- OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

Happy Birthday
by jlepps＠pc.jaring.my 29 May '13

29 May '13

Happy Birthday, Marge. We remember our many meetings fixing up the McKinney St. House in Dallas in the late 60s, and our work with you in ESI. We also remember the way you kept the "typing pool" clicking away in a symphony of productivity in the early 70s that turned out a lot of what you're now archiving. But mostly we remember your mantra "You're the greatest!" that pronounced the Word whenever it was needed. Now we get to say it back to you: Your life is pleasing to the Lord -- and to a lot of others, too! Grace & Peace John & Ann Epps

1 0

GreenRise successes at 4750
by Terry Bergdall 29 May '13

29 May '13

Last week, I invited folks to go online and vote for the rooftop garden project coordinated by a young 21-year old member of the GreenRise Intentional Residential Community at 4750, Joseph Taylor. I am delighted to announce that, with your help, this project won the Ford Community Green Grant today at the Chicago Green Festival, A Project of Green America and Global Exchange. There are similar Festivals happening in Los Angeles (Oct 19-20), San Francisco (Nov 9-10), Washington, DC (Sept 21-22), and New York (April 19-21). The prize was for $5,000. If my attachment is successfully transmitted, you can see a photo from the awards ceremony. Joseph is the tall one in the middle surrounded by supporters. On a related note, we also received notice last week that the GreenRise Building "solar project" has been awarded a $359,000 grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation to install renewable energy panels on our rooftop. The building at 4750 Sheridan is becoming a VERY high profile embodiment of "green culture" to complement our neighborhood sustainability work across the 77 community areas of Chicago. Terry Bergdall

18 18

Fwd: Tuesday OpEd from Jaime
by Jaime R Vergara 28 May '13

28 May '13

This was on the Tuesday edition of the ST, for those who might be interested. j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate! A candle forJanice American Janice of our acquaintance formerly taught in thePhilippines, then married a Filipino who worked for Eastman Kodak in Rochester,New York. They acted as guardians (anorganizational and functional category) to a social movemental force I was anactive member of in the 70s and the first half of the 80s, operating out ofChicago, Illinois. We performed as aglobal servant (word used intentionally rather than the neutral “service”)force in human (economic, political, and social) community development. The group labored under a high intensity of social engagement foralmost three decades, then organizational inertia and entropy set in, but thegroup had enough selfhood that when it realized its meeting its own body needsreplaced its passion for its mission, it intentionally dissipated out of beingwith the same lucidity as it did in its own analysis of the rise and decline ofother organizations that preceded it. Itwas called Order: Ecumenical, for those of us who thought it was revolutionaryto be oikumene when others wereparochial in their religious orientations. Of course, being ecumenical grew old and irrelevant so fast that itis just as well the group disbanded. I’ve used the word “intentional” in two paragraphs now. A global network of "those whocare" (nebulous but real) intentionally remained in touch while eachexpended one’s self in one’s own burst of light – into “a thousand light”, inelder George Bush’s imagery. The group’sprogram arm was actually referred to by the GOP of Orange County in UScongressional record as “communist”, so the group’s dissipation into numerouslights in essentially GOP terminology, is more descriptive rather thanideological. Janice and I exchange messages in a common listserv we are a part ofonce in a while, on the state of our being as well as our vocation. Slightly older than I am, she has just joineda few of my colleagues in bouts with chemotherapy. As has become customary in the last threeyears, I light a candle on my ledge to lift up the facticity of those in mycircle of acquaintances continuing to be treasured and celebrative presence onthe planet even in the midst of battling the onerous challenge of cancerouscells. I lit a candle for the late Ruth Tighe of Saipan, the honored mavenof local commentators, until she gloriously downed her last swig ofScotch. She once commented that Ieulogized her exit too early. Sheoutlasted her Doctor’s prognosis a few years longer. She once bought me lunch at a new health foodrestaurant, driving to the place with her oxygen tank in tow. In her retinue, imminent death had no dominion. Our current five now includes Janice of New York joining four othersfrom Seattle, Maui, Sydney, and Saipan. Specific as to who the candles represent, taken as a whole, they manifest our relationship to those considered by society to be“differently-abled” (including the "handicapped"). Being father to two autistic children, the act of regularly lightingcandles are personally of deep significance. Janice’s forte is music and the arts, and a colleague offered for herthe lyrics to Cris Williamson’s Song ofthe Soul, metaphors of the heart in a song. It turns out to be a song sung by an intentional community out ofSeattle that was a result of my group’s thousand light bursting. Part of the lyrics are: Love of my life Iam crying I am not dying, Iam dancing Dancing along inthe madness There is nosadness Only the song ofthe soul Chorus: And we'll singthis song Why don't yousing along Then we can singfor a long, long time Why don't yousing this song Then we can singalong Then we can singfor a long, long time For those who follow our reflections, they would not be surprised tosee us latch into Williamson’s imagery (which, we gather, may have been derivedfrom a Walt Whitman poem). I am not dying, I am dancing, fits thesentiment of one of our candle persons who went through chemo for nine monthsand is prone to say, “why are folks afraid to talk about dying?” That, and a small dynamo we know down Sydneyway two-steps us to the great dance that is life! As a former Methodist clergy, one could say that we have had ourshare of sending off personages into the great unknown. While grief is a legitimate response to thereality of death, I used to conduct funeral services not for the dead but forthe living. I did not hesitate to remindmy audiences that the reason we grieve is not primarily for the departed asthat the parting reminds us too vividly of our mortality. It is the affirmation of our finitude that iscelebrated in the completion of a life! The song for Janice is also a song for all our lives. j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!

