inoperative. The Eucharist, developed as a liturgical act to reenact the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross that paid the price of our sinfulness, becomes empty of meaning. Those disciplinary tactics, from not sparing the rod with our children to the use of shame, guilt and fear to control the behavior of childlike adults, become violations of our life. They apply the wrong therapy to the wrong diagnosis. The uses of afterlife symbols to motivate behavior, by promising either eternal reward or eternal punishment, lose their credibility. When the plug is pulled on the definition of human life as something infected by the sin of the fall, then the whole superstructure of Christian doctrine is revealed as a human control system. That is when we will recognize that Christianity will either change or die! If change is to be adopted, it has to be so total and so radical, that many will call it impossible. It would be easier they will say to build an entirely new religious system than it would be to seek to reform anything this totally. They may be right, but I am not yet convinced of that. The Christianity of the catacombs in the first century of the Church's life could never have envisioned its future being capable of producing either Christendom or its dominating cathedrals. Yet the Christians of the 13th century looked back and saw as their ancestors the Christians of the Catacombs. Our task is thus not to build tomorrow's church. That is something into which we have to live a day at a time. Our task is rather to face the need for radical change and take the first step necessary to erect a totally new foundation. That step, I believe, comes in the acknowledgement of our evolutionary origins and dismissing any suggestion that sin, inadequacy and guilt are the definitions with which we were born. We must also rid ourselves simultaneously of the idea that the world was created for human beings, or that the planet earth is somehow different or special in the universe. Anthropocentrism is a product of a pre-evolutionary mind set. We human beings are simply the self-conscious form of life that has emerged out of the evolutionary soup. We are kin to both the apes and the cabbages. Homo sapiens were not made to dominate the world, but to enrich it by living out our role in a radically interdependent world. We might be a dead end in the evolutionary process, like the dinosaur, destined for extinction. But we also might be the bridge to a brilliant future that none of us can yet imagine. Our task is first simply to be what we are, and then to adapt and finally to be a link to that emerging new being. That is quite different from the role generally assigned to human beings in the ongoing story of our religious teachings. Whence then comes this evil that we see it every day? It rises not from a fall, mythical or otherwise, but from the incompleteness of the evolutionary process. It is not appropriate then to wallow in our inadequacy or to accept as our due being denigrated by religion or having our behavior controlled or our guilt expanded. What we need is the power to take the next step into a new and more complete humanity, to transcend our limits, to walk beyond our insecure humanity. We need to face the trauma of self-consciousness, the self-centeredness of that hysterical struggle for survival that leads to the erection of security systems, which finally destroy our emerging humanity. We need to see the evil things we do to one another as the result of our incompleteness. This evil cannot be controlled by threats or by discipline, parental or divine. Security can never finally be built on violence. To be 'saved' does not mean to be rescued. It means to be empowered to be something we have not yet been able to be. Is there any role for Jesus in this new vision of reality? Does the Christian story finally die in this ditch? I do not think so. Jesus emerges rather as a symbol for a humanity that is not defined as fallen or sinful. It is a humanity that is portrayed as so whole, so complete; it is experienced as God infused. Jesus cannot be a divine visitor from the heavenly realm. As John A. T. Robinson argued some fifty years ago, Jesus cannot be "A cuckoo inserted into the nest of humanity." He was created out of the gene pool of humanity. Our doorway into divinity must be found on this path, since there is no other. We are beginning to understand that divinity is a human concept that can only be found in humanity. I see in Jesus one so radically human and free, so whole and complete that the power of life, the force of the Universe that I call God, becomes visible and operative in him and through him. It is a new way to travel theologically. It has been built on a new premise about the origins of life itself. It leads me ultimately back to that original assertion on which later theology would be built: somehow, in some way, through some means, God was in Christ and that this God presence can still be met in the depths of our humanity. Incarnational and Trinitarian doctrines were necessitated in traditional Christianity by the premise of the fall. God alone could overcome the fall. Jesus, perceived as the rescuer, had to be divine since he accomplished this task. When the fall is dismissed, traditional Christology cannot help but go with it and a new Christianity must emerge, as a phoenix rising from the ashes of the past. It will be based on the call to wholeness, the power of love and the enhancement of being. That is obviously not all that can be said on this subject, but it is as far as space allows me to go in this column. I am content now only to expose the negativity in the terrible texts that have for so long fed the neurotic human need to justify both suffering and violence as our due, as something earned by the fall into sin over which we had no control. There is surely a better way than this to love God with one's heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. There is also surely a better way to speak of Christ as the "human face of God," in whom we meet the source of life, the source of love and the ground of being. That is the Christ I seek and that is the Christ to whom I am still powerfully drawn. ~ John Shelby Spong Originally published July 21, 2004 Announcements 5-Day Intensive: The Reinvention of Work with Matthew Fox Matthew Fox leads the 5-day intensive, “The Reinvention of Work,” at the Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality in Boulder, CO - November 13th - 17th. The readings and discussions and occasional guests who have reworked their professions will examine these important questions: How do we infiltrate our work worlds with values that inspire sustainability? We will call on teachings from various spiritual traditions for their wisdom on work, its meaning and deeper purposes. Click here for more information/registration

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ICAI Global Buzz November
by ICA International 07 Nov '17

07 Nov '17

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: November 2017 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-17/2017-11-01.php ICAI Communications

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Birthday Celebration
by James Wiegel 02 Nov '17

02 Nov '17

Hard to believe, Shanker Wiegel is turning 40 (so is his brother Dhondiram) Jim Wiegel Hi,I am sending an evite to everyone that might want to send a card or email to Shanker for his birthday. I'm sure there are people you all know that I don't have email address for.Could you send them this link to the evite, or ask that they email a birthday wish that you could pass along. I know many people can't attend, but there is a request in the message that people who are far away send a card, email, or video. Thank you,Lisa http://evite.me/tBudaEhtty | | Tap to RSVP to Join us for a fun evening to celebrate ShankerYou're invited to Join us for a fun evening to celebrate Shanker - Click here to RSVPevite.me | I

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11/02/17, Matthew Fox/Spong: Earth, Air, Fire, Water in Struggle with the Evils of our Times; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 02 Nov '17

