October 2021 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] A question about the distant past
by James Wiegel 22 Oct '21

22 Oct '21

Click the link for a clip from Joe Slicker, and a playlist from colleagues https://youtu.be/_7hwHDLQheI Jim Wiegel “A revolution is on the horizon: a wholesale transformation of the world economy and the way people live.” Fred Krupp > On Oct 21, 2021, at 9:03 PM, Karenbueno via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > > > I remember that about 1972 we were moving into India, and we were told they didn't really want more Christians. I think that was when Joe Mathews made his remark about an end run around the church. > > Karen Bueno > > > -----Original Message----- > From: W. J. via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > To: Dialogue Lists <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > Cc: W. J. <synergi(a)yahoo.com>; O:E Lists <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > Sent: Thu, Oct 21, 2021 5:40 pm > Subject: Re: [Dialogue] A question about the distant past > > Let's go a little deeper than the image of those little cigar boxes with steeples! > 1. That image refers to the gift of the existing geographical positioning of a global institution in 'the local'. There's a penetration strategy there. > 2. Then there's the historical wisdom that the proclamation of the Word about life is transformative both for individuals and for social structures that groups and individuals are empowered to change. The transformation of the Roman Empire and the 'Christianization' of pagan Europe are part of our history. Jesus was a very obscure nobody messiah in a very minor and rebellious bit of geography. > 3. Then there's the reality that the institutionalization and institutional forms of 'church' and 'Christianity' are always ripe for, and in need of, structural revolution, or transformative 'infiltration' (for lack of a better term). > 4. Remember Stalin's model of social change from RS-1? It was about creating an organized 'elite' with a 'vision' that transforms society by impacting old dead structures with 'imaginal education' (our term) and modeling 'comprehensive community reformulation' (our term) and 'womb to tomb' care for every human being within a given hunk of geography through the dynamic tactical implementation of a locally determined, targeted strategic model that addresses the underlying contradictions by 'cadres' of trained and motivated corporate community groups. Or something like that. > But the bottom line question(s) for me are: > 1. Were we strategic in our focus on the 'historical church'? Was there a 'Plan B' (like 'ICA')? > 2. Were our efforts just too little and/or too late? > 3. What happened to our strategic focus on the 'historical church' with our 'turn to the world'? Were we hedging our bets? > 4. Given the radical secularization and globalization of human cultures, is the westernized form of the 'historical church' just irrelevant as a vehicle for 'glocal' change? > 5. What alternative strategy/target structure could we have bet on with our whole lives and the internal mission structures of a 'religious order'? The Kiwanis Club? The Salvation Army? > 6. We had a twentieth-century strategy that was arguably culturally relevant 'back then.' What would be radically new in creating a twenty-first-century strategy in a radically changed 'glocal' culture? > Maybe this is enough to get a ball rolling with further reflections. Go for it, guys. > Marshall > > > >> On Thursday, October 21, 2021, 02:42:21 PM EDT, Ken Fisher via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: >> >> >> >> >> Jim, >> >> How about….. >> >> Around the world, 1 million little cigar boxes with steeples. >> >> What if they all took responsibility for the geography of their parish boundaries without regard for membership or dogma? >> >> All the challenges, all the ages, all the people, all the decisions, all the goods? >> >> Ken >> >> On Oct 21, 2021, at 1:21 PM, James Wiegel via Dialogue <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: >> > > What was the analysis and strategy that led to “the renewal of the local church for the sake of the world”?? > > I think there was one, but time wears away memories or, at least, hides them > > Anyone?? > > Jim Wiegel > “A revolution is on the horizon: a wholesale transformation of the world economy and the way people live.” Fred Krupp > >> On Oct 21, 2021, at 5:32 AM, Ellie Stock via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: >> >> >> > > View this email in your browser > > > He Calls us to the Task of Loving > > Essay by Rev. Deshna Shine > October 21, 2021 > I miss him and he was never really mine. Meaning he was rarely even in my life. He was not my pastor, my family member or even really my friend. Though I would have loved to call him each of those. He was not mine. He was someone on the periphery of my life, a hero, a distant lighthouse. He was a giant to me and yet, he was one of the most down to earth humans I have ever known. And I miss him and deeply wish I had sat at his table more often. > When he wrote a recommendation letter for my application into the Chaplaincy Institute, he wrote, "I would welcome Deshna as my pastor and my friend.” I was in a bit of shock when I read that part. What in the world could I offer this incredible human being in either of those roles? I wish I had believed those words, believed in myself sooner and made the effort to become his friend. I regret not writing him more often. Yes, we were colleagues at some level. Yes, we respected each other, and yes, I had the honor of working with him as his new publisher of this newsletter. But here was a living hero inviting me to befriend him and I was just… what? Busy? Scared? Lacking confidence? Intimidated? Something got in my way of accepting that invitation. And it makes me wonder, as I look at the blur of those years and all those moments I could have reached out, how often do we get in our own way? > I read his words each week. His precise, wise, eloquent, compassionate, and passionate words. I made suggestions here and there, minor edits, paragraph spaces, meaningless things. Christine had already done the real work of editing and shaping his brilliant prose into words that made sense and moved us. I read them and was never not moved. He had the unique ability to bring to life the story of Jesus, to guide us past the literal and into the mystical. If I had been paying more attention, I would have seen how I was getting in my own way of living fully and loving wastefully. I would have seen his kind words as an invitation. > In his last lecture, in June of 2018 at the Chautauqua Institution’s Interfaith Lecture Series, Jack said, “I tried to develop a crucial distinction between the Christ experience and the Christ explanation. The experience is real and timeless; the explanation is in the language of its day and is thereby time-warped and time-bound. The explanation must be surrendered, but the experience does not have to go with it.” > He did not just try. He succeeded. Fully and with an impact on millions of people’s faith and lives. The Christ experience that he illuminated for us was one of deep profound love, boundarylessness, and a life fully lived. The Christ experience that Jack so clearly saw and shared, was one of universalism, of open doors and open hearts. Jack saw God within Jesus and within each of us. He set out to discover the “holy within every human” and he found powerful ways to live into that awareness by lifting up all humans as beloved, divine beings. > I wrote my last column on nuanced conversation and I intended to write this one on how Jesus used nuanced language in his teachings… but that will have to wait. However, it’s fitting, because today I write of a man who was so comfortable in nuance that he banished duality from his ministry! Dualism has no life force in nuance. Dualism is not a part of God or Christ. God is not a being, he taught, God is Be-ing. God is Being fully. Humans cannot conceptualize God, he said, it is not possible. God is not black or white, male or female, angry or loving. God is so much more complex and incomprehensible than that. Though we can’t conceptualize or frame God into some neat and tidy box, we can experience God. > Jack experienced God as the source of all life. There is no duality within God, there is only sacred oneness. And so he reminded us that if God is the source of all life, then the best way to worship God is to live fully. Jack also experienced God as the source of love. “Love is the power that embraces life. Love flows through the whole universe. The love of God is present in the mama cat taking care of her kittens, in the cow licking the new born calf. If God is the source of love, then the only way I can worship God is by loving and loving wastefully!” > I sit here today, tears streaming down my cheeks, wondering when have I refused this invitation. The invitation that Jesus called us to and showed us by example? When have I gotten in my own way of living fully and loving wastefully? When have I judged others, deemed them unworthy of my love? When have I seen someone as unclean? Undeserving? Where have I been stagnant, bored, lazy, scared, distracted, unmindful, when I could have been fully alive and present? > The answer, I know, is not to look back and feel shame and regret. The answer is to look fully at myself now and see a human who is trying so hard to become something that I am exhausted and full of guilt and shame! My effort to become gets in the way of my Being. In a world where God is hard to find, we hold ourselves to some unachievable level that we must get to if we are to deserve to be fully accepted and loved wastefully. > Jack said, “By wasteful love I mean the kind of love that never stops to calculate, never stops to wonder whether the object of its love is worthy to be its recipient. Wasteful love is love that never stops to calculate deserving. It is love that loves, not because love has been earned. It is an act of loving wastefully. That is where God is made visible.” At what point will I consider myself worthy of wasteful love? How can I be a beacon of wasteful love in my own life and ministry? > Jack taught me that Jesus calls us to the mission to transform the world so that every living being has the opportunity to live fully, love wastefully and be all that they can be. In this experience of God, there are no outcasts, no others. In this experience of God, we are fully accepted just as we are. That must and can only begin within each of us. First we must accept ourselves fully as we are, “without one plea.” And then we must put ourselves on task of growing to BE all that we can be and loving the world wastefully. > Jack told us a story of Jesus that embodied this mission. This Jesus was not changed by flattery or even the threat of death. He was fully himself always. He loved so totally, so wastefully, he was “an infinite source of love.” > And so, the brilliant man, my hero and would be friend, leaves us with such a simple mission “to live fully, love wastefully, and become all that we can be.” He invites us to embrace life, to increase love and to have the courage to be. I passed on his invitation before, I failed to fully live because I couldn’t fully love myself. I certainly couldn’t waste love on myself. But I hear you now, Beloved One. I see you and I stand with so many others who have heard your call. > The Christ in me is an infinite well of love that I can pour wastefully, over myself, over you, over all of life. God within me asks for nothing less than a life fully lived. May I rest from this eternal struggle of becoming and see within me a perfect being. May the infinite well of love within me overflow over all of humanity. May I see each living being with eyes of the Christ, where no boundaries exist. May my love “bring oneness out of diversity, wholeness out of brokenness, and eternity out of time.” May we join together in this ministry, the ministry of Be-ing a Christian and disciples of Jesus Christ. > To my friend, my dear Jack Spong. Thank you. Thank you for the invitation not just to work with you or to be your friend, but the one of your life’s calling and prophecy. The invitation to each of us to walk through the doorway of Jesus into the mystery of God. Thank you for your bravery, your courage, and your resilience. You didn’t just try, you succeeded. You lived fully, loved wastefully and became all that you could be. Thank you for showing us the way. > > ~ Rev. Deshna Shine > > Read online here > > About the Author > Rev. Deshna Shine is Project Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org’s Children’s Curriculum. She is an ordained Interfaith Minister, author, international speaker, and visionary. She grew up in a thriving progressive Christian church and has worked in the field for over 13 years. She graduated from UCSB with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Global Peace and Security. She was Executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org, Executive Producer of Embrace Festival and has co-authored the novel, Missing Mothers. Deshna is passionate about sacred community, nourishing children spiritually and transforming Christianity through a radically inclusive lens. > Question & Answer > > Q: By Alice > > Growing up and attending a southern Baptist church, I was constantly aware of the term salvation. I am now, thankfully, attending a more progressive and open minded church (PCUSA), but still hear this word. I have never been comfortable with this term and would like to know how you see salvation and what it actually means in progressive Christianity. > > A: By Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers > > Dear Alice, > Great question, and a perennial one for those who grew up in more conservative churches where “salvation” meant believing certain things in order to get certain rewards, especially the assurance of going to heaven. Your discomfort comes from critical thinking, since to be “saved” assumes that you are lost and cannot save yourself. It