Hell

Hell is always an interesting topic. Once upon a time, I was terrified of Hell. After I found my way to my faith, I found so much beautiful inspiration in the Life of Jesus, but couldn’t help but be scared of so much in the Bible. Joshua was terrible. Revelation. Oh my heck.

There was my faith… and then came Religious Studies. I guess some would say that my “secular” education corrupted my mind. I put secular in quotations because my professors came from a diversity of religious backgrounds; many of my teachers were quite religious. Anything well-rounded considers many perspectives. That said, the majority of my professors were quite good at concealing their own views and all of them were always obvious about when they were interjecting their own view or when their perspective was at odds with scholarly consensus.

In any case, one of the things I learned throughout my educational experience at my university was that Hell is not real.

People understand Hell in very different ways. Here are the most common:

1. Hell exists as a type of torture for the evil and unjust (think of Dante’s Divine Comedy). Lots of fire and brimstone. Especially brimstone.
2. The descriptors of Hell in the Bible are metaphorical. Hell is separation from God, which feels like torture once we know what that separation is like. Is this the progressive view? I don’t know.
3. Hell? What? Silly, silly religious person.

I would call my view 3.5, because few people have it (because few people have studied Religious Studies, I suppose). References to Hell are not spacial metaphors, not descriptors of physical places to spark the imaginations of the faithful. THEY ARE NOT METAPHORS. This doesn’t mean that at 123 Hell Street you can knock on the door of the inferno, it means Gehenna was a real place. It wasn’t a metaphor. The references to “Hell” in the Bible are references to real, terrible places that people were outcast to in ancient times. They speak of cultures which really did things like sacrifice babies in fire. They aren’t metaphors. There is no Hell. There were some terrible places in ancient times, as well as people that exaggerated the terribleness of their neighbors.

One of my professors can recall conversations with Pastors in which they discuss this type of thing. The Pastor will agree that there is no Hell… but he is going to keep preaching on Hell because fear works.

I don’t want the type of religion that uses what it knows to be falsehoods to manipulate the masses. Certainly many Christians and many pastors genuinely believe in Hell. I believe that they are misinformed and could do well to take a class from Brent Walters.

Meditation Noise 11: Tropical Rain

I invite you to meditate for 5 or 10 minutes:

Tin Roof Rain

Seeing Red

“You cannot know what is red by merely thinking of redness.  You can only find red things by adventuring amid physical experiences in this actual world” (Whitehead, 256).

This quotation speaks to Whitehead’s assertion that “eternal objects tell no tales as to their ingressions” (256).  While this idea is perhaps a simple one, his example of redness shares an analogical truth: whatever passed down knowledge we may absorb from books, documentaries, or other sources of “information,” we don’t truly understand the world through learning.  Just as actual occassions are dipolar, humans need both physical and theoretical access to the world in order to most meaningfully experience it.  One can substitute a number of words for “red” (justice, love, compassion, fairness) and find great meaning.

This speaks to the reality of seminary, for me.  Much of what we do constricts our physical interaction with the world by virtue of asking us to spend a great amount of time focusing on the theoretical– reading and lectures.  While we are often given “practical” assignments, internships, and opportunities to put our theoretical knowledge into the world in a variety of ways, the majority of what we do is interacting with “passed down” knowledge.  This knowledge is foundational and will allow us to bring our internal library of theoretical knowledge to our interaction with the physical world, but no amount of reading about compassion conveys or teaches the reality of what compassion is– one must experience it in “this actual world.”  One can read about love forever, but without experiencing love, the words lack their full meaning.

If, in a cosmology of process, diversity of experience leads to more possibility, more intensity, and is a goal of life, the most fulfilling life is one in which we maximize both our study and our in-the-world-ness.  Experiencing a diversity of things will allow us to know the world more fully and intensely and to make connections between our poles of experience.  The more we think and act on justice, the more we understand what it is to be just.  The more we both think and act on love, the more we understand what it is to be loving and loved.  The more justice and love we pour into the world, the more future generations will have to build on in their own re-working of the universe toward a more just, compassionate, loving world.  

Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality: Corrected Edition, ed. by David Ray Griffin and Donald W. Sherburne.  New York: The Free Press, 1978.

The Church Needs More Heretics

Church shouldn’t be a place about defining rigidly thought and practice. It should be a place for exploring God, experiencing God, and challenging our minds and hearts about God. The God that is boxed and defined and worshiped along prescripted, formulaic lines (exclusively), is a God that becomes boring and bored with us. If I ate a tuna sandwich every day for lunch, I would probably, ultimately, decide that I wasn’t into tuna sandwiches anymore or that I wanted one very infrequently.