02 Nov '17

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Earth, Air, Fire, Water in Struggle with the Evils of our Times Rev. Matthew Fox Last night I returned from a conference in Jamaica about Men and Masculinity—they are dealing with a veritable epidemic of violence among young men and killings of men by men. Not unlike El Salvador and many other places around the globe. Here at home we have our own violence, much of it also spawned by reptilian brain action/reaction responses, efforts of striving to be “number one” at all costs, buttressed by sins of greed and denial and of patriarchy gone berserk. When I left my town of Vallejo five days ago there was everywhere the smell of smoke in the air due to forest fires untamed; when I returned late last night the smell was still there, indeed my flight from Miami had been delayed three hours because planes could not land at San Francisco airport due to the smog caused by massive fires north of the city not far from where I live. Fairmont, a modest sized town twenty minutes from mine, was under evacuation notices. A few months ago, during the raging hurricane and floods occurring in Houston, I flew to a filming in Missoula, Montana, a beautiful town in the green mountains and valleys of the Blue Sky state. But as we flew in there were no blue skies, indeed no skies at all—only a grey pall that hung over everything. From the plane one could see nothing of the greenery or the vegetation of the area: Only a complete grey fog. It turns out that fire had taken over the entire area. Later, when I talked to a friend who lived there she told me all citizens were told to stay inside and “to breathe as little as possible.” What sort of an instruction is that? A sign of our times. On leaving Missoula I flew to Portland to catch my plane home to the Bay area but there too, that green and wet state was unrecognizable from the plane. Only grey, only smoke when one looked outside the airplane window. No green visible. Why? More forest fires; more smoke; more haze; more hazardous air. Imagine what this is doing to children and babies breathing in such toxic poisons on bodily organs still developing, still coming into their own. Not unlike my home in Vallejo last night. First thing I did on arriving near home at 1:30 am was to go to a 24 hour drug store to buy a face mask to protect my lungs somewhat from the rancid air. Clearly, we can no longer take healthy air for granted. At a conference I attended this summer of 150 scientists around the topic of Climate Change one lesson laid bare was this: That in the future areas that are extremely wet (such as Houston, Florida, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico) water and floods will be more in abundance; and areas that are dry (such as California and Montana and Africa and Syria and Central America to name a few) will become more and more dry. We in California have technically just emerged from a seven year drought; but we are now immersed in a forest fire explosion that will affect our air for a very long while even while it has killed over forty people and destroyed over 5000 homes and businesses. As usual, first responders are brave and generous in their devoted work. But where are the politicians who make a lurid living selling denial and attacks on science and on facts of climate change? Where are they hiding their bravery and truth telling and generosity? Where are the politicians so eager to strut their religious chops yet wallowing in lies by denying the obvious moral and political facts of climate change during election campaigns and the evil it brings with it? Politicians who shout their Christian credentials when campaigning but—even when Roman Catholic as in the case of Paul Ryan—totally ignore the Pope’s fine encyclical “Laudato Si” that shouts out the truth of the moral issue of our time, namely neglect of our common home, Mother Earth? We know where they are: They are in bed with the Koch brothers and other billionaires and Wall Street apologists like Exxon etc who make a fat living perpetuating the myth that fossil fuels are not a problem and that dirty energy can blithely continue as is. It is not just the air that is poisoned and not fit to breathe and that we have been taking for granted forever; it is not just the waters that are scarce in many places and becoming scarcer and overflowing and flooding and killing and ravaging in other places that we can also take for granted. It is the fire—that is our sources of energy that we once took for granted as simply beneficial but which have proven to be disastrous for ourselves, our children and grandchildren and the air we breathe and waters we love to live near to. We cannot take energy or the way we harness fire for granted any more either—we can and must find safer and saner and more sustainable ways to bring energy into our homes and businesses and transportation. There is also the bigger picture of Mother Earth herself. How much do we take her for granted? How much are we in denial about the rapid extinction spasms that are happening all around us—the disappearance of habitats for the sacred elephant and polar bear and tiger and lions and whales and fishes and rainforests and trees and soil and birds and so much else that is unrepeatable in the universe? How can we say we love our children and grandchildren if we neglect to love these other beings so special and sacred in our midst? Clearly we cannot take a healthy Mother Earth for granted any longer. The crisis of climate change is a moral and ethical and spiritual/religious crisis before it is a political crisis. It is a health crisis also—not only because bad air is poisonous for our lungs and brains and bodies but also because much of our mental health relies on spiritual interaction with all the wonderful beings of our planet. Are we being instructed to take that for granted too? Economic health also depends on healthy and reliable and sustainable earth systems. The number one industry in Jamaica where I just visited is the tourist industry. How completely will that be shattered if seas continue to rise and beaches are wiped out as is already happening to many islands around the globe? How much disruption and unemployment—and immigration—will result from that disaster? Our government has not informed us–nor has the media for that matter–that much of the Syrian Civil War that is ravaging the Middle East and expelling millions of displaced persons into Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece and European countries, was triggered by the move from farms to cities by so many Syrian citizens. Why? It was global warming and drought-like conditions in Syria that drove farmers from the land. This trend will multiply many times over in many more countries of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Southeastern Asia if climate change continues on pace. Instead of denouncing immigrants we should be addressing the climate change that drives them from their lands. There is something else besides Earth, Air, Fire and Water that we can no longer take for granted. And that is Democracy. Rantings about love of country and national anthems and military forces and ball players choosing to kneel and genuflect to bring awareness of social and racial injustice [Idolatry and Anthems vs. Kneeling for Justice] not withstanding, democracy is in grave trouble. Not only America but in Europe too the siren call of xenophobia and neo-fascism is falling on eager ears. As the president of the United States equates anti-semitic chanters and Ku Klux Klan members marching in Charlotesville with “fine people” (his father was an active member of the KKK) and leads an intended exit from Paris Climate Change Conference and threatens to shut down media outlets that dare to criticize his decisions, German right wing parties win seats in parliament and President Putin seeds poisonous pills to democratic elections from Washington to France and beyond. The end of democracy as we know it is visible on the horizon. Yale historian Timothy Snyder warns that “We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.” What is the medicine for all this “taking for granted?” For all this Evil that is raising its very ugly head? I believe the opposite of taking for granted is recognizing anew the sacredness of things. Authentic mysticism is the refusal to take for granted. It means standing up to defend the sacredness of clean air; of clean waters that stay in their boundaries more or less; of clean energy that is renewable and sustainable; of a healthy Mother Earth where all her children thrive; and the sacredness of human intelligence manifested in good science and in sound government that is overseen by alert and concerned citizens who hold it accountable. The neglect of the sacredness of all these things constitutes the bottom-line evil of our time. It is not too late to turn things around. But time is running out. ~ Rev. Matthew Fox Read the essay online here. About the Author Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 32 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 60 languages. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His work is inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and has awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. He has helped to rediscover Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas. Among his books are Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the FleshTransforming Evil in Soul and Society, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved and Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest A new school, adopting the pedagogy Fox created and practiced for over 35 years, is opening in Boulder, Colorado this September. Called the Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality it is being run by graduates of his doctoral program and will offer MA, D Min and Doctor of Spirituality degrees. See www.foxinstitute-cs.org Footnote: Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century NY: Tim Duggan Books, 2017), 13. Question & Answer Maria from Wichita, Kansas writes: Question: What can we do about a preacher in our state whose website is "Godhatesfags.com” and who is constantly harassing churches that seek to be open to new knowledge about homosexuality? Answer: Rev. Roger Wolsey Dear Maria, First, I hear your pain. I hear how embarrassing it is to have such a ministry in the state that you live in. I hear your desire to try to do something. You’re no doubt referring to the Westboro Baptist Church that, until recently, was founded and led by the late Fred Phelps. I actually met him. Spoke with him. Was yelled at by him. Yelled at him. And … had communion with him. The way you worded your question suggests to me that you primarily want to “do something about” that church. Understandable. With that in mind let me remind us that we have freedom of speech in this country and if we were to somehow censor their preachers or ban that ministry, that sets up a dangerous and unacceptable situation whereby we could be censored or banned by others in the future. There are limits of course to free speech such as inciting to riot, threatening violence, or urging others to commit violence. Many of the members of that congregation are attorneys and they know how to avoid crossing that line. Indeed, a case can be made that they are so savvy that they actually hope counter protestors who show up take swings at them – so they can sue their pants off and further fund their hateful ministry. That said, there are certain helpful things that have worked in various communities around the nation “when Westboro comes to town.” One tactic is to seek to enact local ordinances, or even laws at the state level, whereby protests of any sort are not allowed within 500 feet of local churches, cemeteries, etc. Another strategy is to do as Soul Force has done; i.e., to amass large groups of volunteers standing between the hateful Phelps clan (and their “church” largely consists of their family members) wearing very large angel wings to prevent grieving families from seeing the ugly signs held by the Westboro gang. And, several communities have informed the Westboro thugs that for every minute that they protest in their town, $500 or so will be donated to the NAACP, the ADL, Reconciling Ministries Network (organizations that they loathe). Such funds and pledges are secured days before the Westboro gang shows up – and… there has been a marked reduction in the frequency of WBC showing up in other states as a result. We can also take a page out of Jesus’ playbook by engaging in radical hospitality. In the same way that Jesus invited himself to share a meal with a hated tax collector, we can seek to interact with the members of that church, ideally one–on-one over coffee (holding warm beverages helps), to learn why they think the way they do. Help them feel heard. Validate how that may have made some sense in the past – well, any small part at least. Normalize things by sharing how we too have had certain tendencies toward bigotry and prejudice in our lives (and we all have if we’re being honest). And then share “and yet, I can no longer think in that way as I’ve come to know X, as I’ve come to experience Y, as I’ve come to know and be in relationship with Z..,” etc. Zacchaeus changed, so apparently did Fred. Never write anyone off as “irredeemable” or “beyond hope.” To do so would be to deny Jesus and our faith. I would invite us to go beyond scheming about “what we can do about them” and consider how we are like them. It is often the case that we humans seek to turn some ugly group or person into a scapegoat to exorcise us of the parts of ourselves that are like the person/group we seek to kill or banish. It is a truism that we criticize most in others that which we struggle most with ourselves. In fact, given the insight that “the people who annoy us the most are our most important spiritual teachers” there can even be much merit in considering how the WBC are one of our best spiritual teachers. And we do well to take seriously Nietzsche’s observation “Beware that when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster, .. for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” And, there’s something to be said for the notion that the best response to encounter with the bad, is intentional commitment to the good. Please know that the WBC does not define the good people of Kansas. We tend to think of y’all as wholesome and reasonable. We know that WBC is an embarrassing outlier. Be the best Christians and the best Kansans that you can be. If you clicked on the first hyperlink that I posted above (me having “communion” with Fred Phelps) you’ll see how the Holy Spirit intervened in a truly unique and unexpected way. For those who don’t click on it, I’ll share the ending of it here: Fred, human history will not remember you kindly. There are reasons for that. I thank you, however, for sharing that moment in the Sun on that plaza that day. I thank you for having cookie communion with me. I thank you for your prayers – and for that fleeting glimpse of your higher self – your true self – the loved, forgiven, accepted Child of God – who loves, forgives, and accepts others. Perhaps that’s the true self that allegedly got excommunicated by the hateful “church” that you created. Their loss is heaven’s gain. ~ Rev. Roger Wolsey Read and share online here 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 Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt - Part 5 "Those whom I love, I will reprove and chasten so be zealous and repent (Rev.3: 19)." Can you imagine that something as life denying as sado-masochism is overtly a part of the Christian story? Impossible, you say! Christianity is about life and love, not about pain and punishment. Well, let's examine that thesis. Listen first to the words from a hymn found in the Episcopal hymnal: "Before thy throne, O God, we kneel; Give us a conscience quick to feel, A ready mind to understand, The meaning of thy chastening hand; Whate'er the pain or shame may be, Bring us, O Father, nearer thee. Search out our hearts and make us true, Wishful to give to all their due, >From love of pleasure, lust of gold, From sins which make the heart grow cold, Wean us and train us with thy rod; Teach us to know our faults, O God." Is there no sado-masochism present here? Listen now to the self-deprecating words of Christian liturgies: "We were born in sin! We are miserable offenders. There is no health in us. We can do nothing good without you. Have mercy, O Lord, have mercy!" Are these not the words of a frightened child before a punishing parent? Over and over in the forms of our worship, words of penitence, guilt and pleas for mercy are heard. They are liturgical admissions that we deserve the wrath which is judged to be our due. These elements are deeply written into our faith story. During Lent, church bulletins tend to feature instruments of torture like whips and nails. The Bible portrays a wrathful God intent on punishing. When the Jews do not obey, God raises up enemies to subdue them or a pestilence to torment them. The Bible describes human beings as sheep gone astray; and God as the parent whose righteousness must be served. We tremble before this deity. Worshipers are expected to act like school children waiting in anxious dependency for the moment when the price of our sinfulness will be exacted. We cover these neurotic aspects of our religious tradition with layers of piety, but when we listen to our liturgy, this is what it seems to say: "I have been a bad boy or girl. God either punishes me directly or Jesus takes my place and God gives him what I deserve. That is how I am saved." That is what the substitutionary doctrine of the Atonement proclaims. Is that healthy? Does it enhance life? Is being asked to watch Jesus die on the cross for my sins anything more than an act of sado-masochistic voyeurism? Is it not time that we Christians raise these issues to consciousness? If this is not yet visible to religious people, it is because they do not yet want to see it. We are forced, however, by a rising consciousness to look anew at the way we tell the Jesus story. Perhaps the violent sadism seen in the blood from the crown of thorns streaming down the face of Jesus or the beating scenes from Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of The Christ," will finally be enough to make us see the violence that traditional Christianity has constantly fostered. The understanding of the cross turns God into a divine child-abuser. The Father punishes the Son instead of us. Does that not sound strange? The Christian Church invites the faithful to meditate on Jesus' vicarious pain, to revel in his shed blood In Protestant evangelical circles we are told that his blood washes away our sins. In Catholic devotion we learn that the blood of Jesus received in the sacrament has the power to cleanse us from within. Either way, our evil is said to be so excessive that only the suffering of Jesus can overcome it. This in essence turns the bleeding Jesus into a grotesque guilt-producing icon and rivets our attention on the Cross. That is the story scraped clean of its piety so that its horror can be viewed with full awareness. It is barbaric, fashioning for us a sadistic God who is served by masochistic children. Is that not what is being said when Protestants use the words, "Jesus died for my sins," or, "We are saved by the blood of Jesus?" Is that not what is being said when the Catholic mass proclaims that in the Eucharistic action, the sacrifice of Jesus is re-enacted in a timeless way so that people in every generation can appropriate his saving death on the cross? Jesus suffers while the sinners, watch and cringe and are reduced to bowls full of quivering guilt-filled jelly. What an incredible way to torture ourselves. If our guilt is total and inescapable, however, this becomes the perfect answer. We suffer eternally. The Church has always sought to control its people through guilt that stymies our growth and keeps us child-like and penitent. Listen to the words of a Lenten hymn: "Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee? Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee. Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee: I crucified thee." When guilt becomes unbearable or intolerable we have to rid ourselves of it. The normal way people do that is to project it on to others. We become unloving and judgmental. We reject others when we cannot accept ourselves. We hide our violence under a thick veneer of righteousness. We build enormous, hurtful barriers to keep ourselves safe from any self-revelation. How often religious people manifest exactly those characteristics. This diagnosis of our intrinsic evil requires either punishment or vicarious redemption, that is, someone else suffers in our stead. Either way it validates violence as the price of salvation. Perhaps that is why religious people can so quickly turn so hostile. Perhaps that is why history is dotted with religious persecution, intolerance and wars; with things like the Inquisition and with sermons on the fiery pits of hell to which, the preacher asserts, all who do not respond to him will suffer through all eternity. Is not it rather amazing how we tend to create God in our own image? The punishing God is replicated in the punishing parent, the punishing authority figure, and the punishing nation. Violence is viewed as redemptive. War is justified. Bloodshed is the way of salvation. It all fits together so tightly, so neatly and it justifies the most destructive and demeaning of human emotions. Look at the places of violence and war in the world today and ask yourself whether or not each has a religious dimension. There is no Christian or even religious future unless we understand this dimension. So let me, speaking to the violence within Christianity, issue the call to Reformation with what I hope will be heard as the good news of the gospel: Jesus did not die for your sins or mine! That is theological nonsense! It is an improper prescription in an attempt to deal with an incorrect diagnosis. We must get rid ourselves of both. One can hardly refrain from exhorting parents not to spare the rod, if the portrait of God at the heart of the Christian story is that of an angry parental deity who punishes the divine son because he can take it and we cannot. I hope my readers see that connection. This interpretation of Jesus is a human creation, not a divine revelation. It was shaped by the first century world in which Christianity was born. It was influenced by the liturgy of the Jewish followers of Jesus. Seeking to make sense out of the violence of the Crucifixion, they borrowed images from the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. In the observance of Yom Kippur an innocent lamb was slaughtered as a symbolic payment to God for the sins of the people. These people would then have the cleansing blood of that sacrificial lamb sprinkled on them to "cover their sins with the blood of the Lamb." In the second act of Yom Kippur an innocent goat would have the sins of the people symbolically laid upon its back; then this goat, called the 'scapegoat,' would be run out into the wilderness. It became the sin-bearer that 'took away the sins of the world.' Yom Kippur was a worship-filled drama designed to relieve human guilt, at least symbolically. Jesus was captured by these liturgical images. But they are all based on an understanding of human life that is quite simply wrong. Yom Kippur and the Christian Atonement doctrines both assumed that to be human was to be fallen, to be alienated from God and to be banished from our true purpose as citizens of the Garden of Eden. That was the only way these ancient people could make sense of the human experience. But it is not true either historically or mythologically. We are not fallen, sinful people who deserve to be punished. We are frightened, insecure people who have achieved the enormous breakthrough into self-consciousness that marks no other creature that emerged from the evolutionary cycle. We must not denigrate the human being who was willing to eat of the fruit from the tree of knowledge in the Genesis story. Our sense of separation is not a mark of our sin. It is a symbol of our glory. Our struggle to survive is not a mark of original sin. It is a sign of emerging consciousness. It should not be a source of guilt. It is a source of blessing. We do not need to be punished. We need to be called and empowered to be more fully human. Jesus did not die for our sins. Jesus demonstrated that it is by giving that we receive and by loving that we enhance life. Guilt, judgment, punishment, orthodoxy and creedal purity are the manifestations of an angry deity who judges human life from some heavenly throne. That god image must be broken and then the door will open to a healthy religious future. ~ John Shelby Spong Originally published July 14, 2004 Announcements ...Sacred Revolution with ...Diana Butler Bass and ...John Dominic Crossan November 9 - 12th in Asheville, NC AwakeningSoul hosts spiritual gatherings offering a time of sanctuary, sustenance, and inspiration. We invite you to a Sacred Revolution – daring to understand and live the stories of our heritage in a new way, revitalizing our relationship with God and our world. Click here for more information/registration

