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June birthday witness
by cla9ken8＠ecentral.com 09 Jul '18

09 Jul '18

I missed my day on Earthrise, (June 19) but am rejuvenated by the current testimonies on the subject of aging. As a survivor of one new hip and two new knees, I am always stopped at TSA, no matter what country I am in. They also offer me canes, arms, wheelchairs, etc, under the assumption that I can’t possibly stand in the little booth for 10 seconds. There are times when I agree with them, but mostly I am just bemused. We went to Europe this spring to visit our oldest granddaughter in Brussels, interning through her university at the EU. Met up with her mother and we had a great time. Then the best part was joining Paul and Christine Schrijnen in a visit to the people who were instrumental in our 100 town meetings in Flanders in 1979. We had not seen them for 40 years and had such a wonderful time with them, and were treated like royalty. We then went to Glasgow, where we had lived from 1975-1977, and visited movement colleagues in Edinburgh with the same wonderful experience. We traveled to Bristol to see my niece and her family, another terrific experience. We went to Vermont in June to see Peter’s younger daughter graduate from high school as well as visits in Maine and Boston. And I am 79 and Ken 81! Travelling now has its downsides which are hard to take, but visits with grandchildren are worth the effort. My takeaway is that it is my body that has grown old, but my mind and will are still ready to get out of the chair and GO. I would not have it any other way. People leap up when I get on the trams, taxis stop quickly, and I’m refreshed and ready to move forward again. Having learned to live an intentional life has stood me in good stead, as I am able to live my life (with a little help sometimes) as well as ever! Praise the Lord. Clare Whitney

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Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ Retirement
by Del Morrill 07 Jul '18

07 Jul '18

Justin and I were there in spirit. From: OE <oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> On Behalf Of isobeljimbish--- via OE Sent: Friday, July 6, 2018 11:22 PM To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: isobeljimbish(a)optusnet.com.au Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ Retirement Hello again, Further word about the Service for Garnet: There was a greet cloud of witnesses present. Including colleagues from South Australia, southern New South Wales and other even more remote places. Vale Garnet and remember Lis and her family in our country. xx Isobel Bishop Sent from my iPhone On 7 Jul 2018, at 2:46 pm, Isobel and Jim Bishop via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> > wrote: Dear colleagues, one and all, Thank you for all these marvellous writings. Each one has a pearl that I have touched and seen within it a pure moment of truth. Words are such an extraordinary medium for enhancing the feelings, diverse emotions, and experiences we are all noticing on our personal spirit journeyings. I can only say from down here in Oz “ journey on, journey on’ I was so privileged to attend the Funeral of Garnet yesterday in Melbourne. We shared in his extraordinary life; from his childhood to his death and all that encompassed his own crimson line. In peace and love, Isobel Bishop. xx Isobel and Jim Bishop isobeljimbish(a)optusnet.com.au <mailto:isobeljimbish@optusnet.com.au> On 7 Jul 2018, at 7:09 am, John Epps via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> > wrote: Thanks Margaret for a moving and profound statement. John Epps On Fri, Jul 6, 2018 at 2:54 PM, Margaret Aiseayew via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> > wrote: Since the United Methodist Church was going to kick me out into retirement next year, I decided to beat them to the punch and retire this year instead. This decision was encouraged by the fact that I was experiencing the church as not very united, not particularly Wesleyan, and not reflective of the dynamic of the Church in history these days. Since this decision, I had been praying for a door or window to open that would allow me to focus my next lifetime’s work on death and dying. Just three weeks before the Iowa Annual Conference retirement ceremony I connected with the Death Midwife network and jumped through. Now that might seem like the interference of magical thinking rather than a God Wink, but there is no doubt in my mind that final reality was ultimately engaged. My stepmother, Dorothy Mae Appelgate died the next week. The week after that, I heard that my college roommate and dear friend Dixie Binning had also died. There was almost a weeks “respite” while we did Vacation Bible SchooI (for which I am too old) before learning of the deaths of Garnet Banks, Bev Salmon and Mamie Tucker. I am beginning to wonder if the window I should have gone through may have been about grieving. Not only have these five companions completed their journeys, most of my connections here are in need of reevaluation due to retirement. It has been quite a kick in the seat of the pants. “You want to go in a new direction?” well let me help you take off. I am interstitial space. I have been working my way through a stack of books I want to read. Most incredible has been the Lakota Way. I close by attaching a long quote from it and this quote from Shubert Ogden: “Whatever else may befall us and however long or short may be the span of our lives, we are each embraced in every moment within God’s boundless love and thereby have the ultimate destiny of endless life in and through the eternal.” Blessings, Margaret When all is said and done there is only one truth that is unwavering. It has endured and will always endure because it will stand unabashedly and without apology. That truth is death, and it is the one that is avoided and most feared by American society. But it should be the standard for truth against which all others are measured. And we will find that nothing can compare with its honesty and faithfulness. Death does not kill. Disease, accidents, rage, old age, stupidity, among others are killers. Death is only part of the process of life. The truth about death is simple. It will happen. Nothing is more inevitable, no matter how vigorously we deny it or fight it. Death will come for us regardless of how powerful, famous, rich, beautiful, influential, irreverent or lowly we are. There is no way to fight it. We can fight to live, but we will always lose the fight with death. Thinking of death in those terms creates the illusion that it is an enemy, but it isn’t out enemy; it is, when all is said and done, our truest friend The most profound and reassuring truth about death is that it is a part of life. Life begins with birth and ends with death. With no other journey you travel can you know how it will end. We begin dying the moment we are born, which means living well is dying well. That is the truest measure of any being. The final—and perhaps the greatest—truth about death is that it is the great equalizer; it connects all living beings to its truth. Every form of life shares with us the same journey that begins with birth and ends with death. No one being or species, not the most powerful, nor the most arrogant, nor the wisest will ever alter that truth. Excerpted from pgs. 121-123 of the Lakota Way by Joseph M. Marshall III. _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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Global Buzz July Issue
by ICA International 07 Jul '18

07 Jul '18

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.....If you wish to SEND a report...send to your ICA contact person OR...go to the members section on the ICA International website Please click the link below for the latest issue of the Global Buzz Global Buzz Report: July 2018 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-18/2018-07-01.php ICAI Communications

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Earthrise @ Retirement
by Margaret Aiseayew 07 Jul '18

