tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72224521513237247022024-03-14T00:14:00.081-07:00RaxWEblogPaul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.comBlogger523125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-51825114054149343552024-03-13T13:17:00.000-07:002024-03-13T13:17:10.987-07:00New Things.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><b>Does our fetishizing change really work?</b></span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For my entire career in the Presbyterian Church, we heard a lot about change. In particular we talked without ceasing about the "new paradigm," the "emerging church," the "next church," "adaptive change," and so on. We have practically fetishized changed, even to the point of requiring churches to write about their enthusiasm for change on various documents and forms, even if they actually have no such enthusiasm. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And we nearly always presented change as a very good thing. How many sermons have I heard at various ecclesiastical gatherings about "Behold, I am doing a new thing; do you not perceive it?" Most of those sermons seemed to indicate something good happening. They don't mention that Isaiah here talks about the return of the people from exile in Babylon. They do not appear to think about the Exile part. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My generation, Boomers, always looked forward to "the revolution." You can hear it in our music. Like Thunderclap Newman's, "We got to get together sooner or later, Because the revolution's here, And you know it's right." We always understood changing times as a good thing, in the end. "This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius," after all. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In one presbytery I served, the Executive Presbyter advocated for closing a small congregation (against its will) by giddily offering, "Let's see what happens!" This idea, that change, even when it means killing something, will always result in something good, as in the claim by an American officer in Vietnam that "we had to destroy the village in order to save it," pervades Modern thinking. Yes, resurrection means death resolving in new life, but does this mean we start killing things for how much good it will do? Do we call it good change when we reduce a mountain to wasteland in order to extract the coal from within it? The attitude explains a lot of the history of Modernity, which has sacrificed untold millions of people, and the integrity of the planet's climate, to its to gratify its desires and fulfill its fantasies about the future. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Change has <i>always</i> meant deterioration, decay, violence, depravity, and chaos... just not for the rich, white, men who invented, managed, and pushed Modernity. We have always managed to fob the cost off on other, less privileged groups. We still largely prattle on about change as some kind of inevitable "progress" and positive evolution. Maybe that still works for <i>us</i>. But most of the people on the planet still know that change usually means things getting even worse. Hence, many of them embrace the nihilistic, "burn-it-all-down" solutions offered by wanna-be autocrats. Indeed, who imagined a time when liberals would steadfastly <i>defend the establishment against change</i>... because the change comes in the form of reactionary maniacs? Who ever thought white conservatives would storm the Capitol building?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We face no more profound and comprehensive change than the intensifying battery of climate crises we now endure and try to cope with. Yet we seem to think we can turn even this catastrophic change into something purportedly good by using it as an excuse to re-configure our economy, as if technology and business have the capacity to save us even from this... even though these impulses got us <i>into</i> it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have read several good books forecasting Pentecostalism as the future of the church. Harvey Cox, Phyllis Tickle, and perhaps James K. A. Smith suggest this. Pentecostalism has many different forms, but it is the fastest growing branch of Christianity, by far. How do we feel about this movement as our future? Yes, the explosion of the Spirit at Azusa Street did express something radical, new, and good in its multi-racial, classless, inclusive character. But the movement soon soured into exclusive racial segments, and tended to drift in pathological directions. For one thing, the "prosperity gospel" pervades a lot of Pentecostalism. And who foresaw anything as toxic as the New Apostolic Reformation coming out of this? Much of Pentecostalism drips with White Nationalism, conspiracy theories, and the advocacy and perpetration of violence.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Whatever the next Christianity looks like, especially any movement trying to ride the Holy Spirit, the most essential reality we have to keep in the center of our consciousness remains "Jesus Christ as attested in Holy Scripture." He must remain our grounding and our goal, the Source of our energy and the form that energy takes when flowing through us into the world. Otherwise we will drift into the same kinds of atrocities that have characterized the Church in every age, when it sells out to the Empire, and starts doing whatever people want.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The book of the Bible that most concerns change and new things, of course, is Revelation. Revelation depicts the violent and spectacular collapse of Empire, finally giving way to the emergence of a New Heaven and a New Earth. We do not get to the latter without passage through the former. Actual change will always mean traversing the proverbial nine miles of bad road. It will mean disintegration and deconstruction, before the wonderful new thing can appear. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus Christ and his Kingdom/Commonwealth is always and only the new thing emerging in the world with, within, and among us. Everything else is same old same old, even with revolutions. In the words of Pete Townsend who knew that revolution means going around in a circle, they're just, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." In the meantime we maintain a steadfast witness to Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain and yet who now reigns, by living his life of compassion, justice, equity, inclusion, forgiveness, humility, and joy. He is always new, always present, and always real. The Creator always wins in the end; but before that we suffer defeat after defeat. Nevertheless we live in the light of that final victory which does still shine on us, even in the storm.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-32945464004330106322024-03-06T07:29:00.000-08:002024-03-06T07:29:44.713-08:00On the Impossibility of Thinking for Yourself.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Occasionally I meet folks who say something like, "I refuse to think the way the Church wants me to think.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">I would rather think for </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">myself</i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">."</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Then invariably they come up with a lot of thoughts that merely unconsciously reflect and express what Empire has indoctrinated them to think.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I recently saw our local Encore Players' spectacular production of <i>Inherit the Wind</i>. The fact that, in the play, both Brady and Drummond affirm or debunk the literal reading of the Bible means they both reflexively think according to the categories installed in them by the reigning Empire of the time: Modernity. On these terms Drummond inevitably wins and Brady inevitably looks like a moron. At one point in the play, I believe it is Drummond who says something to the effect of not wanting to have only one dominant book in our schools, be it the Bible or Darwin. And yet, there is only one kind of teaching allowed in schools today, and it is that of the reigning ideology of Modernity. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Under Modernity, we all learned to imagine "thinking for yourself" as the height of intellectual maturity. In reality that almost never happens. No one thinks for themselves. Our thoughts do not come to us except as conditioned by and filtered through our personal and social context. And that context assumes the shape given it by Empire. When we think we think for ourselves we most likely unwittingly think in the way Empire wants us to think by default. Under Modernity, this meant thinking in terms of the mythology and beliefs of Modernity: for example, individualism, reducing truth to facts, radical secularism, materialism, and so on. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As Dylan sang, "You gotta serve somebody," we could as easily realize that you gotta think like somebody. When we imagine we think for ourselves, really we only think according to the default of our society. We think with our egos that enslave us; we think according to the categories of Empire we have learned since infancy. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But, in the New Testament, metanoia/repentance means thinking differently, according to the mind of Christ, our Essence. The whole mission of the Church supposedly shepherds people from reflexively thinking what Empire demanded they think, to thinking in a very different way, according to the love of the Creator and the goodness of the Creation. Unfortunately, and obviously, the Church has regularly capitulated to the dominant Empire and failed in this one essential job. Indeed, we let the categories, criteria, methods, and models of Empire even creep in and determine our own theologies and spiritual work. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But we never relinquished the one thing necessary: Jesus Christ as attested in Scripture. And, even though Empire attempts to control, co-opt, coerce, and adulterate this one thing, we have always retained it. He is always there, waiting for us to pay attention again. And occasionally, in every generation, some people get called to do just this. Christ summons them to discipleship.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The turning point that has to happen is this realization of our own conditioning, our own utter lack of objectivity, that the way we have always thought was not better, more advanced or enlightened, but always according to a specific ideology... and not a particularly good one: an ideology responsible for more death and destruction, degradation and depravity, than that which guided any previous Empire. We howl in indignation at the very idea of having the Bible taught in school; but we habitually think of the ideology of Modernity as objective, neutral, enlightened, and good, when it is actually the most toxic system of ideas and practices ever inflicted upon the Earth. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We call this turning <i>metanoia</i>/repentance, and Jesus offers it as the Way out of our suicidal, homicidal impasse. Indeed, if we do not start thinking differently, and then acting very differently, our world and perhaps humanity has no future. We're going to have to start thinking and acting according to the self-emptying life and includisve, nondual teachings of Jesus Christ: characterized by compassion, humility, joy, inclusion, wonder, gentleness, nonviolence, generosity, gratitude, and a sense of communal connectedness with and in all things and God.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Instead of thinking for ourselves, which is really thinking Empire, maybe, in Jesus and by the Spirit, we can start thinking with and for... all.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-81421858468930177982024-02-27T07:54:00.000-08:002024-02-27T07:54:33.159-08:00Hilkiah and History.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><b>Did Hilkiah invent history as we know it?</b></span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">According to the accounts in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34, a man named Hilkiah served as High Priest of the Temple in Jerusalem during the reign of King Josiah (639–609 BCE). In the 18th year of his reign (622), he ordered some repairs of the Temple building. In the course of this work, Hilkiah reportedly found in the Temple a scroll that everyone had apparently forgotten about. That scroll contained "the Book of the Law." Scholars now believe he discovered much of our current Book of Deuteronomy. The newly recovered book inspired Josiah and Hilkiah to begin a reform movement, convulsing Judah in a period of iconoclasm and purification, refitting the nation and religion according to the iconoclastic, law-centered, monotheism of Deuteronomy.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Hilkiah's mind underwent a major paradigm shift when it occurred to him that he, the King, and everyone else in Judah, needed to drop everything and <i>follow</i> the book he brought out of the Temple. He could have dismissed it as an ancient and obsolete relic. He could have accepted it as part of the multi-dimensional Israelite religion. But Hilkiah decided that this text presented the real, lost essence of Israelite faith. The book demanded that they dismiss much of their current religion as corrupted and adulterated. He felt that now they finally possessed an original they could get back to.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Remember that in Hilkiah's time much of the Hebrew Scriptures had yet to appear. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In him we find perhaps the earliest instance of someone using a purportedly long lost document to justify significant religious and social change in the present. Hilkiah's action becomes the model for the emphasis on written texts that came so thoroughly to characterize countless later movements in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Modern Age in particular, ran with the slogan, "<i>ad fontes!</i>" meaning "to the sources!" Modernity starts with the acquisition of ancient Greek and Latin texts, opening Europe up to a barely remembered ancient past. In a sense, then, Hilkiah may have invented what we know as history: research into past events and documents, and applying conclusions to present concerns.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Hilkiah also grasped the implications and power of the still relatively new technology of written language. Writing connects past and present in ways impossible before. It raises communication above the organic, communal sharing of an oral tradition, and instead anchors it in the past, so that something written centuries earlier can remain authoritative indefinitely. Never before could we claim to know so precisely the thinking of a dead person. It must have seemed to offer an unimaginable stability and certainty. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Hilkiah and that book changed Israelite faith profoundly, and arguably gave it the chops to survive and even thrive during the catastrophe of the Babylonian Exile, which happened soon after the death of King Josiah. It moved the center of the faith from the land, the people, and the Temple, to the portable written Law. When the Babylonian conquerors separated the Israelite elite from the land and the common people, and destroyed the Temple, Israelite faith nevertheless survived and adapted, becoming more recognizable to us as a form of early- or pre- Judaism. By the 4th century CE or so, the Rabbis (the successors of the Pharisees) had revised even Judaism's other documents to fit what they considered to be the more original, authentic, and earlier pattern of Deuteronomy (and to distinguish them from Christianity). (We can tell this from the Septuagint, a Greek translation of apparently an earlier Hebrew text, something we verify from findings at Qumran.) Hilkiah's reformed Israelite faith equipped the people to get through the Exile; then it evolved into the Rabbinic Judaism which enabled that community to survive nearly two millennia of often violently oppressive global diaspora. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Two thousand years or more after Hilkiah, this same mentality came to characterize the Modern approach to biblical studies. Ever since, right up to today, "critical" translations of the Bible consciously seek to identify and present as authoritative the "earliest" version of the text. Indeed, many of us grew up assuming the self-evidence of this. If we look at the apparatus at the bottom of the page in a critical text of the Greek New Testament, we see the many different variations on particular passages rated according to their estimated age, with the ones deemed "oldest" having the greatest privilege. The ones assessed as "later" get demoted to the footnotes or left out altogether.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Scholarly arguments about dating ancient documents bear significant consequences for interpretation. Such debates have the potential to reshape the faith of millions of people. For instance, how one chooses to assess the date of the Gospel of Thomas has implications for the whole foundation of Christianity. If we decide on a late date, like the 2nd or 3rd century, we can consider it a historically interesting Gnostic document. But if we assign it an earlier date, even to the mid-1st century as some do, making it basically contemporaneous with the earliest writings of the New Testament, some would take it as a stunning window into the very formation of Christianity which has the power to literally change everything.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This mentality led to the periodic mania in Christianity over when someone comes across or even takes a new look at some ancient texts. This happened when Martin Luther reassessed the Bible itself and sparks a reformation to get back to this recovered original which had suffered corruption and adulteration at the hands of the institutional Roman Catholic Church. And it happens more recently when major stashes of ancient documents get dug out of the desert at Qumran or Nag Hammadi. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Hilkiah taught that faith begins in some seminal historical Event, that someone witnessed and wrote down -- in his case the story centered on Moses -- to which everything must still remain faithful. This requires a single, coherent, accepted, and enforced narrative, and something like a priesthood of specialists to maintain, interpret, and police it. The faith thus becomes strong and distinct enough to resist even conquest and exile. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But this approach can go off the rails. Faith can calcify into a set of propositions about past events which people must affirm verbally and obey for the sake of social identity, conformity, and differentiation. We see how this leads to the heartless legalism Jesus resists. In this system, the original spirit of the faith can get lost and reduced to us vs. them binaries. It also profoundly resists change when the social and historical context becomes very different. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For instance, a text originally written for an oppressed minority will have a completely different meaning and effect when put into use by a dominant majority, with often tragic consequences. Power dynamics, among other things, matter when interpreting texts. Or a later generation could take as literal history stories originally written as myth, parable, or poetry. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And, well, why do we value the ancient in the first place? Why do we assume the old to have more weight, authority, integrity, and purity than the product of a long, communal tradition of development? And why do we mainly think this way when it comes to religious and maybe legal documents, but not much else? I mean, if I find in a box in the attic a book full of my great-great-grandmother's recipes, I take it as an interesting and even beloved heirloom. I might even try to make one or two of the dishes... but I would not decide to impose it as the exclusive and infallible basis of my diet going forward. I would not get rid of the food processor and the microwave, and the curry, chilis, soy sauce, and other spices because they do not appear in this old book. No one imagines a Model-T to outperform a 2024 Mustang, or prefers a Commodore 64 to a MacBook Air. And I remain grateful that my cardiologist does not exclusively rely on the most ancient ideas of medicine. And so on. But when it comes to religion we seem to have decided that older means better.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then we run into the question of the possibility of accessing the old at all. For the world does change, time moves in a particular direction, how we communicate and think, our technology, the climate, migration, and many, many other factors mean that the world today looks and feels different from that of yesterday. And people are different. No matter how perfectly we recover something from the past, we cannot possibly understand it in the same way as those who originally produced and experienced it. Heck, I have sometimes trouble understanding things I myself wrote a couple of decades ago... or even last week, for heaven's sake. Context makes all the difference, and the the wider the rift between different contexts the more problematic any attempt to translate between the two becomes.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The consequence here means that whatever we come up with today is unavoidably contemporary to now, no matter how venerable and archaic we imagine it to be. Hilkiah's reformed theology spoke directly to the people receiving it and responded to their concerns, needs, and hopes. It was new and relevant, no matter when someone supposedly wrote it. Perhaps because he had witnessed the obliteration of the northern kingdom of Israel, Hilkiah may have feared that their received religion would not have the strength and focus necessary to withstand the assault of an Empire wielding unimaginable and inhuman violence. Without Hilkiah's drastic reform, Israelite faith might very likely have finally collapsed and dissipated in the streets of Babylon, and its basic anti-imperialist, emancipatory, liberating character get lost forever. The story that he found it in the Temple looks more like a practical strategy to justify a necessary change in direction.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Furthermore, everything comes to us through a process of a communal interpretive tradition. Even the iconoclastic periods become part of that history. We do not escape tradition. We cannot wipe out what has gone before any more than Hilkiah could. We may convince ourselves we do the work of recovery and restoration, returning to something pure, authentic, original and pristine. We do not. We live on the growing edge of an on-going tradition and produce what works for us <i>now</i>. We need to face and express some honesty about that.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I wonder if we don't need to move to a more evolutionary, organic, oral, communal practice, one that employs symbol, vision, metaphor, art, and ritual, in which faith may grow and develop, shift and adapt more flexibly and democratically according to changing circumstances. It does not rely on one exclusive, historical Event but <i>understands the Event as the ongoing unfolding of the tradition in community</i>. In other words, <i>we are</i> together the Event; it didn't happen just once but still happens now, within and among us. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As it happens, the emergence of Christianity occurs in just these terms. Jesus perceives a longer range to the faith event, including both the mystical creation-centered Wisdom of the first Temple, and the austere, iconoclastic, text/law-centered faith of Hilkiah's reformers and their successors, the Pharisees. He identifies and embodies the core thread of liberation knitting them together, through and within shifting cultural contexts. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Thus he enacts a nondual, nonbinary, both/and approach to faith and history. At its best, Christianity came to balance, dance around, and hold in tension both law and grace, preservation and inclusion, the written and the oral, a bounded and a welcoming community, core definitions and distributed adaptations, the political and the mystical. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This all culminates at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which more or less finally affirmed the insights expressed in the Nicene Creed describing Christ as "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father." We therefore confess Jesus Christ as <i>both</i> fully human <i>and</i> fully God, a logical impossibility but the non-dual, non-binary core truth which the Church nevertheless steadfastly held to.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In terms of history I get from this the necessity to say <i>both</i> that we hold to a primal Event and the documents that witness to it, <i>and</i> that the Holy Spirit empowers the on-going community of disciples to interpret, discern, and apply this original insight in different ways and contexts. We do both, and this only happens in active conversation, mutual consultation, and self-critical consideration, in which we identify, recognize, and admit our biases, prejudices, and assumptions, and always keep in mind the good news, the original/ongoing Event, the unfolding revelation on which we base our faith and in which we trust. In this way that Event continues to unfold. We don't allow it to calcify into a dead historical fact needing preservation. Neither do we abandon it in an orgy of reckless adaptation, dissolving into our changing circumstances. We do not take a scalpel -- or an axe -- to it, reducing it to dead parts. Neither do we pretend whatever randomly erupts from our imagination always works even better. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For Jesus Christ, as attested in Holy Scripture, <i>is this Event</i>, grounded in history and at the same time continuing by the Spirit in the community, to reveal the Wisdom of the Creator's pervasive Presence in all things.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We can appreciate Hilkiah's insight <i>and</i> cherish the echoes and signs of the earlier faith, seeing how in Christ <i>both</i> get carried forward. For the point remains of extending the liberation and compassion, humility and justice, equality and <i>shalom</i> at the heart and core of Israelite faith into our lives and world today.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span><br /></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-58114476192586480452024-02-17T12:55:00.000-08:002024-02-17T12:55:26.072-08:00Metamorphosis.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><b>Changing into your true </b></span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: medium;"><b>Self.