5 4

Jeju-do
by Jaime R Vergara 27 May '13

27 May '13

Bill Salmon's spell check caught the sleight-of-hand in this piece. It will see print in the morning in Saipan. Sharing it with the listserv for the curious. A Pagan article will follow next week. Actually had more time in my hands this past two months, so I had written more than my normal share of one article per week. To the really curious, refer to www.saipantribune.com/opinion. The titles will be telling which ones are mine. Now, where is Kwangyung Il located, and is the name still spelled the same way? Jaime Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Olongapo, Jeju-Do, Tinian, Saipan & Pagan What do the first five on our title list have in common? All in the western Pacific side of Asia, they have stored A-bomb materials in their premises at one time or another. They, and many other ports and bases around the world, have done so, often against their stated policies, and with the consent of only a few. One of Lazarus Salii's insistence in Palua’s independence from the UN-Trust Territory of the Pacific was a policy to make it a nuclear free area, barring nuclear-powered naval presence in the area. He would become the country’s third president, reportedly committing suicide over bribery charges. (The first President was assassinated.) Iwo Jima is one of eight villages of Tokyo, uninhabited by a civilian population though a Japanese airbase is on island. The US Navy had used it to store nuclear bomb materials. We all know of Okinawa where the US was legally an inch away from Japan’s prohibition of nuclear materials in its territories. Okinawa was technically under US occupation for a long while before it was returned to Japan. The current Senkaku Islands’ conflict (Diao Yu inZhongguo) was identified with the Ryukyus but geographically a part of Taiwan. We ceded the islands to Japan rather than to Taiwan where they would normally belong. It took a force majeure from lahar spewing Mt. Pinatubo to close out Subic Bay Naval facilities in Olongapo, home to the US Seventh Fleet, and neighboring Clark US Air Force base that, along with Anderson in Guam, sent agent orange to IndoChina during the region’s War in the 70s. The US military kept installations in Northern Luzon where I was born, and supported efforts to the develop southwest Mindanao to contain resurgent Islam already resident in the area; also, positioning interests on the discovered oil wealth underneath South China Sea that might extend into Sulu. We conducted Peace Corps training in the area in the 80s, a fateful one for me since it apparently disqualified my participation in any further training. Jeju-Do island of South Korea is building a huge naval facility that will support the preeminent US Military Command in the region, and will be key to Obama’s military strategy of “pivot turn”, a move of military material and personnel to contain China in the Western Pacific. I spent two months in Suwon in ’72 elbowing with Christian church folks to deal with the issue of what it meant to be a real religious servant force, rather than be the privileged muksa nim just slightly below royalty. When it was time to put our money where our mouths’ were, we thought on focusing on a community in Jeju. In a series of programmed community meetings, we embarked in enabling local communities to meet their own requirements just about the time strongman Park Chung Hee (father of the current SoKor President) launched the Saemuel Undong (local community mobilization movement). My younger sister in Manila was then a newly minted Nurse, so I volunteered her services to the effort. Other than learning how to belch heartily after a meal in Hangguel (thebulgoggi and kimchee can air out the system), and singing a popular tune whose lyrics were rewritten to declare one’s Saranghae to the village of Kwanyung Il, I think we pretty much left President Park to his own devices. Jeju in South Korea’s history was one of neglect due to a post-WWII incident until the island presented itself as a possible tropical destination for Korean and Japanese tourists, now billed as an International Island. Its new naval facility will be relatively equidistant to Vladivostok, Tokyo, Taipei, HK and Beijing. The locals are now in active protest over the sleight-of-hand they experienced in the landing of a foreign naval base in their neighborhood. MIT’s Noam Chomsky description of South Korea’s history wrote: “When US forces entered Korea in 1945, they dispersed the local popular government, consisting primarily of antifascists who resisted the Japanese, and inaugurated a brutal repression, using Japanese fascist police and Koreans who had collaborated with them during the Japanese occupation. About 100,000 people were murdered in South Korea prior to what we call the Korean War, including 30-40,000 killed during the suppression of a peasant revolt in one small region, Cheju Island.” The last is the Jeju-do of my acquaintance. Chomsky’s Korean fascists would include the 18-yr rule of General Park, a one time member of the Japan Imperial Army elite Kwantung Army force of Manchuria. Tinian cradled the only two nuclear bombs ever exploded over inhabited territory. We know of the CIA clandestine operations in Saipan in support of Chinese and Tibetan insurgents (check with Bill Stewart for more info), and now, Pagan is being proposed as a venue for military purposes. (NMDs are understandably in a tiffy. We shall pick this one up in a subsequent reflection.) For now, we should not wonder why certain responsible segments of American society think the War on Terror was a misnomer. We have met the enemy, they say. It is US! To many parts of the world, we constitute organized and effective uniformed terrorism. j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!

