February 2022 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

February 17 Environmental Film: "2040", hosted by Ferguson Eco Team
by Ellie Stock 16 Feb '22

16 Feb '22

Dear Friends, February greetings! You are invited to watch "2040", the next environmental film hosted by the Ferguson Eco Team: Thursday, February 15, 2022, 7:00 PM Central Time via ZOOM. A conversation will follow the film viewing. TO REGISTER FOR THE ZOOM LINK: https://bit.ly/FETFeb2022 2040 is an innovative feature documentarythat looks to the future but is vitally important NOW. Award-winning directorDamon Gameau embarks on journey to explore what the future would look like bythe year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to usto improve our planet and shifted them into the mainstream. Structured as avisual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, Damon blends traditional documentaryfootage with dramatized sequences and high-end visual effects to create avision board for his daughter and the planet. —GoodThing Productions For more information, please contact:Carleton or Ellie Stock (314) 521-8418carletonstock@aol.comelliestock@aol.com #yiv6665059736 -- filtered {}#yiv6665059736 filtered {}#yiv6665059736 p.yiv6665059736MsoNormal, #yiv6665059736 li.yiv6665059736MsoNormal, #yiv6665059736 div.yiv6665059736MsoNormal {margin:0in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv6665059736 a:link, #yiv6665059736 span.yiv6665059736MsoHyperlink {color:#0563C1;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv6665059736 span.yiv6665059736EmailStyle19 {font-family:sans-serif;color:windowtext;}#yiv6665059736 .yiv6665059736MsoChpDefault {font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv6665059736 filtered {}#yiv6665059736 div.yiv6665059736WordSection1 {}#yiv6665059736

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2/10/2022, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Roger Wolsey: A Time of Theological Déjà vu?; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 10 Feb '22

10 Feb '22

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screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1027401536 #yiv1027401536templateBody .yiv1027401536mcnTextContent, #yiv1027401536 #yiv1027401536templateBody .yiv1027401536mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv1027401536 #yiv1027401536templateFooter .yiv1027401536mcnTextContent, #yiv1027401536 #yiv1027401536templateFooter .yiv1027401536mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A Time of Theological Déjà vu? | | | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Roger Wolsey February 10, 2022Wait. Haven’t we seen this before? There are certain dynamics taking place today that may remind us of dynamics that took place early in the last century. I suggest that pondering such similarities is not only warranted - but needed. Let’s begin by defining some terms. Progressive Christianity is the post modern influenced evolution of historic mainline Protestant liberal Christianity (and an heir to the Social Gospel movement). Liberal Christianity was a theological response to modernity – to the modern era, especially in light of Darwin’s theory of the evolution of the species, i.e., embracing science. Fundamentalism, of course, was the other modern era response to modernity – and especially Darwin; i.e., rejecting science. Liberal Christianity held a high view of humanity and believed that humans could effectively manifest and live-out Jesus’ prayer for God’s Kingdom to come “on earth as it is in heaven.” Liberal Christianity was wedded to the Social Gospel movement and many needed reforms to labor conditions in the West were implemented (e.g., promoting unionizing of workers, worker safety, worker rights, the creation of the 40-hour work week, etc.). New laws were also put into place to put an end to the “robber baron” era of corporate fat cats exploiting the masses and monopolizing the financial sector and the economy. Real progress took place and there was a high spirit of optimism for humanity and the world. ….But then…. the world was rocked by the truly senseless and utterly barbaric World War I – a war in which 10 million soldiers were cruelly killed – often in trenches via caustic mustard gas; and 10 million civilians were also killed. And many more people survived suffering profound trauma. In the last year of that that four-year war, the world was also hit by a devastating influenza – the so-called “Spanish” flu which wiped out an estimated 50 million people across the globe. That pandemic was perceived by some as God’s wrath against sinful humanity. Soon after that war, a marked rise in zealous nationalism arose including a growing populist trend toward favoring authoritarian strong-man leaders – culminating in Hitler, his genocides, and yet another world war. The former spirit of optimism was challenged, and Christianity experienced a theological crisis. A response to this intellectual crisis arose and has since been referred to as “Neo-Orthodoxy.” Prominent figures in this movement included Karl Barth and Reinhold Niebuhr. Key teachings of this movement included: a reduced estimation of the essential goodness of humanity; increased emphasis on original sin, human sinfulness, and a need for Divine intervention to properly address this problem of sin – i.e., Jesus’ death on the cross and the exclusivity of Christianity as the vessel of salvation in the world. Moreover, God was presented as “wholly other” from humans. A case could be made that these teachings fostered a renewal of Calvinism (humans viewed as utterly depraved) and Gnosticism (enfleshed humans viewed as the opposite of the transcendent glory of the Spirit Divine which loathes the worldly realm). The wake of that movement lingers in contemporary evangelicalism which would have Christians be focused more on believing the right things in order to go to heaven (“the better place”) when we die, rather than be focused on, or even concerned about, temporal matters on the earth in the here and now. Progressive Christianity has been around for roughly 30 years and it shares the high regard of humans and our essential goodness. Most progressive Christians either reject the doctrine of original sin, and the substitutionary theory of the atonement – or hold that belief in, and subscribing to, those things isn’t required for Christianity. Many progressive Christians instead believe in original blessing and embrace the moral example theory of the atonement. We embrace the way, teachings, and example of Jesus as our way of experiencing salvation – understood as wholeness, well-being, and healing – far more than understood as the rectification of “the sin problem.” Progressive Christians often do speak of sin, but the focus tends to be far more on systemic sins such as racism, homophobia, misogyny, financial exploitation, and poor stewardship of planet earth. Many progressive Christians also value mysticism and spiritual practices which help us to experience the Divine within us. Many of us thus embrace panentheism and reject notions of God as “wholly other.” Finally, progressive Christians don’t believe that Christianity has a monopoly on God or salvation. We honor and celebrate other religions as valid and effective vessels of God’s love. …. But then… the world was hit by: 20 years of warfare between the West and fundamentalist Islamist terrorists (or put another way, 20 years of the U.S. seeking to maintain superpower status and to maintain its effective empire); the rise of Trumpism - renewed populist movements around the globe whereby many people are rejecting the “spirit of hope” Obama sought to convey – and instead favoring authoritarian strong-man leadership and rejecting experts and scientists. There is a collective denial about the reality and gravity of human aggravated global warming and there is a similar collective denial about the reality and seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic – which has killed nearly 6 million people so far. Déjà vu. What I’m suggesting is that there are certain dynamics in our contemporary world at the start of this new century that are in some ways reminiscent of dynamics at the start of the last one. I’m also suggesting that there is a theological crisis at hand – and there are likely to be some similar responses to it. One possible response is a rejection of progressive Christianity and the rise of a new neo-orthodoxy, perhaps in the form of the hyper Calvinist, macho theology of Mark Driscoll, et al. Another response might be a call for a “course correction” within progressive Christianity to help it better align with facts on the ground - at least half of the public don’t care if people die of COVID (or suffer handicapping long-term conditions if they do survive it; and we clearly aren’t doing anything significant to combat or mitigate Climate Change. Perhaps we’d do well to lower our expectations of what it means to “be our brother’s keepers” and to “love our neighbors.” Perhaps we’d experience less cognitive dissonance and inner turmoil if we simply embrace compassion fatigue and give our blessings to the mess of a status quo and “go along to get along.” Perhaps we should say, “It’s God’s will that people are failing to do right be each other and the planet. And “only God” can save us – and only if ‘He’ wants to.” And still another response might be a redoubling of our efforts to deepen into the values and perspectives of progressive Christianity – boldly going against the grain and swimming against the current currents. I don’t have “the” answer here, though I happen to lean toward the aforementioned “redoubling” option. What I feel called to do is to lift-up the parallels of our present socio-political climate and point out the need for intentional, mindful, and prayerful response by those of us who embrace progressive Christianity. I’d like to invite the readers of this forum to please weigh in with your thoughts about all of this. We need as many caring minds addressing this as possible. What do you make of these apparent similarities? How do you think progressive Christians might best respond? Yours in hope, optimism, and non-exclusive, inter-faith mystic connection to each other and the Divine,Rev. Roger Wolsey Read online here About the Author Rev. Roger Wolsey is a United Methodist pastor who resides in Grand Junction, CO. Roger is author of Kissing Fish: Christianity for people who don’t like Christianity and blogs for Patheos as The Holy Kiss and serves on the Board of Directors of ProgressiveChristianity.Org. Roger became “a Christian on purpose” during his college years and he experienced a call to ordained ministry two years after college. He values the Wesleyan approach to the faith and, as a certified spiritual director, he seeks to help others grow and mature. Roger enjoys yoga; playing trumpet; motorcycling; and camping with his son. He served as the Director of the Wesley Foundation campus ministry at the University of Colorado in Boulder for 14 years, and has served as pastor of churches in Minnesota, Iowa, and currently serves as the pastor of Fruita UMC in Colorado, and also serves as the "CRM" (Congregational Resource Minister/Church Consultant) for the Utah/Western Colorado District of the Mountain Sky Conference. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader The 'broken' language I hear from other Christians sometimes has never felt right to me. Are we all really broken?” A: By Rev. Mark Sandlin Recently the above question from a reader prompted me to share this perspective on social media. Based on the responses, it clear there are a lot of folks whose spiritual journey would benefit from hearing this. So, I wanted to share with you my answer. A lot of Christianity has it wrong. We are not broken. We are not fallen. We are not flawed. We are simply fragile. We are beautifully distractible. We are self-invested because of love but that love also gives us a slight bias toward justice. We are so deeply invested in life that we can, at times, deny the larger good for the experience of the moment. We are not broken. We are human. We are flesh and blood, and we are experiential. Sometimes that makes us better. Sometimes that makes us worse. It never makes us less. Or sinful. Or unredeemable. It means we are real. It means that life has a relentless hold on us. The struggles, the stumbles, the seemingly endless short-fallings simply point to our humanity not to our unworthiness. They mean life is difficult — but they also mean life is vibrant, pulsing with potential, ripe with possibility, constantly presenting lessons from which to grow. YOU — you are not broken. You are a unique expression of God here on Earth. You are bursting with potential that has not yet been expressed. You are God’s beloved. You are NOT broken. You are in process. You are love hoping to not only be expressed but to be recognized. ~ 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. His Podcast The Moonshine Jesus Show is on Mondays at 4:30pm ET. 