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Sermon on Perfect Love that Casts out All Fear
by Dawn Collins 09 Dec '18

09 Dec '18

Was in attendance online for a sermon given back in June of this year that held my attention and reflection over these past few months. Oh, I learned something new that Sunday and it brought a new take (to some perhaps) of the trip to the "other side" of the sea of Galilee taken by Jesus and the disciples after some sharing of teachings of parables and miracles that day with the multitude of townsfolk which overtook them before they could cross over to the other side.. I am not so jaded as to think I have nothing to learn from church, yet I do feel grateful for the immersion in the Word as part of the worship service I receive as an old friend. And then came this eye-opener last June that I still carry with me to this day as a real "ponder this" occasion. .So worship began that Sunday, June 24th by Rev. Phil Campbell recently retired from Northern Light United Church in Alaska with words from 1st John...God is Love...Perfect Love casts out all fear. There is no fear in Love. Let us gather together in Love. The opening hymn, as usual, This is the Day that the Lord has made in English and Tlingit. Then came the Welcome followed by the singing of "Awake, Awake", the Lord's Prayer. and the reading of Mark 4:35-41. Sermon on Perfect Love Needless to say, Children's Time started with the question from Pastor Phil, "Have you ever been afraid?"

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Global Buzz December
by ICA International 07 Dec '18

07 Dec '18

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.... Global Buzz Report: December 2018 Click above or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-18/2018-12-01.php And: 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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Global Buzz reminder
by ICA International 02 Dec '18

02 Dec '18

Reminder for entries This reminder is for the Global Buzz that will be published December 5th. 2018 (Please send your entries at least a day or more ahead) Please send all your entries by regular e-mail to: inform(a)ica-international.org with your entry as an attatchment. Send details of news items, training programmes, your peer to peer connections with other ICAs, any concerns you may have and of any events that are coming up at your location. Your report can be long or short, but remember that all other ICAs would really like to know about the things that matter where you are, and what you are doing as an ICA. Peter, for ICAI Communications Pour les entrées de rappel Ce rappel est à la Global Buzz qui sera publié le 5 décembre 2018 (S'il vous plaît envoyez vos entrées au moins un jour à l'avance) Veuillez envoyer toutes vos entrées maintenant par courriel ordinaire à : inform(a)ica-international.org avec votre entrée comme un attatchment. Envoyer les détails des articles de nouvelles, des programmes de formation, vos connexions peer to peer avec d'autres CIAS, de toute préoccupation que vous pourriez avoir et de tous les événements qui sont à venir à votre emplacement. Votre rapport peut être longue ou courte, mais rappelez-vous que toutes les autres CIAS aimerait vraiment savoir à propos de choses qui importe où vous êtes et ce que vous faites comme une ICA. Recordatorio de las entradas Este aviso es para el Global Buzz que se publicarán 5 diciembre 2018 (Favor de enviar sus entradas al menos con un día de antelación) Por favor envíe todos sus entradas ahora por correo electrónico a: inform(a)ica-international.org con su entrada como un archivo adjunto. Enviar detalles de noticias, programas de capacitación, el peer to peer las conexiones con otros convenios o acuerdos internacionales, las preocupaciones que usted pueda tener y de los eventos que se aproximan en su ubicación. El informe puede ser a corto o largo, pero hay que recordar que todos los demás convenios quisiera saber realmente sobre lo que realmente importa, y lo que están haciendo una ICA.

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Website Archive Collection Framework
by Karen Snyder (via Google Docs) 29 Nov '18

29 Nov '18

I've shared an item with you: Website Archive Collection Framework https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w3oQkQQEY_cSwsG-61h1unccKcRk8nVejb9azda… It's not an attachment -- it's stored online. To open this item, just click the link above. Greetings from the ICA Global Archives Team, We are focused on re-creating the Global Archives Website to be launched March 2019. Archival material is now organized in nine collections under three pillars called the Archives Website Collection Framework. We now invite your feedback and input: Please comment on this framework. Click on the blue button below to see the brainstorm of items within each collection. Email us stories that were life-changing for you or, that you saw transformed the lives of others. You may have effective models, documents that still communicate ‘how tos’ that could be learned from. Rather than sending boxes of materials, we know that many of you now have the capacity to scan documents into PDF files. This is the best way to send info you wish to share. Snail mail still works, but is not as efficient relative to ensuring the information is transferred to the website. Email stories and PDF documents to Jean Long (jean.long512(a)gmail.com) who will forward to the appropriate collection. We hope to hear from you soon so that you can be a part of the Website launch this coming March. Peace, The Archives Team

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Where Are the Women? - Why Expanding the Archive Makes Philosophy Better | Columbia University Press
by Lynda C 29 Nov '18

29 Nov '18

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/where-are-the-women/9780231183970 I was trying to pre-order our Thomas Berry Biography book from Columbia University Press, when I was sidelined by the cover of another book they were advertising, entitled Where are the Women? If I’m not mistaken the cover photo is of the Judy Chicago Dinner Party. That reminded me of Karen Snyder’s list of Imaginal Educators in our community who are artists where I added Beverley Enright’s name, the one who contributed to the triangular quilt pieces which accompanies the Dinner Party exhibit and is now in the Louisville, KY art museum the last I knew of it. Beverley made one of her entries in the form of the Social Process triangle: the Communal Symbol triangle (Corporate Language, Social Art, and Common Religion) and dedicated it to the Women of OE/ICA. A very faint photo of it was on the cover of the 2016 Directory. The large combined triangles are also displayed in Louisville. Just sharing, Lynda Back to ordering the book by Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grimm, and Andrew Angyel, all of whom we have worked with or met in relation to Thomas Berry. Andrew is a NC professor and environmentalist. Mary Evelyn and John are both professors at Yale and Harvard. Go to cup.columbia.edu (Columbia University Press) of the Thomas Berry Biography. 30% discount on pre-orders using code

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11/29/18, Progressing Spirit: Gretta VosperOur Deepest Roots; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 29 Nov '18