2 1

Fried Chicken
by Jaime R Vergara 27 May '13

27 May '13

The following is up for the Friday edition of Saipan Tribune. Sharing it with this listserv in case there are interested parties who might wish to comment. The usual caveat: curious, welcome; not, see you at the bend. Jaime Tiger’s Fried Chicken I crossed theinternational dateline shortly after I turned 20, heading by ship (MNL, HK,Yokohama, Hawaii, SF) for a little town outskirt of Lexington KY in a bastionof evangelicals who decided not to have anything to do with modernism. The town voted down a proposed InterstateHighway to pass through its neighborhood. But they were warm-hearted Wesleyans who sang their hymns with vigor andcried their sins easily in the communion rails at Vespers. I did not know Iwas going to be an Asian trophy when I left the boonies of northern Luzon to theenvirons of what I thought was one of America’s citadel of liberallearning. There were two black faces inmy freshman class, both from Liberia. Otherblack faces on campus maintained the premises, or cooked meals in thekitchen. They lived in shacks across therail tracks in town with their Sunday revival services more vibrant than theMain Street’s Protestant edifice complexes. On scholarship,I work part time and the kitchen ladies loved my labor ‘cause my Mama taught meto always leave the pots and pans polished like silver. I ate with the kitchen help so I always hadan extra helping of fried chicken, along with a slice of watermelon, and aplateful of collard greens (also pronounced coloredgreens). I naturally devoured the veggies though I thought it needed a dabof anchovy sauce (patis), which theladies would not touch since the Louisiana variety labeled it sauce poisson; they were not wild to eatpoison! This is a longishintro to Kentucky fried chicken, before the Colonel made KFC a common householdword globally, but when the golfer Sergio Garcia jokingly used it in referenceto what he would serve Tiger Woods for dinner, it did not sit well with the tiger. The young’uns inmy English class recite a local pre-school ditty that begins with Yi ge da xi gua… (“I haveone big watermelon …”) in tai chi-likemovement that we recite to practice pronouncing English words. I did not know even in Kentucky and Texas that eatingwatermelon was also racially-laced Porgy and Bess. Happily, it is one of the cheapest Vitamin Esource in China without a taint of racial overtone. We recently dida Sergio Garcia faux pas when wepassed along a Pope Francis joke about his blessing the crowd at his Mass,first, on mankind with “Tuti Homini”, then adding womankind with “et TutiFemini”, and finally, with the LGBT crowd, “et Tuti Fruiti.” My listserv is a pretty liberal crowd, but someof my colleagues took offense to our flighty indiscretion, and I was promptly heldto account on my insensitivity. The use of therace card remains a volatile issue for those who use it, and those offended byit. Bill Clinton in the 2008presidential campaign leveled the charge against Obama as using the race cardto his advantage while in the stomp in VA and SC. I residedin DC while the Clintons were in the White House, and Bill fancied himself as being the first American BlackPresident, albeit, albino. Obama carriesthat card well in his presidency, intentionally, I hope. His popularity was tested in his GOP-upsettingreelection that upended many pundits who predicted that Romney was heading forPennsylvania Ave. It is anothermatter to the erstwhile Buddhist Tiger Woods, playfully half Thai with his African-AmericanDNA. When he won the 1997 Masters,Fuzzy Zoeller commented that he should not serve Fried Chicken and Collards atthe Champions’ dinner; that makes Garcia’s jibe old but still totally inappropriate. Racial slurs v. Obama, and now withEric Holder in the hot seat, remain common but toothless in the nation’scapital. Being ofPhilippine descent, I was lumped along with many of the SVES teachers asfavoring Filipinos to gain honors at graduation against equally deserving Chamorrosand Carolinians. I used to dismiss thisas just another instance of racial prejudice until a parent actually asked thePrincipal to convene a conference so that she could hear for herself thereasons why her son was not going to graduate Valedictorian. If we point outthat the six awardees in the recent CNMI Math Court havenames that are more Hangeul than Marianitas, and the top five at NMC have onlyone name that comes close to deriving from Iberian masters, it would be clearthat the NMD’s call to fame on island will not be for being at the heap of PSS’ western standardized tests. Does it really matter? It is the LGBTcrowd that is now getting the brunt of prejudicial asides. The Pope Francis joke forwarded by a devout Catholiccolleague was funny to me because it let the Catholic Church laugh at its ownblindside. There is hope for the humanrace. Recent images of reactionary demonstrations in France held this week in protest of new same-sex marriage laws, the news that the venerable ChurchEngland unveiled plans to ordain female priests in every diocese by 2014, that 12States in the Union already legalized same-sex unions, President Obama openlyfor the legal stature, and DOMA under review by the Supreme Court, the TigerWoods of the LGBT crowd can enjoy their friend chicken! Got time for awatermelon joke? j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!

