Documentary: "Vegucated"

I have to admit that at first, I thought it was dumb.  However, after Week 3, it really started to hit home.  What is your diet doing to your body?  How can you improve?

Doctrine and Process

Many theological understandings imagine God and the universe in ways that seem to have no useful implication, as if theological pursuit culminates in believing in round squares.  If understanding God ultimately ends without any practical application other than how to best ponder, I wonder the point of it is.  Perhaps my issue lies in what I consider “practical”: engagement with the external (as opposed to personal, internal piety).  I am not interested in understandings of God that violate my worldview as a 21st century person.    

We should foster dialogue that is more open, or less strict, articulating fewer particular beliefs and seeking resonance with feelings generated by Encounter or metaphorical language that could encompass a multiplicity of understandings.  Perhaps because I can resonate with the profundity of some emotions and connections, I can understand this as a conceptualization of divine qualities.  

I find a home in Process Theology because of its ability to describe a theology in ways that don’t contradict my understandings of the universe.  While Process Theology seems to understand some order to the universe, it doesn’t offer a God that is all-powerful in a way that makes me question the sometimes-cruel and often-bizarre happenings of nature or why I have an appendix.  While this removes from my understanding a God who can show up and save me from something, it also removes a God who is responsible for or complicit in suffering.  Lastly, the interconnectedness that calls us to responsibility is practical in a way that fits my need to engage it with my external world.  It’s a God I want to work with.

A Fish in Running Water

There are many ways of praying (not simply the “Dear God” forms that many of us are most familiar with), but for many of us, “Dear God” makes the most sense.  I feel compelled to say that many of us feel the need to verbalize (whether out loud or not) our petitions, laments, and confessions “to” God (perhaps more so if we have our roots in a Christian background).  I know no other way than through words to form thought or conceptualize my needs and feelings.  If God is understood in panentheistic terms, this becomes problematic for the needs we may have for petition, lament, confession, etc.  I think, however, that I can take comfort in knowing that the verbalization is for me and my needs, and that while no one may be “listening” in the anthropomorphic sense we imagine, the focus required to put things into heartfelt language can be what we need in order to “put things into the Universe” in a way that neglecting dialogue-esque forms of prayer cannot (at least for me) and to address our own place within God.  

Excellence

"All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare."

— Baruch Spinoza

A Belated Happy Easter

This poem is (obviously) titled "Temptation," but I like to think of it as "Resurrection":



First Easter in uniform for me:

Whole

"I am as real as my love and my despair."

— Paul Eluard

Whitehead

"Love neither rules, nor is it unmoved; also it is a little oblivious as to morals. It does not look to the future; for it finds its own reward in the immediate present."

— Alfred North Whitehead

Ministry

"There was no mastering divinity. My vocation was to love God and my neighbor, and that was something I could do anywhere, with anyone, with or without a collar. My priesthood was not what I did but who I was. In this new light, nothing was wasted. All that had gone before was blessing, and all yet to come was more."

— Barbara Brown Taylor // Leaving Church (via godoftheoppressed)

Theology

Most of my exposure to “Theology” (as a discipline) has been to works and theologians that I now understand as being a certain kind of theologians (Systematic).  As a Christian, I find Truth in the Bible as my sacred scriptures, but my understandings of the text are “heretical,” according to most.  Constructing ways to discuss traditional ideas in new light and redefine what I (/we) mean by the terms that have a certain historical meaning and connotation for many is an important task.  

Honesty with our historical tradition is imperative and is a large part of why re-imagining our theological message is such an important task for those of us who will be part of the future Church.  In order to address the world with a wide spirit and attend to the tangible, we need to re-work many of the paradigms that are pragmatically bankrupt.  We can find a multiplicity of meaning in our terms and find joy and humor as well as profound seriousness in that multiplicity.  If our ways of doing theology can make such parallels, we can form more inclusive communities.

