tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77742427581897312962024-03-04T23:39:19.028-08:00Expanding the Circlelife as poetry: reflections on theology, interreligious dialogue, human relationships, and reconciliationAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-18709057421661826142016-01-31T04:49:00.001-08:002016-01-31T04:49:56.977-08:00McMurry Student Panel at the ParliamentI've decided to start blogging again. Here is a brief look at the Parliament of the World's Religions through the eyes of some of my students at McMurry University.<br />
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I am proud of the student panel from McMurry that presented at the Parliament. They were in my Sociology of Religion class during the Fall 2015 semester. Here is a link to an article I wrote about them for <i>The Interfaith Observer.</i><br />
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<a href="http://theinterfaithobserver.org/journal-articles/2015/12/5/shedding-religious-exclusivism-in-the-college-classroom.html" target="_blank">"Shedding Religious Exclusivism in the College Classroom"</a><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-37603344811280388482012-12-20T06:51:00.000-08:002012-12-20T06:51:38.228-08:00Biblical Abuse<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">This is one of my more recent poems. It probably is not great poetry, simply a poetic attempt to express something inside of me. My intent is not to offend, but to protest the sloppy and condescending use of the word biblical. This powerful adjective is frequently used to modify a perspective in a way that says, "My view is 'biblical' and, therefore, represents God's side over against any other perspective." The problem is that EVERY interpretation of the Bible is just that, an INTERPRETATION. There is no such thing as THE biblical view of anything (my view included). Everything is interpreted.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">BIBLICAL ABUSE</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m
beginning to hate the word biblical<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When
it is used as an adjective<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To
justify shallow dogma.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">biblical
lifestyle<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">biblical
counseling<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">biblical
marriage<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">biblical
dating<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">biblical
weight loss<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">biblical
womanhood<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">biblical
manhood<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">biblical
illusions, all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
hate the word biblical.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It
isn’t the Bible that I hate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
love her stories, myths, parables, and legends<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That
disclose the messiness of human life<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
seek to understand <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">God’s
involvement in the mess.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But
I hate the word biblical<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Presumptuously
describing <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What
“should” be <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When
we all know that the “should” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Is
falsely absolutized <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Relativity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Constructed
of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Self-righteous
illusion<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-17050160051386233902012-10-26T22:23:00.000-07:002012-10-26T22:23:12.956-07:00A Dignity Observed by Mark Waters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLsTOJPL3A-SmrtjjHWA9N0m78cKGmaQG4GFZgDhdexrc7TSBXjbPaGIyT-WNRHAoPX2xmXtQIEwbRY7vbFoZ7Gs0A9N4hDlKCJOMt4b8crAIPeYE24Yt5DpeQ4DpNt1tESGivtvVYrLA/s1600/rosa_parks_405.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLsTOJPL3A-SmrtjjHWA9N0m78cKGmaQG4GFZgDhdexrc7TSBXjbPaGIyT-WNRHAoPX2xmXtQIEwbRY7vbFoZ7Gs0A9N4hDlKCJOMt4b8crAIPeYE24Yt5DpeQ4DpNt1tESGivtvVYrLA/s320/rosa_parks_405.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She stands with statuesque dignity <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On a tired, tired day,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A day preceded by too many days of back
bus <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Indignity,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A day exhausted by countless days of
weary<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Injustice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Finger prints try to steal her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Identity,
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Prints inked-black on paper cards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <i>But<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Her identity will not be flattened <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Into
parchment solitude. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Her solitude is not isolated,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> But
in solidarity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With all who have been pushed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Back,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To the back of the bus or to a
shame-filled<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Place<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the shadows of the Heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Keep your seat,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Let
the Heart-shadows be drenched in <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Light.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Keep your seat, centered in the dignity
of your own beautiful<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Heart,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That light-filled place that is<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <i>You!<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then stand!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Stand with statuesque<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Dignity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the Identity that cannot be
inked-black on paper cards. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Stand with dignity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the light-filled center of your own<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> True