29 Nov '18

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!important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2538069147 #yiv2538069147templateBody .yiv2538069147mcnTextContent, #yiv2538069147 #yiv2538069147templateBody .yiv2538069147mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv2538069147 #yiv2538069147templateFooter .yiv2538069147mcnTextContent, #yiv2538069147 #yiv2538069147templateFooter .yiv2538069147mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } At this time of year, we turn toward traditions that go deep into the backstories of our lives. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Our Deepest Roots Column by Rev. Gretta Vosper Novembery 29, 2018 At this time of year, we turn toward traditions that go deep into the backstories of our lives. The Christmas narrative serves as a foundation for our own narratives, those of our families of origin and those of the families we have created for ourselves. They are good. They are bad. They are beautiful. They are ugly. And we feel compelled to participate whether the stories are healthy or horrible. It’s what we do, right?ABOUT THAT STORY WE ALL KNOW AND LOVE …The real Christmas story, itself, is all but washed up in many progressive Christian congregations. For decades we’ve been uncomfortable with the clash between the birth narratives and “what we now know”, the latter whispered discreetly to those we think can bear to hear the truth. “The Version Birth” by Dot Saunders-Perez and Janet Allyn, a true-to-the-text clash of the birth narratives found in Matthew and Luke, has offered a humorous way to introduce congregants to the truths that have been in front of them their whole lives. Without, of course, requiring they believe even that tidbit of historical quandary. It is a clash of stories so unremembered that I even mixed them up in my first book, With or Without God, attributing the magi to Luke and the shepherds to Matthew. (In my defense, eight theologically literate people proofread that manuscript! Which proves my point, I think…)Liberal and progressive Christians have long wrestled with the birth narratives, their fantastic tales, the unlikely heroes. In a statement of faith accepted by The United Church of Canada in 1940, reference to the virgin birth was removed entirely. Yet it is the most sacred Christian story of all despite the fact that it is undoubtedly fantasy. It remains indisputable by the so so so so so so so many Christians who still believe there were angels singing, three wise men (sic) on camels bringing precious and fragrant gifts, and shepherds quaking on the hillsides. Oh, and the star. There had to have been a star. Over the baby.“Myth” is an easier word to get heads around than “fantasy”, of course. There is a dignity in ”myth” that provides a sense of intellectual earnestness or enlightenment. We use it to relate to scholars exploring the great religious traditions of the world, Mircea Eliade and his work on religion and myth, or Frazer and his Golden Bough. It helps us rise above those who take the stories literally. And definitely above those who haven’t yet learned that the one seamless story they listen to every year doesn’t exist; they remain quite happy to see angels tossing hay at the wisemen in the Christmas pageant. Who are we to undermine their Christmas joy?Of course, “fabrication” is too harsh a word for most churchgoers. They find it confrontational and confrontation is not terribly welcome in church, particularly around feature articles like this one about the birth of Jesus. Yes, the stories were fabricated, woven together of the threads of oral tradition that wound themselves into truths in the decades after Jesus’ death. But they are also beautiful, earnest, easily cast, and delightful in their innocent presentation by new children year after year after year.WELL, WHAT DOES THE MINISTER BELIEVE?One of the essential problems that arises from the annual Christmas play, the uplifting Lessons and Carols service, or the peaceful, reflective beauty of the Midnight Mass is their reinforcement to all who attend of the belief that clergy think the virgin birth and all its accoutrements are factual. Fantastic, yes, but fantastic because of the super powers of the god called God. Those who dare to ask the question may receive from their minister an answer that more closely resembles her or his actual beliefs: it is a story we tell over and over to remind us of the impregnation of our hearts by God’s love and our need to live that out in the contemporary world, according to the needs of that world. That sounds good, doesn’t it? Of course it does! And we all watched the Christmas play happily ever after.But the problem remains. Why do we want clergy to act and speak and lead in ways that allow those not asking questions to assume an ongoing belief in fantastic tales? What is the merit in that? Especially when we are seeing younger generations eschew the mythology of “the virgin” for the seemingly more accessible mythology of “the good life” and its myriad representations over the Christmas season? Is maintaining a semblance of belief worth losing whole generations who find fantastic tales just that: too fantastic to believe, too irrelevant to today?I think not. But I must admit that mine is not a popular perspective in the wider church. Clergy know that if they tamper with the traditions of Christmas, they will lose people. Big time. I know from experience. The fact that those families they lose are very likely those who only show up for Christmas and (maybe) Easter, makes no difference. It is loss. And when year end financial targets are built to include the once-a-year donations of those Christmas patrons, it is calculable.GETTING DOWN UNDER THE STORYLet me share with you a tradition that has grown up at West Hill over the past several years. We frame it as a “celebration of the deepest roots of our tradition”. The scholarship undergirding that statement tells us that the Christmas narratives grew out of the desire of the early church to wrap its stories around traditions that already existed, that were known and celebrated by the people the church hoped would embrace its story. But I imagine that the truth goes even deeper: religious traditions, including our earliest, unrecorded affirmations and acknowledgements, were, themselves, wrapped around our deepest needs. In the midst of winter[i], that need was for a return of the light, of the warmth of the sun, of the promise that they would, once again, revel in warmth and bounty.The first time we celebrated The Longest Night, we also celebrated Christmas Eve. But the former was so popular and beautiful, that it became our sole seasonal celebration the following and every year since. The service draws participants into the fears that lie within our darkest nights. We tell those stories, as true today as they have been throughout history, stories of fear, of accountabilities unpaid. The earth spins outside our control, swirling through a cosmos upon which we have no hold. We gaze at constellations, wonder at the beauty of the heavens, leave footprints in sand and watch them wash away. But we have made our mark upon its face in ways not so easily erased where our power, our lust for life, leaves too deep a stain. We have burned and scraped Earth clear, making room for the planting of our own desires, overpowering whatever future it may have unfolded for itself. Pressing back against what might emerge, we draw lines, prepare plans, plant modifications nature would never have dreamed. And we threaten the future, the seventh generation, one that may not even see the light of day because we serve our own ravenous hungers like addictions we recognize but lack the fortitude to overcome. We consume not only what we have – the here and now – but what might serve tomorrow. We plunder Earth’s future hope. And tonight, we sit within the darkness of the truths we whisper here.[ii] And then we work the magic, calling ourselves and one another to the possibilities that lie within our reach, within our own hearts. We create a sculpture of candlelight as we do so, each member of the gathered community lighting candles as symbols of their commitment to creating peace, hope, joy, and love in the world, to the work of bringing about the beauty in the hope-filled stories we cast before us. Whether we believe we are compelled to love by some outside force or some inner strength, we are responsible for creating that love – the culmination of our highest ideals – through our acts, our voices, our lives. We challenge ourselves to hold those ideals boldly because it is too easy to weave ourselves into a web of our own desires and the cultural expectations that surround us. May that which we once projected onto gods and divine beings – pure, unsullied by our baser needs and wants – may it stir once again in our own hearts – beyond all gods – that we might remember who we are and who we seek to be. Finally, when the sculpture is complete, the candlelight shimmering like lit water in the centre of our space, we take up our responsibilities. The community comes forward, each person accepting both a lit candle and a candlewick bracelet and hearing the words, “You are the light of the world” as the bracelet is slipped over their hand and onto their wrist. Some wear these bracelets throughout the year, replacing the greyed cord with a fresh, bright one only when the next Longest Night circles round.A SHARED FOUNDATIONThe best part of the service is that it lives underneath all the stories we have ever told of this dark night and the events we conspired to merge it with. It supports every telling of that tale. Those who are traditional believers hear the story of a cold and frightened family and the birth of a child who will shine with his own extraordinary light. They slip their bracelet on as a symbol of that light and their commitment to it. Those who have no belief in the Christian story, slip their bracelets on as a symbol of the infinite possibility into which they were born and the reminder that their choices alone weave together the story of their life. The bracelet is a reminder to recommit morning after morning after morning.