A man I consider a friend, although we’ve never met, is Cliff Hazelbaker. Cliff is one of the team members over at Boldgrace.com. Cliff is a special guy. Seems he was born to announce that God’s news to us is "Good News". Cliff has been diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. The prognosis is not good. Please keep this positive, upbeat, proclaimer of good news in your thoughts and prayers. However you communicate with our Source, let that Source know how thankful you are for Cliff.
Cliff, there are some of us who are jealous. Some of us who have great heartaches. Some of us who don’t know what to say, but all of us love you for who you are and what you do and have done.
May the Source of all that’s good be with you and your family at this time in your journey.
"Mixed company moderates; like-minded company polarizes. Heterogeneous communities restrain group excesses; homogeneous communities march toward the extremes…Like-minded groups create a kind of self-propelled, self-reinforcing loop."
"The Big Sort" by Bishop & Cushing
What does this have to say about fundamentalism in religion?
*Thanks to Dr. Richard Beck for getting my thought processes going on this thought
It is very painful to discover that the central Christian affirmations make assumptions based on a literalized view of the biblical narrative that are simply no longer believable. When we truly investigate those assumptions, they fall apart. They are not based on a reality that we can grasp and believe. If unwilling to rethink or reformulate the very basic understandings of the faith, Christianity, through its churches, will increasingly have less to say to a world that decreasingly understands its language and symbols. The reason the church has remained this long is due to the fact that the masses of Christians in today’s world are unwilling to challenge sufficiently the traditional patterns of thought that have dominated the faith for so long.
The only churches which seem to be growing today are those that fail to understand the issues and the emphasize the "certainty" of their faith. The two primary adherents of the "certainty" gospel are fundamentalist Protestants and rigidly controlled conservative Catholic traditionalists. This growth on their part is very impermanent and is often the result of transitioning members going and coming into their memberships. The churches that do attempt to interact with new emerging world aren’t setting the standard for a new framework of reality. They include liberal, mainline Protestants and a liberal Catholic minority. They shrink in membership with each passing day. This is probably due to the fact that, although they claim to be honest, for the most part, they have no real changed message to match the current reality. In opposition to the liberals, are the conservatives, who seem to be hopelessly spending all their time trying to do a facelift on the corpse of traditional Christian religion, with different styles of services for the different styles of members. This facelift often includes changing the name of their church to defer association with a failing denomination. These are destined to fail in the long run as well.
No one seems to be willing to address the real issue. No one seems to want to expend the energy to reformulate the story of Jesus for our day, if it can be reformulated, so that it is meaningful, and contains objective truth in the 21st century. Dismissing the pre-scientific assumptions which are holding the biblical narrative captive is the first step. Second, let everything built upon those assumptions fall with it. It will not be easy for some. It will probably be impossible for others. The future validity and veracity of Christianity rests on their decision.
Ideas taken from: "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism", by John Shelby Spong
Those people who insist on Biblical literalism have become the unwitting accomplices in bringing about the death of Christianity as we know it and that they so deeply love. How strange that the success of fundamentalism guarantees the death of the very thing these folks love the most.
There is data that anyone who professes to be a Christian in the 21st century must embrace:
The age of the earth is 4-5 billion years. If the earth was created to hold human life, as the Bible says, then 99% of its physical history was pre-human. It’s hard to argue, therefore, for an earth created to "house" humans.
We now know that the earth is far from being the center of the universe. Our tiny planet is insignificant when compared to the size of the universe. And, as Einstein once said, "If we’re the only life in the universe, sure seems like a great waste of space".
The God who lived just above the sky and who would watch through holes in the firmament to see that we’re keeping all his rules, and who intervened in the life of this world to save a nation, or to deliver someone from peril, is no longer a deity to many who embrace the knowledge available in this century.
If that is the only way to think of God, then many will and are leaving the Christianity of the ancient framework. No appeal to an inerrant Bible will be able to bring back such a limited deity.
The real issues with the Bible as a whole, are not the ones mentioned here so far. The real issue is that in reality no one "really" believes the suppositions that underlie the Bible. Many modern Christians may say that they do, but not even the so-called "Bible believing Christians" really do. The true value of these Biblical suppositions is historic only. They give us a view of human experience in that historical time and place. The Bible relates to us how our ancient forebears understood and interpreted their world; how they made sense out of life, and how they thought of God.