My imaginary church is called “Ritual Evolution: A Reclaiming Church” (or something like that.  Divergent Spirit Ministries?  Maybe partnership with product?) 

I would so love to be a part of a church that offered worship full of old, meaningful ritual that ties us to centuries of people worshiping and that is a community center that fosters bringing divinity into our lives fully and holistically. Classes, a store, a library… exploration of practices and ideas and scripture. Justice work.

Here are some of my ideas for my imaginary church: Church!

I want my church to be about making better people, a better world, rooting ourselves in the rituals that have given life to our ancestors for generations, challenging our minds and hearts, and welcoming all kind people.

It needs to be low Christology and low church, a “lowest common denominator” kind of theology that can be welcoming, exploratory, and multivalent. But maybe with some incense.

Anti-Queer Christian Arguments

In the current debate over homosexuality, the Bible has very little to say at all— though you certainly would not know it from listening to many church leaders, both fundamentalist and mainline. In this case especially, the use of claims to biblical authority for supporting textually tenuous positions is manifestly apparent. At the most generous estimate, the entire Bible contains only nine brief references to homoeroticism, six in the Hebrew Bible and three in the New Testament, occupying in all less than twelve verses of text. And even those numbers are misleading, since four of the references in the Hebrew Bible… may actually simply be prohibitions against prostitution by men and women and two of the references in the New Testament… are based on interpretations of Greek words whose exact meanings are actually unknown or unclear. This leaves two references in the Holiness Code of Leviticus… and Paul’s one assertion in Romans as to what he thinks is “natural” and “unnatural” (the only citation in the Bible that even mentions female homoeroticism, if that is indeed what it is about) as the sole biblical witness for a modern Christian rejection of homosexuality. Jesus in the gospels says absolutely nothing about the subject…
—Mary Ann Tolbert

Let’s also consider that the 2 remaining references in Leviticus are among many other prohibitions that we blatantly disregard in light of the New Covenant through Jesus. Unless you’re also upholding Sabbath laws, purity laws regarding periods and ejaculation, and Kosher food laws, among many others, don’t selectively claim that business.

Since that leaves us with one remaining quotation from Romans, let us consider that Paul’s ideas of what is natural and unnatural are derived from understandings of gender roles. He suggests it is unnatural for women to be dominant or men to be submissive, as he sees as a requirement for the act. Are we willing to accept these views of gender roles as part of adopting this last attempt at biblical support for anti-homosexual views? Additionally, even if we can accept those gender roles, we have to consider again, “natural” and “unnatural.” Animals in nature practice homosexuality. What do we make of that? Animals aren’t capable of sin, are they? Why would God create homosexual animals?

Bible-based anti-homosexual perspectives are ones that give preferential treatment to those Biblical passages which are vastly outnumbered by other prohibitive themes and require specific translation uses to even suggest that they are, indeed, prohibitive of homosexuality. Such passages are tenuous and overwhelmed by other, contrary Biblical themes which have far more textual support than the maximum of nine passages that folks claim, but which we can see should dwindle to a singular passage that must elevate Paul to the paramount voice of Biblical authority. Such a treatment of the Bible necessarily gives selective authority to an extremely small section of the scripture in such a way that it is completely indefensible and validates one’s own worldview (or the worldview of folks in power in your religious institution). Claiming anti-gay rights perspectives as religiously justified is hypocritical. People like to claim the Bible as justification because it validates preconceptions and fears that are perpetuated in certain circles, just like the Bible was used to support oppressing women and minorities. Anyway…

Eucharistic Blessing from the Didache, approx. 70 AD

Eucharistic Blessing from the Didache, approx. 70 AD
seekinguncertainty:

“We thank you, O our Father, for the Holy vine of David your child, which you have made known to us by your child Jesus. Yours be the glory forever.”

Notice the similarity in “titling” Jesus and David.

“We thank you, O our Father, for the life and knowledge which you have made known to us by your child Jesus. Yours be the glory forever. As this broken bread was once scatted in grains upon the mountains, and being gathered together became one; so let your church be gathered together from the ends of the earth unto your kingdom. Yours is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ forever.”

If that isn’t beautiful… That all may be one. Through time and space, we gather together in the ritual given to us by Christ.