also assumes that we are born into Original Sin as an inheritance, like being born left-handed or with red hair. Like so much of the language of evangelical Christianity, the “believer” is helpless and hopeless until we submit to a higher power. Or, more accurately, until we agree to say that we “accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior” and know that our sins were forgiven by his death on the cross. It also assumes that the whole purpose of the life of Jesus was to die, when in fact he was killed. So, when you begin to consider old words like “salvation” and what they might mean in progressive Christianity, it is always helpful to turn to the wisdom of Marcus Borg, whose work in helping us reconsider and even redefine words like salvation is found in a book called “Speaking Christian.” Here are some of his words on this topic that I hope will be helpful: > > The term “salvation” and the concept afterlife have been linked in Christian and religious conversation. Salvation has been made to be about gaining a “positive” afterlife. It has become a normative thought that this is the point of all religions—to ensure a happy eternal resting place. Borg would argue that the goal of the Christian life is salvation—but not primarily about before or after death ... . The best single English synonym for “salvation”—“transformation”. Transformation of ourselves and the world. It’s about personal transformation and transformation of society as a whole. Salvation can be experienced as healing—a salve. Salvation is a healing ointment. Giving the transformation from blindness to seeing. In Eastern orthodoxy—primary definition of salvation is enlightenment. Jesus came as a light in our darkness, etc. This speaks to the idea of living people who are dead inside—salvation being the transformation from death to life. Moving people from pre-occupation and anxiety to presence and compassion. Salvation is about the individual transforming and also the transformation of the world, transformation from a world justice to a world of justice. Transformation from a world of war to a world of peace. > ~ Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers > > Read and share online here > > About the Author > Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers is retired senior minister of Mayflower Congregational UCC Church, Oklahoma City, Distinguished Professor of Social Justice Emeritus in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma City University, where he still teaches. He is 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.” 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. > Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited > > Examining the Meaning of the Resurrection, Part III: > Where Were the Disciples When They Saw? > > Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong > June 16, 2011 > When people have a life-changing experience, they tend to freeze in their minds forever where they were and even what they were doing when the news broke or the new awareness entered their world. I can recall to this day where I was when, as a ten-year old child, I heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When I was 32 and a young priest, I remember my precise circumstances in which I learned of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Almost everyone in America, but especially those of us who live in the New York City area, can recall where we were and with whom when the recognition dawned that the World Trade Center had been attacked with commandeered commercial airliners being driven into the Twin Towers. > > Each of these moments was a shaping experience and each would be lived and relived in our memories for the rest of our lives. The recent navy seal raid on Bin Laden’s secret hideout in Pakistan and the death of the planner and perpetrator of this monstrous act caused many to relive that original moment and to recall just how its awareness not only entered, but also shaped our lives. > > The New Testament clearly regarded the moment we have named “Easter” as a life-changing experience, indeed so powerful a moment was it that eventually the followers of Jesus decided to make it indelible for all of history by making the decision to view the life of Jesus as the life by which history was itself divided. So all of human history came to be seen and understood as having two distinct parts. There were the years before Christ, which were to be called BC, and the years after Christ referred to as years lived in the power of his ongoing and continued presence, which we called Anno Domini, or AD, “The Year of our Lord.” > > Given both that human proclivity of remembering and the impact which the first Easter brought to the followers of Jesus, it is surprising, perhaps even amazing, that the New Testament does not seem to know where the disciples were when whatever the experience occurred that we came to call “the resurrection of Jesus.” The gospels simply do not agree on the disciples’ location when Easter dawned in their conscious awareness. There are two centers that appear to compete for the honor, one is Galilee and the other is Jerusalem. Let me now go through the available biblical data and lay out the evidence contained therein. > > We start with Paul because he is the first author of any book or work that is today contained in the New Testament. Paul, however, turns out not to be particularly helpful. He gives us no location for any of his “witnesses.” All he tells us is that Peter was the first to see and then “the Twelve.” Clearly their natural setting would be Galilee since all of them were in fact Galileans. We are told, however, that they did go to Jerusalem for the Passover so they could have been in Jerusalem. If the connection between Passover and the crucifixion is a liturgical interpretation more than a historical recollection, as I have previously suggested, the argument would be stronger that the “appearances” to which Paul is referring were events that happened in Galilee. The best we can say, however, is that the witness of Paul on this issue is ambivalent and so we move on. > > Turning to Mark, the earliest gospel (70-72), we find the anomaly to which I have previously referred, namely, that this original gospel does not relate a resurrection appearance by Jesus to anyone. Mark has only a tomb story that would clearly be in Jerusalem, but at the tomb the women find the grave empty and they hear a proclamation from one who is described only as “a young man in a white robe,” who tells them that Jesus has been raised and who then directs the women to tell the disciples that Jesus “goes before you to Galilee and there you will see him as he said unto you.” The last few words in this quotation refer back to an earlier text in Mark in which Jesus predicts that the disciples will be scattered, but “after I am raised up I will go before you into Galilee.” It is clear that Mark believes that the disciples would and did encounter the risen Christ in Galilee. It is also clear to biblical scholars that Mark’s gospel ends at 16:8 and that both the shorter ending (16:9-10), an account of an appearance to Magdalene, and the longer ending (16:14-20), which recounts an appearance “to the Eleven” are added to Mark many years later, probably in the second century, in an attempt to harmonize Mark with the other gospels. The earliest manuscripts of Mark did not contain these additions and they are universally regarded in the world of biblical scholarship as inauthentic. So we have a probable vote in Paul and an overt suggestion in Mark that Galilee is the place where the disciples are located when the meaning of Easter comes to them and captures them. > > Matthew is a further witness to the Galilean tradition. This second gospel, written in the early to mid eighties, however, does contradict Mark, whose gospel he obviously has in hand and from which he draws much of his material, by suggesting that the women saw the raised Jesus at the tomb. That would be a witness to the Jerusalem tradition. Mark had said that they did not. Luke agrees with Mark and says the women did not see him, so Matthew’s contrary view is highly suspect. Matthew, however, does agree that it was only in Galilee that “the Twelve” have a resurrection experience. This, in fact, is the first biblical account of the risen Christ appearing to the disciples anywhere. Matthew, having heard by now the story of the defection of Judas, calls them “the Eleven.” This Matthean narrative is, however a very strange one. The risen Christ who appears is not a physically-resuscitated body, but rather a transformed and glorified one, and though the ascension story had not yet been written, he is clearly an ascended, heavenly being. He comes out of the clouds to a mountain top. Matthew says that Jesus had directed the disciples to this particular mountain, though there is no indication as to when that direction was given. Then in that Galilean setting, Jesus is said to have given the great commission: “Go into all the world.” This was the first time that a suggestion was made that the raised Christ had spoken to anyone. Matthew, though ambivalent is surely in the Galilee column. > > Luke counters the Galilean tradition sharply. The resurrection of Jesus for him is a Jerusalem area only event. In Luke the women do not see Jesus at the tomb, but Cleopas and his unnamed traveling companion experience him in the breaking of bread in the village of Emmaus, less than six miles from Jerusalem. Luke later tells us that the raised Christ has also appeared to Peter, presumably that was also in Jerusalem. Finally, according to Luke, Jesus appears to all the disciples in the afternoon of Easter Day, bids them peace, identifies himself clearly, asks for food to eat, opens their minds to understand the scriptures, directs them to remain in Jerusalem until “empowered” from on high and then departs. Luke specifically denies any Galilean experience connected with Easter. > > When we come to the Fourth Gospel, Jesus first appears to Mary at the tomb, then to the disciples that evening in Jerusalem in a locked and barred room without Thomas being present. One week later, still in Jerusalem, John tells us that Jesus appears again to the disciples, but this time with Thomas present. That is where the gospel of John seems to end. Then, however, we have an epilogue, relating yet another appearance to the disciples, but this time it is much later and it is in Galilee by the Sea of Galilee, and with this narrative the epilogue ends. > > That is the biblical data and it reveals significant conflict about where the disciples were, physically, when Easter was dawned on them. Paul probably, Mark by inference and Matthew specifically say that the disciples were in Galilee when they “saw” the risen Christ. Luke refutes that and makes the Jerusalem area the sole locale of resurrection. John supports Luke in the Fourth Gospel itself, but in the attached epilogue, the scene is clearly Galilee. With such inconclusive data, our next step is to look at the various accounts of the resurrection in each of the two locales. When we do that the scales begin to tilt toward Galilee for a number of reasons. The Galilean narratives are vague, primitive and mysterious and thus appear to be original. They express something of the stunned and startled response that feels natural in those circumstances. In the Jerusalem narratives, the miraculous has been heightened and the body has become quite physical. The resurrected body of Jesus can even be touched and handled. Only in the Jerusalem stories does the risen Christ do such physical things as eat, walk, talk and interpret scripture. By every measurement, Galilee seems to be original and Jerusalem seems to be a later development. > > We have one final test. Remembering that no gospel is written except in the light of the resurrection, we examine some other stories in the gospels that are set in Galilee and which seem to have resurrection themes attached to them. The accounts of Jesus walking on the water and stilling the storm are both Galilean stories. The narrative of the disciples confessing Jesus as messiah has a Galilean setting. Jesus being transfigured before their eyes together with the long- deceased Moses and Elijah is set in Galilee. All of these narratives have a numinous, mysterious quality about them. These are the data that tip our conclusion toward an original Galilean setting. It is far easier to understand how the resurrection experience might have been shifted out of Galilee to the much more prestigious location in Jerusalem, than it is to imagine a shift going in the other direction. Recall that the birth of Jesus, which in all probability occurred in Nazareth of Galilee, was also shifted to Bethlehem near Jerusalem to provide Jesus with a more prestigious place of birth. > > Our clues thus begin to be assembled. Peter appears to have been the first to “see” and thus the first to experience whatever resurrection was. That experience appears to have occurred to him in Galilee. We turn next to the “when” question and examine the meaning of “three days.” > ~ John Shelby Spong > Announcements > > Spiritual Psychology > November 3rd - December 5th > If you are working with clients, want to begin mentoring others, or want to deepen your own personal growth, join me in learning the Tree of Life model, a powerful transformative tool for psycho-spiritual development. READ ON... > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > OE mailing list > OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net > _______________________________________________ > Dialogue mailing list > Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net > > _______________________________________________ > Dialogue mailing list > Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net > _______________________________________________ > Dialogue mailing list > Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net > _______________________________________________ > Dialogue mailing list > Dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net