</b></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In my recent sermon on the Transfiguration I mentioned metamorphosis and the analogy with caterpillars. Were we to open an active chrysalis we would not find inside a caterpillar growing wings but undifferentiated goo. The caterpillar totally deconstructs -- "digests itself" in the words of a biologist -- into this fluid mush before it reconstructs as a butterfly, practically from scratch.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As an image for change this tells us that whatever new thing emerges will be built out of chaos and disintegration. Metamorphosis does not happen in an easy, linear, logical manner. It breaks something down to its essential parts and basically starts over.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In terms of the Church, maybe we should not see the decline of the last half-century as a catastrophic march to extinction ("at this rate there will be zero Presbyterians by 2040!"), but as a necessary time of deconstruction out of which something new will, or at least could, emerge. This enables us to interpret these times in new and more creative and hopeful, not to mention less panicky and nihilistic, ways. The Church is not dying so much as preparing for rebirth.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Something else happens in this process of metamorphosis that we need to take into account. The caterpillar does not become just any random thing. The goo cannot decide to become whatever it wants. It emerges according to its original plan as a butterfly. This happens because of things called Imaginal Discs or Cells which carry the coding for the construction of the butterfly. These cells existed within the caterpillar as well, which means that the caterpillar always carried its own destiny and future. Continuity persists between caterpillar and butterfly, the DNA is the same, they are one animal with two successive forms. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">To extend the analogy, I believe the Church has always carried within it the coding for its own future. We need therefore to identify and activate these Imaginal Cells in our ecclesial life today which carry the blueprint for the Church of tomorrow.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We have a difficult task. We have to counteract and avoid the lethargy and depression that currently infects the Church after 50 years of disintegration and loss. At the same time, we cannot just get on any shiny bandwagon that promises to adapt to the new situation with glitzy new forms. What if those new forms do not convey the Word? What if they simply cave to the Empire's latest trend? What if they even lead to growth in numbers... while crippling discipleship? Dietrich Bonhoeffer foresaw this situation when he wrote about "religionless Christianity." He meant that we would still identify the future manifestation as <i>Christianity</i>. He did not mean we would wind up with an amorphous, secularized, dissipated, disembodied religionlessness.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My main interest here concerns the identity, character, and centrality of the "Imaginal Cells" that will guide the construction of the new Church while maintaining its continuity with the former incarnation. How do we manage tectonic change while maintaining the original DNA of Christian faith? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The primary Imaginal Cell has to be what we receive in the first thesis of the Theological Declaration of Barmen: "Jesus Christ, attested in Holy Scripture," the "one Word of God." Without this as our initial framework and blueprint, we will not be recognizably about following Jesus anymore at all. (This "Jesus Christ, attested in Scripture" means both moving away from both (1) any version of Jesus that includes only a part of the one we get in the Bible, and (2) any "Jesus" adulterated with extraneous material from other sources.) Secondary to Jesus Christ, and therefore of central and indispensable importance, we have the core doctrines of the orthodox Christian faith, as affirmed by the early church and expressed in the Nicene Creed. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I believe that this Jesus Christ does not just guide the community of disciples into whatever the new paradigm will look like, but to unite and include, embrace and welcome all. Christ is compassion and liberation, equity and humility, justice and love, inclusion and forgiveness, gentleness and shalom.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Look: We will not have a future if we keep avoiding the chrysalis, either as souped-up and supremely adapted caterpillars or as imaginary, fantasy butterflies. These are the twin fallacies of the historical and gnostic "Jesuses." Neither offers anything but extinction to us caterpillars; both leave us caught in the tyranny of ego and Empire, and their nihilistic, creation-killing agenda. Only the Jesus Christ attested in Scripture -- who died and was raised -- fully human/fully God -- can carry us through the necessary metamorphosis. In him we emerge from the chrysalis ready to ride the Creator's Spirit in a new kind of life.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-47014824316952530792024-01-30T10:31:00.000-08:002024-01-30T10:31:38.983-08:00Deep Democracy.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">A democracy inclusive of all... as in <i>all</i>.</b></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.... Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our father. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">--G. K. Chesterton</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I love that Chesterton quote. I want to take it further. Way further. I favor a democracy that includes the dead by recognizing and accounting for the ways things our forebears did them. I also favor an even deeper and broader democracy that looks out for the interests of people who have not come yet, people who will look to us as ancestors. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Christian theology understands this in terms of the Communion of the Saints, and gathering of all the faithful, living, dead, and yet to come. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Furthermore, why do we limit democracy merely to humans? Why can we not find a way to attend politically to the best interests of animals and plants, even the planet itself? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What would politics look like if we asked what effect this or that policy or initiative would have on the future? What if we asked whether people yet unborn would benefit from this decision, or hate us for it? Do our decisions make life better or worse for our offspring? What if we extended Jesus' teaching about doing unto others to include people not yet alive?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Indeed, what gives us the right to do so much as cut down a tree without the tree's permission, let alone slaughter a cow or dam a river? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Genesis empowers humans to "till and keep" creation, which the word "dominion" sums up. The example of such dominion we find in Jesus Christ, who exercises it in terms of care, cooperation, respect, love, and seeing every living thing as a sign of God's saving Presence. The only "rights" we have with regard to nature or anything else -- in other words, the real meaning of freedom -- we find in obedience to the will of the Creator, revealed in Jesus. We certainly have no right to destroy, poison, exploit, misuse, abuse, deplete, or otherwise degrade something that does not belong to us but to God (Psalm 24:1).</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Anyway, a deep democracy would act on behalf and for the benefit of all.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-37597461310308935722024-01-20T09:31:00.000-08:002024-01-20T09:31:26.030-08:00Borg's Dualism.<blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">I let go of the notion that the Bible is a divine product.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">I learned that it is a human cultural product, the product of two ancient communities, biblical Israel and early Christianity.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">As such, it contained their understandings and affirmations, not statements coming directly or somewhat directly from God...</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">I realized that whatever "divine revelation" and the "inspiration of the Bible" meant (if they meant anything), they did not mean that the Bible was a divine product with divine authority.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">--Marcus Borg. </p></blockquote>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Someone approvingly put this quote on Facebook. I understand why, but this quote demonstrates Borg's unhelpful approach. He actually reveals his fundamental unfamiliarity with non-dual thinking, and therefore his basic reflexive commitment to Modernity and therefore Empire. His first two sentences show that he does not believe something can be both human and divine. He sees these as mutually exclusive categories. In order to accept that the Bible "is a cultural human product," he says we have to "let go of the notion that the Bible is a divine product." We apparently cannot have both. He denies that God works through people and communities. In this he basically denies God's ability to do anything, even exist or be in any meaningful way.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">(I haven't read all of Borg, and this quote may not represent his views at all, for all I know. But it does represent a very common way of thinking. So I apologize if I am unfair to him.)</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">On the one hand, the quote affirms the Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity of humankind since it implies that human beings have no capability to do anything good. Certainly, God cannot work through or in them. Or at least God did not work through the ancient communities that produced the Bible.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">On the other hand, he makes God so wholly other, so utterly and essentially disconnected from human life and perhaps creation itself, that God does not and cannot bridge the infinite gap and participate in human life in any way. Or at least God did not do with in relation to the two ancient communities he talks about.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Maybe he only disrespects those "two ancient communities, biblical Israel and early Christianity." Maybe other communities exist that he can respect and even see God working within, I don't know. He doesn't say, at least, not here. (But I suspect not. I sense that Borg mistrusted all traditions and all communities, and only believed God could work with individuals, at best.) </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Why, I wonder, can we not see the Bible as <i>both</i> a divine <i>and</i> human product? Why can we not understand that God works through and in communities, ancient and otherwise? Why does he apparently imagine it impossible to see the Bible or anything as both the product of historical, mortal humans, and at the same time God's word communicated to people?</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Where does Jesus Christ land in Borg's binary scheme? Either he sees Christ as "fully human," and therefore as an utterly un-divine first century Jewish teacher, or as "fully God" as some Gnostic, docetic phantom who could never "become flesh," let alone die on a Roman cross. (His Westar Institute currently toys with both of these views.) </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Church addressed this question more or less definitively at Nicaea and Chalcedon, declaring Jesus Christ as both fully human and at the same time fully divine. This of course makes no sense to the dualistic mind that demands things be stuck in exclusive, logical categories.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We can only express spiritual truth according to a non-duality that recognizes the interpenetration, radical inclusiveness, and mutually participatory nature of Reality, with a panentheistic, incarnational view of the Creator. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I understand Borg's resistance to toxic and pathological Fundamentalism that habitually used the Bible as a weapon against their enemies, claiming their sour, exclusive, and self-serving interpretations as the Word of God. I understand that this kind of theology does a lot of damage to people and communities, including the Earth itself, and contradicts the love of God revealed in Jesus. But offering as an alternative to such evil the equally toxic and pathological, sour, exclusive, and self-serving approach of Modernist historicism, gets us nowhere. It accepts and affirms the binary, dualistic, either/or approach of fundamentalism, and just turns it around. It rejects Jesus and God in a different way, with the same result: people fall away from the love of the Creator. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This describes the story of Christianity in the Modern Age. Two slightly different flavors of toxicity battling against Creator and creation, one using God as a weapon of their own egocentricity and the other using godlessness in the same way. People imagine these as the only choices: fundamentalism or atheism. And either adopt a religious fascism for the sake of social order, or they wander off to figure things out "on their own." In either case, they remain in bondage to ego and Empire. Modernity uses this strategy continually: setting up illusory opponents in dualistic competition/conflict/war, offering these as the only choices, so that people can't even imagine the truth outside of this linear, binary grid.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The only way out of this dead end we have available to us in discipleship rooted in the grace of the Creator revealed in Jesus Christ. Freed of such binary dualism, Borg knows this now. He died in 2015.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #060606; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span></p><div><br /></div>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-19332485652790746082024-01-17T08:34:00.000-08:002024-01-17T08:34:19.194-08:00Political Rant for a Turbulent Time.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><b>Restoring the Status Quo Will Not Cut It.</b></span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have read many commentators expressing mystification about President Biden's stubborn unpopularity. They list his legislative accomplishments, which frankly do border on the miraculous: the "bipartisan" infrastructure bill, the remarkable and transformative Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips Act, and a couple of other achievements give him one of the most successful and impactful first terms of any President since FDR. At least on paper, the economy roars ahead, creating jobs by the millions. Inflation declines, interest rates may soon as well. We have largely put Covid behind us. He revived NATO and led Europe in standing against Russian aggression in Ukraine.... By all normal measures, Biden should enjoy stratospheric polling and coast to re-election.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But not only does he not have a lead in polling, but his presumptive opponent -- the twice-impeached, four times indicted on over 90 charges, disgraced, incompetent, disingenuous, breathtakingly corrupt, aging, and arguably mentally ill predecessor, by any measure the worst President in history, who actively and intentionally undermined the Constitution and attempted to reverse a 180-year tradition of peaceful transfer of power, against whom like 70 courts ruled on this, and who provoked a violent and deadly riot against the Capitol, and one of the most unpopular figures in American politics, who has lately spouted obviously fascist tropes like calling his opponents "vermin" and whining about immigrants "polluting our blood" -- remains not just competitive but often ahead. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What the hell?</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I understand the sober, circumspect observers who reassure us that polling this far out has no point and usually gets it wrong. They mention how Obama and others languished far behind (but not <i>this</i> far behind...) a year out, and came back to win reelection. They remind us that voters have not yet started paying attention. They blame the media's inexplicable harshness towards Biden. And so on. All of which would make more sense if we had some confidence that we live in normal times.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What if we have left normal behind us? What if we do not live in the same era or world as we did even a few years ago... and I fear that Biden does not get it. He seems to still want to function according to norms, procedures, standards, and practices that may have held for generations, or even centuries... but no longer work. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Look, he can spout about how government still functions, and that we can even accomplish things in an arguably bipartisan manner. But I wonder if policy and legislation have ever mattered less. Arguing facts and statistics doesn't work when people feel nervous and riven with anxiety, sensing a world in uncontrolled tailspin. The standard economic metrics may not relate to real people anymore. Maybe they show us the security of the top 1% or even 20%, while not really reflecting the lived experience of most Americans. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Just as no level of prosperity can outweigh a diagnosis of cancer or heart disease, if we sense the bottom dropping out of civilization itself, extra cash in one's paycheck doesn't matter that much. Do people sense the center not only not holding but starting to give way beneath them? Have our systems and institutions become irrelevant and ineffective, if not actually harmful? Do we feel this fundamental malaise and sense of impending doom, or at least chaos? I feel like we're on the Titanic and Biden brags about improving room service. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When people start asking "What's normal done for us lately?" it does not help to brand oneself as the re-establisher of normal. Maybe people feel that the old normal has gone and will not come back, and they peer ahead with trepidation because a new normal has not yet established itself. They wonder what it will look like when it does, and who will decide about that, and how much turbulence they will have to endure before that happens? And the fact that they can't put their finger on or articulate any of this only makes it scarier. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Every night on MSNBC the hosts and experts revel in Trump's legal woes. Experts predict his likely conviction and the triumph of the American Criminal Justice System. Of course, I hope Trump ends up in a Federal prison. But having seen our legal system at work up close, it looks like a matter of deals and games played among rich and connected people. I know that it exists in part to humiliate the poor and powerless. Why should I want to see it triumph? We know it has never really worked for minorities at all, and insiders readily manipulate it in their own interest. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Other systems teeter on the edges of legitimacy as well. Our economic order actively sinks into a kind of techno-feudalism as a handful of overlords like Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, Google, Apple, and other multi-billion-dollar corporations and individuals increasingly manage the world economy for their own benefit. Musk alone has $215b, which means he could give every human on earth a billion dollars and still have well over $200 billion to squeeze by on. Capitalism steadily reveals its original purpose as a system that kills the earth while obscenely enriching a very few. They respond by idiotically pouring billions into ventures to the Moon and even Mars. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We see the world of business infected by frankly evil forces epitomized by the murderous Sackler family which received no significant consequences or punishment at all for intentionally driving millions of people to addiction and death! Or the fossil fuel companies which knowingly and constantly continue to destroy the very ability of the planet to sustain life, and spread lies about it. Again, with no penalty. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our political system seems in freefall as well, as we have had to endure the repeated election of Presidents who do not win the most votes, a Congress stifled in manifold ways by its own rules, a Supreme Court which has lost legitimacy due to obviously partisan decisions, not to mention overt corruption. We see an aggressive rise in voter suppression laws, with many states, hamstrung by gerrymandering, come ruled by a cynical and entrenched minority. Our 18th century Constitution and medieval legal system simply does not have the structure or flexibility to deal with this level and scale of sabotage, duplicity, and manipulation.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We lose 35,000 people to gun violence every year, and the government cannot enact even the most tepid and sensible regulations to curtail it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mass and social media have become cesspools of lies, hysteria, partisan spinning, pornography, mindless entertainment, and despair. And we're careening into a world enmeshed in AI with no plan and no guardrails. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our health care system costs an unconscionable amount of money, excludes many people, and has lost the trust of a large segment of the population. I don't agree with them, but I totally understand why some don't trust vaccines. Big business designed the whole system for their own enrichment; they have lied to us repeatedly and compulsively in the past. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And the world order we all got used to no longer functions. Who predicted a land war in Europe due to Russian aggression? And we find ourselves completely unable to do anything about the mass murder of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our immigration system remains inadequate. Republicans demagoguing it refuse to work on any improvements. It has become a lightning rod for racist paranoia. It results from failed policies, and the climate crisis, in Central and South America. We ignore the suffering and courage of millions of ordinary people. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">To sum up, our society languishes in crisis largely because of the rampant exploitation by the wealthy elite, and everyone else seeks to follow their example. They control all social and cultural institutions for their own profit, even the ones most of us could until recently trust and respect. In Greed We Trust would serve as a more accurate national motto than the sanctimonious and hypocritical one we display now. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Which reveals a crisis of character in Americans as trust and civility break down and we have trouble even communicating with each other.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Religious institutions, intended to cultivate spiritual values like compassion, humility, forgiveness, non-violence, generosity, and acceptance, do not. Christian churches should encourage personal transformation and social justice. But now, on the one hand, the Evangelical movement has completely discredited itself with its infatuation with easily the least Christlike human ever to hold the Presidency, the old-line churches sink into ineffective irrelevance, and the rise of people claiming no religion (the "nones") portends a nation with no spiritual guidance at all beyond the craving of individual egos.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And churning under everything portends the most consequential earthquake of all: the deepening and spreading climate catastrophe, brought on all of us by centuries of waste, growth, extraction, destruction, and profit. We see exponential increases in wildfires, floods, and extinctions, with stronger hurricanes, longer and more severe droughts, hotter and more unpredictable weather, and a steady rise in species extinction, sea levels, habitat loss, and the number of climate-related diseases and refugees. In 2023 we shattered all records for atmospheric heat, by far. Governments respond with big meetings and brave statements and goals... that they largely do not enact. We have moved past the tipping point where we can prevent it; now we scramble just to limit the damage. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Meanwhile, right-wing think tanks openly and enthusiastically gush about different kinds of minority rule or even autocracy that need to be invoked to impose their will on everything. They dream of "Red Caesar" and martial law. Large portions of Congress advocate for Trump's election lies and other preposterous and paranoid propositions, a level of blatant disloyalty to democracy not seen in our country since the 1860's. Twenty-five percent of Americans profess a willingness to accept political violence if it achieves their goals. Having gone full nihilistic fascist theocracy, we have no reason to hope the Republicans can offer anything but brutal, repressive tyranny. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the face of this blizzard of toxic political, moral, economic, cultural, and ecological sludge, Biden's boasting about the "bipartisan" Infrastructure Bill seems somewhat... inadequate, even quaint.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If Biden goes into the 2024 election campaign as the great restorer and maintainer of the status quo, he will only win because people hate Trump more than they fear the future. The "America Is Already Great!" argument didn't work for Hillary Clinton; why should it help Biden? People know things do not look great right now, and they don't know what to do about that. If left with the choice between propping up a rotting and ineffective faux-democracy and burning it all down in an orgy of autocratic retribution, I fear disaster. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And I find it hard for Democrats to claim to present a viable alternative, when they have morphed into the party of the wealthy, educated, connected elite. Embracing Wall Street and Neoliberalism under Clinton, Democrats have helped to oversee the slide into inequality and polarization. They have largely abandoned and therefore lost the working class and frankly seem far more concerned with pushing advances in social equity... we need this too, but it shouldn't happen at the expense of economic justice for all. The fact that most American families do not have $400 in the bank for an emergency says it all.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And when the Democrats do come into power, they manage to squander it by adhering to archaic and obsolete, arbitrary rules, rules they could change had they the will. Instead they still pretend we live in 1999 (or even 1789).</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Even our version of democracy has lost a lot of its legitimacy with many people. For if this system brought us to this place of anxiety, confusion, division, and grief then maybe, some people may reason, we should try something else now. Indeed, can Biden claim the role of protecting "democracy," when the system he wants to sustain shows only a casual relationship to actual democracy? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We need a credible third option. Or, we need the Democrats to realize the depth of the crisis, and present a plan to repair and renew America. What if they remade themselves into the party of responsible, forward-looking, major, fundamental change? What if they talked about wealth redistribution more directly, even proposed a Guaranteed Basic Income? What if they started advocating for actual democracy, and developed a battery of Constitutional Amendments, and other measures that indicated a truly transformational vision for the 21st century? What if they said, "We get that things do not work for people and that the country approaches freefall; here's how to fix it"? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If 1789 gave us Constitution 1.0, and after the Civil War we developed the 2.0 version. Clearly we need 3.0 now. That should include an array of political, economic, media, tech, and judicial changes that would make the economy more equitable and opportunity-driven, and government more representative, responsive, accountable, nimble, and open.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We cannot sustain our current situation. Something has to give. We can either collapse into violent minority rule, or present and fight for a vision for renewal. We can try to impose the terror of white supremacy. Or we can offer the hope of liberty and justice for <i>all</i>, the multi-cultural, multi-racial, communitarian democracy that stands as America's highest goal, and always has. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-56707975584540908982023-12-26T09:46:00.000-08:002023-12-26T09:46:14.853-08:00Jesus Means Compassion.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Jesus Means Compassion.</b></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In my years as a Pastor I found I had to consistently remind people about one central thing: Jesus heals people because they suffer. He does not ask why. He does not take into account the person's lifestyle, or politics, or religion, age, or gender, behavior, or economic status. Most come to him, but he also heals people at long distance based on others' word. He considers only one thing: their suffering in that moment.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For Jesus, compassion depends purely on what a person has to deal with now. Period. Certainly they usually, but not always, must demonstrate some trust in him. But Jesus addresses suffering in the moment for its own sake.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That sounds uncontroversial until we consider what Jesus' does <i>not</i> show any concern about. He does not place blame. In fact, when some of his disciples attempt to identify where the sin might lie that caused a person's illness, he rebukes them. He refuses to make such extraneous distractions the point when he only cares about the raw fact of the pain experienced by the person.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This comes up all the time. A person gets cancer and we want to attribute it to their foolish habits, like smoking or consistently eating and drinking unhealthily. We seem to invest more attention in locating blame than in showing empathy for the suffering person. Like we imagine we can avoid having to deal with the fact of a person's pain by looking somewhere, anywhere, else. By extension maybe this strategy will somehow reduce our own suffering somehow. As if bringing the guilty perpetrator to punishment makes us feel like we have done something useful in addressing the pain they caused. When it really doesn't.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Right now I find myself having to listen to these arguments about Hamas' attacks of October 7 and the subsequent Israeli response. When I express sorrow over the deaths of Israelis, someone will point out how the decades of Israeli oppression of Palestinians caused this ghastly atrocity on the part of Hamas. The blame lies with the Israelis themselves. If I tell how my heart breaks over the deaths of over 20,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza from the recently Israeli bombardment, I will hear about how it is their own fault for supporting Hamas, and Hamas' fault for using them as human shields. The blame lies with the Palestinians themselves.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All these explanations and rationalizations on both sides have some truth to them. Israel has brutally oppressed the Palestinians in many ways for decades. Hamas spouts a toxic ideology and committed a heinous assault on Israel, while carelessly and cynically abusing their own people. The historical context of this war has deep and very complicated -- and bloody -- roots, going back to the Holocaust and the long history of violent anti-semitism in Europe. I get that.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Indeed, humans have chosen this approach to "solve" problems for millennia: imagining we can prevent or reduce or heal suffering by committing violence and causing more suffering. This strikes me as a form of mental illness. It never works on any level. It spawns cycles and systems of violence that churn on for generation after generation. Yet it somehow appeals and makes sense to our egos to treat each other this way. So we do.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But Jesus does not take this approach. Hence, Jesus compassionately identifies with the Israeli families and communities shattered by Hamas. At the same time, Jesus' heart breaks for the thousands of Palestinians dying and suffering terribly in Gaza. He finds no contradiction in this. He would only see the suffering, case by case, person by person, child by child. He would not waste time reflecting on deciding whom to blame. Indeed, when he himself gets nailed to pieces of wood and hung up to bleed and suffocate to death, he forgives those who do it while they are doing it. His final identification with the hurt of the world on the cross serves finally to heal and redeem our suffering, our fear, our violence, and our ignorance. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">To follow him means identifying with the pain of the individuals suffering in this world, and seeking immediately to alleviate it... no matter who suffers or why; no matter who inflicts the pain or why. Maybe if we follow him and start seeing things from the perspective of the victims of our violence, that violence will begin to recede. Maybe that approach forms the foundation of justice for him, as we decline to support and participate in systems of violence. Maybe if we stop getting distracted by our ideologies and fears, our desires and our sophisticated reason, and focus just on the pain of this person in this moment, as does Jesus, we can follow him out of this pit of despair and into the Light of his commonwealth of joy.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-83221606481199205922023-12-20T11:29:00.000-08:002023-12-20T11:29:43.822-08:00The Spiritual Meaning of the Virgin Birth.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Modern people often tend to reject the Virgin Birth story. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">I know some who clam up when that part of the creed gets recited in church.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">We see several reasons for this.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The gynecological impossibility of it, and its connection to other ancient myths about important figures having miraculous births, allows us to imagine that we sophisticated Moderns know better than this silly, quaint story.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The story also gets used to erase and devalue the actual experiences of women, placing them on an intentionally impossible pedestal of "purity" to which no actual woman can attain.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> We rightly want to reject that as well.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Virgin Birth story remains important, however, for exactly the opposite reasons. I have talked often about how Sojourner Truth shapes my understanding of this story. She famously points out that the coming of Christ into the world happens between God and a woman, that a man had nothing to do with it. I glean from this insight that no patriarchal authority, no member of the male establishment, no Empire, could have any claim or control over, or claim any credit for, God's coming into the world. The Virgin Birth story thus becomes a significant instance of the anti-Imperialism that pervades the Scriptures.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Like so much of early Christianity, the story takes something from the larger culture and radically reframes it as a fundamental critique of the status quo and its powers. I suspect this meaning caused later authorities to white-wash and domesticate the story, shoving it back into its accepted cultural frame as a justification for the inferiority and subjugation of women. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rather than cut or ignore the story for these reasons, I stand with Sojourner Truth in seeking to recover the deeper and more radical truth revealed in it. In accepting the angel's offer, Mary basically gives the finger to systems of social convention and political power imposed on her and the world by The Man. She rejects the patriarchy which characterizes Empire and even holds it together. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This gives us the political meaning of the Virgin Birth. But we may hear an interior, spiritual meaning as well. For the Virgin Birth also excludes from any role in our acquisition of the Holy Spirit to the same patriarchy and Empire. We must realize that the emergence with us of our Essence does not depend on or even include the values, practices, and goals dictated by the men who dominate society and politics.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Meister Eckhart alludes to this when he says: “We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself? And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of Man is begotten in us.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In other words, as "mothers of God" we too participate in the same dynamic as Mary. We do not bear God into the world as an expression or result of patriarchy or power; it does not happen "by the physical desire of a human father" (John 1:13 REB). Rather this happens through our submission, humility, cooperation, assent, freedom, and vulnerability... <i>not to any human authority or institution</i>, but only to God. Obedience to God explicitly <i>refuses</i> the authority and domination of any human power.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In other words, it has nothing to do with what we gain, own, control, extract, or measure; it renounces the money, fame, and power which Empire would have us crave and connive to get. Rather, it concerns what we lose and renounce, divesting ourselves of our allegiance and loyalty to Empire's carrots and our fear of its sticks. Mary has to let go of her fear, her egocentric craving for control, even her own practical goals for her future. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The example of Mary shows us the different path of openness and reception, even to a wildly alien visitation by a supernatural being with an impossible and costly message. She has to open herself to this new thing, really an incredibly arrogant possibility, that she might herself serve as the mother of God. She has to put her ego to the side, and embrace something exponentially bigger than her ego, even in its most grandiose fantasies, could imagine.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mary shows us that our egos don't dream big <i>enough</i>! Our ego craves independence and autonomy as a little separate, safe entity. But only by letting our egos go can we emerge into an unthinkably larger place of union with and in God, what the early Church calls deification or theosis, the whole point and goal of Christian faith.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This humility and self-emptying become the path for nothing less than the eternal birth of the divine among us. Gaining this new life means losing the old life; the new Self emerges when we let go of the old self. Mary thus embodies in advance what will become the core of her son's teaching.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Finally, only when we let go of ego's grip on us, may we find ourselves in the position also to resist, rise above, and renounce Empire. For only when we ourselves embody the vision of wholeness and inclusion, equity and compassion, justice and joy that we see in Jesus Christ, do we gain the capacity to resist the predations of Empire and model the Creator's reality.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-50533193727000748742023-12-13T12:11:00.000-08:002023-12-19T11:07:34.080-08:00Modernity: Our Version of Empire.<p style="text-align: left;"></p><ol><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Empire has functioned as the dominant political/economic operating system in the Western world for about 4000 years, since Pharaoh's Egypt. Empire generally exhibits injustice and violence in the forms of: <span style="font-size: medium;">a. social and economic stratification (patriarchy, racism, caste/class), b. military expansionism, </span>c. a fetishization of economic growth<span style="font-size: medium;">, </span>d. subservient religious institutions. </span></li></ol><ol start="2"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For the last 500 years, we have called the prevailing version of Empire "Modernity."</span></li><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Modernity expresses the characteristics of Empire in the following ways:</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span></span></li></ol><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Humanism - While "humanism" sounds very enlightened and benign, under Modernity it means that human beings (by this it originally means almost exclusively white men) constitute the highest and best form of life, "the measure of all things," and absolute lords of the planet, with freedom to dispose of anything as they see fit. No higher power exists in the universe. Modern Humanism means Secularism.</span></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rationalism - the human mind may completely know the universe by reason alone.</span></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Individualism - every individual human functions independently and autonomously.</span></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Materialism - only things that we can quantify, measure, and empirically verify exist. </span></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Techism - humans have the right and responsibility to manipulate, transform, and commodify things in the world for their own benefit.</span></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Capitalism - "Benefit" means material wealth: capital, money, property, ownership, goods, possessions, and their ceaseless accumulation. </span></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Progress - under human management, life necessarily continues to improve, advance, evolve. Modernity focuses on the future; it demands "growth."</span></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Survival of the fittest - the best humans will naturally increase their wealth and power; those who have wealth and power deserve to rule. Modernity uses different kinds of controlled violence to determine fitness: eg. adversariality, competition, war, asset measurement.</span></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Oligarchy - the class of the fittest individuals rules.</span></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">White supremacy/eurocentrism.</span></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Colonialism - Those espousing this ideology have the right to conquer, rule, and profit from the work of every other life form on Earth.</span></li></ul><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Secularism - Nothing has reality beyond the tangible, knowable, measurable, quantifiable, commodifiable world. </span></li></ul><ol start="4"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Modernity, like every manifestation of Empire, cannot sustain itself. Built on falsehoods of Empire, Modernity contains essential contradictions that doom it from the start. Modernity has always exerted extractive and controlling violence towards planet and people. While it <i>talked</i> about "democracy, equality, and human rights," in practice it always featured the hegemony of one class: white, male, property owners. While it made progress including a limited number of more kinds of people in mainly the lower margins of the hegemonic class, Modernity has always demanded a cohort of usually non-white poor and working people to exploit. It remains impossible to argue for the goodness of Modernity when we observe its results in ecological, social, and psychological devastation. Modernity therefore disintegrates and collapses in turbulence and upheaval, confusion and insecurity. We face changes we cannot anticipate and do not understand. </span></li></ol><ol start="4"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Most people who feel as negatively as I do about Modernity want somehow to go "back" to an idealized better time (which could mean just an earlier era within Modernity or some pre-Modern age). Therefore, they tend towards a conservative and reactionary perspective, even sometimes resorting to Fascism and other kinds of autocracy. </span></li></ol><ol start="4"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But going back doesn't work. History and time do not move that way. We cannot escape our context. We only attempt this through the application of extreme violence -- and it will inevitably fail. Conservatism thus falls short as foolish, futile, and cruel. </span></li></ol><ol start="4"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Liberals, on the other hand, tend to view Modernity positively, requiring merely a few technical tweaks to function more effectively. They see a bright future in the intensified application of its avowed principles. They point to the technological and social progress achieved under Modernity (mostly ignoring or discounting the cost or the uneven distribution of that progress). </span></li></ol><ol start="4"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But problems cannot be solved from the way of thinking that produced them. For example, we cannot grow our way out of an ecological catastrophe that results from the fetishization of growth. Technology will not save us from problems created by the belief that technology will save us. We cannot build communities through individualism that inherently rejects community. Basically, humanity alone cannot solve problems perpetrated by humanity acting alone. The myths, institutions, structures, ideas, and practices of Modernity cannot and will not help us overcome or even survive Modernity's ecological or economic catastrophes that came out of those myths, institutions, structures, and ideas. To follow the liberal path will simply lead to a re-manifestation of Empire in some new, yet-to-be-named, post-Modern, expression. </span></li></ol><ol start="4"><li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Instead of looking to an impossible utopia -- a conservative one that looks <i>back</i> to restore an illusory past or liberal one that looks <i>ahead</i> to an illusory future -- I suggest that we look elsewhere: Up. To a "Higher Power," God, the Creator.</span></li></ol><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">++++++</span><span style="font-size: 12px;">+</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-7254491513701100352023-12-13T12:09:00.000-08:002023-12-13T12:09:09.454-08:00Modernity Means Vivisection.<blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Vivisection. noun</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;">1. </span>The act or practice of cutting into or otherwise injuring living animals for the purpose of scientific research.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;">2. </span>Dissection of a living body; the practice of anatomizing alive, or of experimenting upon living animals, for the purpose of investigating some physiological function or pathological process which cannot well be otherwise determined.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;">3. </span>The dissection of an animal while alive, for the purpose of making physiological investigations.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition</span></i><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: large; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">New York City recently removed a statue in Central Park of Dr. J. Marion Sims, the father of modern gynecology. Sims experimented on living slave women in the American South, without the use of anesthesia. The fact that we managed to admire and celebrate this monster reveals something about the mindset governing our whole civilization, from the so-called Enlightenment on. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">I believe this got articulated most directly when people understood Francis Bacon as declaring that now humans could strap nature to a table and torture her secrets out of her.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">Under Modernity we applied that sentiment to everything, including other humans, right down to atoms.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">Dr. Sims' atrocities do not present a special case by any means.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Modernity means the use of power to impose one's will upon another by violence. When a coal executive looks at a mountain and sees only the fuel that he can extract from it by violence, we see the same way of thinking at work. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Christians believe that God created the universe by speaking it into being and declaring each thing created "very good." All things therefore bear the Voiceprint of the Creator, and exist as the Creator's beneficent expression. All things reflect and express the Life of the One who created them. We may dismiss nothing as inanimate, inert, or lifeless. The Scriptures reveal a Creator who permeates the creation, a doctrine called panentheism: God in all. (Panentheism, as distinct from pantheism, which identifies Creator and creation, means that all things participate in the One who created them by resonating together according to the Creator's pattern, first uttered in Word and Breath.) "The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and all that dwell therein" (Psalm 24:1). It all belongs to God.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This doctrine eliminates the right of any human to dispose of anything in creation as a neutral, lifeless object, an "it," a "thing" of no intrinsic value or connection to its Creator, to everything else, including the human. It means that our approach to anything -- from a rock to another human being -- needs to show deference, respect, gratitude, humility, and grace. In terms understandable to the Modern mentality, it grants inalienable rights to everything in creation.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Obviously, to think this way runs diametrically against that Modern mentality. For from the so-called Enlightenment on, Modernity has only granted rights and freedom to humans, usually only to certain, privileged humans at that. The exaltation of the human we get in Modernity necessarily and intentionally dehumanizes both the objects of such gruesome attention and its perpetrator.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">An essential element in moving out of the Modern mindset means getting it into our consciousness and practice that nothing belongs to us and we are not free to do whatever we want with anything. Everything belongs to the One who made it, and everything connects with everything else, including you.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++</span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-36909515745790465392023-10-27T13:06:00.003-07:002023-10-28T06:07:15.174-07:00Not Leaving Church.<p style="text-align: left;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="font-size: medium;">[Disclaimer: I do not know why the background goes to white sometimes. But it's a free blog site, so I can't complain....]</span></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="font-size: medium;">What if people were invited to come tell what they already know of God instead of to learn what they are supposed to believe? </span></i><i style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="font-size: medium;">What if they were blessed for what they are doing in the world instead of chastened for not doing more at church? </span></i><i style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="font-size: medium;">What if church felt more like a way station than a destination? </span></i><i style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="font-size: medium;">What if the church’s job were to move people out the door instead of trying to keep them in, by convincing them that God needed them more in the world than in the church? </span></i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></i><span style="color: #131313;"><i>― </i></span><i>Barbara Brown Taylor,</i> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/124728">Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith</a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This sentiment of Taylor's disturbs me. Perhaps I take her words out of context; I haven't read the whole book. But some friends of mine passed this along on Facebook to much approval. Let me respond to her "what ifs" one by one: </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">1. <i>What if people were invited to come tell what they already know of God instead of to learn what they are supposed to believe?</i> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Most people go through their existence assuming their ego constitutes their entire being. What people "already know of God" in this condition will of necessity reflect and express nothing more than their own egocentric desires and fears, memories and imagination, pleasures, and pain. Certainly, we might see this as a good place to <i>start</i>... but affirming people who imagine that "what they already know of God" has anything to do with the real God does them a disservice. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Listening to such people share "what they already know of God" reminds me of people telling what they already know of Mongolia, having never been there, or talked to anyone who has been there, or even read about it. We would hear what they thought or imagined about Mongolia, which would tell us absolutely nothing about the actual, real Mongolia. We've all heard that parable about the blind people trying to describe an elephant by their own limited experience of different parts of the elephant? Well this sounds more like a bunch of people trying to describe an elephant... when they have never actually even come close to one. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Taylor assumes, it seems to me, that God isn't real in God's Self, but rather a conglomeration of individuals' imaginings about "God." And as Dostoevsky famously said, if there is no God, everything is permitted. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">After 40 years of ministry, I can report that what a lot of people already think they know about God scares the shit out of me. Some still hold toxic versions of God they received from oppressive religious institutions... both victims of this experience and those who still maintain and enforce that regime. Some think God is little more than a spiritual mascot for the American Empire, equating Christianity with patriotism and nationalism. Some imagine a God who exists to serve and bless them personally... and they may get angry and disillusioned if that God screws up and permits something bad to happen to them. Or they imagine a God who keeps and checks a list to reward the nice and punish the naughty, like Santa Claus. And so on. God as philosophical problem, God as obsolete mythical sky fairy, God as Creator of cosmic beauty, God as surrogate parent.... I suspect any list of imagined Gods would be nearly as long as the number of humans on the earth. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">At best, having people share their personal images of God tells us something about their own personalities and neuroses. That has some value as a starting point for psychological therapy. But it tells us nothing about God.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yes, we do come to church to learn what we're "supposed to believe," because it is by believing, which means by trusting in and walking with God and others in discipleship, that we come to know and see God's Presence. This does not happen by an individual thinking about it in isolation. It only happens in community with others, some of whom have traveled further on the path.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Taylor states it in a somewhat pejorative by saying "supposed to believe," as if faith and belief have nothing to do with our actual experience. As in, "You know God in your heart, but the church dictates that you're supposed to believe something else." As in, "You gonna believe your own experience or some church doctrine?" As if beliefs have nothing to do with reality. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When I visit a doctor, I expect them to listen very carefully to my story. I do expect them to listen to how I feel. But I can tell that to anyone for a lot less money. I also rely upon their education and expertise as someone who knows more than I about how to proceed. In other words, I count on them to tell me "what I should believe" <i>based on his medical knowledge</i>. When they tell what not to eat or what kind of exercise or therapy will help me, and when they give me prescriptions for specific medicines, I trust their judgment. I believe them, and I show this by doing what they say to do. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This works for any kind of personal growth and healing. I have to begin with the humility to recognize the inadequacy of what I already know. Isn't that the point? Whether it has to do with learning a skill, recovering from an injury, or overcoming an addiction, we can't depend on what we already know about anything.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">2. <i>"What if they were blessed for what they are doing in the world instead of chastened for not doing more at church?"</i> </p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What if what someone is "already doing in the world" contributes to the destruction of the earth and people, even though they think it God's will and do it for the greater good? If we start with each person's individual, egocentric version of God, the consequences in people's actions can get quite catastrophic. Do I really need to explain how people invent versions of God to justify, explain, rationalize, and defend their bad actions? Can we imagine someone whom the church might <i>not</i> want to bless "for what they are doing in the world"? I can. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Certainly we need to celebrate people when they do good things in the world. That expresses discipleship. But we don't find ourselves often faced with the choice of doing more at church or doing things in the world. Most of us figure out how to do both, as each supports the other.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">3. <i>"What if church felt more like a way station than a destination?"</i></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Taylor again indulges in a characteristic polemic strategy of pretending we have to choose between two opposites. As if here the church may <i>either</i> function as way station <i>or</i> a destination, but not both. Maybe she means that she experienced church as a dead end, or an end in itself, and would prefer if the church actually gave her resources for living in the world. In that case, I agree. At the same time, life goes on, and the places we com to serve <i>both</i> as way stations <i>and</i> destinations. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">On the one hand, the gathering community needs to give us tools and equipment for the life of discipleship in the world. People should not think it sufficient to just show up in church once a week. Merely attending a language class accomplishes nothing; I have to go out and use the language in conversation for the class to have purpose. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">On the other hand, the church does offer a destination in the sense that what goes on there has some intrinsic value. Everything does not have to prove its utility according to arbitrary secular values. If I go to a concert or an art museum, or read a novel or watch a movie, I do not expect it necessarily to have some tangible benefit down the road. Maybe I experience something as fun in itself! We don't have to be on the clock all the time. Staring out the window can have value. Surely simply being moved by the beauty, community, meaning, stories, and music of worship has value as well.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Finally, ought we not cultivate a sense of presence/destination all the time? "Be here now," as so many mystics have said. I can travel somewhere and be present where I am along the way. Maybe cultivating this perpetual presence needs to happen all the time, wherever we find ourselves.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">4. <i>"What if the church’s job were to move people out the door instead of trying to keep them in, by convincing them that God needed them more in the world than in the church?"</i> </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">One early skit on Saturday Night Live was a fake ad for "Mr. Tea," a machine like a Mr. Coffee, except for tea. When demonstrated, first you put a tea bag in a cup, then you put the cup into bottom of the Mr. Tea, then you pour boiling water down through the Mr. Tea into the cup... basically the same procedure as for a Mr. Coffee. Of course, the machine itself does nothing, which generates the humor.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But if we have a church that only wants to hear of people's imaginary personal fantasies about God, and then sends them out to share that God with others, what function does the gathering serve at all? It sounds like a Mr. Tea only without the tea bag. People come in and people get moved out the door in the same condition. Maybe while they sit in church they find some kind of affirmation for their personal, individual caricature of God, and receive permission to live according to that opinion? Which they were going to do anyway? Only now they can do it without feeling judged by the church?</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book called <i>The Cost of Discipleship</i> in which he describes "cheap grace" in almost exactly this way. The church simply affirms people, requiring nothing of them, least of all any kind of behavioral change, which would look like "works righteousness," a very bad thing.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With churches following this approach, it does not surprise me that attendance continues to tank, and the numbers of "nones" and the unchurched keep rising. People just decide they can get uncritical self-affirmation elsewhere. They will particularly not seek it in a place that continues to have a reputation for offering very critical condemnation of non-conforming people.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, Taylor critiques that latter version of the church, which she seems to identify with the very idea of church generally. As if we might find the antidote for the church of condemnation in her alternative church of universal, uncritical acceptance and approval. Another artificial dichotomy and choice.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus intends the gathering of his disciples to serve as a place of transformation and growth, repentance and renewal, blessing and vocation. When it devolves into a dead end of condemnation, conformism, and surveillance, it certainly forecloses on that identity. But a church of cheap grace, which just affirms every ignorant prejudice, mindless self-gratification, and nostalgic or utopian fantasy, doesn't work either. Not if the church exists to form people who follow the Way of Jesus. Surely Jesus calls us to a Way distinct from these two choices of exclusive regulatory club or anything goes, tell-people-what-they-want-to-hear party. In other words, maybe God needs people in the church <i>because</i> God's wants them in the world witnessing to the good news. Maybe God intends the church to be the place where we learn how to follow Jesus in the world.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I do not find it helpful to pretend we have these oppositional choices, like church OR world, believe OR follow, acceptance OR condemnation, way station OR destination, moving them out OR keeping them in, and so forth. Maybe this works as a way of demonstrating one's frustration with the way things happened in the churches some folks grew up in. But if we hope to move forward, I suspect we will have to adopt a better and frankly more inclusive approach, one that does not reflexively devalue the central role of the gathering of disciples -- the church. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Far from functioning as a repressive, restrictive, regulatory institution designed to squash all individuality and creativity, Jesus sees and institutes the church as a gathering of his disciples for healing and mission. Discipleship simply cannot happen apart from the community of those who follow Jesus: the church.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We cannot follow Jesus as separate individuals; discipleship only happens in and by the church. Devaluing and even rejecting the whole idea of the necessity of a gathering of Jesus-followers plays directly into the agenda of Empire which depends on people believing themselves to be separated individuals, who think that selecting from the binary "choices" presented by the ruling powers means "freedom."</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Empire wants us to believe in and follow whatever amorphous, individualized, ego-centric God we "already know," and reject any God that the church suggests we "are supposed to believe." What if, instead of following the Empire's subtle lure of personal independence, asking only what we have been taught to prefer, we gather together around the Word of God, Jesus Christ, as attested in Scripture, and grow into a new way of thinking and acting? What if we thought in terms of both/and, breaking artificial dichotomies, false binaries, and toxic adversarialities, realizing that we are all one in Christ? What if we began to understand that in order to access our true and essential Self, we have to identify and decenter our adapted, ego selves, coming to realize our participation in and connection with all creation? </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, I realize that this doesn't actually happen in many churches. But our agenda should involve finding ways to let the true church emerge among us, not abandoning the vision altogether in favor of the atomized, egocentric individualism the Empire keeps force-feeding us. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131313; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++</span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-65034049486734550942023-10-16T08:30:00.000-07:002023-10-16T08:30:21.610-07:00Reflection on Judges 21:25.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">In college I read and found myself deeply influenced by philosopher Allen Wheelis' book, </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The End of the Modern Age</i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">Wheels contends that placing humans at the center primarily characterizes the Modern Age.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">This removes God to the periphery, at best.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">It reminds me of Dostoevsky's famous phrase, that, "Without God all things are permitted."</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">We find his view expressed in the Bible in Judges 21:25:</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"In those days there was no king in Israel; </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">all the people did what was right in their own eyes." </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For some, this sentiment, which we loftily call "Humanism," articulates the ideal libertarian paradise that Modernity has always sought to institute, where each person has the freedom to do whatever they want. Those of us who grew up in the 1960's knew this as a basic motivating ethos of the counter-culture: Do your own thing! "Go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do, with whomever you wanna do it with" (The Mamas and the Papas). The idea that everyone has the inalienable right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" appears in the foundational documents of the USA. Everyone gets to do what is right in their own eyes! All things are permitted! Cool! </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our society raised and indoctrinated people to adhere to this humanistic libertarian philosophy. Unfortunately, the reality of existence in which people do what they want and "everything is permitted" looks very different from the paradise it produces in theory. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Every person does not have equal gifts. Some have more strength, some have different skills and abilities, some we consider more attractive. The individuals with greater wealth and power have more opportunities to pursue their own happiness, and in the name of that goal they invariably infringe upon if not totally remove the freedom and wealth of other, weaker, people. Which means that our glorious and aspirational declarations of human equality has the actual effect of instituting a class system with some at the top doing as they please and taking what they want, while compelling everyone else to work to make that happen. We end up with greater inequality and worse injustice. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Modernity, capitalism, and even what we call democracy have always worked out this way. The man who proclaimed that business about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as an inalienable right for everyone... owned slaves. The Constitution he and his associates framed assumed that only white, male, property owners would have the right to vote. The economic system their descendants designed demanded and enabled the raw exploitation of other people's labor and the wanton extraction of the planet's "resources." The nation they founded spread across land stolen by violence from indigenous peoples, with much of the work done by enslaved Africans.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Humanistic individualism requires an underclass of exploited workers to enable the ones believing that everything is permitted to keep on doing whatever right in their own eyes. Hence colonialism. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The biblical text offers the remedy of a king. Sadly, the Israelites understood this to mean a king "like the other nations," and in the next few books, they get their wish. Predictably they start by splitting into two kingdoms. With a few exceptions, the monarchs of Israel and Judah reveal that leaving things up to humans results in disaster. For everyone doing what is right in their own eyes without God invariably produces tyrants. Resulting in Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and Caesar.... Social Darwinism became the primary political ideology of Modernity. Humanistic libertarianism comes down to survival of the fittest. Obviously. The prophet Jeremiah observes that when each acts according to the stubbornness of their evil will (Jeremiah 18:12) disaster results.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ion such a situation, the excluded and marginalized have to fight and shed their blood to gain rights that the establishment proclaimed as inalienably given to all. Only by laws limiting the freedom of the owners and privileged class could others attain such "natural" rights.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As a solution, the biblical text alludes, not to a human strong man, but to the Israelites' only real King: YHWH, God, the Creator. We find the only path forward for humanity when we stop imagining that everyone doing whatever they want will ever work, and realize that only humble submission to the Creator's will allows us to dwell together in peace and justice. We need to follow a Higher Power, One not defiled and corrupted by egocentricity, but in Whom we may find true equality and freedom.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We see embodied before us the Creator's will in Jesus Christ, who exhibits compassion, forgiveness, generosity, humility, gentleness, inclusion, and love. We participate in the only sustainable Way for humans to live together on this planet when we gather in communities that seek together to actually follow him.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-36604870663939737052023-10-11T14:50:00.001-07:002023-10-11T14:50:41.236-07:00Israel/Palestine and Indigenous Peoples' Day.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">Yes, I have to agree with President Biden that the Hamas attacks on Israel last weekend were "sheer evil."</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">These were horrific and vicious acts of callous mass murder of mostly civilians, and we need to condemn them in absolutely unambiguous terms.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">As a Christian I must stand with the victims of cruelty and violence, no matter their nation or religion.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">That is the example Jesus gives us and even takes on himself.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">At the same time, when the media presents these attacks as "unprovoked" or somehow occurring out of nowhere, they continue a long tradition of ignoring or down-playing the continuing, daily indignities and atrocities committed by Israelis against Palestinians, which have intensified in the last few months. The capricious home invasions and demolitions, the theft of ancestral land, the kidnapping and torture of children, the murders, the disappearances, the mass incarceration, the use of chemical weapons against civilian populations, the attacks on Christian and Muslim holy places, the constant harassment of check-points, and so on and on, do not justify Hamas' atrocities, but they may somewhat explain them.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">On Monday we celebrated Indigenous Peoples' Day in the US, a day reclaimed from a celebration of Christopher Columbus, whom we now know committed some extremely evil acts himself, in addition to being the spearhead of European colonization of the Western Hemisphere. I read a little book on the history of the Native tribes where I now live (in the Finger Lakes region of New York), and heard the author speak last night about that story, which continues today.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For over two centuries, the American media depicted Indigenous peoples in the same biased way they now report on the Palestinians: by framing them as at best backward and at worst evil "savages," perpetrating violence against innocent settlers. I learned about US General Sullivan's ethnic cleansing operation in 1779, systematically burning crops and villages, causing the survivors to walk to British Fort Niagara for shelter and relief. The old people and babies all died on the trip, and the winter killed many more. Yet Sullivan got a county named after him, and his expedition has been celebrated by white people ever since. And this is just one local incident in a systematic genocide that in many ways continues.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The other day someone griped about how the Palestinians were ungrateful because, after all, the Israelis "gave them Gaza." I replied that this is like asking the Indians to be grateful because the Americans "gave them" Pine Ridge. Palestinians have been in Gaza for thousands of years! Yet our media and government often treat them like invaders! </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A few summers ago I served as part of a church delegation to listen to the Shinnecock people on eastern Long Island. A few hundred Native people live on a small reservation on a peninsula in the Hamptons. The local white people do not understand why they don't just sell their property and move elsewhere. After all they could probably get a billion dollars for it, easy. That's over a million dollars for every person on the reservation. But they do not want to leave for any price. They have stewarded that land for over five-thousand years. Their ancestors' bones lie under that soil. They know every tree. White people, who boast about arriving all the way back in 1629, have no comprehension of this kind of connection to land.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When I visited Palestine I spoke to farmers the title to whose land has stayed in their family for over 900 years. And yet the Israelis worked bureaucratically and by encroachment and sheer violence to appropriate it for another one of their illegal settlements. We planted olive trees. Settlers would come at night and pull them up. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The difference between what we see happening there now and what has taken place here for 300 years escapes me. We see in both cases people taking by force territory that does not belong to them, and in the process displacing or harassing the people who have lived there for many generations.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And I think this explains why the American media and government choose to frame Middle East conflicts with a bias in favor of the Israelis. If we recognize the suffering of the Palestinians, we may have to address our own behavior as a civilization based on land theft and genocide. We might have to stop thinking that only white lives -- and agendas, projects, profits, and power -- matter, and we can't have that. (We also bear a lot of guilt about the way Europeans treated the Jews over the centuries, and sometimes continue to treat them.)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The more we learn about the history of colonialism, the more repelled we have to feel about the nauseating violence, arrogance, and terror applied as white people took over this continent. We fortunately have managed to change our collective minds about Columbus. We have begun to recognize the original inhabitants of the land, and to rename things. The entertainment industry depicts Indians much more favorably than they used to. Some churches make strong statements against the Doctrine of Discovery, the thin 16th century legal/theological cover for colonialism in this hemisphere. Again, admirable. But these initiatives don't threaten us or cost us anything. They don't change the situation on the ground or in people's lives.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When I went to Standing Rock in 2019 to join in the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, I saw flags representing many Native peoples, around the world. Among them I noticed a Palestinian flag. Palestinians are also Indigenous People.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The war on Indigenous Peoples is a major and necessary feature of Modernity. It expresses the racism, expansionism, militarism, and predatory economic philosophy that has dominated the way Europeans think and act for 500 years, and which now threatens the very ability of the planet to sustain human civilization at all. We see perhaps the most active and violent front in that war in Israel/Palestine. And it just got worse, and will continue to deteriorate with a tsunami of bloodshed ahead of us. The Palestinians will bear the brunt of this.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In the meantime we pray with and for the Israelis who lost loved ones so horribly last weekend, and for the security of their communities. And we pray for the people of Gaza as they once again have to endure intense bombing, compounded by being cut-off from needed resources. We contribute what we can to alleviate the suffering and heal people. We hope the leaders on all sides act with compassion and reason, and use this tragedy to figure out a better solution to this long-festering crisis.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And perhaps we will come to our senses and realize together in this conflict -- the one in Israel/Palestine and the ongoing consequences of colonialism around the world, including here -- that we need to live together in respect and harmony, learning from and celebrating each other in peace.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-23355088459070416772023-08-24T07:44:00.000-07:002023-08-24T07:44:19.449-07:00Attested: The Shape of Emergence Christianity. Part Two: The Book of Liberation.<p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">Worshiping, trusting, obeying, and following Jesus Christ is the only job of the gathering of disciples, the Church.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">This job demands all our energy.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">It means first of all remembering who Jesus Christ is before and apart from the radically reconfigured version projected and pushed on us by Empire.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">The message of the Cross is that the real Jesus Christ is always the One that Empire is trying to silence and kill, but who nevertheless rises to new life to inspire and guide a gathering of followers.