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Thanksgiving: A Native American View
by Ellie Stock 01 Nov '17

01 Nov '17

Dear Friends, In this month of Thanksgiving and also designated by some as Native American Month, I invite you to read the article below, a reflection on Thanksgiving by Native American Jacqueline Keeler. Much to ponder.. Also, below, a prayer of the Chippewa: For Hope, from the PC(USA) Book of Common Worship. Ellie :) elliestock(a)aol.com Thanksgiving: A Native American View - Pure Water Gazette purewatergazette.net/nativeamericanthanksgiving.htm Thanksgiving: A Native American View ... Jacqueline Keeler, ... Her work has appeared in Winds of Change, an American Indian journal. For Hope We pray that someday an arrow will be broken, not in something or someone, but by each of humankind, to indicate peace, not violence. Someday, oneness with creation, rather than domination over creation, will be the goal to be respected. Someday fearlessness to love and make a difference will be experienced by all people. Then the eagle will carry our prayer for peace and love, and the people of the red, white, yellow, brown, and black communities can sit in the same circle together to communicate in love and experience the presence of the Great Mystery in their midst. Someday can be today for you and me. Amen.

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10/26/17, Wolsey/Spong/Dowd:Theological Violence toward the Divine Feminine: Praying for an end to Rape Culture; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 26 Oct '17