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10/21/2021, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Deshna Shine: He Calls us to the Task of Loving; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 21 Oct '21

21 Oct '21

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Deshna Shine October 21, 2021I miss him and he was never really mine. Meaning he was rarely even in my life. He was not my pastor, my family member or even really my friend. Though I would have loved to call him each of those. He was not mine. He was someone on the periphery of my life, a hero, a distant lighthouse. He was a giant to me and yet, he was one of the most down to earth humans I have ever known. And I miss him and deeply wish I had sat at his table more often.When he wrote a recommendation letter for my application into the Chaplaincy Institute, he wrote, "I would welcome Deshna as my pastor and my friend.” I was in a bit of shock when I read that part. What in the world could I offer this incredible human being in either of those roles? I wish I had believed those words, believed in myself sooner and made the effort to become his friend. I regret not writing him more often. Yes, we were colleagues at some level. Yes, we respected each other, and yes, I had the honor of working with him as his new publisher of this newsletter. But here was a living hero inviting me to befriend him and I was just… what? Busy? Scared? Lacking confidence? Intimidated? Something got in my way of accepting that invitation. And it makes me wonder, as I look at the blur of those years and all those moments I could have reached out, how often do we get in our own way?I read his words each week. His precise, wise, eloquent, compassionate, and passionate words. I made suggestions here and there, minor edits, paragraph spaces, meaningless things. Christine had already done the real work of editing and shaping his brilliant prose into words that made sense and moved us. I read them and was never not moved. He had the unique ability to bring to life the story of Jesus, to guide us past the literal and into the mystical. If I had been paying more attention, I would have seen how I was getting in my own way of living fully and loving wastefully. I would have seen his kind words as an invitation.In his last lecture, in June of 2018 at the Chautauqua Institution’s Interfaith Lecture Series, Jack said, “I tried to develop a crucial distinction between the Christ experience and the Christ explanation. The experience is real and timeless; the explanation is in the language of its day and is thereby time-warped and time-bound. The explanation must be surrendered, but the experience does not have to go with it.”He did not just try. He succeeded. Fully and with an impact on millions of people’s faith and lives. The Christ experience that he illuminated for us was one of deep profound love, boundarylessness, and a life fully lived. The Christ experience that Jack so clearly saw and shared, was one of universalism, of open doors and open hearts. Jack saw God within Jesus and within each of us. He set out to discover the “holy within every human” and he found powerful ways to live into that awareness by lifting up all humans as beloved, divine beings.I wrote my last column on nuanced conversation and I intended to write this one on how Jesus used nuanced language in his teachings… but that will have to wait. However, it’s fitting, because today I write of a man who was so comfortable in nuance that he banished duality from his ministry! Dualism has no life force in nuance. Dualism is not a part of God or Christ. God is not a being, he taught, God is Be-ing. God is Being fully. Humans cannot conceptualize God, he said, it is not possible. God is not black or white, male or female, angry or loving. God is so much more complex and incomprehensible than that. Though we can’t conceptualize or frame God into some neat and tidy box, we can experience God.Jack experienced God as the source of all life. There is no duality within God, there is only sacred oneness. And so he reminded us that if God is the source of all life, then the best way to worship God is to live fully. Jack also experienced God as the source of love. “Love is the power that embraces life. Love flows through the whole universe. The love of God is present in the mama cat taking care of her kittens, in the cow licking the new born calf. If God is the source of love, then the only way I can worship God is by loving and loving wastefully!”I sit here today, tears streaming down my cheeks, wondering when have I refused this invitation. The invitation that Jesus called us to and showed us by example? When have I gotten in my own way of living fully and loving wastefully? When have I judged others, deemed them unworthy of my love? When have I seen someone as unclean? Undeserving? Where have I been stagnant, bored, lazy, scared, distracted, unmindful, when I could have been fully alive and present?The answer, I know, is not to look back and feel shame and regret. The answer is to look fully at myself now and see a human who is trying so hard to become something that I am exhausted and full of guilt and shame! My effort to become gets in the way of my Being. In a world where God is hard to find, we hold ourselves to some unachievable level that we must get to if we are to deserve to be fully accepted and loved wastefully.Jack said, “By wasteful love I mean the kind of love that never stops to calculate, never stops to wonder whether the object of its love is worthy to be its recipient. Wasteful love is love that never stops to calculate deserving. It is love that loves, not because love has been earned. It is an act of loving wastefully. That is where God is made visible.” At what point will I consider myself worthy of wasteful love? How can I be a beacon of wasteful love in my own life and ministry?Jack taught me that Jesus calls us to the mission to transform the world so that every living being has the opportunity to live fully, love wastefully and be all that they can be. In this experience of God, there are no outcasts, no others. In this experience of God, we are fully accepted just as we are. That must and can only begin within each of us. First we must accept ourselves fully as we are, “without one plea.” And then we must put ourselves on task of growing to BE all that we can be and loving the world wastefully.Jack told us a story of Jesus that embodied this mission. This Jesus was not changed by flattery or even the threat of death. He was fully himself always. He loved so totally, so wastefully, he was “an infinite source of love.”And so, the brilliant man, my hero and would be friend, leaves us with such a simple mission “to live fully, love wastefully, and become all that we can be.” He invites us to embrace life, to increase love and to have the courage to be. I passed on his invitation before, I failed to fully live because I couldn’t fully love myself. I certainly couldn’t waste love on myself. But I hear you now, Beloved One. I see you and I stand with so many others who have heard your call.The Christ in me is an infinite well of love that I can pour wastefully, over myself, over you, over all of life. God within me asks for nothing less than a life fully lived. May I rest from this eternal struggle of becoming and see within me a perfect being. May the infinite well of love within me overflow over all of humanity. May I see each living being with eyes of the Christ, where no boundaries exist. May my love “bring oneness out of diversity, wholeness out of brokenness, and eternity out of time.” May we join together in this ministry, the ministry of Be-ing a Christian and disciples of Jesus Christ.To my friend, my dear Jack Spong. Thank you. Thank you for the invitation not just to work with you or to be your friend, but the one of your life’s calling and prophecy. The invitation to each of us to walk through the doorway of Jesus into the mystery of God. Thank you for your bravery, your courage, and your resilience. You didn’t just try, you succeeded. You lived fully, loved wastefully and became all that you could be. Thank you for showing us the way. ~ Rev. Deshna Shine Read online here About the Author Rev. Deshna Shine is Project Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org’s Children’s Curriculum. She is an ordained Interfaith Minister, author, international speaker, and visionary. She grew up in a thriving progressive Christian church and has worked in the field for over 13 years. She graduated from UCSB with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Global Peace and Security. She was Executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org, Executive Producer of Embrace Festival and has co-authored the novel, Missing Mothers. Deshna is passionate about sacred community, nourishing children spiritually and transforming Christianity through a radically inclusive lens. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Alice Growing up and attending a southern Baptist church, I was constantly aware of the term salvation. I am now, thankfully, attending a more progressive and open minded church (PCUSA), but still hear this word. I have never been comfortable with this term and would like to know how you see salvation and what it actually means in progressive Christianity. A: By Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers Dear Alice,Great question, and a perennial one for those who grew up in more conservative churches where “salvation” meant believing certain things in order to get certain rewards, especially the assurance of going to heaven. Your discomfort comes from critical thinking, since to be “saved” assumes that you are lost and cannot save yourself. It also assumes that we are born into Original Sin as an inheritance, like being born left-handed or with red hair. Like so much of the language of evangelical Christianity, the “believer” is helpless and hopeless until we submit to a higher power. Or, more accurately, until we agree to say that we “accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior” and know that our sins were forgiven by his death on the cross. It also assumes that the whole purpose of the life of Jesus was to die, when in fact he was killed. So, when you begin to consider old words like “salvation” and what they might mean in progressive Christianity, it is always helpful to turn to the wisdom of Marcus Borg, whose work in helping us reconsider and even redefine words like salvation is found in a book called “Speaking Christian.” Here are some of his words on this topic that I hope will be helpful: The term “salvation” and the concept afterlife have been linked in Christian and religious conversation. Salvation has been made to be about gaining a “positive” afterlife. It has become a normative thought that this is the point of all religions—to ensure a happy eternal resting place. Borg would argue that the goal of the Christian life is salvation—but not primarily about before or after death ... . The best single English synonym for “salvation”—“transformation”. Transformation of ourselves and the world. It’s about personal transformation and transformation of society as a whole. Salvation can be experienced as healing—a salve. Salvation is a healing ointment. Giving the transformation from blindness to seeing. In Eastern orthodoxy—primary definition of salvation is enlightenment. Jesus came as a light in our darkness, etc. This speaks to the idea of living people who are dead inside—salvation being the transformation from death to life. Moving people from pre-occupation and anxiety to presence and compassion. Salvation is about the individual transforming and also the transformation of the world, transformation from a world justice to a world of justice. Transformation from a world of war to a world of peace.~ Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers is retired senior minister of Mayflower Congregational UCC Church, Oklahoma City, Distinguished Professor of Social Justice Emeritus in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma City University, where he still teaches. He is 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.” 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. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Examining the Meaning of the Resurrection, Part III: Where Were the Disciples When They Saw? Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong June 16, 2011When people have a life-changing experience, they tend to freeze in their minds forever where they were and even what they were doing when the news broke or the new awareness entered their world. I can recall to this day where I was when, as a ten-year old child, I heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When I was 32 and a young priest, I remember my precise circumstances in which I learned of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Almost everyone in America, but especially those of us who live in the New York City area, can recall where we were and with whom when the recognition dawned that the World Trade Center had been attacked with commandeered commercial airliners being driven into the Twin Towers. Each of these moments was a shaping experience and each would be lived and relived in our memories for the rest of our lives. The recent navy seal raid on Bin Laden’s secret hideout in Pakistan and the death of the planner and perpetrator of this monstrous act caused many to relive that original moment and to recall just how its awareness not only entered, but also shaped our lives. The New Testament clearly regarded the moment we have named “Easter” as a life-changing experience, indeed so powerful a moment was it that eventually the followers of Jesus decided to make it indelible for all of history by making the decision to view the life of Jesus as the life by which history was itself divided. So all of human history came to be seen and understood as having two distinct parts. There were the years before Christ, which were to be called BC, and the years after Christ referred to as years lived in the power of his ongoing and continued presence, which we called Anno Domini, or AD, “The Year of our Lord.” Given both that human proclivity of remembering and the impact which the first Easter brought to the followers of Jesus, it is surprising, perhaps even amazing, that the New Testament does not seem to know where the disciples were when whatever the experience occurred that we came to call “the resurrection of Jesus.” The gospels simply do not agree on the disciples’ location when Easter dawned in their conscious awareness. There are two centers that appear to compete for the honor, one is Galilee and the other is Jerusalem. Let me now go through the available biblical data and lay out the evidence contained therein. We start with Paul because he is the first author of any book or work that is today contained in the New Testament. Paul, however, turns out not to be particularly helpful. He gives us no location for any of his “witnesses.” All he tells us is that Peter was the first to see and then “the Twelve.” Clearly their natural setting would be Galilee since all of them were in fact Galileans. We are told, however, that they did go to Jerusalem for the Passover so they could have been in Jerusalem. If the connection between Passover and the crucifixion is a liturgical interpretation more than a historical recollection, as I have previously suggested, the argument would be stronger that the “appearances” to which Paul is referring were events that happened in Galilee. The best we can say, however, is that the witness of Paul on this issue is ambivalent and so we move on. Turning to Mark, the earliest gospel (70-72), we find the anomaly to which I have previously referred, namely, that this original gospel does not relate a resurrection appearance by Jesus to anyone. Mark has only a tomb story that would clearly be in Jerusalem, but at the tomb the women find the grave empty and they hear a proclamation from one who is described only as “a young man in a white robe,” who tells them that Jesus has been raised and who then directs the women to tell the disciples that Jesus “goes before you to Galilee and there you will see him as he said unto you.” The last few words in this quotation refer back to an earlier text in Mark in which Jesus predicts that the disciples will be scattered, but “after I am raised up I will go before you into Galilee.” It is clear that Mark believes that the disciples would and did encounter the risen Christ in Galilee. It is also clear to biblical scholars that Mark’s gospel ends at 16:8 and that both the shorter ending (16:9-10), an account of an appearance to Magdalene, and the longer ending (16:14-20), which recounts an appearance “to the Eleven” are added to Mark many years later, probably in the second century, in an attempt to harmonize Mark with the other gospels. The earliest manuscripts of Mark did not contain these additions and they are universally regarded in the world of biblical scholarship as inauthentic. So we have a probable vote in Paul and an overt suggestion in Mark that Galilee is the place where the disciples are located when the meaning of Easter comes to them and captures them. Matthew is a further witness to the Galilean tradition. This second gospel, written in the early to mid eighties, however, does contradict Mark, whose gospel he obviously has in hand and from which he draws much of his material, by suggesting that the women saw the raised Jesus at the tomb. That would be a witness to the Jerusalem tradition. Mark had said that they did not. Luke agrees with Mark and says the women did not see him, so Matthew’s contrary view is highly suspect. Matthew, however, does agree that it was only in Galilee that “the Twelve” have a resurrection experience. This, in fact, is the first biblical account of the risen Christ appearing to the disciples anywhere. Matthew, having heard by now the story of the defection of Judas, calls them “the Eleven.” This Matthean narrative is, however a very strange one. The risen Christ who appears is not a physically-resuscitated body, but rather a transformed and glorified one, and though the ascension story had not yet been written, he is clearly an ascended, heavenly being. He comes out of the clouds to a mountain top. Matthew says that Jesus had directed the disciples to this particular mountain, though there is no indication as to when that direction was given. Then in that Galilean setting, Jesus is said to have given the great commission: “Go into all the world.” This was the first time that a suggestion was made that the raised Christ had spoken to anyone. Matthew, though ambivalent is surely in the Galilee column. Luke counters the Galilean tradition sharply. The resurrection of Jesus for him is a Jerusalem area only event. In Luke the women do not see Jesus at the tomb, but Cleopas and his unnamed traveling companion experience him in the breaking of bread in the village of Emmaus, less than six miles from Jerusalem. Luke later tells us that the raised Christ has also appeared to Peter, presumably that was also in Jerusalem. Finally, according to Luke, Jesus appears to all the disciples in the afternoon of Easter Day, bids them peace, identifies himself clearly, asks for food to eat, opens their minds to understand the scriptures, directs them to remain in Jerusalem until “empowered” from on high and then departs. Luke specifically denies any Galilean experience connected with Easter. When we come to the Fourth Gospel, Jesus first appears to Mary at the tomb, then to the disciples that evening in Jerusalem in a locked and barred room without Thomas being present. One week later, still in Jerusalem, John tells us that Jesus appears again to the disciples, but this time with Thomas present. That is where the gospel of John seems to end. Then, however, we have an epilogue, relating yet another appearance to the disciples, but this time it is much later and it is in Galilee by the Sea of Galilee, and with this narrative the epilogue ends. That is the biblical data and it reveals significant conflict about where the disciples were, physically, when Easter was dawned on them. Paul probably, Mark by inference and Matthew specifically say that the disciples were in Galilee when they “saw” the risen Christ. Luke refutes that and makes the Jerusalem area the sole locale of resurrection. John supports Luke in the Fourth Gospel itself, but in the attached epilogue, the scene is clearly Galilee. With such inconclusive data, our next step is to look at the various accounts of the resurrection in each of the two locales. When we do that the scales begin to tilt toward Galilee for a number of reasons. The Galilean narratives are vague, primitive and mysterious and thus appear to be original. They express something of the stunned and startled response that feels natural in those circumstances. In the Jerusalem narratives, the miraculous has been heightened and the body has become quite physical. The resurrected body of Jesus can even be touched and handled. Only in the Jerusalem stories does the risen Christ do such physical things as eat, walk, talk and interpret scripture. By every measurement, Galilee seems to be original and Jerusalem seems to be a later development. We have one final test. Remembering that no gospel is written except in the light of the resurrection, we examine some other stories in the gospels that are set in Galilee and which seem to have resurrection themes attached to them. The accounts of Jesus walking on the water and stilling the storm are both Galilean stories. The narrative of the disciples confessing Jesus as messiah has a Galilean setting. Jesus being transfigured before their eyes together with the long- deceased Moses and Elijah is set in Galilee. All of these narratives have a numinous, mysterious quality about them. These are the data that tip our conclusion toward an original Galilean setting. It is far easier to understand how the resurrection experience might have been shifted out of Galilee to the much more prestigious location in Jerusalem, than it is to imagine a shift going in the other direction. Recall that the birth of Jesus, which in all probability occurred in Nazareth of Galilee, was also shifted to Bethlehem near Jerusalem to provide Jesus with a more prestigious place of birth. Our clues thus begin to be assembled. Peter appears to have been the first to “see” and thus the first to experience whatever resurrection was. That experience appears to have occurred to him in Galilee. We turn next to the “when” question and examine the meaning of “three days.”~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Spiritual Psychology November 3rd - December 5th If you are working with clients, want to begin mentoring others, or want to deepen your own personal growth, join me in learning the Tree of Life model, a powerful transformative tool for psycho-spiritual development. READ ON... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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October/November Update of Global Schedule
by Karen Snyder 18 Oct '21