“Make light!” we say to one another when the final song is sung. “Make light!”After all, isn’t that the best we could ever hope to do with our “one wild and precious life”?[iii] ~ Rev. Gretta Vosper Click here to read online and to share your thoughts About the Author The Rev. Gretta Vosper is a United Church of Canada minister who is an atheist. Her best-selling books include With or Without God: Why The Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe, and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief. She has also published three books of poetry and prayers. ************************[i] Apologies to our Southern Hemisphere colleagues who spend their Christmases on the beach![ii] Longest Night elements © 2017 gretta vosper, used with permission.[iii] Mary Oliver, A Summer Day | | | | | | | | | | Join our FB community today! Spread the word, share with friends. Thanks! | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Q: Recently, Arizona’s state school board narrowly defeated the effort of creationist Christians to alter science standards and open the door for a literal interpretation of the Bible being taught alongside evolution. Some of the advisers advocating for creationism were referred to as “Young Earthers” in the news. What exactly does that mean? A: By Rev. David M. Felten Dear Readers,Believe it or not, “Young Earthers” are folks who are convinced that the earth (and all of creation) is only 6,022 years old (as of 2018). How did they arrive at this remarkably specific date?It seems that back in the 17th century, a Renaissance Bishop (James Ussher, 1581-1656) figured that he could use the Bible to calculate the date of creation. Taking note of genealogies, events, and the number of candles on Methuselah’s birthday cake (all of which he took as literally as possible), he counted backwards to arrive at the exact day of creation: October 23rd 4004 BCE. He wasn’t clear on the exact time (or the time zone), but suggested that it was in the morning. Today, a big chunk of American Christians attend churches that claim the Bible is inerrant (without error) and infallible (a safe and reliable source in all matters). I want to believe that most of them don’t actually believe this – considering that they live in the 21st century – but enough of them do believe it to make it a problem for the rest of us.And you’ve got to feel a little sorry for them. Literalists are taught to expect that the Bible does not waiver from objective truth in the matter of history and science – and despite advances in biology, cosmology, archaeology, geology – and evidence in the Bible itself – they continue to double-down on inerrancy. As an outside observer of this phenomenon, it appears that they believe that “real” Christians are somehow spiritually superior for their ability to, despite evidence to the contrary, deny reality. Obviously, this has clear parallels in our current political reality.Here’s the problem: despite the very real and urgent societal issues challenging humanity, many literalists continue to fixate not on solving the world’s problems, but on “proving” the Bible is literally true. They are enabled by theological carnival barkers like Ken Ham, who wastes people’s time and resources on building a full-size ark in Kentucky (complete with dinosaurs to account for and then misrepresent the fossil record) – all to shore up their doubts and insecurities.From Darwin to the Scopes Monkey Trial to today’s efforts to influence school curriculum, literalists have seen themselves as pious warriors engaged in a pitched winner-take-all, us-vs-them battle with science. Many perceive science as an enemy to be defeated at all costs (unless they get sick and want 21st century medical science at their disposal).To overthrow the enemy, they try to impose their narrow-minded worldview on their neighbors – through challenges to science-based curriculum, sowing doubt about the reality of climate change, and generally promoting an anti-science agenda. If their cockamamie ideas only affected them, then no problem. But trying to sneak fundamentalist ideas into my children’s science curriculum? Them’s fightin’ words! To top it off, their efforts stand to do lasting damage to the United States’ intellectual reputation, our standing in a global economy, and a decreased likelihood that the world will take us seriously as participants in a future grounded in science.So, put Young Earthers in the same category with Flat Earthers, Vaxers, and those who believe the moon landing was faked: all of them people who, for their own reasons, have decided to live in a world disconnected from evidence-based reality. It would be funny if it weren’t for their attempts to try and impose their antiquated worldview on everyone else.~ Rev. David M. FeltenPS: I encourage you to visit the website of the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter to see just how far these people will go to try and prove their point and get out of the hard work of following Jesus. My advice? Don’t give in! But be kind. Evidently, they don’t seem to know any better and don’t have anyone who loves them enough (or whom they trust enough) to get them caught up on the last two hundred years of science and theology. Click here to read and share onlineAbout the Author Rev. David M. Felten is a full-time pastor at The Fountains, a United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills, Arizona. David and fellow United Methodist Pastor, Jeff Procter-Murphy, are the creators of the DVD-based discussion series for Progressive Christians, “Living the Questions”.A co-founder of the Arizona Foundation for Contemporary Theology and also a founding member of No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice, David is an outspoken voice for LGBTQ rights both in the church and in the community at large. David is active in the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church and tries to stay connected to his roots as a musician. You’ll find him playing saxophones in a variety of settings, including appearances with the Fountain Hills Saxophone Quartet. David and his wife Laura have three children. | | | | | | | | Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited Understanding Religious Anger Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August 22, 2006 One of the things that always surprises me is the level of anger, often expressed in acts of overt rudeness, which seems to mark religious people. It appears so often that I have almost come to expect it, or at the very least not to be surprised by it. A recent episode simply made the connection between religion and anger newly indelible in my consciousness.It occurred last spring when I attended, at their invitation, the graduation ceremonies of a well-known university. Indeed, I was to receive an honorary degree. There was much conviviality connected with this event. We were entertained royally by the president of the university and his wife. We saw former classmates. Families gathered to share this transitional moment with a graduating son or daughter. It seemed to be a very pleasant occasion.When the procession formed to begin the ceremonial walk into the arena, there was a panoply of color marking the assembly. The black caps and gowns of academia were bedecked with bright and varied hoods, representing the doctorates earned by the members of the faculty and reflecting the school colors of the awarding universities. Harvard’s crimson was immediately identifiable, as well as the unique form of the doctoral hoods from the storied universities of Cambridge and Oxford. My place in this lineup was in the company of some of the university’s deans. While we waited for the signal to begin the procession, I introduced myself to my nearest companions. They were all cordial until I introduced myself to the Dean of the Medical School. It was not a time for small talk for this man. He could not have possibly known that he and I would be together in the procession, so what followed was clearly spontaneous and unplanned. He obviously had strong feelings about me and could not miss this exquisite opportunity to give expression to them. I had never met this man before this moment, but my expectation was