1 0

Fried Chicken
by Jaime R Vergara 27 May '13

27 May '13

The following is up for the Friday edition of Saipan Tribune. Sharing it with this listserv in case there are interested parties who might wish to comment. The usual caveat: curious, welcome; not, see you at the bend. Jaime Tiger’s Fried Chicken I crossed theinternational dateline shortly after I turned 20, heading by ship (MNL, HK,Yokohama, Hawaii, SF) for a little town outskirt of Lexington KY in a bastionof evangelicals who decided not to have anything to do with modernism. The town voted down a proposed InterstateHighway to pass through its neighborhood. But they were warm-hearted Wesleyans who sang their hymns with vigor andcried their sins easily in the communion rails at Vespers. I did not know Iwas going to be an Asian trophy when I left the boonies of northern Luzon to theenvirons of what I thought was one of America’s citadel of liberallearning. There were two black faces inmy freshman class, both from Liberia. Otherblack faces on campus maintained the premises, or cooked meals in thekitchen. They lived in shacks across therail tracks in town with their Sunday revival services more vibrant than theMain Street’s Protestant edifice complexes. On scholarship,I work part time and the kitchen ladies loved my labor ‘cause my Mama taught meto always leave the pots and pans polished like silver. I ate with the kitchen help so I always hadan extra helping of fried chicken, along with a slice of watermelon, and aplateful of collard greens (also pronounced coloredgreens). I naturally devoured the veggies though I thought it needed a dabof anchovy sauce (patis), which theladies would not touch since the Louisiana variety labeled it sauce poisson; they were not wild to eatpoison! This is a longishintro to Kentucky fried chicken, before the Colonel made KFC a common householdword globally, but when the golfer Sergio Garcia jokingly used it in referenceto what he would serve Tiger Woods for dinner, it did not sit well with the tiger. The young’uns inmy English class recite a local pre-school ditty that begins with Yi ge da xi gua… (“I haveone big watermelon …”) in tai chi-likemovement that we recite to practice pronouncing English words. I did not know even in Kentucky and Texas that eatingwatermelon was also racially-laced Porgy and Bess. Happily, it is one of the cheapest Vitamin Esource in China without a taint of racial overtone. We recently dida Sergio Garcia faux pas when wepassed along a Pope Francis joke about his blessing the crowd at his Mass,first, on mankind with “Tuti Homini”, then adding womankind with “et TutiFemini”, and finally, with the LGBT crowd, “et Tuti Fruiti.” My listserv is a pretty liberal crowd, but someof my colleagues took offense to our flighty indiscretion, and I was promptly heldto account on my insensitivity. The use of therace card remains a volatile issue for those who use it, and those offended byit. Bill Clinton in the 2008presidential campaign leveled the charge against Obama as using the race cardto his advantage while in the stomp in VA and SC. I residedin DC while the Clintons were in the White House, and Bill fancied himself as being the first American BlackPresident, albeit, albino. Obama carriesthat card well in his presidency, intentionally, I hope. His popularity was tested in his GOP-upsettingreelection that upended many pundits who predicted that Romney was heading forPennsylvania Ave. It is anothermatter to the erstwhile Buddhist Tiger Woods, playfully half Thai with his African-AmericanDNA. When he won the 1997 Masters,Fuzzy Zoeller commented that he should not serve Fried Chicken and Collards atthe Champions’ dinner; that makes Garcia’s jibe old but still totally inappropriate. Racial slurs v. Obama, and now withEric Holder in the hot seat, remain common but toothless in the nation’scapital. Being ofPhilippine descent, I was lumped along with many of the SVES teachers asfavoring Filipinos to gain honors at graduation against equally deserving Chamorrosand Carolinians. I used to dismiss thisas just another instance of racial prejudice until a parent actually asked thePrincipal to convene a conference so that she could hear for herself thereasons why her son was not going to graduate Valedictorian. If we point outthat the six awardees in the recent CNMI Math Court havenames that are more Hangeul than Marianitas, and the top five at NMC have onlyone name that comes close to deriving from Iberian masters, it would be clearthat the NMD’s call to fame on island will not be for being at the heap of PSS’ western standardized tests. Does it really matter? It is the LGBTcrowd that is now getting the brunt of prejudicial asides. The Pope Francis joke forwarded by a devout Catholiccolleague was funny to me because it let the Catholic Church laugh at its ownblindside. There is hope for the humanrace. Recent images of reactionary demonstrations in France held this week in protest of new same-sex marriage laws, the news that the venerable ChurchEngland unveiled plans to ordain female priests in every diocese by 2014, that 12States in the Union already legalized same-sex unions, President Obama openlyfor the legal stature, and DOMA under review by the Supreme Court, the TigerWoods of the LGBT crowd can enjoy their friend chicken! Got time for awatermelon joke? j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!

