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3/16/2023 Your are invited! Eco film night: Rights of Nature; info; link to registration
by Ellie Stock 28 Feb '23

28 Feb '23

Dear Friends, YOU ARE INVITED! SAVE THE DATE. The Ferguson Eco Team will be hosting its next environmental film THE RIGHTS OF NATURE, A GLOBAL MOVEMENT, via ZOOM, Thursday, March 16, 7:00 PM Central Time. Film length 52 minutes, conversation to follow. TO REGISTER FOR ZOOM LINK: https://bit.ly/FET16Mar2023 Also see attached flyer. Share with your friends. The 2020 documentary THE RIGHTS OF NATURE: A GLOBAL MOVEMENT focuses on a growing environmental initiative where natural areas are given legal rights that can be enforced by people, governments and communities. It’s a beautifully shot deep dive into earth jurisprudence, philosophy, permaculture, spirituality and a neo-indigenous future for humanity. As pressures on ecosystems mount and as conventional laws seem increasingly inadequate to address environmental degradation, communities, cities, regions and countries around the world are turning to a new legal strategy known as The Rights of Nature.“Nature often has legal rights as codified in environmental laws, but granting nature legal personhood is a different story,” co-director Crimmel said in a statement, “The main difference is that a Rights of Nature framework typically grants legal personhood status to nature, meaning that a river, for instance, would have the same rights as a person.” Conversation to follow the film TO REGISTER FOR ZOOM LINK: https://bit.ly/FET16Mar2023 For more information: (314) 521-8418, carletonstock(a)aol.com #yiv8440270602 filtered {}#yiv8440270602 filtered {}#yiv8440270602 filtered {}#yiv8440270602 p.yiv8440270602MsoNormal, #yiv8440270602 li.yiv8440270602MsoNormal, #yiv8440270602 div.yiv8440270602MsoNormal {margin:0in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv8440270602 a:link, #yiv8440270602 span.yiv8440270602MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv8440270602 span.yiv8440270602EmailStyle20 {font-family:sans-serif;color:windowtext;}#yiv8440270602 .yiv8440270602MsoChpDefault {font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv8440270602 filtered {}#yiv8440270602 div.yiv8440270602WordSection1 {}

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2/23/2023, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Jim Burklo: Flipping the “He Gets Us” Script; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 25 Feb '23

