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6/23/16, Spong: Addressing the National Conference of the American Humanist Association
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 23 Jun '16

23 Jun '16

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They came from all across the United States and abroad with the Netherlands, in particular, being well represented. By and large they were a well-educated group made up largely of professional people: doctors, lawyers, business leaders and academics. Their single most identifying mark, however, was that they were overtly non-religious – perhaps anti-religious. Their publicity material featured a quotation from Kurt Vonnegut, the late novelist, extolling the virtues of living without God. I had been invited by this organization to receive an award and to address this conference. I shared both of these privileges with one other person. His name was Dr. Jared Diamond, a renowned scientist and former professor at UCLA, who is the author of numerous books. I was to receive the Humanist Association’s annual “Religious Liberty Award.” Dr. Diamond would be honored as “The Humanist of the Year.” Previous winners of this award, I learned, were Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts and novelist Joyce Carol Oates. It was an impressive list.</p> <p>I found it a fascinating experience to enter this conference, as I did, as a representative of organized religion. Clad in the purple shirt and clerical collar of my profession, my wife and I presented ourselves at the registration desk to receive orientation materials, a schedule of activities, meal tickets and name tags. Above this registration desk was a banner that proclaimed “Good without a God.” I felt very much like a Mexican immigrant might feel at a Trump rally!</p> <p>I thought about that banner’s message and I did not disagree with it. I have known and respected atheists whose lives were not only good, but noble. The quality of goodness does not depend on a belief in God. Perhaps what I understand better than that is that the opposite of their slogan can also true. One can be “evil with God!” I thought of the anti-Semitism that has been the great “contribution” of the Christian Church over the centuries. I recalled that the Crusades were organized by the Vatican to kill “infidels,” which was the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries’ word for Muslims. I thought of Christianity’s complicity with slavery, the “Bible Belt’s” support of segregation, the church’s denigration of women over the centuries and the abuse of the LGBT community of people by organized religion. Yes, one can be good without a God and one can be evil with one. It is also true that people can be evil without a God and good with one. Having a God or not having a God seems to me to be no guarantee or even an indicator of goodness.</p> <p>Everyone that I met on a personal level at this conference was incredibly warm and gracious. I saw one person, who had attended lectures I had delivered in a church in Western North Carolina over a number of years. She had always wrestled with what she called the unbelievable aspects of the various religious explanations with which she had grown up. She was absolutely glowing when she greeted me. “I have finally found the community in which I belong,” she stated. I was delighted for her. Religion sometimes does strange things to people.</p> <p>Another delegate greeted me with a lovely smile, then shared with me the fact that the last book she read before deciding that she was no longer “a believer” was my book: <em>Why Christianity Must Change or Die</em>. That book, she said, “pushed me right out of the door of organized religion.” An author never knows quite what effect his or her writing will have on his or her reader. It was interesting to me that this woman seemed to say this as a compliment!</p> <p>I discovered that the reason I had been chosen to receive their “Religious Liberty” award was related to two things. One was the role I had played over the last fifty years in the various battles for justice, as people of color, women and the LGBT community struggled for full acceptance in the life of our church and country. The other was what they perceived to be my attacks on the kind of religious literalism with which most of them grew up and were today in vigorous rebellion against. I found it fascinating how familiar they were with my writing. I have discovered many times that those, who are themselves most overtly anti-religious, are also deeply, sometimes even emotionally interested in the religion they claim to reject. Carl Sagan, who was what I call a “God-intoxicated atheist,” fitted that category.</p> <p>At the banquet during which the awards were given, the two honorees spoke. During my presentation, I walked them through just a bit of contemporary biblical scholarship. The Bible is a human document, written between two and three thousand years ago and it makes assumptions that no one today can still make with any intellectual credibility. The earth is not the center of a three-tiered universe, God does not live above the sky. Human beings were not created perfect, only to fall into “original sin.” Stories of a virgin birth are not about history. Miracles, people need to recognize, do not enter the story of Jesus until the 8th decade of the Common Era. Thus for anyone in the church to speak of the Bible as the “Word of God” becomes irrational. One surely does not want to blame God for all of the things in the Bible. For me, these statements are so mundane, so commonplace in the field of academic biblical studies that they are not even debatable. The fact is, however, that to my audience that night, they had never heard a representative of the Christian Church say these things. My talk received a standing ovation and elicited a number of questions to which I was given the privilege of responding. After that address, there was a lively sale of my books.</p> <p>I am sure that Professor Diamond’s address was far more tailored to this group’s expectations than was mine. I, nonetheless, found his address absolutely fascinating. He spoke on the two reasons that, in his mind, belief in God no longer made sense. The first of his reasons came from the field of evolutionary biology. Human beings are “developed animals,” he said, not a special creation. He illustrated that with the discoveries of genetics and with the fact that all of us today carry some of the genes of Neanderthal people in our makeup. The idea that there is something unique, godlike or eternal about human life has, he suggested, no basis in science. The second reason, which in his mind destroyed the possibility of one being able to believe in God, came from the field of astrophysics. In the vastness of the universe, inhabited by perhaps as many as a trillion galaxies, the evolutionary probability is that intelligent life exists in many more places than just on planet Earth. This means, Dr. Diamond suggested, that life is a product of nature and that God is little more than a human myth.</p> <p>I am not unfamiliar with either the field of evolutionary biology or astrophysics. I have read extensively in both areas. He told me nothing about which I was not already familiar. What did surprise me about Dr. Diamond’s address, however, was that the God he believed to have been destroyed by these two areas of exploding human knowledge is a deity in whom I too have not believed in for decades. This brilliant man was still operating out of a concept of God that represented what I would call a 4th grade Sunday school mentality. How could he be so learned in one field, and so limited in another? The answer to me is quite clear. The Christian Church, in its institutional form, makes little or no effort to educate its people theologically. Adult education in most churches is naive, juvenile and easily forgettable. It does not address the great issues of our day for fear of being controversial. It does not reflect the knowledge available in the Christian academies, keeping that knowledge secret from most congregations. It does not free the Christian faith to engage the knowledge revolution that is rampant in our generation. How can one in a post-Darwinian world, for example, still talk about human life being created perfect only to fall into original sin? The Christian Church in almost all of its forms continues to protect from challenge, the childish fantasies of most churchgoers. We would rather have our members quiet and placid rather than stirred up and questioning.