07 Jul '18

Since the United Methodist Church was going to kick me out into retirement next year, I decided to beat them to the punch and retire this year instead. This decision was encouraged by the fact that I was experiencing the church as not very united, not particularly Wesleyan, and not reflective of the dynamic of the Church in history these days. Since this decision, I had been praying for a door or window to open that would allow me to focus my next lifetime's work on death and dying. Just three weeks before the Iowa Annual Conference retirement ceremony I connected with the Death Midwife network and jumped through. Now that might seem like the interference of magical thinking rather than a God Wink, but there is no doubt in my mind that final reality was ultimately engaged. My stepmother, Dorothy Mae Appelgate died the next week. The week after that, I heard that my college roommate and dear friend Dixie Binning had also died. There was almost a weeks "respite" while we did Vacation Bible SchooI (for which I am too old) before learning of the deaths of Garnet Banks, Bev Salmon and Mamie Tucker. I am beginning to wonder if the window I should have gone through may have been about grieving. Not only have these five companions completed their journeys, most of my connections here are in need of reevaluation due to retirement. It has been quite a kick in the seat of the pants. "You want to go in a new direction?" well let me help you take off. I am interstitial space. I have been working my way through a stack of books I want to read. Most incredible has been the Lakota Way. I close by attaching a long quote from it and this quote from Shubert Ogden: "Whatever else may befall us and however long or short may be the span of our lives, we are each embraced in every moment within God's boundless love and thereby have the ultimate destiny of endless life in and through the eternal." Blessings, Margaret When all is said and done there is only one truth that is unwavering. It has endured and will always endure because it will stand unabashedly and without apology. That truth is death, and it is the one that is avoided and most feared by American society. But it should be the standard for truth against which all others are measured. And we will find that nothing can compare with its honesty and faithfulness. Death does not kill. Disease, accidents, rage, old age, stupidity, among others are killers. Death is only part of the process of life. The truth about death is simple. It will happen. Nothing is more inevitable, no matter how vigorously we deny it or fight it. Death will come for us regardless of how powerful, famous, rich, beautiful, influential, irreverent or lowly we are. There is no way to fight it. We can fight to live, but we will always lose the fight with death. Thinking of death in those terms creates the illusion that it is an enemy, but it isn't out enemy; it is, when all is said and done, our truest friend The most profound and reassuring truth about death is that it is a part of life. Life begins with birth and ends with death. With no other journey you travel can you know how it will end. We begin dying the moment we are born, which means living well is dying well. That is the truest measure of any being. The final-and perhaps the greatest-truth about death is that it is the great equalizer; it connects all living beings to its truth. Every form of life shares with us the same journey that begins with birth and ends with death. No one being or species, not the most powerful, nor the most arrogant, nor the wisest will ever alter that truth. Excerpted from pgs. 121-123 of the Lakota Way by Joseph M. Marshall III.

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FW: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon-better link
by Lynda C 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

From: Jana Lamb <lamb_jana(a)hotmail.com> Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2018 at 11:47 AM To: Lynda Cock <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Subject: Re: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon You will probably get the message from dad but my mom's service will be on this link: For streaming the service on Friday this is a link to the church web page. https://www.triumc.org/webcast/ They then click on another link on that page. Or, that can go directly to this link. https://iframe.dacast.com/b/2576/c/56217 [https://images.dacast.com/default-facebook-wall.jpg]<https://iframe.dacast.com/b/2576/c/56217> Trinity UMC Worship<https://iframe.dacast.com/b/2576/c/56217> iframe.dacast.com Trinity UMC, Salina KS Sermons It should start at 1:45. Mom was so well known and had such good connections with professional musicians it will be quite the concert as well. Good for you to help with VBS. That was our theme too this year. This was my first year not to help, but I have been under-the-weather this years. My new dr thinks I have Lupus. I see a new rheumatologist later this month. Hopefully she will have answers. Thank you, Jana ________________________________ From: Lynda C <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2018 9:03 PM To: Jana Lamb Subject: Re: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon I’m so glad you received them. They were from Carol Walters who was the founder of Training, Inc. that we all loved so dearly. You have been much in our thoughts and prayers as you go about the tasks of creating a very special final celebration of a wonderful life. We are so blessed to have worked together in 5th City RH, Training, Inc. and to be part of Wes’ long and difficult journey. You have amazing parents, which I know you already know. I’m teaching a 4 year old VBS class this week and our theme is God’s heroes. Our team is named for a Biblical hero, David, and the song about David playing his harp has had me thinking of your dear mom. One of my dear aunts suggested to me that instead of concentrating on Mom’s Absence, that I concentrate on her Presence in new ways. That has helped me to bring the joy of special memories in a new way, and I find myself having little “conversations” with her in her new form with me. We send love and care and will look forward to sharing with you virtually on her Celebration Day. Grace and peace, Lynda and John From: Jana Lamb <lamb_jana(a)hotmail.com> Date: Monday, June 25, 2018 at 5:31 PM To: Lynda Cock <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Subject: Re: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon Dear Lynda, I found your email today as I am working on a slide presentation to show at the memorial service (and MY computer is not cooperating! So I'm trying a different route.). I will try to add a picture and see about putting the others on mom's facebook.(Thank you for sending them) I appreciate your nice words about my mom. Dad said that he had a long visit with you and that it was very meaningful and appreciated by him. Thank you for that. Jana Lamb ________________________________ From: Lynda C <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2018 6:22 PM To: lamb_jana(a)hotmail.com Cc: B & B Salmon Subject: FW: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon Jana, our care to you. I can’t see if Carol sent this to you all or not, so I’m passing it along to you in case your dad’s computer can’t be opened. I don’t have Julie’s e-mail. Please let me know if you receive this. Our deep care is with you during this sacred time. This note went to some folks that were in the Chicago House with us or worked in Training, Inc. I don’t think the OE list can take photo attachments. It would be wonderful to post some of these on Facebook for others to see. Lynda and John From: M George Walters <carol.walters(a)yahoo.com> Date: Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at 5:56 PM To: Lynda Cock <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Cc: A Baumbach <abaumbach(a)new.rr.com>, J & B Ames <jbames10(a)aol.com>, Karen Snyder <karen.snyder10(a)gmail.com>, Jim and Karen Troxel <jtroxel49(a)gmail.com>, 'Terry Bergdall' <bergdall(a)gmail.com>, T&P Bergdall <pbergdall(a)yahoo.com>, "Samueller410(a)msn.com" <Samueller410(a)msn.com> Subject: RE: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon Thank you Lynda for letting us know of Bev’s tragic death. I could hardly read through my tears to the end of the description of what she suffered. We don’t have any addresses for those you mentioned. Glenda Long moved to Vermont as I remember. Attached are a few pictures of the staff and some of the Training, Inc. DuPage Class Photos from when Bev taught there. Jan Ames passed these photos along to me when the program closed in Oak Brook. They are now in the Imaginal Education Archives. As you can see from the pictures she was always the role model of professionalism and a beloved teacher with her students. She made a difference in the lives she touched throughout her life. Our prayers and loving memories go to her family and friends. From: Lynda C <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Sent: Monday, June 18, 2018 9:54 PM To: carol.walters(a)yahoo.com; A Baumbach <abaumbach(a)new.rr.com>; J & B Ames <jbames10(a)aol.com>; Karen Snyder <karen.snyder10(a)gmail.com>; Jim Troxel <jtroxel49(a)gmail.com>; Terry Bergdall <bergdall(a)gmail.com>; T&P Bergdall <pbergdall(a)yahoo.com>; Samueller410(a)msn.com Subject: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon Dear Colleagues, I posted a brief note copied from Julie Salmon’s Facebook page onto the OE list, but I thought a personal message to you all who lived and worked with Bill and Bev in 5th City during the sad time of Wes’ illness and death. would be appropriate, since I’m not sure who all is on the OE list. I spoke briefly to Jean Long and also got the names of Sharon Heiges, Christine Harris and Glenda Long who were in the 5th City House with us, but for whom neither Jean nor I have addresses. Bev was part of the teaching staff of Training, Inc. I’m in hopes that some of you will have some of the other addresses. Also please share this with others that I may have left out. John and I spoke to Bill this evening and he informed us of the tragic situation of Bev’s death. A little over a week ago, Bill and Bev were happily celebrating their 62nd anniversary with a friend who had invited them for a little candlelight dinner with steaks. Tragically, a piece of steak caught in Bev’s throat which they were unable to dislodge for a long while with Heimlich method or even with EMT help , but finally did get it out. However, her breathing was affected and she had to be put on a ventilator for several days, yet her breathing was still very labored and fast. On Wed of this past week they were able to take her off the ventilator and she was talkative and giving instructions. She and Bill were able to share the poetry gifts to each other that were to be part of their aborted anniversary dinner, and she was talking about going home the next day to sleep with her anniversary husband. However, she was struggling again to breath at the end of the day. She slept mostly Thurs and Friday when it was determined that although she was getting adequate oxygen, her body had lost its ability to expel the CO2 which was filling her body. The decision was made not to put her back on the ventilator which would not have dealt with that problem anyway, and she died peacefully on Sat. with the family with her. Our hearts ache with this family. Bill asked us to put a note out to the OE list and he will write a bit of reflection a little later. He would greatly welcome hearing from colleagues, either via the OE list or the old fashioned ways. He’s having a bit of struggle with his computer, but said he could most likely get to the OE list. Their mailing address is still 744 S 10th , Salina, KS 67401. Email: wsalmon(a)cox.net<mailto:wsalmon@cox.net>. Phone: 785-825-1221. Daughters Jana Salmon Lamb and Julie Salmon Gregg are also listed in the Directory. This afternoon the family had a Ritual of Closing with poetry and stories. A community celebration of Beverly’s completed life will be July 6. We celebrate Beverly’s life of service to her family, her community, the world, (I know of Korea and Egypt) and the church. She was a gifted harpist and part of a Pararie Wind Harpist group. Grace and Peace to this dear family, Lynda and John