25 Feb '23

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1432919679 #yiv1432919679templateBody .yiv1432919679mcnTextContent, #yiv1432919679 #yiv1432919679templateBody .yiv1432919679mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1432919679 #yiv1432919679templateFooter .yiv1432919679mcnTextContent, #yiv1432919679 #yiv1432919679templateFooter .yiv1432919679mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} By Rev. Jim Burklo | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Flipping the “He Gets Us” Script | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Jim Burklo February 23, 2023“We did four to five months’ worth of research. And what we found was that skeptics, and even cultural Christians, weren’t so much interested in Christians, Christianity and the Church, but they very much still resonated with Jesus.” So said Jason Vanderground, the media architect of the HeGetsUs campaign. On TV for the Super Bowl, a major ad showed, which is also manifesting on billboards and other media outlets all over the country. It is an effort to make Jesus look good - funded by the same fundamentalists who have trashed his reputation. Through a dark-money outfit called Signatry and its front, the Servant Foundation, it got a huge donation from the hard-right-wing Green family, the owners of Hobby Lobby. The campaign website funnels readers into the right-wing media universe, including “Focus on the Family”. “He Gets Us” is fundamentalism in streetwear, co-opting social justice themes to attract people, especially young folks, into a bait-and-switch. It aims to be a long-term, billion-dollar ad campaign. (See a piece about this ad campaign on NPR here.) “There were four specific things that people want for themselves today that they see reflected in Jesus, and the top one is seeking peace,” said Vanderground. “To be able to make peace with yourself and peace with others around you, because the top pain point that people are experiencing now is toxic relationships…. But then there are three other values: approachable, compassionate, and loving all… So, even though they are not fully engaged in religious activity or institutional Christianity, that value set that Jesus represents is very relevant to people who are on the fence about what they believe when it comes to faith.” So the campaign poses Jesus as a loving, caring, relatable peace- and justice-maker. Its front-facing messaging is progressive-adjacent, even if its backmatter is not. So we should make the most of it, flipping its hidden script! I’ve been urging churches and organizations to put out messaging that moves from “He Gets Us” to “He Gets Us To”: HE GETS US to welcome immigrants HE GETS US to embrace other religions HE GETS US to celebrate same-sex marriages HE GETS US to save the earth from human-caused climate change HE GETS US to take the Bible seriously, not literally HE GETS US to end systemic racism HE GETS US to stand up for women's right to choose HE GETS US to resist the right-wing agenda of the funders of HeGetsUs.com. What are your creative ideas to contribute to this effort? Send me your memes and pictures of your signs and I'll spread them far and wide in the progressive Christian movement. And I’ll send you my portfolio of memes you can use in your social media and front-of-church messaging. But another response is in order, as well. And that is for progressive Christians to have a larger conversation in the public sphere about who Jesus was – and was not. This conversation has already started – in, of all places, the very evangelical milieu in which HeGetsUs.com was formed. Because a fair number of fundamentalists are upset with the campaign for focusing attention on Jesus the human being, instead of on Jesus as almighty, supernatural God. The marketing wonks who put the HeGetsUs campaign together rightly determined that the best way to sell Jesus to a skeptical public was as a compassionate mortal. “The Jesus of this campaign is nothing more than an inspiring human who relates to our problems and cares a whole lot about a culturally palatable version of social justice,” complains well-known fundamentalist blogger Natasha Crain. Philip Ryan, a pastor in the evangelical Presbyterian Church in America, writes: “The He Gets Us campaign does not practice biblical evangelism, and it does not present the biblical Jesus. We in the PCA should be seriously concerned that our leadership is even considering cooperating with such a campaign, much less promoting and defending it to our churches.” These objections explain exactly why progressive Christians should seize this opportunity to shift the narrative about Jesus in the public sphere. Jesus was a stunningly compassionate human being who found divine love at the center of his being, and showed others how to be at one with that love, as well. He was a humble human who emptied himself to serve others. To this day, he gets us to take action –personal charity, but also political and social engagement - to make peace and justice real in this world. So let’s make the best use of that billion dollars! By not focusing on the supernatural divinity of Jesus, “He Gets Us” puts viewers on the very slippery slope that fundamentalists warn against – one that can deliver them into the realm of progressive Christianity. I suggest that we work on two fronts in response to He Gets Us. First, we take a positive approach, and piggy-back on its messaging, spinning it cleverly to invite people to visit our progressive churches and check out our media and content universe. Next, we “out” the people behind HeGetsUs.com – and get word into the public arena about the money and the forces behind the campaign, in order to short-circuit their attempt to use the campaign to direct people into their far-right cosmos. The fact that they actively work to hide the money and the donors behind the campaign is particularly outrageous. I find this language on the site pretty insulting: "Now, bear with us as we use some official language for those who care about this stuff. He Gets Us is an initiative of Servant Foundation, a designated 501(c)(3) organization with a 100/100 Charity Navigator rating." "Those who care about such stuff"? That ought to be everybody. When you google Servant Foundation, the first thing you get is a Methodist foundation in Oklahoma that has nothing to do with HeGetsUs.com. A different Servant Foundation is behind the campaign, and it is no more than a storefront for Signatry, which has funded right-wing, fundamentalist groups: Alliance Defending Freedom (an anti-gay activist group), Answers in Genesis (the six-day “Creation Museum” people), and Campus Crusade for Christ (fundamentalist campus ministries), as revealed in a video by Rebecca Watson. The people behind HeGetsUs don’t get him. But that doesn’t prevent us from using their campaign to help folks get who Jesus really was – and making his compassionate personality the welcoming face of our progressive faith communities. ~ Rev. Jim Burklo Read online here About the Author Rev. Jim Burklo is the Executive Director of Progressive Christians Uniting, which is now organizing ZOE, a national network of progressive Christian ministries at colleges and universities. He is the founder of Souljourning.org, providing resources for families to nurture the natural spirituality of young people. He retired as the Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at the University of Southern California in 2022 and now serves as pastor of the United Church of Christ of Simi Valley, CA. An ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, he is the author of seven published books on progressive Christianity. His latest is Tenderly Calling: An Invitation to the Way of Jesus. His weekly blog, “Musings,” has a global readership. He is an honorary advisor and frequent content contributor for ProgressiveChristianity.org. Jim and his wife Roberta live in Ojai, CA. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader Why do so many churches continue judging people? Their sermons so often speak of how progressive they are and profess that certain people are of the wrong - or heaven-forbid - or non-existent belief, the wrong sexual orientation, or political alliance. Jesus didn't judge; why do many modern churches still preach this way? A: By Rev. Gretta Vosper Dear Reader,Thank you for this question, one often on the minds of liberal and progressive Christians baffled by the harsh judgments meted out by those more conservative. The rules or laws meted out by parents, courts, religions, workplaces, and institutions, and superior court justices are all human creations. And most of them, I would be wont to argue, are created either for the protection of those affected by them or for the control of those same people. Stoplights keep me from being killed several times a day as I walk or drive in my community and beyond. Local alcohol laws keep me from drinking alcohol in public places – not that I drink. The former is for my safety; the latter is to control me. One feels good the other maybe a little arbitrary. The interesting thing about the law preventing me from drinking in a public place is that it can be framed in a way that suggests it is about my safety. The streets, free of those who have consumed to the point of drunkenness – those who might become a problem – are safe because of the law. The law puts “a fence around” that possibility – makes it harder to consume to the point of drunkenness – by not allowing drinking at all. And that is what many of our laws do: they put a fence around the real law to keep people from accidently, or intentionally, becoming the real problem. Biblical prohibitions are often fences around other breaches that, at the time, would have been considered catastrophic. Churches are often organized around what is good and what is bad. It’s in our genes to do so, of course. Religion was about differentiating people from one another when the other was considered dangerous. Now that there are only the rare occasions – related to cults or fundamentalist iterations of religions (think Iran, just now) – that religious adherence would mean the other was a danger to us, differentiation becomes difficult because there is no need for it. But religious institutions don’t want to melt into the melting pot; they only thrive on being different and that often means having an “evil other” to point at. Ergo, long lists of prohibitions, some based in interpretations of holy scriptures, other based only in prejudice, all maintaining privilege in a complex society. Jesus judged plenty, by the way. We don’t hear much about that judgment in contemporary liberal churches because it is distasteful to us. But a good study would reveal that we play our own games with what we choose to say Jesus did and was and for our own purposes, as well. In the religious world, do’s and don’ts will always be a part of the ongoing story as they have always been part of religious history. ~ 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. Visit her website here and her Blog here. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As a non-profit ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit rely heavily on the good will of our donors to help us continue to bring individuals and churches the messages of progressive Christians, Weekly Newsletters, along with the many other resources we provide. For years, the majority of our fundraising came at the end of the year. Looking at various ways to create a more reasonable amount of cash flow we decided rather than having a BIG ask at the end of each year, our more frequent asks give folks a chance to contribute when their funds are more flexible. We think that's a win for everyone. We also want to highlight the opportunity to become a sustaining supporter. If you are looking for the best way to help us continue to provide progressive Christian resources, become a sustaining supporter by choosing Recurring Donation. Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org online and going strong - click here to donate today! * Another way to support us is to leave a bequest in your Will and/or Trust designating us a beneficiary. | | | | | | | | | | | Don't miss the next Episode of PC.org's Executive Directors Mark and Caleb on: The Moonshine Jesus Show - every Monday at 4:30pm Eastern Time – watch live on Facebook,, YouTube, Twitter, Podbean | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Part IV Matthew - The Sermon on the Mount Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong October 24, 2013Jesus never preached the Sermon on the Mount! Some of the content recorded in that well-known part of Matthew’s gospel may well stretch back to the literal words of the Jesus of history, but there was never a time in the life of Jesus of Nazareth when he went up on a mountain and delivered the material we now find in chapters 5-7 of Matthew’s gospel. How do we know? We have learned to read the gospels in general and Matthew in particular with Jewish eyes. We have learned how to look into the Jewish background of the gospels and to discern the content taken out of the Hebrew Scriptures and then wrapped around Jesus of Nazareth. We have learned to recognize the Hebrew liturgical traditions, which helped to create the form and much of the content that the gospels contain. We have escaped what I have called the “Gentile Captivity” of Christianity, which through the centuries has suggested that we either had to read the Bible literally as a historically accurate document or we were being unfaithful to the sources of our faith. The Bible, this Gentile mentality argued, was either literally true or it was not true at all and thus of no lasting value. This attitude was destined to create a biblical fundamentalism, which now comes in both a Protestant and Catholic form and which has been, I believe, the ultimate cause of the demise of Christianity. This charge, I am convinced, is true even as the fundamentalists claim they are the ones who are resisting the acids of modernity, which they believe will inevitably erode and destroy the ultimate truth of the “Word of God.” The Bible, however, is not literal history; it is not eyewitness reporting. It is a Jewish book, written by Jewish authors, telling a profoundly Jewish story about an indefinable God working in a special human life. If we recover the Jewishness of the Bible, we will be freed from both the killing fundamentalism of our time and from the rebellion against that fundamentalism that masquerades as an unbelieving “secular humanism.” Nowhere in the Bible is this truth better on display than in what we call the “Sermon on the Mount.” First some facts. The “Sermon on the Mount” in the gospel of Matthew fills chapters five, six and seven, but it occurs nowhere else in the Bible. Does that mean that the other gospel writers, Mark, Luke and John simply ignored this moment in Jesus’ life, which Matthew proclaims was both dramatic and powerful? Or does it mean that Matthew himself is the author and creator of the “Sermon on the Mount,” and that he alone placed these words and in this form onto the lips of Jesus as a part of his carefully drawn “New Moses” portrait? It is very clear, as I have tried to demonstrate thus far in this series, that Moses was the image against which Matthew developed his portrait of Jesus. Contemporary biblical scholarship now makes it very obvious that Matthew created the “Sermon on the Mount.” The data for this conclusion is readily available. We look first at the Jewish liturgical practice of the synagogue to give content to this point of view and to this conclusion. On the fiftieth day after the Passover, the Jews celebrated a solemn holy liturgy that went under a variety of names. It was called “Pentecost,” which simply meant 50 days. It was called the Festival of Weeks because the 50th day was the first day after seven complete weeks. It was called Shavuot because it marked the sacred moment in Jewish history when God was believed to have given the law, the Torah, to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Shavuot was observed with a twenty-four hour vigil. We know today that God did not dictate the Torah to Moses at any point in human history. That is not how the Torah was either created or received. In fact we know that Moses did not write a single word of the Torah. Indeed, the Moses of history died some three hundred years before the first word of the Jewish law was placed on parchment by a human hand holding a quill. We know that the Torah came into being over a period of close to five hundred years from a series of sources that have been isolated and studied over the past two centuries in the academies of higher biblical learning. We also know that the entire Torah was treated with great reverence in Jewish worship centers and that well before the time of Jesus the Torah was read in its entirety in synagogue settings on the Sabbaths of a single year. We know that when the Jewish people returned from exile in Babylon during the 5th century BCE, under the leadership of Ezra, the priest, and Nehemiah, the governor, they covenanted to keep the Torah, to honor the Torah and to acknowledge Moses as the mythological father of the Torah. This devotion found its way into their annual worship life in the festival called Shavuot, observed in the Jewish calendar in the month of Sivan, which would make it fall in late May or early June in our calendar. Shavuot was a time for the Jews to give thanks for the law, thought by the Jews to be God’s greatest gift to the world. In that celebration, the worship leaders of Judaism called for the people to observe a twenty-four hour vigil in which they would recall the Sinai moment when they believed the law was given to Moses. That twenty-four hour service was divided into eight three-hour segments. For that 24-hour vigil, they created the 119th psalm. Psalm 119 was the longest psalm in the Psalter because it had to provide readings for each of the eight segments in the 24 hours. Psalm 119 was thus made up of 176 verses in 22 segments, with each segment being named after the 22 letters of the Jewish alphabet from Aleph to Taw. The content of this psalm was and is a constant hymn of praise to the beauty and wonder of the law. It includes such phrases as “My lips pour forth your praise, when you teach me your statues (i.e. law);” “Great peace have they who love your law; for then there is no stumbling block;” and “Happy are they who observe God’s decrees…those who walk in the law of the Lord.” So, once a year, the people would gather at Shavuot in solemn assembly to give thanks to God for the law and to pledge their renewed allegiance to it. Psalm 119, the psalm of Shavuot, begins with an introductory stanza of eight verses. In the first two of those eight verses, the opening word is “Blessed,” which is sometimes translated “Happy.” The author of Matthew’s gospel quite obviously took that 119th psalm and used it as a model to create the “Sermon on the Mount.” In Matthew’s introductory stanza to his “sermon,” he made each of its eight verses begin with the word “Blessed.” Today, we call those eight verses “The Beatitudes,” but they are clearly based on Psalm 119:1-8. Then Matthew fashioned the entire sermon to be divided into eight segments in order to provide words of Jesus to be read during each of the eight three-hour segments of the 24-hour vigil of Shavuot. That is how the “Sermon on the Mount” came into being. The rest of this “Sermon” involved a commentary on the eight Beatitudes, but in reverse order, with the first commentary being on Beatitude number eight and the last commentary being on Beatitude number one. The second thing to notice is that this “Sermon” constitutes a dialogue between Moses and Jesus, although once again the name of Moses is never spoken. This was not an attempt to be supersessionistic, that is, to portray Jesus’ superiority to Moses, but it was designed to portray Jesus as the ultimate and true interpreter of Moses. While Jesus will assert in this gospel that not one “jot or tittle” of the law was to be changed, the whole law was, Matthew suggested, meant to be internalized. By this Matthew was saying that the Torah was designed to cover not just the deeds of one’s life, but the thoughts and motives that always precede the deeds. In Matthew’s hands, the law became more than just external rules it was also aimed at governing internal motivations. This purpose was articulated by a regular refrain in this sermon: “You have heard it said of old (Moses) you shall not kill;” that was commandment number six, but I (Jesus) say unto you “that murder starts in the hatred of the human heart.” It is not enough to refrain from the act of murder, the law also requires that one deal with the anger and hostility that expresses itself in violence. This refrain was then repeated with the seventh commandment prohibiting adultery. Jesus interprets Moses to say that adultery begins in human lust, in human insecurity and in threats to the human ego. It is not enough to refrain from the act of adultery, one must, in order to fulfill the law, also deal with the lust, the sense of inadequacy that expresses itself in adultery. The author of Matthew’s gospel was in these three chapters reaching a crescendo in his process of interpreting Jesus as the “New Moses.” He began this process by a story about Moses in his birth of Jesus narrative. He then likened Jesus’ baptism to the account of Moses at the Red Sea. He next portrayed Jesus as like Moses spending time in the wilderness, forty days for Jesus, forty years for Moses. He has wrapped Moses’ critical moments in the wilderness around Jesus as the content of the temptations. Now in this climax we call the “Sermon on the Mount,” he has portrayed Jesus as a “New Moses,” on a new mountain, giving us a new interpretation of the law of God. The “Sermon on the Mount” was thus designed to replace the 119th psalm in the Christian observance of the Jewish Festival of Shavuot. Matthew is writing neither a biography nor a history. When Matthew wrote his gospel, the Christian movement was still a movement within the synagogue, not yet a separate movement. He was taking the life-changing experience found in Jesus of Nazareth and interpreting it inside the symbols and observances of his Jewish faith system. His Jewish audience understood that and reveled in it. Gentile Christians, blindly unaware of these Jewish traditions and of the content of Jewish Scripture with which Matthew was so familiar, did not. The Gentiles in their misunderstanding interpreted these narratives literally; that was when biblical fundamentalism was born. It is time to reverse this process. This series on Matthew’s gospel is designed to do just this.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements OUR PRIDE Video & Arts Fest is a virtual film festival with its own unique festival village, complete with original programming, panels, director Q&A’s, workshops, and live networking, sponsored and hosted by FILMOCRACY. * Open for Submissions until March 1, 2023 * Video Genres: Short Documentary, Narrative, Music Video, Animation, PSA & News Story * Video submissions must be 15 minutes or shorter * Accepting submissions from people ages 13-35 * English subtitles are required for non-English submissions * There are no costs involved with submitting your video. Use FilmFreeway Promo Code: PRIDE2023 * 2023 THEME is “LOVE WINS! Compassion, Resilience & Solidarity,” READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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NYTimes: Jimmy Carter’s Presidency Was Not What You Think
by Jo Nelson 21 Feb '23