</p> <p>Recently I had a conversation with an Episcopal priest of my church, who decided that for the Trinity Sunday liturgy he should revert to the traditional language of the late 19th century. Why did you make that decision, I wondered? This priest responded that the language of the Trinity seemed to fit better inside the more ancient forms of liturgy. Then, as if to justify his decision, this priest went on to say how many people in his church that day had expressed their delight in hearing the ancient liturgical words being used again in worship.</p> <p>It was an interesting argument put forth by a gifted priest, but one who has yet to embrace the meaninglessness of yesterday’s theological words for today’s people. I did not press the issue, but the facts are that those who expressed delight in this traditional, liturgical language of another world will all be dead within twenty years, while the use of this language among younger and educated people produces exactly the effect that I met at the American Humanist Association convention and in their speaker, Dr. Jared Diamond.</p> <p>Because some of today’s Christians have a sentimental attachment to the liturgical patterns of the past, which portray God in pre-Copernican terms, as an external being, living above the sky, possessing supernatural power, who enjoys being flattered (we call it praise in church) and who is moved when we human beings grovel like slaves before this deity on our knees, begging for mercy, does not shield us from the fact that this God is no longer believable. That God will never be resuscitated. Our only choice is to accept this deicide or to transform, in a radical way, what the word God means. My presence at the gathering of the American Humanist Association made the choice quite clear. Christianity needs to have churches and clergy, who understand the issues and who are prepared to address them.</p> <p>John Shelby Spong</p> <p><a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…">Read the essay online here</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top"> <div style="color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><h2 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 30px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">Question & Answer</h2> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Louis Altman from Florida writes:</span></p> <h4 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 22px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;"> Question:</h4> <p>I recently spent a weekend with you at a Unitarian Universalist church in Sarasota and then I heard you again at the national meeting of the American humanist Association in Chicago.</p> <p>I am a Humanistic Jew, past president of the Society for Humanistic Judaism and a member of the UU Church. At Sarasota I understood you to say that we must reject supernatural theism in favor of some other form of theism, which is so difficult to define that you described it as attempting to “nail smoke to a wall.”</p> <p>This leads me to ask, why not go directly from supernatural theism to secular humanism in a form which is represented by Humanistic Judaism and by the Sunday Assembly accommodated by so many UU churches? Humanism seems to me to offer the community aspect of traditional religion without the supernatural underpinnings. Why then should we deal with the intermediate form of theism at all, which cannot even be defined in rational terms?</p> <p>I have another suggestion, which I offer with great respect. Please do not make any more remarks which treat transgender people as though their gender is optional. Their gender is inborn, just as everyone’s gender is inborn, even though in the case of some transgender people the genitalia are out of sync. I know this because I am the father of an adult transgender son, born ostensibly female. Seeing this issue through my eyes might help you to see it in a different light.</p> <h4 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 22px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">Answer:</h4> <p>Dear Louis,</p> <p>Thank you for your letter. I found the congregation and the clergy of the UU Church of Sarasota to be a very exciting faith community. I am glad you have found a home in that congregation.</p> <p>Let me, however, correct both of your statements just slightly. I do not reject supernatural theism “for some other form of theism” as you seem to have heard. I reject supernatural theism and all other versions of theism as inadequate human words to seek to understand our experience of God. Theism defines God as a being, supernatural in power, dwelling somewhere external to the world and not only ready but capable of intervening in some miraculous way. What we need to develop is an entirely new way of interpreting our experience of transcendence. I do not think secular humanism is the only alternative or even the best alternative. It was the German Reformed theologian, Paul Tillich, who first moved me from thinking of God as a being to thinking of God as “Being” itself. It is still human language and thus still inadequate to capture the essence of God but it is a step in the right direction. I regard humanism as a good word, but “secular humanism” is not near broad enough to make sense out of what I call my “God experience.” I acknowledge the reality of a dimension of life that I call “Otherness,” and describe as wonder and mystery, concepts which the word “secular” does not capture. Deep down I consider myself a humanist. I think Christianity, when properly understood, is profoundly humanistic. How else can the words placed into the mouth of Jesus by the author of the 4th Gospel be understood: “I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly” be understood?</p> <p>In regard to your reference about my use of the word “transgender,” once again I do not think that you heard what I said properly. The “choice” I was talking about had nothing to do with being transgender. I fully recognize and accept the wisdom of science that sexual orientation is a given not a chosen. The choice to which I was referring was the choice that transgender people had as to when to ask questions in the format under which we were operating, which called for a rotation of order between males and females to achieve gender balance in the question period. Transgender people have the choice, I said, as whether they will line up as males or females.</p> <p>I wish you well.</p> <p>John Shelby Spong <a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…">Read and Share Online Here</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top"> <div style="color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><h2 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 30px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">Announcements</h2> <div style="text-align: center;color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…"><img align="none" height="180" style="width: 279px;height: 180px;margin: 0px;border: none;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;line-height: 100%;outline: none;text-decoration: none;text-transform: capitalize;display: inline;" width="279" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/7a0c6ff1-8f8…"></a></div> <div style="text-align: center;color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size:20px"><strong>Common Dreams Conference 2016 “Progressive Spirituality: New Directions”</strong></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;">September 16 - 19th, South Brisbane, Australia</div> The conference will allow you to explore future expressions of faith and spirituality as well as eco-theology, inter-faith dialogue, and indigenous spirituality. Key speakers: Dr Diana Butler Bass, Fred C. Plumer, Dr Val Webb, Michael Morwood and others. </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" width="600" id="aolmail_templateFooter" style="background-color: #FDFDFD;border-top: 0;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_footerContent"> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td colspan="2" valign="middle" id="aolmail_social" style="background-color: #FAFAFA;border: 0;"> <div style="color: #707070;font-family: Arial;font-size: 12px;line-height: 125%;text-align: center;"> </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="middle" id="aolmail_utility" style="background-color: #FDFDFD;border: 1px dashed #d3d3d3;"> <div style="color: #707070;font-family: Arial;font-size: 12px;line-height: 125%;text-align: center;"> <div class="aolmail_vcard"> </div></div></td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </center> <center> <style type="text/css">#AOLMsgPart_2_44cbcd79-6573-4f3b-889a-f28b163485d1 td{color: black;} @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .aolReplacedBody table[id="canspamBar"] td{font-size:14px !important;} .aolReplacedBody table[id="canspamBar"] td a{display:block !important; margin-top:10px !important;} } </style> </center><img height="1" width="1" src="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/open.php?u=b51b9cf441b059b…"> </div> </div>