Post Palestine: Grief and Meaning

After returning from Palestine, I struggled with a sense of grief.  I felt like my heart and mind were still there.  The real world was hard to navigate and I sunk into a type of numbness.  I had little patience for the trivialities of life and could hardly take my mind away from the Palestinian struggle.

Above:  From the church where Jesus is said to have wept for Jerusalem. Trying to remember the difference between hope and optimism. (at Mount of Olives)

I think that many of us lack the background necessary to understand the hearts and minds of those who are tied up in the conflict for land.

One of our tour guides, whose name I cannot use, told us a little story:

A Palestinian man and an Israeli man were arguing about the land.  "This is my land!" said the Israeli.  

"Surely not!  It is clearly mine!" said the Palestinian land.  They argued endlessly over the land and eventually thought to ask the land itself.   

"Whose land is this?"  they asked.

"I do not know," said the land, "but I know one thing: you will both be in it soon enough."

It is difficult to understand the thoughts and experiences of Israelis and Palestinians.  In a sense, you feel deep sympathy for both sides.  But it is also clear, once one opens their eyes and starts talking to people away from watchful eyes of Israeli authorities, that there is a clear imbalance of power and rights.

Above:  Sometimes my brain feels about as chaotic and seemingly disorganized as children’s artwork. It is helpful to remember that sometimes disorder makes sense. Sometimes what appears as chaos is the forming of a more concrete reality. Just as a child’s artwork will mature and eventually better communicate their intentions, so will the chaos of unrefined thoughts and feelings settle into a message. On that day… 

Here is a good video series that is fairly short and attempts to break down to conflict between the two peoples into historical periods:

Israeli Settlements, Palestinians, and You (link)

Written by a woman who was doing a tour with Chicago Theological Seminary while we were in the Holy Land.  They visited many different groups than we did, but we crossed paths more than once.

Justice is Central to Christianity

It is important, at least within my own context, to be able to frame positions scripturally.  Much of my tradition has ignored on-the-surface cries for justice within the gospels and turned toward a religion focused on soteriology.  Some of our foremost rituals, like the Eucharist, are rooted in justice… in the feeding with fish and loaves, in the radically inclusive meals that Jesus shared with followers.  Many of our churches need to get back to the roots of our stories and address the power structures of our own lives, a task that was central to the Jesus we find in the gospels.

Immersion Day 11: Last Day

On our last day, we began with a meeting at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.  Some of the information we received from varying organizations was redundant, but hearing the same figures over and over impressed upon me the reality.  These were not skewed statistics molded by radical liberal groups.  Especially hearing this from the U.N., such a reputable source in our world.  

Above:  Briefing from U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). (at United Nations) 

We then headed to the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, a Christian Zionist organization.  Our meeting was a essentially a sermon full of proof-texting.  The man who met with us pulled biblical quotations out to prove that God wants the Jews to return to Israel and has a special love for them.  It was a string of proof-texting mental cartwheels that disregarded biblical context.  I suppose we expected as much.  Christian Zionism holds that the world's Jews must return to Jerusalem before the second coming.  It's a strange theology that essentially wants all the Jews in the holy land so they can die in the apocalypse (unless they convert).  It is a damaging theology based in supercessionist values and an ignorant reading of the Bible.

Above:  (at القدس - Jerusalem)  Met with a Christian Zionist organization today. I struggle with what to say about that other than: you can proof-text anything.

Our last meeting was with the Rt. Rev. Dr. Munib Younan, Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land Free.  We had a conversation over a meal as he took a moment away from a conference he was participating in.  His holiness blew me away. I didn’t get a picture of him or the facility, but I was impressed by his commitment to justice. I am always uplifted by ministers who live the path of Jesus with such commitment.

Above:  "My dream is to have a summer school outside Bethlehem.  Every time we have a summer school, it's inside these walls.  I just want to go outside, be free, and have lots of room to play.  Just forget the wall, forget our prison.  When I grow up I'm going to be a creator.  I hope to have the power to change the wall and create it into something else.  Something that is harmless, that doesn't hurt people or imprison them."