21 Feb '23

I had no idea that Jimmy Carter was a follower of Neibuhr. When he was president, he came to Nigeria, and several of us went to see him. He was revered outside the US. This is a gifted article so you can get through the paywall. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/20/opinion/kai-bird-jimmy-carter-life.html?… Jimmy Carter’s Presidency Was Not What You Think From the mobile desk of Jo Nelson

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Detective work in the Global Archives
by Karen Snyder 20 Feb '23

20 Feb '23

As reported in January, there were ten people who participated in the Archives Sojourn for two weeks after Christmas. They uncovered files for scanning: revisiting Uptown Chicago community work, six projects in Latin America, India - and other subjects here and there. The Archives is indebted to Ed Feldmanis for his commitment to scan the files into PDFs (scanning approximately 12 hours a week). After files are scanned, Wendell Refior turns the PDFs into links for adding to the Archives website. Alan Gammel and myself then add the links to the website - although we are ‘a bit’ behind at the moment. A recently scanned treasure are the 15 spirit talks that were done at the 1981 Global Council. Were you there? The DETECTIVE WORK at this point is: 1. to identify the messengers giving these talks. At that time names were not added to the talks to identify the speakers. It would be great to reveal who they were. 2. Even to make a list of the people who were giving talks that summer would be special without knowing which ones they gave. 3. It would also be a gift if you commented about how you experience the address of any of these talks today as you read them. 4. What else comes to your mind? Enjoy the talks: The Five Great Talks: https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/23996.pdf. (#675-679) The Spirit Talks: https://wedgeblade.net/files/archives_assets/23987.pdf. (#669-684, minus the five great talks above) The Vocational Journey …. The Memory of the Spirit …. Disorientation of Expenditure Compulsion of Authenticity …. Non-Rationality of Community …. Etc ... Peace, Karen On behalf of the Global Archives Team https://icaglobalarchives.org/collections/

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Fwd: It is happening!!
by James Wiegel 16 Feb '23

16 Feb '23

My son in law sent the link below to a documentary on food systems— “The Need to Grow”. Judy and I watched it last night. Very good Jim Wiegel “…the long work of turning their lives into a celebration is not easy. Come and let us talk“. The Sunflowers. Mary Oliver Begin forwarded message: > From: Winston Berrios <winsberrios(a)gmail.com> > Date: February 14, 2023 at 8:22:32 AM MST > To: Judith Wiegel <judithwiegel(a)yahoo.com>, James Wiegel <jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com> > Subject: It is happening!! > > > https://fb.watch/iHo6V0jQW-/?mibextid=6aamW6 > > Good documentary about food system.

