Hell has frozen over!

I did the unthinkable this weekend. I went to an Episcopal church service! It was amazing…...ly bad. Actually I was interested to see what it is like and it was not much worse than any other church service I have suffered through. I was interested in reading all the things I was suppose to say but I didn’t really believe and could never actually say. The whole experience was bizarre but I think you have to grow up in that type of environment to “get it”. I don’t really understand how people could be so progressive in their views and so tied to tradition even when the traditional words are often in opposition to their progressive views. I couldn’t help but feel bad because this church, like the mainline churches at large, looked to be dying out. The people are wonderful but they are older and I wonder if anyone will listen anymore. Whatever they have said to themselves to allow them to appreciate the tradition just isn’t applicable to most people today. The brief sermon was very good but was lost in the muck of laborious ritual.

Old or not, and even with the tradition, the people were very nice. You may ask why I was there and the answer is that last week I meet some Episcopalians at a conference and had some wonderful conversations. Their theological and political views created a great deal of common ground. I struck up a conversation with an Episcopal Priest and found that we both have enjoyed many of the same books over the last few years. Holy Shit! Did I just say that I talked to a priest? Yes I actually did talk to a priest. I agreed to visit his church so my wife and I actually did that this Sunday.

All kidding aside, I had a great conversation him and his wife and found a whole group of people that I want to spend some time getting to know. It gave me a new level of excitement, mystery, and adventure to my journey. They have a group meeting every Wednesday night to discuss religion and politics and for the first time in my life I found a church group in my own town that is on the right (I mean….left) side of that conversation and welcomes the discussion in church. I don’t think I’ll try the Sunday torture chamber thing again, but I’m looking forward to the conversations. Somewhere in this mix of tradition and progress is a gem that I want to unearth and I think I’m willing to invest a little time in that task. I’ll keep you posted on the pain and progress.

January Adventure...

I'm back from my second annual trip to the January Adventure in St. Simons Island. This year showcased two lectures by two wonderful authors:

"Beyond Literalism: The Bible and the Church Today" by Marcus Borg

"Reclaiming the Language of Faith" by Barbara Brown Taylor

I enjoyed the them both. It was the first time I had heard Barbara speak and she didn't disappoint. Marcus Borg was solid and informative as always. He always seems to give me the words I need to express my own sense of faith. One of the most interesting things to see at this conference was the wide range of Christian denominations that were represented. It was fun to spend 3 days in conversation with a wide variety of people from around the nation as we discussed both our desire to hang onto the language of faith and our need to look past the common literalistic views of scripture that seem to be the norm in popular Christianity.

An unexpected surprise was that we were treated to a bonus lecture by Dominic Crossan. I had read his books and seen him on many TV specials, but never heard him speak in person. It was fascinating. He holds a wealth of knowledge about the historical Jesus and the culture that surrounded him in the 1st century.

Stop giving faith a bad name!

This started as a comment on another blog, but I thought I would expand it here and not hog his blog with my thoughts.

I think more progressive Christians should get involved in this debate. We can't let the conservative Evangelicals have a monopoly on the "Christian voice" in this or any other issue. The world needs to know that there are plenty of Christians who oppose the ideas of creationism and the logic of teaching it to our children. I don't want my child to experience that warped view of God and be taught things that they will spend their life working to unlearn.

I feel that creation and evolution are NOT 2 sides of the same coin. Teaching creation in schools as an opposition to evolution paints the picture that the bible is in opposition to science.
If schools are going to be in the business of teaching how to interpret the bible by discussing a literal interpretation of Genesis as an option for reading it, then they should also teach a non-literal approach to interpreting scripture as well as a complete approach systematic theology, narrative theology, liberation theology, etc. Teaching about evolution is NOT the same thing. This is outside the discussion of evolution as a creative mechanism. People get the impression that there is only one option when it comes to interpretation of the Bible and you must either accept it as literal divine dictation or reject as meaningless. Thank God there is another option!