that one whose career in medicine had been so successful that he had become the dean of a major medical school would have a broad perspective on life. I was wrong. He was bitter and small-minded, caught more in his narrow religious agenda than in his academic excellence. We had barely unlocked hands in our introductory handshake when he said,“I wish I did not feel this way but I think what you have done to the Church is both reprehensible and destructive. I regret that this university has decided to honor you today.” I was taken aback not by the content of his remarks, since I have dealt with threatened religious people many times before, but by the inappropriateness of his comments. This was neither the time nor the place for this tirade. I was after all an invited guest in his world. Yet, he simply could not contain his feelings. I tried to parry his comments by saying something like: “I’m sorry we don’t have time to discuss this here, but you must realize that the world has undergone a vast intellectual revolution in the last 500-600 years and if the Church is to stay in dialogue with that world then the Church must also change. However, this Dean was in no mood to let go; he had the bit between his teeth. “You totally ignore the truth of those first 1,300 years of Christian history,” he retorted, his anger still rising. “Would you want to practice medicine in today’s world equipped only with the medical knowledge available in the first 1300 years of Christian history?” I enquired. At that moment the conversation ended because the music started, the stately procession began its journey into the stadium where literally thousands were gathered.As we walked in silence I could not help but wonder at the rudeness of this Dean, who had so great a need to express his anger that he violated the good manners of his university. I learned later that this doctor was part of a conservative Christian congregation. Somehow, religious convictions seem to give people permission to be rude.A similar incident occurred in the summer of 2005, when I was the guest lecturer at the Highlands Institute for American and Philosophical Thought in Western North Carolina. I had been there for the past three summers, and had always met with a warm and positive reception. However, on this particular night, a local fundamentalist decided to achieve his fifteen minutes of fame. About midway in the lecture, this man stood up and drew sufficient attention to himself that I stopped speaking and enquired if there was something wrong. “I’m feeling sick,” this gentleman replied. So I responded, “There is nothing I’m saying tonight that is more important than your health, so let me pause until you get whatever help you need.” “You don’t understand,” he retorted, “I’m sick of you.” Somehow this man felt that his religious convictions justified his interruption of a lecture attended by more than 250 people. It never occurred to him that this behavior was rude to me, rude to the audience and that it reflected little more than his own anger. I learned later that he was a member of the Community Bible Church and that he had been encouraged to take this action by fellow members of his fundamentalist church. Once again if one is acting ‘in the name of God,’ both anger and rudeness are apparently justified.Those two experiences set me to thinking about the relationship between religion and anger. It is far closer than most people seem to realize. Sometimes the sweet piety of religion serves to hide anger even from the awareness of the angry one, though it is obvious to everyone else. Is it anything but anger when religious people describe what is in store for those who do not believe their way? Is the threat of hell, which is spoken so freely in religious circles, not a projection onto God of the anger inside the one consigning another to a place of eternal torment? Is there much difference between a person saying in hostility: “Go to hell!” and a preacher threatening a congregation with that same destiny? When one looks at the history of religious persecution, which has included such things as excommunication, torture, and the burning of heretics at the stake, there is ample evidence of hostility associated with Christianity. When one adds to that the Crusades designed ‘to kill the infidels,’ a history of anti-Semitism, and the wars between Catholics and Protestants, the picture of religion as a source of anger in human society, victimizing people in every generation, becomes clear.In moments of social upheaval, religious anger becomes very apparent. Most of the anger that was displayed during the movement to emancipate women came from the Christian Church. Most of the anger displayed in the current struggle over justice for gay and lesbian people emanates from the Christian Church.It is very hard to deny that underneath the sounds of religious conviction, there is a boiling cauldron of anger that seems to be an unrecognized part of the religious experience. Step one, therefore, is to recognize it. Step two is to understand it. Religious anger seems to manifest itself first and most stridently in those religious traditions that claim to possess absolute certainty. It is only when one believes that one possesses the whole truth of God that one finds the need to persecute those who do not accept your version of truth. What that behavior reveals is that the frightened human psyche needs the certainty of religion, no matter how narrowly defined, in order to feel secure. Christianity has developed many security-giving idols inside its traditional formulations, infallible popes and inerrant scriptures being two of them. How rational, for example, is it for anyone to say: “Since my God is the true God and your God is, therefore, a false God, I have the right to hate you, to persecute you or even to kill you?” Yet all of these expressions of anger are found inside the Christian Church.The second thing that religious anger reveals to me is that organized religion feeds the expression of self-hatred in its people. There is certainly much self-negativity in traditional Christianity with its doctrines of ‘the Fall,’ its emphasis on the depravity of human life, the need to be rescued, and the guilt-producing idea that “Jesus died for my sins.” The liturgies of Christian churches are constantly calling their worshipers such things as ‘a wretch,’ ‘a worm,’ ‘one unworthy to gather up the crumbs under the divine table,’ all interspersed with the plea to God to ‘have mercy, have mercy, have mercy.’ Are these not expressions of self-directed religious anger?If one absorbs negativity from any source long enough, one cannot help but become negative. When one is denigrated in worship over a sustained period of time, one inevitably projects this denigration onto others as anger. It is necessary for survival.Does this not help us to understand why prejudice is greater among religious people than among non-religious people; why slavery, segregation and other overt forms of racism have been the pattern of that region of our country that we call ‘the Bible Belt;’ and why the ‘Religious Right’ even today is more supportive of war as an instrument of national policy than any other segment of our national population? Each of these attitudes reflects religiously justified violence.Has religion in general and Christianity in particular degenerated to the level that it has become little more than a veil under which anger can be legitimatized? What happened to that biblical proclamation that the disciples of Jesus are to be known by their love? How does religious anger fit in with the Fourth Gospel’s interpretation of Jesus’ purpose to be that of bringing life more abundantly?Perhaps the time has come to recognize that Christianity was never meant to be about religion; it is to be about life. The achievement of personal security is the goal of religion. The ability to live with integrity in the midst of the insecurity of life is the goal of Christianity. Religion seeks to control life with guilt. Christianity seeks to free people to be all that they can be. There is a vast difference. Perhaps it will take the death of religion to open us once again to the meaning of Christianity, even ‘Religionless Christianity.’ For the purpose of Jesus was not to make us religious but to make us fully human.~ John Shelby Spong | | | | | | | | 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! | | | | | | | | Announcements | | | A Universal Christmas Join us this December to take delight in the deeper meanings and wonders of Christmas. In eleven emails, sent to you on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, you will receive: * Thomas Moore’s reflections on Christmas from an inclusive and soulful point of view. * Ideas for discussion and practice. * Access to a Practice Circle, a forum open 24/7 for you to share with and learn from our worldwide e-course community. This online e-course will be guided by Thomas Moore from December 3rd through January 7th. Click here for more information ... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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Re: [Oe List ...] FW: Sneak Peek: The Good Money Issue
by Dawn Collins 22 Nov '18