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6/16/16, Spong: On Celebrating my 40th Anniversary of Being the Bishop of Newark
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 16 Jun '16

16 Jun '16

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People came from across the nation and throughout the Diocese of Newark, which encompasses the Jersey suburbs of New York City, stretching from the Hudson River to the Delaware Water Gap. Clergy and people, who served so many years ago, gathered in St. Peter’s Church in Morristown, New Jersey, on June 5th to remember their time in history.</p> <p>I became the Episcopal bishop in this diocese in June of 1976. I was 44 years of age. My picture from that time, which was on the cover of this anniversary bulletin, looked young, even cherubic. One might even wonder if I had yet begun to shave! It was, however, my privilege to serve this remarkable diocese for 24 years. Those years covered the presidencies of Jerry Ford through Bill Clinton. They were tumultuous years both for church and state. The intellectual revolution that started as long ago as the 16th century with Copernicus and went through Freud and Einstein into our day, had eaten at the fabric of both religious understandings and our social structures and values. It was also the era that gave us the civil rights struggle, the reaction to the divisive war in Vietnam, the rise of feminism, the first Iraqi war, and the gay movement, all of which would feed the emotions of our people during my years as bishop. Most of us did not know how deeply our unadmitted racism, sexism and homophobia really went and was.</p> <p>The choice facing the Christian Church when I arrived in the bishop’s office was to engage these issues and, in the process, to become radically controversial, or to ignore these issues and to become totally irrelevant. Death comes by boredom more frequently than it does by conflict. I made a decision; we would engage our turbulent, changing world both intellectually and socially. It was a fateful decision, but clearly, even in the retrospective gaze of a 40-years later perspective, it was the right decision.</p> <p>First, we committed ourselves to the eradication of all vestiges of racism in our common life. The Diocese of Newark had the first black cathedral dean in the United States. Instead of electing a Suffragan or assistant bishop, who would have been, in all probability, one more white male, we instituted a visiting bishop program, in which three or four third world bishops would be in residence in the Diocese of Newark for long periods of time each year. In this program on three occasions, we welcomed a South African bishop named Desmond Tutu, as well as other African bishops from Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Liberia. From Latin America we brought in the bishops of Puerto Rico, Panama, Cuba and Venezuela. From Asia we brought in the bishops of Taiwan and Hong Kong. The people of our diocese became accustomed to seeing black, Latino and Asian faces sharing in our common life while wearing the vestments of and performing the functions of a bishop. Consciousness rose and racism retreated. Today the Presiding Bishop of the entire Episcopal Church is an African-American. I beam with pride, knowing that the Diocese of Newark had a hand in making that possible.</p> <p>We also embraced the cause of women, fighting for both their equality and their ordination. A group of women deacons known as the “Philadelphia Eleven” had been irregularly ordained in 1973 by three retired bishops, directly challenging the anti-female bias present in the then all-male authority structures of our church. Two of those eleven served in our diocese. We joined the fight and when the priesthood was finally opened officially to women in 1979, this diocese ordained three new female priests in the first ten days of that January and had services designed to recognize and “regularize” those who had been among the Philadelphia Eleven.</p> <p>Because the Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, it was not enough just to pressure the American Church to remove its own anti-female bias. So when an English deaconess, who had been refused ordination to the priesthood by the Church of England, appealed to the Diocese of Newark to “test my vocation,” we did and in time, joined by Mervyn Stockwood, the liberal Anglican bishop of Southwark (South London), we ordained that woman, Elizabeth Canham, to the priesthood in the glare of television cameras from ITV in London. The New York Times covered this ground-breaking ordination on the front page of its Sunday paper. Elizabeth was assigned to work as a curate at one of our churches, but when she went home on holiday, she was besieged with invitations to celebrate the Eucharist in private homes because no church in England would permit her to function as a priest inside its doors. When Alan Webster, the dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, invited Elizabeth to celebrate the Eucharist in the deanery of St. Paul’s, packed as it was, with members of the “Movement for the Ordination of Women,” the Anglican bishop of London, Graham Leonard, became apoplectic. He finally left the Anglican Church for the Roman Catholic Church, so that he could live out the balance of his days without the “corrupting presence of women priests.” More than a decade later the Church of England finally authorized the ordination of women. Better late than never.</p> <p>As a direct result of our visiting bishop program, women priests were ultimately ordained in Kenya, Uganda and Liberia. We also appointed a woman priest to be Anglicanism’s first female archdeacon. What a trouble-making diocese we were in the cause of justice!</p> <p>In 2006, our national church finally made the issue of women in the priesthood moot by electing Katharine Jefferts-Schori to be the Presiding Bishop of the entire Episcopal Church. Today almost 50% of our clergy are female.</p> <p>Spurred by this growing success, we then turned our attention to another dehumanizing prejudice. We appointed a far-ranging task force, and assigned to it the somewhat innocuous name: “The Task Force to Study Changing Patterns in Family Life.” The Rev. Dr. Nelson Thayer, a member of the faculty at the Theological School of Drew University chaired this effort. In 1987 this task force presented its report to the Diocesan Convention calling on the Episcopal Church: “to recognize, to welcome and to bless liturgically the sacred commitments of our gay and lesbian members.” The convention voted: “to receive this report with appreciation and to commend it to our congregations for a year of study.” After that intensive year of study and listening to the witness of our gay and lesbian members, the recommendations of that task force were adopted by an overwhelming majority at our annual convention. The Diocese of Newark had assumed the leadership of the Episcopal Church in the struggle for the full inclusion of the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender people into both the church and the society.</p> <p>In these activities our diocese became a beacon of hope and a magnet for those who had felt the church’s homophobic rejection. We accepted that vocation and we did not lower the pressure. In June of 1989, we ordained to the diaconate an openly gay and partnered man and placed him on the staff of our church in Hoboken, with the charge to develop what we called “The Ministry of the Oasis,” designed to create a place where gay and lesbian people could find the love and acceptance that would enable them to come back to their once rejecting church. In December of 1989 in that packed Hoboken church we ordained that gay deacon, Robert Williams, to the priesthood. He and his partner were introduced as a family at that service. He was the first openly gay, openly partnered person to be made a priest in the Episcopal Church. Our church had not authorized this action officially, but it had also never prohibited this action so it was perfectly legal. Three bishops and about eighty of our diocesan clergy participated in the service. So did the public media, protesters, picketers and people quoting from Leviticus! The Christian Church has had many homosexual clergy in its ministry over the centuries, but we had always pretended that they were not there. The church likes to hide from reality inside the myths that it has itself created. This diocese destroyed those myths! Hostility flowed. There was talk of a heresy trial to expel this bishop. Angry letters were written, petitions were signed; we were spat upon when entering a church to give a lecture. Sixteen death threats were received, but we persevered. Ultimately the church moved to change its official policy. When I retired as the Bishop of the Diocese of Newark, we counted 35 openly gay and lesbian clergy on our clerical roster. Thirty-one of them lived in publicly acknowledged partnerships. Today in our church this battle is over. Gay and lesbian clergy are serving in every office our church has to offer. Gay marriage is now commonplace throughout our churches and legal in our nation.