Here in the 21st century our task is similar to theirs. We must interpret our world in light of our knowledge and suppositions available to us. We must make sense of life in terms of our understanding of meanings and values. We must think about God in our perceptions of a creator.
We shouldn’t look at the Bible as a literal roadmap (some would say handbook) to reality. We should see the Bible as an historic narrative of our ancient forbears in which they tried to understand life, the world, themselves, and God. It is perfectly fine to affirm some of the values they affirmed, but not all of them.
We look for and find meaning in divinity. But more often than not, we find God within rather than without. We are coming to the realization that God is not separate from us, but deep within and a part of us. We sense that God is the sum of all that is and something more (Panentheism). We find ourselves hard pressed to define that something more. Our language becomes sadly inadequate. We grapple with these ideas as we journey through our lives. On that journey, we may read the "scriptures" not so much for historic accuracy, but for the experience of those who have gone before and learn if we can from their experience. Hopefully, we can separate myths of the past from truth and the containers of the truth. It is not easy.
In the next post, I will continue to explore the imperative to re-interpret our framework of reality.
Every human experience is interpreted by the experiencing person within his/her framework of what he/she sees as reality. So it is with the Bible. The Bible is a book made up of human experiences couched within the framework of the writer’s reality. When knowledge expands that reality, but the experience is not modified to reflect that expansion, then the interpretive framework becomes inadequate for the reader. This is what has happened to the Bible. The interpretive framework of an ancient people and their writers does not fit the reality of a 21st century world, and it reveals the ignorance of the past. It is a useless enterprise for people of today to cling to all the objective truthfulness of the concepts of a society that is 2000+ years old.
A fundamentalist preacher of today has said, "The Bible isthe inerrant….. word of the living God. It is absolutely infallible, without error in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as well as in areas of geography, science, history, etc."
Is he kidding? Not in his mind. But one can conclude that he is very much unaware of vast areas of reality that are now common knowledge. The task of rethinking the Bible story in the terms of the new reality of which we have become aware has simply not been done by most people today who call themselves Christian. The mythology found within the Bible perpetuates the ancient framework of understanding, preventing the obvious changes in our reality to take hold.
Even the secular world has been extremely slow to discard the myths believed in ancient times. Weathermen on television still tell us everyday the times that the sun will rise and set, even though we know that the sun never moves. Our own language perpetuates those ancient myths and most times we don’t even realized it.
I really can understand why a new interpretive framework for our present reality is so hard to accept. It took me 59+ years to see that a change was needed in my own interpretations of who God is and how I relate to that Source of all. People have no desire change what has become comfortable to them. In fact, they will go to great lengths to preserve the ancient understandings and realities. Even if they have to become anti-intellectual and close off vast portions of their thinking processes to maintain the old realities. It is no wonder that they are afraid of knowledge. They are afraid that the knowledge will destroy their "faith security". What we have to understand is that their "faith security" cannot and will not survive. There is no prediction on my part of how long it will last, but as I see it, it is "on it’s last legs". The supporters of the ancient interpretive framework have no sense that there is alternative to that framework except death, despair, and meaninglessness. That is a very scary thing for them.
The Bible is rampant with these ancient interpretive frameworks. The creation story, the creeds of Christianity, and in the countless stories of the Biblical drama, these non-operative, pre-scientific interpretive frameworks perpetuate false views of the world. There are so many more that could be detailed such as: the wandering star of the birth narrative, the view of Sheol in the center of the earth, Joshua stopping the sun’s progression across the sky, and many others. But, the point is made. The implications, however, have not been dealt with. Those implications begin to take hold of our consciousness when we finally realize that we have assumed a biblical literalism in the construction of our theological understanding of God, Jesus, and even salvation.
In my next post, I would like to delve deeper into the need to reinterpret our framework of reality. For if we do not do so the Christian faith will soon be reduced to simply one more ancient mythology that will take its place along side the religions of Mt. Olympus.
Ellen, a commenter over at LRC, pointed me to Walter Starcke’s daily meditation. Wow, good stuff. Here’s today’s:
March 17 BE GREATFUL
You still feel a trace of anxiety. Instead of trying to figure it out or trying to resolve your problems release your difficulties by turning your thoughts to gratitude. Nothing encourages my presence so much as your gratitude. No matter how you feel or what anxieties appear, you can always stop and consciously center on all the blessings that we share. The Christ within you is unique in that every day it offers you the blessed gift of grace. Don’t try to figure it out. Just know that grace is your bridge between this world and my Kingdom. Grace is the moving power of the presence that I AM. I AM the grace that is living you. Be grateful.