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Fwd: Mamie Tucker
by Timothy Wegner 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

- From: ML Jones <mljones2022(a)gmail.com> Dear Colleagues, Mamie Tucker died recently in Chicago. She was in hospice at her daughter Brenda's home in Matteson during the past several months. Mamie graduated from the Training Inc. on the West Side in the early 1980s. She interviewed to be the ICA Receptionist on the North Side and served faithfully until she retired in 2005. Mamie was competent, considerate and kind to thousands of people - tenants, agency clients, conference participants and a legion of ICA staff and families entering the 4750 building for 25 years. Mamie will be remembered fondly by many. The funeral service will be held on Saturday, July 7 at A.R. Leak Funeral Home 18400 S. Pulaski Avenue <https://maps.google.com/?q=18400+S.+Pulaski+Avenue+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2…> Country Club Hills, Illinois <https://maps.google.com/?q=18400+S.+Pulaski+Avenue+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2…> Flowers or remembrances may be sent to the funeral home in memory of Mamie Tucker - care of her daughter Brenda. Mary Laura Jones Tim, could you please post the above information to the Dialogues? Thank you Mary Laura Jones Grants Resource Development Consultant 1454 W. Fargo Avenue <https://maps.google.com/?q=1454+W.+Fargo+Avenue+%0D%0A+Chicago,+IL+60626&en…> Chicago, IL 60626 <https://maps.google.com/?q=1454+W.+Fargo+Avenue+%0D%0A+Chicago,+IL+60626&en…> cell: 773 636-2022 mljones2022(a)gmail.com

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Three Sacred Gatherings (and Salmon: Address for live streaming of Beverly's Memorial)
by Lynda C 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Sacred gatherings have been planned for three of our colleagues’ completed lives on this day, July 6, 2018. We served with all three of them in Religious Houses. Memorial services for Garnet Banks, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (10:30 Australia Standard Time); services for Rhoda Ertel in Kansas City; services for Beverly Salmon in Salina, Kansas, live streamed at 2 pm Central Time (link below). We remember with gratitude our journeys together in those years and since. We join these families in spirit and care on this their memorial day. Grace and Peace, Lynda and John From: OE <oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of OE List <OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Reply-To: B & B Salmon <wsalmon(a)cox.net>, OE List <OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Date: Monday, July 2, 2018 at 11:28 PM To: Jana Lamb <jana_lamb(a)hotmail.com>, "gregs2(a)cox.net" <gregs2(a)cox.net>, OE List <OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net>, "OBA(a)sjms.org" <OBA(a)sjms.org>, Cc: B & B Salmon <wsalmon(a)cox.net> Subject: [Oe List ...] Salmon: Address for live streaming of Beverly's Memorial Live Streaming of Beverly's Memorial Service uses the following link: htt/s://iframe.dacast.com/b/2576/c56217. REMEMBER: The service is this Friday, July 6th at 2p.m. CENTRAL TIME. Thank you for your continued prayers and sending me your spiritual energy. I'm living off it. Please spread the word about this special service. Pastor Bill

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Aging
by Lynda C 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