1 0

Korea/Jeju Power Point
by Lynda Cock 27 May '13

27 May '13

Bill and Bev, What a great photo story. Reminds me of all the photos that individually we have that could be shared again to tell the stories of the HDP's. What a gift to share with younger generations. What a gift for the Archives. Thank you so much for forwarding this creation. Lynda _____ From: oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of William Salmon Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2013 5:38 PM To: Order Ecumenical Community Subject: [Oe List ...] Salmon: Korea/Jeju power point Jaime-- Beverly and I lived on Jeju at Kwan Yung Il for a full year in addition to a full year in Seoul. I have a program on Korean/Jeju prepared for a high school presentation.

1 0

Re: [Oe List ...] Salmon: Korea/Jeju power point
by LAURELCG＠aol.com 26 May '13

26 May '13

Bill and Barbara, thank you for sharing the Korean presentation. I think you should publish this as a book. It's beautiful. Blessings, Jann Mcguire In a message dated 5/26/2013 10:24:17 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, wsalmon(a)cox.net writes: Jaime-- Beverly and I lived on Jeju at Kwan Yung Il for a full year in addition to a full year in Seoul. I have a program on Korean/Jeju prepared for a high school presentation. I'll see if it can be sent as an attachment. You may be interested in knowing there is a Government movement to take off most of--if not all of--the island to be used as a navel base. I'll see if I have anything left about this concern to share with you. Inner Peace, Bill and Beverly Salmon

1 0

FWD: Calling BS on BS
by Del Morril 25 May '13

25 May '13

For those interested: THE OTHER BIBLE now is in paperback form, put out by Harper & Row. Compiled and edited by Willis Barnstone, and copyrighted in 1984, it contains the following ancient esoteric texts that include the Jewish Pseudepigrapha, Christian Apocrypha, Gnostic Scriptures, the Kabala and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It has various creation myths, Gnostic "gospels,' histories and narratives. About four of the writings are translations of some Dead Sea Scrolls (The largest number of DS scrolls are as yet to be put together and translated.) Unless there is a more recent addition, this book does not include the more recently discovered Gospel of Mary (Magdalene). When I began to read it, I found it helpful to remember that Barnstone is a male, and falls into the usual trap operating out of old male language and assumptions. His introductions and translations reflect this. I did my best to stay focused on what the content was revealing, and what was dropped from the testaments we know today. Below is what my friend Rick passed on to me and that I feel is a must-read recent commencement address to the graduates of Pitzer College in Claremont, California. Hope you appreciate it as much as I did. Peace to all, Del Check this out: http://ow.ly/liRB1 Download the official LinkedIn app here <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/linkedin/id288429040?mt=8>