The other problem with adding a creationism course to school curriculum is the question of which creation story will they tell? There are as many different creation stories as there are cultures through the history of mankind. I think it would be interesting to have world religion courses in lower levels of education, but I'm not sure I really want to open that Pandora's box. (As I type that I'm wondering what grade I was in when I was first taught the story of Pandora's box.....hmmmm).

I suspect that we never thought people would be exposed to the many cultures of the world at such an early age, so we decided to save world religion courses for secondary education. For our parents and grandparents that was probably about the time they first learned much about the world beyond their own communities. For our children that is going to be a much younger age. For me the choice is either to have no religion in schools or a comprehensive set of courses in all religions. It seems that the best choice would be no religion and I'm sure that is the exact train of thought that led to the current legal rulings that we live with now. I see no reason to change it.

Cast Your Vote...

Vote for your top contemporary theology books...

http://shrinkinguni.blogspot.com/2007/01/best-contemporary-theology-final-vote.html

My top 5 are:

1. Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith
2. The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann (not on their list)
3. William Placher, The Domestication of the Transcendence
4. Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God
5. Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy

Single most important book in the last 25 years for me:
Living Buddha, Living Christ - Thich Nhat Hanh

Tomorrow I'm leaving for St. Simons Island to hear Marcus Borg and Barbara Brown Taylor speak for a couple of days. I'll be at the January Adventure conference until wed.(januaryadventure.org). I'm not 100% sure what it is that draws me to Marcus Borg's books but I guess he articulates my view of faith better than any other person that I've met. I'll never forget the first time I read one of his books. I actually couldn't get past the first chapter. I felt like a heretic for even reading it. Deep inside I knew he expressed everything I've always felt about the Bible, but I didn't want to admit it. Now his books are like home to me. His books liberated me from years of spiritual and intellectual bondage. His clear and articulate interpretation of scripture saved and then transformed my faith. I hate to think where I'd be without him.

Great resource online...

I've found a great online resource with free downloadable audio on a variety of spiritual topics. The introduction to karma was great. Also I'm using the guided meditations everyday now. They really help to guide your practice session without getting in the way.

http://freebuddhistaudio.com/

A Safe Heart Is A Hard Heart

“We shield our heart with an armor woven out of very old habits of pushing away pain and grasping at pleasure. When we begin to breathe in the pain instead of pushing it away, we begin to open our hearts to what’s unwanted. When we relate directly in this way to the unwanted areas of our lives, the airless room of ego begins to be ventilated. In the same way, we open up or clenched hearts and let the good things go – radiate them out and share them with others – that’s also completely reversing the logic of ego, which is to say, reversing the logic of suffering.” – Pema Chodron

I was taught my whole life to build a wall or fortress of righteousness around me so that I could be protected from the pain, suffering and sinfulness of the world. This works if what you want to achieve is a heart hardened by a heavy protective layer that keeps sin out and compassion in. I've found that this practice feeds ego, individualism, competition and rejection of the world around you.

In the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Tonglen you are taught exactly the opposite approach. You practice breathing in the pain, suffering, and the darkness of those around you and breathing out compassion, kindness, and light. This practice over time is meant to destroy the ego that is the source of our pride. This teaching encourages us to use our practice time to embrace the anger we feel toward a particular annoying co-worker or the pain we realize in a moment of sadness or fear. We should relish those moments as great opportunities to practice and learn. That is something I could definitely use in my life. My typical reaction is to fight off those emotions and miss the chance to learn and show compassion.

I understand the lure of that pop-culture Christian idea that all I need to do is believe the right things and God will fix me and preserve me in the afterlife, but I realize that something is missing from that equation. Christian metaphors will always be home to me and the Bible will always be the primary mediator of God’s word in my life, but I’m excited to find new practices and I've seen the occasional glimpse of progress that begins to shine through the cracks of my past failures.

Letting go...

I ran across this interesting drawing by Leonard Cohen. I have let go of things that at one time seemed essential to happiness only to find more happiness in their absence. Things like hobbies, ideals, beliefs, jobs, and habits are so often all-consuming.