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">Which is why Barmen starts with the Jesus Christ </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">attested in Scripture</i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Bible of course has also been commandeered and appropriated, its real message buried under dense strata of interpretation designed to enforce and reinforce the demands of Empire. But listened to more closely, especially through the lens of Jesus Christ and the New Testament, we come to understand that the Bible offers a profoundly liberating alternative and resistance to Empire.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>When I attended seminary one of my Old Testament professors suggested that the oldest verse in the Bible, the verse that everything else likely sprang from, the seed of the whole Judeo-Christian tradition, the most lucid, potent, and fruitful memory that has forever characterized our faith, is Exodus 15:21. Here it is:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And Miriam sang to them:</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">horse and rider he has thrown into the sea."</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We hear the voice of Miriam, Moses’ sister, singing in triumph after the miraculous deliverance of the people at the Sea. It is the song of the band of liberated slaves at the moment when their freedom is guaranteed by the destruction of Pharaoh’s pursuing army. We may even see the whole Bible as a commentary on that single, pregnant, exuberant verse. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The entire Biblical story and tradition is essentially and originally about liberation, a movement from death and ignorance to life and Wisdom. It is written from the perspective of enslaved people who have experienced a miraculous emancipation at God’s hand. The Bible is at its core and blossoms out of the experience of a group of freed slaves.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We only correctly understand the Bible from this perspective. It is about the movement from bondage to freedom. It is good news to the poor, the sick, the disinherited, the disenfranchised, the outcast, the excluded, the oppressed, the lost, and the destitute, and can only be interpreted from their point-of-view. It concerns hope to the hopeless, and gratitude for God’s miraculous deliverance.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is also about the destruction of evil. Pharaoh’s army represents all oppressive and unjust and violent systems that perpetrate inequity, exploitation, bigotry, and tyranny. The liberation of the people necessarily involves the defeat of a dominating inhuman power. In other words, Empire. The Egyptian cavalry's attempt to enforce and restore a regime based on lies finally gets inundated by the reality represented by the surging water of creation. Such is the inevitable fate of Empire through the Bible until Revelation. It is no wonder that the Church under the yoke of Empire suppressed this perspective; but it remains there in the text to be discovered. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Lord Jesus recognizes this as well. He pointedly chooses Passover, the holy day commemorating the Exodus liberation event, as the time for his own death and resurrection. In many parts of Christianity the day we call Easter is referred to as "Pascha," that is, Passover, making the connection to Resurrection explicit. In the New Common Lectionary the Old Testament reading for The Resurrection of the Lord (Easter) is from Exodus 15. Jesus clearly sees his own work as a fulfillment of the Exodus, and it is through him that we see the centrality of Miriam's story in the first place.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Exodus 15:21 is also the song of a woman. At the most portentous places in Scripture, it is the <i>women</i> who first get it. And a lot of the time they are named Mary: In addition to Miriam (the name is Hebrew for Mary), Jesus’ mother sings the hymn called the Magnificat, expressing her faith in the One she will bear, witnessing to the Incarnation in explicit political and economic terms. Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus in advance for his burial, anticipating the way he gives his life on the cross. She serves thus as the primary witness to his passion; indeed hers is Jesus' only actual anointing with oil, which means that Mary literally ratifies that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One. And Mary Magdalene (the name means The Tower; there was no town named Magdala) is the first to meet and proclaim the risen Jesus, becoming the Apostle to the Apostles. (She is also likely the one who in the oldest manuscripts proclaims "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world" (John 11:27). </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Finally, Exodus 15:21 is the song of an Israelite, a member of a minority group which had been forced into slavery and oppressed because of her race. As they were originally migrants from Canaan, this aspect of being foreigners in Egypt also comes into play.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Miriam's song shows us that the Bible is essentially geared towards the interests of marginalized, excluded, suffering, and exploited people. And it cannot be authentically pressed into service in the interests of Pharaoh, that is, rulers, owners, and privileged, wealthy people. It cannot be used to legitimate the power of the powerful, or to oppress the weak, poor, excluded, or sick. To use the Bible to advocate for or defend imperialism, colonialism, slavery, racism, the subjugation of women, economic or ecological injustice, the exclusion of refugees and migrants, or any kind of social stratification is to contradict not only it’s heart at Exodus 15:21, but the entire flavor and tenor of the rest of Scripture, culminating with the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection constitute the final fulfillment of Miriam's Song, and of the entire Hebrew Scriptures. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Church needs regularly and frequently to place itself at the edge of the sea with Miriam, and at the mouth of the empty tomb with Mary Magdalene, and realize again the deliverance to which it is called to bear witness. The powers that would hold us in crippling and lethal bondage have been vanquished. The new life has come!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Here is a brief summary of the main flow of the Biblical story, through the lens of Miriam's song. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The "prequel" of Genesis shows how God liberates the creation from chaos, declaring everything God makes as "very good." We see the disease of ego-centric corruption infect creation, only to be washed away in the Flood. And then, in the renewed creation, it depicts God's selection of the family of Abraham and Sarah to be the seed of a new humanity that trusts and obeys the Creator, an example and blessing to the whole world. </span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Bible continues with the story of God’s people in Exodus. They begin as slaves under the thumb of a cruel, abusive, and exploitative imperial regime in Egypt. Thus a fundamental opposition is established in the Bible that will run through every subsequent book. On one side we find the powerless people of God, and on the other a series of corrupt, mighty, wealthy, privileged, violent, idolatrous empires, and those who want to be like, or benefit from, them. God is always unequivocally on the side of the former. Always.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So the Bible is essentially a book by and about a band of emancipated slaves and their descendants. It is therefore inherently suspicious of and opposed to slavery and all forms of coercion and bondage. (Slavery was, nevertheless the foundation of the economy of world civilization for thousands of years, until the Industrial Revolution, when it got replaced by its upgraded version, Capitalism. So, while there are passages which tolerate, regulate, and manage the practice as a matter of practical realism, the Bible essentially hates slavery. We who still participate in Capitalism are in no position to judge ancient peoples in this regard. Our descendants will shake their heads at our tolerance of a system of owners paying (as little as possible) for people's labor, which is basically a blend of slavery and prostitution.) </span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">God immediately brings the people to Mt. Sinai and gives them a Law. This Law is designed to ensure that God’s people are a <i>new</i> kind of nation, one that will <i>not</i> devolve into anything like the empire from which they have just been liberated. Therefore, the Law is clear in its insistence that among the people of God there is fundamental equality. No class of people will be permitted to accrue permanently appreciably more economic wealth or political power than anyone else. Leviticus 25 gives us the most clear statement of procedures for making sure this doesn’t happen; it's the ancient Hebrew way of saying "Tax the rich!" In the new nation, only God leads; other knots of authority and wealth, "events and powers, figures and truths" get undone or subordinated. </span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Empire expressed idolatry in oppressive, exploitative, and unjust practices against the poor, aliens, workers, and the Earth. Such injustices are so out of synch with God’s Law that they inevitably bring down upon themselves. military, economic, or ecological disasters. Living out of synch with God’s Law means attempting to live a lie, it simply does not comport with reality, and therefore collapses. This is what happened to Egypt. Their injustice led directly to a set of 10 ecological catastrophes/plagues, forcing Pharaoh to let God's people go.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">God gives the people a way to remember and reaffirm their devotion to God and God’s Law by establishing an annual cycle of holy days, and regular rituals centered in the Tabernacle/Temple, which symbolically represented the creation. Through prayer, song, and sacrifice/meals, the people celebrated their liberation from bondage and gave thanks to their Creator for life and freedom.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The conquest of the land of Canaan by God’s people displaced the idolatrous and exploitative petty rulers of Canaanite city-states, which were clients of Egypt. The incoming mass of formerly oppressed, landless migrants from the desert, probably allied with local oppressed people (see the story of Rahab in Joshua 2), rose up and overwhelmed these oppressive regimes and established a decentralized tribal order ruled by God’s egalitarian Law. In this case, the Israelites were themselves the disaster that these cities and their leaders earned by their idolatry and injustice.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The religion of these tyrants was designed to support their agricultural economy. It therefore involved gods of economic growth, invented and sponsored by the ruling economic and political class. To worship these deities was to embrace the unjust and exploitative system perpetrated by the rulers pushing them. That’s why God required that the people put these gods away: worship of them fostered and legitimated inequality, injustice, and violence in society. It required allegiance to the rulers and owners who developed these gods, thus acquiescing in an unjust political and economic system. The epitome of these deities was called Baal.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The people of God were originally led by individuals called and authorized by God. These prophets, priests, and judges did not acquire excess wealth (the priestly tribe was explicitly forbidden from having their own land), nor did they exert power beyond that given them by God, sometimes only for a limited time. God eventually allows the people to have a king only as a grudging concession to them. (Read Samuel’s stern warning in 1 Samuel 8:10-18 about what having a human king means.) None of the subsequent kings was flawless; many of them were pretty atrocious. Not even the virtues of the few good ones were able to prevent the nation from eventually falling into disaster. The institution of the monarchy was largely a failure.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Even when there were kings in Israel and Judah, they ruled a small, relatively weak country, nearly always threatened, and sometimes overrun by or made subservient to larger neighbors. Even the glory days of David were later undermined by idolatry and injustice, which led to the permanent split between the two kingdoms. </span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">According to the prophets whom God sends as critics, the failures of the kings were overwhelmingly related to their addiction to idolatry which led to injustice. The message of the prophets is to reject economic growth as a value in itself, and instead to follow YHWH, whose Law ensured social/economic/ecological justice. The primary themes of the preaching of most of the prophets were anti-idolatry and pro-social justice. It is only YHWH who creates a society of peace and prosperity. Following the gods of economic growth only leads back to the inequalities and injustices of Egypt.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Idolatry therefore leads inexorably to social and economic injustice. The people of God fall into these practices as well. As a consequence, the Assyrians destroyed the northern Kingdom of Israel, and those tribes were almost never heard from again. Later, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took the leaders of the last remaining tribe of God’s people, Judah, into exile.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The prophets around the time of the exile flatly stated that the failure of the Judean State was a direct result of idolatry and injustice. The monarchy was permanently eradicated. In Babylon, the people learned to keep their faith without land, temple, power, wealth, or even political freedom. Much of the Bible as we know it was edited and compiled by and for a defeated and all-but enslaved people in Babylon. </span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Second only to the Exodus, the return of God’s people from exile is the great miracle of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Lord once again vindicates and lifts up the losers, restoring them to the land of God’s promise.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Wisdom tradition in the Hebrew Scriptures articulates the universal and cosmological dimension of Israel's liberation story. These books, many of which were pointedly left out of the Protestant canon, often give us a broader and deeper perspective on God's Presence. A central figure in them is Wisdom, in Greek <i>Sophia</i>, a mysterious figure who dances between the Creator and creation, bringing true enlightenment to those who find her. The centerpiece is a marvelous, multi-layered sensuous, erotic love poem called The Song of Songs. God, it turns out, <i>is</i> love. The heart of the commandments is love: "Love one another," "love your neighbor as yourself," "love God with all your" soul and being: these are all teachings proclaimed and embodied by the promised Messiah.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When the Anointed One, Jesus, finally comes, he is born, not in a palace, but in a barn to parents who have no place else to go, as they are jerked around by an imperial edict (Luke 2:1-8). Thus Jesus’ lineage as a descendant of King David affords him no privileges; it doesn’t even get him a real bed to be born in. In him the Creator thereby lives as one of the poorest of the poor. At the same time he is recognized and celebrated by religious and ethnic foreigners, even enemies, through signs in creation itself (Matthew 2:1-12). Both stories affirm that no dominant, patriarchal male figure has anything to do with his birth, which is purely the act of "God and a woman" (Sojourner Truth).</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In his ministry Jesus categorically rejects wealth and power, critiques those who have them, and identifies himself with the “least” in society (Matthew 25:31-46). Thus he remains firmly within the tradition of the faith of emancipated slaves. At every turn, beginning with the hymn sung by his mother before he is born (Luke 1:46-55), Jesus advocates the nonviolent overturning of society. This happens not by the exertion of power (Luke 4:5-8), but by the establishment of alternative communities of people who trust in him and follow his teachings. He announces a “Reign of God” (Mark 1:15), which undermines and contradicts the regimes of human rulers, and a advocates for a return to the values of the Law in a new situation (Matthew 5:17-20). Jesus witnesses to and enacts the Reign of God by his ministry of healing, exorcism, forgiveness, teaching, and example. In all these activities he raises up hurting, sick, deprived, grieving, and hungry people, whom he says are specially blessed by God (Matthew 5:1-12). </span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus eventually brings his work to Jerusalem, where he predictably attracts the ire of the religious and political authorities. By throwing the commercial interests out of the Temple, he so threatens them that they work to eliminate him. He knows that his arrest and execution by them are inevitable, given his message and ministry of liberation and equity.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He also knows that his sacrificial death is necessary. In giving himself up to die Jesus identifies with all the lynched and unjustly executed, the tortured, the sacrificed, and the scapegoats. At the same time, he personally weaves together, and fulfills three strands of his own Jewish tradition: (a) The Passover Lamb whose blood protects the soon-to-be-liberated people from the death of the last plague against Egypt (Exodus 12). The people walk into freedom literally under the blood of this lamb, painted on the lintels of their doorways. (b) The rituals of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16) in which the High Priest uses the blood of the goat representing God to cover (in Hebrew: <i>KPR</i>) the Temple, representing creation. This blood serves both to protect creation from the harmful effects of experiencing God’s holiness directly, and to connect creation to the beneficial grace of God. And (c) the figure of the “suffering servant” of God (Isaiah 53), who empathically bears in his own body the consequences of the people’s idolatry and injustice, thus healing and redeeming them. Interpreting his death through these three lenses, Jesus and the early church understand that he fulfills the promise of the Hebrew Scriptures and opens the way to reconciliation with God for all.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus’ resurrection reveals the final truth, meaning, and destiny of all creation as a transfigured life beyond the power of death, thus liberating all who participate in it from fear, anger, and shame, and for God’s life of justice, peace, and love (1 Corinthians 15:20-26). It removes fear of death as a legitimate motivation, showing that death is merely the transformation into a new and unimaginable form of life (1 Corinthians 15:35-57). His blood literally permeates and sanctifies the whole creation (John 19:32-35).</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The disciples of Jesus, now sent by God's Holy Spirit as Apostles, spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean and beyond, lifting up the good news that Jesus, who was executed by the Romans for sedition, nevertheless still lives with, within, and among them, and establishing alternative communities of resistance against the Roman Empire. These communities, gathered according to Jesus' commandment, around the Table of his Body and Blood, witness to the alternative commonwealth Jesus called the Reign of God.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The final book of the New Testament is the most explicitly anti-Empire statement in all of ancient literature. It depicts in graphic terms the collapse and disintegration of Satan's rule in the form of Roman power, the destruction of "those who destroy the Earth" (Revelation 11:18), clearing a space for the emergence of a New Heaven and a New Earth, of joy, blessing, peace, and justice. </span></li></ol>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Bible, therefore, is not “objective” or neutral. It is thoroughly biased. It is not “fair and balanced.” It doesn’t give equal time to all opposing viewpoints. It has a definite agenda. And if we don’t approach the Bible from this perspective, we can get a horribly distorted message out of it, which has in fact happened for much of Christian history. The Bible was often being read and interpreted from the point-of-view of ruling and owner classes, starting with the Roman Empire. We inevitably misread the Bible when we try to read it from above, as privileged people who wield wealth and power. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In truth, the Bible was written for and largely by people without much, if any, wealth, power, and privilege. Therefore, authentic interpretations of the Bible must be biased towards “the least of these,” and for their benefit. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">[Part Three will make the point that the Bible belongs to the community of people who trust in and follow Jesus Christ. That community alone, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is guided by and shaped by the Bible; it also has the right to determine its content and meaning.]</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><div><br /></div>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-10937552959867529202023-08-23T08:50:00.000-07:002023-08-23T08:50:34.759-07:00Attested: The Shape of Emergence Christianity. Part One: Barmen and Empire.<p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus Christ,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">as he is attested in Holy Scripture,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">is the One Word of God</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">in life and in death.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We reject the false doctrine,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">as though the church could and would have to acknowledge</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">as a source of its proclamation,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">apart from and besides this one Word of God,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">still other events and powers, figures and truths,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">as God’s revelation.</span></p><div><br /></div>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>These words, composed by Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, constitute the first thesis of the Theological Declaration of Barmen. The Declaration was drafted by the leaders of a minority of Christians in Germany in 1934, in response to the taking of power by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. The new government was attempting to do what governments in Europe generally had done for centuries: control the national, State-funded, church. Though they may not have understood it at the time, we now see that Barmen stands as the first real statement of the Christian Church in opposition to Fascism and therefore to Modernity. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Fascism remains a constant liability and subtle attraction in the Modern world, as we see in far right ideologies and conspiracy theories seeking to maintain and strengthen the shackles of ignorance, paranoia, bigotry, and division among us today. For all its propensity to dress itself up in high-minded language about "human rights" and "freedom," the essence of Modernity, the thing it most wants to be and impulsively trends towards, is Fascism. Fascism reveals Modernity's true nature as a manifestation of Empire.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I use the term "Empire" to talk about the political/economic system that has dominated the West for four-thousand years. Its identifying characteristics include militarism, expansionism, patriarchy, social and political stratification, subservient religion, and a general hegemony of the wealthy, powerful, and famous. The economy is designed to extract wealth from human labor and the natural world, to benefit and solidify the status of those at the top. This describes the dominant regime from ancient Egypt, to the Assyrians and Babylonians, to the Greeks and the Romans, to the Feudal order in the Middle Ages, to its manifestation in our present era of Modernity.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Modernity likes to think of itself as a departure from this model, but history shows that, while it exuded self-serving propaganda, summed up in calling itself "Enlightenment." In reality Modernity has been dramatically worse than previous manifestations of Empire in the disastrous effects it has had on people and planet. Its ideology of individualist, techno-materialist rationalism may have felt liberating compared with the Feudal regime it replaced, especially to the class that felt unjustly excluded. But its expression in colonialism, slavery, Capitalism, industrialism, racism, misogyny, genocide, and constant and increasingly sophisticated and deadly warfare belie this rosy assessment. It preaches "democracy," but the political economy of Modernity has always been an elitism that favored, privileged, and prioritized the owner class. And even when it does allow more or less actual democracy, Modernity may always rely on the depravity of the human ego. If everyone acts in their own personal interest, Fascism is assured. </span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Modernity has been driven by a self-righteous, dualistic/binary, objectifying mentality from the beginning. This is proved by the fact that among those most enthusiastic about the Enlightenment were... slave owners. Modernity tends inevitably towards the nihilistic narcissism of Fascism. It is in fact where we are headed fairly inevitably, given the deepening ecological crises we face today, and their festering consequences in terms of catastrophic changes in climate and weather patterns leading to mass migration, mass extinction, habitat loss, and intensifying "natural" disasters.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Empire also always utilizes religion. It domesticated and coopted most of mainstream Christianity beginning in the 4th century. It may seem odd that, for adherents of a religion with "Christ" in its very name, so many Christians are so regularly clueless and ambivalent about Jesus Christ. Discipleship has been exchanged for the arrangement called "Christendom:" Christianity domesticated and subservient to Empire. Christendom rendered Jesus Christ little more than an quaint and empty logo, a useful mascot defined, projected, and managed by the owner class in their interests, or an embarrassing ancestor whose crazy ideas we may safely dismiss and ignore, even as we piously keep his picture on our walls -- invariably an ethereal white man with perfect hair -- and his Name in our hymns. He was inevitably reduced to a nice, white, patriotic, middle-class, ineffectual, inoffensive, and fairly irrelevant, man of the past, someone to remember and revere, but under no circumstances actually follow. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Maintaining the social, political, economic, and moral order of Empire became the main thing for Christendom, with its rationalizations, explanations, and defenses of all manner of cruelty, injustice, and violence. When Christian leaders offer reasoned apologies for slavery, or encourage mass murder in war, or justify rapacious Capitalism, or promote lynching and other types of cruelty towards the weak, or exclude and vilify gender non-conforming people, or wield the flag in nationalism and militarism, or advocate for State-sponsored morality, they do not follow Jesus Christ as attested in Scripture. There is nothing more detrimental to the mission of the Church than the obscene spectacle of Christian leaders spouting the nationalist, militarist, patriarchal, white-supremacist line, and participating in, and benefiting from, the inhuman atrocities it spawns. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Under Christendom, the Empire seduced, bought out, and domesticated the Church, claiming to be itself Christian. It usurped the manufactured role of Christianity's defender, patron, advocate, and agent, keeping and managing the public image of Jesus Christ, while putting other State-approved "events and powers, figures and truths," in Jesus' place, even in the gathering of disciples.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In many countries, the State, as the local jurisdiction of Empire, directly supported and controlled the church. This happened in America too, where churches willingly put themselves under the control of "the people." Of course, if the people were primarily loyal to the State and its economy, of which they were beneficiaries, they tended to shape a faith loyal to the State. (To show this allegiance, they systematically injected a national flag -- often topped by a golden, imperial eagle no less -- into Christian worship spaces.) </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Many understandably assume, for instance, that a Capitalist political economy is somehow "Christian." The perpetual projection and amplification in Modernity of "other events and powers, figures and truths" to supplant and distract from the One Word of God, Jesus Christ, makes this apparent. Modernity operates by imposing completely manufactured categories like nation, race, gender, borders, class, and economic inequality on people. This generates divisive enmity, fear, and anger. It feeds the population twisted and spun versions of "history" that favor and glorify the owner class, while vilifying and subjugating everyone else. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And so horrible sins like slavery, conquest, genocide, eco-cide, and colonialism, were carried out by "Christians" imagining themselves to be doing God's will by obeying their supposedly "God-ordained" political and economic authorities. The disgraceful spectacle of "Christian" nations regularly making war on each other culminated in the wanton, but very profitable, industrialized slaughter of the 20th century. This is the consequence of the Church's decision to succumb to the "other events and powers, figures and truths," projected by the Empire, rather than Jesus Christ as "attested in Holy Scripture."</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>To inhabit its deepest identity as resistance and alternative to Fascism, Barmen insists that the Church -- the gathering of people who trust and follow Jesus -- has always to begin and end with the One whom Scripture refers to as Jesus Christ. Everything we do and are we come to see through the lens and in the Spirit of this Jesus. From creation, to the testimony of the Hebrew Scriptures, to its ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ, the liberating, saving, healing, redeeming Word of the Creator has always been the antidote to Empire, of which Modernity is simply the latest and most virulent instance.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Way of love revealed in Jesus Christ as attested in Scripture, is characterized by compassion, gentleness, simplicity, humility, nonviolence, forgiveness, healing, inclusion, thanksgiving, justice, and joy. People who actually live according to the Way of Jesus Christ are therefore inherently and necessarily out of synch with Empire and therefore with Modernity. Empire will always see them as threats to its power, and deal with them accordingly. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>From time to time, though, especially when Christianity is in danger of being so degraded and corrupted that it could lose even a tenuous connection to its Essence, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit leads some Christians to hear anew the Scriptural witness and calls the Church back to discipleship. Thankfully, in spite of attempts to dilute or adulterate it, the Church always has the New Testament in which we may rehear the words of, and the Apostles' and Prophets' testimony to, Jesus Christ. Barmen is doing nothing new in the sense that <i>every</i> movement of renewal in the Church is grounded in "Jesus Christ, as attested in Holy Scripture." This has been the case from St. Anthony to St. Benedict, St. Bernard to St. Francis, The Beguines to St. Teresa, the Celtic Church to the 16th century Reformers, St. Gregory the New Theologian to St. Nilus, Kierkegaard to Barth, to Liberation Theology and Eco-, Feminist, and Queer Theologies today.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">[Part Two will address what "Jesus Christ as he is attested in Holy Scripture" means, by showing how the Bible is basically a book of liberation inspired by and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.] </span></span></p><div><br /></div>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-63155862885415110332023-07-10T20:00:00.001-07:002023-07-10T20:00:24.812-07:00Adulterating the New Testament (revised)<p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">A scholar named Hal Taussig takes the books of the New Testament, adds ten more early Christian writings chosen by an invited "council" of like-minded people, rearranges them all thematically, and adds introductions and prefaces.</span><span style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: medium;">He bills it as a way to bring to light some otherwise little-known writings that help us understand that the early Christian movement was much broader in scope than he says the Church would have us believe. Personally, this <span style="caret-color: rgb(13, 14, 14);">diversity</span> neither surprises nor scares me. But Taussig apparently thinks it's important. Fine.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Of course, there have always been early Christian texts that the church accepted, cherished, used, learned from, and disseminated, that were nevertheless not included in the New Testament. Non-inclusion did not necessarily mean rejection. It did indicate that these texts were secondary and not held to be as authoritative as the canonized texts witnessing to the event of Jesus Christ. </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>For instance, the Infancy Gospel of James became the source for a lot of traditional background material about Jesus' birth and family. A letter called 1 Clement, a book called The Shepherd, and another called the Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) were even included in some early collections of New Testament writings. (Taussig will make a big deal out of this when he claims the canon has always been "fluid." What he doesn't tell you is that none, that is none, of the books he is advocating for were ever among the books accepted and read by any but isolated groups of people claiming to be followers of Jesus.) But eventually the gatherings of Jesus' disciples did not find that they met the criteria for final inclusion in the canonical New Testament itself.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The purpose of the New Testament is to provide as direct a witness as possible to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it only includes texts that people at the time thought most credibly did this. Books written later may be valuable, even indispensable. But if they don't witness to the event of Jesus Christ, they are not included in the New Testament. Its purpose is not to give a historical reflection on what people thought about Christ over the ages, as worthwhile as that may be. It is to give us as immediate a view as we can get of Jesus Christ, by recording testimonies of those who knew him, or who knew people who knew him. This means they have to have been composed within a few generations of his death and resurrection.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We now know that this may not be strictly true of all of the books included in the New Testament. Some appear to be several decades removed from Jesus' ministry. But there is scholarly consensus that they were almost all likely completed between the years 50 and around 110, remembering as well that such dating is very difficult. Nevertheless, the standard views on this has remained fairly steady for 40 or so years. (We may find hypotheses about the dating of the New Testament in various introductions and commentaries, like those on Wikipedia, in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, or in good study Bibles. (Conservative ones tend to like early dates; in more academic editions, like The Oxford Annotated Bible, the dates tend to be later.)</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A friend and colleague of Taussig, Marcus Borg, wrote a book about this called <i>The Evolution of the Word</i>, where he comments on the writings of the New Testament in chronological order, stretching from 50 to 120. I find his dating of New Testament books to be usually somewhat on the later side, but it is still close to the range accepted by most scholars. </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>No responsible scholar disputes that the four canonical gospels are the earliest such documents available to us. Some argue that Thomas, or portions of it, are as old. Most scholars believe Mark to be the earliest, with Matthew and Luke drawing on it. But the priority of the four is not really in question, and never has been.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So far I haven't found anyone (not even Ehrman or Borg) claiming, for instance, as Taussig does, that Luke was written after 140. (He must have got that date from somewhere, but since his book has no footnotes I have no idea where.) At best, it seems to me that Taussig is being disingenuous and misleading about dating in an attempt to get his new books onto the same chronological playing field with the New Testament, contending they were all written between 50 and 180 or so. He says that scholars are all over the map, postulating that some New Testament books "could have been" written well into the 2nd century, and some of his additional books might come from the 1st. Well, sure, you can find a professor somewhere who has said anything you want. But mainstream scholarship still says Luke was written about 85. Taussig also (without evidence) insists that 2 Peter was written in 220! a full century later than anyone else I can find. This enables him to imagine an extremely wide chronological spread for the canonicals, thus making the books he wants to add seem contemporary with them. They are not.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Of the writings Taussig wants to add to the New Testament, all ten of them derive from the 2nd, or even the early 3rd, century. (Some people say Thomas is earlier, even the earliest, but this is still a minority of scholars. Even the Jesus Seminar found very little in Thomas that merited the red marble indicating words of the historical Jesus.) This dating is according to the introductions to many of these writings in the seminal collection, <i>The Nag Hammadi Library</i>, which is where Taussig got them. So, <i>in order to include these books in anything close to the same time-frame with the canonicals, one has to argue for the latest possible dates for the books of the New Testament, and the earliest probable dates for his new ten.</i> I frankly do not know how one does that with any intellectual integrity. Rather, it expresses an unstated bias towards a particular outcome: that these books are all from the same time period. But even then, <i>after</i> all this bending of the evidence, the canonicals are <i>still</i> mostly earlier, sometimes by several decades.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In short, what Taussig and his compatriots have essentially done is take a 1st century collection and added to it a bunch of books from the 2nd century. Presenting them mixed and rearranged thematically together in one volume certainly makes it <i>seem</i> like they all come from the same time period ("50 to 180"). But they do not. Some are from the beginning of that range, and others from the end. If these ten writings were included in Borg's book, for instance, nearly all would have to be tacked on the end, after 120.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So it becomes clear that one reason these books were not originally included in the New Testament could have been because the people of the time didn't find them to be a credible witness to Jesus' life. They were simply not old enough. (Aside from the many other reasons they did not meet the Church's criteria.) I suspect that the canon was effectively closed simply because no more writings were emerging for which a case could be made even by ancient standards that they were from the first century.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Another reason Taussig's ten new books were not included in the canonical New Testament is that most of them also do not appear to have been used much by early Christians. Aside perhaps from the Odes of Solomon, we do not find contemporary authors like Clement of Alexandria, Ignatius of Antioch, or Tertullian, referring to them, alluding to them, quoting them, or mentioning them at all... except for St. Irenaeus, who meticulously takes some of them apart, demolishing their arguments as vapid, toxic nonsense. Taussig neglects to inform us of this. In trying to make the point that the number of acceptable gospels was fluid in the early church, he only mentions that Irenaeus offered a somewhat silly (to us) cosmological/numerological argument for why there should only be four gospels. Taussig also doesn't tell us that the only "fluidity" the early church had about the gospels was about which of the now canonical four to include. There were never other gospels under consideration. Thus Irenaeus (in Gaul), and Tatian (in Syria), and other writers, only ever understood there to be four gospels in the running.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Taussig also claims that the canon was open and malleable for hundreds of years, offering as evidence the fact that we have no official list of New Testament documents until the 5th or even the 7th century. But just because no list has appeared doesn't mean that there weren't some books that were regularly and constantly used by the communities of Jesus' followers, and some others that seem to have been almost unknown or even avoided. We can see in the writings of contemporary authors that some books are referred to widely and regularly, and these tend to be the books that finally made it into the New Testament. Indeed, it's better we have no list because it means communities were free to choose the most helpful books on their merits, not because they were somehow on an enforced list. </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>My guess is that various documents were received, accepted, and considered authoritative by local communities because of their spiritual value. Books were expensive, rare, and took a lot of time and energy to copy. If a community obtained a book a decision would have to be made whether it was worth making copies to keep and pass around. Our current New Testament is the collection of books the people decided were worth retaining, reproducing, sharing, and reflecting on.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This had to be an organic, decentralized, and democratic process. Some books were copied extensively and started showing up everywhere. Other books were not finding wide use. These were probably kept on the shelf for a while, and eventually got boxed up and put in storage... like the collection discovered near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is unfortunately not an uncommon procedure in some circles to pretend that, by the 4th century, Christians had all these various books to choose from, and some crabby and oppressive ecclesiastical hierarchs chose only a few that suited their oppressive political agenda. They drastically edited and then imposed these books on the unsuspecting people, brutally suppressing the rest. I suppose framing it that way satisfies some modern fantasies, fears, and biases, but it is not accurate. For one thing, as much as some modern critics like to assume that the early church devolved into something like the Spanish Inquisition shortly after the time of Jesus, the fact is that in the 2nd century the communities of Jesus' followers were in small, illicit, and persecuted groups. The leadership had no power to oppress anyone beyond excommunication (denial of the Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood), and influence over what might get read in worship. But the idea of a Church Gestapo hounding heretical groups at this time and burning their books is idiotic and ludicrous. </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>To illustrate this, I cite a conversation I had the other day on Facebook. In one of the groups of which I am a member, someone posted a quote by John Spong to the effect that the idea that "Christ died for our sins" was invented by the Church hundreds of years after Christ. I responded that actually the idea is explicitly mentioned several times in the New Testament. This is the reaction I got from another member of the group. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/240720493950776/user/1437165252/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXnsC3-Pk23eH6mQpPEqZS5NFRvhfRsidNPT3bNuGYJDc8dKK4juxgOJzkdD_VfjdeMUOC5MHdyyrswRFpghutvq47I4xzib-zAakC3sge7Q453dowQYe36_EVPmd5yYpj3SL8fwsf7vNCxtmLD9X5j7lnMNOH3Jnla6F2Z3g2Om2LC_GuIHP4trRW1CaQD2rv2EvsDzqG1YZq1dvCsyYmE&__tn__=R%5D-R"><b>Paul Rack</b></a> The Canon of the Bible used in the Catholic Church did not come into being until the FIFTH century. During those years the oral accounts were written, edited and then re-written against emerging theology. There were several hundred versions of the Gospels up to then. Also a whole bunch put in the trash of the day. In accounting, we call it "cooking the books".</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This perfectly expresses the false views that people like Taussig are willfully breeding in the minds of many. Every sentence is patently false. But it is what many educated people today have been taught to think, especially my friends in progressive circles. It certainly fits many of the myths of Modernity, which is why it has been so powerful. (I simply answered by asking the person to show me who is suggesting that 1 Corinthians 15 is a later addition. No response as yet.) </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We see from the current canon that the early Church was not afraid of wide theological diversity. The books of the New Testament are remarkably broad in their perspectives on the events to which they witness. Indeed, some secular scholars have made the point repeatedly to discredit the New Testament that so many of the stories are contradictory and don't jive. I'd think that if this was a conspiracy by the hierarchy to concoct an ideologically consistent text they would have been more rigorous about it. My point is that any text for which a good case could be made that it came from the first century, would certainly have been too valuable not to be preserved, copied, shared, and seriously considered for inclusion in any eventual canon. Maybe people back then were more concerned for getting it right than they were for the ideological consistency that is an obsession for many today.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>One question about <i>A New New Testament</i> is: Why? Taussig has taken it upon himself to decide that "the spiritual thirsts of our day need more nourishment," as he says in his Preface. Leaving aside the hubris, arrogance, and presumption of that statement (and his whole project), the New Testament was not compiled to "quench the spiritual thirst" of anyone's day. It was just to tell us about the revelation of God's love in Jesus Christ with as much directness and honesty as they could.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>He also worries about what he calls "churches' strangleholds" on what he says they deem to be "unarguable truth about a certain kind of Jesus." Thus, Taussig betrays his disgust with gathered communities of Jesus' followers. As I suggested earlier, the New Testament was formed by people of faith called together for worship and education. A community, especially one that was at the time marginalized and at risk from State persecution, has every right and responsibility to shape its own documents and set the terms of its own membership. The New Testament has always belonged, not to scholars, not to "the people" or the government, but to the Church.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Taussig's mistrust of living faith communities is further revealed in his use of the rather negative term "stranglehold" to describe the way churches cherish the Jesus of the New Testament. Maybe he is referring to stereotypical conservative and evangelical churches, and of course the Catholic Church, who might maintain images of Jesus he doesn't like. I get that. I too am disgusted by the false depiction of Jesus as an armed, white, middle-class American, for instance. The "Jesus" proclaimed by January 6 insurrectionists is not the Jesus of the New Testament. </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I find it more fruitful to turn to the Bible and point out how such self-serving, violent, paranoid, nationalist images of Jesus <i>contradict</i> the Jesus we see in the four gospels we already have. I, for one, fully intend to maintain my own "stranglehold" on what I deem to be "unarguable truth" about Jesus. For the Jesus presented in the canonical gospels is all about liberation, forgiveness, inclusion, welcoming, equity, healing, non-violence, economic justice, and walking lightly on the earth. In short, he embodies the shalom and agape of God. He proclaims God's Commonwealth over-against the empires of his day, and establishes alternative communities based on blessing and sharing. </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>When some start messing with the text of the New Testament, it creates confusion and undermines the image of Jesus. It is like Steve Bannon's approach to the media, which is to "flood the zone with shit" so people are unsure of what to believe, and thus become dupes for vile propaganda and idiotic conspiracy theories. This is the effect that adding books to the New Testament will have, especially these books that so often contradict its basic message and diluting its inherent and essential anti-imperialism. In his account of a Trump rally, journalist Jeff Sharlet even makes explicit a connection between Trumpism and the spirit of Gnosticism. It presents "the divine as a series of contradictions" only understood by selected insiders with the required gnosis, who dismiss their orthodox opponents as "fake news" and see a "deep State" where gnostics rejected the witness and authority of the bishops (Sharlet, Jeff. The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War). </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Ironically, it has only been in the last few decades that the anti-imperialist core of the New Testament has been allowed to emerge from the heavy overlay of domesticated interpretations it acquired under centuries of the State-sponsorship of Christendom. Indeed, we already have a new New Testament! (See the work of Richard Horsley, Ched Myers, Maurice Richard, Elizabeth Schuessler-Fiorenz, and many, many others.) We do not have to dig up some obscure writings hauled out of the back room of a 5th century monastery in the desert someplace to find the Jesus we need right now. He is right there in the New Testament we already have. We just have to learn how to look, even if it means digging through centuries of corrupt imperialist interpretation.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Frankly, some of the books added by Taussig's council show a strong bias towards an anti-creation, elitist spiritual escapism that deflates the pointed political character of the actual New Testament, which has an anti-imperialist apocalypticism at its core. His adulterated New Testament is really <i>not radical enough! The additional books talk a lot about knowledge, and about love and justice almost never. </i>They are certainly less radical than the canonical New Testament that Rome, failing to stamp it out, finally had to co-opt, appropriate, domesticate, obscure, buy-off, regulate, and bury under imperialist propaganda. </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>For instance, Taussig includes The Secret Revelation of John, (more commonly called The Apocryphon of John) a late 2nd century text full of esoteric, metaphysical and, well, bizarre, mythology. Contrast this exercise in obscure symbolism imported from Greek esotericism, with the canonical book of Revelation, a highly symbolic, grounded in the Hebrew Scriptures, and thoroughly political, description of the collapse of Imperial Rome as an indication of the fate of all empires, culminating in Christ's emerging reign of peace.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Then there is a book called The Gospel of Truth, written in the second half of the 2nd century. This is another highly mythologized take on Jesus, in which he comes into the world with true knowledge, but gets crucified by a personified feminine figure called Error. Once again, it is a depoliticized version of the gospel.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And the claim that these books are somehow "feminist" is what we are supposed to glean from the fact that they devalue matter and bodies generally. Thomas even has the remarkably sexist line about how females have to make themselves male to inherit the heavenly kingdom (Thomas 114).</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>These writings have in common an underplaying the Incarnation and the cross. This is significant because the Incarnation shows a love of and participation in creation. And the cross was the anti-imperialist core of the gospel. Thus Jesus neutralizes Rome's terroristic violence, and the conquered and colonized nations are set free. The cross also embeds Jesus in Jewish traditions about the slaughtered Lamb of the Exodus, the blood of the goat of the Day of Atonement, and the suffering servant in Isaiah. </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So, while the much-maligned orthodox were following the Jesus of the New Testament in building communities of peace and serving needy people, and often being harassed (or worse) by Roman authorities for it, there were also these other people claiming to be Christians who had a depoliticized application of the faith that does not appear to have bothered Rome at all. They were focused not on love or justice, but on the personal acquisition of secret spiritual knowledge. </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Taussig tries to neutralize the word "Gnostic," which continues to be applied by scholars who specialize in the topic to many of the works he is trying to add to the New Testament. He appears to be bravely appealing for a "no labels" approach which reads these books for their intrinsic value. But "Gnostic" is not a meaningless term. While there were many different schools of gnosticism, the fact remains that they did have some characteristics in common. Scholars continue to use the term, distinguishing Gnostic from non-Gnostic texts. Taussig's proposed additions tend to share many characteristics of Gnosticism.