1 0

5/23/13, Spong: Lectureship that Challenges What is, in the Name of What Can Be
by Ellie Stock 23 May '13

23 May '13

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Lectureship that Challenges What is, in the Name of What Can Be The Third Annual John Shelby Spong Lecture was held at St. Peter’s Church, Morristown, New Jersey, near the end of April. A crowd of people, numbering around 400, according to the ushers’ count, came from near and far to participate in the event. We had members of the faculty and student body from nearby Drew University. We had a visitor from Columbia, South America, here on a student’s visa, who was returning home soon. He had been raised in a traditionally Catholic home but, in his later teenage years he had been affiliated with Pentecostalism. Now as a young adult, he felt at home in neither and had become a seeker after a God still unidentified by him. We had one man who drove up from Baltimore to attend the lecture. We had a significant number of St. Peter’s congregation, but more importantly, we had a large number of those for whom organized religion of any sort had become a turnoff. To this assembled audience, Professor Elaine Pagels, author and a faculty member of the Department of Religion at Princeton University, spoke on the book of Revelation. This is the book with which the New Testament now closes and, throughout history, it has also been the favorite biblical resource of those who like to talk about and even to predict the end of the world. The book is not regarded in academic circles to be of high value, so it was not surprising that during the question and answer period, someone in the audience asked Dr. Pagels why this strange book had captured her fascination in the first place and just when that fascination was born. “It was,” she responded “when President George W. Bush quoted this biblical text to support his invasion of Iraq.” “Shock and Awe” was justified with quotations from the Book of Revelation. That answer did much to put this Book into a modern perspective. It was my privilege to introduce Professor Pagels and in that introduction to put the “Spong Lectureship” into perspective. This lectureship was launched three years ago by a group of my friends who were concerned that Christianity was not being properly challenged from within; that is, from those who identify themselves as Christians. This challenge from within had been the focus of both my priestly career and my writing career and these friends did not want this focus to die when I finally decided to fold my tent and enter the quietude of retirement. I actually did retire as the Bishop of Newark in 2000, at age 69, after 24 active and exciting years serving my church in this capacity, but I am still actively engaged in the task of speaking to my church as one of its resident, yet devoted, critics. So in my introduction of Dr. Pagels, I placed this lectureship into the context of the crisis facing contemporary Christianity. “Christianity,” I began, “is a faith system whose scriptures are the product of the first century, which inevitably means that those scriptures reflect the world view of first century men and women. These scriptures assume that epilepsy, mental illness and muteness result from demon possession. They assume that sickness is a manifestation of divine punishment. They assume that God is a supernatural being, who lives somewhere external to the planet earth and that this God invades human history periodically in supernatural, miraculous ways to accomplish the divine purpose. These scriptures also assume that whatever could not be explained within the first century frame of reference must be regarded as a miracle. This of course means that people today, who want to literalize the scriptures as the ‘inerrant’ words of God, inevitably literalize a world view and a series of assumptions that no modern, educated person could possibly believe.” I then noted that the creeds of Christianity are products of the 4th century and refer to a 4th century view of the world. One clear creedal assumption is that the earth is the center of a three-tiered universe, with hell being beneath the earth and heaven being above the sky. They reveal a picture of a divine escalator moving up and down amid the three tiers. The creeds also assume the literal and biological accuracy of what came to be called the Virgin Birth in which Jesus is conceived by the operation of the Holy Spirit. This idea is of special interest because one of the earliest forms of the Christian creed came to be called “The Apostles’ Creed” suggesting that it in fact reflects the beliefs of the apostles themselves. The fact is that neither Paul, the first writer of the New Testament (51-64 CE), nor Mark, the author of the first of the gospels to be written (ca.72 CE) ever mentions the Virgin Birth of Jesus. Paul says simply that Jesus was “born of a woman,” like every other human being and “born under the law,” like every other Jew. Mark portrays Jesus as a perfectly normal adult human being, who comes to be baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist at which time the Holy Spirit falls on him and he becomes a “God-infused human life.” The first narrative of a miraculous or Virgin Birth for Jesus does not enter the Christian tradition until the 9th decade of the Common Era in the writings of Matthew, who wrote long after most, if not all, of the apostles had died. A second and very contradictory version of the story of Jesus’ virgin birth is then added to the developing tradition by Luke about a decade after Matthew. The virgin birth story assumes that the woman is not a genetic contributor to any new life, for the idea that a woman had an egg cell was not discovered until the early years of the 18th century! Clearly the belief system of the apostles did not include the concepts found in the “Apostles’ Creed.” So, if the creeds are literalized along with the doctrines and dogmas of the Christian Church, which are based on those creeds, what happens is that the three-tiered universe and long-abandoned