Heart! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-44847551736198614552012-10-06T07:14:00.000-07:002012-10-06T12:59:46.475-07:00Blessed By Diversity in India<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Will we be remembered for what we
create or for what we destroy?</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">McMurry Assistant Chaplain Tim
Palmer captured my imagination with this question during a McMurry University
mission trip to India. At the time he raised the question, we were touring the
Ellora Caves near Aurangabad, in the state of Maharashtra, India. These are not
naturally occurring caves. Over a period of centuries, Hindu, Jain, and
Buddhist artisans painstakingly carved full size temples into the side of a
mountain. Later, many of the statues in the caves were defaced by Mogul
warriors who feared idolatry.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Religion
at its worst identifies itself through an enemy, through what it hates or
destroys.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> I’m
not singling out a particular religion. Few major religions can claim
innocence. There are groups of people in virtually every religion that find their
identity in opposing others, sometimes violently, sometimes simply with a
holier-than-thou silence. I realize as I write this article—or as you read it—that
if we are primarily thinking of those “other” religions that define themselves
through opposition to an enemy, then we’ve missed the point. We have to look at
ourselves first. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">A major dimension of human
development, of course, is self-definition through opposition, thus the
“terrible twos” and adolescence. Destructive problems arise, however, when
biological adults continue to define their religious identity at a “terrible
two” or adolescent level. I’m not ignoring the fact that there are major
problems in the world that we must resist. There <i>is</i> much in the world that is hurtful, violent, and destructive that
we need to resist, nonviolently. But there is a huge difference between resisting
that which is destructive, on the one hand, and, on the other hand,
constructing our religious identity through what we oppose or hate. Mission
trips and study abroad opportunities can teach us to identify ourselves through
what we love rather than through what we oppose or hate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In his newest book, <u>Why Did
Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a
Multi-Faith World</u>, Brian McLaren invites us to a creative rather than a
destructive way of dealing with religious difference. He answers the question
posed in the title this way: <b><i>to get to the “other.”</i></b> They <i>crossed
the road to get to the “other</i>.” He asserts, I think accurately, that if
Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed met on the road, they would learn to get
along with each other much better than many of their followers have. And they would
lead us to encounters where we would discover each other as God’s children
rather than as enemies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">McMurry in Motion initiatives to
India and elsewhere help us to experience the reality that all God’s children
are just that, God’s children. All are sisters and brothers. While in India, we discovered sisters and brothers of diverse faith backgrounds at St. John English School, at New Beginnings Children's Home, among a group of people with leprosy, and in the diversity of Indian culture. The Rev. John Dongerdive, and all the leaders of Life Light Ministries (the umbrella ministry for St. John and New Beginnings), exhibit genuine faith while, simultaneously, working in loving relationship with people of other faiths. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Students, and all
of us who participate in McMurry study abroad and mission initiatives, have the
golden opportunity to learn to work together with the religious and cultural “other”
to create a better world. If “mission” is essentially about sharing God’s love,
then surely loving and finding community with the religious “other” is central
to our mission. More, it is a means of taking responsibility for creating peace
in the world. <b><i>Will we be remembered for what we create or for what we destroy?</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-38664037179836004372012-08-23T02:07:00.000-07:002012-08-23T02:07:23.000-07:00FINDING RUMI'S FIELD<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
following poem, <i>Finding Rumi’s Field</i>,
alludes to this poem by Rumi:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span class="bigcap"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">O</span></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">ut beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">there is a field. I'll meet you there.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">When the soul lies down in that grass,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">the world is too full to talk about.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ideas, language, even the phrase "each
other" doesn't make any sense.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">~Mevlana Jelaluddin
Rumi - 13th century</span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<h2>
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #660000;">Finding
Rumi’s Field</span></span></i></b></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Tell
me O Wise One,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Who
dwells in the watery depths<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of
inky-blue fog,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Where
is now?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When
is here?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Take
my hand, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lead
me there,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That
I may dwell in the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Wisdom
of eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
have strayed into the future,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
have collapsed into the past, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
have lived in the land of nowhere,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Show
me the way home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">O
Wise One,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Who
is always now,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Who
is always here, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
created a future where you were not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
wandered into a past without Wisdom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Rumi
told me of Your dwelling place<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
the imagination of my dreams,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and
rightdoing there is a field.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’ll meet you there.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Take
