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12/15/2022, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Matthew Syrdal: An Advent Love-Poem to Holy Darkness; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 15 Dec '22

15 Dec '22

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv8621819120 #yiv8621819120templateBody .yiv8621819120mcnTextContent, #yiv8621819120 #yiv8621819120templateBody .yiv8621819120mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv8621819120 #yiv8621819120templateFooter .yiv8621819120mcnTextContent, #yiv8621819120 #yiv8621819120templateFooter .yiv8621819120mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} By Rev. Matthew Syrdal | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | An Advent Love-Poem to Holy Darkness | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Matthew Syrdal December 15, 2022You darkness from which I come, I love you more than all the fires that fence out the world, for the fire makes a circle for everyone so that no one sees you anymore. But darkness holds it all: the shape and the flame, the animal and myself, how it holds them, all powers, all sight —and it is possible: its great energy is breaking into my body. I have faith in the night.I have always loved this poem. Especially David Whyte’s translation from the German. Perhaps it is because I love Darkness. Do you know this feeling? A momentary awareness rapt in dark night. The utter stillness of a winter-scape at dusk. The deep feeling of slumbering instincts quickening into a wild and mysterious sense of closeness to all that is unapproachable during the daylight hours. It’s almost like a hunger for me, this desire to shed form, to stride out of doors into a night of formless beauty. Out beyond sight where the imagination soars as a heron in flight, and that feathered surge of dampening sound awakens alluring depths within our limited vision.Advent is a season especially attuned to the Darkness, and it’s rhythms—not primarily the light. For the Darkness has a strange luminosity all its own, but our eyes must readjust. David Whyte picks up on this theme in his poem Sweet Darkness “There, you can be sure you are not beyond love / The Dark will be your home tonight / The Night will give us a horizon further than we can see.” It offers imaginal landscapes for the soul, we are invited to slow to hushed walking pace through deserts and moorlands. Advent is myth-time. A time to wander and wonder, to remember as a people all we have lost. All that glances back at us, eyes glimmering across the circle of light we now stand in. Darkness is a kind of memory that reaches down and in through the feeling function, it holds encoded the memory of time and origins you might say. Advent is womb-time, and what is coming we cannot see but only feel. But one thing is for certain it is here, within and among, watching just beyond the ring of firelight. For me this poem is Rilke’s Advent birth narrative whether he intended it or not—it is mytho-poetic. His words can become our words, his love-prayer—our love-prayer. If we have the courage to seek the One beyond the fire circle.“You Darkness from which I come” - Du Dunkelheit, aus der ich stamme. The direct address to the Darkness—living, intimate, and sentient—is much more than stylized personification. We are invited to listen in as the poet speaks to the dark ground of his being in the quiet watches of the night. Speaks a poem of love to the dark God beyond the firelight of consciousness.“I love you more than all the fires that fence out the world, for the fire makes a circle [of light] for everyone so that no one sees you anymore. But the darkness holds it all.”Other translations speak of the fires that “fence in the world,” "als die Flamme, welche die Welt begrenzt,” but Whyte is seeing something important here in Rilke’s vision. The World dwells in night and it is we who no longer see her anymore. The dark keeper of the fire, whose embrace holds all. All laughter, all tears, all pain and fear, conflict and war. Nothing is excluded from the embrace of darkness.Advent is a season to let ourselves be held in the peculiar way that only darkness can do. It is an ancient song sung in the meandering hollows and wells of fallow time.The eternal feminine Darkness from which we all come, that great and nurturing Power that holds it all: /the shape and the flame, /the animal and myself, /how it holds them, /all powers, all sight —The “fire” that makes a “circle” is a profound image. For me it speaks to our promethean drive to be sole creators in a self-made world, alluding to both the primal technology of fire that symbolically defines our species and to its mythic origins in the collective unconscious. A powerful driver indeed behind our history of storytelling, Empire, and constant need to expand our territories.And so I want to push back just a bit against the masculine light-cult that is Western civilization, (symbolized for example in Edison and Tesla) and the modern era’s progressive banishment of darkness, and labeling of it as ‘evil’. The endless displays of visual connection, the need to make everything visible only to expose, to extract, to define, to control. As if we could domesticate the darkness. We may have cast it from our homes and churches, but It has just gone underground. We banished it with our promethean theologies because it didn’t support and export Christendom values.The printed word is fire, but the spoken word is darkness. Oral stories move and feed just inside the edge of the wood at night. But our printed word would appropriate oral wisdom for its own and post them like memes. A little sleight-of-hand trickery, so that we don’t have to really go into the dark