biological assumptions are also literalized thus making the creeds nonsensical in the modern world. Most of the liturgical forms still used to some degree in all Christian churches are the product of the 13th century. This means that we are still forced to make 13th century assumptions if we want to continue to worship God in the 21st century. The all-seeing God who plays the role of a judge is certainly apparent when we pray, “Almighty God unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid.” Not surprisingly it seems appropriate to say “Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy” to this 13th century view of God. Salvation is assumed to be a gift from this God above the sky, who comes to rescue us from the fall from our original perfection and who pays the price of our sins in the death of Jesus. That is the context in which we say, “Jesus died for my sins!” In our post-Darwinian world, however, there is no original perfection. There is, rather, an ongoing and ever-evolving process carried out over billions of years from single cell life to the complex self-conscious creatures that we are today. If there was no original perfection, there could never have been a fall from perfection, so “original sin” is also non-sensical. If there was no fall into “original sin” then the idea of a divine rescue from a fall that never happened loses all of its meaning. Is there any reason not to understand why 21st century people find the liturgies of our Church to be so meaningless? 21st century Christianity is thus wedded to the world view of its 1st century scriptures, its 4th century creeds and its 13th century liturgies. Consequently Christianity presents itself to potential modern believers encased in a series of doctrinal and liturgical forms, undergirded by a theological point of view that communicates almost nothing to those people who gather in church to worship. Why is there any surprise that the number of worshipers is in steep decline? Modern Christianity offers only two alternatives. The first is to close our minds to the explosion of knowledge in order to build a protective fortress around the religious formulas of antiquity. We then surround these formulas with the claim that they are supported by an infallible or inerrant tradition. Such a stand offers people the security of the delusion that they possess the ultimate truth of God. We call these who think this way “fundamentalists” and they come in both a Catholic and Protestant variety. So from this perspective the church’s invitation is to “believe this or leave.” Those who elect this second option today are legion! People are abandoning “institutional religion” in droves. The Church Alumni Association is now the fastest growing organization in the Christian West. As religious conviction fades secular humanism becomes the only viable alternative. The tension between a religion tied to antiquity and secular values quite divorced from that religious heritage today marks not only church life, but our national political life. We seem to be gridlocked between both a religious and political past that some want to impose on all and a religionless future the nature of which no one finally understands. These sterile alternatives are the reality to which the “Spong Lectureship” at St. Peter’s, Morristown seeks to respond, This congregation, under the brilliant leadership of its rector, Janet Broderick, has installed an adult education hour into the heart of Sunday morning. In this class, the Bible is taught in the same way as it is taught today in the finest academic centers of this land. No one seeks to protect the Bible from the insights of modern knowledge. Also, in this class the historical critics of traditional Christianity are engaged. It looks at the challenge brought to Christianity by Galileo, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud, just to name a few. It studies modern prophets who have challenged Christianity from outside, ranging from Baruch Spinoza and Franz Kafka to Malcolm X. The traditions of the Christian faith are thus forced into dialogue with the intellectual breakthroughs of the ages. To supplement this ongoing congregational program, this annual lecture series brings to this church and to its community the best Christian minds of this generation. That makes St. Peter’s unique, but is this not the place to which all Christian churches must come? I believe it is. Death by boredom or attrition is the only alternative. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Mary Linn Crouse from Helena, Montana, writes: Question: Is there a good Bible study book you would recommend for a group of lay people to use that is not agenda riddled? I am looking for one that looks at the Bible within its cultural and historical background in which each individual book was written and leaves room for an open-ended discussion of the universal ideas that are inspired in those texts. Answer: Dear Mary, >From your question I get a picture of the kind of Bible study you might have endured in your lifetime. A “Bible Study book” is almost always the product of an evangelical- fundamentalist mentality. The reason I say that is that the phrase a “Bible Study Book” assumes that one can embrace in a single study guide a minimum of 66 books, not including the Apocrypha, that were written over a period of about one thousand years (ca, 1000 BCE – ca.35 CE), by a variety of authors, and in at least two different languages. A study group wishing to use such a book will tend to do so only for the few weeks that the group will meet. A class organized this way simply does not plan to engage the Bible seriously. One should not expect anything good or significant to come out of such a study. Most Bible studies in churches using that kind of material, amount to little more than the corporate pooling of common ignorance, which is then under-girded by a study guide that would embarrass almost every biblical scholar in the world. Given that format, my conclusion is that there is no such thing as a single volume Bible study book. There are, however, thousands