26 Oct '17

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Theological Violence toward the Divine Feminine: Praying for an end to Rape Culture Rev. Roger Wolsey If you have a Facebook account you are no doubt abundantly aware by now of the “Me too” campaign that has been taking place. It’s a powerful way for women to convey to the world that they have been the victim of sexual harassment or sexual assault at the hands of men. It is quite clear that nearly all women have experienced either of those – some on a daily basis. They’re trying to show us the great extent of this problem by simply posting “Me too.” My initial response was simply this: “I believe you and it’s not OK.” But as I’ve pondered this more, it occurs to me that there is a direct correlation with men’s violence toward women with the theologies purveyed and adopted many men – a theology that commits violence against the feminine Divine – to the point of relegating it to invisibility, obscurity, and outright non-existence. Note: many women subscribe to such misogynist theologies – as unwitting victims and purveyors of their own internalized oppression. It should be obvious that if a major swath of society embrace no feminine aspect of God, then this leads to a minimizing of the status and role of women in the world – and their essential worth. Such results include glass ceilings, discrimination, and harassment in the workplace; glass ceilings, discrimination, and harassment in the domestic home life; and glass ceilings, discrimination, and harassment in religion. As a religion that emerged from several patriarchal cultures, Christianity has a long history of ill treatment of women in too many quarters of the Church. It seems to me that one of the things that many of the parts of the Church share in common is familiarity with, and use of, the Lord’s Prayer. I suggest that that prayer is due for a software update. Let’s face it, the world has changed. That is, understanding of it has changed – and how we perceive things – is reality for humans. For the first few centuries of Christianity, many people believed in a cosmology that had a 3-tiered universe; i.e., one where Heaven was (literally) above us. Earth is where we dwell now. And below us, for unfortunate souls, a (literal) Hell. That view no longer makes sense to most people in the 21st century. We know that pretty much every point in the universe can claim to be “the center” of the universe. And we know that there isn’t any literal heaven “above” the earth – as we know the earth isn’t flat, but round, and that every point on the earth can claim to be “the center” of the earth. Every point that is “above” every point on the earth is equally “above”; and every point in the universe can claim to be “the center.” We adapted our views of reality based upon new information, needs and circumstances. Similarly, there are over 38,000 different Christian denominations and none of them are exactly the same as the way the early Christians practiced their faith – nope, none of them. Indeed, each of those denominations wouldn’t even exist today if they hadn’t adapted and evolved along with the changing times. Christianity of most every stripe is waning in the Western nations. This is largely due to many people mistakenly thinking that conservative evangelicalism or fundamentalism are the only forms of Christianity out there (many have never heard of progressive Christianity) — and they are rejecting the supernatural theism and substitutionary theories of the atonement that go with them — that is, they reject the notion of a magical, specifically male, god who lives in the sky who we should fear and who punishes us to hell if we don’t believe that Jesus’ death on the cross is what saves people’s souls. People today experience God just as keenly out in nature as they do in Church — increasingly, even more so. People today know that no one religion has a monopoly on all of the truth. People today know that God is just as present within and among us, as God is transcendently beyond us (panentheism). People today know that God isn’t a boy – they know that Spirit is both (and neither) male and female — and beyond. People today know that theology is poetry – and that it provides meaning – not facts. Finally, people today realize that human-aggravated global warming is a very real and present danger and that taking care of the earth and our environment is a deeply spiritual matter – and that it’s part of being faithful to God. With all of this in mind, it seems to me that the single most important thing that could help Christianity to become more relevant and viable to today’s people who are increasingly wary of it and off-put by it — would be to adapt the Lord’s Prayer. It’s already the case that there is no one “correct” version of it. Some of us say, “and forgive us our trespasses” — others say “debts”, and others say “sins.” Some add “and ever” after most of us say forever. Moreover, none of the liturgical versions of the Lord’s prayer are exactly the same wording as the (varying) wordings that Jesus taught his disciples to pray according to the various gospels. And, it should go without saying, that Jesus didn’t speak in King James English and that he never uttered a “which art”, “thy,” or “thou.” We’ve been changing the tune, and the wording of it, since the get-go. Specifically, I would like to suggest that congregations adapt the Lord’s prayer such that it adds a few, specific, words – see bold: Our Father and Mother who dwells in Heaven and Earth, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Help us to avoid temptation and deliver us from evil, for Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. In this version, I’ve changed “Lead us not into temptation” to “help us to avoid temptation” – as that just plain makes more sense. God doesn’t lead us into temptation – we do that ourselves. Some might wish to change kingdom (seems antiquated) to “kin-dom” or “beloved community.” I tend to favor going with the literal translation of the Greek baselia – “empire” – as it helps point out the subversive nature of following Jesus that goes against the claims to power of worldly empires. I realize that some may wish to jettison the parental imagery altogether, yet to the extent that there is an essential goodness in maintaining some aspect of traditional lineage and metaphors, the two primary changes that I’m suggesting are the inclusion of “and Mother” (which many congregations are already doing) and “and Earth.” Those two changes alone would help billions of people realize that our faith is seeking to remain viable and relevant. Over half of the people on the planet are female and any Christian leader today jolly well better acknowledge that. If there’s an Abba, there’s an Ama. Long gone are the days when one could say “but male words such as he and his are ‘gender neutral in English’ and therefore women (and men) shouldn’t have a problem with seeing the Divine only referred to with male terminology.” I’m sometimes asked by college student’s “Is God actually genderless?” I respond saying that I think there’s something to be said for the Divine feminine & the Divine masculine. Certain other world religions embrace both of those energies and seek to foster and tap into each. Our Jewish friends embrace the Divine feminine through the concept of shekina and also el Shaddai – literally, “the breasted one. That said, as Christians we also embrace the notion that “in Christ there is no east or west, male or female, slave or free, Jew or Greek,… for all are one.” If we’re all one, and if God is immanent within each of us, when we harass or assault one another – we harass and assault God. May those who have ears to hear, hear; and eyes to see, see. And may those who are willing say, “Me too” to needed evolution of our theological language. Shalom, Salaam, Peace. Namaste. Amen and Amin. Blessed Be. ~ Rev. Roger Wolsey p.s. I refer to God as She and Her about as frequently as I do as He and His/Him in my book “Kissing Fish” It is handicapping for English to not have a gender neutral pronoun. Sometimes, I think it might be a good idea to refer to God as “Y’allweh.” This has the added benefit of reminding us of the Trinity – the relational aspects of the Divine.) 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 Read the essay online here. Question & Answer A Reader from the Internet asks: Question: After reading your essay, “The Way Home for the Prodigal Species,” last week, I was left with a desire for further clarification. What would you say is the heart of your message — the essence of what you’re sharing with secular and religious audiences these days? Answer: The Rev. Michael Dowd Dear Reader, We are living in a time of unprecedented evil, yet we don’t see it; we can’t see it. Not only has industrial civilization lost the ability to distinguish good and evil, we typically confuse the two and casually treat things that are downright anti-future as good. Q: Wow, that’s a bold claim. Can you give some examples of things that are accepted and standard today that you actually regard as evil? As I said in my essay, it is not just immoral, it is evil to pursue one's own short-term personal or institutional gain in ways that diminish or destroy the long-term future. Here are some examples… * It is evil to use renewable resources faster than they can be replenished. * It is evil to use nonrenewable resources in ways that harm and rob future generations. * It is evil to introduce substances into the environment that are not food for some other life form. * It is evil to alter the climate and devastate habitats in ways that drive millions of other species to extinction. All these things, and more, are patently anti-future and thus evil. Yet religion — the one institution charged with the responsibility of naming as “good” that which promotes personal wholeness, social coherence, and ecological integrity, and as “evil” that which diminishes or destroys the same — is asleep at the wheel. Why? Anthropocentric idolatry. To speak religiously, if measuring progress and success in human-centered ways casts us out of the Garden, measuring progress and success in Gᴏᴅᴅᴇ-centered (bio-centric or eco-centric) ways is our way home. My mentor Thomas Berry regularly reminded us that “The universe is primary; humans are derivative.” In mythic language, “Reality rules—i.e., Gᴏᴅ is Lord” That’s a fact, not a belief. When we honor primary reality as primary — as more important than us — our species can thrive. But when human wellbeing is put ahead of the health of the air, water, soil, forests, and life, we ensure the condemnation not only of our grandchildren but of generations centuries to come. It turns out that the Judgment Day is real; it’s just not otherworldly. Q: Can you offer any hope? Surely! Those of us who sacrifice our privilege, power, and conveniences today for the sake of future generations may be revered not reviled. To my mind, that’s what being a Christ-ian means. It’s got nothing to do with “believing in” ancient miracles and supernatural entities so that I get to avoid everlasting torment and go to some special place when I die. It’s got everything to do with whether I continue living in an anti-future (anti-Christian) way, or whether I choose to follow Jesus and live with a commitment to save the future and thereby redeem humanity. ~ The Rev. Michael Dowd ********* Deep Sustainability Resources Click here for links to text and audio files ... William R. Catton, Jr.: Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change Tom Wessels: The Myth of Progress: Toward a Sustainable Future William Ophuls: Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail; Plato’s Revenge; Sane Polity John Michael Greer: The Long Descent; Dark Age America; Not the Future We Ordered; The Retro Future; Collapse Now and Avoid the Rush; After Progress Richard Heinberg: The End of Growth; Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels; A New Covenant with Nature Nate Hagens: Youtube — Blindspots and Superheroes; Guide to Being Human in the 21st Century Thomas Berry: The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; The Universe Story (w/ Swimme); The Christian Future and the Fate of Earth Joanna Macy: Active Hope; Coming Back to Life; World as Lover, World as Self Bron Taylor: Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future James Howard Kunstler: The Long Emergency; Too Much Magic Robin Wall Kimmerer: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants David Fleming: Surviving the Future; Lean Logic: A Dictionary for Surviving the Future The Dark Mountain Project: Walking on Lava: Selected Works for Uncivilized Times Richard Adrian Reese: Sustainable or Bust; Understanding Sustainability Michael & Joyce Huesemann: Techno Fix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment Charles A.S. Hall: Energy Return on Investment; Energy and the Wealth of Nations (w/ Klitgaard) Read and share online here About the Author The Rev. Michael Dowd is a bestselling evolutionary storyteller, eco-theologian, and pro-future evangelist whose work has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on television nationally, including CNN, ABC News, and even FOX News. His book, Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World, was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists, noted skeptics and atheists, and by dozens of religious leaders across the theological spectrum. Michael and his science writer, evolutionary educator, and fellow climate activist wife, Connie Barlow, have spoken to more than 2,200 groups throughout North America since April 2002. A former pastor and sustainable communities organizer, Rev. Dowd has delivered two TEDx talks and a program at the United Nations. His commitment to the legacy-work of his colleagues has resulted in two online conversation series: “The Advent of Evolutionary Christianity,” and “The Future Is Calling Us to Greatness,” and recording nearly 1,500 hours of, what he calls, “deep sustainability scripture.” Dowd’s passion for proclaiming a pro-science message of inspiration — what he calls “the gospel of right relationship to Reality” — has earned him the moniker Rev. Reality, as he speaks prophetically in secular and religious settings about our sacred responsibility to future generations. Videos of his most popular sermons and longer programs can be found here. His and Connie’s 2017-18 itinerary can be found here. __________________________________________________ Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt - Part 4 Is it accident, coincidence or strange fate that Christianity has managed to preside over centuries of history in which physical punishment has been the primary means of discipline in so many parts of our society? Or is there something within the Christian story itself that pushes us toward abusive behavior? These are the questions to which our study of biblically justified corporal punishment now drives us. The idea of God as a punishing, heavenly parent figure is certainly present in the heart of the Christian story, though originally it was not nearly so prevalent or rampant as Church history and practice might lead us to believe. The picture of God as the judge assigning people to the eternity of hell with its ever-burning flames is surely found in the gospels, but it was never a major theme. It is not mentioned in Paul or in John. It is introduced to the New Testament by Mark by having Jesus say that if any part of one's body - the hand, the foot or the eyes - causes that person to sin, then that body part must be removed lest the whole body go to the unquenchable fires of Gehenna or hell (Mk. 9:43-48). A 3rd century Christian theologian of enormous influence, named Origen, took this Marcan text quite seriously and had himself castrated. Origen never revealed just how it was that his male organ caused him to sin! Matthew is the only New Testament writer who gives hell more than a single reference. Yet the uncontested idea that permeates the Christian story as it enters history is that human beings are fallen, baseborn and in need of rescue, and without that rescue they are doomed. How punishment is to be dispensed properly is a major Christian theme. If one begins with the definition of human life as a fallen creature who deserves punishment, then the system will surely develop a cure for that diagnosis. That is what has happened in the way the Christian story has been told historically, so the need for punishment entered the tradition and found a compatible dwelling place. The way the Hebrew myth of creation, which opens the Bible, was interpreted in Christian history served to place this definition of human evil squarely into the Christian arena. That story was traditionally understood to say that human beings are not what God intended. We are fallen, willfully disobedient sinners who deserve divine wrath. Listen again to that story. In the beginning God created a perfect world, but human life, endowed with the unique qualities of freedom and self-consciousness, disobeyed God and plunged God's perfect world into sin and evil. In that fall, the definition of human distortion and depravity developed. Not only were we fallen, but we also had no power to rescue ourselves from these self-inflicted wounds. Even our attempt at virtue only exacerbated our sense of being separated. As direct descendants of Adam and Eve, we bear the stains of their disobedience as our birthright. The sin of the fall showed up in the biblical narrative time after time. It was seen when Cain killed Abel (Gen.4:8), when people decided to build a tower so high it could reach into heaven where they might be restored to God (Gen. 11), in the story of the flood in which every living creature on the earth except for the righteous Noah and his family was destroyed (Gen.7,8). Presumably given the sense that God is just, human beings must have merited that destruction. Yet even that divine effort to eradicate the evil so endemic to human life failed. The Bible says that it was manifested in Noah's drunkenness after he disembarked from his boat (Gen.9: 20). Next the Bible says that God intervened to give people the law (Exodus ff.), to raise up prophets and finally to enter human history in the person of Jesus, who was understood to be the divine life who accomplished the rescue by paying the full price of human sin with his death on Calvary. The operative assumption in the biblical story is that human life is flawed; that this flaw is the source of evil; that only God can save so evil a creature and that the price of that salvation is costly indeed. It involves punishment even if it is done vicariously. To know oneself, according to the way the Bible has generally been read, is to know that one is evil, to experience guilt and finally to stand in need of punishment. I want to return now to the biblical story of our beginnings as a human species to examine the definition of human life as fallen and sinful that is found there. As the tradition developed this founding myth was seen as an attempt to explain adequately aspects of the human experience and to answer human yearnings. Why am I not content to be who I am? Why do I seek more? Why am I inadequate? Why do I experience guilt and jealousy? Why am I separated from God? Why am I victimized by sickness and pain and ultimately, why am I mortal? Why do I die? Accepting the reality of the human fall from God's grace, religious leaders began to organize the world so that human beings would recognize the necessity for our punishment and the human need constantly to implore God to save us, to rescue us from our sins and to redeem us. The stated goal of the Christian life was to live forever in that divine presence from which our ancestors had been banished in the Garden of Eden. Proper punishment for our sins thus becomes the prerogative of the heavenly parent and was necessary if we hoped to achieve our goal. Moderate suffering here and now was a blessing to be endured as necessary, if sinful people wished to avoid eternal suffering in the world to come. To state it bluntly, human beings were taught to understand themselves as the children of God who deserved God's punishment. Though most of the educated people of the world now dismiss this biblical story of Adam, Eve and the Garden, with its interpretation of human origins, as a myth not to be literalized, that story has nonetheless continued to set the tone of the way our religious systems relate to human life in our world. Christianity, in both its Catholic and Protestant forms, has been constructed around its presumed unique ability to deliver forgiveness and thus to rescue hopeless, lost sinners. Enhancing guilt thus became the necessary prerequisite for the maintenance of institutional power once the Church had convinced the world that it was the sole place through which the gift of forgiveness was obtainable. Auricular confession, required as one of the seven sacraments, kept guilt ever visible in each human life. The minute ecclesiastical rules with their emphasis on such things as days of solemn obligation and the prescribed set of inescapable religious duties made guilt inevitable and thus proper punishment from God mediated through the Church as penances became the essential means of salvation. The power of religious guilt is hard to overestimate. In Protestant Christianity the sense of human depravity was portrayed perhaps even more graphically. Human life was denigrated by the revival preachers as wretched, miserable, worm-like and hopeless so that the glorious grace of the rescuing deity could be more fully appreciated. When the 18th century Protestant revival in America known as 'the Great Awakening' swept across American life, led by the noted Massachusetts evangelist, Jonathan Edwards, it was ignited by his portrait of God, dangling sinners by the singed hairs of their heads over the fiery pits of hell. It was preaching designed to elicit a proper confession and to win a full rescue. The head of the evangelical Moody Bible Institute in Chicago repeated the mantra of his religious conversion in a radio broadcast with me some years ago, as he stated this theme of depravity over and over again: "The one thing I know is that I stand condemned before the throne of grace." The power found in the phrase "Jesus died for my sins," used in some form almost every Sunday in evangelical circles, is located in this same source of our human depravity. We, though the children of God, are disobedient children who deserve to be punished. This was the 'Word of God' heard regularly from the Church. Human beings in both Catholic and Protestant Christianity were defined as deserving sinners, standing in need of punishment. A righteous heavenly parent figure was presented as the judge prepared to be the disciplinarian. That message is at the heart of Christianity, which makes it easy to understand why the sinful child standing before the parent prepared to apply corporal punishment is so neat a fit in Christian history. We raised our children with a style modeled after our understanding of how God was relating to us. That is also how violence and an unconscious sado-masochism entered the Christian story, causing a major religious emphasis to be the neurotic need to suffer. To that story we turn next week as the next segment in this section on "The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt" unfurls. ~ John Shelby Spong Originally published July 7, 2004 Announcements Moving Beyond Life’s Hurts Starting October 30th, this e-course is a collaborative venture with Spirituality & Practice and Sage-ing International to guide us on a restorative, enlivening journey. It consists of 12 emails — one every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for four weeks — each providing reflective tools and support for focusing on such topics as: – The role of life review – Reframing the past with current wisdom – What to do about regrets – Forgiving self and others – Healing painful memories and relationships Click here for more information/registration