In some of my communities, I often hear things like, “dream big.” It is such a tragedy to see what small dreams children in Palestine have. They dream of the simple things that many of us take for granted. So while we dream of peace, I hope that those of us capable of more than dreaming will do our part to make this world the kind of place where no child, no matter their religion, language, gender, or the color of their skin, has to dream of forgetting a wall.

Above:  Groupie with “the illustrious” Peter, our fearless leader, and some of the group.  (at East Jerusalem) 

After our final dinner, a few of us went to have a drink and Shisha:

Above:  Finally made it to “shisha.” Last night in the West Bank. (at East Jerusalem)

Google’s auto-awesome video of my trip to Jordan and Palestine. 

Authenticity

Religion that doesn’t resonate with our experiences will never fill us– it’s why there is such a diversity of worship experiences, religions, and spiritual practices.  I love that the UCC tries to reflect some of these diversities and its churches can stand together in community while offering different things that will feed different people.  Beyond that, a church that tries to act like it is still the 1500s is probably not doing its best to address the concerns of the people.  Certainly God “wants” us to be our authentic selves and to live fully into the world with our gifts and strengths.  Hopefully our churches can foster stories and language with universal value that can encourage people to be the best, most true versions of themselves.

Thomas Groome

"To ‘lead people out’ requires that we ourselves be ever moving inward to move outward and that we be turned toward becoming in the likeness of whose Image we are forming and being formed."

— Thomas H. Groome, from Christian Religious Education: Sharing Our Story and Vision

Meeting

It is important to meet people where they are, to understand their experiences and what they bring to a church setting, and to respect the varied experiences that we each have.  When we allow people to authentically live and voice their experiences, we do a kind of justice: we challenge the forces that have led people to think they can’t be who they authentically are or voice their truths.  It is important for us to remember how the invitation to authenticity and voice must be on the surface of our churches if we intend to create communities that can transcend some folks’ understanding of church and welcome them into a place that is safe, loving, and will advocate for the truths we hold together.

Poverty

"Poverty was created by us because we really haven’t lived into His vision of loving our neighbor as ourselves and of really understanding that someone else’s suffering needs to be mine and it demands something of us. When you have a massive disparity between the rich and the poor, that is unsustainable.
The world is never going to be safe as long as masses of people are living in poverty so that a handful of people live however they want. It’s all of our responsibility to figure out how the great gifts that this world has are shared amongst the people."

—

Shane Claiborne (via azspot)

(via museandmirth)

This is so important!  ”THE WORLD IS NEVER GOING TO BE SAFE AS LONG AS MASSES OF PEOPLE ARE LIVING IN POVERTY SO THAT A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE LIVE HOWEVER THEY WANT.”

How are we complicit in systems that keep people in poverty?  In what ways to the ripples I create by living my life touch other people?  Is this shirt supporting a system of human trafficking?  Is this beef heavily contributing to global warming in ways that will foremost affect communities living in poverty?  Is this store I shop at paying people unlivable wages?  Do my voting habits adversely affect particular demographics?  Is our education system neglecting certain populations and perpetuating cycles of poverty?  Is this TV station I watch fairly representing people or is it offering ignorant and damaging views of people?

Immersion Day 10: Jerusalem

Our first activity on the 10th day was a meeting with a government official.  I am not going to say anything more about that due to safety concerns.

After that meeting, we went to Rawdat al-Zuhur primary school, which is a school for Palestinian youth, including many refugee children.  They work to create hope and opportunity in the lives of these children. 

Above:   (at East Jerusalem)  The “values tree” at Rawdat El Zahur, the school for Palestinian children we visited. Each graduating class (6th grade) adds another word to the tree. Such a lovely idea. 

 

Above:  Group Shot at the school with one of the teachers.  

Our last activity was time at Yad Va Shem:

Above:  (at Yad Vashem - The Holocaust Remembrance)  One of the other things we did today: the Holocaust Remembrance Museum. We were not allowed to take pictures inside.  