18 Oct '21

GLOBAL SCHEDULE EVENTS OCTOBER studies from September continue this month: * Doughnut Economics * Courage to Lead * Common Earth * Choosing Earth followup conversation this Monday or Thursday led by Jim Wiegel, Jan Sanders and Lauren Brika Liga. Send an email to jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com <mailto:jfwiegel@yahoo.com> if you would like to dialogue with the questions: "What will it take to release large amounts of sustained human energy towards significant social (economic, political, cultural) change over the rest of this century? And what are the practical implications for our personal, family, professional, movemental and community lives?" NOVEMBER events include: * A Canadian film festival on climate change * The Thinking Christian dialogue with Gene Marshall * The D.R.E.A.M. class with Katherine Barton. ***** To see upcoming events, copy this this link into your browser: https://icaglobalarchives.org/social-research-center-events <https://icaglobalarchives.org/social-research-center-events> Remember: YOU are invited to: Offer a presentation you are interested in giving; Recommend other people to present; Participate in any of the events and encourage your friends to attend; and 4. Give feedback by emailing: icaglobalschedule(a)gmail.com <mailto:icaglobalschedule@gmail.com> Thank you, and we look forward to hearing from you. Alan Gammel, Washington Jan Sanders, Toronto Karen Snyder, Illinois Robyn Hutchinson, Australia Sunny Walker, Colorado Virginia Kanyogonya, Toronto The Global Schedule team is working with the ICAI Global Communications Team, established by the General Assembly (GA) in July 2021. The Communications Team focus includes: ICAI website, Winds and Waves, the Global Buzz, ICA/OE listserves, specific language groups and social media. We look forward to developing the best possible user friendly ways of sharing our stories, achievements and challenges, via these platforms.