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What confuses me in all this is that Taussig and his friends in the Jesus Seminar have spent decades analyzing the gospels to separate the "authentic" words of the "historical Jesus" from later material that they determined was therefore of less value. They only found the true gospel of Jesus in the verses meriting a red marble, in their historical assessment according to a set of arbitrary criteria. The rest, 80% of Jesus' words, were supposedly written later and put in Jesus' mouth. Therefore, they should be disregarded or at least devalued. (Read the introduction to <i>The Five Gospels</i> if you think I am making this up or misrepresenting them.) But now, having famously made the point that their assessment of earliest is best, some of the very same people are trying to add material from <i>a century later, most of which, according to their own criteria, has almost zero claim to be from their "historical Jesus"!</i> They don't seem to care about this anymore. It makes me wonder if finding the authentic words of Jesus was <i>ever</i> the point, and the real agenda wasn't always undermining the integrity of the New Testament as a whole.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Finally, even if we might be attracted by some of what these books are saying, when we purport to make writings part of an accepted, authorized canon of Scripture it is not just about the books, taken by themselves, but has to include their context, authorship, history, and relationship to the other writings in the larger collection. The writings Taussig presents often have more to do with the intellectual, spiritual, mythological, and intellectual currents in the 2nd century, than with the biblical tradition. These writings simply do not owe very much to the Judaic roots of actual Christianity. </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hence, I fail to understand the value of adding these books to our New Testament. They come from a different historical era, and they contradict, or at least disregard, the most important counter-cultural strands of the New Testament. In an era dominated by our own version of imperialism in the form of globalized commercial Capitalism, how are we helped by watering-down the New Testament with documents that preach a non-political, otherworldly -- perhaps even anti-creation and anti-Creator -- message?</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Maybe the reason why these writings did not make the cut in the first place is that they had little to say to ordinary people living under the domination of Empire, but appealed instead to a wealthy, privileged class who were content to feed on Empire's spoils, and who thought of themselves as a spiritual elite keeping special knowledge. One theory concerning why these books eventually fell into disuse is that they appealed mainly to collaborators with the Empire, who eventually dissolved into it. Taussig himself seems aware of this when he subtly implies that including such people is part of his agenda. As if resistance to Empire was a concern of some Christians back then, but not important today. My view is that his new books serve to water-down the anti-imperialism of the New Testament, making it more palatable to people who have bought into globalized commercial Capitalism, which is the manifestation of Empire we have to resist and offer a witness in the midst of now.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A famous quote from Desmond Tutu comes to mind: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor." What other effect does the paradoxical marriage of opposites in a book like Thunder have than such neutrality? What happened to the "preferential option for the poor" that was the basic insight of Liberation Theology? </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Christianity certainly often took very bad paths historically, especially after the 4th century, feeding nationalism, economic injustice, misogyny, and homophobia for centuries. And we have faced ghastly crises, especially recently with the gruesome and disgracefully pervasive child sex-abuse scandals rocking the Catholic Church, and the perverse turning of so many Evangelicals to Trumpism. We have not been very faithful to Jesus. But the Jesus we have failed is the Jesus we see in the New Testament.</span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And that's the point. Our main job today is to continue the work of removing the calcified layers of imperialist interpretation under which it has been buried for over a thousand years, so that its true liberative nature may emerge and bear fruit in the living communities of Jesus' followers. </span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In our time, following Jesus, in the sense of actually living according to his example of non-violence, justice, healing, inclusion, compassion, generosity, humility, simplicity, forgiveness, peace, and self-emptying love, is of vital importance. The fate of the planet depends on it. We need to lift up a radically <i>embodied</i> faith that celebrates and cares for people and planet. Attempting to mix in elements of a-political elitist, esoteric, spiritually escapist versions of Jesus doesn't help us resist and offer an alternative to today's version of Empire. Just the opposite. It distracts from discipleship and its cost. It gives us a tempting way to stay "Christian" while in reality cutting off at the knees the best witness we have to the liberating love of God revealed in Jesus Christ: the actual New Testament.</span></p>
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<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="color: #0d0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-65658729482529630112023-04-25T08:55:00.004-07:002023-04-25T08:55:39.017-07:00Critical Thinking.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">"Critical thinking" is one of those terms that immediately makes me wary when someone uses it.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">Too often in my experience "critical thinking" is a euphemism for a self-righteous, casually destructive mentality that revels in the smirking, cynical assassination of what is dismissed as others' deluded credulity.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">Most of the time I have seen the term used as a way of attacking someone who thinks differently. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As an Enneagram Five I am sadly too well acquainted with this mode of discourse, and have frequently to catch myself and refrain from inflicting it on people. I have far more often than I like to admit failed at this, and deepened my alienation from others by wielding my well-stocked armory of supposedly superior information. It's about defense and control.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">People who have been victimized by such critical thinking rightly feel unheard and ignored, ashamed, angry, and in pain. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have learned that any form of critical thinking that is not primarily, indeed exclusively, <i>self</i>-critical thinking has no positive value, and only adds to the stress, violence, and misery in the world. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Lord Jesus says we need to remove the logs from our own eyes before we can see clearly enough to assist another in removing the specks from theirs. Personal optical log-removal is a life-long endeavor, and only those dedicated to its discipline have any standing to offer advice to someone else. It is the basis of the necessary humility with which his ethic is saturated. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Critical thinking aimed at others, treating them like objects to be manipulated, utilized, dissected, and commodified, is how we got the world into this perfect storm of intractable global catastrophes in the first place. This kind of critical thinking rationalizes Modernity's fundamental mode of relationship, which is vivisection.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Critical thinking only works positively when applied first and most rigorously to my own perceptions, values, memories, expectations, ways of thinking, and behavior. It has to be a letting-go of my ego-centricity, my self-importance and self-righteousness, my sense of myself at the center, separate from, over-against and above others, independent and autonomous, and the matted wad of stories I have invented to justify this way of seeing and acting. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Once I come to the recognition that what I think is my identity is not true and real but actually something I imaginatively constructed to deal with my own fear, anger, and pain, I may therefore let myself go, releasing all these artificial supports. I may repent, which is to say, see and think differently. Then my ego falls, and my deeper and true Self emerges. In and as that Self I am connected to and one with all.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I must have the courage to lose, and even identify with the losers and the bereft, the pure of heart and the poor in spirit, the childlike and simple, those whom Jesus explicitly blesses. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This deeper and true Self is Christ, the heart of my soul and the Soul of the whole creation. From <i>this</i> place, not above in the sense of remote and dominating, but <i>within</i>, real and good critical thinking deconstructs all the artificial and oppressive binaries and dualisms, the invented the strata of superiority and subordination/inferiority, the artificial, imposed inequities and imbalances, which continue to afflict and mangle the world. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The critical thinking we apply to ourselves, we exemplify before the world and invite others to participate in. We become gentle influencers of truth against lies and goodness against evil; witnesses to and practitioners of unity, equity, compassion, gratitude, forgiveness, freedom, and acceptance, who express solidarity with and advocacy for the marginalized and disinherited. We become agents of deterioration exposing, infecting, corroding, and weakening the false and murderous structures of Empire. Deconstructed and disassembled in this way, Empire falls, and the Kingdom of God emerges.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In other words, "critical thinking" that is done out of ego-centricity only tightens Empire's grip on people and planet. Self-critical thinking and acting, which is applied humility and gratitude, serves to liberate creation, setting us free from our egos, and bringing life into balance.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-44258193191212588112023-03-16T18:22:00.000-07:002023-03-16T18:22:10.987-07:00Remythologization.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">Given my conviction that we need to grow out of the limitations imposed on the Church by Modernity and the so-called Enlightenment, maybe we should start talking more explicitly about remythologizing. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">One of the big projects of the 16th-19th century movement called the "Enlightenment" was the de-enchantment of the world. That means, they wanted to reduce the world to physics and math, and discount, which is to say discard as superstition, anything deemed to be subjective and interior, like awe, beauty, mystery, myth, art, love, or a sense of the transcendent. In other words, any notion that there might be something in the universe bigger than the human, and beyond the comprehension of the human mind, was dismissed as nonsense, at best. The Enlightenment view of God was summed up by the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, who believed that "God" was purely invented by people for various not so good reasons. Anything that could not be rationally explained, felt by the senses, measured, and quantified (and marketed...), did not exist.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the scholarly study of the Bible, the program was eventually summed up as "demythologization." That is, they sought to rationally explain the real events behind biblical texts. Scholars had to suck up to the establishment Enlightenment view and subject the Bible to the same kind of analysis that was applied to anything else, leaving scholars -- and these were the good ones -- to find some kind of redeeming social/economic value in the text, so that other Enlightenment-influenced scholars might not dismiss the Bible as a collection of pointless fairy tales and reject Christianity altogether. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Enlightenment thought left the world a flat, dry, harsh, linear, binary, cold, and dead place; everything became "resources" to be used in the service of some other goal, usually economic profit. Humans were bought as slaves or workers, the creation was there to be exploited, and religion had to prove its economic and political usefulness to the powers-that-be. (Often as a kind of narcotic inducing compliance, as Karl Marx observed.)</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That Christian faith survived the Enlightenment and subsequent Modernity is a miracle attributable to the fact that many humans remain aware of a Reality beyond the measurable one, and some Christians managed to be influenced and shaped by the story of Jesus and the rest of the Bible. There was always a witness, however small, to the Truth of God; and there were always voices, often very few, raised against injustice. People did continue to engage in wildly irrational activities like prayer, the Sacraments, and living for the benefit of others, not just themselves. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Meanwhile, the whole Enlightenment project started to collapse. It was unsustainable to begin with. But eventually, as people became aware of the stupendous atrocities it inspired, from slavery and other forms of economic injustice, to an addiction to war, guns, and armaments, to horrors like the Holocaust and Hiroshima, to the systematic poisoning of the planet's air, soil, water, and the wanton killing of its life-forms, they began very slowly to turn away from Enlightenment ideology, and discover meaning and purpose in the very things that Modernity had rejected as irrational and superstitious. People came to appreciate intangibles and non-quantifiables like nature, music, and poetry, and they began to develop a vision of an emerging human community based on equity and sharing. Spirituality and religion, refusing to comply with the Enlightenment's assumption that it would just die out, actually started becoming more important to increasing numbers of people.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A gradual re-enchantment of the world has been going on in the lives of many people, and it includes some good things, like an attention to mysticism, symbol, myth, cosmology, beauty, and justice. When people become more self-aware, they simultaneously grow more conscious of their connectedness to others, to creation, and to the Creator of all. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sadly, some questionable things also began to congeal: like the occult, nostalgia, religious fundamentalism, and the cynical pressing of myth and symbol into the service of death and destruction, as we see with the persistent calcification into Modernity's logical final form: fascism. For the Enlightenment regime, because it is based on paranoid lies, can only be sustained and enforced by increasing levels of violence. See Orwell's <i>Nineteen-Eighty-Four </i>for a picture of how this works out for us.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The answer for the Church right now is a remythologization of ecclesial life, which means paying closer attention to myth and story, symbol and ritual, imagination and art. We need to cultivate a realization that biblical stories are less historical records and more invitations to find meaningful and liberating images and connections. What if the whole text of the Bible is intended as metaphor, directing our sight to the perception of the Creator and the Creator's emancipatory love all around us? What if we finally realize that "did this really happen?" is an irrelevant and corrosive question, betraying the Enlightenment's agenda of neutralizing the stories -- and the community that develops and cherished them -- as obsolete and meaningless? What if we started to understand that the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of the world still speaks to us by the Word and Spirit, drawing us into lives of equity and justice, compassion and peace, simplicity and gratitude, contemplation, wonder, and joy? </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><div><br /></div>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-10761743831937485272023-02-20T10:30:00.002-08:002023-02-20T14:28:54.594-08:00"Formulating Your Own Thoughts and Opinions in Your Own Unique Way." <p><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">(I tried to copy and paste something from Facebook but it didn't work. It is a satirical page by a Unitarian-Universalist mocking responsive readings in worship because they make people say someone else's words, which the author believes is insincere because it's just "repeating someone else's thoughts," and is not </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">"formulating your own thoughts and opinions in your own unique way" which is supposedly much better. This post below is my response to that.)</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">This meme occasionally makes the rounds on Facebook. After ignoring it for a while, watching many of my friends "like" it, I decided it deserved a response. The sentiment expressed here is that "formulating your own thoughts and opinions in your own unique way" is obviously and necessarily a good thing for which we should all strive. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Is it? Is it even possible?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Were we to take the meme seriously, we would have to assume that our Unitarian Universalist friends certainly refrain from other kinds of "repeating someone else's thoughts," like sharing "store-bought greeting cards." Would they also not sing hymns, or recite poems, or quote from literature at all? Would they write books based on "their own research" rather than use footnotes indicating a shameful, small-minded dependence on the prior thoughts of others? And would they patronizingly mock the rest of us as unevolved slugs for doing such unenlightened things?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But could they even use a language at all? Should we compromise our ability to take charge of our own thoughts and formulate them in our own way by utilizing a language system as archaic, confused, irrational, and frankly colonialist as English? Should we not each be responsible for developing our own personal, individual language, unsullied by the corruption of tradition and community, but utterly unique to our precious individualism? Indeed, why should I defile my unique and special personal thoughts merely to accommodate the pathetic and constricting needs of anyone else to understand me at all?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It is a central part of the ideology of Modernity that "formulating your own thoughts and opinions in your own unique way" is something to strive for, an indication of freedom, creativity, and maturity. In reality, it's nonsense designed to devalue tradition and community and keep us under the Empire's Big Lie that we are separate and independent individuals... which means that we are in eternal competition with each other, with no unison refuge from the din of arbitrary and irrelevant self-expression. As long as we are all convinced we are independent individuals we will keep yelling into the void and the owners may keep swindling us.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Oh, and it's also impossible. Each of us lives in a web of interconnection and conditioning. No human has ever had an original thought. No one has ever formulated their own thoughts and opinions in a unique way. Everyone exists in a matrix of experience, education, socialization, memory, fear, and culture; we are all conditioned by ego-centric, exclusive subjectivity. All perception is interpretation based on prior experience, which was also interpreted. Further, we are also radically social and integrated beings, dependent on other people and creation itself for our very lives. If you imagine you are an independent agent able to formulate your own thoughts and opinions in your own unique way, you are a deluded narcissist. It is the very definition of a lack of self-awareness. It is to be unconscious. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">At the end of the book of Judges, the author notes, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25 NASB). The text does not view this situation as a good thing. Rather it is chaos, a nation divided against itself, easy prey for the next expansionist empire. And this is Empire's MO: divide and conquer, keep the people from uniting, keep feeding them the ideology of their own sacred individuality. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the Bible, the solution is a common king. That is, a center, a focus, a guiding, unifying principle, that is not one's one supposedly sovereign ego. That common King was supposed to be YHWH, the Liberator, the Creator, the One, Someone both beyond and within all, uniting all in all. Unfortunately, the people preferred to have a human king "like the other nations." </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Bob Dylan sang about how we each have to "serve somebody; it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody." The Apostle Paul says much the same thing in terms of flesh or Spirit. My point is that we may be enslaved to our own egos, with their small-minded, self-centered, biased and limited perspective, or we may follow and serve our Essence, Jesus Christ, in Whom we are connected to and integrated with all people and all of life. To be enslaved to Jesus Christ is to be liberated from ego, alienation, and separation, and united to the whole creation. We come to see and therefore act from the most universal and inclusive perspective.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">From this perspective we all, all creation, sing together. Different voices, different parts, different instruments, one song.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-1005189898154879162022-12-24T13:04:00.000-08:002022-12-24T13:04:05.494-08:00Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.<p style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">We celebrate here in temporality with a view to the eternal birth, which God the Father has accomplished and accomplishes unceasingly in eternity, so that this same birth has now been accomplished in time within human nature. What does it avail me if this birth takes place unceasingly and yet does not take place within myself? It is quite fitting, however, that it should take place within me.</i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><i>-- Meister Eckhart</i></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Nativity of the Lord has mainly to do with Presence. What we have been waiting for has really been here all along. We were not in Advent waiting for anything for <i>God</i> to do, as if God were taking God's sweet time about it. We were waiting for our souls to relax, focus, adjust, adapt, and emerge into the Truth. We were waiting rather for our own baggage and blinders to drop away to we could see what was always here. We were waiting until we lost our fears, desires, expectations, needs, fantasies, habits, and conventional ways of thinking. We were waiting for the fog to burn off. We were waiting for our imaginations to let go of both our obsession with what has gone before and our infatuation with what will come next.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our waiting was purposeful, intentional, not inert or inactive. It was a preparatory waiting: at once a self-emptying and a refurnishing. I compare it to prospective parents making room for a new child; a two-fold movement of creating space by moving unnecessary things out, and moving necessary things in. Nesting. We wait by letting go and taking on.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ego and Empire dominate us by manipulation of two pervasive ideas that are not actually real: past and future. Beginning with the alienation that is a consequence of our mortality, we invent stories that invest meaning by telling us "how we got here" and "where we are going," in time. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But now that time of waiting, preparation, divesting and furnishing is over, for Christ is born in Bethlehem! The Creator is Present, "with us," Emmanu-el. One great hymn describes the Creator's action in time this way: "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in him tonight." Past and future are completely reframed for us. Now our attention is not on what we imagine to be ahead of or behind us, but on something that has arrived; it is here and now, "above," "beneath," within, among us. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is not escapism into either the dreamy pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by or imploded "navel gazing," but an engagement with the Good, True, and Beautiful that is always Present, always "near," always "at hand," which Jesus Christ proclaims and embodies. He is the eternal Presence, the divine <i>Shekinah</i>. He is the Real that is always closer to us than we are to ourselves. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">One major problem in the Church is that we waste far too much time and energy looking back and/or looking ahead, and offer too little attention to looking "above," "beneath," or within/among at what is happening here and now. We habitually and reflexively focus on what is not here. Now is the time to open our consciousness to what is present with us.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus says to seek first the Creator's Kingdom and justice (Matthew 6:33), which is within and among us (Luke 17:21), and "at hand" (Mark 1:15).</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Thomas Merton affirms this presence when he notes that, "in the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at your disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of <i>absolute poverty</i> is the pure glory of God in us." Maybe that little room, which he calls "the virgin point," <i>pointe vierge,</i> is what we have been preparing in Advent; a ready space.