</p> <p>One does not change practice without also changing thought. So this diocese also challenged both theological formulas and liturgical practices. We established a program called “New Dimensions,” which brought the scholars of this world to help us think through yet again what it means to be a Christian. In order to live, Christianity could no longer hide inside the words of our traditional past. We had to find a way to be Christians in our modern world.</p> <p>These were the things we celebrated at this 40th anniversary service, acclaiming the heroes of those struggles, men and women, ordained and lay, a bit older today than they were during the days of conflict and change. The church that had called us into ministry had changed over the years of our service. It is now more whole, alive and honest. This renewed church we hand to the next generation. When I listened to the sermon at this service, delivered by Janet Broderick, the brilliant, first female rector of St. Peter’s Church in Morristown, I had no doubt that my church was ready to enter tomorrow with a new, competent hand on the guidance system.</p> <p>John Shelby Spong</p> <p>Read the essay online <a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…">here</a>.</p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top"> <div style="color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><h2 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 30px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">To my readers:</h2> <p>This week’s column was written before the tragedy of the Orlando, Florida massacre.</p> <p>Dear Friends,</p> <p>I grieve deeply over these attacks. I grieve even more when one of our candidates for the presidency of this nation seeks to use this tragedy to score political points. I am amazed to hear not only innuendo from one of them, but also actual hints that the president of the United States is either so weak and inept as to be helpless in the face of this threat, or is actually in collusion with these terrorists, thus revising the charges this candidate once made that our president was not born in the United States, but in Kenya, and is really a Muslim. As lawyer Joseph Welsh once said to Senator McCarthy of Wisconsin when he was on a witch hunt for communists: “Have you no sense of decency?” Those words are once more totally in order to be spoken in our national life at this time.</p> <p>I also grieve that terrorism is now linked with homophobia, which makes one of America’s most oppressed minorities newly vulnerable. I recently learned from members of the Orlando gay community that the Orlando killer had himself not only been to this gay club on a number of occasion, but that he also had contacted some of his victims previously through a gay dating app, presumably seeking to line up sexual encounters. I recall well that some of my church’s most homophobic clergy turned out to be self-hating and deeply repressed gay men. If repressed homosexuality turns out to be a factor in this tragedy then I fear it will once again open the floodgate of hostility toward the LGBT community. It makes me want to march once again in the New York City Gay Pride Parade in an act of solidarity.</p> <p>This nation’s rising consciousness about homosexuality will not be suppressed or turned around, but mentally sick people will make others their victims, before this prejudice joins other such shameful moments in our nation’s history as the witch hunt of Salem, Massachusetts. A dying prejudice can sometimes be a lethal force in our society. I never want to underestimate the power in human beings to do evil to their fellow human beings.</p> <p>The gun laws in this country will also once more be debated. The ratio of guns to American citizens is the highest in the world—eighty guns for every hundred Americans. Despite the political rhetoric that suggests that the 2nd Amendment is about to be repealed, I know of no candidate for president who calls for such an action. What has been called for is the banning of the sale of assault weapons that have no purpose being in the hands of anyone except those in the Armed Services fighting to keep this nation free. There is nothing in the 2nd Amendment that should permit an individual to own an assault weapon with a magazine holding thirty bullets. No one hunts with such a weapon. No one needs such a weapon to protect his or her safety. It is nothing other than a weapon of war. If individual citizens can legally own an assault weapon then why not sell them a tank or a canon? Gun laws can be made sane, safe and sensible under the terms of the 2nd Amendment. The current political rhetoric that suggests the contrary is irresponsible, ignorant and profoundly dangerous.</p> <p>I love my country I grieve that so many of my fellow citizens today feel such fear, anxiety and insecurity that they can respond to the politics of hate. We will honor the victims of the Orlando killings by building a nation based on hope for a better tomorrow for all Americans, not on vengeance, exclusiveness and the fear of those who are “not like us.”</p> <p>John Shelby Spong <a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb23…">Read and Share Online Here </a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top"> <div style="color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><h2 style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 30px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;">Announcements</h2> <h3 class="aolmail_aolmail_null" style="color: #4487cf;display: block;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 26px;font-weight: normal;line-height: 100%;margin-top: 0;margin-right: 0;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0;text-align: left;"><span style="color:#0000FF">Bishop Spong at the Chautauqua Institution, NY - June 27th - July 1st, 2016</span></h3> <div style="text-align: center;color: #000000;font-family: Georgia;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><a target="_blank" style="color: #4487cf;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb2…"><img align="none" height="266" style="width: 444px;height: 266px;margin: 0px;border: none;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;line-height: 100%;outline: none;text-decoration: none;text-transform: capitalize;display: inline;" width="444" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/7b794e88-c38…"></a></div> This week is about Jewish storytelling. John Shelby Spong explores the Bible’s literary and liturgical roots—its grounding in Jewish culture, symbols, icons, and storytelling tradition—to explain how the events of Jesus’ life, including the virgin birth, the miracles, the details of the passion story, and the resurrection and ascension, would have been understood by both the Jewish authors of the various gospels and by the Jewish audiences for which they were originally written. <p> </p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" width="600" id="aolmail_aolmail_templateFooter" style="background-color: #FDFDFD;border-top: 0;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_aolmail_footerContent"> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td colspan="2" valign="middle" id="aolmail_aolmail_social" style="background-color: #FAFAFA;border: 0;"> <div style="color: #707070;font-family: Arial;font-size: 12px;line-height: 125%;text-align: center;"></div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" valign="middle" id="aolmail_aolmail_utility" style="background-color: #FDFDFD;border: 1px dashed #d3d3d3;"><div style="color: #707070;font-family: Arial;font-size: 12px;line-height: 125%;text-align: center;"><div class="aolmail_aolmail_vcard"><div class="aolmail_aolmail_adr"><div class="aolmail_aolmail_street-address"></div></div></div></div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" valign="middle" id="aolmail_aolmail_utility"><div style="color: #707070;font-family: Arial;font-size: 12px;line-height: 125%;text-align: left;"></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></center><center><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" id="aolmail_aolmail_canspamBarWrapper" style="background-color:#FFFFFF; border-top:1px solid #E5E5E5;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="top" style="padding-top:20px; padding-bottom:20px;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></center></div> </div> <style type="text/css">#AOLMsgPart_2_8a6a0d29-83a1-4afd-903c-58dfba4688bf td{color: black;} .aolReplacedBody #aolmail_AOLMsgPart_2_71dfab9b-79fe-4bc9-bed6-d32f06cd1e2e td{color: black;} @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .aolReplacedBody .aolmail_aolReplacedBody table[id="canspamBar"] td{font-size:14px !important;} .aolReplacedBody .aolmail_aolReplacedBody table[id="canspamBar"] td a{display:block !important; margin-top:10px !important;} } </style></div> </div>