22 Nov '18

Thanks, Lynda. I'm a subscriber too... Peace, dawn We love the Creator/Source because the Source/Creator first loved us.- 1 John 4:19 On ‎Friday‎, ‎November‎ ‎16‎, ‎2018‎ ‎04‎:‎11‎:‎31‎ ‎PM‎ ‎MST, Lynda C via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: #yiv4683380421 #yiv4683380421 -- filtered {panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}#yiv4683380421 filtered {font-family:DengXian;panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1;}#yiv4683380421 filtered {font-family:Calibri;panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}#yiv4683380421 filtered {panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1;}#yiv4683380421 filtered {font-family:Georgia;panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3;}#yiv4683380421 p.yiv4683380421MsoNormal, #yiv4683380421 li.yiv4683380421MsoNormal, #yiv4683380421 div.yiv4683380421MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv4683380421 h2 {margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:18.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv4683380421 a:link, #yiv4683380421 span.yiv4683380421MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv4683380421 a:visited, #yiv4683380421 span.yiv4683380421MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv4683380421 p.yiv4683380421msonormal0, #yiv4683380421 li.yiv4683380421msonormal0, #yiv4683380421 div.yiv4683380421msonormal0 {margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv4683380421 span.yiv4683380421Heading2Char {font-family:sans-serif;color:#2F5496;}#yiv4683380421 span.yiv4683380421EmailStyle19 {font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv4683380421 .yiv4683380421MsoChpDefault {font-size:10.0pt;}#yiv4683380421 filtered {margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}#yiv4683380421 div.yiv4683380421WordSection1 {}#yiv4683380421 I thought I was forwarding the entire newsletter, but I really liked the quote below. Plus they are offering a $12 gift subscription for a year. Great magazine of positive futures. From: YES! Magazine <yesnewsletters(a)yesmagazine.org> Reply-To: "yesnewsletters(a)yesmagazine.org" <yesnewsletters(a)yesmagazine.org> Date: Friday, November 9, 2018 at 3:15 PM To: Lynda & John Cock <lynda860(a)outlook.com> Subject: Sneak Peek: The Good Money Issue Flipping the House Is Nice, But the Real Power Is Local _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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11/22/18, Progressing Spirit: Felton/Spong: A Conversation with Bishop John Shelby Spong: Part 3 “On Conservatives, Liberals, and the Way Forward”
by Ellie Stock 22 Nov '18