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We fritter away our time and energy on trying to "adapt" to the latest dopey and illusory big shiny, entertaining thing going on in the world out there, when everything we desire and need has always been right here, with and within us, in the spark of truth and clarity, at the center of our being. Christ is born in astonishing and scandalous simplicity and poverty, revealing the glory of God shining from that bright point, in and throughout our world. God, is present in the stable of Bethlehem, on the cross of Calvary, and in the shared bread that is his Body... which makes us, the Church, his Body, Christ-in-the-world.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Nothing could be more irrelevant or beside the point than allowing ourselves to be distracted by the imagined "historicity" of its details. The Nativity is about birth, "which God the Father has accomplished and accomplishes unceasingly in eternity," now being "accomplished in time within human nature." Within <i>all</i> human nature. Within the nature of every human. "Cast out our sin and enter in, be born <i>in us</i> today." That's the point. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Today. Not tomorrow. Not yesterday. Today. "Now is the opportune time; today is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2b). Nothing less than this is happening in the Incarnation. A vertical bolt of pure light from beyond, welling up within us. Jarring us into the realization of God, the Creator, with and within us, now.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And now... what? If the Creator is born in us today, how do we live as the Creator's agents, messengers, witnesses, and people? For we are Christ-in-the-world.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span></p><div><br /></div>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-44340760557040181462022-12-22T07:51:00.003-08:002022-12-22T08:04:48.323-08:00The Virgin Birth of Christ Is True, Whether it Happened or Not.<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>(Slightly improved version of a previous post.)</i></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A couple of Decembers ago, in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof interviewed William Lane Craig about the Virgin Birth. Craig is a philosophy professor at Houston Baptist University. His entire response was to say that it really happened, and to point out the historical sources: Matthew and Luke.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I rolled my eyes and fumed in frustration. Claiming that the Virgin Birth “really happened” neutralizes it into the absolute irrelevance of a distant historical event which means nothing to us today. It is an artifact. Nothing more. It is merely asserted to have happened by smug, self-righteous, credulous Christians. As if deciding that it happened is all that matters.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The “did it really happen” argument is pointless because there is no way to answer it. Even if proof could be available one way or the other <i>(which it can't!)</i>, it misses the meaning of the stories. Indeed, I wonder if the real point of Modern historical arguments isn’t to neutralize and deflate the truth so it can be domesticated and shelved. For <b><i>deeper and higher truths may only be communicated by means of myth, story, image, symbol, ritual, metaphor, and poetry</i></b>. These are exactly the kinds of discourse that Modernity has ruled out of hand as lies, superstition, fiction, and fairy-tales. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">To reduce a story to mere history is to kill it. It is to render it a dead past event, something to be dissected and disposed of. The demythologizing project of Modernity was always intended to undercut truth, so that the Empire's self-serving propaganda may be inserted in its place. And the most effective way to do that is to evaluate a story based on its “historicity,” as determined by Modernity's arbitrary criteria. Thus the “did it really happen” question is taken for the only measure of truth… and it just so happens that it is unanswerable. In this way the Modern Age systematically replaced truth with its own fake news. In the end it’s all reduced to entertainment in the service of commerce. For Modernity, what is "real" is merely what sells. </span></p><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Once we have hit the impasse of, “yes, it did happen,” vs. “no, it couldn’t have happened,” we have nowhere else to go. If we are arguing about whether Mary "really" bore a child without having sex, we have failed to listen to the story itself. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Virgin Birth story is not about history or gynecology. One person who understood the story well was 19th century anti-slavery activist, Sojourner Truth. When challenged by male religious professionals who attempted to silence her, she pointed to the story of the Virgin Birth. Christ comes into the world by God and a woman, she said; a man had nothing to do with him. Therefore, one meaning of the story is that God’s entry into the world is an explicit contradiction of a world order that privileges maleness. It is an inherently anti-patriarchy narrative. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And that’s just one political meaning of the story. There are meanings that go even deeper into human identity and destiny. Meister Eckhart talked about how it shows God being born in each of us. Karl Barth noted that it tells us that humans do not have the power to bring God into the world. And then there is the whole question of the Incarnation, and its meaning in terms of the relation of Creator to creation. “God became human so that humans might become God,” is the way the early Christians talked about it.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And so on. All of which is lost if we focus exclusively on the tiny, distracting, pointless, and unanswerable question of whether it "actually happened" or not. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Caving in and allowing the Modern world to define truth for us is what is killing faith and the planet. I used to think that Christianity was courageous for allowing historical analysis to be applied to its core documents and history. Maybe. Certainly we may have gained a lot of helpful knowledge about the context of the Scriptures. Certainly we have liberated the gospel from some forms of self-serving institutional oppression. But at the same time we have lost way too much in this exchange. And too often what we were left with was even worse, if more subtle, forms of institutional oppression. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Fortunately, we did not lose the stories themselves. In spite of Modernist attempts to extract and dissect, slice and resect, delete and excise parts of the Scriptures, the texts remain. And the faith remains. Because in the end reality wins. Truth is. Propaganda, fake news, advertising, and “history” all collapse for lack of any purchase in reality. But the Word of the Lord endures forever. (It is not by accident that the attitude of some scholars to the text is identical to the way the petrochemical industry comes at the planet: Extract, waste, consume, and profit.)</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The late Phyllis Tickle related how she once talked about the Virgin Birth story at a conference. One of the young hotel emplyees overheard her, and approached her later to observe that the Virgin Birth story is “too beautiful not to be true, whether it happened or not.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Exactly.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-19379516953277475422022-12-17T15:15:00.000-08:002022-12-17T15:15:02.437-08:00Advent 4 - Soon and Very Soon<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">In the season of Advent I would often use the gospel song, "Soon and Very Soon," after we pass the peace in worship.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">One year I got pushback on this when someone noticed that the song appears in the section of the hymnal dedicated to funerals.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">"How is is it appropriate for this season for us to be singing about dying?" she asked.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"It says we're going to see the King," I replied. That's what we're doing in Advent, isn't it? Going to greet the newborn king?"</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But the connection to death is still there, and not unimportant. Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted that, "When Christ calls someone he bids them come and die." Jesus repeatedly teaches about how we need to die in order to live, and Paul indicates how baptism is a symbolic death. Death is not annihilation so much as transformation. I am reminded of the monastic motto: "If you die before you die then you won't die when you die."</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This focus on death and transformation is one of the Advent themes that receives too little attention. As we make our way to the manger in Bethlehem we expect to find a cute little baby, harmless and vulnerable. We expect to bring our gifts to him and worship him. We do not necessarily expect to <i>die</i> in the process. We do not expect to emerge from the stable completely different from when we went in to see him.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But unless we do, we have really not seen him at all. The story is ridiculously familiar and thoroughly domesticated. We know it by heart and cherish its telling. But if we look at this infant and don't see in him the King of Creation, and ourselves as his subjects, we have missed the message of the Nativity. The only way we indicate that we see him as the King, is by realizing that we are bound to do whatever he tells us to do. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, this is America and we don't know from kings. We have no experience with or tolerance for the idea that there is someone, anyone, literally entitled to our unconditional obedience, especially someone who received their status by accident of birth. The actual monarchs who remain in this world are at best noble and unifying, if anachronistic, figureheads, and at worst rich, celebrity jerks. There is no question of our having to give our absolute obedience to any of them. The idea is laughable. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But Jesus <i>is</i> a king, but also different from other human monarchs in not depending on tradition or genealogy as the source of his legitimacy. They pretended their right to rule came from God... but it did not. Only Jesus' monarchy is the true and only expression of authority because he is the Author. By him the universe was created and held together in being. He is the embodiment of the Creator, authenticated, not by ceremonial pomposity and coercive power, but by his simplicity, humility, generosity, and self-emptying love. Through him God's Presence, goodness, truth, and beauty flows into the creation.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In submitting to him, to this King, the True King, Jesus Christ, we have to let go of our ego-centric identities. We have to see ourselves in a radically different way, and define ourselves by a fundamentally different story. We have to relinquish the comfortable illusions of our individualism, autonomy, and independence. We turn from one way of seeing everything to embrace another. We move from one way of thinking to a completely different one. We have to repent, reorient our minds and our lives so that we are no longer motivated by selfish fear, desire, and anger, but instead see ourselves as interconnected, interdependent parts of a larger whole, in Jesus Christ, our King. This repentance is what it means to die to our old selves that our new Self may emerge in us.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In other words, becoming a subject of the King means dying to who we thought we were. We give up our sense of being isolated individuals, and come to participate together in Jesus Christ. We become part of his self-expression and unity with and in all creation. We move from a sense of being separate from all things, to an awareness of being integrated into a nest and network of communities of creation. Hence, some choose to use the language of "commonwealth" here, which expresses well the horizontal aspect, how we relate to each other within creation.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here we also find the meaning of the Eucharistic meal as the place where we "see the King" regularly, eating his Body in order to become members of his Body, together.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Unless we <i>become</i> Christ, we haven't really <i>seen</i> Christ; but we can't see Christ until we become Christ. This is the challenge of the Advent and Nativity moments: to use this preparatory time to shed our false and destructive self-images in order to live into the Image of God within us and become subjects of the King, whose lives are shaped according to Christ's life of compassion, justice, equality, freedom, peace, and goodness.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-89568088113719671472022-12-10T16:28:00.006-08:002022-12-10T16:28:45.799-08:00Advent 3 - The Crimson Cord.<p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">In the book of Joshua, the invading Israelites send spies to scope out the city of Jericho.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">They stay at the establishment of a woman named Rahab, a prostitute.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">Rahab, significantly, is in favor of the coming invasion.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">She represents the people languishing under the oppressive regimes of the petty rulers of Canaanite city-states.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">They see this wave of former slaves from Egypt as a liberation movement, an uprising and insurgency of poor, marginalized, and exploited people.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">In the economy of Jericho, Rahab herself has to resort to sex work, servicing the wealthy and privileged men of the city.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: large;">She is ready for the overthrow of the corrupt system ruling her life, and she eagerly awaits this vast throng of people coming out of the wilderness, who understand what it means to be at the bottom of society.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So when Israelite spies need a headquarters from which to do their work, she eagerly offers her home and place of business, asking only that the invaders save her and her family when the assault on the city comes. To this the spies agree. They tell her to tie a crimson cord in the window of her house to identify it for preservation by the Israelite army. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When Joshua arrives with the Israelites, after crossing the Jordan, they surround Jericho. And when they blow the ram's horn trumpets, the walls of the city famously "came tumblin' down." (It is a story that had particular resonance for the African-American slaves who sang about it.) Except for Rahab's house, which remains standing. She and her household receive safe passage, while the Israelite army storms in and kills everyone in the city. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This story emphatically is not and was never intended to be a literal historical account somehow excusing or authorizing genocide. Rather, we are to understand here the consequences of our participation in injustice, and realize the choice we all have to make concerning whether to stay cowering behind the walls of our status quo or to welcome the arrival of God into our lives. God's coming -- "advent" -- is always cataclysmic because it is a collision between God's truth and the flimsy, illusory world of ego and Empire, formed by violence based on fear, desire, fantasy, and memory that we have dreamed up and try to live by. The little world of Jericho, built on idols and lies, and expressed in its high, thick walls of oppression, inequality, social stratification, and exclusion, is doomed when faced with the reality of God's coming reign.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The message is identical to that of the Book of Revelation: God is coming; the Empire is falling. You can fall with it into oblivion, or you can gather with the people of the Lamb and be saved to participate in God's new future.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In other words, the walls are coming down. The walls that would divide us into separate interest and identity groups, easily set against each other, making us more malleable and controllable, the walls between races, nations, genders, classes, generations, and religions, which are illusory and invented categories, are all crumbling into dust. It is time to go to Rahab's house. It is time to tie that crimson cord in the window, and await the uprising of God's people, coming like a tsunami from the east.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It is common and easy for us to reduce Advent to a time of waiting for the cute little baby, nestled snug in the manger, surrounded by angels. And so on. Less common because more challenging is the deeper meaning of the season, in which one world violently ends so another can begin. This is the apocalyptic heart of Advent, as the revelation of the Presence of the Creator deflates and disintegrates the very systems and relationships we have come reflexively to follow. "He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty," in the words of the mother of the coming Messiah. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That's what happened to Jericho. Except for Rahab and her household. We might want to think about putting our qualms about what folks will say aside, and get ourselves to the house with the scarlet cord in the window. Soon.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">+++++++ </span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7222452151323724702.post-62344945899436775952022-12-05T11:12:00.003-08:002022-12-05T11:12:49.478-08:00The War on Advent.<p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: trebuchet; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large;">When I was a kid in the Presbyterian church, we went from “Thanksgiving Sunday” at the end of November to “Christmas Sunday” just before December 25.</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large;">On the Sundays in between we sang Christmas carols.</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large;">In other words, the church’s calendar was identical to that of Macy’s and the rest of the secular, commercial culture.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>One of the most important things the Presbyterian church has learned over the last half-century is that there is this season called Advent that comprises the 4 Sundays prior to the Nativity. (Of course, more liturgical denominations never forgot this.) I recall my dad (also a pastor) introducing the Advent Wreath and even Christmas Eve worship services in the churches he served in the 1960’s. Many Presbyterians were not used to doing these things. It was even somewhat <i>controversial</i> at the time, believe it or not. These practices were considered “too Catholic,” by some.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Presbyterian attitude towards Christmas has shifted dramatically over the years. It is easy to forget that Presbyterians were deeply influenced by the Puritans who basically <i>banned</i> Christmas. They did this in 17<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span> century England and New England for three reasons: First, there is no biblical warrant for celebrating the birth of Jesus in December. Secondly, the whole liturgical calendar was considered by the Puritans to be hopelessly “Popish” and was advocated by their Anglican rivals. Thirdly, Christmas was infamous for being a time of, well, debauchery, drunkenness, lewdness, disorder, and even violence. So the Puritans ditched the whole Christmas thing, and therefore Advent too, and so did most Presbyterians.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And that ban lasted for quite a while. It did not start to change until the middle of the 19<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span> century, when American Christmas morphed into a homey, child- and family-centered holiday, and then, in the 20<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span> century, into a commercial festival of shopping and spending. As this developed, the church apparently sort of unconsciously went along with it. So that when the Christmas carols started getting played in the stores downtown, the church reflexively started singing them in worship as well. Even Presbyterians started celebrating secular Christmas.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But when we recovered Christmas in the culture, it is interesting that we did <i>not</i> at the same time embrace Advent. I suspect that this is because the culture does not <i>like</i> Advent. Advent has almost no commercial potential. We will never see much advertising using Advent themes. John the Baptizer’s words, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?!” will never be featured in a commercial for electric razors. Children will never put together a cute pageant based on Mark 13. Even Mary’s great hymn in Luke 1, the <i>Magnificat</i>, gets disregarded because the commercial culture does <i>not</i> under any circumstances want the rich to be sent away empty.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Advent was also traditionally a time of preparatory fasting and self-denial. That’s why it had the same liturgical color as Lent: purple. Our Orthodox neighbors still fast from November 15 to Christmas. Catholics may still remember being required to abstain from meat during Advent. The market does not want to hear about a season in which we consciously and deliberately <i>don’t consume</i>. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Indeed, the late autumn and early winter was historically about feasting and enjoying the produce of the recent harvest. In the days before refrigeration a lot of meat simply had to be eaten (or preserved) in December, or lost. People often gave away what they had left over. The church’s Advent fast was radically counter-cultural. When everyone else was celebrating and consuming, the Christians were preparing themselves for the Nativity by disciplines of abstinence and penitence. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Without Advent, Christmas was easily redefined, drowned-out, and buried in an avalanche of mercantile trash. It is this tawdry, loud, sentimental, chaotic, season of <i>cha-ching!</i> that Americans mistake for a Christian holiday. The cultural War on Advent takes the form of rushing the Christmas holiday so that store decorations go up in September, and TV commercials start before Halloween. This doesn’t happen because of any deep faith in Jesus, God knows, or any breathless anticipation of his birth. Obviously, what we now call “Christmas" has been thoroughly severed from Jesus and reconfigured to serve as a festival of greed and commercialism. Part of this is the necessary suppression of the inconvenient and contrarian season of Advent.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It almost worked. However, as Christianity began its decline in America in the second half of the 20th century, the nearly forgotten and largely repressed themes of Advent began again to resonate more with many Christians. For one thing, we started listening to long-silenced voices of marginalized peoples, for whom the end of the present oppressive order was not a bad thing. In this we began to identify with the early church, under threat from Rome.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Advent is the most apocalyptic of liturgical seasons, focusing as it does on Christ’s coming, in the past, present, and future. In Advent we are turning our attention to the arrival of God’s Reign, in which all the injustices, violence, inequalities, and ignorance of the regular world order are overturned and reversed. Jesus explicitly comes to constitute this Reign, leaving behind and inspiring a community to implement his vision and await its fulfillment. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>These themes were unintelligible to a church that was largely identical with worldly power, wealth, prestige, and privilege. But when these perks get stripped away, the church can hear the Bible as it was meant to be heard: as good news for the poor and downtrodden. And Advent, a season anticipating the lifting up of the powerless and the casting down of the elites, started gradually to make sense. So, over the last 60 or so years, churches have slowly found value and meaning in recovering the season of Advent. (For example, the number and quality of Advent hymns increases dramatically in each successive Presbyterian hymn resource.) </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is only when it is preceded by an authentic celebration of Advent that followers of Jesus access the true meaning of the Lord’s Nativity, the festival of the Incarnation. The message that “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us,” and that Christ “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,” cannot be heard unless we first clear away the clutter in our lives and make room. The apocalyptic season of Advent does this by reminding us of how flawed and temporary, indeed, even unreal, is our normal existence and the economic world we have invented. In Advent we are preparing ourselves for the coming of the real and the true, which will reveal the shallowness, emptiness, transparency, and instability of everything we think we know.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>That’s why the culture's War on Advent consists of a persistent blizzard of blaring words, images, and noises, often appealing to our baser instincts. The Lord comes in our silences and empty spaces… therefore the culture must fill these with entertainment and lust, avarice, and gluttony, sentimental traditions, and rituals.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But perhaps the most pregnant and effective way through Advent is found in silence. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I still occasionally get the question from people, in December, about why we’re not singing Christmas carols in church. My answer is, “Because we are in the important season of Advent and unless we prepare ourselves spiritually by observing this time as well as we can, we will not understand what the Nativity is really about.”</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Then, when the great day does come, and we gather to celebrate the Lord’s birth the evening of December 24, we can sing with joyful hearts in celebration of the One for whom we have waited and prepared: the God who comes to save and transform!</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">+++</span></p>Paul F. Rackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08392057623163551364noreply@blogger.com0