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Winds & Waves magazine - contributions for August 2016 issue
by ICA International via Dialogue 13 Jun '16

13 Jun '16

To read in your browser click here Dear colleagues, and potential contributors to Winds and Waves, Welcome to the second half of 2016! We hope you have enjoyed reading past editions of Winds & Waves. Our next issue will be published in August, 2016. This may well be the last edition in its current form, as we explore ways to reach more folk globally, and share thinking and action in a range of social media platforms. We will keep you posted. Please forward this invitation to anyone you know who might like to contribute. We invite you and or a colleague or organisation you know or work with, to contribute an article for this issue? The magazines broad aim is Sharing ideas that work and the articles range widely in both content and style. If you have a story idea to discuss, please write to Isabel, Robyn or Peter at the addresses below. The following are various sections of the magazine: Feature articles, How-to tips, Book reviews, Interviews, Photo essays, News Briefs, Whats On, Boardroom and Readers write. For more information on these sections and ideas on what and how to write, please see the attached Guidelines for W&W contributors. You can read the past editions of the Winds and Waves magazine at our new website: www. ica-international.org The deadline for submission of articles is: July 9 Indication of article you are submitting Aug 7 deadline to submit articles Aug 21 editing completed Aug 31 publish August WW We need to know if you or someone you know is contributing by July 9 so we can liaise as needed. Please respond to the following points by July 9: a. Proposed Title.......... b. A brief summary in a couple of sentences (or just the first paragraph of the article)............ c. Estimated length............ d. The number of photos, or diagrams if any, that will accompany the article.... Your name & email .................... and author's name & email ..................... Guidelines for articles if required, see here: http://windswaves.icai-archives.org/emails/guidelines-for-articles.htm With many thanks in anticipation, Robyn Hutchinson and Isabel de la Maza Contributions Coordinators, for the W&W team Robyn Hutchinson: hutchinsonsydney13(a)gmail.com Isabel de la Maza: isadelamaza(a)vtr.net Peter Ellins: peter(a)icai-members.org PS Attention: ICAs and all its friends and partners around the world!!! We want to enrich and extend our connections. The GLOBAL ICA CHANNEL is alive and growing!....You can join any of the conversations, hosted by ICA Ukraine. Here are some online opportunities: a conversation with your ICA team about history, caring, collaborative projects and your vision of future; human development hot topics, worldwide dialog using ToP methodology; our peer to peer conversations which show ICAs Global face; broadcasting your ICAs and partners events; open your own program and to be a centre of engagement to your mission. If you want more information just reply to this email, or to Svitlana, and we will help you get connected. Svitlana, ICA Ukraine. svetasalamatova(a)gmail.com If you did not receive a copy or notice of the last edition of the magazine, please contact: Peter Ellins: Email: peter(a)icai-members.org; or Robyn Hutchinson: Email: hutchinsonsydney13(a)gmail.com

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Winds & Waves magazine - contributions for August 2016 issue
by ICA International via Dialogue 13 Jun '16

13 Jun '16

To read in your browser click here Dear colleagues, and potential contributors to Winds and Waves, Welcome to the second half of 2016! We hope you have enjoyed reading past editions of Winds & Waves. Our next issue will be published in August, 2016. This may well be the last edition in its current form, as we explore ways to reach more folk globally, and share thinking and action in a range of social media platforms. We will keep you posted. Please forward this invitation to anyone you know who might like to contribute. We invite you and or a colleague or organisation you know or work with, to contribute an article for this issue? The magazines broad aim is Sharing ideas that work and the articles range widely in both content and style. If you have a story idea to discuss, please write to Isabel, Robyn or Peter at the addresses below. The following are various sections of the magazine: Feature articles, How-to tips, Book reviews, Interviews, Photo essays, News Briefs, Whats On, Boardroom and Readers write. For more information on these sections and ideas on what and how to write, please see the attached Guidelines for W&W contributors. You can read the past editions of the Winds and Waves magazine at our new website: www. ica-international.org The deadline for submission of articles is: July 9 Indication of article you are submitting Aug 7 deadline to submit articles Aug 21 editing completed Aug 31 publish August WW We need to know if you or someone you know is contributing by July 9 so we can liaise as needed. Please respond to the following points by July 9: a. Proposed Title.......... b. A brief summary in a couple of sentences (or just the first paragraph of the article)............ c. Estimated length............ d. The number of photos, or diagrams if any, that will accompany the article.... Your name & email .................... and author's name & email ..................... Guidelines for articles if required, see here: http://windswaves.icai-archives.org/emails/guidelines-for-articles.htm With many thanks in anticipation, Robyn Hutchinson and Isabel de la Maza Contributions Coordinators, for the W&W team Robyn Hutchinson: hutchinsonsydney13(a)gmail.com Isabel de la Maza: isadelamaza(a)vtr.net Peter Ellins: peter(a)icai-members.org PS Attention: ICAs and all its friends and partners around the world!!! We want to enrich and extend our connections. The GLOBAL ICA CHANNEL is alive and growing!....You can join any of the conversations, hosted by ICA Ukraine. Here are some online opportunities: a conversation with your ICA team about history, caring, collaborative projects and your vision of future; human development hot topics, worldwide dialog using ToP methodology; our peer to peer conversations which show ICAs Global face; broadcasting your ICAs and partners events; open your own program and to be a centre of engagement to your mission. If you want more information just reply to this email, or to Svitlana, and we will help you get connected. Svitlana, ICA Ukraine. svetasalamatova(a)gmail.com If you did not receive a copy or notice of the last edition of the magazine, please contact: Peter Ellins: Email: peter(a)icai-members.org; or Robyn Hutchinson: Email: hutchinsonsydney13(a)gmail.com

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Lela Jahn In Her Own Words
by Don Bayer via Dialogue 10 Jun '16

10 Jun '16

Today would have been Lela Jahn's 76 birthday. I made this post today on her Facebook page and post it again here for those of you who did not share that platform with her. As I believe most of you are aware, Lela died a peaceful death on 12/19/2015. There were memorial services held in San Francisco, Wisconsin for her family and Indiana for my family, earlier this year which many of you attended. A key part of those services was a video that was prepared. Below is a link to that video for those of you who have not been able to view it. It is not just a story of all the amazing things Lela did around the world caring for others, rather the video, perhaps more interestingly, in her own words, explains why she did all the remarkable things she did. It is about 15 minutes in length, so pour an extra cup of coffee or a glass of wine, as the time of day merits, and for one more time be inspired by this wonderful woman. https://vimeo.com/169947109 Don Bayer

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Seeking house sitter
by Judi White via Dialogue 10 Jun '16

10 Jun '16

Looking for someone who is ready, willing and able to house sit Sep 11 to October 18 this year. I live in Crescent City, Florida in a small but comfy home w a lake view from a porch h w a continual breeze. Climbing stairs is necessary.I have two cats for you to get to know. Quiet neighborhood. Great for a Fall vacation of a lifetime. If interested, reply personally to sophiacircle(a)gmail.com or call 3865696956. Peace, Judi White

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6/09/16, Spong: Charting a New Reformation, Part XXV – The Seventh Thesis, The Resurrection (concluded)
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 09 Jun '16