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Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] movie conversation
by Ellie Stock 22 Oct '17

22 Oct '17

In the PC(USA), our son's church in the Cleveland, OH area just became a sanctuary church. PC(USA) church we attend since retirement is an open, welcoming, becoming more diverse congregation, with multifaceted local outreach to the community--racial justice, food justice, environment, transition from prison ministry, girl scouts, fair trade, minimum wage, etc. Ellie elliestock(a)aol.com -----Original Message----- From: George Holcombe via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> To: Mr. Marshall Jones <synergi(a)yahoo.com>; James Wiegel via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: George Holcombe <geowanda1(a)me.com>; ICA Dialogue Dialogue <ica-dialogue(a)igc.topica.com> Sent: Sun, Oct 22, 2017 5:45 pm Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] movie conversation Good go Marshall, should be an interesting and promising event. My take on the UMC is that it went off the rails a while back by adopting a business model, more members - more money, disguised behind the notion of making disciples. Unfortunately, few had any real training in what the Xian faith was all about. Fortunately, there are clergy and congregations striving to live the faith. We have a growing number of reconciling congregations in the Austin area (plus several sanctuary congregations) and some clergy and laity who are making quite a witness. Sadly the Bishops and “leaders” with a few exceptions are lagging and tied to a failing model. We have a Presbyterian church in our neighborhood, St. Andrews, Jim Rigby, pastor, who currently houses an immigrant family and is inclusive. Let us know how the conversation comes out. 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 On Oct 20, 2017, at 12:20 PM, W. J. via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: Sometimes, even after we're been put out to pasture, the old guard is called upon to teach our tried and true old stuff to a new crowd. So here's my latest simplified take on how to structure a movie conversation--boiled down from the Golden Pathways, but with a few updates ("Where did you see transformation in the movie?"). Turns out there wasn't anything this simple in the archives that I could find. So tonight I'm facilitating a planning/screening group that will develop a film discussion series for a local church. Given that it's a UMC--with all the angst and cultural warfare that's been swamping us--the topic will be 'human sexuality.' Next Wednesday we kick off the series with a screening of An Act of Love. Here's the key conversation questions I came up with (for Methodists who are moved to show the film): What for you was the key human issue in the film? (get a variety of answers from across the group) What triggered the underlying conflict in this church? What was this conflict really about? (push for deeper insights here) How was the conflict handled or not handled by the conference leadership? How did you respond emotionally to the film? What emotions did you notice? Did you feel sleepy? wide awake? distracted? uncomfortable? upset? bored? relaxed? on the edge of your seat? or what? What in the film made you feel that way? Where did you notice the group's emotional response? How would you be a reconciling presence in Frank Shaefer's church? Imagine that you are the bishop. As a minister of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18), what would you say to the members of this church who were opposed to Frank Shaefer? As a bishop, how would you honor a rule in the Discipline with which you fundamentally disagree? (incongruence/paradox/double bind) Where did you see transformation in the film? Where did you see hope in the film? Where did you see Divine Activity (or the work of the Holy Spirit) happening in the film? What do you see as Frank Shaefer's true calling? What did he discover about God's intention for him? What have you realized about your true calling? What has deepened your understanding of your true calling? An Act of Love Film "An Act of Love" (2015) is an award-winning documentary about Rev. Frank Schaefer and the divisions in... Marshall _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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10/19/17, Spong/Michael Dowd:The Way Home for the Prodigal Species; Vosper; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 19 Oct '17