of volumes on the individual books of the Bible written with competent scholarship by competent scholars that will take you through and into the meaning of each of the books of the Bible. The problem with most of these books, however, is that they were not written for the average reader and thus are considered too difficult, too complex and even too involved for most people. Groups using such books get discouraged quickly. Readers of this column might recall that in recent years, through most of 2008-2010. I did a series under the title: “Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World.” That week-by-week series began with columns outlining just how the first books of the Old Testament were actually formed and it ended with a brief analysis of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. I put each book of the Bible into its cultural and historical perspective and analyzed briefly its message. All of these past columns are available online at www.johnshelbyspong.com to subscribers in the archives thanks to my publisher, ProgressiveChristianity.org. Subscribers may access them at any time online. That material was then gathered, edited and published as a book in the fall of 2011 by Harper/Collins under the same title: Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World. That book, reflecting its own origins, was written, as I hope this column and all of my books are, not for the minds of theologically-trained seminary graduates, but for searching, educated lay men and women who do not have theological training. Indeed, I know of instances in small town America where a particular church subscribes to this column and then reproduces it for use each week in teaching adult Bible classes. I get reports back from them from time to time on great debates that have issued from those gatherings. So I recommend that resource to you for consideration. If your group wants to go into depth about a single book in the Bible then a volume written by a competent scholar on that particular book can be studied with intensity. My coming book (June 11, 2013 from Harper/Collins) on John’s Gospel, entitled The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic is written with exactly that purpose in mind. I hope this helps. My great ambition in life is to leave the Christian world a little more biblically literate than I found it. ~John Shelby Spong Announcements Full Review of Bishop John Shelby Spong's new book: The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic By: Rev. Fred Plumer, President of ProgressiveChristianity.org Over the years I have wondered if Christianity would have been better off today if the Gospel of John had not been made part of the canon. Ever since the fourth century, this Gospel has been used to support some of the most exclusive and divisive religious creeds in history. In my opinion it has had far too much influence on the development of modern Christianity. I must admit, however, that I am truly excited about recommending John Shelby Spong’s newest book, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic. At times this book feels more like a detective novel than a scholarly work. Spong starts with his desire to figure out how this unusual book came to be, who was its author and why it was written. Like a “who done it” mystery, it is almost impossible not to be drawn into his investigation as he sorts through the clues. Spong wonders why both the issues and focus change as one reads through the chapters of the Book of John. He concludes that this Gospel must have been written in stages, with different layers by different authors over a 30-year period. The question he poses here is why? Spong believes the text follows the stages the Johannine community was going through as it moved from a Jewish community into something new. He carefully tracks the development of what must have been a difficult transition for these Jewish followers of Jesus and concludes that ultimately they “had to learn how to live apart from Judaism.” He is very clear, however, that the Gospel of John is overwhelmingly a Jewish work and it can only be understood through the Jewish context in which it was created. Spong writes “My study has convinced me, first, that the gospel of John is a deeply Jewish book, and second, that by reading it through the lens of Jewish mysticism, our generation is given new doors for understanding this gospel.” Spong carefully tracks the changes the community was forced to deal with as the Jesus followers were confronted with their changing Greek world. In the process, we are not only given the opportunity to learn more about this first century Jewish mystical movement, but as we read we gain a greater understanding of the times in which it struggled. Possibly the most exciting thing for some will be the recognition that at least one important part of the initial Jesus movement was focused on an early form of Jewish mysticism. Spong makes it clear that this community did not think in Greek dualistic ways. Therefore Jesus was not an “outside invader from another realm” but rather was the defining human life, “bringing together into oneness the human and the divine.” It was through a new consciousness that Jesus was able to achieve a mystical oneness with God without the barriers that bind us. I believe this book will not only dramatically change our perspective on the Fourth Gospel, but it may very well alter our understanding of our Christian roots. For some it may even change the way they feel about their own Christian path. Finally this book may provide a model for change for disenchanted Christians or followers of Jesus. I am excited about this book and highly recommend it. ~Fred Plumer, President, ProgressiveChristianity.org Pre-Order The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic Today! Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. Copyright © 2013 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at our website. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Unit 1 Portland, OR 97214 Add us to your address book

1 0