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2/16/2023, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Gretta Gosper: What happens when we are gone?; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 16 Feb '23

16 Feb '23

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and (max-width:480px){#yiv9713562032 h4{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9713562032 .yiv9713562032mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv9713562032mcnTextContent, #yiv9713562032 .yiv9713562032mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv9713562032mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9713562032 #yiv9713562032templatePreheader{display:block !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9713562032 #yiv9713562032templatePreheader .yiv9713562032mcnTextContent, #yiv9713562032 #yiv9713562032templatePreheader .yiv9713562032mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9713562032 #yiv9713562032templateHeader .yiv9713562032mcnTextContent, #yiv9713562032 #yiv9713562032templateHeader .yiv9713562032mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9713562032 #yiv9713562032templateBody .yiv9713562032mcnTextContent, #yiv9713562032 #yiv9713562032templateBody .yiv9713562032mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv9713562032 #yiv9713562032templateFooter .yiv9713562032mcnTextContent, #yiv9713562032 #yiv9713562032templateFooter .yiv9713562032mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} By Rev. Gretta Vosper | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | What happens when we are gone? | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Gretta Vosper February 16, 2023After we’re gone … What will happen if we disappear? Not “we” as in Earth’s upright and most capable digit-users, though I’m sure we’ll deal with that over the course of time, but “we” as in progressive thinkers in the church. What will happen if we disappear? Throughout human history, progress has continued mostly unabated until something knocked it off its trajectory. Transportation moved from the hip-swinging bipedal loping of our ancestors to skimming across water on logs, sliding downhill on sticks, and everything else between then and blasting ourselves out of orbit in the quest for Mars (or simple hubris). But we have, for the most part, moved from simplicity to complexity in terms of human organization and the development of the vast amount of stuff we use in our everyday lives and, when very, very refined thinking is put to whatever the problem is, if we’re lucky, through that very complexity to a more beautiful, efficient, and elegant simplicity. But where are we in the idea of a progressive interpretation of Christianity? Will it continue to develop and thrive? Or will it simply disappear, unwanted, and dissolve into the historical record? If it does, will it be the result of being knocked off its trajectory or because some more beautiful, efficient, and elegant simplicity of thought takes its place? Since the fourth century – and, indeed, since religious thought first took hold in community – individuals appointed to speak for a belief system have trained their accusing eyes upon those who did not bow to the leaders’ knowledge or perceived power. They focused upon the upstarts, the thinkers-outside-the-box, the non-believers, and the change-makers. Many of them were penalized for their refusal to conform or their insistence that scientific proof was necessary even within the realm of belief. The number of people who have been killed or slaughtered because of their beliefs or lack of them is simply unfathomable. Beyond natural causes, it may very well be the second greatest cause of death in human history. Directly or indirectly (not an anthropologist), perhaps beliefs have been the greatest cause of the annihilation of peoples and cultures, as well as individuals. Chief Upstart When Bishop John A. T. Robinson published Honest to God in the early 1960s, the backlash was to be expected. For millennia, we had walked around believing in a god “up there” (somewhere) who was looking out for us. It was a comfortable little game, that one. If things sucked for you, well, they’d be better later when the god called God took you home. If they were good for you here and you were good, too, you’d end up there in a warm embrace. If you were one of the worst of the worst, you could still be scooped up if you repented. And if you didn’t, well, you deserved what you got, damn you. Robinson scanned contemporary Christian literature and argued that, if the god called God wasn’t “up there,” as scholars had posited, then he (sic) wasn’t “out there,” either. If Robinson was describing reality, however, where was or what happened to that arbiter of everything good and evil who would keep us in line? Paul Tillich had figured it out, refusing theism and its consequent “invincible tyrant” for “the power of being,” which doesn’t even need the word god to make sense. Even Charles Dickens had figured it out, for heaven’s sake: “I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!” falling upon that “ground of being” in a way he could understand, and an idea he could approach, and one with which he continues to inspire. Well done, young man! Many clergy in The United Church of Canada identified with Robinson’s work immediately. Over the years, several confessed to me that Honest to God allowed them to remain in the pulpit, some of them never sharing knowledge of it with parishioners. The denomination’s church school curriculum, A New Curriculum, embraced Robinson’s work and included the book in its resources. “Live Love” and “God is Love” stickers were distributed by our church-school teachers, and we young teens slapped them on our notebooks and bedroom walls, engaged by the deep conversations the curriculum engendered. Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to most, Donald Mathers, publisher of the resource and Principal of Queen’s Theological College, was vilified by the masses and hung out to dry by the denomination’s administration for sharing Christianity’s most progressive scholarship in the materials purported to teach Christians about their origins and the expansion of their faith but about which Christians, themselves, weren’t interested. They left in droves. Still, The United Church of Canada was the first denomination to welcome LGBTQ individuals into ordained ministry in 1988, prompting another of those drove-losses. Tragically, it neglected to adequately support or protect the LGBTQ members already in its pulpits who thought it safe enough to come out to their communities. Only when his obituary was made public did I learn about the Rev. David Fearon, a United Church minister who served for 31 years without telling any of his congregations that he was gay or in a loving relationship. It was he who explored – in the original Greek – the New Testament prohibitions against homosexuality and disclosed that the context was about the abuse of young boys by older men, not a generalized prohibition[i]. I had been taught that contextual reading while at theological college without ever knowing I would be a colleague of its source. The progressive movement has ended in my denomination, so poorly protected was it that it lasted barely fifty years. Knocking it off its pedestal was easy. Perhaps it began in 1988 when its desire to be seen to be radically inclusive undermined its tests for theological integrity in the admissions process. One of the more recent documents used to prepare committees to interview candidates for admission from other denominations and seeming to point to candidates from other cultures – West Africa or Korea, for example – stated that asking questions of theology could be interpreted to be culturally insensitive and recommending such questions be avoided. In 2015, its General Secretary created a test for heresy, contravening the denomination’s own statement of faith, embraced less than a decade earlier. “A Song of Faith” begins with the words, “God is Holy Mystery, beyond complete knowledge, above perfect description…” The controversy continues to roil within the denomination, but Daniel already stands before the wall. I wonder how Tillich would respond to all this: the embrace of white nationalism in the United States, predominantly by its Christian citizens[ii]; the bumbling development of guidelines for heresy trials in one of the world’s most progressive denominations; the purchasing of billions of dollars of advertising to re-ignite a passion for Christianity by one of the most socially conservative corporations in America[iii]; the manipulation of politics away from social welfare parties in both Canada and the United States by tax-free religious organizations[iv]. Perhaps Tillich’s perspective, no matter how colloquially expressed, would be lost not only on the general citizen on the street but on most who identify as Christian. Perhaps his theology, his understanding of God, seemingly forgotten in The United Church of Canada, at least, is simply too esoteric. What if we held up Charles Dickens instead? At least he was clear enough that we could all get behind him. In doing so, we could forfeit that privileged position we’ve held, lo, these many centuries and undermine the most divisive and possibly the most consistently heinous thing humanity has ever devised: religion. What if we struck out on a journey that called us to examine our present, reflect upon our past – both the things we can celebrate and the things we got devastatingly wrong – and chart a course to a more responsible future? What would a church that did that look like? How would it call itself to account? How would it congregate, engage the public, and address systems of repression and violence, inequity, and the abuse of political power to privilege the wealthy? It would certainly be easier to get one’s head around. It would be a gift to be able to speak as a member of such a church. And I am fortunate to be able to do so. When – okay, if – the progressive Christian movement sinks under the weight of its noxious relations, I will mourn its passing and the too-fleeting bloom of its promise. In the meantime and beyond, however, I will continue to delve ever more deeply into my exploration of Dickens’ Spirits of the Past, the Present, and the Future and challenge myself with the truths they each expose. ~ Rev. Gretta Vosper Read online here About the Author The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada minister who is an atheist. Her best-selling books include With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three books of poetry and prayers. Visit her website here and her Blog here. [i] Allison Brooks-Starks, Jan 26, 2023, “David Fearon, who challenged a homophobic translation of a Bible passage, has died at 84”. https://broadview.org/david-fearon-death/ Accessed Feb 9, 2023[ii] Public Religion Research Institute, Feb 8, 2023, “A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture.” https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-o… Accessed, Feb 9, 2023[iii] Matthew Chapman, “Revealed: Hobby Lobby founder behind $3 billion effort to 'rebrand Jesus'’. Raw Story, Feb 3, 2023, https://www.rawstory.com/he-gets-us/ Accessed Feb 9, 2023[iv] Tom Blackwell, “Doug Ford anointed - literally - by controversial evangelical pastor as part of effort to win social conservatives”, The National Post. https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/doug-ford-anointed-literally-by-cont… Jeremy Schwartz, Jessica Priest, “Churches Are Breaking the Law by Endorsing in Elections, Experts Say. The IRS Looks the Other Way.” Pro-Publica, October 30, 2022. https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-church-nonprofit-endorsements-johnso…. Accessed Feb 9, 2023 | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Yvette I've been a Christian all of my adult life. However, I continue to be troubled by the problem of human suffering. I believe in God. My question is why does God allow all the human suffering? A: By Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz Dear Yvette,Your question is, of course, one of the timeless questions of Christian faith--or of any faith, for that matter. Over my many years as a local church minister, now and then I would hear of a minister, theologian, or biblical scholar who had decided they were an atheist. When asked why, invariably it had something to do with the timeless problem of human suffering. Why all the suffering? Most traditional Christians believe in the God of supernatural theism or the "God in the sky." This is the God who is external to the universe and independent of human beings. This God is thought to orchestrate life here on planet earth, intervening only at times of God's own choosing. The larger problem, however, is that this conception of "God in the heavens" (wherever that is) is inadequate to our modern experience. More and more, people do not believe in this God. We need new conceptions of God. In thinking about God, it is not God's nature to work independently of life, both human and other forms of life. God is about Life (with a capital "L"). As Christians who believe in God, it is important we understand this. Life is what God calls us to in the dawning of creation (metaphorically speaking). Life is what God affirms in the covenants (with the Ten Commandments, for example). And life is what Jesus lifts up in his lofty teachings in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). It is God's nature to work in and through life. God does not cause human suffering. If we think about it, what sense does this make? For example, God doesn't cause wars, human beings do. God doesn't shoot guns, human beings do. God doesn't cause natural disasters, random occurrences in nature do. God doesn't cause disease, random events in our bodies do (consistent with some measure of inherited predispositions and sometimes poor human decision-making). In all candor, God did not cause the Holocaust. Indeed, the Holocaust could have been prevented had human beings acted with courage and conviction enabling God to work in them and through them to prevent the horror that followed. We humans have to take responsibility for our life-situations and when we do, God, as spirit and love, works in us to bring healing and wholeness. God's omniscience (all knowing) and omnipotence (all powerful) need to be understood in new ways--in terms of God's capacity to work in and through us (and other forms of life). In summation, where is God in human suffering? There are no easy answers to this enduring question. The only answer I know is that God is there in the midst of all the suffering--grieving, loving, showing compassion, doing whatever God can do to bring new life and new hope to our human situation and circumstances. Imagine the deep feeling and pathos of this loving God. ~ Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz Read and share online here About the Author The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz is a retired United Church of Christ minister. He had long-term pastorates in San Diego County and in Miami Lakes, Florida. His service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama in the late sixties spurred his commitment to social justice ministries and to a spirit of ecumenism as a local church pastor. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Pacific School of Religion. He is the author of The Bible You Didn’t Know You Could Believe In, The God You Didn’t Know You Could Believe In, and his just-published book: The Jesus You Didn’t Know You Could Believe In. Dr. Frantz and his wife, Yvette, are now retired and living in Florida. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | I imagine that you, like me, are constantly frustrated by how marginalized communities are, yet again, being targeted by folks who see themselves as Christians. It is a bit baffling trying to understand how they take biblical texts to support what they are doing. I also suspect that you, like me, are thankful that we have a resource like ProgressiveChristianity.org to help us understand what the biblical texts are really calling us toward – love. Love certainly doesn't look like marginalizing groups, it looks like including and celebrating them. You actually play a big role in keeping that kind of resource alive. ProgressiveChristianity.org only exists through the generous support of people like you. I'm writing to ask for your support to keep this resource not only viable, but thriving. Please take a moment and make a donation. Even $5 can make a big difference, and if you can afford more, even better! You could even choose to make it a recurring gift to help sustain us into the future. Whatever you choose, thank you. You are an essential part of this community and we are thankful for you. PEACE! Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin President, Co-Executive Director | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Don't miss the next Episode of PC.org's Executive Directors Mark and Caleb on: The Moonshine Jesus Show - every Monday at 4:30pm Eastern Time – watch live on Facebook,, YouTube, Twitter, Podbean | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Part III Matthew: The Shadow of Moses Continues Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong September 26, 2013Using the gospel of Matthew as our guide we have begun the task of opening the background necessary to grasp, as members of the current generation of Christians, the meaning of all the gospels. This is necessary because all of the gospels are Jewish books written by Jewish authors for Jewish congregations. They employ Jewish symbols and Jewish images; they draw on the Jewish Scriptures of antiquity to interpret the life and meaning of the Jewish Jesus of Nazareth. If we do not understand this Jewish reality, the tendency on the part of modern readers of these gospels will be to treat them as literal accounts of things that actually happened. They were never written to be that! I began this study of Matthew’s gospel by lifting the figure of Moses out of the shadows in Matthew’s first seven chapters. Although the image of Moses dominates these chapters his name is never mentioned. Yet for those who understand, Moses is the template against which Matthew tells his story of Jesus.Earlier in this series, we looked at the first Moses story in Matthew’s gospel, the account of King Herod going down to Bethlehem and killing all the Jewish boy babies up to the age of two in a vain attempt to destroy God’s promised messiah. When Moses was born, we read in the book of Exodus that a king named Pharaoh sent an order throughout Egypt to kill all Jewish boy babies in his mythological attempt to destroy the one whom God had promised to deliver the Jewish people from Egyptian bondage. Matthew was thus wrapping a well-known Moses story around the infant Jesus. His original readers would have understood that. It is the first instance of the interpretive clue to the role the unseen Moses will play in Matthew’s story of Jesus. It will not be the last. The shadow of Moses will emerge time after time as this gospel pursues its story.Next we looked at Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan River, which Matthew likened to Moses’ Red Sea experience. Moses split the waters of the Red Sea while Jesus, the new Moses, split the heavenly waters. These heavenly waters then proceeded to rain on him as the Holy Spirit. The baptism of Jesus was thus being paralleled to the Red Sea experience of Moses. The interpretive power of Moses was still at work. It would not stop even there.What did Moses do after his baptismal experience in the Red Sea? Read the book of Exodus and you will discover that he wandered in the wilderness for forty years trying to figure out what it meant to be God’s “Chosen People.” To purpose-driven modern men and women, this meandering in a wilderness type limbo is very strange. Look, however, at how the gospel writers treat this Jewish story from the Torah. After Jesus had his Red Sea experience in the Jordan River, we are told that he too wandered in the wilderness, not for “forty years,” but for “forty days,” trying to figure out what it meant to be God’s designated messiah, the one whom God had called “My beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”Mark, the earliest of the gospels, says simply that Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days being tempted by the devil, but he gives no content as to the temptations. Matthew, however, provides that content, which also serves to open the mind of Matthew a little more deeply. We study that mind by searching for the source of Matthew’s temptation content. A careful reading of the Moses story in the Torah provides this new understanding.During Moses’ forty year sojourn in the wilderness, we learn that Moses faced three critical experiences. The first one had to do with the shortage of food and Moses took his concern to God. God answered Moses’ prayer by raining down upon the starving children of Israel heavenly bread that came to be called “Manna.” By the time the editing of the Torah was finished. the “Manna in the Wilderness” story, had become stylized in order to accommodate Jewish piety. The manna eventually fell on only six days a week in order to save both God, who had to send it, and the people, who had to gather it, from violating the prohibition against working on the Sabbath. It also placed into biblical mythology the image of a God capable of expanding the food supply, a theme that will be visible in the stories of Elijah and Elisha and will making its appearance in the Jesus tradition as the miraculous feeding of the multitude with a limited number of loaves and fish. In any event, the crisis of hunger among the people that Moses was leading in the wilderness is answered by the God who sent heavenly bread.The second critical moment for Moses came in response to another crisis, this time involving a shortage of water. In response Moses dared to put God to the test at a place named Meribah. Moses, in frustration over this threatened water shortage, struck a rock with his staff and demanded that God cause water to flow out of that rock. God, according to this story, obeyed Moses’ command so as not to humiliate God’s chosen leader. God, however, was not pleased. No one commands God to do a human being’s bidding. Moses had sinned and the Torah made that clear. Moses was punished for this act by not being allowed to enter the Promised Land. He would see that destination, but he would not enter it for no one puts God to the test! Moses died in the wilderness with his life’s work in some sense unfulfilled.The third critical moment for Moses in these forty years in the wilderness came in the episode we know as the story of the golden calf. Moses had been away from his people for a long period of time, conferring presumably with God on top of Mt. Sinai. The people felt abandoned and became restive. So, under the direction of Aaron, who was both the high priest and Moses’ brother, the people brought all of their gold jewelry, their bracelets, rings, necklaces and chains, and Aaron proceeded to melt them down and to fashion the gold into the image of a calf, which was then proclaimed to be “God” for the people. Before this golden calf they then bowed in worship, while saying: “This is the God who brought us out of the land of Egypt.” The people had turned from the worship of God to the worship of something less than God. When Moses returned, he smashed this golden calf and instituted a purge of the chosen people. Each of these three critical moments has its consequences, but in them Moses was tried by hunger, by putting God to the test and by seeing the people worship something other than God. Matthew knew these stories in the Hebrew tradition and, not surprisingly, he wrapped them around the memory of Jesus in a way designed to demonstrate that the God presence in Jesus exceeded the God presence in Moses, the holiest hero of the Jewish faith story. That was his stunning claim.So, if it took Moses forty years to get through the wilderness, Matthew suggested that Jesus did it in just forty days, while struggling successfully with the same crises that confronted Moses. The first of what Matthew called the temptations of Jesus arose out of the shortage of food. “Turn these stones into bread,” the tempter urged. Jesus, however, resisted. People do not live by bread alone, he responded. Full stomachs do not make full human beings.The second temptation was to put God to the test: “Cast yourself off the pinnacle of the Temple, Jesus,” make God serve you. The tempter even quoted scripture to make the temptation more appealing, “It is written,” he said, “that God will give his angels charge over you and in their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Jesus responded: “You do not tempt the Lord your God.” You do not put God to the test.The third temptation once again followed the Moses script. The tempter invited Jesus to bow down before him with the promise that the devil would give him all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus, however, understood the script that Matthew was following and so he was made to respond with the ringing words that God alone, not any creature, was worthy of worship.Moses, struggling to understand what it meant to be the “chosen people,” underwent three critical moments in his forty years in the wilderness. Jesus, struggling to understand what it meant to be “messiah,” God’s chosen deliverer, underwent three temptations in his forty day sojourn in the wilderness. The content of their crises was identical. This is not a coincidence, nor is this literal history. This is Jewish interpretive storytelling. Matthew was announcing the arrival of a new Moses and, to make his meaning clear, he proceeded to wrap around the memory of Jesus the well-known stories of Moses from his birth, to the Red Sea adventure, to his critical moments in the wilderness. This is not biography. This is not Matthew writing a literal account of Jesus’ life. Matthew knew what he was doing and so did the audience who first read his words. He wanted to fill them with a sense of wonder, awe and even worship. “I am writing,” if I might paraphrase him, “to tell you about the one who fulfilled our Jewish scriptures; one in whom God was present as God has never been present in a human life before, not even in the holiest life of Moses, who stands at the apex of our own Jewish traditions. Listen to my story. It is of infinite importance.” As long as his readers were aware of Matthew’s Jewish story telling method, they heard and they understood. Literalism and fundamentalism arose in Christianity after the Christian Church ceased to be made up primarily of Jews. Fundamentalism was born when Gentile ignorance made it impossible for them to understand the Jewishness of Matthew’s stories about Jesus. Fundamentalism is thus a “Gentile Heresy.”When this series resumes we will turn our attention to the “Sermon on the Mount.” and Moses will emerge once more in the background.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | We Flesh - In this here place, Black women be Each episode explores topics relevant to Black women thriving in these here troubling times. Hosted by Lisa Anderson and Amikaeyla Gaston: an offering of the Sojourner Truth Leadership Circle. This limited, six-part series embraces the fullness of Black women’s humanity. Here we BE in conversation and contemplation. Here we just BE together. READ ON .. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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2/15/23 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 15 Feb '23