19 Oct '17

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR The Way Home for the Prodigal Species The Rev. Michael Dowd “Human society is inextricably part of a global biotic community, and in that community human dominance has had and is having self-destructive consequences.” ~ William R. Catton, Jr. “The most difficult transition to make is from an anthropocentric to a bio-centric norm of progress. If there is to be any true progress, then the entire life community must progress. Any progress of the human at the expense of the larger life community must ultimately lead to a diminishment of human life itself.” ~ Thomas Berry * * * Here is a short story. The theme: how human-centeredness alienated us from primary reality (Gᴏᴅ) and how ecology — the interdisciplinary study of the way, the truth, and the life of the living biosphere — can lead us home. We begin by taking stock of our species’ situation. After centuries of profligate living, we have exceeded what ecologists call the carrying capacity of the biosphere. We have extracted more resources and exuded more wastes than Nature can sustainably provide and process. Overshoot is the ecological term for our species’ predicament, and nothing in heaven or on Earth can spare us from the troubles ahead. We know this because Reality has revealed it through evidence. By dishonoring material grace limits, we have made a Great Reckoning inevitable. In the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, “Sooner or later we all sit down to a banquet of consequences.” The Great Reckoning will be experienced as bad news by most of us alive this century. It is, however, soul nourishing to remember that a roll-back of the human imprint on Earth’s ecologies will be good news for other species — and eventually for ours, too. That turn will be the Great Homecoming. After squandering a multi-billion-year inheritance, the prodigal species will come home to Reality, humbly returning to the community of life of which we are part and upon which we depend. The vital — indeed, essential — key to this turn is that we will have learned to measure progress and success in bio-centric and eco-centric (Reality/Gᴏᴅ-centered) terms. Our descent into species narcissism will be a harsh memory, a clear warning, while stories of collective repentance and atonement become the bright new myths. Reality Is GOD “The most profound insight in the history of humankind is that we should seek to live in accord with reality. Indeed, living in harmony with reality may be accepted as a formal definition of wisdom. If we live at odds with reality (foolishly), we will be doomed. But if we live in proper relationship with reality (wisely), we shall be saved. Humans everywhere, and at all times, have had at least a tacit understanding of this fundamental principle. What we are less in agreement about is how we should think about reality and what we should do to bring ourselves into harmony with it.” ~ Loyal Rue “Reality is that which, when you stop believing it, doesn’t go away.” ~ Philip K. Dick * * * Words create worlds and worldviews shape human behavior, individually and collectively. Sometimes a single word or redefinition of an existing one can help usher in a new concept or paradigm that shifts how we see and experience reality. The new way of seeing solves problems the previous paradigm couldn’t because it transcends and includes the older way of seeing. I suggest that Gᴏᴅ (small caps) or perhaps Godde (pronounced God, yet spelled the Old English, gender-neutral way, as some Roman Catholic nuns and others already do) may offer just such a reframe and fresh way of perceiving reality. Divinity, of course, is the Universe+, Time and Nature+, the Biosphere+. Plus what? Plus, at the very least, an authoritative voice! Plus whatever transcendent beliefs about ultimate reality a person may already hold. After all, any God who merely transcends time and nature is less than a God who includes (i.e., is revealed or incarnate within) time and nature. Worse, a transcendent-only notion of the divine has over the past 500 years resulted in an Earth bereft of respect, bereft of honor, bereft of devotion — and therefore inevitably stripped and assaulted. Imaging Gᴏᴅ, or primary reality, as unnatural rather than undeniable has led us to overshoot Earth’s carrying capacity, or grace limits, and thereby betray future generations. A limited and ultimately impotent notion of the divine is directly responsible, I suggest, for the demonic, anti-future economic system that now dominates human affairs. Demonic economic system? Yes, but I’ll say more about that shortly. I first need to emphasize that the issue of what we call, and how we regard, primary reality (i.e., everything that is necessary for our existence and wellbeing) is far from trivial. The name we choose influences, and possibly even determines, whether or not our way of life will be sustainable. The I-It, “Man, Conqueror of Nature,” relationship we have forged in recent centuries clearly is not. In contrast, I-Thou relating to primary reality fosters a mutually enhancing human–Earth relationship. As Thomas Berry was fond of saying, “The environment is not our surroundings, it’s our source.” Our name (or names) for primary reality — our living creator, sustainer, and end — dictates the health or sickness of our relationship to that which brought us into existence, nourishes and supports us, and receives us when we die. Naming may also determine whether we live in a pro-future or anti-future way, and whether we can even distinguish good and evil. “God,” of course, means different things to different people in different traditions. By offering nuanced spellings — Gᴏᴅ or Godde — the meaning I intend is this: Reality with a personality, not a person outside reality. What is gained by spelling Gᴏᴅ with small capital letters or by going back to a spelling left behind some 600 years ago? Just this: an opportunity for each of us to nurture a personal relationship to the Nature part of Nature+, not just the + or transcendent aspect. Consider the words of James Hillman, one of the more influential psychologists of the past half-century: “Loving is a way of knowing and for love to know, it must personify. Personifying is thus the heart’s mode of knowing. It is not a lesser, primitive way of apprehending, but a finer one. To enter myth we must personify. To personify carries us into myth.” Nothing, I would argue, is more consequential than how we think of primary reality. Why? Because it matters, ultimately, whether our relationship to the biosphere is characterized by humility or hubris! As renowned systems thinker Gregory Bateson warned decades ago: “If you put God outside and set him vis-a-vis his creation, and if you have the idea that you are created in his image, you will logically and naturally see yourself as outside and against the things around you. And as you claim all mind to yourself, you will see the world around you as mindless and therefore not entitled to moral or ethical consideration. The environment will seem to be yours to exploit. Your survival unit will be you and your people against the environment of other social units, other races, and the brutes and vegetables. If this is your estimate of your relation to nature and you have an advanced technology, your likelihood of survival will be that of a snowball in hell. You will die either of the toxic by-products of your own hate or simply of overpopulation and overgrazing.” Anthropocentrism Is Idolatry “The world we live in is an honorable world. To refuse this deepest instinct of our being, to deny honor where honor is due, to withdraw reverence from divine manifestation, is to place ourselves on a head-on collision course with the ultimate forces of the universe. This question of honor must be dealt with before any other question. We miss both the intrinsic nature and the magnitude of the issue if we place our response to the crises of our planet on any other basis. It is not ultimately a political or economic or scientific or psychological issue. It is ultimately a question of honor. Only the sense of the violated honor of Earth and the need to restore this honor can evoke the understanding and energy needed to carry out the renewal of the planet in any effective manner. ” ~ Thomas Berry * * * The core of my message is simple and can be expressed in both secular and religious ways. In secular language it sounds like this: Primary reality is primary; human-centeredness is self-terminating. Said religiously: Ecology is the heart of theology; anthropocentrism is idolatry. Idolatry is nothing so trivial as bowing down to statues or worshipping the wrong god. Idolatry is maintaining an unreal notion of Gᴏᴅ, one not inclusive of — indeed, synonymous with — that which is necessarily and inescapably real. In contrast, an eco-theological or ecosophia perspective encourages lifeways that respect the integrity of the soil, forests, water, and life that in turn give us life. We naturally live as a blessing to posterity. Human-centeredness is idolatry because it excludes all but a smidgen of reality from matters of ultimate concern. It fosters hubris rather than humility. Anthropocentrism is idolatry because it makes the entire universe little more than a stage upon which the human drama plays out. Therein lies the danger. Surely, one reason the ancients warned so vociferously against idolatry is because human-centeredness is an insanity our kind cannot survive; it is inherently anti-future. As Edward Goldsmith details in The Way: An Ecological Worldview, every sustainable culture that we know of held three things in common: (1) they related to primary reality in a humble, indeed mythic, I-Thou way; (2) they treated the Biosphere+ as the source of all benefits and thus the source of all real and lasting wealth; and (3) they embraced as a sacred responsibility preservation of the health and wellbeing of the body of life and “critical order of the cosmos.” In other words, Gᴏᴅ first! permeated every aspect of culture. The way home for the prodigal species is to return to this deep and profound intimacy with the living world+. Why Good People Engage in Great Evil “For the present to have meaning, it must see the past as legacy and the future as bequest. What makes societies great is not conquest or consumption but their dedication to something grander then themselves.” ~ William Ophuls “We are talking only to ourselves. We are not talking to the rivers. We are not listening to the wind and the climate. Most of the disasters that are happening now are a consequence of that spiritual autism.” ~ Thomas Berry When we trivialize primary reality as an otherworldly clockmaker (Creator) outside a clockwork cosmos (Creation), we contribute — albeit unintentionally — to our species’ demise. When Gᴏᴅ is either dead or otherworldly, doing evil is almost guaranteed. It is not just immoral, it is evil to irreparably harm the future for short-term personal or institutional gain. Yet we have a global economic system, supported by governments on every continent and accepted by adherents of every faith, ensuring that it is not only legal to betray posterity; it’s profitable - highly profitable. This is precisely what history teaches: when religion fails, greed reigns and economics becomes demonic. Good and evil is discerned, at the very least, by this: how the actions of an individual or group impact the larger community and how those impacts ripple into the future. At the extremes, that which consistently leads to personal wholeness, social coherence, and ecological integrity is good, and that which harms or endangers personal wholeness, social coherence, and ecological integrity is evil. Granted, shades of gray take up a large swath in between — but if we lose the scale, we lose our bearings. Unsustainable, after all, is just a bland and deceptive word for evil. Our global, industrial-growth economy rewards the few at the expense of the many, measures progress by how fast resources can be turned into waste, and seduces billions to betray the future just by pursuing ‘the good life’. Is this not collective madness? Is this not, in truth, demonic? Let us now repent of our human-centeredness and return to Gᴏᴅ. The Great Work of our time is to do whatever it takes to bring forth an economic system that embodies the wisdom of ecology. First and foremost we must shed our addiction to fossil fuels. Rebuilding topsoil, restoring forests, recovering wetlands — returning to balance becomes our sacred duty. The Great Work is a time for letting go of extravagances, for re-localizing, and for rekindling the simple joys of living within the grace limits of this planet. We are the prodigal species, and this is our way home. ~ The Rev. Michael Dowd Read the essay online here. About the Author The Rev. Michael Dowd is a bestselling evolutionary storyteller, eco-theologian, and pro-future evangelist whose work has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on television nationally, including CNN, ABC News, and even FOX News. His book, Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World, was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists, noted skeptics and atheists, and by dozens of religious leaders across the theological spectrum. Michael and his science writer, evolutionary educator, and fellow climate activist wife, Connie Barlow, have spoken to more than 2,200 groups throughout North America since April 2002. A former pastor and sustainable communities organizer, Rev. Dowd has delivered two TEDx talks and a program at the United Nations. His commitment to the legacy-work of his colleagues has resulted in two online conversation series: “The Advent of Evolutionary Christianity,” and “The Future Is Calling Us to Greatness,” and recording nearly 1,500 hours of, what he calls, “deep sustainability scripture.” Dowd’s passion for proclaiming a pro-science message of inspiration — what he calls “the gospel of right relationship to Reality” — has earned him the moniker Rev. Reality, as he speaks prophetically in secular and religious settings about our sacred responsibility to future generations. Videos of his most popular sermons and longer programs can be found here. His and Connie’s 2017-18 itinerary can be found here. Question & Answer Fred from Canberra, Australia writes: Question: What titles do I use for God when I pray? Does prayer do any good? Answer: By Rev. Gretta Vosper Dear Fred, My son, many years ago, came from school with an assignment he was required to complete. The creative writing project asked for one hundred different