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. | | | | | | | | | | | This Week's Featured Author Moonshine Jesus Show With Rev. Mark Sandlin and Rev. Dr. Caleb Lines Weekly on Mondays at 4:30 p.m. EST, streaming live, a weekly podcast on our Facebook and other social media called “Moonshine Jesus Show”! The podcast is hosted by our Co-Executive Directors Mark Sandlin and Caleb Lines and brings Progressive Christian perspectives on pop culture, theology, and politics while having a lot of fun. We hope that this will be an entertaining, yet meaningful way to deepen your Progressive Christian journey! READ ON ... | | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited My Second Great Mentor: David Watt Yates (1904-1967) Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong January 12, 2012His name was David Watt Yates. As an Episcopal priest he fought for the integration of the races in North Carolina in the 1940’s! He was a conscientious objector during World War II even in the face of such compelling moral issues as theories of the “Master Race” and the reality of the Holocaust. He was a rare tee-totaling Episcopalian, who did not even honor the Anglican clerical tradition of “a bit of sherry” at cocktail time. He was unmarried and, as far as I knew, was never significantly attracted to a permanent relationship of any sort. He possessed an authenticity that was breathtaking, a character that was uncompromising and a devotion to the priesthood that was uncommon. His bishop in North Carolina, Edwin Anderson Penick, who was under constant pressure from this man’s critics who were always seeking to have him silenced, declared him to be “the conscience of this diocese” and this bishop never wavered in his support of this priest. When I first met him he was the rector of the Chapel of the Cross, a large Episcopal Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, located between the Morehead Planetarium, the Arboretum and a female dormitory called Alderman near the center of The University of North Carolina campus. He was a powerful presence and as influential a priest as I have ever known. During his years as rector of this parish, more young men (women were not then admitted to the priesthood) became Episcopal priests from this university than from any other university in America. Some of them went on to become theological professors, deans of theological seminaries, bishops and outstanding parish priests. David Yates was undoubtedly the primary reason for this. He was certainly a role model and a powerful influence on me. This week, let me introduce you to David Watt Yates in this column – my second significant mentor.David was born in Charlotte, N. C., on September 4, 1904. He grew up in St. Peter’s Church in downtown Charlotte, a church I would join before my 12th birthday. Its rector was Edwin Anderson Penick, who while still in his mid-thirties, would be elected bishop of North Carolina. David’s life, Bishop Penick’s life and my life would intertwine again and again. David graduated from Central High School in Charlotte in 1928. I would graduate from that same school in 1949. He did his undergraduate work at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, a flagship college of the Episcopal Church in America, famous in that day for producing more Rhodes Scholars per the size of its student body than any other institution of higher learning in the United States. He received his degree at the height of the depression in 1931. A tall, well coordinated, graceful man, David lettered in baseball, playing for the Sewanee Purple Tigers varsity team and was known to wear his purple sweater with the attached letter “S” in white for many years after his playing days were over.Desiring to become a priest, he went to the Virginia Theological Seminary, receiving his Master’s degree in Theology in 1934. Of personal interest to me is the fact that his sister Claire Yates Owens, remained in Charlotte, became a school teacher and was my teacher in the fifth grade. I recall vividly that she started each day with a Bible story and a prayer. That was quite legal in North Carolina in the 1940’s. She also required her students to memorize the Ten Commandments in the long form! David and Claire were made of similar stuff. David was ordained deacon and priest by his former rector, now Bishop Penick, who would ordain me priest 21 years later. He was then assigned to be an assistant at Calvary Parish and its surrounding missions in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, where he served for two years. Twenty-three years later, I would be rector of that parish, so David’s ghostly presence was quite familiar to me. In 1935, he moved from Tarboro to become the rector of St. Philip’s, the downtown Episcopal Church in Durham, where he remained until the end of World War II in 1945.There was a popular story that I have never been able to verify, but believe to be true since it is so in character. On VJ Day in August of 1945, the people of America took to the streets to celebrate the end of World War II, pouring into the churches across this land to give thanks. David met the assembled host in his Durham church and, true to his pacifist stand, instead of prayers of thanksgiving he offered prayers of penitence for ever having gotten into the war. The crowds entered St. Philip’s in a celebratory mood, but left seething with rage.I do not know that this end-of-the war experience led to his departure, but the record shows that later in 1945, he moved twelve miles away from Durham to Chapel Hill, known by those who live there as “the southern part of heaven.” UNC’s school color is sky blue, which has caused its graduates to assert that God is surely a Tar Heel fan since God has painted the sky Carolina blue. He stayed in that Chapel Hill post until 1959, long enough to assist students to become conscientious objectors in the Korean War, helping them to adjust to a desegregating world and in both instances creating anger. I was a student during those years, entering in 1949 and receiving my degree in philosophy in 1952. David Yates was all over my UNC experience.David offered rooms in the parish house to poor boys at the university who were Episcopalians. I qualified on both counts and lived for all of my years at UNC in that building. Six of us shared two rooms. In exchange for our rooms, we did the Sunday bulletin on an ancient linotype machine, answered the phone after office hours and provided security at night. Of my seven roommates over my years there five became Episcopal priests, one became an art historian and one went into public relations. Both of these non-clergy roommates, however, became active lay persons serving the church in major leadership roles.As students we spent a lot of time making fun of David. His sermons were long and always had three