where wisdom can be found. Advent and Christmas can be one of the few liturgical seasons we can really embrace the dark, really cultivate storytelling as a people, reclaim our myth-telling roots to counterbalance the artificial light of corporatized cultural ways the church unwittingly reinforces.Don’t get me wrong. We need Fire too. Fire is an archetypal image of spirit, and ingenuity, and creative advancement in ways never before dreamed possible. We need both the Fire and the Darkness. But perhaps the fire we stole from the gods has grown too big, and all of our “biggering” to borrow Dr. Seuss’ term, in both church and culture is spreading this fire. And perhaps too many forests are burning, and too many of the old songs and stories have gone up in smoke as sparks reaching for the stars.For me, Mythic Christ Mystery School has been an inquiry primarily into the darkness of the deep imagination—a realm of visionary consciousness—in order to begin to reclaim what is still alive and pulsing in the heart of the Christian mythos, through experiential practices and ways of being in community. We explore more broadly the nature of myth, archetype, story, encoded in sacred place and particular landscapes, to understand the scriptures and ourselves from the perspective of oral tradition, belonging and emergence.To counteract the structural forces of injustice and inequity on so many levels, it is important we take seriously other ways of knowing and being, remembering and becoming. We explore de-centered values that are sacred and truly supportive of soulful community. There are other ways to envision justice other than through the harsh daylight of politics and faith. Other ways of being church outside the brick and mortar walls, in wooded-walls clothed with moss and meadow, hanging usnea or apple bark. Late it is, in this fourth watch of the night. The hour of God. The thief who comes might just be the deliverer we need but don’t expect. May we return for now to the slow womb-time and deep dreamtime. The Day will come, but now is the hour of imagination and the dreaming.“And it is possible: its great Power is breaking into my body. I have faith in the night.”Du Dunkelheit, aus der ich stamme, ich liebe dich mehr als die Flamme, welche die Welt begrenzt, indem sie glänzt für irgend einen Kreis, aus dem heraus kein Wesen von ihr weiß.Aber die Dunkelheit hält alles an sich: Gestalten und Flammen, Tiere und mich, wie sie's errafft, Menschen und Mächte. --Und es kann sein: eine große Kraft rührt sich in meiner Nachbarschaft.~ Rev. Matthew SyrdalRead online here About the Author Matthew Syrdal, M.Div., is a pastor in the Denver area, a visionary, founder of Church of Lost Walls, and co-founder of Seminary of the Wild. Matt has begun a new venture called Mythic Christ, a mystery school and podcast for awakening mythic imagination and ritual embodiment. Matt speaks at conferences and guides immersive nature-based experiences around the country and his mentoring and coaching practice as a certified Wild Mind nature-based human development guide through the Animas Valley Institute. His work weaves in myth, archetype, dreams, deep imagery, and ceremony in nature as a way for people to enter into conversation with the storied world of which they are a part. Matt’s passion is guiding others in discovering “treasure hidden in the field” of their deepest lives, cultivating deep wholeness and re-enchantment of the natural world to apprentice fully and dangerously to the kingdom of god. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader How can we work to improve religious tolerance and increase respect for diversity? A: By Rev. Irene MonroeDear Reader,We are residing in such a polarized time. I wish the Christian Right would meet the right Christians to understand that religious tolerance embraces the fact that, as Americans, we are people of many faith traditions and are atheists, agnostics, and "nones." More than a decade now, when the December holiday season rolls in, we can always count on a yearly kerfuffle about what the appropriate season's greeting should be, exemplifying the continued chapter in the culture "War on Christmas." This year we can see the divide along religious and political party lines. On his "Merry Christmas USA Thank You Tour," former President Trump decorated his stages with Christmas trees. Former President Obama acknowledged other holidays this time of year - Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Saturnalia, Festivus, and Ramadan - and embraced an all-inclusive seasonal greeting symbolic of our nation's diverse religious and cultural landscape with two simple words — Happy Holidays! According to Public Policy Polling (PPP), if you say "Merry Christmas," you insult liberals, and if you say "Happy Holidays," you vex conservatives. Also, PPP revealed that 57 percent of Republicans believe there's an ongoing war on Christmas. Truth be told, Muslims, secular progressives, Jews, and atheists have never been the folks trying to abolish Christmas. The intolerance of a multicultural theme for this holiday season has to do about a backlash toward a country growing more religiously pluralistic. This holiday's central message is embracing and celebrating human differences and diversity. And it is with this message that I know all people — religious and non-religious, straight and LGBTQ+, black and white — can be included to enjoy and to celebrate and acknowledge this season with one simple greeting. Happy Holidays!~ Rev. Irene Monroe Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Irene Monroe does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on NPR's WGBH (89.7 FM). She is a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS. Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists. A Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist, her columns appear in the Boston LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows, Cambridge Chronicle, and the Boston Globe. Monroe states her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer and religious studies. As a religion columnist, I try to inform the public of religion’s role in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.” Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College’s research library on the history of women in America. Click here to visit her website. | | | | | | | | 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 The Birth of Jesus, Conclusions: Part XVI Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong June 20, 2013Luke concludes his birth story with a series of episodes designed to point to the story of the adult Jesus. First, in Luke’s story, the shepherds depart, while Mary “ponders,” then the “Holy Family” goes through the initiation rites of Judaism to root Jesus deeply inside of the faith of his people. He is circumcised, Luke says, on the eighth day and given the name Jesus (Joshua or Yeshuah in Hebrew/Aramaic). Then he is presented at the Temple on the 40th day, at which time a prophetess named Anna, later to be viewed in mythology as the mother of Mary, and an old priest named Simeon are introduced in brief cameo appearances. Simeon proclaims that in this baby he has seen the promised salvation that will bring light to the Gentiles and glory to Israel. Next, and in contrast to Matthew, who has the Holy Family flee into Egypt to avoid the wrath of Herod, Luke has them make a rather leisurely journey back to their home in Nazareth. This episode of Luke’s birth narrative is then closed with a summary statement informing his readers that “the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was with him.” This infancy narrative is thus completed.Luke then describes an episode that turns out to be the only story in the entire New Testament that purports to inform us about Jesus’ childhood. It is the narrative of the twelve year old Jesus being taken up to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover. It is a puberty rite story couched in religious terms, a kind of primitive bar mitzvah filled with familiar mythological content. It was designed to show just how remarkable the child Jesus really was long before his introduction to the wider public as an adult figure. It also has deep roots in the Hebrew Scriptures that we need to identify. Those familiar with these scriptures would also be familiar with the life of the prophet Samuel. He, like Jesus, was said to have had something of a miraculous birth. His mother Hannah was childless; she had been unable to conceive. In that patriarchal world, the woman was blamed for this condition and so she was called “barren.” She was one of two wives married to a man named Elkanah. His second wife, Peninnah, had children and was honored by her husband because of that. Hannah, however, felt shame at her inability to have a child and was even ridiculed by Peninnah because, as she said, “the Lord had closed her womb.” Hannah went up regularly to a “holy place,” the shrine at Shiloh. On one of those occasions, she was at the gate of the shrine weeping and praying for a child. In her prayers she stated her willingness to dedicate her child to God if her prayers were answered. In the emotional power of this prayer, she came to the attention of an old priest named Eli who thought at first that she was drunk.“How long will you be drunken?” he asks her as the conversation began. Hannah responded, “No, my Lord, I am a woman sorely troubled. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.” Hearing the content of her prayer, Eli promised her that her prayer would be answered. So he said to her: “Go in peace and may the God of Israel grant your petition.” Hannah then returned home and her barrenness was overcome; Samuel was born. It is a touching story.Luke is clearly familiar with the story of Hannah. When Hannah’s child, Samuel, was born, she sang a song of praise that began with the words: “My heart exults in the Lord.” Luke uses Hannah’s song as the model for the song he puts in the mouth of Mary that we call The Magnificat. The Magnificat begins with the words: “My soul magnifies the Lord.”I believe there is one other oblique reference to the story of Samuel in Luke’s birth narrative. In his genealogy of Jesus in chapter 3, Luke lists a person named Heli as the father of Joseph and thus the grandfather of Jesus. Heli is simply the Greek spelling of Eli. The old priest in the book of Samuel is thus related, Luke says, to the life of Jesus. Finally, when Mary and Joseph take the boy Jesus to present him in the Temple when he was 12 years old, Luke appears to base this story on the account of Hannah taking the boy Samuel “when he was weaned” to the shrine at Shiloh, where he would serve the priest Eli as the fulfillment of Hannah’s vow to dedicate her son, if she became pregnant with a boy, to the service of God. The visit to the Temple completed the cycle of Jewish initiatory liturgies. Jesus was, says Luke, circumcised on the 8th day, presented on the 40th day and dedicated at the age of 12 in the Temple at Jerusalem. The child Jesus was thus born with the destiny to serve God in all aspects of the Jewish tradition.This visit to the Temple at age 12 is also filled by Luke with hints of things to come. The boy Jesus claims the Temple for himself in his childhood, just as he will do later as an adult. In this episode, Jesus acknowledges God as his father, claiming this Temple “as my father’s house,” and