This from our Davidson Village Network for Seniors: I’ve recommended Sandra Conant’s book to them for a book study. Good talk on aging here by daughter of Margaret Mead. I think as a group we are well exemplifying what Bateson speaks of. Lynda C. Adulthood II - A Good Time to Volunteer! According to Mary Catherine Bateson<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0014rUqDP9-xk8Nxj8gEHzRUygvpZnO89oftT2d5a1Z9aRR…>, writer, cultural anthropologist and leader in the disruption of views on aging; your most important work could begin as you enter the stage she calls, Adulthood II. Bateson writes, "this is the Age of Active Wisdom" and it spans from ages of 50 - 75. Like her mother, Margaret Mead<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0014rUqDP9-xk8Nxj8gEHzRUygvpZnO89oftT2d5a1Z9aRR…>, Bateson is a thought leader for the times, unafraid to shake up our collective consciousness. Mead opened minds in the 1960's and influenced the sexual revolution. Bateson is a leader in the aging revolution. She is asking us to look at how we live longer. Older adults are rejecting traditional retirement. There a countless examples of older adults using their skills in community volunteer roles, going back to school, working part time and starting new businesses. Bateson says Adulthood II is a time to ask yourself "What can I do to give meaning to these years? If you have relative good health, the contribution of your life knowledge and unique perspective when combined with creative imagination can result in action that is meaningful and productive. Wisdom is no longer associated with withdrawal and passivity but with engagement." If you are considering a volunteer opportunity, we have options! Please check out our website<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0014rUqDP9-xk8Nxj8gEHzRUygvpZnO89oftT2d5a1Z9aRR…> for more information. *You can find out more about Bateson's work in her ten minute talk<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0014rUqDP9-xk8Nxj8gEHzRUygvpZnO89oftT2d5a1Z9aRR…> she gave at a TEDxWomen conference.

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Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79
by Del Morrill 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

If you haven’t read it, Sandra Conant Strachan’s “Balancing Act: Strategies for Successful Aging, is a good read, with helpful reminders to those of us in the latter years of our lives. From: OE <oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> On Behalf Of Randy Williams via OE Sent: Wednesday, July 4, 2018 4:33 PM To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: Randy Williams <randycw1938(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79 John, I can certainly commiserate. I will be 80 if I make to December. I’ve managed to avoid most of the medications, but I am aware of several “rites of passage” of sorts—hearing aids a few years ago, knee replacement a year ago and the sudden realization that I seem now to have more hair on my ears than on my head. Among the new insights that seem to come only with aging, I’ve become aware that at some point my focus has begun to shift from quantity to quality. I try to adhere to a regimen of physical exercise and maintain a healthy diet. But it tends now to be motivated more by the desire to live “well” than to live longer. It’s also interesting to note that I seem to have a little more control over the former than I do the the latter, but control is less an issue than going with the flow. I guess that too is part of the process. So may we and all like us be well, Randy On Jul 4, 2018, at 4:47 PM, John Epps via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> > wrote: Earthrise @ 79 Recently we were returning from a trip to Kansas and stopped for lunch at Denny’s in Limon, Colorado. We’d been watching storm clouds gathering on the horizon and were hoping to make it home before they hit. As we were leaving, I held the door for an obviously elderly couple – both were white-haired, somewhat bent-over, and he had a cane. Walking was a chore and pushing open the door would have taxed their capacities. They could obviously use some help, so I pushed open the door and held it as they struggled through. Then they uttered the words that still jar me: “Thank you, sir.” “Sir?” Coming from them? I was taught to use that term to refer to those older than I. That statement occasioned an interior rainstorm of reflections, including lots of wind, rain, and some hail. Looking back over the last month, I’ve had more “sirs” thrown at me than at my senior year at The Citadel. There it was earned, deserved, and welcomed. Here it’s a surprising address heralding the onset of elder-ness that I didn’t think I had earned (yet) or deserved, and certainly not welcomed. There are plenty of signs, from the number of medications it takes to keep going to the diminishing energy and frequent naps. But I have ignored those as simply the afflictions of a young man with something gone wrong (to use a phrase from JWM). Reality will not be denied. It breaks through our facades. This time it drove me to look at a work I’d heard about but never examined: “On Holy Living and Dying” by Jeremy Taylor published in 1839 (a century before my birth). I turned quickly to the section on Holy Dying. Here’s an excerpt. “A person is a bubble…all the world is a storm, and people rise up in their several generations…like bubbles descending from nature and Providence; and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of their first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other business in the world but to be born, that they may be able to die: others float up and down two or three turns, and suddenly disappear, and give their place to others: and those that live longest in the face of the waters, are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy; and being crushed with the great drop of a cloud, sink into flatness and a froth; the change not being great, it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing than it was before. So is everyone….” This goes on for 10 pages with powerful images and the same message about our relative insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow, and I don’t know how, I found this strangely comforting, and not unsettling as one might assume. You just never know where wonder will break through, but when it does, it’s well worth celebrating. John Epps _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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7/05/18, Progressing Spirit: Toni Reynolds: Refiguring the Birth of Christ; Matthew Fox; Spong Revisited
by Ellie Stock 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