points, which he regularly illustrated with three fingers. The second point usually made him look like he was giving the finger to his congregation!When the University Episcopal students would meet with David at what we called the “Canterbury Club,” we would begin with a hymn sing. Someone always insisted on singing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” to taunt David’s pacifism. We also made fun of his stark, almost puritan churchmanship and would buy him presents like a biretta he would never wear and a thurifer for incense that he would never swing. The university was racially segregated in those “separate but equal” days with black students going to North Carolina College in Durham, which was certainly separate, but it was radically unequal. Even our basketball team had twelve white players and was such low status on campus that people barely followed it. We know today of the UNC star named Michael Jordan, but no one remembers Nemo Nearman, who was our star center in the late forties. David spoke out against this prevailing racism, but it was too deeply entrenched for many to notice. He was dismissed as a dreamer or visionary. David, however, lived what he believed with enormous skill and with visible integrity. We laughed about him in public, but admired him in private and we were shaped by him more than we could admit.David presided over my marriage to a Carolina co-ed named Joan Lydia Ketner (who died in 1988). He followed me through seminary, was a presenter when I was ordained a deacon and priest and, early in my priesthood, invited me to return to Chapel Hill to speak to the Men’s Club at his church. My assigned topic was “The Message of the Prophet Habakkuk”! Even as a seminary graduate I barely knew where to find Habakkuk in the Old Testament and I could not imagine that the men of the Chapel of the Cross would have any more interest in that subject than I had. What fascinated me about this evening, however, was that in this audience of Episcopal men was Professor Louis Kattsoff, the head of the Philosophy Department and my faculty advisor as an undergraduate. Dr. Katsoff was Jewish by ethnicity, but an atheist by persuasion. When he learned of my plans to major in philosophy as preparation for a career in the priesthood, he was quite disdainful, dismissing Christianity as an “outdated medieval superstition that needed to be removed from the modern world!” Needless to say, I did not find him supportive in the pursuit of my goals. Now, however, four to five years after I had graduated from this university, I discovered Dr. Katsoff in the audience I was addressing at the Episcopal Church. I was amazed and asked him how he happened to be present. “I have been baptized, confirmed and am now active in this church,” he said. “Louis,” I responded, “When this is over may I come by your home and hear your story?” “Of course,” he said. Shortly after I had forgotten everything I had said about Habakkuk, I was in his home listening to his story. “It was David Yates who got to me,” he said. I found that almost unbelievable. “Louis,” I said, “I know both of you well and David Yates is not in your intellectual league. You can think rings around him.” To this Louis Katsoff replied, “David did not outthink me, he outlived me.”That was his power. He outlived us all, not in length of days, but in character, in devotion, in honor and in commitment. David left Chapel Hill in 1959 to become rector of the parish church at Sewanee, Tennessee, where he remained until 1966 and then went to St. Timothy’s in Columbia, South Carolina where his ministry was interrupted by the sickness that was to claim his life within a year. If this man had objected on moral grounds to World War II and Korea, we can only imagine his response to Vietnam, Granada, Iraq and Afghanistan. He died in Charlotte in 1967 at the relatively young age of 63, leaving a trail of people deeply in his debt. I am one of them. I am glad I knew him. I am a better person because I did.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | Announcements The Gift of Black Students to Graduate Theological Education. Register now for a special Black History Month virtual event Feb. 17 at 4pm Eastern Time with The Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas in conversation with The Rt. Rev. Dr. Nathan Baxter discussing The Gift of Black Students to Graduate Theological Education. Read on... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Global Buzz February
by ICA International 07 Feb '22

07 Feb '22

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: February 2022 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-22/2022-02-01.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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2/03/2022, Progressing Spirit: The Rev. Mark Sandlin: American Christianity as a Cover for Racism; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 03 Feb '22

03 Feb '22

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and (max-width:480px){#yiv3230069955 h4{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv3230069955 .yiv3230069955mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv3230069955mcnTextContent, #yiv3230069955 .yiv3230069955mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv3230069955mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv3230069955 #yiv3230069955templatePreheader{display:block !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv3230069955 #yiv3230069955templatePreheader .yiv3230069955mcnTextContent, #yiv3230069955 #yiv3230069955templatePreheader .yiv3230069955mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv3230069955 #yiv3230069955templateHeader .yiv3230069955mcnTextContent, #yiv3230069955 #yiv3230069955templateHeader .yiv3230069955mcnTextContent p{font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv3230069955 #yiv3230069955templateBody .yiv3230069955mcnTextContent, #yiv3230069955 #yiv3230069955templateBody .yiv3230069955mcnTextContent p{font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;}}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){#yiv3230069955 #yiv3230069955templateFooter .yiv3230069955mcnTextContent, #yiv3230069955 #yiv3230069955templateFooter .yiv3230069955mcnTextContent p{font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;}} | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | American Christianity as a Cover for Racism | | | | | | | | Essay by Rev. Mark Sandlin February 3, 2022 Race plays a profound role in all aspects of life in the United States. When you stop to think about it, that is absolutely astounding considering that