09 Jun '16

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Charting a New Reformation Part XXV – The Seventh Thesis, The Resurrection (concluded) Paul was the first, perhaps he was also the most important, but he was not the only witness to the resurrection of Jesus in the biblical narrative. To complete our story and to validate anew a different concept of resurrection, we turn briefly to the other narratives. Be warned, surprises await us even there. Mark, the earliest gospel, has no account of the risen Christ appearing to anyone at any time within its pages. This fact surprises many. It also bothered the early Christians, who kept wanting new endings to Mark’s gospel to cover up this rather glaring deficiency. If, however, the denial of a physical resuscitation of the body was not a deficiency in the Easter story, but an insight, as I am convinced it was, then those later editors were revealing only that they did not understand what the original resurrection story was all about. The process of the literalization of the Easter experience had clearly already begun. Mark portrays some women coming to the tomb of Jesus at dawn on the first day of the week. They are consumed with their worldly fears. We are told that the thing they were discussing on their journey was how they would be able to remove the great stone that had been placed at the mouth of Jesus’ burial cave. Presumably, in their minds, the stone had to be removed to let them in and in the mind of the gospel writer, to allow Jesus to come out. When they arrived, to their relief, they found the stone already removed. A young man was there; he was dressed in a white robe. He was not an angel. Perhaps he was a liturgical functionary. I have worn a white robe on many occasions during my career without being mistaken for an angel. Perhaps this narrative reflected a developed liturgy. The role this young man played in the Easter drama was simply to make an announcement: “You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. Go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee, there you will see him.” The women flee in fear, Mark says, and they say nothing to anyone “for they were afraid.” That is all there is to Mark’s original story of Easter. How strange a narrative it is if resurrection ever meant the resuscitation of a deceased body, but these words point clearly to the fact that this is not and was not what resurrection originally meant. You will see the meaning of resurrection, the messenger seems to say, when you return to your homes and go about the business of your life. Resurrection, you see, was not just something that happened to Jesus, it was also something that happens to and in each of us. For us it is a subjective understanding, not an objective truth. We will see him, the promise of Mark’s messenger seems to say, when our eyes are open to the meaning of God found in the midst of life, in the expression of love and in the courage to be. That is, we are resurrected when we learn that God is present when we live fully, love wastefully and become all that we are capable of being. Easter thus functions in a number of ways. First, it opens our eyes. Second, it calls us to open the eyes of others and to enable them to live, to love and to be. It is in the authenticity of our humanity that the boundary between life and death is transcended. The first gospel so very clearly does not say what most of us have always thought and been taught that it says. About a decade after Mark, the second gospel, Matthew, was written. Matthew has Mark in front of him as he writes and he borrows extensively from Mark. He, however, does several other things also. Matthew magnifies the miraculous and closes all of the loopholes that he believes Mark has left open. So Mark’s “young man dressed in a white robe” becomes, in Matthew, a supernatural angel in translucent clothing. The message of this angel has become much more supernatural: “He has risen from the grave. He will go before you to Galilee. There you will see him.” Matthew’s women are faithful, far more than they had been in Mark. They go at once to tell the disciples what they have seen and heard. They are rewarded for that faithfulness by Matthew with an appearance of the risen Christ. This is the first narrative of a resurrected Jesus being seen by anyone in the entire Bible. It is the 9th decade. Some find that fact amazing when they hear it for the first time. Matthew then relates the details of what had been in Mark only the promise of a Galilean appearance to the disciples. To the surprise of many fundamentalists, however, it is not a vision of a resuscitated body. Examine the text closely. Matthew’s disciples are physical; they are bound to the laws of nature. They have to climb the mountain. Jesus on the other hand is quite unbound, he comes out of the sky. He has been raised into the meaning of God and since God was still thought of as living above the sky, Jesus must come from above. Please note the clear distinction in this narrative. Jesus is not a victim, he is a victor, glorified and already endowed with heavenly power. He speaks. His words would later be called the “Great Commission” – Go into all the world, preach the gospel and Lo, I am with you always. Was this a missionary charge to go convert the heathen? Not a chance! There was no institutional church at that time that felt the need to gain converts! The risen Christ was saying rather, go beyond your boundaries, your fears, your lines of security, learn to give yourselves away and know that you are part of who I am. We cannot now be separated! It is a different message of Easter from the one about which we have previously been told. Next Luke writes, about a decade later. By this time, literal minds have begun to do their “falsifying of the message” work. The messenger in Mark, who became an angel in Matthew, has now become two angels in Luke. The body of Christ has become unmistakably physical. Luke’s resurrected Jesus eats, he drinks, he walks, he talks and he interprets scripture. Yet he also seems to be able to materialize out of thin air and later to de-materialize into thin air. The symbols are confusing. He becomes so physical that they feel his flesh and bones to make sure he is not a ghost, but then they begin to wonder how he will ever escape the limits of this life. The conclusion begins to grow that if he has been bodily restored from death, back into the physical life of this world, then somehow he must also be able to be bodily removed from the earth since his eternal destiny is to be with God. Those were the assumptions that made the story of a physical ascension necessary. We will examine the details of this ascension narrative when we reach the next thesis. Finally, to complete our sweep of the four gospels, we move on to John. The Fourth Gospel, as it is called, has four resurrection stories, framed in two pairs. The first pair begins with Magdalene’s discovery of the empty tomb. She goes at once to report this to the disciples, who apparently are close by. Their concern is not with the possibility of resurrection, but with the suspicion of grave robbery. Peter, we are told, together with the one called only “the disciple whom Jesus loved” ran to the tomb. They entered it. It was quite empty, only the grave clothes remained. No body appears to anyone. Peter is perplexed, but we are told that the “Beloved Disciple” believes. Belief in the resurrection is thus born in the Fourth Gospel, not in the vision of s resurrected body, but in the realization that the boundaries of death have been broken. These two disciples then return to their place of hiding. Magdalene lingers at the tomb weeping. Jesus, now we are told, appears to her alone. She does not recognize him, thinking him to be the gardener. He speaks her name. Her eyes open with new understanding. She sees. She rushes to embrace him. “Do not hold me,” Jesus is quoted as saying. Do not cling to this body. That is not what resurrection is about. “I have seen the Lord,” Magdalene is quoted as saying. John’s first pair of resurrection stories is complete. The scene then shifts to the other disciples. Two almost identical stories are now told, covering a period of eight days. In the first of these stories, Thomas is absent. In the second Thomas is present. The disciples see at once, but the absent Thomas does not see and remains apart from their faith. Jesus then appears eight days later. This time Thomas is present and he too sees. In response he makes the ultimate confession of faith. You, Jesus, are “my Lord and my God.” Jesus responds with what was surely the reason those two stories were included. “Thomas, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” The Easter experience in the New Testament, contrary to what we have traditionally been taught over the years, is not about bodies walking out of graves. It is far more profound than that. It is about God being seen in human life. By “God” I do not mean a supernatural, invasive God, who violates the laws of nature in order to invade time and space. I mean a transcendent dimension of life appears into which all can enter, an experience in which life is expanded, love is unlimited and in which being is enhanced. I mean the God whose presence and power calls us all into our essential oneness, our universal consciousness, our interconnectedness. We are part of who and what God is. God is not a noun we are compelled to define, God is a verb that we are invited to live. There is a difference and it is in that difference that resurrection is both experienced and entered. That in the last analysis is what resurrection is all about. John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Mike McConnell Mike McConnell from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, writes: Question: Having been a “seeker” for most of my life and enrolling full time for a theology degree once (thankfully stopped after six months), your books in particular (and those by Marcus Borg) have finally enabled me to decide where I stand. Thank you most sincerely for your courage and insight. I have two questions – perhaps the first is more of a comment. I am happy that people may choose to believe whatever they wish. I’m aware, however, of a “restrained anger,” perhaps more of a frustration, within me about the role of the organized Christian Church, past and present and with those who simply “follow like sheep.” I seldom show this and am sensitive to people’s right to do and be whatever they wish. It has to do, of course, with what I see as the tragic “misdirection” that was adopted, though often/sometimes in “good faith.” I’d hate to become a “nouveau fundamentalist.” Second, I have been working on calling God “something else” because I want to try and escape the traditional “baggage” that goes with the name. This is quite hard being close to my 70th year now and brought up, until a few years ago, as a “traditional Christian,” but it seems important to me. I understand God to be “divine” or “the essence” of everything; to be the “connectedness” of all things; to be the power and influence that we cannot and should not fully understand. I see that God is in me and all things and must rather be “let out” than “let in,” as I was brought up to believe. I’m not sure that I qualify to be called “Christian” any more (which does not concern me). I attend a Sunday gathering that acknowledges and respects all faiths and we use Jesus, amongst others, as an important source for furthering the “Kingdom of God,” the “here and now.” I’d really appreciate any comment on this – perhaps I’ve “gone overboard,” but it seems just right to me! Answer: Dear Mike, Thank you for your letter. The deeper we go into the meaning of faith, the more questions we have and the less pleased we are with the performance of the Christian Church of yesterday. Of course, the Christian Church has abused its primary message. Anti-Semitism, the Muslim-hating series of Crusades, the endorsement of slavery, segregation and apartheid as legitimate behavior for Christians, the legitimization of wars of conquest and the denigration of women have all infected our world with the approval of the church. We could say the same thing about other religions, political movements and even the practice of medicine. All of us walk through and live in history and are compromised by it. The fact is, however, that the journey continues and consciousness rises. In regard to your second concern, how to understand the word “God.” I share with you the difficulty. I see myself as a committed believer – even a “God-intoxicated” person, but every attempt I make to define God ends in failure. I now no longer try. I experience God, I do not define God. This means that even when I try to define or explain my experience, I wind up failing. Those regular readers of this column, who are walking with me through the series entitled “Charting a New Reformation,” surely know this by now. I do not think that the pathway into faith for me comes by finding the lowest common denominator and seeking to be inclusive of all faiths and committed to none. I very specifically identify myself with the Christ path and seek to walk deeper into the Christ experience. I literalize no part of that story, but believe that if I go into it deeply enough, I will find the universal truth buried within it. I can respect the place to which you have arrived, but I cannot share it. I will continue to walk the Christ path. I hope those committed to other faith traditions will continue to walk their paths until all of us transcend our limits and come into a new unity at the depth not the surface of our faith. Then the real religious conversation can begin. Thank you for writing. John Shelby Spong Read and Share Online Here Announcement The Summit: World Change Through Faith & Justice   June 22nd - 24th, at Galloudet University, Washington DC - The Summit is a gathering of 300 Leaders committed to changing the world through faith and justice. The 2016 Summit will focus on the intersections and implications of race in all of our justice work.