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.aolmail_mcnTextContent,.aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateHeader .aolmail_mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; }} @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateBody .aolmail_mcnTextContent,.aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateBody .aolmail_mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; }} @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateFooter .aolmail_mcnTextContent,.aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateFooter .aolmail_mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important; line-height:150% !important; }}</style><div style="height: 100%;margin: 0;padding: 0;width: 100%;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;background-color: #78a3b4;" class="aolReplacedBody"> <span class="aolmail_mcnPreviewText" style="display:none; font-size:0px; line-height:0px; max-height:0px; max-width:0px; opacity:0; overflow:hidden; visibility:hidden; mso-hide:all;">Like Mary and Jesus we are called to birth loving acts in our own day and age.</span> <center> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%" id="aolmail_bodyTable" style="border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;height: 100%;margin: 0;padding: 0;width: 100%;background-color: #78a3b4;"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center" valign="top" id="aolmail_bodyCell" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;height: 100%;margin: 0;padding: 10px;width: 100%;border-top: 0;"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_templateContainer" style="border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;border: 5px solid #363232;max-width: 600px !important;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" id="aolmail_templatePreheader" style="background:#FAFAFA 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100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;">Refiguring the Birth of Christ</h1> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><img align="left" height="156" style="border: 0px;width: 125px;height: 156px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/_compresseds/273ef4…">Column by Toni Reynolds on July 5, 2018</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Part of the struggle for 21<sup>st</sup> century Christians is that we have inherited a tradition formed many lifetimes ago, a key component being the virgin birth of the Christ. This tradition has been handed to us with little to no permission to rework the interpretations for ourselves. I am eager to follow Bishop Spong’s lead in doing so before more time passes by. The leaders of the past fit the Jesus story into the scope of vision respective to their eras and cultures, giving us the creeds and doctrines while prohibiting us from doing the same shaping for our own present time. We need not continue with this prohibition if we aim to bring our most authentic selves to the timeline of Christianity. To me, there is no question whether or not Christianity is <em>capable</em> of being relevant in this century. From kernel to husk of the tradition there is something with which we can work to better understand God, ourselves, and our relationship to all things God has made. What I worry about is whether or not the churches that currently house Christianity are willing to let the tradition live in ways that it wants to, leaving it free to metabolize in each new millennium so that the people learn to be good to one another in ways that make sense to their changing needs. Clearly, Christians want to do this work. You reading essays like this one is a small testament to that. The fan base Spong amassed throughout his career is an even larger testament. So, our enterprise is to free ourselves of the ruling old school mindset that claims we have no right to understand these stories for ourselves. For Christianity to grow into our 21<sup>st</sup> century lives we must take seriously our right to understand these stories and concepts for ourselves. We have no choice but to embody an understanding of the Jesus story that empowers us to recognize our generation of Christians as fundamental in the lineage of this tradition. An assignment within this enterprise is to be about the business of truth seeking and adapting it for now. To find ways to encourage developing pastors to reject the acquired myth that “your congregation won’t be ready for the truth about the Bible.” We must share resources and knowledge, wisdom and practices. We must live our lives in ways that reflect our priorities in all situations of life. In each gospel, creed, and doctrine existent in Protestant traditions is something of a time capsule for us to better understand the theological and political convictions of our faith ancestors. Whatever happened in those nine decades separating Mark from Matthew necessitated a deeper understanding of how/why Jesus’s birth was significant. Perhaps this is part of why this birth story goes from absent to colorfully present. It is worth questioning if the virgin birth accounts were some attempt to acknowledge the impressive role of Jesus’s mother in his life and ministry. As Spong notes, Mark takes care to name that Jesus’s mother was one who went to retrieve him as others were calling him crazy for his witness (p. 106). With implicit and explicit emphasis on Jesus’s maternal line we acknowledge the importance of honoring Mary in some significant way. What modern understandings of genetics has done is explained a process with images and details that leaves us thinking we know full well how a human being comes to exist in the stomach of another human being. Just because we can explain the process doesn’t mean the process is devoid of miraculousness; it’s just a different type of miraculous than the virgin birth attempted to capture. Perhaps more exciting is that it is a miraculous process that each of us has experienced. We share an intimate experience with Christ by having first arrived in the womb of another person. I defend the extraordinary nature of human conception and birth because birthing is an incredible symbol for the act of creating. I believe we are each called to create as a way of making offerings to the world and the Creator. Birthing is a symbol I believe has the power to preserve the gospel writers’ hope that the followers of Jesus would take their ability to create seriously. Jesus’s birth and life is miraculous to us for different reasons than it was miraculous to the authors of Matthew and Luke. He was born into and killed by a ruthless empire. These facts are not disputable. We know that Rome was good at violent conquest and brutal crowd control, from physical to psychological forms of cruelty. Yet Jesus maintained his sense of purpose and his commitment to compassionate action despite the temptations of a violent culture. Mary begat Jesus and Jesus begat a ministry and legacy that prompted generations of compassionate care for one another and creation. This is our heritage. Creating is an act that is available to each of us. No exceptions. To matter in our present context, our understanding of the birth of Christ must fuel us as we resist the ills of our world today. A new interpretation of the virgin birth must focus on creating with clarity of heart and certainty of mind. After a day of personal challenges, in a week of stressful headlines in the news, through a year of ever-increasing crimes against humanity our understanding of Christ’s arrival to this world must fuel us in the direction of compassion. Regardless. Like Mary and Jesus we are called to birth loving acts in our own day and age. I propose that a contemporary version of Christ’s conception and birth be more explicitly linked to our call to co-create Holy works for the benefit of all beings. To do so in times that are resistant to Goodness will better align us with the priorities of Jesus. Through our words, thoughts, projects, prayers, relationships, memory making and future visioning we ought to be consulting the Holy Spirit as a creative partner in our lives. Never creating in isolation, forever creating so that all might experience the fullness of life on earth. There are many ways to reinterpret the virgin birth of the Christ child. To my estimation, the only crucial component that ought to exist in each is that Christians be motivated to live as a radical creator of compassion and justice. Ready to offer healing to a social enemy as Jesus does to the Syrophoenician woman, and equally ready to flip a table where injustice has become the new norm. A crucial hope of the birth of Christ narratives is that each reader be inspired to birth radical acts of loving justice that go along to birth their own radical acts of justice. One thought at a time. One relationship at a time. One song, poem, article, book at a time. Happy birthing.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">~ Toni Reynolds Click <a target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">here</a> to read online and to share your thoughts</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <strong>About the Author</strong> Minister Toni Anne Reynolds is committed to singing flesh onto the bones of the Christian tradition by incorporating recently found texts of the ancient world into liturgy, sermons, and poetry. Toni’s Christianity forms a holy trinity with the psychological medicine of Tibetan Buddhism and the eternal Life found in Yoruba traditions. Balanced in an eclectic faith and focused in theology, Toni’s ministry offers a unique perspective on life, theology, and spirituality.