race, at least biologically speaking, doesn't actually exist. You see, for hundreds of years scientists assumed race was a biological reality because people look different to the naked eye: different skin color, different hair texture, different facial structure. “There must be different races!” But literally hundreds of scientific studies in the last forty some years have demonstrated there is no significant genetic difference between human beings regardless of differences in skin color, hair, and facial structure. Yet, we live in a nation, in a world, where we not only use slight cosmetic differences to marginalize, abuse, and take advantage of people. In extreme cases, we use it as a reason to kill them. It is imbecilic behavior that should be thwarted by the scientific facts of it. But, it is not. It makes me wonder if evolution quit working at some point. I mean, we certainly haven't evolved much on the issue of racism. What it really makes me wonder is how is there so much support for this kind of thing? What piece of our society continues to push and support such backwards way of thinking? Well, this may not be THE answer, but I think it's one of them. About 10 years ago, an analysis led by Wendy Wood, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at USC College and the USC Marshall School of Business, found a positive correlation between religiosity and racial bias. But is religion really the problem here or is it something else? The analysis looked at data from 55 studies on religion and racism in America dating back to the Civil Rights Act. Combined, the studies include more than 22,000 participants, mostly white and Protestant. (And that's important, Protestant. Much of the current support for our racially biased government comes from the more conservative Evangelical Christian movement, not the Protestant). As the study reports: “A meta-analytic review of past research evaluated the link between religiosity and racism in the United States since the Civil Rights Act. Religious racism partly reflects intergroup dynamics. That is, a strong religious in-group identity was associated with derogation of racial out-groups. Other races might be treated as out-groups because religion is practiced largely within race, because training in a religious in-group identity promotes general ethnocentrism, and because different others appear to be in competition for resources. In addition, religious racism is tied to basic life values of social conformity and respect for tradition... The authors failed to find that racial tolerance arises from humanitarian values, consistent with the idea that religious humanitarianism is largely expressed to in-group members. Only religious agnostics were racially tolerant.” The analysis did not focus on how the racism/religion connection plays out in churches and religions predominantly populated by people of color, nor how non-Judeo-Christian religions affects adherents' racial attitudes. But the authors of the study hypothesized that their analysis would hold across world religions. Recognize here that the study did not find that religion causes racism. It's finding says that it is fertile soil for those who have tendencies toward racism. Progressive, Christian, author Anne Lamott puts it this way, “You can safely say that you've created God in your own image when it turns out God hates all the same people you do.” Or as I once put it, "If your religion doesn’t challenge you to care for people you might otherwise be dismissive of and, instead, reinforces your negative feeling about them, you don’t have a religion – you have a formalized structure for institutionalizing your biases." Basically, when religion isn't practiced with intelligence and compassion, it can easily be used as an authoritative confirmation of our biases. In churches that eschew the humanist perspectives of critical thinking and the innate value of individuals, perverting information to suit personal prejudices is far too easy. Add to it the dogmatic environment of most churches and it can be the perfect petri dish for growing cultures of racism. Putting racism into the hands of God also makes life easier when you are confronted with social injustices. If you can blame a group's oppression on the retribution of an angry god or some inherent deficiency, then you not only have no responsibility in it, but you'd be foolish to go against God. Not only that, you don't have to feel bad about the privileges that are given to you when you choose to not extend those same privileges to people who've already been judged by God (at least in your eyes). The harsh reality of race and religion in America is that religion has become a cover for racism. We all like to think that the idea "separate but equal" is something from a bygone era. That segregated lunch counters, race-divided bathrooms, signs reading "whites only" are concepts that died out in America decades ago. Except, well, they are not. A Public Religion Research Institute survey found that 10 percent of Americans believe business owners should be able to refuse to serve black people if they see that as a violation of their religious beliefs. Men were slightly more likely to agree than women, and Catholics slightly more likely than Protestants. Ten percent of the population may not seem like a lot, but it calculates out to about 32 million people. It also points to how racism and the concept of segregation are sadly still alive and well some 50 years after the end of Jim Crow. Yes, in the past five decades since the peak of the civil-rights movement, some racial policies have changed. For example, workplace discrimination has been outlawed. But, let's never forget that that doesn't mean prejudice has disappeared. It turns out that it is quite the opposite. The reality is that racial discrimination is now being touted as "religious freedom." Just as bad, the Trump era made many racists feel all too comfortable with publicly expressing their racism without feeling the need for anonymity as they may have in the past. Like I said, if your religion doesn’t challenge you to care for people you might otherwise be dismissive of and, instead, reinforces your negative feeling about them, you don’t have a religion – you have a formalized structure for institutionalizing your biases. You can wrap the law around it any way you want. You can call it religious freedom, freedom of speech, whatever you want. No matter what you call it, it remains morally repugnant and devoid of any god that I ever care to acknowledge. There is no space in a healthy spiritual community or life for racism, or for that matter