my hand,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lead
me home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then
the Wise One<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Took
my hand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
clasp of the hand<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Itself
is home,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Is
here<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Is
now. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For
in the clasp of the hand <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We
met in Rumi’s field.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We
entered a space that, indeed, we never left<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Except
in the straying search of future and past.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We
entered that space once lost in the watery depths<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of
inky-blue fog.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
there,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">here,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Is
a green pasture flooded with Light. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A
pasture, a field, from which I strayed,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
the fog was no more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-26164866121574562842012-08-11T12:16:00.002-07:002012-08-11T12:16:56.739-07:00New Poems: "Piety's Curse Dissolved" and "Words, Words, Words"I hope to post soon about a recent trip to India. In the meantime, I'm simply posting two poems that I composed yesterday. I'm tempted to write brief explanations of each poem, but that would defeat the purpose of poetry. The poems need to speak for themselves.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: #660000;">Piety’s Curse Dissolved</span></span></i></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The moon lit the sky<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">With a mysterious hue<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">As I walked among the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Dreams of my life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The hue brought mystic clarity,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Allowing me to see<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Beyond the heart clinching night<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Of piety’s curse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Piety’s curse, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Heavy dogma,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The millstone noose<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Around the neck of the soul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">They claim to know God’s “word,”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">yet “abomination” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Oozes from their pious attitude<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Cloaked in syrup-feigning-love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Oozing syrup,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Nausea,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Vomit,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Aversion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I wanted to die with Christ and live,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">But his pious followers murdered
me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Before the denouement <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">of sacrificial love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Now, this night, the moon’s hue<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">On an otherwise dark evening<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Reminds me that love can<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Live and sacrifice still, free of
piety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Wordless books on <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Heartless shelves,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The bible-dogma of ancient days,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Dissolved in the moon’s light.
Freedom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: #660000;">Words, Words, Words</span></span></i></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Too many words, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Public prayers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Overwhelm me with flighty
activity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">That bypass, ignore, the still
small Voice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The first mark of genuine prayer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Is Silence <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Before Mystery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">But words get in the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Too many words,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">God, word word word, God // God,
word word word, God // God, word word word, God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Father-God… // Father-God… // Father-God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Uhm we just…Father-God…// Uhm we
just… Father-God… //Uhm we just… Father-God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Shut up! God doesn’t have to keep
hearing Her name!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Shut up, Shut up, Shut up!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Too many words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Shut up!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And leave room for God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-47755686759395148912012-07-04T07:09:00.001-07:002012-07-04T08:53:29.189-07:00Tell Me Your Story: Narrative Ethics and Peacemaking<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Tell
me your story.</span></i></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Stories carry within them the shape of life,
the landscape of living. I can disagree with your logic, your theology, your
political views, or any number of your opinions, but I cannot disagree with
your story. It is, after all, <b><i>your </i></b>story. Stories are bridges of
human understanding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The
use of story as a bridge for human understanding is the essence of the relatively
new field of <b><i>narrative ethics</i></b>. Examples include interreligious relationships
(Laurie L. Patton), biomedical ethics (Howard Brody, et. al.), LGBT advocacy
(e.g. Reconciling Ministries in the United Methodist Church), Liberation
Theology and civil rights (biblical stories of liberation, especially the
Exodus), certain aspects of feminist ethics of care (Carol Gilligan, et. al.)