stating that he must be about his “father’s business.” He is also in this narrative, said to have been lost “for three days” and when he was found, he was in the “my Father’s house,” revealing echoes of another three days in which Luke will say he was lost until raised by God into a new dimension of God’s presence. His body will then be referred to as the “New Temple.”It is interesting to note that Luke then moves immediately to the story of Jesus’ baptism by John in the River Jordan and the inauguration of his messianic career. Now Joseph disappears from Luke’s text and takes his place in the mythology of the ages, out of which he had come in the first place. With this story the birth narratives have completed their purpose. The meaning of Jesus’ life has been introduced to his followers. With this story we also reach the end of this series of columns, so it is time to summarize.There is nothing in the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke that was ever intended to be viewed as literal history. Both of these gospel authors knew that the birth narratives were designed to explain the source of power experienced in the adult Jesus of Nazareth. Both were trying to say that they had met a power and presence in the life of Jesus that human beings could not themselves have ever produced. Both picked symbols out of Hebrew history to flesh out their stories. Both knew that they were introducing a new idea into the developing Christian tradition. Both were surely aware that their stories of a miraculous birth for Jesus were unknown to Paul who portrayed Jesus as one who was “born of a woman,” as every human being is, and “born under the law,” as every Jew was. The only special claim Paul made for Jesus was that he “was descended from the House of David, according to the flesh.” God for Paul had declared Jesus to be the son of God, not through a miraculous birth, but through “his resurrection from the dead.” (See Romans 1:1-4).They also knew that Mark, whom both Matthew and Luke had incorporated into their gospel accounts, not only had no birth story, but he had also stated that God first entered Jesus at his baptism. Mark even portrayed Jesus’ mother as thinking that the adult Jesus was “beside himself” (see Mark 3), that is, “out of his mind,” when he came to his adult life. That is not the response of one who has been told in advance that her child will be holy, “the son of the highest.” No, both Matthew and Luke were not writing about the literal birth of Jesus. That will be the later agenda of the fundamentalists.Then we saw how these two evangelists developed their stories out of the Hebrew Scriptures. Matthew borrowed from Isaiah, who wrote of kings coming to the “brightness of God’s rising” and bringing with them “gold and frankincense,” to get his narrative of wise men and their guiding star. He adapted for his narrative of Jesus a Moses story about a wicked king who tried to destroy God’s anointed one at birth. He has Jesus repeat the life cycle of the Jewish nation by coming “out of Egypt.” He creates the character of Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, out of the account of Joseph the patriarch in the book of Genesis (37-50). The two Joseph’s are all but indistinguishable.Luke also borrows images from the Old Testament to describe the birth of John the Baptist. He lifts a story from the book of Daniel to explain how John’s father, Zechariah, got the news that he was to be a father and why he could not speak. He lifts the account of John post-menopausal birth out of the Abraham and Sarah story in the book of Genesis. He populates Bethlehem with shepherds because it was the birthplace of David, the “Shepherd King.” He borrows a text from Isaiah to get his manger and a text from the Wisdom of Solomon to get his “swaddling cloths.” Both narratives are artfully crafted pieces of haggadic Midrash. No Jewish reader would fail to notice that. The two stories are deeply contradictory if one treats them literally, but both serve as overtures to the story of the life of Jesus, introducing themes that will be developed more fully in their later gospel accounts.For most people the birth stories are probably the most familiar part of the New Testament. They are also probably the most misunderstood. They are victimized by the annual Christmas pageants held in most churches. They are distorted by hymns sung, oratorios heard and sermons preached each Christmas season. They are celebrated in lawn crèches built, Christmas cards sent and store windows dressed during the holiday season. Like all birth stories, however, they are not really about the birth of the hero, but about the adult life of the hero. Once we break them out of their literal prison, they take on a new wonder, a new meaning and a new power. That is what these 17 columns over the past two years have also been designed to do. I hope they have succeeded and that the next Christmas season can be entered with open minds and hearts and without the need to defend Jesus from those who think that the only way to be true to Jesus is to literalize the words of the New Testament.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | Christian Mystics with Matthew Fox Thursday, December 15, 20227 7pm/ET 6pm CT- 5pm/MT-4pm PT The daily readings Matthew Fox shares here, quotations from Christianity’s greatest mystics and prophets of the past two thousand years, speak to the sacredness of the earth, awe and gratitude, darkness and shadow, compassion and creativity, sacred sexuality, and peacemaking. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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12/15/22 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 15 Dec '22