anything that pits one group of people over another. That kind of thinking, that kind of acting, stands over and against everything that can grow a person or a community spiritually. That kind of thinking plays to the lowest forms of human pettiness and uses religion as a weapon rather than as a balm. It is a bastardization of spirituality and must be actively resisted at every turn and cast out like the demon that it is. It does not mean that we stop seeking to care for those who practice it. That would put us in a similar place of denying people for being different than us, but it does mean not sitting silently by as it is being practiced. It does mean actively resisting it in our churches and communities. We must call it out when we see it being done in the name of God. We must insist that our representatives stop supporting it with discriminating “religious freedom” laws and racially divided voting maps. We must persist in standing up to hate at every turn and in extending grace, acceptance, and love. Not just for the sake of our nation and for the sake of those who are the target of it, but for the health of our spiritual life as well. It is time for racism's religious cover to end. ~ Rev. Mark Sandlin Read 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. His Podcast The Moonshine Jesus Show is on Mondays at 4:30pm ET. Follow Mark on Facebook and Twitter @marksandlin. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: By A Reader For the past two decades, you and your wife have traveled North America evangelizing evolution and big history. But recently your focus seems to have taken a more eco-theological and pastoral turn. What brought about this shift, and what would you say is the heart of your message and ministry now? A: By Rev. Michael Dowd Dear Reader,The shift culminated in 2018, just after Living the Questions published my video course, “Pro-Future Faith: The Prodigal Species Comes Home,” but was actually decades in the making. Here’s how it unfolded:I developed a passion for “evidential revelation” when I began my pastoral career in 1986, while attending Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Seminary). The following were especially significant. John A.T. Robinson’s book, Honest to God, and Gene Marshall’s essay, “What Reality Are We Pointing to with the Word ‘God’?”, helped me integrate the thinking of Paul Tillich, Rudolf Bultmann, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Gaian microbiologist Lynn Margulis, deep ecologists Joanna Macy and Dolores LaChapelle, and eco-feminist Sallie McFague were especially significant mentors. I discuss their influence in my video, “Honest to G🌎D: Reality 101”.In 1988 cultural historian Thomas Berry, cosmologist Brian Swimme, and bioregional educator Sr. Miriam MacGillis inspired a passion for big picture storytelling. Henceforth, interpreting the epic of evolution in spiritually nourishing ways would be my calling.My ministry took a practical, community organizing, sustainability turn in the late 1990s, and then expanded again soon after I remarried. Connie Barlow was a science writer and also a Thomas Berry enthusiast. From April 2002 until September 2020 she and I lived on the road, addressing some 3,000 religious and secular groups across North America on a range of subjects at the intersection of science, meaning, and "right relationship to reality.” (I see “reality” as God’s secular name, and “G🌎D” as reality’s mythic name.)In December 2012 I had a profound worldview shift. Watching David Roberts’ TEDx talk, “Climate Change is Simple (Remix)," woke me up to the looming climate consequences already unstoppable. Climate learning, advocacy, and activism took center stage, grounded in a passion to also learn the essentials of "ecological overshoot" (as presented by environmental sociologist William R. Catton, Jr.). I also dove deeply into the study abrupt climate change (10,000 years of change in half a human lifetime) and the rise and fall of civilizations. Key differences between unsustainable societies and Indigenous cultures are a current topic for learning and reflection. I find it helpful to regard the latter as having never been expelled from the Garden. Quite simply, Indigenous peoples did not violate what I now consider to be G🌎D’s first law: “Limits are sacred; violate them and your society will perish in a hell of your own making.”To freely share what I was learning in all these fields, I began audio recording and posting to Soundcloud classic books and articles that were only available in text format — a “sustainability canon” of sorts.I also began to create both educational and pastoral videos about how to cope and even thrive in existentially painful circumstances, including the ongoing collapse of both the biosphere and business as usual. “Post-doom” was the term I began using in 2019 to signify that becoming aware of the unstoppability of social and ecological downturns need not end in "doom." There are still opportunities for “finding the gift” and applying "love in action."As I see it, the shift from anthropocentrism (human-centeredness), to ecocentrism, (G🌎D-centeredness) points to a distinctly prophetic role for progressive religious and secular folk alike. Progressive faith leaders now have a once-in-a-millennium opportunity to speak on behalf of G🌎D (Life/Reality) in prophetic, inclusive, and universal (i.e., non human-centered) ways.This prophetic message is not grounded in old men or old books. Rather, evidential revelation (including the findings of science) is our "scripture", ecology is the heart of our theology, and our inspiration flows from the wisdom of women and indigenous leaders’ calls for environmental and intergenerational justice.What a time to be alive!~ Rev. Michael Dowd Read and share online here About the AuthorThe Reverend Michael Dowd is a bestselling eco-theologian, TEDx speaker, and pro-future advocate whose work has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on television throughout the United States and Canada. His book, Thank God for Evolution, was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists, noted skeptics, and religious leaders across the spectrum. Michael and his science writer, evolutionary educator, and fellow climate activist wife, Connie Barlow, have spoken to some 3,000 groups throughout North America since April 2002. Michael and Connie live permanently in Ypsilanti, Michigan, from where Michael delivers Zoom homilies and longer programs. Sample sermons can be found here and here and here. This video: “Serenity Prayer for the 21st Century: Pro-Future Love-in-Action” is especially recommended as a introduction to his current body of work. Rev. Dowd’s websites: MichaelDowd.org / TheGreatStory.org / PostDoom.