15 Feb '23

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A REMINDER: February 16 Eco Film: EXTINCTION, flyer; link to registration
by Ellie Stock 15 Feb '23

15 Feb '23

JUST A REMINDER . . . Dear Friends, SAVE THE DATE. YOU ARE INVITED! The Ferguson Eco Team will be hosting its next environmental film EXTINCTION, The Facts, via ZOOM, Thursday, February 16, 7:00 PM Central Time. Film length 58 minutes, conversation to follow. TO REGISTER FOR ZOOM LINK: https://bit.ly/FET16Feb2023 Also see attached flyer. Share with your friends. With a million species at risk of extinction, Sir David Attenborough explores how this crisis of biodiversity has consequences for us all. EXTINCTION: The Facts is a 2020 documentary film by the natural historian David Attenborough which aired on the BBC. Attenborough and academic experts comment on the sixth mass extinction, caused by humans, and the consequences of biodiversity loss and climate change. Humans are causing an animal and plant extinction rate roughly 100 times faster than has previously occurred. One million out of eight million species on the planet are at risk of extinction. It also suggests positive action which can be taken to halt or reverse these effects. Conversation to follow the filmTO REGISTER FOR ZOOM LINK: https://bit.ly/FET16Feb2023For more information: (314) 521-8418, carletonstock(a)aol.com #yiv5551841062 filtered {}#yiv5551841062 filtered {}#yiv5551841062 filtered {}#yiv5551841062 p.yiv5551841062MsoNormal, #yiv5551841062 li.yiv5551841062MsoNormal, #yiv5551841062 div.yiv5551841062MsoNormal {margin:0in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv5551841062 a:link, #yiv5551841062 span.yiv5551841062MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv5551841062 span.yiv5551841062EmailStyle19 {font-family:sans-serif;color:windowtext;}#yiv5551841062 .yiv5551841062MsoChpDefault {font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv5551841062 filtered {}#yiv5551841062 div.yiv5551841062WordSection1 {}

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From The New Yorker: Not Fooling Anyone
by James Wiegel 12 Feb '23

12 Feb '23

This article about imposter phenomenon seems to document the discovery of one of the states of being in the other world in the midst of this world — either 8 total exposure or 13 essential dubiety. Mathew’s frequently referenced this state of being with his descriptions of running to the toilet to vomit. Read it. Am I deluded? Not Fooling Anyone https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/13/the-dubious-rise-of-impostor-… Get the writers you love, plus your favorite cartoons, on your phone or tablet. Download The New Yorker Today. https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1081530898?pt=45076&ct=App%20Sha… Jim Wiegel “…the long work of turning their lives into a celebration is not easy. Come and let us talk“. The Sunflowers. Mary Oliver

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2/09/2-23, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz: Rising Above the Darkness of These Times; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 09 Feb '23