Above:  (at Bethlehem, West Bank)  In some of my communities at home, you often hear things like, “dream big.” It is such a tragedy to see what small dreams children in Palestine have. They dream of the simple things that many of us take for granted. So while we dream of peace, I hope that those of us capable of more than dreaming will do our part to make this world the kind of place where no child, no matter their religion, language, gender, or the color of their skin, has to dream of forgetting a wall.

Our trip is getting close to its end.  Our next day will hold meetings with the U.N. and a Christian Zionist organization.

Check out this half hour documentary:

Lovely

I love that my classmate, Terra, brings Jasmine to class. Add in that Rabbi Pearce brings in sweets and my class satisfies so many senses! 

Why Church?

We needn’t “convert” people who are happy in their lived experience.  I do think, however, that many people reject the idea of church based on their personal experiences of church.  There are many reasons that this is healthy for folks, but I see many of my friends reaching out for spiritual practices completely other than “Christian” because they perceive “Christianity” to be a particular thing that is completely unlike the way that I practice my Christianity.  These friends often hold onto more “conservative” or “traditional” understandings of God than I do, yet feel that church cannot possibly encompass their “heresy” or be anything other than a money-grubbing harbor for pedophiles.  These perceptions are certainly earned, but I want to re-brand, in a sense, what Christianity, church, and religion can be.  I want people to know that they can be welcomed and embraced in a church environment and that church needn’t be synonymous with dry ritual and/or dogmatic theologies that are at odds with modern science and lived experience.  I find joy in my worship experience and I want to spread it.  In that sense, I “advertise” my faith.  One might call it conversion, but I hope it is invitation more so.  I want people to come to my church because I think it is a wonderful place; I don’t, however, think anyone’s rejection or disinterest in my church is problematic.  We all have different paths.  

Church for the Non-Religious

My friends are mostly of an atheistic or agnostic variety and almost none of them attend church.  A common challenge I face is to explain the kind of faith I think is possible to those who have very clear visions of what God and Church are, based on their (limited) experience of it.  Those experiences are real and true to the reality that church has been a damaging place on many levels and in many ways in its various manifestations.  My congregation is filled with people who left church because of its abuses and have returned, feeling both angry and in need of spiritual wholeness.  Those who don’t make it back in, though, are often in the same place but incapable of conceptualizing a church that has a place for someone who understands the world the way they do.  In recognizing that sometimes these folks make it in on an experiment, by the nudging of a friend or peer, or because their niece is being baptized, it’s important to both paint the church in its truths and its resistance to old paradigms, but also to be theologically clear in our articulations of who we think God is and can be in our lives and of what we think church is and can be in our lives.  I think that helping people re-imagine God and the church can be very healing and can help bridge the gap between the bitter ex-religious and the enthusiastic progressive churchgoers, a step that’s very important.  Many of my friends commented about how wonderful my church was as they perceived it through my wedding ceremony last year… but none of them have shown up on a Sunday.  They have re-imagined what a church community can be and have been healed, in a sense, by witnessing that truth… I still wonder what it takes (beyond a massive, expensive media campaign) to get people to be willing to get up early on a Sunday morning.

Individualistic Faith

"Our trusting relationship with a God who saves in Jesus Christ cannot be allowed to reduce or make superfluous human initiative and works, led, in Dulles’ words, to ‘equally sharp antitheses between Gospel and law, between the heavenly and the earthly kingdoms.’  As a result, it was easier to understand salvation exclusively in  'individualistic and other-worldly terms.’  But when Christian faith is seen as a response to the Kingdom, then no matter how boldly we trust, our relationship with God must also find expression in a life lived by the mandate of the Kingdom, the mandate to love God BY loving our neighbor.  Without such living, faith is dead (see James 2:20)."

—

Thomas H. Groome, from Christian Religious Education

I don’t agree with some of this theology, but I definitely agree with the main point.  Individualistic faith will be the death of Christianity.