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 What Do Christian Symbols Mean in a Land Where Christianity is No Longer Practiced? Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong December 1, 2022This church was built in 1866 by John J. Harris to be used as an Episcopal summer chapel serving vacationers in the Lake George, New York area. In 1869 it was deeded to the vestry of the Episcopal Church of the Messiah in Glen Falls, New York. It was closed in 1883. It re-opened in 1918 as an inter-denominational summer chapel and closed again in the mid 1920’s. In 1930 it became Presbyterian and was part of a five point rural congregation of the parish of the Glenn Falls Presbyterian Church, served by a circuit-riding preacher. It became independent once more in 1947, calling itself Harrisena Community Church in honor of its original founder. Its first full time pastor was called in 1952 and the congregation grew to a membership of 98 people. In 1969 the congregation called its third pastor, a newly-ordained American Baptist clergyman just graduated from the Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, the seminary that produced Martin Luther King, Jr. His name was Lamont Robinson and he arrived with his wife Dodi, who had also attended Colgate-Rochester, but trained to be a church musician. They were in their mid-twenties. This couple has now been at this church for 42 years. Today it has about 300 members; a newly-expanded building to house church and community activities, and a well-trained and talented choir of about 20 people. Its congregation, deeply dedicated to serving this basically rural community is made up of two distinct groups: retirees, drawn by the Lake, and long-time local and thus permanent residents. The blend is magnificent. It is one of the most exciting churches I have ever visited and Monty and Dodi Robinson have created in this place a spectacular gathering of people, who are self-defined as open, questing, questioning, stretching and progressive Christians. I am compelled to share with my readers the story of this church and of this remarkable couple.Harrisena Church is the focal point of community life around Lake George. Monty Robinson is a part of everyone’s family. Dodi Robinson has made it a place of exceptional music. To keep themselves up to date with contemporary biblical scholarship and theology, they have just instituted an annual Public Lectureship to enable their congregation and extended community to embrace new ways of thinking. I was privileged to be the inaugural lecturer in this series. It was for them a big venture, even a scary venture. Could they entice nationally known speakers to this remote and rural area? Would the community support or even appreciate this emphasis?They publicized the lectures widely through mailings, billboards and the media available to them, in this case a local newspaper called the Post-Star. In one published article a retired Methodist minister, who is not a member of the congregation, expressed the excitement that was building in the community with a bit of obvious hyperbole. Referring to my arrival he said, “It’s like having Bill Clinton come on Sunday morning! It’s that monumental!” Only my mother would have agreed with that assessment and not all people would regard that comparison as flattering, but it did reveal the expectations that are not untypical of this church.To take the pulse of this congregation, we have only to look at the liturgy and worship of their Church. They have turned the stated goals of the progressive Christian Movement in the United States into a statement printed on the back of the Sunday bulletin:We believe in the profound message brought to humankind by Jesus of Nazareth. We believe that it is in this message rather than the institutions conveying it that forms the most enduring foundation for a positive life. We believe that Christ’s message is at least as germane to the world today as it was two thousand years ago. We believe that this message better enables each of us to see and worship God in our own way. We believe that Christianity is enriched by human reason not in conflict with it. We believe that as a church family, we are responsible to one another and our community.Inside the bulletin they state that while Christianity is their pathway into the mystery of God, they are aware that there are other pathways that they must also honor. Their commitment is to be open to all people including, but not limited to: Conventional Christians and questioning skeptics-believers and agnostics-women and men-all sexual orientations-all classes and abilities.In this congregation, I met a woman who said that she was not only “out of the traditional religious box, but had never been in it;” others who were in various stages of their faith journey and even one just convicted of a felony and awaiting sentencing. Indeed, all were welcome.How has it been possible for this gem of a church to be born and to thrive in this relatively rural area of upstate New York? The answer is surely found in the leadership of its pastor and his wife. For forty-two years they have lived at the heart of this community, raising their family here and identifying with the people. As soon as they arrived, Monty joined the volunteer firemen and took training to be an Emergency Medical Technician working with the Rescue Squad. Dodi took the ten anthems that the church simply rotated every ten Sundays and stretched them into a music library that much larger churches would be proud to possess. To volunteer in activities that benefitted the whole community, regardless of creed or lack of creed, became the mark of the congregation. The Youth Group tended to be made up of non-church going teenagers and Monty made it a focus of his ministry from his first days as pastor until today. Alumni of that youth group have become significant leaders in the congregation.The current anxiety in the congregation is the contemplation of a future without Monty and Dodi. He is now 68. The time of his retirement cannot be many years away. Monty is such a fixture, indeed a lynchpin in the lives of so many that they cannot imagine life without his being part of it. He is also sensitive enough to wonder about the effect either he or his presence might have on his successor. Should he move away when the day of his retirement comes? To do so would be to ask him to move from all his roots, from all his friends and from the community that he has in large measure