15 Dec '22

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12/14/22 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 14 Dec '22

14 Dec '22

1 0

12/13/22 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 13 Dec '22

13 Dec '22

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12/12/22 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 12 Dec '22

12 Dec '22

1 0

12/11/22 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 11 Dec '22

11 Dec '22

The earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. This we know. All things are connected. Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves. ~ ~ ~ Chief Seattle

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12/10/22 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 10 Dec '22

10 Dec '22

4 6

12/9/22 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 09 Dec '22

09 Dec '22

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12/08/2022, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Irene Monroe: World AIDS Day 2022; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 08 Dec '22

08 Dec '22

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and (max-width:480px){#yiv1077299068 h4{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1077299068 .yiv1077299068mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv1077299068mcnTextContent, #yiv1077299068 .yiv1077299068mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv1077299068mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1077299068 #yiv1077299068templatePreheader{display:block !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1077299068 #yiv1077299068templatePreheader .yiv1077299068mcnTextContent, #yiv1077299068 #yiv1077299068templatePreheader .yiv1077299068mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1077299068 #yiv1077299068templateHeader .yiv1077299068mcnTextContent, #yiv1077299068 #yiv1077299068templateHeader .yiv1077299068mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1077299068 #yiv1077299068templateBody .yiv1077299068mcnTextContent, #yiv1077299068 #yiv1077299068templateBody .yiv1077299068mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1077299068 #yiv1077299068templateFooter .yiv1077299068mcnTextContent, #yiv1077299068 #yiv1077299068templateFooter .yiv1077299068mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} By Rev. Irene Monroe | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | World AIDS Day 2022 | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Irene Monroe December 8, 2022 "For God shows no partiality." Romans 2:11 ESV "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman because it often results in physical death." Martin Luther King, Jr. March 25, 1966 Medical Committee for Human Rights December 1st is World AIDS Day! With the COVID pandemic foremost on the minds of many, HIV/ AIDS seems like a distant problem. A POZ Poll asked its readers, "Are you participating in any World AIDS Day 2022 events?" On 11/28, when I responded to the poll questions, the results were 20 percent said "yes," 20 percent said "I don't know," and 60 percent said "no." In 1988, the World Health Organization designated the day to pause and reflect on the magnitude of the devastating effect this disease continues to have on domestic and global communities. Much of the focus still is on developing countries. However, African Americans are still disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic. And the epidemic is heavily concentrated in urban enclaves like Boston, Detroit, New York, Newark, Washington, D.C., and the Deep South. In February, on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day 2022, "POZ" reported that according to AIDSVu.org, African Americans in 2019 made up 43 percent of new HIV cases and comprised roughly 12- 13 percent of the U.S. population. This means that African Americans were 8.4 times more likely to contract the HIV infection than whites, according to The Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Massachusetts, where I reside, is a world-renowned medical hub known for its HIV/AIDS research and support systems, but the outcomes are equally grim. In 2019, according to a UMass Chan Medical School report titled "Burden of HIV & AIDS amongst the Black Community in Massachusetts…." African Americans comprise 7.3 percent of the population but represent 32 percent of people newly diagnosed with HIV. This means that the rate of African American males living with HIV is 5.2 times of Whites males, and the rate of African American females living with HIV is 22.7 times that of white females. African Americans who contract HIV are more likely to die from it than members of other racial groups. But this data doesn't reflect the wave of recent African diasporic immigrants of the last decade coming from the Caribbean Islands and the Motherland. This demographic group is overwhelmingly underreported and underserved—for fear of not only deportation but also of homophobic insults and assaults from their communities. In 2022, why is HIV/AIDS still an overwhelmingly Black disease in the United States? There are many persistent social and economic determinants contributing to the high rates of the epidemic in the African American community—poverty, homelessness, health care disparity, industrial prison complex, and violence, to name a few. And while we know that the epidemic moves along the fault lines of race, class, gender and sexual orientation, homophobia, stigma, and the Black Church continue to be barriers to ending the AIDS epidemic. However, the most significant obstacle is systemic racism. "I would not expect anything other than the data quoted. No matter what is being measured in America, you already know who will fare worse. Systems in America are designed to have this outcome, "said Dr. Thea James of Boston Medical Center, my spouse. Racism contributes to the high rate of AIDS