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(no subject)
by ICA International via Dialogue 05 Jun '16

05 Jun '16

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 June 2016 issue of the Global Buzz Global Buzz Report: June 2016 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-16/2016-06-01.php ICAI Communications

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6/02/16, Spong: Charting a New Reformation, Part XXIV – The Seventh Thesis, The Resurrection (continued)
by Ellie Stock via Dialogue 02 Jun '16

02 Jun '16

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Charting a New Reformation Part XXIV – The Seventh Thesis, The Resurrection (continued) Last week, we explored the Pauline corpus of the New Testament in order to learn what Paul meant when he wrote that “God raised Jesus” to the “right hand of God.” This was the concept for which Paul used the word “resurrection.” It is quite a different concept from what this word has come to mean in Christian history. Before we leave Paul we have to take seriously a list he included in I Corinthians, which he wrote around the years 54-56 CE. Here Paul states that the Christ, who was raised into God at his death not into a life of flesh and blood in this world, nonetheless “appeared” to the people on this list. To what kind of experience was Paul referring in this part of his work? The first thing we note is that the Greek word translated “appeared” was “ophthe” (ωϕθn). It is the same word used by the Septuagint translators to refer to the God who “appeared” to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus (3:2). It is also the word from which we get our term “ophthalmology,” the science or study of seeing. We are so used to reading the Bible literally that we may need to pause and ask what kind of appearing or seeing is this. Was the appearance of God to Moses in the burning bush an objective seeing? If others had been present would they have seen what Moses saw? If Moses had possessed a smart phone equipped with a camera, could he have photographed the God who appeared during this experience? Is there a difference between sight and insight, between sight and second sight? What did Paul mean when he posted his list of those to whom the raised Christ “appeared?” For clues we examine his list. “He appeared first to Cephas,” Paul said. In the mind of Paul, it had been Cephas-Peter, who was the first to see. Then Peter appears to have opened the eyes of the other members of the apostolic band so that they too could see. How did that happen? This language seems to me to speak of a different kind of seeing from simply having a scene become visible before our eyes. It speaks of a breakthrough, a new understanding of the act of putting together things that had never been put together before and thus of assuming that the new combination formed a new insight. Was the resurrection of Jesus something like this? Did the tragedy that embraced the life of Jesus and led to his crucifixion get reinterpreted or understood in such a new way that it opened doors to life never before imagined? Can evil be transformed and be made good simply by ending its consequences? There is a powerful story in the book of Genesis (chapters 37-50) that suggests this possibility. The brothers of Joseph, angry at what they perceived as their father’s favoritism toward Joseph, resolved to remove him from their lives. First, they placed him in a hole from which he could not escape. They would leave him there to his fate, which was surely death. Then they saw a caravan passing by and decided to profit from their evil by selling their brother as a slave to this traveling band of people, who were Midianites in one version of the story, Ishmaelites in another. Twenty pieces of silver was the agreed upon price. As Joseph was carried off in chains, presumably never to be seen by his brothers again, they planned a way to explain his loss to his and their father by suggesting that he had been eaten by wild animals. This was what they told their grief-stricken father, Jacob, when they presented him with Joseph’s multicolored coat, the sign of his special status to his father, but now drenched in an animal’s blood, which they themselves had applied. In the course of history, however, sometimes overt evil is but the prelude to life-giving insight. Joseph, the slave, ultimately gained the respect of his owners and the opportunities he received from them opened door after door to him until he had risen to become a ruler in Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh. In that capacity he oversaw the storage of grain to prepare for a famine that he was sure was coming. When it came, starvation became rampant throughout the region and even included Joseph’s brothers. Hearing that grain was available in Egypt, they took their money and grain sacks and traveled to Egypt in the hope of buying sufficient food to survive the famine. Here they confronted Joseph in his position of authority, holding in his hands, as he did, the power of life and death over them. They did not recognize him, but the story says that he recognized them. He now held full authority over those who once had sold him into slavery and who had meant to destroy him. Would he finally gain his revenge? Or would he absorb this pain and return it to his brothers as love? This was Joseph’s choice. In this story love won out and because it did, life was enhanced — Joseph’s life and the lives of his brothers as well. In another part of the Hebrew Scriptures a portrait was painted by an unknown prophet that we call II Isaiah. This portrait was called “the servant,” sometimes “the suffering servant.” The servant was created to be a symbol of the people of Israel. II Isaiah drew this portrait when he returned from exile in Babylon in the 6th century BCE, filled with the hope of re-establishing his defeated nation, raising up their destroyed city of Jerusalem and rebuilding their demolished Temple in order to reclaim their messianic calling to be the nation through which the nations of the world would be blessed. When this prophet arrived back at what he called his homeland, however, the devastation that greeted him was all encompassing. He sank into depression as he came to believe that there was no future, no resurrection for his defeated and now destroyed people. How long he remained in depression I do not know, but when he emerged, he sketched a new vocation for Israel that was rooted, not in victory, but in defeat; not in power, but in weakness. It forms perhaps the holiest writing in the Hebrew Scriptures. The vocation of the Jewish people, he suggested, was not to win, not to achieve power or even nationhood again, but rather to live in such a way as to absorb willingly the world’s hostility, to drain from people their anger, accepting it and returning it to them as love. The servant, a symbol for the nation, was to be a willing victim, one who would be “rejected, despised, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” He was to make the people whole by accepting their abuse, never returning it in kind, but responding to it only with love. That ancient portrait, drawn by this unknown prophet, became the one which the followers of Jesus saw lived out in him. Was Peter the first to see this? Was he the