Prayer of thanks for after the meal:

“We thank you, holy Father, for your holy name which you have made to dwell in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality which you have made known to us by your child Jesus. Yours be the glory forever. You, O Almighty Sovereign, did create all things for your name’s sake, and gave men food and drink to enjoy, that they might give thanks unto you; but to us did you graciously give spiritual food and drink and life eternal, through your child. Before all things we give thanks to you for that you are mighty. Yours is the glory forever. Remember, O Lord, your church to deliver her from all evil and to perfect her in your love; and gather her together from the four winds, her that is sanctified unto your kingdom which you did prepare for her. For yours is the power and the glory forever. Let grace come, and this world pass away. Hosanna to the God of David. If any is holy let him come; if any is not let him repent. Maranatha. Amen.

The translation used is by Charles Taylor, Master of Cambridge.

The Vedas

The Vedas provide some of the clearest evidence for the ancient shift in religious thought and practice that some call an “axial age shift.” What styles of religion existed in India before and after this shift? What part of the Vedas best represents religion before the shift, and what part best represents religion after the shift? Give examples of ideas or practices that represent the “before” and “after” religious styles.

When reading the Vedas, the shift in religious ideas through time becomes obvious. The earlier Rig Vedas, for instance, are more concerned with the issues facing this world. The later texts are more concerned with the inner self and renouncing the luxuries of this world. There is a large change in the philosophies of Hinduism through time.

In the first three categories of the Vedas (Samhitas, Aranyakas, Bramanas), there is a large focus on ritual and praise. These are done with the intent of gaining things back from the gods, like a good harvest or rain in times of drought. Initially, religion in India was concerned with this world. This is also somewhat obvious with the apparent use of drugs (soma) and ritual sacrifice. Although these things are supposed to directly affect the gods, they are also very strongly affecting our experiences “here and now” and meant to bring more response from the ritual to this world.

Later on, in the “axial age,” roughly when the Upanishads were written, there is a shift in what outcomes religious practice is supposed to achieve. Practice is no longer for a better harvest, it is for internal betterment– to liberate oneself from samsara: to be free from the very world that Indians were previously trying to maintain. The Upanishads focus on renouncing the material nature of this world and giving up all attachments. This is completely different from the Vedas, that sought to change and maintain the world, not get out of it and reject it.

The change in Indian religious thought is apparent in the writings of the Vedas. With the Upanishads develops an entirely different kind of thinking about what is important in religion and religious practice.

Quote

"It is about bringing God out of the sky and redefining God as the ultimate dimension of the human. It is about the spirit transcending the limits of the flesh, not in some pious or religious sense, but in opening the flesh to all that it means to be human. It is about seeing Jesus as the doorway into a new consciousness, which is also a doorway into God, who might be perceived as a universal consciousness."
John Shelby Spong for the win

Ritual

What is ritual? What is ritualization?



Ritual is habitual action that can be categorized as formal (proscribed, rigid navigation of relationships, generally power relationships), functional (navigating life passages like marriage or death), or symbolic (pointing to greater, more ultimate meaning); Grimes articulates ranges of ritual from habitual to celebratory. Ritualization is imbuing ordinary objects or actions with symbolic and ultimate meanings. While ritual can take many forms and can be distinguished from “habit” by a seeming 6th sense, ritualization can be navigated and broken down in counter-cultural ways that can redeem hegemonies. Catherine Bell challenges us to use ritualization to break down the lenses through which we view many rituals as well as challenge the ways we perceive and navigate the world.

Confidence

(Source: donutguts, via spinachandmushrooms)

The Problem With Calling Things Evil

By calling someone evil, one others the evil and objectifies the evildoer.  In calling something evil, one stops asking why.  Why?  Why did the evil happen?  If one says Osama bin Laden was evil, one doesn’t examine what made a man a terrorist and allows opportunity for more terrorism– more evil– to manifest because we are not addressing its causes except to suggest that we have no control over them.

God and Science

Religion is never about facts. Our ancestors knew this, despite their lack of knowledge about so much else. This is apparent in the ways they kept histories. True beauty is seldom derived from fact.

As much as Humanity has learned throughout history, one broad failure is the way we have treated religion. We, as a species, love to learn. (It’s a good thing.) Problems, however, come when we try to defend old “knowledge” in the face of new.

Take any creation myth. While centuries ago, believing a culture’s creation myth to be literally true my not have been so absurd and illogical, it certainly is today. Really, now– even the Pope believes in evolution. The problem arises when we try to make an old system fit into our new paradigm. Creationists who try to use science to defend their theories (which science clearly does not) or who posit that God is trying to fool us in a test of faith (really?) are making silly attempts at defending an illogical belief.

Perhaps what we should be asking ourselves is not how to defend our myths, but how to better understand them. After all, there is little reason to believe the point of any scripture is to establish facts. There is little reason to believe our ancestors took such care in preserving our tradition so that we can know how long it took to form our world. In all reality, knowing the specifics of creation is about as useful as me knowing the name of whoever built my desk– not very.