Immersion Day 9: Refugees Since 1948

Our next day began with a meeting with the Y.W.C.A. in Palestine.  Their work is impressive.  They do much to empower young women in Palestine and work to create hope among Palestinian youth, who often feel like there is no future for them or their people.  After meeting with some of their leadership and learning about some of the work that they do, they took us to a preschool they operate in a refugee camp.

We next visted Jalazone, a Palestinian refugee camp.  The conditions there were terrible and they lacked basic infrastructure.  There was severe overcrowding and unemployment.  This, like many camps, has been here since 1948.  This community has been displaced for a very long time and has been living in poverty and under oppression the entirety of most of their lives.

In Jalazone, we visited a preschool started by the W.Y.C.A. in Palestine.

Above:  (at جلزون Jalazun)  Y.W.C.A. has created an oasis for children in the midst of the terrible realities of life for refugees. The bright paint against the backdrop of wires and dirty, falling-apart buildings illustrates how hope and determination are in and of themselves forms of resistance.

Above:  Hope inside the YWCA preschool (at جلزون Jalazun)

 Images from inside the camp:

One of the community leaders gave us a power point presentation on the experience of this community.  They offered us coffee and gave us a tour of the community, where we met many people and were followed by a group of children.  We were clearly the excitement for the day.  As you can see, the conditions here are terrible.  The air quality is noticeably different.  Homes are small and crowded and there is no community space.  Everything is taken up by buildings.  

Despite the oppressive conditions and political realities that face this group of people, they are trying their best to meet the community's needs while advocating for change.  The people are under constant threat of violence, lack basic necessities, and have few prospects for mobility or agency.

Much of Western news media paints communities like these as extremist and terrorist.  Nonviolent protests are often met with police violence.  People in these communities should have the right to resist this kind of oppression.  We encountered nothing but hospitality and kindness.

Above:  Clearly they are raising children to hate Americans, right? (At Jalazone Refugee Camp)

"Our religion teaches us not to kill. We don’t kill children,“ says the mother of a child who was shot in the head and killed by Israeli forces during a nonviolent protest (to be clear, Judaism also preaches the sanctity of life). All he had on him was bread and a bag of chips in a backpack. They say they "accidentally” shot him in the head when he bent down to pick up a rock– they were aiming for his leg. As if it somehow makes sense to shoot a child with a rock, even if it is true. Her son is lost. Her land is lost. Her everything is lost. They have no justice for any of it. 

Above:  (at Jalazone) This child was also shot, simply walking to his U.N. school for refugee children. His ear is also bandaged. He wants me to take a picture (though not of his face), to show people what it is like to be under Israeli occupation.

After our time in Jalazone and a lunch in Ramallah, we met with a Quaker leader in Palestine, Jean Zaru.

This was on the wall at their facility:

Above:   This imagery is so intense. Over the past couple of days, we have spoken with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim activists, all of whom are disappointed with leadership on both sides. What is clear, however, is that all of them believe, although they disagree on many things, that continuing expansion and human rights abuses must stop. 

Sin

"…To treat [people] as less than subjects [peers, as opposed to objects] is an expression of our sinfulness, rather than a corrective for theirs."

—

Thomas H. Groome, from Christian Religious Education: Sharing our Story and Vision

This is from a text on Christian Religious Education (obviously), but I think this rings true outside of classroom contexts.  

I think, in particular, of many religious folks’ tendencies to demean the identities of people who identify as LGBTQ.  People justify “mistreating” people or talking down to them because of their “beliefs.”  It says in the Bible that blah, blah, blah, so your lifestyle is blah, blah, blah.

This kind of self-righteousness (we’ll leave alone the ignorance), this tearing-down of identity– which is what treating anyone as “less than” effectively does– is reflective of sin.  

Treating anyone as “less than” is my sin, not theirs.  God calls me to Love, not to judgment.  To sin is to miss the mark, to act in ways that are not reflective of my own divine spark.  Any time I don’t give someone their full respect as a beautiful, God-filled person, I am not respecting God’s world.