ways to say “said” other than, of course, “said.” At first glance, it seemed a daunting task but within minutes, the lines were filled and the list compiled. The truth is that, although mostly oblivious to the fact, those of us who read fiction are exposed to many, many different ways an author indicates that someone has just “said” something. The hours and hours of bedtime story reading his dad had shared with him had embedded those many words in his vocabulary already. So, when writing my first book With or Without God: Why the Way We Live is More Important than What We Believe, I challenged myself to come up with one hundred words that could be used instead of the word “god”. I didn’t want to suggest that the concept of god had any power to act in the world, but included words that could be interpreted by the reader in whatever way was helpful; that is, with or without agency. I encourage you to do the same. There may be words that are quick to come: “grace”, “courage”, “love”. And there may be words that require more thought. For me, the word “god” lays out a broad terrain that cannot be limited by a single person’s perspective. I understand god to be a concept rather than a being, a word I once used to convey an amalgam of our best and highest ideals. I now no longer use the word as it too readily invites ideas of the supernatural, of blessing or judgment, of a privileged or capricious intervention, depending on whether the hearer’s own life has weighed out on the side of privilege or blight. My understanding of god necessarily impacts on the concept of prayer, a topic I go into in depth in my second book, Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. Whether the person engaged in the act of prayer believes in a supernatural deity or force or the benevolence of the universe, we are the only answer we’ve got to the challenges facing our world. Some will work toward solutions compelled by the god in whom they believe. Others will work toward solutions compelled by theirs own sense of compassion and responsibility. Goodness comes into the world through our own hands, voices, and actions. I believe prayer is a very important component to a balanced and engaged life though I do not believe there is a god listening to us. We listen to ourselves. We sort out what is happening in our lives. We honour the beauty we’ve encountered, express gratitude and awe. We trouble ourselves toward making a difference wherever we are able. We sit within the reality of our lives and explore them. Even believing that no deity exists who cares a whit for us, we can enrich our lives by the daily practice of prayer or, as I prefer to call it – again, to avoid confusion - meditation. Using the four broad categories around which much Christian liturgy is built, we can craft a daily ritual that invites us to perceive awe (adoration), reflect critically on our relationships with our own self, others, and the planet (confession), recognize how fortunate we are even in the midst of adversity (thanksgiving), and lament that we and those we love still suffer want, pain, sorrow (supplication). Traditional prayer grew up around human need, not the other way around. Acknowledging each of these aspects of our lives is an important facet of well-being. There are many practices that can be powerful additions to one’s life and take the place of meditative prayer. Some prefer to journal, finding their own way to solutions by writing them out. I write poetry and often only understand what I was saying to myself hours or days after getting a poem out onto the page. Some find vocal music, chant, drumming or tonal vibrations help to balance their attentions and calm their minds. Mindfulness has proven to be an incredibly helpful way to tend to one’s mind and well-being. I encourage you to look for what works for you, trying this or that, rejecting what doesn’t “feel” right and leaning in toward what resonates with you. ~ Rev. Gretta Vosper Read and Share online here About the Author The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada minister who is an atheist. Her best-selling books include With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three books of poetry and prayers. ________________________________________________ Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt - Part 3 In the most deeply patriarchal part of our male-dominant Western history, women were also considered to be fit subjects for corporal punishment at the hands of their husbands. This exercise of power was carried out with the full approval of both State and Church. In that day a husband could beat his wife whenever the husband deemed it necessary. She was, if not his property like a slave, at best his ward with no more status than a dependent child. Physical abuse of one's spouse is not unknown today, but it is now called "domestic violence" and is recognized as a crime for which both arrest and incarceration are deemed appropriate. That, however, has not always been the case. Reading a book written by Suzannah Fonay Wemple, a medieval historian, was the first time I was made aware that one of the primary functions of nunneries in the early Middle Ages was to be a safe haven to which abused women could retreat. Not even the power of the male in a rigidly patriarchal society could invade the domain of the Mother Superior! Modern people, whose sense of history is rather short, blink in disbelief when reading of the accepted domestic violence during this period of history. Perhaps they need to be reminded that the word 'obey,' as a part of the bride's sacred vows to her husband, was in almost every wedding ceremony in every part of the Christian Church until early in the 20th century. The word 'obey' is a word that implies dependent submission to the authority of the one who requires it, and it carries with it the implicit threat that the failure to obey will bring upon the disobedient one the power of the authority. Society in that day deemed physical discipline the necessary means of enforcement. The word 'obey' was not removed from the wedding ceremony in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer until 1928. It was mandated for the bride alone, since it was inconceivable that the groom would take a vow of obedience. Because the 1662 Prayer Book of the Church of England is still in use in both England and throughout the nations that once constituted the British Empire, the word 'obey' is still, to this day, required of the bride in many English speaking marriage ceremonies. Wherever it is used, wherever obedience is assumed to be appropriate, the subservient person is deemed to be dependent, childlike and by implication an appropriate recipient for discipline. There is no question that the definition of a woman, as a dependent child subject to her husband's authority, is one of those legacies from the Christian past that had to be challenged first and dismantled second before women could be free. Perhaps that helps to explain why it was that the conservative parts of the Christian Church resisted so deeply the women's liberation movement with its goal of the total emancipation of women. In the Catholic tradition women are still treated as second-class citizens. The embarrassment of this attitude in a world, where consciousness has been raised on this issue, has resulted in some rather convoluted rationalizations that hint at an ecclesiastical version of the old racist slogan "separate but equal" as this Church seeks to defend present anti-female practices. In the evangelical wing of Protestant Christianity Pat Robertson accused "women's lib" movements of being "home breaking, family violating, godless and lesbian assaults on traditional values." At every stage along the way, from the suffrage movement that won for women the right to vote in 1920, to the battle to make birth control and abortion legal, the Christian Church has been a vigorous opponent. Only in an ecclesiastical setting would it ever have been deemed appropriate for an all male group of clerics, mostly in the middle or post-menopausal years of life, to sit in solemn assembly, dressed in vestments called 'frocks,' to pontificate in the name of a God called 'Father,' about what a woman can do that is moral with her own body. The Women's Liberation Movement has sought to free women and their bodies from such domination by males, a domination that at one stage in our history gave men the right to punish physically the bodies of women. That movement declared that women are not children, that women are not dependent or subservient and that women are not designed to be submissive to men or to anyone else. The power to define oneself as adult, competent and independent became the ticket out of a world where discipline and physical abuse were considered to be appropriate patterns of interpersonal behavior. Other adults who were subjected to corporal punishment during the days of Christian history were members of religious orders. Once again, the justification for that violence was found in the vows of the religious life in which obedience joined poverty and chastity as sacred obligations. Obedience lends itself to the creation of a childlike and dependent person, who is subject to the discipline of his or her superiors. That understanding of human life has led to the abuse of the bodies of those in religious orders in some form of corporal punishment. When that understanding is combined with the religious sense of universal human sinfulness, then physical discipline offers a 'therapy' for an evil situation. If God's revealed word in the Bible called for such discipline to be administered to children and to those under authority as an act of love, and if this discipline was regarded both as a virtue and a sacred obligation owed to one's religious superior, then all arguments against it were stifled. So corporal punishment has often marked the relationship of the religious superior to the monk, nun or penitent. Sometimes this punishment of the body was ordered by the superior, but was self-inflicted by the penitent. It made the penitent feel more noble, more virtuous. In the 14th century in response to the bubonic plague, known popularly as 'the Black Death,' a movement arose among Christians who called themselves 'the Flagellants." They walked through the streets of the cities of Europe sometimes in numbers 10,000 strong, lashing themselves with whips in an act of public penitence. It was an age in which people knew nothing about viruses, germs or bacteria that might bring sickness. They only knew that they were living through a fearful period of history in which up to one fourth of the adult population of Europe was to die in this epidemic. The common explanation for this devastation was that God was angry with the people for some real or imagined sin. The hope of the Flagellants was that by brutally lashing their own bodies with whips they could punish themselves so severely that God would withdraw the divine punishment of the plague from their families. It was a strange practice based on a faulty, but deeply believed, premise; namely, that punishing their bodies would somehow win for them divine approval. The idea was that if they punished themselves, God would not have to do it. Yet this practice grew out of and reflected that belief so deeply in the Western Christian world, that God was a punishing deity and those who were disciplined by God deserved it because of their sinfulness. That was long ago we tend to say, until we read a more contemporary writer like Karen Armstrong. This brilliant woman who has authored such best selling titles as A History of God, and The Battle for God spent the first years of her adulthood in a convent in England, leaving as recently as the late 1960s. In her autobiography she described her experience as a Sister going to confession. On occasions, as her penance, she would be given a small whip and told to go to a private place and there to lash herself for her sins, if she deemed that appropriate. There is ample reason to suggest that corporal punishment was practiced in the religious life and that disciplining the body physically was taught by the Church to be an act pleasing to God, since the body was normally judged in religious circles to be sinful. The path followed in our own religious history started with a definition of human life as fallen or sinful. Step two would involve developing the practice of combining that definition with the appropriateness of punishing the sinful body physically. Step three was to validate the practice by pointing to a text in a book called the "word of God," that would demonstrate God's approval of these tactics. Step four was to expand the definition of the child to include all the powerless and thus child-like adults: prisoners whose behavior had caused society to strip from them adult rights and to relate to them as those in need of punishment; slaves who had no rights at all and who by law and custom were required to be obedient to their masters; women, regarded as inferior, not fully human adults, who were childlike and dependent and incapable of maturity so they had to pledge to be obedient to their husbands; and finally religious figures who lived under the authority of their superiors and who believed themselves deserving of physical discipline because of their own sins or in order to force God to withdraw the divine wrath which was believed to be causing their suffering. Next week I will seek to lift that portrait of God into full consciousness so that it might be banished along with the terrible texts from the "Word of God" that have been used to justify abusive behavior for far too long. ~ John Shelby Spong Originally published June 30, 2004 Announcements Rev. Matthew Wright: “Reclaiming Wisdom: How Christianity Is Evolving in the Third Millennium.” First Congregational United Church of Christ of Hendersonville, NC - Friday October 20th Friday, October 20th, at 7pm with “How We Lost Our Wisdom: Recovering the Christian Contemplative Path and Reclaiming Jesus as Wisdom Teacher.” On Saturday, October 21st, 10 am the topic is “The Gospels of Thomas and Mary: Restoring Wisdom Texts and Teaching.” At 1 pm is “Christianity in a Second Axial Age: Teilhard de Chardin and Raimon Panikkar as Prophets of an Evolving Path.” On Sunday, October 22nd, Rev. Wright will speak at the 9 am Adult Forum and 10:30 amWorship Service, both in the Sanctuary. 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Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] 10/12/17: Spong/Vosper: REFORMERS, ALL; Spong revisited
by jlepps39 16 Oct '17