and literature as a source of moral direction (Martha Nussbaum). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Unfortunately,
I recall too many times in my life that I’ve argued theology or politics when
the values of reconciliation would have been better served if I had simply
said, “Tell me your story.” I’ve responded to questions about my theological
perspective with didactic content and logic, leading to argument, when I could
have deepened relationship by simply responding with, “Let me tell you my story….”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Stories
invite us into a narrative journey with another person rather than confronting
us with a combative argument that calls for a staunch “yes or no … I’m with you
or against you.” Biomedical ethicist Howard Brody describes the magnetic attraction of
story with the beautiful term <i><b>co-human presence</b></i>. Co-human presence doesn’t
mean that we experience exactly how another person feels; it means that we enter
a narrative field with the “other” and are thereby joined in a common journey.
Stories, indeed, are bridges of human understanding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I concluded
a recent poem (see the 5/27/12 post of this blog) with the following words:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="line-height: 15pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Tell me your story</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 15pt;">, I said,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the innocence of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A child at bedtime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">And the tale that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Emerged on the lips<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Of the suffering<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Told the story<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">That created the world<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Stories, as Hans-Georg
Gadamer reminded us, create worlds. They also help to create peace among people
of different worlds. The next time I’m tempted to argue, I think I will respond
with a genuine, “Tell me your story.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Grace, peace, and love,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mark</span></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-14331739571669511392012-06-15T09:23:00.000-07:002012-06-15T09:24:57.279-07:00U.S. Nuns, the Vatican, and Emerging Christianity<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Ongoing
tension between </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">the Vatican’s <i>Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith</i>
and U.S. nuns (the Leadership Conference of Women Religious) has captured my
attention. Refer to the following article for a summary of the controversy:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/us/nuns-speak-about-vatican-criticism.html?src=recg"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/us/nuns-speak-about-vatican-criticism.html?src=recg</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<h3 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">The manner in which the Vatican
is censuring these nuns exposes—at least in part— the nature of the divide in
many denominations. Divisions in Protestant denominations and Roman Catholicism
appear to be along the lines of institutional maintenance vs. spiritual
renewal, entrenched power vs. shared power and, in some cases, dictatorship vs. servant
leadership. <o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<h3 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h3>
<h3 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Institutional protectionism, it
seems to me, is a major factor driving large segments of the population to
identify as “spiritual but not religious” (See Diana Butler Bass, </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><u>Christianity After Religion: The
End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening</u></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">).
</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Who wants to be
identified with, let alone controlled by, institutional maintenance, entrenched
hierarchy, and dictatorship? <o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<h3 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h3>
<h3 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">I’m not picking on the Roman
Catholic Church as such. In fact, I have the highest respect for many aspects
of the Catholic Church, especially the historic concern for equality and social
justice represented by the nuns. The Vatican’s contention with U.S. nuns is
just one example of a dynamic I see in most Christian denominations. I find it
hard to name any denomination, especially in Mainline Protestantism, that isn’t
struggling with similar divisions (especially United Methodists, Episcopalians,
and Presbyterians). These divisions, as Bass implies in the aforementioned
book, are largely about institutional protectionism vs. openness to change. Granted,
institutional protectionism plays out differently in different denominations. Hierarchical
powers, for instance, may seek progressive change (e.g. many of the Bishops in
the United Methodist Church and in the Episcopal Church as well as some in the
Roman Catholic Church). In other words, hierarchical power may or may not be
the primary source of entrenchment. Nonetheless, every denomination has its
share of unhealthy protectionism, regardless of the source. As Reinhold Niebuhr
reminded us in <u>Moral
Man and Immoral Society</u><span class="apple-converted-space"> (1932),