Why should we get our panties in a bunch about something that wasn’t the point of the story and in the grand scheme of things is rather peripheral? The point of scripture is its meaningful aspects; those aspects cannot be affected by science or history and needn’t be at odds with them. Perhaps we can derive from Genesis a story about how beautiful our natural world is. Perhaps we can see how the increasing diversity in our world is a great pleasure to God. Perhaps we can see that it is impossible to deceive God. Perhaps we can learn that the pursuit of knowledge can be horribly damaging if it’s in defiance of morality. Perhaps we can find that our actions are only ever our own and that placing blame on God or others cannot justify acts of betrayal. Not one of these lessons is derived from the “facts.” They’re from the story. The details of the story are not why it’s been repeated for thousands of years; it’s the lessons that we are supposed to remember. My belief in evolution doesn’t contradict any of these lessons. 

What the evolving human mind needs to do is not to suspend logic for fear of displeasing a puppet master god, but to embrace logic and use it to unpack scripture which has provided spiritual sustenance to our species for generations upon generations.

We should approach scripture with the hearts of children and the minds of scholars. We deserve no less.

Stripping Away the Doctrine

I have had a magical experience with my religion. I realize that most people have not because institutionalized religion tends to be boring and/or terrible.

I have mentioned before how damaging doctrine has been for the masses. So many people have never been able to relate to the Bible because someone told them what everything meant before they ever read it. It’s like Cliff Notes, if Cliff Notes gave you the wrong answer and then told you you were crap, even if you did your homework.

There are so many different Christian perspectives that it is difficult to make generalizations about what anyone believes, but it seems like no Christians know that. So-and-so talks about transubstantiation as if everyone knows and believes that.

Original sin and immaculate conception and apostolic succession and orthodoxy and papal infallibility and even if you know what all of those words mean, you are bored. Even the most pious of Christians seldom understand their church’s doctrinal positions because most of it doesn’t matter to us, it matters to some cardinals and dead Romans.

When our youth and young adults have their first experiences exploring the Bible, the passages are too often presented like math problems. Instead of letting people explore and get their hands dirty in the incredibly complex, horrifying, beautiful, and passionate stories that were so important to the generations telling them and passing them on, our churches tend to make them stories to memorize. Those stories have pre-determined meaning. In my mind, it’s like our churches are making us read Animal Farm in Mandarin and telling us it’s definitely about the diets of pigs and if we think it’s about something else, we are definitely going to Hell.

I mean, if your freshman English teacher tried that, you’d think they were a loon, yet when our churches do, we say, “Yes, sir,” because for some terrible reason, we think they speak for God.

I found Christianity as an adolescent and I really found it as an adult. After taking a class in my university’s Comparative Religious Studies program, I became far more religious and passionate than I ever did after a Sunday Mass or Worship. All of that reading I’d done to try to get closer to the Bible, all of those commentaries… I’d been letting a bunch of idiots tell me what to believe when it turned out that the Bible is messy and complicated and so much better than the wordy rule book that so many pastors try to sell us.

The problem is that by the time the young adult has made it to young adulthood, they’re often exhausted by their religion. Now that Mom and Dad aren’t making them get up every Sunday morning and sit through an hour of saccharine “Jesus Love You!” crap or “You’re Going to Hell!” crap or reciting a pledge to the One and Holy Catholic Church that exhibits exactly how antiquated Catholic practice is… now that no one’s forcing them to get up early in order to spend and hour watching that same parade of nonsense, they don’t want to. Surprise, surprise! They’re exhausted, bored, and bitter.

I’m in my 20s, guys. All of my friends are exhausted, bored, and bitter about their religious upbringings. They’re interested in my perspectives and the things I say about religion, but they don’t want to go to church because CHURCH SUCKS. Let’s have coffee or cocktails and talk about things, but stained glass and structure are a slippery slope toward a mailing list that it took a lot of work to unsubscribe from.

This ended up somewhere different than where it started.

The early church was onto something with that agape meal. They knew that compassion, conversation, and a community you could trust and confide in: those were things that would grow a church.

Rewording

Our God who breathes through all things
We embrace your many names and forms
Let us follow your lure, that we may shed light on your purpose
Let us see that this world is your world.
Provide us our sustenance and forgive our imperfections
Help us to be forgiving of others and see your light within all.
Help us to lead lives of service and compassion and refrain from falling into traps of convenience and selfishness.
Your force is creativity, kinship, and Love, and will endure forever.
Amen.

Meditation Noise 10: Stream

I invite you to meditate for 10 minutes:

Stream