one who saw in Jesus a life not driven by survival, but by the love that enabled him to give his life away? Did this vision enable him to see God in a new way, not as the almighty one, the heavenly father or the judge of the world, but as the Source of Life, expanding their understanding of what it means to live; the Source of Love, freeing them to love beyond their boundaries and their fears without the expectation of gaining love in return, and as the Ground of Being giving them the courage to be all that they could be and, in the process, freeing others to be all that they could be? Was this the vision of God that they saw in Jesus, who called people beyond the barriers of tribe, race, ethnicity or gender? When he was victimized by those to whom he only offered love, when he died forgiving, loving, freeing, is that when they saw that God was in him? Was resurrection the ability to see that Jesus had taken his humanity to a new dimension and had now stepped into the being of that which they called divine? Was it a step from self-consciousness into a universal consciousness, into an awareness of the oneness of all things? Is that how Peter’s eyes were opened? Is that the vision to which he then opened the disciples’ eyes and then the “500 brethren” at once? Was not the next step to open the eyes of James, the Lord’s brother, and then the apostles — that is those sent out to all the people of the world? Finally is that the resurrection message that embraced the self-loathing Paul, who believed that “sin dwells in my members” causing me to “do the things I do not want to do and fail to do the things that I want to do?” Was the resurrection the power that transformed Paul from the one who said of himself: “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?” When Paul’s eyes were opened to see what Jesus meant, then we hear him say: “Nothing in all creation can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord.” Is that not the transforming experience of resurrection? Resurrection, I now believe, was not a physical act. No formerly deceased body ever walked out of any tomb leaving it empty. Resurrection was, rather, a moment of new revelation that occurred when our survival-driven humanity could transcend that limit and give itself away in love to others, including even to those who wish and do us evil. This was a new “seeing” of both God and of life. How great was this experience? God and human life can flow together. Every limit on our humanity can be broken. Jesus lives. We have seen the Lord! That is what changes lives. That is what changed the way we understood God and even the way that we understood and understand worship. That is what resurrection means. It is an ongoing, life re-ordering process, not an event that happened once in history a long time ago. The Lord is risen – He is risen indeed. This ancient salute that greeted Easter day did not mean that Jesus had been raised back into our limitations, but that he opened to us access into the meaning of God, as the power to free us to live, to love and to be. How badly have we misunderstood the message of Easter. How limited has been our vision of resurrection. The last enemy to be destroyed is death and with its destruction, we learn that God is one and all of us are part of that oneness. John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Diane McBain via the Internet, writes: Question: Having read the question and your spot-on answer of December 31, 2015, I find the questioner evoked a question for me. Homo sapiens may not be the highest form of physical life in the universe, therefore, could the divine be as intimately a part of a space alien as a human? In my own thinking, I would have to say “yes,” it is possible and even likely. Perhaps the question is unanswerable at this point in time, but humans most often consider themselves to be the highest form of evolution in the universe, yet we do not know if there might be higher forms of physical and divine life possible. Answer: Dear Diane, You raise a possibility beyond the scope of present human knowledge to answer, yet I think you are moving in the right direction and I would walk the path you are walking for the only way to move into a living future is to be open to new truth, which always challenges the way things are or seem to us to be. The motto of the seminary I attended was: “Seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will.” There is also a possibility that a discovery of tomorrow will illumine a possibility unheard of today. The problem with historic Christianity is that in the 4th century, the church decided to adopt creeds. Creeds assume that the truth has been and can be captured in words. Once that decision is made, the world is divided into true believers and heretics. The fight between the two is never edifying. It is the heretics who always counter the orthodoxy of the past and open believers to new possibilities in the future. The church needs more heretics and we need to listen to them with openness rather than with fear and negativity. The fact is that yesterday’s heresy has a way of becoming tomorrow’s orthodoxy, and the pattern has been repeated time and again. Reformation never comes from the institutional center; it always rises from the fringes. Heresy is like the hammer, orthodoxy is like the anvil. Without the pounding of the hammer, the anvil will become dead, set and unchanging. Without the anvil of tradition on which to pound, the hammer would ultimately become destructive. No one can be both hammer and anvil, but every hammer needs an anvil and every anvil needs a hammer. It is the relationship between the two that is essential to the truth, and the search for truth is, I believe, the essence of Christianity. It is too bad that rarely in the life of the church do hammers and anvils appreciate each other. John Shelby Spong Read and Share Online Here Announcements Irvine United Congregational Church Celebrating 25 Years as Open & Affirming Irvine United Congregational Church is radically inclusive, declaring to neighbors and strangers alike, "No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here." We celebrate the Creator’s diversity as we worship God and grow in our faith. On Sunday June 12th there is a celebration of the 25th anniversary of becoming an Open and Affirming church. Special guest preacher will be Fred C. Plumer, there will be an open conversation with questions and answers at the gathering in Plumer Hall after the service.

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"Journey Reflection" > MAY most viewed blog posts
by John C via Dialogue 31 May '16

31 May '16

Colleagues, friends and family, Feel free to browse some of the 17 most viewed "JOURNEY REFELCTION" Blog Posts (May 2016)<http://rejourney.blogspot.com/2016/05/journey-reflection-blog-posts-may-201…>. Greetings, John & Lynda Cock ________ You can view Daily Blog "Journey Reflection" at these links >> Google: www.reJourney.blogspot.com<http://www.rejourney.blogspot.com/> Books Page: http://www.amazon.com/JPC/LLC<http://www.amazon.com/John-P.-Cock/e/B001K8Y5KW> Web Page: www.transcribebooks.com<http://www.transcribebooks.com/> Ask to receive our daily free blog posts via MailChimp email (nice and quiet)

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