among young African-American men. While gay healthcare centers open their doors to all gay men, these traditionally white organizations have failed to tailor their messages and outreach services to men of color. And while white gay men may feel the AIDS crisis in the African- American community is solely a black concern, white gay men must also be reminded that the AIDS crisis in the African-American community is their concern because they, too, have sex with black men. Poverty also helps HIV spread throughout the black community. With the high cost of life-saving drugs often coupled with the problem of homelessness, mere survival for these young men takes precedence over quality of life. Also, selling their bodies for drugs, a hot meal, temporary lodging, or a quick illusion of love lures many young gay black men to engage in risky and unprotected sex. In 2004, the now deceased Gwen Ifill, an African-American female journalist with PBS' "Washington Week" and moderator of the vice presidential debate, brought the issue of AIDS in the U.S. front and center when she asked the men-vice presidential candidates Dick Cheney and John Edwards-to comment on its devastating impact on African-American women. "I want to talk to you about AIDS, and not about AIDS in China or Africa, but AIDS right here in this country, where black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts. What should the government's role be in helping to end the growth of this epidemic?" Ifill asked. When the color of the epidemic shifted from white to Black, the inherent gender bias focused only on the needs of African-American men and rendered women invisible. And when gender became a new lens to track the epidemic, white women were the focus. The invisibility of African-American women in this epidemic has much to do with how the absence of a gendered race analysis makes African-American women invisible to the larger society. The feminization of this disease made many of us AIDS activists and scholars wonder if the same amount of money, concern, communication, and moral outrage invested in white gay men with the disease would be invested into curbing its spread among black women. In 2021, The CDC declared racism a serious public health threat and its impact on health outcomes. World Aids Day 2021, the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (2022–2025) was released, bringing shockwaves to people of color with its goal to center people living with HIV and address racism. "The Strategy recognizes racism as a public health threat that directly affects the well-being of millions of Americans," the strategy states. "Over generations, these structural inequities have resulted in racial and ethnic health disparities that are severe, far-reaching, and unacceptable." The UNAIDS 2022 theme is "Putting Ourselves to the Test: Achieving Equity to End HIV." America has a problem confronting its racism, even among marginalized whites, like LGBTQIA+ communities. I hope the POZ Poll is incorrect and that many will participate in a World Aids Day event. But I feel assured that no matter who does or doesn't participate on that day, Black Lives living with HIV/AIDS are beginning to matter. "We can end AIDS – if we end the inequalities which perpetuate it. This World AIDS Day, we need everyone to get involved in sharing the message that we will all benefit when we tackle inequalities," says UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima. "To keep everyone safe, to protect everyone's health, we need to Equalize."~ Rev. Irene Monroe Read online here About the Author Rev. Irene Monroe does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on NPR's WGBH (89.7 FM). She is a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS. Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists. A Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist; her columns appear the Boston LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows, Cambridge Chronicle, and the Boston Globe. Monroe states that her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer and religious studies. As a religion columnist I try to inform the public of the role religion plays in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.” Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College’s research library on the history of women in America. Click here to visit her website. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By J. Edward In the interest of full disclosure, I am an Atheist. Why is it that most Christians insist that the Gospels were essentially dictated to (inspired) by God to write his unerring Word? Given the number of inconsistencies and that the narratives were clearly written by different authors who couldn’t even get the story straight, why is the Bible the go-to source for the answer to everything? A: By Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers Dear J. Edward,In the interest of full disclosure, I too am an atheist, although I prefer the term non-theist because it’s not a conversation stopper. As for the irreconcilably different accounts of the gospels, you are already far ahead of most church folk, who have been sold the lie that a harmonized view of the gospels is possible. It’s not. Serious biblical study reveals that each gospel takes liberties with the narrative in order to address the needs of the communities for which they were written. They were also written decades after the death of Jesus and depend on a remembered oral tradition that was as unreliable then as it is now. As to why the claim of divine authorship and biblical inerrancy is so important, human beings are always searching for a source of authority outside of ourselves. A pope for Catholics, a paper pope for Protestants. As to why the Bible is a go to source, it remains a formative story for Jews and Christians, and a collection of literature that is foundational in