16 Oct '17

Jim et al. I believe Neibuhr's other 2 categories were prophet and priest. John from Paris. Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device -------- Original message --------From: James Wiegel via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Date: 10/13/17 23:49 (GMT+01:00) To: dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net, oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net Cc: James Wiegel <jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] 10/12/17: Spong/Vosper: REFORMERS, ALL; Spong revisited As always, thanks, Ellie for passing these on . . . This one seems a cry for Niebuhr's 3rd social responsibility of the church, the social pioneer. Yea. What about the other 2 -- the part of the paper we skipped over to get to that last page . . . Jim Wiegel “That which consumes me is not man, nor the earth, nor the heavens, but the flame which consumes man, earth, and sky." Nikos Kazantzakis 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353623-363-3277jfwiegel(a)yahoo.comwww.partnersinparticipation.com On Thursday, October 12, 2017, 7:31:46 AM MST, Ellie Stock via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: Homepage My Profile Essay Archive Message Boards Calendar REFORMERS, ALL By Rev. Gretta Vosper We’ve been anticipating the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation for some time. Now that the month is upon us, it seems more like a private birthday party than something worthy of global attention. In truth, I suppose it is. With the global number of Reform Tradition Protestants diminishing, the celebration of the dramatic and cataclysmic leave-taking that was our birth seems of little interest to any but those enchanted by the history of such things and the few others taking advantage of the liturgical and party possibilities offered up by the date. The Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogues of the past few decades culminated in the document From Conflict to Communion, published in 2013. Within it, Five Ecumenical Imperatives are laid out, providing a base from which the two traditions could ramp up together for a joint celebration of the Reformation, a healing of the centuries old rift between them. Shoving a new foundation of respect under the violence and rancour of the past, the Catholic and Lutheran ecumenists have demanded a new and generous spirit from their adherents: choose unity over disunity; start from a place of agreement rather than focusing on easily spotted differences. They seem simple and wise choices. If only we had managed to get to this place four hundred and ninety-five years earlier. So much hatred, horror, and bloodshed may have been avoided. There is no doubt that our great faith traditions have provided the human family much that has been of benefit. Perhaps their most important work was built of the evolutionary advantage provided humans by what we might nowadays call “group think”. Religion gave us a bigger and stronger clan than family. Members would die for us just as quickly as we would die for them; we were no longer alone but had the safety of our religious affiliates to add strength to our prejudices and personal desires. And those prejudices and personal desires were, in turn, further refined by our religious beliefs. Put in such a way, it is easy to see how, in the early 16th century, neighbours could turn against one another to the point of death, uncovering allegiances that damned an individual or family to the ultimate exclusion from God’s grace and forgiveness for all of eternity. Taking leave of an institution with that much power was a risky thing to do. The rhetoric continues to be chilling to this day. Bishop Spong has presented visionary work on what a new reformation might look like, what it might provide humanity in the third millennium, and how we might get there. His forthcoming book will take that work further, providing much more than the meticulously negotiated but necessarily simplistic Lutheran Catholic Imperatives. I expect this book will crown the past four decades of his leadership in this progressive Christian landscape, a terrain still tragically unknown to so many. CHOICE At any point in time, a range of possibilities lie before us. We make the best decisions we can, given the information we have at the time. Decades later, we sometimes realize that a single choice resulted in a myriad of other choices, each circumscribed by the first, and all resulting in a reality that, had it been clear to us from the beginning, we may have refused. We cannot see what the future brings and we are very poor at extrapolating our possibilities out much further than our immediate creature needs. And so we end up in situations, relationships, jobs, communities, social structures, or a whole world we may not have chosen had we been able to see the extrapolated implications of our every choice. But you don’t need to keep going in the same direction just because that is the direction you happen to be going. You certainly can and many do. But others, either because of a sudden reorientation of their perspective or because they were just born without a personal comfort zone, refuse to just keep on keeping on. To them, the cost is too high. In fact, it is idiocy. Enter, the Reformer. Many are the times I’ve heard Martin Luther compared to Jesus in the work they both undertook. They didn’t start dramatically; reformers rarely do. It may have been a conversation here or a private rant there. It may have begun in whispers and only risen to an audible level over many months or even years. It may have been with or without design, beginning with a broad, unfocused list of laments or emerging from the womb, so to speak, with a well-honed mission. But both Luther and Jesus, at some point in time, and very likely supported by the gifts of countless unnamed others who listened, shared, cajoled, and criticized, noticed that the faith traditions they cherished had veered in directions that were unacceptable to them. Choices made by those in leadership developed norms for the practices, thinking, attitudes, and prejudices embraced within the tradition, each chosen from the creative potentialities of time and place. For most believers, all was accepted as it was received. But for Reformers, what is normal for the masses is anathema to them. Both Jesus and Luther honoured their traditions. Though we long assumed Jesus was Christian, we now know he wasn’t; he was a Jew. Luther learned the only acceptable religion of his day, a Rome-centred Catholicism. They were steeped in their traditional religions, born into and formed by them. Like everyone around them, they were supposed to fit in. Their education, far above the level of the average believer, was supposed to further hone their beliefs. It was not supposed to expose the little hypocrisies and gross abuses that had been so artfully woven into the everyday business of religion. Once noticed, however, the normal way of doing things became unacceptable. There were no options for Jesus or Luther but those that would bring about catastrophic change in their religious traditions. Even as others fought to maintain the status quo, forcing banishment or conspiring toward more final solutions, the Reformers laid out and presented their arguments. And the world changed. LEGACY We stand on the shoulders of great men and women. Countless Reformers dared challenge the norms of their day – religious, political, economic, and social. And they did it at great cost. We are grateful to them for their struggles, for their lives, for their blood, and for the first discomfort noticed that set them on their course. They created the world in which we live, the freedoms we cherish, the perspectives we are welcome to embrace or refuse, the right to make our own decisions, whether wise or foolish. They set in course the possibilities from which we have chosen our new realities and so have become, with them, co-creators of the world we know. They also, however, created gross disparities and abuses that yet plague humanity and the planet: the economic enslavement of whole nations for the provision of privileges assumed by others; the legal jargons that entrap indigenous peoples in politically ritualized battles for sovereignty; the lines that set out who is worthy of the right to choose their own lifestyle and who is not; the notion that humanity is separate and above the natural world rather than enfolded within and vulnerable to it; the entertainments by which we anaesthetize ourselves to the truths that quake around us; the cruelties endured by herded, caged, and crated animals so we might pleasure our taste buds and sooth our sun-scarred skin. And we, in making our choices, remain co-creators, complicit in a litany of normals that, had we the heart of Jesus or Luther or the millions of unnamed men and women who have poured their lives out in the pursuit of justice and compassion and the building up of love in the world, would make every one of us a Reformer. There is a legacy in the Reformation that I believe belongs in the middle of our work, calling out the power brokers, the hegemonists, the deceivers. Ours is not the work of complacency or settling for imperatives that take decades to conjure only because it takes that long to soothe the sensitivities of those still wielding ecclesial powers that make no difference to the challenges facing our world. Our reforms must be much bolder, our work in the world more creative than what those beyond our walls believe is all we do. It may be that humanity is facing the greatest crises of its too-brief history as it reels with the challenges of global warming and climate change, exponential population growth, and resource depletion. There may be no future moment for us to step up. Now may be all there is. Literally. Change is our very birthplace. It is our right and responsibility as heirs of the Reformers, to stare down every comfortable “normal” that sings its siren song and refuse to be enchanted by it. It is our right and responsibility to count up every ease and privilege we enjoy and educate ourselves about its source – what makes it possible? Who pays for our pleasures and how? And when we find that “normal” is built on the subjugation of others – our tea, our chocolate, our party-ready shrimp rings – work to redistribute or limit those pleasures until all have access to shelter, security, food, clean water, and the joy of planning for their children’s futures. ECLESIA AS REFORMER But change is costly and few have the strength or fortitude to bring about its grander accomplishments. That’s why those usually identified with the most highly evolved faith in James Fowler’s Stages of Faith, a Universalizing Faith, are so few, so well known, and all assassinated: Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. We aren’t that strong, most of us. We might start out heartily, but we then draw up far short of our goals, beaten by our own fears, our own comforts, our own weakness. We may be legion but we are ordinary, too. Throughout the New Testament, the word translated to “church” is originally ecclesia. It’s a poor translation. Rather than “church”, it shared the idea of government. In Greece, the ecclesia was the council of elect elders who governed the city. It’s use in the early Christian writings was a radical refusal to live according to the rules of the day by a ragtag group of people who believed they had a better way. They believed they were called to a bolder and more perfect reflection of the dignity of humanity as they had seen it represented in or inspired by a heretical Jew who’d once moved among them and left a residual and radical idea of what community should look like. Perhaps it is not we, frail and human as we are, but our ecclesia that can set out upon the sea of change and call us forward. Perhaps we can use the New Testament ideal of an alternative ecclesia to set the standards, the ideals, the vision by which the corrective to human destruction of the earth might be realized. Perhaps my United Church of Canada and your United Church of Christ, United Methodist, or Disciples of Christ could be called to this greater and most urgent vision that lies in the roots of all our Christian traditions. Perhaps the sacramental traditions, Reformed and Roman, might step up together in this celebratory year and cry out the words that need to be heard by all, challenging us to notice that normal isn’t acceptable, even if it is the culmination of all our choices. We need our religious institutions to be the ecclesia they were called to be, to be great for us and challenge us to be the reform we want to see in the world. Perhaps this is the year for our ecclesial institutions to step into the role of the Reformer and built a vision we can work toward. Isn’t this the nature of the gospel call, that our ability to notice provides us the challenge to change for the better, to take and make good news and not simply welcome it? Like most, I’ve been largely indifferent to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. It seemed to esoteric, to trivial in the face of what challenges us today. But perhaps it is exactly the opposite. Perhaps, like Jesus and Luther before us, it is time to challenge the traditions by which we have been formed. We would challenge them to reawaken to the purposes set out in their deep, deep roots: to bring the people together, to be the assembly of Christians and call us all to the frightfully challenging tasks ahead of us. To be sacrificial in their work, giving everything even if it leads to death. Or perhaps the Reformation anniversary is, more personally, a reminder that to each of us that we are a people born of cataclysmic change and inheritors of its demand: notice what lies all about you, what humanity’s choices have led to, what a continued trajectory might mean. Notice, and then stand up and make your stand. ~ Rev. Gretta Vosper 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. Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Lesley from Minnesota, writes: Question: What are your views about so many Christians being in favor of gun ownership? Doesn’t that completely contradict the Jesus of peace we read about in the Bible? Answer: By Eric Alexander Thanks for your question Lesley. This is a timely question for me as I was in Las Vegas during the recent shootings. Being so close to an event like that made this issue feel even more urgent than it already did to me. What made the Las Vegas shooting so interesting to me is that it involved a large group of mostly white conservative casualties. It made a large demographic of people suspend their NRA sponsored talking points and deal with the reality of the situation in their own hearts and minds. And I should note here that I enjoy a good skeet shoot as much as the next guy, but that is not the issue at hand here. I think it’s an absolute perversion of the U.S. 2nd amendment to allow nearly anyone who can fog a mirror to have a cache of assault rifles. In my mind, there is no way America’s founding fathers intended that. And even if they did, they may not have imagined what the world would come to hundreds of years later. People say “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” and I say fine “let’s not put the guns that kill people in the hands of those people that kill people…” There are many sensible steps we can take to find a more sustainable footing here. The bottom line is that many Christians are not all that interested in Yeshua of Nazareth. Rather they follow a Jesus who has been morphed into a pawn of radical right-wing political agendas. I don’t think there is any way a disciple of Jesus, or someone who was brimming with love, compassion, and forgiveness in their hearts, would feel a need to accumulate military grade weapons and thousands of rounds of ammo. Disparate militias have no place in 21st century American politics, especially in a nation with over 325,000,000 people. No hunter alive needs to take more than one shot per second to put dinner on the table. And even though full automatic weapons are now illegal in many cases, it is quite easy to master or manipulate a semi-automatic weapon to inflict mass destruction. We need more stable progressive voices countering the NRA arguments within Christian circles. And as a side note, this was a key reason why I started the Progressive Christianity and Politics group on Facebook a couple years ago. It is now over 2000 members strong and we are propagating progressive principles out to compassionate and thoughtful people all across the world. If you or anyone else reading this would like to join, please feel free to register at www.JoinPCP.com ~Eric Alexander Read and Share online here About the Author Eric Alexander is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur. 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 is the author of Teaching Kids Life IS Good. ________________________________________________ Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt - Part 2 The physical abuse of children under the guise of "proper discipline" has been practiced in western history so frequently as to be thought of as normative. It has had the approval of those recognized sources of cultural value - tradition, Bible, Church, School and family. It found expression in popular novels written by such noteworthy authors as Charles Dickens and Mark Twain in the 19th century and by no less a person than the 20th century's ultra-conservative political pundit, William F. Buckley. When some of these novels were turned into motion pictures, the corporal punishment scenes were quite graphic. In the schools of western history, which were normally church-related parochial or church-influenced public schools, corporal punishment was regularly employed until quite recently, certainly within my lifetime. Almost always this discipline was administered with parental approval. In boarding schools of the 19th and early 20th centuries this disciplinary activity sometimes had about it a quality of a ritualistic act and even came to be thought of as a kind of "liturgical observance." That is, the act of discipline was carried out at a time-certain. It was scheduled on a particular day for all offenders during a specified period of time for which the school staff prepared the instruments to be used, such as a bunch of bound switches or a freshly prepared cane. It was followed through in a prescribed, unchanging and traditional manner. The intended victim or victims would have to wait in fearful anticipation until the proper moment when the price of their misbehavior was exacted. The disciplinary act clearly defined boundaries and made all aware of where authority resided. In my own experience, as a public school boy growing up in the Southern Bible Belt, corporal punishment was employed, but much less ritualistically. It was administered on the spot whenever it was deemed essential to control the classroom and as a response to a particular act of misbehavior. Yet it also followed a set form that we all recognized. It was not used frequently. I recall that in my seventh grade class, which was the last time I knew it to take place, only two of my classmates were subjected to this discipline during the entire year. The fact, however, that I can still recall both instances some sixty years later, indicates that each of these occasions made an indelible, albeit not a positive impression, upon my young mind. Most of us who were not the actual recipients of the punishment were in fact intimidated by it. The offending student, in both cases, a boy 12-13 years old, would be asked to accompany the teacher who had ruler in hand, to the room adjacent to the principal's office, which was reserved solely for this purpose. That room also happened to be next door to our classroom, so even though we could not observe the act of discipline, we could not fail to hear it. The students remaining in the classroom sat in silence during the period of time it took the teacher and the pupil to reach the required location and to assume the proper positions for discipline. Then the noise of the ruler landing on its target resounded. No cries were ever heard because proving that "he could take it" preserved the pupil's last shred of dignity. Finally the blows would cease and in a few minutes the chastened student would return to the class, followed by the teacher, still gripping her ruler. The student would take his seat saying something about it "not hurting at all," a brave attempt to reestablish his place in the social fabric of the class. The teacher would then use this episode as a teaching moment by warning the other students that a similar fate awaited each of them if their behavior made it necessary. It seemed to me that it took the disciplined child a day or so to absorb the humiliation before he began to ease back into the life of his school community. The ever-present threat that the ruler would be employed again, however, instilled apprehension, fear and developed something of a herd instinct among us all. Instead of enhancing life, it seemed only to bruise a fragile ego. It certainly taught by example that physical force was a proper way to deal with those who are smaller and weaker. It surely issued in a more controllable classroom, but it was never, in my opinion, a pathway into maturity. It is interesting to note who, besides children, have been subjected to corporal punishment in the history of our Judeo-Christian world. There were basically four types of adults on whom corporal punishment was deemed to be appropriate discipline, at least during some part of our history. The one thing each of these four groups of people had in common was that they were thought to be deserving of the status of a child. The first category was adult prisoners. Those who had violated the rules of the society in such a way as to be judged a threat that must be removed, jailed and punished. I suppose the reasoning process was simple. If physical punishment made school children more pliable and obedient, to say nothing of being easier to control, then why should the same tactic not be used on those adults who consistently disrupted the well being of society's life? So the right to use corporal punishment was written into the penal codes of most Western, and by implication, Christian nations. The public whipping post was a regular feature in the criminal justice system in nations like Great Britain and the United States until the 20th century. The last state to make it illegal in America was Delaware. It is still employed to this day in Singapore and in several Muslim nations like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The familiar jail diet of "bread and water" was just another form of corporal punishment; that is, the punishment of the body. By extension from the penal codes physical discipline was used in situations where control was deemed essential to survival. It was a standard practice, for example, on the ships of the colonial powers in the 18th and 19th centuries when the whole world was shrunk to the dimensions of an individual boat, with the captain exercising the decision making responsibility for discipline, indeed sometimes for life and death, with no further appeal. Physical discipline was also employed on the Lewis and Clark expedition across the Continental United States on their journey to the Pacific Ocean, opening the West. The diaries from that journey describe what they thought were its salutary effects. The second class of adults to be treated in this physically abusive manner during our history was the slave population. Christians must never forget that the institution of slavery was accepted as normal, even in the New Testament. Paul directs a runaway slave named Onesimus to return to his master Philemon, not with the request for his freedom, but with the request that he be treated kindly. In the Epistle to the Colossians (3:22), slaves are ordered to "obey in everything those who are your earthly masters" and masters are urged to "treat your slave justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in Heaven (4:1)." With no rights accruing to the slaves, who were defined as sub-human and therefore childlike, it followed that disobedience was to be punished in slaves in the same manner that it was deemed to be appropriate in children. It is worth noting that even the popes have historically been slaveholders. No one denies that slaves were lashed in the United States for everything from disobedience to running away. The master had the right to do to his property whatever he wished. When slavery ended following the Civil War, these tactics of intimidation continued to be employed against powerless blacks in the South by quasi-religious organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. It is not as large a step as people now think to move from the corporal punishment of a slave or former slave with the bare back absorbing the lash while the victim was tied to a tree, to the ultimate act of corporal punishment called lynching, where the victim was hanged from the tree. Violence is always violence. The degree of violence is the only difference. What the inmate or prisoner and the slave had in common was that neither had power and no vestige of adulthood accrued to their status so they could be treated like children who had no rights. If it was the proper thing to do to powerless children, it must be appropriate for powerless adults. That was the reasoning. Violence is never contained. It always seeks new victims. Corporal punishment was and is legalized violence. Corporal punishment has been used on two other types of adults in our history: women and people in religious orders. To their story we will turn next week. ~ John Shelby Spong Originally published June 23, 2004 Announcements 5th Annual Climate and Creation Stewardship Summit The 5th Annual Climate and Creation Stewardship Summit will be Saturday, October 28 from 9:30 am – 4:30 pm in Hamden, CT. The focus of this summit is on water, both on land and the oceans. It will consists of speakers, panels and workshops on different aspects of our current climate change crisis and other critical environmental issues ... 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