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;">Refiguring the Birth of Christ</h1> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><img align="left" height="156" style="border: 0px;width: 125px;height: 156px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/_compresseds/273ef4…">Column by Toni Reynolds on July 5, 2018</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Part of the struggle for 21<sup>st</sup> century Christians is that we have inherited a tradition formed many lifetimes ago, a key component being the virgin birth of the Christ. This tradition has been handed to us with little to no permission to rework the interpretations for ourselves. I am eager to follow Bishop Spong’s lead in doing so before more time passes by. The leaders of the past fit the Jesus story into the scope of vision respective to their eras and cultures, giving us the creeds and doctrines while prohibiting us from doing the same shaping for our own present time. We need not continue with this prohibition if we aim to bring our most authentic selves to the timeline of Christianity. To me, there is no question whether or not Christianity is <em>capable</em> of being relevant in this century. From kernel to husk of the tradition there is something with which we can work to better understand God, ourselves, and our relationship to all things God has made. What I worry about is whether or not the churches that currently house Christianity are willing to let the tradition live in ways that it wants to, leaving it free to metabolize in each new millennium so that the people learn to be good to one another in ways that make sense to their changing needs. Clearly, Christians want to do this work. You reading essays like this one is a small testament to that. The fan base Spong amassed throughout his career is an even larger testament. So, our enterprise is to free ourselves of the ruling old school mindset that claims we have no right to understand these stories for ourselves. For Christianity to grow into our 21<sup>st</sup> century lives we must take seriously our right to understand these stories and concepts for ourselves. We have no choice but to embody an understanding of the Jesus story that empowers us to recognize our generation of Christians as fundamental in the lineage of this tradition. An assignment within this enterprise is to be about the business of truth seeking and adapting it for now. To find ways to encourage developing pastors to reject the acquired myth that “your congregation won’t be ready for the truth about the Bible.” We must share resources and knowledge, wisdom and practices. We must live our lives in ways that reflect our priorities in all situations of life. In each gospel, creed, and doctrine existent in Protestant traditions is something of a time capsule for us to better understand the theological and political convictions of our faith ancestors. Whatever happened in those nine decades separating Mark from Matthew necessitated a deeper understanding of how/why Jesus’s birth was significant. Perhaps this is part of why this birth story goes from absent to colorfully present. It is worth questioning if the virgin birth accounts were some attempt to acknowledge the impressive role of Jesus’s mother in his life and ministry. As Spong notes, Mark takes care to name that Jesus’s mother was one who went to retrieve him as others were calling him crazy for his witness (p. 106). With implicit and explicit emphasis on Jesus’s maternal line we acknowledge the importance of honoring Mary in some significant way. What modern understandings of genetics has done is explained a process with images and details that leaves us thinking we know full well how a human being comes to exist in the stomach of another human being. Just because we can explain the process doesn’t mean the process is devoid of miraculousness; it’s just a different type of miraculous than the virgin birth attempted to capture. Perhaps more exciting is that it is a miraculous process that each of us has experienced. We share an intimate experience with Christ by having first arrived in the womb of another person. I defend the extraordinary nature of human conception and birth because birthing is an incredible symbol for the act of creating. I believe we are each called to create as a way of making offerings to the world and the Creator. Birthing is a symbol I believe has the power to preserve the gospel writers’ hope that the followers of Jesus would take their ability to create seriously. Jesus’s birth and life is miraculous to us for different reasons than it was miraculous to the authors of Matthew and Luke. He was born into and killed by a ruthless empire. These facts are not disputable. We know that Rome was good at violent conquest and brutal crowd control, from physical to psychological forms of cruelty. Yet Jesus maintained his sense of purpose and his commitment to compassionate action despite the temptations of a violent culture. Mary begat Jesus and Jesus begat a ministry and legacy that prompted generations of compassionate care for one another and creation. This is our heritage. Creating is an act that is available to each of us. No exceptions. To matter in our present context, our understanding of the birth of Christ must fuel us as we resist the ills of our world today. A new interpretation of the virgin birth must focus on creating with clarity of heart and certainty of mind. After a day of personal challenges, in a week of stressful headlines in the news, through a year of ever-increasing crimes against humanity our understanding of Christ’s arrival to this world must fuel us in the direction of compassion. Regardless. Like Mary and Jesus we are called to birth loving acts in our own day and age. I propose that a contemporary version of Christ’s conception and birth be more explicitly linked to our call to co-create Holy works for the benefit of all beings. To do so in times that are resistant to Goodness will better align us with the priorities of Jesus. Through our words, thoughts, projects, prayers, relationships, memory making and future visioning we ought to be consulting the Holy Spirit as a creative partner in our lives. Never creating in isolation, forever creating so that all might experience the fullness of life on earth. There are many ways to reinterpret the virgin birth of the Christ child. To my estimation, the only crucial component that ought to exist in each is that Christians be motivated to live as a radical creator of compassion and justice. Ready to offer healing to a social enemy as Jesus does to the Syrophoenician woman, and equally ready to flip a table where injustice has become the new norm. A crucial hope of the birth of Christ narratives is that each reader be inspired to birth radical acts of loving justice that go along to birth their own radical acts of justice. One thought at a time. One relationship at a time. One song, poem, article, book at a time. Happy birthing.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">~ Toni Reynolds Click <a target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">here</a> to read online and to share your thoughts</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <strong>About the Author</strong> Minister Toni Anne Reynolds is committed to singing flesh onto the bones of the Christian tradition by incorporating recently found texts of the ancient world into liturgy, sermons, and poetry. Toni’s Christianity forms a holy trinity with the psychological medicine of Tibetan Buddhism and the eternal Life found in Yoruba traditions. Balanced in an eclectic faith and focused in theology, Toni’s ministry offers a unique perspective on life, theology, and spirituality.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; !important;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockOuter"> <tr> <td class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockInner" style="min-width: 100%;padding: 10px 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table class="aolmail_mcnDividerContent" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="min-width: 100%;border-top: 5px solid #694F0D;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <span></span> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;">Question & Answer</h1> <h3 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;"> </h3> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px">Q: By Mark Adams-Westin</span></strong> <em> I have been on a journey much like John Spong’s for almost 67 years. I have followed his work over the years with interest and used to be on his regular mailing list. I just finished his “last Book” and found it both enlightening, and frustrating. I appreciated the insights and the bio of his and our shared journey, and resonate with many of his conclusions. Where I part company is his “insight” that we human’s alone have “self-consciousness,” which allows only us to grasp: life, death, fear, joy, God, spirit etc. Sadly Spong trots out the age old notion that humans are mentally & spiritually superior to the “lower” beings on our planet. This attitude has justified our human lethal domination of this planet to the detriment of every species including human beings. Worst of all it is a conjecture that can neither be proven nor disproven (which I personally think is the easier of the two tasks) because we humans lack the ability to communicate with our fellow travelers. Stating this opinion and maintaining it as “fact” throughout the book diminishes, Bishop Spong’s logic and conclusions, because it is so basic to every argument that follows. I pray that as we humans expand our own spiritual consciousness we will outgrow all of the assumptions we’ve nurtured about our innate superiority.</em></p> <h3 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;"> <strong><span style="font-size:18px">A: By Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox</span></strong></h3> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> </p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><img height="118" style="border: 0px;width: 125px;height: 118px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;float: left;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/98ccd1c8-238…">Dear Mark</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Rather than plunge into your disagreement with Bishop Spong as such, I prefer to speak to the important issue you raise about our so-called “innate superiority” as a species.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">To me, we as a species are better than other species in some things but inferior in others. Among the former, I would put front and center <em>our capacity for evil.