the history of ideas. But let’s face it. It contains both the sublime and the ridiculous. It never was, nor should it ever be considered infallible. It can be taken seriously without being taken literally, like most of the sacred and secular literature on earth. ~ Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers is pastor of First Congregational Church UCC, Norman, Oklahoma, and retired senior minister of Mayflower Congregational UCC church, Oklahoma City. He is currently a Professor of Public Speaking and Distinguished Professor of Social Justice Emeritus in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma City University. He is a fellow of the Westar Institute and the author of eight books on religion and American culture, the most recent of which is, Saving God from Religion: A Minister’s Search for Faith in a Skeptical Age. A feature-length documentary chronicles his work on behalf of Progressive Christianity in Oklahoma (americanhereticsthefilm.com) and more information is at RobinMeyers.com | | | | | | | | 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 The Birth of Jesus, Part XV The Journey to Bethlehem Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong June 13, 2013The creators of the birth narratives, Matthew and Luke, used two motifs in interpreting the life of Jesus of Nazareth. First, each was historically aware that Jesus hailed from Galilee, indeed from the village of Nazareth. Too often the gospels report that there was debate about his origins for this not to be true. Galilee was the rustic, poor, non-cultural part of the Jewish nation. Nazareth was an insignificant town in a looked-down-upon region. Yet, they could never escape the fact that Jesus was called “Jesus of Nazareth” and referred to as a Galilean. The claim of Jesus’ disciples that he was the messiah was thus ridiculed because of these historical facts of his origin. “Search the scriptures,” his critics invited the crowds to do, “and nowhere will you find the suggestion that the messiah will come out of Galilee.” It was thought even more impossible for the messiah to grow up in Nazareth. “Nothing good can come out of Nazareth,” they declared. History is sometimes quite inconvenient when myth-making is going on. This was the first motif of the birth narratives. The place of Jesus’ origins seems not to have been an issue for Paul. Mark, the first gospel writer, assumes that Jesus was born in Nazareth and that he grew up there. When his place of origin began to be a problem for those eager to assert the messianic claim, the pressure began to build to locate his place of birth in a more noble setting. That was when the second motif around his birth appeared and had to be served. There were many messianic images in Jewish history, but a major and consistent one was that the messiah had to restore the throne of King David. In time this meant that the messiah himself had to have a claim to be a descendent and thus an heir to the royal line of King David. That throne had been lost to the Jews since 586 BCE. In that year the Babylonian conquerors had destroyed Judah in warfare. In that war’s aftermath the Babylonians rounded up and murdered all the heirs to the final Davidic king, a man named Zedekiah, and they imprisoned him after putting out his eyes. When Zedekiah finally died in prison, the royal throne of the House of David was thus thought to be vacant. That was when the idea of messiah began to grow both in Jewish thought and in Jewish mythology. Messiah was part of the national dream of restoration. The royal line of King David was an important symbol in all the hopes expressed for “the coming kingdom.” One aspect of that hope was that the messiah would reflect his Davidic roots by being born in Bethlehem, the city of David. This hope was read into a text in the prophet Micah that extolled the little town of Bethlehem as the birthplace of Judah’s kings. Slowly, this town with its royal connections and its location in the land of Judah about six miles from Jerusalem, began to rise in the messianic dreams. Messiah must be of the house of David and he must be born in Bethlehem. Matthew was the first to make this claim, but it was easy for him. He assumed that both Mary and Joseph lived in a house in Bethlehem. For this baby to be born there seemed quite natural. Matthew’s problem was that he then had to find a way to deal with history and with the fact that this baby, though born in Bethlehem, would grow up in Nazareth of Galilee. Luke, who accepts Mark’s frame of reference involving Jesus’ Galilean roots, had the opposite problem. How could it be arranged for a couple who lived in Galilee actually to be in Bethlehem when the child was born? Luke hit upon a scheme that probably has some semblance of history to it and he used it to tell his magnificent story that is familiar to most of us today. There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world was to be enrolled. Was this a census? Was it for the purpose of taxation? Periodically we learn from the Old Testament that the Jews wanted to count their citizens. There are historical hints of a census ordered within a decade after the death of King Herod or around 6 to 7 CE. The idea that an empire-wide census, however, was ever undertaken stretches credibility to the breaking point. There were no records, no birth certificates, no marriage certificates, no death certificates. Travel was hard and slow. Records were stored nowhere. Luke, however, needed to have a hook on which to create his story of the Bethlehem birth of a child whose parents were citizens of Nazareth. So he used the presumed census to account for the fact that Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem. This enrollment, Luke said, occurred when Quirinius was governor of Syria. That was an interesting addition. Luke has already related that the births of John the Baptist and Jesus had