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10/14/2021, Progressing Spirit, Rev Dr. Robin R. Meyers: Religious Exemptions?; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 14 Oct '21

14 Oct '21

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and (max-width:480px){#yiv8108866115 h4{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv8108866115 .yiv8108866115mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv8108866115mcnTextContent, #yiv8108866115 .yiv8108866115mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv8108866115mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv8108866115 #yiv8108866115templatePreheader{display:block !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv8108866115 #yiv8108866115templatePreheader .yiv8108866115mcnTextContent, #yiv8108866115 #yiv8108866115templatePreheader .yiv8108866115mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv8108866115 #yiv8108866115templateHeader .yiv8108866115mcnTextContent, #yiv8108866115 #yiv8108866115templateHeader .yiv8108866115mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv8108866115 #yiv8108866115templateBody .yiv8108866115mcnTextContent, #yiv8108866115 #yiv8108866115templateBody .yiv8108866115mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv8108866115 #yiv8108866115templateFooter .yiv8108866115mcnTextContent, #yiv8108866115 #yiv8108866115templateFooter .yiv8108866115mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Religious Exemptions? | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers October 14, 2021Like so many of you, I had planned to pen a tribute to Jack Spong on this page, but there is little I can offer that has not already been said. Truth be known, I am an author because Jack once gave his personal recommendation to Harper Collins that they should consider my work. He lectured to my congregation at Mayflower UCC one Saturday morning for four and half hours. When Fred Plummer asked me at a Westar meeting to consider taking over the Spong newsletter, I declined for one simple reason. I am not Jack Spong. There was only one, and he changed the religious landscape for so many grateful souls. It has been said that immortality can be found between the covers of a book. May it be so. There is something else I’d like to write about, however. It has been both strange and infuriating to me. Like so many of the injustices and inequities revealed by the pandemic, evangelical Christianity’s deepest values have also been unmasked. Now that more and more businesses are requiring those who return to work to get the vaccine, people who have already decided not to get the shot, often by feasting on misinformation, have also decided that their “personal freedom” trumps any biblical injunction to be our sister and brother’s keeper. But that is not all. They are now claiming that being vaccinated against the deadly Delta variant in the middle of a terrifying surge is also against their most deeply held religious beliefs. The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 allows employers to provide reasonable accommodations for employees who object to work requirements based on religious beliefs that are “sincerely held.” Since this exemption cannot be waived for social or political beliefs, religion is broadly defined as an individual’s beliefs, not necessarily the beliefs of a particular religion or denomination. This works well for people who claim to follow Jesus but whose love of the neighbor is hard to recognize. There is abundant evidence to suggest that after deciding not to get the vaccine for personal or secular reasons, a “religious exemption” is now the go-to rationale. That is, people who refuse to get a miraculously safe and effective vaccine to protect not only themselves but the rest of us are suddenly finding God, and then creating God in their own image. Who knew that God is the real Q? As reported in the New York Times, a couple in Paducah Kentucky, have found a way not to get the shot after the hospital where one of them works announced a vaccine mandate. “There are many reasons why we don’t want to take it, and faith is one.” Their concerns include a perception that the vaccine was rushed, problems with what they have read about the vaccine’s remote connection to abortion and similarities to the biblical “mark of the beast,” a symbol associated with the Antichrist.” Of course, they do not believe that they will get the virus itself. What’s more, pastors are now helping people who have just discovered their “religious” reasons for keeping the pandemic alive and deadly for the rest of us. They are drafting letters for their parishioners (often in exchange for a donation), so that the religious reasons seem more “sincere.” You just check a box confirming that you are a “practicing Evangelical that adheres to the religious and moral principles outlined in the Holy Bible.” Hold on right there. A person who adheres to the moral principles outlined in the Holy Bible would be getting the vaccine to be like the Good Samaritan who helped the man who was beaten and left for dead (on a ventilator) along with all the other unvaccinated fools who worship God in the wrong way or on the wrong mountain. She would be like Jesus, listening for the voice of health care workers who are crying out, like blind Bartimaeus, to be seen and healed. We laud them as heroes, and then we make their lives a living hell by failing to roll up our sleeves and get a shot that would empty out most of the ICU beds in the country. No wonder they are leaving the profession in droves. A person that adheres to the moral principles outlined in the Holy Bible would understand that if faith does not make a person more selfless, but instead provides divine sanction for acting more selfishly, it is worse than the atheism they despise. According to Mark, the first gospel, Jesus is a healer who teaches entirely in parables. So, what would he make of people who begged science for a miracle, got one, and then decided that their hatred of the government, or Democrats, or the Deep State requires them to reject it? Would he not tell a modern parable of the Fool Who Would Not be Vaccinated? A small-town pastor in rural Iowa is busy writing letters for his congregation that provides Godly reasons for not getting vaccinated, offering them a four-paragraph letter stating that “a Christin has no responsibility to obey any government outside the scope that has been designated by God.” If this is true, then we should all consider ignoring the most basic rules of civic compliance that are not found in the Bible. To begin, at every intersection on the roads built for us by the state, we should stop on green and go on red. Afterall, no one is going to tell us that we can’t kill ourselves and others if it means a victory over the forces of darkness! Now those lying abed in our hospitals have essentially closed ICU’s for the rest of us because they did not get vaccinated. But when they get covid they beg those in the citadel of science to heal them, and suddenly believe the science behind monoclonal antibody infusions. Each infusion costs $2,100 per dose, paid for by the evil federal government, compared to free vaccinations which overwhelmingly prevent hospitalization in the first place. The difference is that conservative talk show hosts, and their hero, Donald Trump (who in my opinion is the answer to the question What Would Jesus Not Do?) got the treatment—at the country’s finest government hospital no less—and it saved their lives. Then Mr. Trump never told a single soul, including his goose-stepping legions, to get the vaccine. It brings to mind the shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept. This madness plays out like a political map of the U.S. Seven southern states who perpetuate the lie that Biden did not win the election, account for 70% of the orders for monoclonal antibody infusions. They hate wasting tax-payer dollars, so perhaps they might consider getting the vaccine as a deficit reduction plan? The real problem, of course, is that they think of such problems as the fault of other people they despise. They consider themselves to be the victims of vast conspiracies that they read about, believe, and then act upon in ways that endanger us all. When they are lying in a hospital bed gasping for breath and clinging to life itself, they often announce both their penitence and stupidity, but it’s too late. A single vaccine would have saved them, and protected countless others, while the treatments they demand now save only themselves. This is how the pandemic unveiled the true nature of so much evangelical Christianity in America. This is how a gospel of love and inclusion for the Gentiles (everyone else) became a cosmic bargain, the individualized reward for those who say they believe the right things—even though most of those things are developed doctrines that Jesus would not recognize. The mark of a truly religious person should be a heightened moral imagination, not a weeping spectacle of fawning gratitude because Jesus died to save the most unholy of Trinities—Me/Myself/and I. In searching for a reason not to be vaccinated, a woman in Indiana did “research” into the dangers. She listened to a “health and freedom” conference hosted by an anti-vaccine podcast, and download materials from America’s Frontline Doctors, an organization that peddles false information about the vaccines and promotes as a treatment the livestock drug ivermectin. She finally landed on a verse from the Bible to back it all up from 2 Timothy: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Exactly. Amen.~ Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers Read online here About the Author Rev. Dr. Robin R. Meyers is retired senior minister of Mayflower Congregational UCC Church, Oklahoma City, Distinguished Professor of Social Justice Emeritus in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma City University, where he still teaches. He is 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.” More information is at RobinMeyers.com | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By Jeff I was brought up to understand that we meet God in church. What is it supposed to mean when people say that God is within me? I don't think I've found that to be true. A: By Rev. Mark Sandlin Dear Jeff,It's hard for me to say what a particular person or persons meant when you heard them say that, but I can tell you what it means to me. Think of humanity as the ocean and each person a wave. Each wave is different, but equally wet, equally made of the ocean. Wetness is to the ocean as God is to humanity. We each are a unique part of a whole, yet decidedly part of that whole. We are made of the same stuff. And, in each of us resides the divine. Not separate and different parts of the divine – instead, we are all part of the same Oneness. We are all part of the ocean that is God. We are all dripping wet. A conversation between a young man and his guru was once overheard, the student proudly stated, “The purpose of religion is to find God.” His teacher responded, “Not quite, the purpose of religion is to find ourselves, within which we shall find God.” Or, as Rumi once said, “I looked in temples, churches & mosques. But I found the Divine within my Heart.” Look into every great religious, spiritual, and wisdom tradition, and we find the same precept — that life’s ultimate truth, its ultimate treasure, lies within us. Jesus was once asked when the kingdom of God would come. The kingdom of God, Jesus replied, is not something people will be able to see and point to. Then came these striking words in Luke 17:21: “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” With those words, Jesus gave voice to a teaching that is universal and timeless. Particularly for those who grew up in conservative or mainline churches, the trick is letting go of some of the things we've been taught about God. It's particularly true when it comes to ideologies which suggest that God is separate from us and, thus, must be sought after and searched for. When you do begin letting go of those, instead of always looking for God, you end up feeling God and enjoy walking in the joy of this ineffable Presence. The Good News is that it produces real transformation in how you think, live, treat others and the world, because it opens up up to see God all around us and not only within. In the end, I’d simply say, there is nowhere that God isn’t and that includes inside you. ~ Rev. Mark Sandlin Read and share online here About the Author Rev. Mark Sandlin is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) from the South. He currently serves at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. Mark also serves as the President and Co-executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org. He is a co-founder of The Christian Left. His blog, has been named as one of the “Top Ten Christian Blogs.” Mark received The Associated Church Press’ Award of Excellence in 2012. Follow Mark on Facebook and Twitter @marksandlin. | | | | | | | | 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. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Thoughts on the Future of Christianity After a Conversation with the Founder of the Alban Institute Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong June 9, 2011Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to have lunch with the Rev. Dr. Loren B. Mead, known to many of you as the creator of the Alban Institute. A think tank operation, funded largely over the last fifty years with grants from major foundations, the Alban Institute has studied and made recommendations on every aspect of congregational life imaginable. For the benefit of those who might not be familiar with its activities, the Alban Institute was the source of such almost universally accepted practices today as setting congregations on the path of undergoing a self-study and creating a parish profile prior to beginning the search for a new pastor. That process, not coincidentally, has also created the position of “Interim Pastor,” a role deemed as necessary to making that long, reflective search process viable. Now retired, Dr. Mead was surely one of the 20th century’s great primary ecclesiastical innovators and Christian leaders. So enormous is his reputation and so solid has his knowledge of church life been that I listened to his words with care and gave them the attention that they merit. On that day, he discussed with me the economic crisis in which institutional Christianity is living today. The financial problems facing the Christian Church, he asserted, “are far more than just a reaction to the current economic turndown.” It is, he believes, “a reflection of something quite systemic.” To make his point, he used the analogy of a rising and receding tide. He referred to the 20 years following World War II (1945-1965) as a time in which a rising tide of interest in religion had carried all churches into a sense of well-being. In those two decades the churches followed the culture’s rush to suburbia with the building of huge numbers of suburban structures which almost immediately were filled with people and became going concerns. That changed about 1965, he added, and between 1965 and 1975, the tide began to recede, so slowly at first that it was not discernable, but picking up speed as the years flowed by. Religious interest has clearly declined and church attendance is no longer the “thing to do.” While he did not go into the causes of this, some of them are obvious. There were great tensions inside the church brought about by the civil rights movement as ecclesiastical racism was brought to the surface. Recall that Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” was addressed to the leaders of Alabama’s Christian community. There was also the conflict that rocked this nation over the Vietnam War, setting the generations against each other and causing patriotism to cease being a virtue for many. Then there was the feminist movement that struggled against many church-inspired restrictions on women and opened doors to sexual freedom. Next came the battle for justice in regard to the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in both church and society. Only recently has that battle ended in a clear victory for gay rights. In each of these social transformations institutional Christianity was generally on the losing side. The signs of those losses are present everywhere one looks in our society today and the Christian Church has been called on to adjust to these new realities. By being on the wrong side of history and then by exhausting its resources in losing battles, the credibility of the Christian Church suffered a huge setback. Christians used quotations from the scriptures to under gird their dying prejudices and in the process served to call the integrity of these scriptures into question, especially among the members of the rising generation. The fact that international leaders from the Pope, who has not yet addressed with honesty or integrity the scandal of abusive behavior on the part of the ordained and who still calls homosexuality “deviant” behavior, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who still believes Christian unity is a higher virtue than truth or justice, constitute other symptoms of our time that illustrate our inability to enter the future or to face reality. Neither Dr. Mead nor I, however, believe that these things alone, as gripping as they are, are sufficient to account for the rapid demise of organized religion in our time. There is clearly something more. In denomination after denomination, including every branch of Christendom the mood of the Christian Church today is that of contraction, merging and the closing of congregations. Even the fundamentalist churches, particularly in the South, which appeared to counter this receding tide and the mega-churches built significantly on the personalities of their charismatic clergy, appear now to have reached their limits of expansion. Many of them splinter over internal control issues or seem not to be able to survive the departure of their founder. Following this conversation with Dr. Mead I began to pull together thoughts that I have had for some time, but they never seemed to form a consistent pattern. Perhaps, after this conversation, they did. At least I want to state them and to invite others to react to these possibilities. The reason I believe Christianity is in a steep decline is that it cannot bring itself to face self-consciously the fact that the presuppositions on which our faith story was erected in the past are today no longer self-evidently true or even believable. To say it boldly, there is no God who lives above the sky and is ready to come to our aid, as most of the language of prayer assumes to be a reality. That God could be imagined only when we believed that the earth was the center of a three-tiered universe and that God not only watched over and judged the world from a heavenly throne above the sky, but also intervened regularly to answer our prayers or to assert the divine will. To please this heavenly parent and ultimate judge was what we thought would assure our eternal destiny. This concept of God began to die with the revolution in thought started by Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo in the 16th and 17th centuries, but it has grown as we have become citizens of a space age and are now beginning to embrace the enormity of the size of the universe. Our planet Earth is not only not the center of the universe, it is not even the center of our galaxy that includes some 200 billion other stars, most of which are bigger than our star that we call the sun. This God, traditionally defined as supernatural in power, we assumed was capable of miracles in a wide variety of circumstances. When Isaac Newton began to publish his work in the latter years of the 17th century, introducing us to natural law and to cause and effect, both miracle and magic were squeezed out of our consciousness. Elie Wiesel’s book NIGHT on his experience in the Holocaust was the most powerful articulation of how this idea of God died. The God of the Bible, who had intervened in human history in the cause of freedom by sending plagues upon the Egyptians and by splitting the Red Sea to enable “the chosen people” to escape from slavery at the time of the Exodus, was nowhere to be found when this God was so desperately needed to free “the chosen people” from death in the prison camps of Nazi Germany in the 20th century. Belief in such an intervening God became simply no longer credible. Next, the entire way we tell the Jesus story was challenged and, though many Christians cannot admit it, actually set aside as no longer believable by the work of Charles Darwin. The primary Christian myth assumes an original perfect creation from which human life has somehow fallen. That idea makes no sense when we embrace the fact that we have actually evolved over billions of years from single cell organisms to complex self-conscious creatures. There was no fall from an original perfection since there was no original perfection. The concept of “original sin” is largely regarded as nonsense today. Yet the fall from which Jesus has rescued us is the way we continue to tell the Jesus story. Our churches and clergy still parrot that incredibly negative Christian idea that we have been “saved by the blood of Christ.” Protestants still shout their guilt-producing mantra “Jesus died for my sins,” and Catholics still refer to “the sacrifice of the Mass” as reenacting the moment when salvation was procured. These concepts fill our hymns, our liturgies and our sermons despite the fact that they make no sense outside the parameters of the pre-suppositions that are culturally no longer believed. How can one be saved if one has not fallen? How can one be restored to a status that one has never possessed? How can God be worshiped if this God requires the death of the divine son in order to have our sins forgiven? If there is no payoff, no benefit to be gained from faithful worship and righteous living, then many ask today “why bother?” These are the things the Christian Church is up against today in this post-Christian age. None of them will be solved by inviting people to listen once again to the “old, old story” or by joining in the singing of “The Old Rugged Cross.” The problems facing institutional Christianity today in the Western world cannot be addressed by tinkering around the edges of our theological formularies or structures. As important as they have been making good parish profiles will not do it nor will even making wise choices in the selection of our clergy. We are not today in a temporary status of watching the tide go out with confidence that in time the tide will come back in . We are rather living through a cataclysmic transition from the presuppositions by which we once lived and having no idea how to tell our faith story in terms of the emerging world view for which our religion of yesterday has no relevance. So churches are dying, vast anger, rising out of cultural depression at the loss of yesterday’s meaning and unstoppable changes, are now our daily bread. The consensus of the past is breaking up. The consensus of the future has not yet been formed. We live in interesting times and dangerous times also. Political shell games and pious rhetoric will no longer suffice. Before we can move to address these issues we must understand them. I see little present indication that either church leaders or political leaders understand the depth of the problem we face. Time alone will tell, but in the meantime doing church business as usual or practicing politics as usual is a prescription not only for disaster, but for extinction.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements Be Fearless. Inspired. Unstoppable. For Change Online weekend retreat with Linda Tucker and Andrew Harvey Exploring LionHearted Leadership™ and Sacred Activism October 15th – 17th READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Jim Wiegel to the Colleague Network. Warm greetings to you, I am wanting to have a conversation(s) with you all
by James Wiegel 14 Oct '21