22 Nov '18

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.yiv1765969432mcnImageGroupBlockOuter{ padding-top:9px !important;padding-bottom:9px !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 .yiv1765969432mcnTextContent, #yiv1765969432 .yiv1765969432mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{ padding-right:18px !important;padding-left:18px !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 .yiv1765969432mcnImageCardLeftImageContent, #yiv1765969432 .yiv1765969432mcnImageCardRightImageContent{ padding-right:18px !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-left:18px !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 .yiv1765969432mcpreview-image-uploader{ display:none !important;width:100% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 h1{ font-size:22px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 h2{ font-size:20px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 h3{ font-size:18px !important;line-height:125% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 h4{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 .yiv1765969432mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv1765969432mcnTextContent, #yiv1765969432 .yiv1765969432mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .yiv1765969432mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 #yiv1765969432templatePreheader{ display:block !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 #yiv1765969432templatePreheader .yiv1765969432mcnTextContent, #yiv1765969432 #yiv1765969432templatePreheader .yiv1765969432mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 #yiv1765969432templateHeader .yiv1765969432mcnTextContent, #yiv1765969432 #yiv1765969432templateHeader .yiv1765969432mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 #yiv1765969432templateBody .yiv1765969432mcnTextContent, #yiv1765969432 #yiv1765969432templateBody .yiv1765969432mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important;line-height:150% !important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv1765969432 #yiv1765969432templateFooter .yiv1765969432mcnTextContent, #yiv1765969432 #yiv1765969432templateFooter .yiv1765969432mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } The following is taken from an interview with Bishop John Shelby Spong on September 18th, 2018. Recorded at his home in Richmond, Virginia. | | | | View this email in your browser | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A Conversation with Bishop John Shelby Spong: Part 3 “On Conservatives, Liberals, and the Way Forward” Column by Rev. David M. Felten November 22, 2018 The following is taken from an interview with Bishop John Shelby Spong on September 18th, 2018. Recorded at his home in Richmond, Virginia, it has been edited for length and thematic focus. David Felten: You’ve talked about how hard it is for people to grasp what is meant when we’re talking about atheism or non-theism. There’s another word that a lot of people aren’t completely happy with but it’s the one we’ve kind of been shackled with. Is there a word other than “progressive” we can use – another approach? Jack Spong: Yeah. Progressive. That’s like talking about liberal and conservative. There is no such things as a liberal scholar or a conservative scholar. There is a scholar. You take the scholarship and it goes wherever scholarship leads. Then you can relate to those conclusions in a liberal way or a conservative way, but you don’t have liberal or conservative scholarship. I did a radio interview with Jerry Falwell one time and he was introduced as a conservative biblical scholar. He wasn’t a conservative biblical scholar, he was an illiterate biblical scholar, but for me to say that about Jerry would not have been appreciated because it would not have been considered nice. Jerry’s long dead and he’s probably a lot wiser today than he used to be. I always thought he was a “good ol’ boy.” He wasn’t an evil man, he was just an illiterate man and a good showman. At Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg he put on a show every week and it was really wonderful to watch. He’d have the chaplain of Bourbon Street come and talk and he’d have somebody wrestle with a bear. It was a big show every week and he packed that place. The Lynchburg paper built him up because he was a conservative pastor. When I was in Lynchburg with him, he was really a racist. He started Liberty Baptist College as a segregation academy. It’s not a segregation academy anymore. He tried to grow on the gay issue, but he could not quite make it. A ghost writer wrote his autobiography… David Felten: Mel White. Jack Spong: Yes. Jerry hired Mel to write his autobiography because Jerry’s not a writer. While he was getting the data to write the book, Mel shadowed Jerry very closely for a year or two years, maybe three years. Then the book came out and Mel came out the same week! Jerry suddenly realized that he’d been in pretty close association with a gay person for years. Mel tried to get him to agree to talk with a born again Christian gay person, but Jerry didn’t believe there was such a thing. You know, “You can’t be a born again Christian and a gay person at the same time.” But Mel got a bunch of these gay Christians to come down to Lynchburg and Jerry agreed to have dinner with them and to talk with them. I think it was about the year 2000 and there was a religious right presidential candidate running in the primary, along with George Bush… David Felten: Gary Bauer? Jack Spong: Yeah. Gary Bauer. He began to put pressure on Jerry not to have dinner with those born again gay people. So, Jerry had a conversion experience, went to Mel White and said, “Well, I’ve given my word that I’d meet with them and I will. But I can’t eat with them because the Bible says you don’t eat with sinners.” And we said, “Well, who do you eat with then, Jerry? Do you ever eat alone? Are you able to do that?” — just to show the irrationality of that sort of thing. Well, I think Jerry was trying to grow in all of those areas. I liked him. I didn’t care for Pat Robertson. Pat Robertson was devious. He was a law school graduate; he was not dumb. He was the son of a Virginia senator. The senator was retired to private life by my first cousin in 1966, an interesting period of time in history. Jerry was just a good ol’ boy, and that’s all he was. Interestingly, his son is a University of Virginia Law School graduate and is now president of Liberty University. He’s conservative and applauding Trump all the time. But, he’s a jump ahead of where Jerry was and he is going to have children who are a jump ahead of where he now is. David Felten: And by “jump ahead” you mean? Jack Spong: More liberal. Jerry Falwell, Jr. couldn’t go to the University of Virginia’s law school without having some brains. That’s a good law school. But he’s caught in the world he’s living in. David Felten: Growing up, you were caught in a very particular world yourself. You’ve overcome so much of your conventional religious “programming.” Jack Spong: My earliest religious experiences were where I would bargain with God. I was age 12 and didn’t have a father. I had a “Heavenly Father” – and I bargained with God because if I did so-and-so, God would let the Charlotte Hornets win their baseball game that night. So, I really played this game all the way through then. David Felten: How did that work out? Jack Spong: Not so well. Yeah, not so well! I also remember when my father died – he died when I was 12 and I didn’t really know him, although I remember he didn’t have much use for church. But when he died the people from church came to me and said, “Your father is so lucky because now he’s gone to be with God.” But before he died those same people were saying my father’s never going to be with God because he did everything the church said you shouldn’t do: he drank too much, he played cards, he did all sorts of “evil” things. That’s part of my upbringing and where I began to move away from institutional Christianity. You can’t live by the way the church taught at that time. You just can’t do that. David Felten: In your Twelve Theses and your latest book, Unbelievable you’ve outlined a number of ways the church needs to “jump ahead.” If you had to make one thing a priority moving forward, what would it be? Jack Spong: I don’t know. I don’t know that you can chart it that way. I think you have to speak to the priority that is emerging because you are in the world and you can’t predict what issue will come up. I could be blatantly political and say, “If the Christian church doesn’t engage Donald Trump and his amoral behavior, there’s not going to be much left for us to do after he gets through.” But how do you engage Donald Trump? You’ve got do it with a strong person and that person’s going to get clobbered. He or she has not yet appeared. It’s not that Trump is conservative. We’ve had some great conservative leaders in our nation. Ronald Reagan didn’t hurt this nation. He was a strong leader, but he was a strong leader from a conservative point of view. Donald Trump is a strong leader from an amoral point of view – and he doesn’t know anything that isn’t in his own self-interest. That worries me a great deal. I don’t know how we’ll get through four years of this man. It’s strange listening to the news and it’s easy for me to understand why Trump thinks the media is all corrupt: the media is constantly bringing to the attention of the people of this nation what an inadequate person this man is in this office. I don’t know how he gets away with what he gets away with. He’s got five or six members of his administration already indicted and he keeps saying it’s a witch hunt. He is also an unindicted co-conspirator according to his former lawyer.. David Felten: It’s a hoax. Jack Spong: Yeah, it can’t be a witch hunt if you’ve indicted five or six people. We’ve got to live through some tough times and I don’t see anybody speaking truth to power today. I look to Republicans in congress to speak truth to power and they don’t. They leave – the senator from Tennessee, the senator from Arizona – they leave rather than take him on. And that’s sad. The Democrats are not much better. David Felten: What are some of the big questions you’re living with these days? Jack Spong: Well, I like the title “Living the Questions” (which you’ve made famous) because I think that’s what the church ought to be doing. We’ve portrayed ourselves as the institution that has all the answers, and that’s just not so. We have the questions and have to articulate those questions with honesty. David Felten: How about life in general? Jack Spong: In my present life, I have a sense of real contentment. I’ve done everything in my life that I wanted to do. I’ve loved being a priest and being a bishop – and I’ve loved being the kind of priest and bishop I was. I love the fact that I had 16 years since I retired and before I had the stroke, to be a very active person doing my thing, carrying my message, writing books, doing my weekly column. I don’t know why I would have any regrets. I don’t know if I’ll be alive a year from