*This is a repost from 2007 which has become particularly meaningful to me recently.
Have you ever gotten tired of hearing that worry, fear, anxiety, remorse, guilt, conflict, and distress are all a part of "normal" life, along with negative emotions, attitudes, and feelings? Some even suggest that these impedimenta are simply a result of "the fall". If someone exhibits one or more of these things, the "patient" is advised to seek a therapist to "get in touch with their feelings", rather than viewing these as an extended list of illusions which equal an "altered state" of human consciousness. We tend to think of an altered state of consciousness as an artificially produced abnormal state or something similar. When we think of pervasive negative influences in our lives, from birth, which act upon our consciousness, it becomes obvious that the mind of mankind meets the criteria of having been controlled, influenced, and, dare I say brainwashed, in a systematic and continuous manner by the very things which make up the above lists.
A child is born with the innocence of an unprogrammed consciousness, but then, like the hardware of a computer, he is systematically programmed with input,"software", which is societial and familial . What the child lacks is a anti-virus program which will help him ascertain which software is really "bad" for him and which is "good". The child will innocently believe anything he is told. The unprotected consciousness of the child then becomes prey to the collective ignorance, misinformation, and fallacious belief systems which have blighted man’s capacity for happiness for the last millenia. Even as adults we are not free from virus-filled input.
The truly "normal" state of consciousness is one that is free of all negativity and instead filled with joy and love. Anything else is based on illusion and perceptual distortions. I’m afraid we as a society and as parents share the blame for allowing this to manifest in the child. Because disease prevails in a society does not mean that disease is a normal condition. Throughout history, disease has prevailed in society and, in fact, has killed off large portions of the population, but that does not mean that it is a natural condition. Even the Black Plague disappeared.
According to some research, the inaccurate, fallacious, destructive, negative, and damaging "program data" received by mankind from childhood through adulthood, equals around 78% of the total input. Now that’s disturbing! Even more disturbing is the research which shows that in some subcultures of the population, such as criminal street-gangs, the percentage is close to 100%. The total productivity of whole nations and cultures can be subverted to destructive ends. Witness the subversion of the economies of Germany and Japan during World War II, which were subverted to mass destruction, not only of innocent victims but also of their own culture. Whole countries can be reduced to rubble by propaganda that is so ignorant and fallacious that one wonders, in retrospect, how anyone could have been gullible enough to buy it, much less sacrifice their lives for it.
What is the answer to this greatest of mankind’s problem of "bad programming"? I don’t have a simple answer. I do believe that all of us must be ready to make a total, comprehensive, and sweeping change in the way we "program" our children. Therein lies the problem…..Are we willing to do this? JOY & LOVE!
I learned more about love in the last four days than I have in the last four months. My 21 month old granddaughter spent the last four days with us. How is it that a 21 month old can teach an old man about love.
First, she loves unconditionally. I don’t understand why she loves me, but she does. When I don’t do everything I should with her, she still loves me. When I interrupt her playtime and make her take a nap, when she wakes up, she still loves me. When she wants something she can’t have, and she gets angry when I redirect her, in five minutes, it’s as if nothing happened, she still loves. When it’s bedtime and she really, really doesn’t want to go to bed and cries and cries when I put her down for sleep, the next morning she wakes happy as can be, and she still loves me.
Second, she and I don’t verbally communicate the way I do with adults, but communicate we do. There is unspoken communication between a grandfather and his granddaughter. Her eyes communicate more than words do. And, man what big eyes she has. She just melts me with them. I don’t understand everything she tries to communicate with me verbally, but that doesn’t seem to bother her. She keeps talking and I keep listening; and enjoying every minute of it. Who needs verbal communication when she crawls up in your lap and looks you in the eye and says one word, "Pops"(that’s what she calls me). I’m done in!! My lesson is over for now. She’s gone back home. I can’t wait for my teacher to return and give me my next lesson on unconditional love……..God has so many ways of teaching us about his unconditional love.
It’s okay to be at a place of struggle. Struggle is just another word for growth.
Even the most evolved beings find themselves in a place of struggle now and then. In fact, struggle is a sure sign to them that they are expanding; it is their indication of real and important progress.
The only one who doesn’t struggle is the one who doesn’t grow. So if you are struggling right now, see it as a terrific sign — and celebrate your struggle.
Stumble it!