14 Oct '21

Can you help me answer this question? What will it take to release large amounts of sustained human energy towards significant social (economic, political and cultural) change over the rest of this century? This question first came up for me in May of 2020. I was sharing some of the historical work of ICA related to social change in the last century. | | | Social Change – ICA Social Research Center | I found myself thinking: These days, there is a whole "industry" of social change -- movements, counter movements, initiatives, approaches, studies, projections, global and local -- and a flowing stream of media, websites, articles and books on change and transformation and lessons learned.At the same time, we seem caught up in a kind of "trench warfare" -- heroic efforts, small gains, dire/hopeful and hopeful/dire reports and predictions in the midst of what often seems to be slow progress. Hence the question What will it take to release large amounts of sustained human energy towards significant social (economic, political and cultural) change over the rest of this century? and its follow up, "What are the implications?" (we'll get to this afterwards) This question came up for me again, in May of this year, studying CHOOSING EARTH with a number of you. The author talks about a coming "Great Transition" as we move through the multiple challenges we face using the term "lift" to describe what is needed. Hence (again) the question: What will it take . . . There are several ways you can participate. 1. First, of course, and simplest, is make your own list of answers and share them. Brainstorm 15-18 answers to the question on a piece of paper or on a note in your favorite device. I am most interested in your intuitions, based on your life experience, of what it will take. Pick the 8-10 from the list that you think are your best answers and send them to me in an email or use this link to share your answers. 2. Join with others in one of two 90 minute Zoom sessions next week using a simplified ToP workshop process to work together at answering the question. Email me to reserve your spot Monday, October 18, 6 pm San Francisco time; Thursday, October 21, 6 pm San Francisco time 3. If these times don't work for you, make a suggestion and we'll try to set some additional times later in the month that would work. We hope to come back around in November with a report and to work on the second question of implications. 4. Jan Sanders and Lauren Brika Liga are working with me on this, coordinating, getting the word out, figuring out steps, participation diversity and inclusion, tech production and facilitation. We could use some help. Again let us know. This is a pilot initiative toward the creation of a Global Research Network. See here for a 1 page summary | | | The Global Action Research Network of t... | For some additional background on this, click here. Jim Wiegel Theunknown is what is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybodyscurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, allthat. Unknown is what is. Accept that it's unknown, and it's plainsailing. John Lennon 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353 623-363-3277 jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com

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Re: [Oe List ...] OE Digest, Vol 115, Issue 4-- Jim Wiegel What will it take?
by Richard and Maria Maguire 14 Oct '21

14 Oct '21

Hi Jim This is a great offer, and a questions that concerns Maria and I. We would like to participate, and will send our thoughts beforehand too. Please put links in as URLs instead of links. The ones you put in don't come through on the list. The time would work for us in Australia. As far as making it more accessible, it might be a good idea to have the two sessions start at different times, about 12 or so hours apart. That would make it possible for anyone in the world to easily participate without having to be up at 3am, etc. Best wishes Richard Maguire > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2021 22:04:55 +0000 (UTC) > From: James Wiegel <jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com> > To: James Wiegel <jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com>, Order Ecumenical Community > <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net>, Colleague Dialogue > <dialogue(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> > Subject: [Oe List ...] Jim Wiegel to the Colleague Network. Warm > greetings to you, I am wanting to have a conversation(s) with you all > Message-ID: <807868680.2372825.1634076295261(a)mail.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Can you help me answer this question? > > What will it take to release large amounts of sustained human energy towards significant social (economic, political and cultural) change over the rest of this century? > > This question first came up for me in May of 2020.? I was sharing some of the historical work of ICA related to social change in the last century. > > | | | > Social Change ? ICA Social Research Center > | > > > > I found myself thinking:? These days, there is a whole "industry" of social change -- movements, counter movements, initiatives, approaches, studies,? projections, global and local -- and a flowing stream of media, websites, articles and books on change and transformation and lessons learned.At the same time, we seem caught up in a kind of "trench warfare" -- heroic efforts, small gains, dire/hopeful and hopeful/dire reports and predictions in the midst of what often seems to be slow progress. > Hence the question What will it take to release large amounts of sustained human energy towards significant social (economic, political and cultural) change over the rest of this century???and its follow up, "What are the implications?" (we'll get to this afterwards) > This question came up for me again, in May of this year, studying CHOOSING EARTH with a number of you.? The author talks about a coming "Great Transition" as we move through the multiple challenges we face using the term "lift" to describe what is needed.? Hence (again) the question:?What will it take . . .? > There are several ways you can participate.??1.? First, of course, and simplest, is make your own list of answers and share them.? Brainstorm 15-18 answers to the question on a piece of paper or on a note in your favorite device.? I am most interested in your intuitions, based on your life experience, of what it will take.? Pick the 8-10 from the list that you think are your best answers and send them to me in an email or use this link?to share your answers. > > 2.? Join with others in one of two 90 minute Zoom sessions next week using a simplified ToP workshop process to work together at answering the question.? Email me to reserve your spot > Monday, October 18, 6 pm San Francisco time;? > > Thursday, October 21, 6 pm San Francisco? time > > 3.? If these times don't work for you, make a suggestion and we'll try to set some additional times later in the month that would work.? We hope to come back around in November with a report and to work on the second question of implications. > 4.? Jan Sanders and Lauren Brika Liga are working with me on this, coordinating, getting the word out, figuring out steps, participation diversity and inclusion, tech production and facilitation.? We could use some help.? Again let us know.?This is a pilot initiative toward the creation of a Global Research Network.? See here for a 1 page summary > > | | | > The Global Action Research Network of t... > | > > > > For some additional background on this, click here. > Jim Wiegel ? > > > > Theunknown is what is.? And to be frightened of it is what sends everybodyscurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, allthat.? Unknown is what is.? Accept that it's unknown, and it's plainsailing.? ??John Lennon > > > > 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353 > 623-363-3277 > > jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com > > www.partnersinparticipation.com > > >

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Dr. Karen Newkirk. Bending History
by James Wiegel 09 Oct '21

09 Oct '21

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-111-bending-history-karen-newkirk/… Jim Wiegel “A revolution is on the horizon: a wholesale transformation of the world economy and the way people live.” Fred Krupp

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Song: Take Care and Build the Earth
by Ellie Stock 08 Oct '21

08 Oct '21

Hi Folks, Fall greetings from St. Louie! As we continue to "build the Earth" wherever we are and however we can with the gifts and situations before us... just sharing a song: Take Care and Build the Earth. Attached are: -Music notation/guitar chords/lyrics -Lyrics with chords-Audio of song (group)-Audio of song (solo) The audios are are "log", not performance recordings, but they give you an idea of the melody. They are also sung in a different key than the written notation and the guitar chords. Grapes and peas ~ Ellie :)elliestock@aol.com #yiv8503585322 -- filtered {}#yiv8503585322 filtered {}#yiv8503585322 p.yiv8503585322MsoNormal, #yiv8503585322 li.yiv8503585322MsoNormal, #yiv8503585322 div.yiv8503585322MsoNormal {margin:0in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv8503585322 a:link, #yiv8503585322 span.yiv8503585322MsoHyperlink {color:#0563C1;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv8503585322 span.yiv8503585322EmailStyle26 {font-family:sans-serif;color:windowtext;}#yiv8503585322 .yiv8503585322MsoChpDefault {font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv8503585322 filtered {}#yiv8503585322 div.yiv8503585322WordSection1 {}#yiv8503585322

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Global Buzz for October
by ICA International 06 Oct '21

06 Oct '21

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... And please click the link below for the latest issue of the Global Buzz Global Buzz Report: October 2021 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-21/2021-10-01.php Read the latest ICAI Winds & Waves Magazine brought to you now on Medium.com See here: https://medium.com/winds-and-waves ICAI Communications

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