created. Retirement would thus be almost a prison sentence that would “send him away” for the balance of his life. If his moving away was a prerequisite for the new pastor to succeed, it would inevitably doom that new pastor, for he or she would always be thought of symbolically as the one who caused their friend, guide and spiritual leader to be lost to them. That is an emotional load that few can carry successfully. The future pastor will never replace this man and if that is the future pastor’s agenda, then he or she will fail. The new pastor must rather supplement Monty, build on his genius and appreciate his counsel.How did these two people accomplish all that they have accomplished? To quote a familiar commercial, they “did it the old fashioned way.” They earned the trust of the people in the community. They became an additional set of parents to every teenager. They did it life by life. No one’s needs were dismissed and no one’s confidentiality was compromised. There are few pastoral careers in the United States that continue in the same church for forty-two years, and fewer still that remain creative, exciting and life giving for themselves and for their congregations. Monty and Dodi Robinson are rare indeed in their accomplishments. There are few churches left in our society that are still the center of the life of the community they serve. Harrisena Church is exactly that. Unusual things like these do not happen accidentally. This pastor and his wife invested their entire careers in this single community. They constantly upgraded their skills, reinvented themselves and re-focused their ministries so as to be creative over long periods of time, not growing stale with familiarity. Monty and Dodi Robinson are rare specimens of a unique and unusual pastoral couple, each possessing quite independent talents. Colgate-Rochester Divinity School should honor them both with honorary doctorates. It was my privilege to meet them both; to enter into this congregation ‘s life for a single weekend; to be inspired by what I saw, and to embrace a picture of what I think the Church was intended to be.In 1993 this congregation decided to expand its buildings by erecting on its ten acre lot an assembly and educational facility to supplement its small stone sanctuary. The new structure would include an auditorium that would seat 250 people, a place in which they could house church dinners, public lectures, wedding receptions and even community functions. It was an enormous undertaking for this small congregation, but they believed it was a necessary one. When this building was nearing completion, the church trustees conducted a contest on what the new facility should be named. While these trustees were said to have received numerous suggestions, they kept the final decision secret until the day of the building’s dedication in 1994. There was a large plaque on the wall that when unveiled announced the winning name to the world. The plaque read “Robinson Hall,” erected “in thanksgiving for the lives, the presence and the ministries of Dodi and Monty Robinson.” That had been the only name submitted, they said, a fitting tribute to an incredible couple, whose names are not only on this plaque, but are written across the hearts of literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of people in the Lake George area.In our society, most of us are normally remembered for no more than three generations. Dodi and Monty Robinson will transcend that limit. Theirs is a ministry for the ages and people in that community generations from today will repeat the familiar stories and recall this unusual clergyman and his equally unusual and dedicated wife. ~ Bishop John Shelby Spong | | | | Announcements Schedule Monday, February 7: In the Heat of the Night with Rev. Darrell Hamilton Monday, February 14: Lillies of the Field with Rev. Darrell Hamilton Monday, February 21: To Sir, with Love with Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis Monday, February 28: A Raisin in the Sun with Rev. Dr. Jacqui LewisRead On... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Upcoming (and exciting!) events on The Global Schedule
by Sunny Walker 01 Feb '22

01 Feb '22

The Global Schedule for February is full of 11 fascinating presentations and workshops. To learn what is happening with the Learning Basket globally today, join any or all of the following presentations: 1. The Learning Basket DNA, Thursday, February 10 with Elise Packard. 2. The Learning Basket on the U.S. Border and in Guatemala, Thursday, February 17 with Joaquina Rodriqes and Angelica Rodriquez 3. The Learning Basket in Maharashtra, India, Thursday February 24 with Bhimrao Tupe and the Nagpur Team Don’s miss the papers and articles written about the Learning Basket program that are included in the Schedule invite. Catch up on this exciting program! February 4-6, Mission Joy: Finding Happiness in Troubled Times _A documentary film of the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu discussing Joy. There is a sign-in page on the Eden website. Register to receive the film link and password before Friday, February 4. Carl and Ellis Stock forwarded this opportunity to the Global Schedule. Join Michelle Zhang and Karen Lim to learn how to dance with fire in meetings and workshops. Take this opportunity to share learnings with our colleagues from the Asia/Pacific region. Wednesday, February 16. It's worth getting up early for - and it will be in English! After the very successful sharing event in December 2021, Michelle Zhang and Pat Nunis, two of the creators of the December campfire conversation are continuing the journey with a series of dialogues on "How can we create and maintain a stable and safe place for participants to share life stories?" There are 6 sessions between Friday, February 18 and Monday, March 29. Give your facilitation skills a boost with these global learning events! BE SURE TO SIGN UP! The Global Schedule of Events can be found here <http://www.icaglobalarchives.org/social-research-center-events/>. *Sunny Walker for the Global Schedule Team* *She/her/hers* *On **Arapaho, Cheyenne, Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute), and Očeti Šakówiŋ (Sioux) tribal land* Certified Facilitator (Also Certified ToP Facilitator) ToP Methods Mentor Trainer - Upcoming Courses <https://www.top-training.net/w/> Virtual Facilitation Collaborative Senior Facilitator sunny.sunwalker(a)gmail.com 303-587-3017 For virtual facilitation inquiries: sunny(a)virtualfacilitationcollaborative.com www.virtualfacilitationcollaborative.com

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