</em> I don’t know any other species that has put such effort into developing nuclear missiles that would destroy the planet as we know it. Nor has any species created an event like the Second World War which killed at least 42 million human beings and sported concentration camps and the holocaust. Or that indulges in climate change and denial of climate change at the same time,</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Why are we so superior when it comes to Evil? Aquinas says one human being can do more evil than all the other species put together. How did he know that, writing as he did in the thirteenth century and 700 years before Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, et al? Because he recognized the profundity of our intellects and our creativity which together constitute the “image and likeness of God” that we carry either for good or for evil.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Rather than carry on the myth of our “innate superiority,” I prefer to think in terms of what Meister Eckhart calls the “equality of being”--at the level of being we are all equals, none greater than the other.<a name="aolmail__ftnref1" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">[1]</a> In a culture with its religions, theology and educational systems rarely talking about “being” at all, we set ourselves up for the kind of “superiority complex” that you are warning us about.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">It is existence or being that is the true <em>miracle of life</em>. We cannot take credit for it--existence is a given, a gift, a grace. We all got it. Now to use it well and wisely. My being as a human is not greater than other beings, say my dog, as a dog. Being is being and being is divine.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Thomas Merton puts it this way: “The consciousness of being (whether considered positively or negatively and apophatically as in Buddhism) is an immediate experience that goes beyond reflective awareness. It is not ‘consciousness <em>of’ </em>but <em>pure consciousness</em>, in which the subject as such ‘disappears.’” He adds: “To one who has been exposed to scholastic ontology and has not recovered, it remains evident that the activity of <em>becoming</em> is considerably less alive and dynamic than the <em>act of being.”<a name="aolmail__ftnref2" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…"><strong>[2]</strong></a></em></p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Eastern Orthodox scholar David Bentley Hart, in his excellent book, <em>The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss,</em> chastises both Western and Eastern wisdom traditions for neglecting the experience of being. He criticizes contemporary religion for forgetting a God of being and offering instead superficial ersatz notions and projections whether of a theistic or atheistic bent.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The real miracle among us is the miracle of being and shame on us for taking it for granted or forgetting it.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">So before dashing off and declaring ourselves the “king of the hill” and the “summit and even purpose of all creation” we should wake up and smell the roses--and the sun, clouds, rain, supernovas and original fireball that make the roses possible. Aquinas says the most excellent thing in the universe is <em>not</em> the human but the universe itself. In short, <em>we must return to cosmology</em> in preference to all that feeds our collective narcissism as a species. It is the beings that preceded us and nurture us still that make our being possible. Let us cease the chauvinism and become instead <em>grateful for being</em> and therefore grateful for our equality with all beings.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">~ Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox Click <a target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">here</a> to read and share online</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <strong>About the Author</strong> Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 32 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 69 languages. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">Creation Spirituality </a>and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His work is inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and has awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. He has helped to rediscover Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas. Among his books are <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…"><em>Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh, Transforming Evil in Soul and Society</em></a>, <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…"><em>A Way To God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey</em></a>, <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Times</a> and <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…"><em>Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest</em></a></p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">A new school, adopting the pedagogy Fox created and practiced for over 35 years, is opening in Boulder, Colorado this September. Called the <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality</a> it is being run by graduates of his doctoral program and will offer MA, D Min and Doctor of Spirituality degrees. With young leaders he is launching a new spiritual (not religious) "order" called the <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">Order of the Sacred Earth</a> (OSE) that is welcoming to people of all faith traditions and none and whose 'glue' is a common vow: "I promise to be the best lover of Mother Earth and the best defender of Mother Earth that I can be."</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">------------------------- <a name="aolmail__ftn1" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">[1]</a> See Matthew Fox, <em>Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart</em> (Rochester, Vt: Inner Traditions, 2000), Sermon Five: “How All Creatures Share an Equality of Being,” 91-101. <a name="aolmail__ftn2" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">[2]</a> See Matthew Fox, <em>A Way To God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey</em> (Novato, Ca: New World Library, 2016), 237f.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; !important;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockOuter"> <tr> <td class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockInner" style="min-width: 100%;padding: 10px 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table class="aolmail_mcnDividerContent" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="min-width: 100%;border-top: 5px solid #694F0D;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <span></span> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;">Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited</h1> <h3 style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;"> 2000 Deaths Later, the Time Has Come to Render to Caesar His Due!</h3> Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November 2, 2005 <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><img align="left" height="132" style="border: 0px;width: 125px;height: 132px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/84fbd945-363…"></p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">A well-known and oft-quoted verse in Matthew’s Gospel portrays Jesus, responding to a question designed to trap him between competing loyalties. Where does the line fall between what one owes to God and what one owes to the State? To this question Jesus responded, “You render to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and to God that which belongs to God.” His words suggested that the distinction was clear, that there were no gray areas. That is hardly ever the case.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Christianity has wrestled with these dual loyalties over the centuries in very different political settings. At the beginning of the Common Era, Christians were persecuted by the State and as a consequence worshiped in the hiddeness of the catacombs. To be a Christian in that era was to be guilty of a capital offense. By the time the 13th century had arrived the roles were reversed as Christianity dominated the State; seating, removing and excommunicating kings. Christian leaders at that time persecuted those deviating from accepted Christian understandings.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Then there were the more confused times, mostly post-Renaissance, when Church and State lived in a poorly defined, ambiguous relationship. That is the situation today in the Western World. Europe is now a secular society in which the Church has been marginalized, while in the United States, religion has experienced a rebirth of zeal, and seeks to force a particular world-view on the people of this nation. The Federal Government, for example, now funds “Faith-based initiatives.” Catholic Bishops threaten to deny communion to Catholic politicians unless they promise to impose Catholic sexual values on the country’s population. A president nominates one to the Supreme Court because she is “an evangelical Christian.” Strangely, however, this same president lectures the people of Iraq on how inappropriate it would be for them to adopt a constitution that would place a fundamentalist Islamic regime into power.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">“Render to Caesar” has been used historically, to support the state’s power of taxation, to affirm a lofty patriotism and to assert one’s loyalty to one’s country. After all, Paul does say in Romans that we are “to be subject to the higher authority, since all authority is of God.