now. In a great sense it doesn’t really matter. What difference is a year or a year-and-a-half or two years going to make to the world? Not much. But I don’t have any regrets and don’t want to change anything. I will have some regrets: I’ll regret losing Chris. She is a fascinating woman. She’s been so deeply a part of my life that I don’t know who I am without her. She’ll get along fine: she’s the most competent woman I know. It is now easy living for us. We’re in a condominium and buying prepared meals – sort of one step closer to a retirement home. I told my doctors that if they couldn’t keep me alive for one year, it was not worth the move because moving is really a difficult thing to go through. But if I keep alive for a year I’ll be happy. And if I get two years, I’ll be happier. But I don’t feel anxious about it. It’s fun to be in my old church, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond. I hadn’t been to that church for 42 years. Can you imagine what it’s like to leave a church and come back to it 42 years later? The only people I know are elderly. Most of the people I don’t know at all. There’s a vigorous spirit there and I’m enjoying just simply being a member in the pew. I don’t force my opinions on anybody else. I’ve been here enough so they have a real sense of who I am and they’ve read my books. It is a joyful experience to be there on Sunday morning. I’m not trying to create anything there. I’m not concerned with creating a church in my own image. David Felten: …enjoying the privilege of just being there. Jack Spong: Yeah, just being. I hope I won’t be a problem to the next rector. If I am, I’ll have to leave. But I also loved being a member of St. Peter’s in Morristown, and I loved my rector there very much – and that’s all been a retirement experience. It’s been fun. David Felten: Well, you’ve been extremely accommodating and I appreciate you sharing so much. Jack Spong: I appreciate you, David, more than you know. You and Jeff Procter-Murphy have done for the Methodist church what I think I’ve been doing for the Episcopal church. David Felten: They haven’t made the mistake of making one of us a bishop though! Jack Spong: Well, one of my predecessors at St. Paul’s was Walter Russell Bowie, who taught at Union in New York for years and was rector of Grace Church in New York. He was elected bishop of Pennsylvania and turned it down. He had great sense to do that. He said being a bishop is a staff job and you have to leave the ministry to do it. If I hadn’t turned being bishop into a teaching role, I think I would have gone crazy. But it’s not a very happy job. I’d much rather be a rector of a parish and be with people in trouble, sorrow, need or sickness and any other adversity and watch the cycles go. I had a wonderful time at St. Paul’s. David Felten: Any closing advice as we finish up? Jack Spong: I would say that you have got to spend your time relating to the issues of your world – and I don’t know what they’re going to be. But if you can’t make the Christian church speak to the issues of the world, then it will quickly become irrelevant. David Felten: That kind of advice makes a lot of clergy nervous. Jack Spong: Well, that’s not a comfortable role to be in. I think most clergy seek comfort and it’s a rare group – maybe a minority, maybe 1% of the clergy – who see the way things are and are not content to just ask, “Why?” They dream of things that never were and ask, “Why not?” That puts you in a different mode. You have to be willing to be a change agent. But if you’re nothing but a change agent, after a while you wear out your congregation. They get tired of changing. But that’s the key, you’ve got to have that element in there. I would hope that the clergy would stay informed professionally and I think that means knowing the Bible. That sounds so strange but I go to church and I hear people say, “Our second lesson this morning comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.” Well. I immediately say, “But Paul didn’t write it! He had been dead ten years before Ephesians was written!” That is such a simple thing and there is no reason why we can’t be on top of that little detail. David Felten: Yeah, but those little details are intimidating to some folks. Added together, they may leave people with no other choice than having to change their understanding of the Bible. Jack Spong: Bible study is able to do that. I don’t see why people ever thought that the Christian stories were anything but myths. They didn’t develop for decades. You don’t have a star in the sky that sends off a message of a child being born, a star that moves, that has a GPS system that allows camels to follow it to the promised land. Or wise men hanging out in the wilderness because they know the Messiah is going to be born so they keep a good supply of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and a couple of camels around the place. It’s amazing to me that anybody ever thought that was anything other than a myth – it’s a glorious myth – but it’s a myth. And I think we ought to say that. Most people don’t believe in the virgin birth, either, but they don’t know what to do with it because it’s been crammed down their throats. It is the same thing with resurrection. We’ve confused resurrection with resuscitation and we’ve got people convinced that if they don’t believe in the resuscitation of Jesus they can’t be Christians. That’s absurd. Resurrection does not mean resuscitation. It’s a whole new word. That should be just elementary stuff for the Christian pastor. David Felten: It sounds like you’re touching on one of my soapbox issues: the expectation that pastors be honest. Jack Spong: Well, yeah, that’s right. An honest person would never present the virgin birth story as anything but a myth. It just doesn’t make sense any other way. The resurrection – the body of Jesus – doesn’t appear until Matthew’s gospel, that’s in the year 90. It’s resuscitation by that time and that’s what we’ve got people believing. Well, they misread Paul. Paul says, “If Christ be not raised, we are of all people most to be pitied.” I think that’s true, but it’s not resuscitation that he’s talking about. What is the role of miracles? There are no miracles in Paul and miracles don’t appear until Mark. Paul never knew Jesus as a miracle worker. You’ve got to go back to the Jewish root to see them. Did Judas exist? No, I don’t think he did. Every detail of the Judas story is a detail of an Old Testament “traitor story” applied to Judas. To name the traitor Judas (which is simply the Greek spelling of Judah) is just too clever. Then people say, “Well, why did Jesus die?” I think he was a radical that they executed to get rid of him. I think that’s what happens to most radicals. I feel very lucky to have survived. David Felten: I think you’re hitting on your favorite themes here with Judas having been a fictional character and Paul perhaps having– Jack Spong: …been a homosexual. David Felten: Yes! There’s a play-list of sensational Jack Spong ideas that, when people know your name even beyond the church, they say, “Oh yeah, he’s the one.” Jack Spong: That’s right. That’s right. It was a wonderful career… David Felten: Thank you so much. Jack Spong: …and thanks for coming by to spend some time with an old man. I hope you can make something out of that. ~ Rev. David M. Felten Click here to read online and to share your thoughts About the Author Rev. David M. Felten is a full-time pastor at The Fountains, a United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills, Arizona. David and fellow United Methodist Pastor, Jeff Procter-Murphy, are the creators of the DVD-based discussion series for Progressive Christians, “Living the Questions”. A co-founder of the Arizona Foundation for Contemporary Theology and also a founding member of No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice, David is an outspoken voice for LGBTQ rights both in the church and in the community at large. David is active in the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church and tries to stay connected to his roots as a musician. You’ll find him playing saxophones in a variety of settings, including appearances with the Fountain Hills Saxophone Quartet. David and his wife Laura have three children. | | | | | | | | Question & Answer Dear Friends, Your letters come in such numbers that if I responded to each one I would need a full time staff. I can assure you that every one of them is read and I try to pick the most interesting ones for publication. Using only one each week, however, means that inevitably most of your questions do not get the response that they deserve. For that reason, periodically, I devote a whole column to a series of your letters and their questions. I am doing that this week. The range of these questions is amazing. They go from trying to unload the hostility that has been associated with a particular biblical text, to a question about Mary Magdalene, to a quotation from the late Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, to a question on sexuality. I thank all of you for your letters and hope that this column will continue to elicit them from you. Enjoy the “dog days of summer.” ~ John Shelby Spong (Originally Published August 16, 2006) Questions Garnet and Douglas, Unity Ministers from Little Rock, Arkansas, write: “We know that it is generally known that Mark 16:9 to the end of that final chapter was a much later addition to Mark’s Gospel. Since the statement, ‘Go in to all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation’ is in that added segment and is USED as the excuse to ‘go into all the world and push certain religions on people.’ I am interested to know if there are any clues as to ‘who’ created this idea, when, and what was their real purpose?” Dear Garnet and Douglas, The quotation you cite is from one of two proposed endings that were attached to Mark in the early years of the second century. In the King James Version of the Bible they are still included in the text. In both the Revised Standard Version and in the New Revised Standard Version, these additions are either separate from the text or footnoted to inform the reader that they are not part of the earliest Marcan documents that we possess. The verse you cite (Mark 16:15) is thus not regarded as authentic Marcan material. A close reading of these added verses makes it clear that a later editor was attempting to harmonize Mark with several of the later gospel accounts. The original “Go into all the world” text is found originally in the second resurrection story told by Matthew (Matthew 28: 16-20) so the person who wrote this new ending to Mark took it from there. Matthew’s version has come to be called “The Great Commission” or “The Divine Commission.” Since Matthew is the originator of this phrase, to answer your question we need to understand what it meant to Matthew. There is no doubt that these texts have been used throughout history to justify missionary and conversion activities that are less than edifying, to say nothing about being out of touch with the spirit of Jesus. Matthew was the most Jewish of all the gospel writers. It is terribly important to him to show the Jewishness of Jesus. That is why he opens his narrative with a genealogy of Jesus that grounds Jesus’ very DNA in the line from Abraham to King David, to the Exile and finally through Joseph to Jesus. That is also why Matthew wraps Jesus in the Scriptures of the Hebrew people. “This was done that it might be fulfilled that was spoken by the prophet,” is a regular refrain in Matthew’s gospel. This is also why even the Wise Men in Matthew’s gospel are forced to consult the Jewish Scriptures before they know that the new King of the Jews is to be born in Bethlehem. However, this intensely Jewish Jesus is wrapped in an interpretive envelope that Matthew uses to show that although Jesus arose from the Jews and fulfilled the expectations of the Jews, his ultimate purpose was to bind the human community into one community in which there were no barriers of tribe, race, or national identity. The first part of that envelope is the story of the Star of Bethlehem. Matthew, following a long time Jewish practice, says that a star announced the birth of Jesus. The unique thing about the star is that it shines not just on the land of the Jews but is seen across the world. That star draws the world, in the persons of the Magi, into the worship of this Jewish Jesus. Jesus called all people to step beyond their boundaries into a universal humanity. This vision also fulfilled the original call of the Jews. They were not the Chosen people as a sign of privilege, they were chosen to be the people through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Matthew proceeds to tell the story of Jesus from his baptism to his crucifixion and resurrection. In this narrative, the barriers that divide human beings fall before Jesus. A new humanity bound together only by love is portrayed. The Jesus invitation is, “Come unto me all ye,” not, “some of ye.” A barrier separating anyone from the God met in Jesus would destroy all that Jesus stood for. So Matthew comes to the very end, the last five verses of his gospel in which the first and only time he has the risen Christ speak. His message is simple, “Go into all the world!” Go to those who are different, who you previously have called gentiles, unclean, uncircumcised and proclaim to them the message of the universal love of God. Tell them about God’s love that transcends all human barriers and all human limitations. That is still the purpose of the Christian Church – to proclaim the love of God for all that God has made. Only when Christianity identified its message with particular beliefs about God and Jesus that needed to be imposed on others in order to be saved do we get the kind of missionary imperative about which you speak in your question. That attitude is about as far away from Jesus’ original meaning as one can get. You cannot love a person when you say to them, “My religion is better than yours so I intend to impose my religion on you.” You cannot proclaim the love of God if you approach someone under the stance, “I’m OK, you’re not OK. And you will not be OK until you are just like me!” Unfortunately, that is what so much of the missionary activity of the Church has tended to do. Henrietta writes: “I am currently reading a book about Mary Magdalene written by Bruce Chilton that has a map in the beginning of the book that clearly shows a town of Magdala that is in Galilee. He states that Mary Magdala is from that village of about 3000 people. It is an extremely interesting book. Can you please explain your reason for not believing in a village of Magdala? (you might find a lot of food for thought in this book as well.) Thank you.” Dear Henrietta, Bruce Chilton is a good friend and admired colleague. He has accepted common wisdom and common maps on the subject of Magdala. There is no evidence that there was ever such a place but because Magdalene was interpreted to be Magdala, efforts have been made to find a town that might have been called by a different name. Dalmanutha is the favorite candidate. Truth was not served in that enterprise but the tourist industry was. I wonder why people would not have said Mary of Magdala in the New Testament if ‘Magdalene’ meant her place of origin. They knew how to say Jesus of Nazareth, Paul of Tarsus, and Peter of Bethsaida. Why not say, Mary of Magdala? They did not, I am convinced, because that was not what Magdalene meant. Only two names have words attached to them in the New Testament that are written as if those words are part of their names. They are Judas Iscariot and Mary Magdalene. Once people argued that “Iscariot” meant that Judas came from the village of Kerioth and that Magdalene meant Mary came from the village of Magdala. I do not believe that either claim can be substantiated. So I think Bruce is wrong – so are most of the sources I looked at on the Internet that struggle to identify the location of the mythical Magdala. To pretend that Magdalene means she hails from Magdala hides something of the true meaning of Mary Magdalene that I think comes from the Hebrew word, Migdal, which originally meant a large tower which shepherds climbed to keep watch over their sheep. In time the word came to mean large in the sense of being great. I think the attaching of Magdalene to Mary was an affectionate way the early disciples referred to her and it meant ‘Mary the great’ or the great Mary. Her place in the early Christian movement was far higher than that assigned to her by the later church that invented the idea that she was a prostitute. Thankfully we are just now beginning to recover something of her original stature. Bill from Norfolk, VA, asks: “Would you please comment on the late Roman Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s comment that, ‘Since God is just, I believe there is a hell; since God is merciful, I believe there is no one in it’.” Dear Bill, Fulton Sheen was expressing his hope in such a way so as not to contradict the teaching authority of his Church. It was a good compromise. Yet the idea that either hell or heaven is a place to which people go is a part of the human experience of limited language. We are beings, God is Being itself but in human language we conceptualize God as a Being, for that is all we understand. We are creatures bound by time and place and so we describe life beyond this life in terms of linear, spatial concepts. We have no other language. The problem arises when we assume our language is literally true. It isn’t. If God is life then heaven is life in God, Hell is life apart from God. It is about relationships not about space. Is anyone apart from God? That is not for me to say. Do we have the capacity to say a final and ultimate “No” to God? I suppose that is theoretically possible. The Church has always used both heaven and hell as promise and threat in the task of behavior control. Bishop Sheen’s answer comes out of that mindset. I find those categories meaningless. If we would stop worrying about other people and concentrate on our own relationship with God and others, we would have a better world. S. M. Cornwall of Exeter, England, writes: “In your recent talk in Exeter, the implication seemed to be that homosexuality is either a chosen path (and thus undesirable/reprehensible) or unchosen (and thus not reprehensible). Is it not possible that, for some individuals, homosexuality is chosen but not thereby inherently reprehensible? To say otherwise risks the implication that homosexuals are only homosexual because they have no choice and that if they had a choice, they would probably choose heterosexuality. ‘Nature’ as a category is highly problematic but there do appear other ‘unchosen’ human impulses (e.g. exploitative sexual activity), which are still not viewed as ‘desirable.’ Dear S. M. Cornwall, It seems to me that your letter misunderstands two things. First, if sexual orientation is a given then it cannot be something judged as evil simply because it is a minority expression of our humanity. Homosexuality/heterosexuality is like skin color, racial characteristics and lefthandedness/righthandedness. It is a given in life, something to be accepted as that which is. It is true that the boundary between the genders in all of nature is not near as severe as we once thought it was but none of that is now seen as unnatural or abnormal. When you then move on to exploitative sexual behavior or, as some have argued to an innate propensity for alcoholism that they suggest is also “unchosen,” you have introduced a whole new element and confused the discussion. Exploitative sexual behavior and alcoholism both have a victim. Someone’s humanity is diminished by this behavior including certainly the humanity of the sexual exploiter or the alcoholic. Homosexuality surely can be acted out in such a way as to produce a victim but it may also be acted out in such a way as to enhance life for both partners. What we forget in our prejudice is that the same thing can be said for heterosexuality. Both sexual orientations are morally neutral. Both can be expressed in moral and in immoral ways. It is harder to do that when society condemns one that is the minority orientation and says that no expression of that orientation is ever good. No exploitative behavior is ever desirable. No self-destructive behavior is ever desirable. Sexual orientation is not, per se, exploitative. That is a difference not to be confused. ~ John Shelby Spong Click here to read and share online | | | | | | | | Announcements 4 Ways to Compassion in the City this Holiday Season Spirituality & Practice's Online Course is from November 26th to December 23rd. Wen we are able to find our inner peace, and then reach out to others with kindness and appreciation, this holiday season in the city can become something truly nourishing. Click here for more information/registration... | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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FW: Sneak Peek: The Good Money Issue
by Lynda C 16 Nov '18

16 Nov '18

I thought I was forwarding the entire newsletter, but I really liked the quote below. Plus they are offering a $12 gift subscription for a year. Great magazine of positive futures. From: YES! Magazine <yesnewsletters(a)yesmagazine.org> Reply-To: "yesnewsletters(a)yesmagazine.org" <yesnewsletters(a)yesmagazine.org> Date: Friday, November 9, 2018 at 3:15 PM To: Lynda & John Cock <lynda860(a)outlook.com> Subject: Sneak Peek: The Good Money Issue Flipping the House Is Nice, But the Real Power Is Local<https://yesmagazine.cmail19.com/t/d-l-njlsdy-vdlykhuuu-b/>

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Islander Club, Enid
by Terry Bergdall 15 Nov '18

15 Nov '18

Many on this list have first-hand experience in the Marshall Islands while others have heard countless stories. Therefore, I thought some might be interested in this story from my hometown, Enid, Oklahoma. It has become a major immigrant destination for Marshallese in the US. Who'd a guessed? Certainly not me! Terry Bergdall

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