09 Feb '23

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Dr. Jeffrey Frantz | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rising Above the Darkness of These Times | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz February 9, 2023 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near ... . Mark 1:14-15 In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12 I don't know about you, but in recent times, I can hardly bear to watch the news. It's simply too depressing. Gun violence continues to spin out of control with scant hope of any sensible resolution in sight. Putin's unprovoked, unjust war with Ukraine makes our hearts ache for the suffering of the Ukrainian people. Then, in our nation's capital, we have a rogue Supreme Court, totally out of touch with the American people; and the 118th congress, which, with dauntless ease, sold its soul to the devil on the way to nominating a new Speaker of the House. This new Republican-majority congress has already made their agenda for the next two years abundantly clear: to practice grievance politics wherever they can, making life as miserable as possible for the Biden White House and for Democrats everywhere. Indeed, it’s not exactly a wonderful day in Mr. Roberts' neighborhood. How did we get here?The Founding Fathers and the malignant narcissism of Donald Trump. How we got here is, of course, complicated. To begin with, our Founding Fathers did not anticipate someone with Donald Trump's narcissistic tendencies ever occupying the oval office. If indeed, there are codes of conduct for U.S. Presidents (and I think there are), he violated them again and again. The most serious violation, of course, was his denial of the 2020 Presidential election results. No losing presidential candidate had ever done this before. His stubborn unwillingness to accept the results caught most Americans off guard. But it didn't stop there. On January 6, 2021, he fomented a failed coup of our democratic government. Can we even begin to get our minds around this? Just think about this in light of the World Wars we have fought and won in defense of our freedom as a republic. Our national cemeteries are filled with fallen heroes who died for this freedom. As all of this played out, by the time of the 2020 Presidential election, it became clear that Trump and MAGA Republicans posed the greatest threat to our democracy since the Civil War and the greatest threat to our Constitution ever. Meanwhile, coupled with this, we have the rise of the Trump personality cult kneeling at the feet of Trump's messaging strategy of endless lies, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fake news. The strategy is to repeat the lies--over and over and over--until, eventually, the lies and misinformation begin to sound like the truth. This is the sinister side of untruthfulness. Over time, listeners hear the falsehoods so often they begin to think there must be something to them. The evil of lying (and this is magnified when the lying is incessant) is that it introduces a distortive element into our relationships; and these distortions breed chaos that often overflows into anger, unrest, and even violence. Race relations. Now, add to this the long and sordid history of race relations in America. In trying to get a handle on this, it's helpful to look at Isabel Wilkerson's excellent book, Caste. Caste offers a fresh explanation for the rising polarization of these times--particularly since the ascendance of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States some fourteen years ago. According to Wilkerson, the backlash to "the Obama phenomenon" became visibly more strident and pointed after Donald Trump entered the White House. Part of the backlash is related to the symbolism of the year 2042 for white America. 2042 is the year after which the majority of Americans will be non-white. In any event, in the aftermath of the 2008 Presidential election, millions of white people woke up to a country where blacks were rising up and browns were coming in and they freaked out--particularly the men. This demographic shift--particularly with the reminder of what 2042 symbolized--sent deep fissures of anxiety and distrust across huge swaths of white America. In the caste system of America, there is a hierarchy of humanity, global in nature. In this hierarchy, the upper rung are the descendants from Europe, with English Protestants at the very top. The ranking continues downward, through Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans, down to the very bottom--Africans brought over to build the New World. Wilkerson shows how caste involves the "granting or withholding" of status, privilege, honor, respect, or resources based on one's perceived ranking in the hierarchy. Central to the reality of this caste system is the maintenance of your own ranking by making sure those beneath you in the hierarchy are "kept in their place." In summation, as we seek to better understand our current state of affairs as a nation, where do we turn? How do we move forward? Indeed, how do we make it through this long night of discontent? How do we work through this? Rediscovering our common humanity. Amidst the current polarization of our country, there are no easy answers. However, to rise above the darkness of these days, as a nation, we're going to need inspired leadership--leadership that can lift us to the best that is in our spirit; leadership that lifts us to the spiritual high ground where we discover, together, the best of our common humanity. For some time now--certainly going back at least to 2016--the divisions in our country have been widening. Both sides of the divide have increasingly looked at the other with antipathy and disdain: Democrats and Republicans, progressives and conservatives. Often, it seems to be at a boiling point where we cannot co-exist. More and more, our hearts become hardened and our minds more closed. Together, we must uncover ways to stop this spiraling downturn. We must find the size of spirit to start looking at each other through different eyes--eyes that acknowledge our common humanity. Again, we need inspired leadership to challenge us and lead the way. Indeed, for all of humanity the spiritual high ground beckons. It beckons with the humble greeting, namaste (from Hindu sanskrit), often announced at the beginning and end of yoga class: May the divine in me bow to the divine in you! This sacred greeting, namaste, acknowledges how the light in me recognizes the light in you. It is a greeting of mutual love, peace, and unity. Namaste affirms the spiritual high ground that reminds us how we are all in this life together; indeed, all bound together as brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of God announced by Jesus: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, and saying "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near." Mark 1:14-15 Indeed, the Kingdom of God comes near when we affirm the common humanity in one another. It comes near when we seek to treat others the way we want to be treated ourselves. In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12 Truth be told, we're going to have to find ways of relating to people whom we don't trust or respect and perhaps even do not like. And in the process, we'll be challenged to look for the divine in them, as the namaste greeting suggests, and hope they do the same to us. Together, we need a strong infusion of namaste--an infusion that brings healing on both sides and rising hope for a shared, more conciliatory future. In working through this, the darkness will only be dimmed when the light of our shared humanity shines with a brightness that cannot be put out. ~ Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz Read online here About the Author The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz is a retired United Church of Christ minister. He had long-term pastorates in San Diego County and in Miami Lakes, Florida. His service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama in the late sixties spurred his commitment to social justice ministries and to a spirit of ecumenism as a local church pastor. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Pacific School of Religion. He is the author of The Bible You Didn’t Know You Could Believe In and his just-published book: The God You Didn’t Know You Could Believe In. Dr. Frantz and his wife, Yvette, are now retired and living in Florida. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Roy I have seen Catholics praying to the Virgin Mary and saints, kissing and honoring statues, using rosary beads, and observing many rituals that they say are a part of Christianity. When I remind these people that being a Christian means living by the message Jesus preached about being kind, loving, and accepting of others, they become judgmental towards me. I wonder how have Christians have drifted away from the true meaning of being a Christian and instead embraced meaningless rituals and beliefs. A: By Rev. Lauren Van Ham Dear Roy,Within the tradition of Christianity, there are many interpretations of what the teachings mean as well as various understandings of which aspects of Jesus’s life are to be emphasized or ritualized to best follow his example. It is not accurate to say that Catholic Christians have drifted away from the true meaning of being a Christian, nor is it fair to point to Catholic practices and worship as meaningless. Some Christians are strongly moved by baptism, while others emphasize the Last Supper and communion. Some stress the importance of prayer and quiet, while others take to the streets to feed the hungry and advocate for justice. When Jesus modeled the importance of being kind, loving and accepting of others, he often did so by reaching across societal assumptions to be in relationship with people who were making different life choices, some out of desperation and others simply because of the customs practiced where they were born. Jesus modeled relationship by taking time to ask questions or to share a meal. We all have examples of rituals we have attended that felt empty or compulsory. But it is also true that most of us create and participate in all sorts of “everyday rituals,” because they help us appreciate the gift of being alive – a walk at sunset, a hot mug in the morning, expressing gratitude at the dinner table. When rituals – formal or spontaneous – coax us away from life’s busyness and into sacred time, we are connecting with the holy. Whatever our practice – quiet or ecstatic, still or animated, solitary or with others -- when it comes with our intention to become more aware, more kind, more loving, then we are exercising much of what Jesus wanted for everyone. Given the many ways to pursue a Christian path, it is good to bring our curiosity to situations that feel new or different. If visiting a Catholic parish is a new experience for you (or maybe it has been a long time), I hope you will consider attending a mass or evening vespers sometime soon. God has a wonderful way of stretching us, surprising us, and showing up in places we could not have imagined.~ Rev. Lauren Van Ham Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Lauren Van Ham, MA, was born and raised beneath the big sky of the Midwest. Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Naropa University and The Chaplaincy Institute. Following her ordination in 1999, Lauren served as an interfaith chaplain in both healthcare (adolescent psychiatry and palliative care) and corporate settings (organizational development and employee wellness). Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth's teachings has supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, "Way of the Eco-Chaplain," appears in the collection Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. Her ideas can be heard on Vennly, an app that shares perspectives from spiritual and community leaders across different backgrounds and traditions. Currently, Lauren tends her private spiritual direction and eco-chaplaincy consulting practice; and serves as Climate Action Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI), and as guest faculty for several schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. | | | | | | | | Please continue to send us your feedback… we are listening. We aim to give voice to many different perspectives that are relevant and inspiring along this spiritually progressing path. We are not here to tell you what to believe or how to act. We are here to support your journey, to share and learn together.Thank you for being a part of this community - join us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As a non-profit ProgressiveChristianity.org/Progressing Spirit rely heavily on the good will of our donors to help us continue to bring individuals and churches the messages of progressive Christians, Weekly Newsletters, along with the many other resources we provide. For years, the majority of our fundraising came at the end of the year. Looking at various ways to create a more reasonable amount of cash flow we decided rather than having a BIG ask at the end of each year, our more frequent asks give folks a chance to contribute when their funds are more flexible. We think that's a win for everyone. We also want to highlight the opportunity to become a sustaining supporter. If you are looking for the best way to help us continue to provide progressive Christian resources, become a sustaining supporter by choosing Recurring Donation. Help keep ProgressiveChristianity.org online and going strong - click here to donate today! * Another way to support us is to leave a bequest in your Will and/or Trust designating us a beneficiary. | | | | | | | | | | | Don't miss the next Episode of PC.org's Executive Directors Mark and Caleb on: The Moonshine Jesus Show - every Monday at 4:30pm Eastern Time – watch live on Facebook,, YouTube, Twitter, Podbean | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Part II: The Gospel of Matthew. Exploring the Shadow of Moses in Matthew's Portrait of Jesus Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong September 12, 2013I return to Matthew’s gospel today to lay out the case for its basic Jewishness. As I suggested in the opening column in this series last week, we must see all the books of the New Testament as Jewish writings before we can properly begin to understand them. Matthew is by every measure the most Jewish of the four gospels. He was also writing this gospel to a community of Jesus’ followers who were themselves Jewish. That is why he could and did use in his narrative the symbols of his Jewish faith story and illustrations drawn from his Jewish world view. He wrote in the confidence that his readers would both understand these symbols and interpret them correctly. In the first decades of the Christian movement this primary meaning of Matthew’s gospel was universally understood. No one at that time could have or would have pretended that Matthew was writing literal history or recording as an eye-witness an event that actually happened. That misunderstanding, however, would arise near the middle of the 2nd century, by which time Christianity had become primarily a Gentile movement. Because they were now Gentile Christians meant that they were no longer conversant with the Jewish past or with Jewish symbols. They did not read the Jewish Scriptures, thinking that they had been superseded by the Christian writings. They no longer worshipped in synagogues. They were thus blind to the Jewish meanings incorporated into the text of this gospel. In addition to that their blindness had a second focus. By this time in Christian history, these Gentile Christians were so deeply infected with a virulent anti- Semitism, that they had no desire to understand anything Jewish. So the real and original meaning of this gospel was lost to them. Christianity had entered what I call its “Gentile Captivity,” which was destined to last until well into the 20th century when the first cracks in it began to appear. Having no other way to understand this gospel, they almost inevitably began to read Matthew as if it were a literally true biography of Jesus and they began to assume that Matthew’s narrative was intended to be read as literal history. That was when they made assumptions about this gospel that neither its author nor its original reading audience would ever have made. They suggested, for example, that there really was a star that traveled so slowly across the sky that wise men could keep up with it. They assumed that this star led the magi to find Jesus in Bethlehem. They assumed that since the sky was the roof separating heaven from earth, the way for God to send the Holy Spirit upon Jesus at his baptism was to open a hole in the roof to allow this divine invasion. They assumed that God literally spoke from beyond that sky to proclaim Jesus as his son, not recognizing that the divine words were actually lifted from Isaiah 42. They assumed that Jesus was literally tempted in a literal wilderness by a literal devil and that Jesus literally preached the Sermon on the Mount. None of these assumptions would ever have occurred to the original Jewish readers of Matthew’s gospel for they knew the Jewish background revealed in all of these narratives. My task in this series will be to open the minds of my readers to this background. In doing so I hope to make it clear that biblical fundamentalism is a Gentile Heresy! It was created out of Gentile ignorance about Jewish sacred writings. The fundamentalism with which the Christian church is plagued in the 21st century rises from the same source. Gentile literalism and biblical fundamentalism are not benign, they are deeply destructive of Christianity. That is a strong, but accurate charge and it cries out to be documented. In this column and throughout this series that will be my primary agenda. So let me begin with lesson one. The greatest hero in the Jewish faith story was Moses, so it should not be surprising that the life of Moses would be the template against which Jewish writers would tell the story of Jesus, and would thus serve as their primary clue in interpreting the life of Jesus. Surprisingly the name of Moses is not mentioned in Matthew until the 8th chapter of this gospel, but the shadow of Moses is present in every Jesus story. Moses makes his first silent appearance in the Matthean text in the birth narrative with which Matthew opens his gospel. Here Matthew tells us that when Jesus was born, a wicked king named Herod tried to kill him. The wise men had come to Herod’s palace seeking knowledge as to the birthplace of the one they called “the King of the Jews.” A child born with such a title in the land of the Jews would be a direct threat to Herod’s throne, so Herod was not pleased. Herod conferred with his scribes and wise men as to where the new Jewish king was expected to be born and they discovered in the book of Micah what they believed was a prediction that the messiah must come out of Bethlehem, for he must be of the house of David. Herod then deputized the magi to return to him with a report of this new king’s identity and location: “so that I too might come and worship him.” Then Herod sent them on their way. The wise men in this story, however, were warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod and so they departed by another route. Herod was angered when he discovered that he had been duped and so he directed his solders to go to Bethlehem and there to kill all the boy babies up to two years of age in an attempt to destroy God’s new “promised deliverer.” Did any of this really happen? Of course not! That is a Moses story being retold about Jesus. When Moses was born, another wicked king named Pharaoh also moved to destroy all the Jewish boy babies, this time in Egypt, in a vain attempt to destroy God’s “promised deliverer.” Moses, that story tells us, was saved when his mother put him in a basket in the Nile River where he was later found by the Pharaoh’s daughter, who raised him as her son. The baby Jesus, like Moses, was also saved from his fate, when his father, Joseph, took him down to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. This is not history, it is an interpretive narrative in the Jewish storytelling tradition. All of Matthew’s original Jewish readers would have recognized this fact when they heard this text read to them for they would have listened with Jewish ears and Jewish understanding. They recognized Matthew’s Jewish style of writing. Later, Gentile readers, devoid of this ability, began to treat the stories as if they were literally true. That is how fundamentalism was born. As Matthew’s story continued to unfold those who knew the Jewish Scriptures could still see Moses silently present in the background. Next Matthew told the story of Jesus’ baptism by bringing Jesus to the edge of the River Jordan. God’s power over water had long been a major theme of the Old Testament writers. That theme was illustrated most dramatically in the Exodus story where Moses was able to part the waters of the Red Sea so that the Jews could escape slavery in Egypt by walking across that sea on dry land. The tradition of splitting waters then became a recurring theme in the Old Testament. It was repeated in the life of Joshua, Moses’ successor, who split the waters of the flooded Jordan River so that the Jews could cross over on dry land and thus conquer the country that they claimed had been bequeathed to their ancestor Abraham. Later in the biblical narrative both Elijah and Elisha split the waters of the Jordan River so that they too could walk across on dry land. All of these traditions were in the mind of the author of Matthew’s gospel and of its first readers and that is why they recognized what Matthew was trying to communicate when he told this story. Look now at the details of the story of Jesus’ baptism with Jewish eyes. Matthew first took Jesus to the edge of the Jordan River. In this story Matthew was trying to communicate his conviction, and the convictions of his audience, that in Jesus there was a God-presence like unto none other, not even to the God presence in the greatest heroes of their faith story: Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Elisha. How did Matthew do this? Read his gospel! When Jesus stepped into the waters of the Jordan River, he did not split those waters. Anyone could do that! That had happened several times before. So Matthew’s Jesus does not split the waters of the Jordan, he splits the heavens! What were the heavens to the Jews? The creation story tells us that the sky, which that story calls the “firmament,” was originally designed to separate the waters above from the waters below. So Jesus is portrayed as stepping into the Jordan, but splitting the heavenly waters, which then flowed down on him as the Holy Spirit. “Living water” is always a Jewish synonym for the Holy Spirit. Matthew was saying that Jesus split the boundary between heaven and earth, between the human and the divine, and a voice from heaven then designated Jesus as God’s “unique” son. Here the divine is experienced in the human. Is this a literal account of the baptism of Jesus? Of course not! It is an interpretation of Jesus as the one in whom God was as uniquely present beyond any God presence the Jewish people had ever known. Both Matthew and his Jewish audience would have understood this message. No one would have been tempted to view this story as literal history. Only uninformed Gentiles, reading this story a few generations later, would begin to think this was a literal story. The shadow of Moses in Matthew’s story of Jesus does not end there, so, I will continue next week to probe Matthew’s gospel as he wrote it and as his first readers understood it. No one in the time when this gospel was written read or viewed it as literal history because they knew it wasn’t. Fundamentalism is the interpretive ignorance of those who do not understand that Matthew’s gospel was never meant to be a biography. It was designed to be an interpretive portrait painted by a Jewish artist to enable the meaning of Jesus to be grasped by his Jewish audience. As this story unfolds over subsequent weeks that will become abundantly clear.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Hosted by Thomas Jay Oord, Jonathan Foster, and Brian Felushko This two-day, online event features seventeen hours of theological discussion on recently published books in open and relational theology. Sessions are live February 10-11, but recordings will also be available as audio files thereafter. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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