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I, for one, do feel I owe my country a great deal. I relish the freedom that Americans enjoy and the ideals for which this country stands. I think the taxes I pay to my government are still the best bargain in my budget. Yes, of course, I am aware that not all of our tax dollars are spent wisely. ‘Pork’ fed to voters back home is the lifeblood of politics. This nation’s lawmakers have been known to authorize the financing of a bridge in Alaska that goes nowhere. Government waste, and sycophants who feed regularly at the public trough, are facts of life. Even when these things are taken into account, however, I still believe that the freedom and liberty this country provides, its strength that guarantees our peace is worth everything I pay in taxes. I do not agree with my friend Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, that the money I make is rightly mine and that taxes are the government’s confiscation of what is my own. Taxes, I believe, are the payment that I am called upon to make for the privilege of enjoying life in this great nation. If that is what “Render to Caesar” means, then I am prepared to do so and joyfully.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">There is, however, much more to this admonition than just that. I also believe it is my duty as a Christian to bear a public witness against policies that “Caesar” adopts when these policies violate all that I consider holy. In the Judeo-Christian tradition that is traditionally the role of the prophet. When Israel’s religion was co-opted by the King, it was the prophets who called their King to accountability. Prophecy had nothing to do with predicting the future; it had everything to do with speaking uncomfortable truth inside the citadels of political power.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I consider a man named Nathan to be the father of the prophetic movement in Israel. This man stood before King David, armed only with a sense of the rightness of the moral order, and accused him of being guilty of both an adulterous relationship with a woman named Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband Uriah. When Nathan described the King’s immoral behavior in a parable, which caused the King to think he was describing another citizen of his realm, the King was irate and said that the man who had done what had Nathan related must surely be put to death. In one of the most dramatic moments in the entire biblical story, Nathan looked straight into King David’s eyes and said, “You are the Man!” That is the supreme biblical illustration of what it means to “Render to Caesar that which is due to Caesar.” We owe the Caesars in every generation a call to truth when truth is violated; a call to responsibility when incompetence is displayed and a call to morality when evil is rampant. I do not want a religious state, but I do want a state in which the voice of religious judgment can still be heard.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">My current head of state, my Caesar, took this nation into a war in Iraq that has now cost the lives of 2000 of our youngest and most patriotic citizens. It has cost this nation’s armed forces more than 15,000 others who have been wounded, some destined to face life crippled or blind. The suffering and loss of life among the people of Iraq has yet to be told or counted. Billions of dollars have been spent to prosecute this war that will place our children and grandchildren in debt for the balance of their lives. I do not mean to suggest that war is never justified. I am not a pacifist, though I admire the witness of the pacifists among us. In my opinion war is sometimes essential in the defense of life and liberty. The leaders of any government, however, must make that case to its people before the sacrifice that war always brings can possibly be justified. The necessity for this war was said by our Caesar to be that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that Iraq was developing chemical and biological weapons, and that Iraq was building a nuclear arsenal. None of these things were true. In his State of the Union address in 2003 our President informed this nation that British Intelligence had learned of an Iraqi purchase from Niger of a substance called ‘yellow cake,’ needed in the development of nuclear weapons. The Central Intelligence Agency knew at the time that this was not so, and members of this administration would soon move to punish those who countered their false version of “truth.” The people of this nation were assured that our armed forces would be welcomed in Iraq as liberators. Three years later this claim is patently not so. Our Caesar, standing on an aircraft carrier dressed in full battle gear announced in May of 2003, “our mission is accomplished.” More people would die after that victory announcement than had died before it was made. This war was necessary, our leaders stated, because Iraq housed, trained and supported the terrorists who attacked us on 91l. No such connection has ever been documented.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In the worst-case scenario, we have an administration in the United States that has deliberately lied to the people. In the best-case scenario we have an administration so inept that it does not recognize the truth. There is no other alternative.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">This nation, led by this President, has also refused to treat enemy prisoners according to the provisions of the Geneva Agreement. Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib now stain the national soul. This inhumane treatment goes unpunished to this day except for a few enlisted personnel who could hardly have set this tone without higher approval. Supporters of these methods of torture including the Vice-President and the Secretary of Defense, say that this treatment is necessary because of who the terrorists are. To this self-serving explanation Senator John McCain, who himself knows something about what it means to be an inhumanely treated prisoner of war, replied “This is not about who <em>they</em> are, it is about who <em>we</em> are!” While calling on members of our armed services to make the ultimate sacrifice, this administration has asked sacrifices of no one else. Perhaps that will change this winter when the poor begin to pay war-inflated prices to heat their homes. The oil industry, so closely allied with this administration, will not share that sacrifice, however, since it will be too busy counting its record profits.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">While all of this is bombarding our consciences, this administration diverts the attention of our people from these great moral issues by playing on fears and prejudices. As members of our armed forces die daily in a war entered without honesty, and from which we do not seem to know how to extricate ourselves with dignity, the national debate concentrates on the position a potential nominee to the Supreme Court might have on gay marriage and the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body!</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The time has come for us to “Render to Caesar” what is appropriate, what is due to Caesar. The prophetic word of judgment must again be heard in the public arena. The ‘Nathans’ of our day must rise up and speak the ‘Word of the Lord’ to our Caesar. That ‘Word,’ it seems to me begins with the 9th Commandment: <em>You shall not bear false witness. It continues: You must not kill or cause others to be killed for inadequate reasons. You must not treat those defined as enemies as if they are not themselves human being made in God’s image. You must not violate everything for which this nation stands by acting contrary to those principles. The enormity of Caesar’s power is best seen in the example Caesar sets for the rest of the world to follow.</em></p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Christian voices of this land must now be prepared to render to Caesar the things that are due to Caesar: truth, confrontation, and judgment. Patriotism and national devotion demand it.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">When Nathan confronted King David, the King repented, changed his path and went on to greatness. Perhaps if we like Nathan, will render to Caesar that which is due Caesar, something similar will occur. I hope so. If it does then we will recognize that we have also been rendering to God the things that are God’s.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">~ John Shelby Spong</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; !important;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockOuter"> <tr> <td class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockInner" style="min-width: 100%;padding: 10px 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table class="aolmail_mcnDividerContent" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="min-width: 100%;border-top: 5px solid #694F0D;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <span></span> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 class="aolmail_null" style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;">Announcements</h1> <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…"><img height="89" style="border: 0px initial;width: 150px;height: 89px;float: left;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="150" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/990f630a-96b…"></a> <h2 class="aolmail_null" style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 22px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;"> <span style="font-size:22px"><span style="font-family:georgia,times,times new roman,serif"><strong>The Wild Goose Festival</strong> July 12 - 15th, Hot Springs, N. C. </span></span> </h2> The Wild Goos Festival is a 4-day Spirit, Justice, Music and Arts Festival. But it's so much more than that. At Wild Goose, people flock together to celebrate a way of life rooted in faith, justice, creativity, and beauty. A part of the festival this year you don't want to miss is <a target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">Wisdom Camp </a>- A pop-up retreat for mystical misfits led by Mike Morrell. <h2 class="aolmail_null" style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 22px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;"> </h2> <h2 class="aolmail_null" style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 22px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:georgia,times,times new roman,serif"><a target="_blank" 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