occurred when “Herod was the King of Judea.” We know from secular records, however, that Herod died in the year 4 BCE. On the other hand, we know that Quirinius did not become governor of Syria until the winter in which the year 6 CE turned into the year 7 CE. So, if Jesus was born when Herod was king, he would have been ten to eleven years old when this enrollment was ordered. The presumed history behind this birth narrative begins to wobble perceptibly. Next we learn that Joseph, because he was of the house and lineage of David, must, as a pre-requisite of this census, return to his ancestral home to be enrolled. This, Luke asserted, was the key that resulted in a Bethlehem birthplace for Jesus.. Does this mean that all the direct heirs of King David had to make the journey to Bethlehem? David, who according to the Bible had many wives and many concubines, reigned in Judah from the year 1000 to 960 BCE. If we count a generation at 20 years, a rather generous number in a world where life expectancy was only in the thirties, there would be about 48 generations between David and Jesus. If David had only 50 children, a rather small number for a king with a large harem, his direct descendants in 48 generations would be well over a billion people! Suppose it was a fact, as Luke asserts, that all of David’s direct heirs had to return to Bethlehem to be enrolled? It is no wonder there was no room at the inn! Historicity is shattered. One final note, Luke tells us that Joseph had to take Mary with him for this enrollment. Why this was necessary is not stated. In that patriarchal era, women were not enrolled, counted or taxed. They were thought of as property, part of the male’s wealth upon which taxes were paid. If this baby is to be born in Bethlehem, however, Mary, Jesus’ mother, must be in Bethlehem. So Luke tells us that Joseph took her with him even though she “was great with child,” to use the beautiful language of King James’ English. “Great with child” surely means near to term so we can assume that she was in her last month of pregnancy. How many of us have ever stopped to realize that Bethlehem was 94 miles from Nazareth? Do we embrace that the two options for transportation open to them in the first century were walking or riding on a donkey? Do we understand that this was a seven to ten day journey that would have to average nine to twelve miles a day? Are we aware that in this era there were no restaurants or hotels along the way? Now ask yourself, what man in his right mind would take his nine-months pregnant wife on a 94 mile journey on a donkey or actually walking, when the literal reason for taking her does not hold any credibility? It was a Roman Catholic lay theologian, Rosemary Ruether, who after reading this birth narrative in Luke, remarked that “only a man who had never had a baby could have written this story.” Religious art portrays this journey to Bethlehem with Mary riding side saddle on a donkey led by a walking Joseph. That is little more than romantic imagination. In the text there is no donkey. That should not surprise us. In Matthew’s story of the Wise Men, there are no camels. In Luke’s story, there is no stable. There are no animals around the Christ Child in the stable because there is no stable. There is only a feeding trough, called a manger. That feeding trough could be out in the fields as easily as it could be inside a structure. Be aware that pageants and human imagination have created images for us that are in fact not biblical. Luke’s story, however, has achieved its agenda. The Nazareth-based family has managed to be located physically in Bethlehem when the child is born. The messianic connection has been established. Mythology has been enhanced. Luke does two more things that I have mentioned earlier in this series. I repeat them here, because we can see them now in context. He takes a text from the Wisdom of Solomon where the richest of all the Jewish kings says: “When I was born I was carefully swaddled, for there is no other way for a king to come to his people.” So Luke says that they wrapped the babe in swaddling cloths and this clue was given to the shepherds to help them find him. Second, he was placed into a manger, an image Luke borrowed from Isaiah 1. This one faithful Jew, unlike the history of his people in the time of Isaiah, would know from the moment of his birth who was his father and what largesse he received from the God he represented. There are many levels on which the stories of the birth of Jesus can be read. Literalism is not one of them. So we will bring this study of the birth narratives to a conclusion next week. This is rich material, but it is not history and our analysis reveals that it was never understood by the authors of both Matthew and Luke to be history. It is a pity that the Gentiles who became both the majority and the dominant strain in the Christian Church after about 150 CE did not know the Jewish Scriptures well enough to understand what the original stories meant. Literalism is not only an expression of biblical ignorance, but it is a distortion of the gospel so dangerous as to be destructive of Christianity itself.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | Announcements Spiritual Literacy Certificate Programs - 2023 Spirituality & Practice invites you to become part of the inaugural group for two training programs based on the recognition that all of life is a spiritual practice. These programs are for individual seekers, spiritual leaders and companions, caregivers and service providers, and activists in change-making organizations. READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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12/8/22 PHOTOS—B½ OF ARCHIVE PROJECT
by Frank Knutson 08 Dec '22

08 Dec '22

Every human heartbeat is a universe of possibilities.

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