institutions, even those comprised of mostly good people, tend to corrupt
themselves through their own pride and self-maintenance. <o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<h3 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></h3>
<h3 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">This tendency
can be particularly destructive in the institutional church which, by the very
nature of its calling, should be free to change under the leadership of the
Spirit. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Entrenched
institutions lack the flexibility to follow the Spirit that, like the wind,
“blows where it chooses” (John 3:8). Indeed, with the emergence of what retired
Harvard theologian Harvey Cox calls the “age of the Spirit,” denominations that
don’t “get the memo” about the freedom of the Spirit will, I suspect, continue
a slow and painful death. (See Harvey Cox, <u>The Future of Faith</u>.)<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<h3 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h3>
<h3 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Although I’m devoted to the
church, I increasingly find myself identifying with those who say, “I’m
spiritual but not religious.” To the extent that “religion” means living-out
our spirituality in community, with the mutual responsibility and
accountability that genuine community requires, I am religious. </span><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But</span></i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">, to the extent that religion means maintaining an
institution at all costs, I have to go with the “spiritual but not religious”
folks. The “old white man at the top of a pyramid” and the “winner take all and
write history” way of being church is going the way of the dinosaur. The head
of the church said, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and
those who lose their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). In this
light, the message for the institutional church may be the words of Jesus
filtered through the proclamation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “When Christ calls an
institution, he bids it come and die.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-74804659692011405452012-06-01T06:40:00.000-07:002012-06-01T06:40:40.662-07:00The Essential Question of Religious Pluralism<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Today’s blog simply raises a
question. <b><i>Do you believe that Brahman, Dharmakaya, God, God-Beyond-God, Allah,
and other religious formulations of ultimate reality represent the same referent? </i></b>Stated
in another way the question could be, <i>Is
there warrant for affirming that the same referent is represented by different
religious concepts such as <b>Brahman, Dharmakaya,
God, God-Beyond-God, or Allah?</b></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">If you wish to respond to the
question without having your thinking polluted by my thoughts, skip reading the
rest of the blog and go straight to the comments section. Some of my thoughts
on the question are below. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">For readers with a background or
interest in religious studies, I should point out that I recognize the
conceptual difficulties with the question. I understand, for example, the
philosophical and methodological differences between Aldus Huxley, Frithjof
Schuon, and Huston Smith over-against George Lindbeck, Stephen Prothero, and Mark
Heim. I am well aware of the dangers of seeking “similarity-in-difference” or
“identity-in-difference” across the chasm separating “cultural-linguistic
systems” (part of the David Tracy—George Lindbeck debate). I find value in
opposing perspectives like Schuon’s <u>Transcendent Unity of Religions</u>
contrasted with Prothero’s <u>God is Not One</u>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Granted (consistent with
Prothero) it is shallow, ill-informed, and sloppy to say that “all religions
are really saying the same thing.”
Religions say vastly different things in many areas and exhibit very
different ways of thinking about ultimate reality. I fully realize that the
concept of Brahman is different from a theistic notion of a Triune God, both of
which are different than the radically monotheistic conception of Allah, all of
which are surely different from the nontheistic Dharmakaya. I know that Atman
and Anatman raise crucial questions about all of these concepts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Simultaneously, it seems that
many who reject some version of the Perennial Philosophy are comparing apples
and oranges when they jump <b>from</b> the
very real conceptual and pragmatic differences among religions<b> to</b> such conclusions as (a) each
religion is talking about a different god/referent or (b) there is no way of
knowing if different religions are talking of the same reality because
translation across cultural-linguistic systems is impossible or (c) any talk of
“similarity-in-difference” or “identity-in-difference” is simply an
ill-informed pluralism that collapses one religion into another. Although
conclusions a, b, and c represent<b><i> possibilities</i></b>—anyone, holding any
perspective on the subject, can engage in sloppy theological thinking—they are
not the only plausible conclusions.
Huston Smith, for example, recognizes the very real differences among
religions on the exoteric level while positing (admittedly a faith stance) that
they point toward the same referent on an esoteric level. Could it be that
these “fingers pointing at the moon” are actually pointing at the “same moon”? Wouldn’t
one expect conceptual and linguistic differences when people of different
cultural-linguistic systems seek to describe the ineffable? It is no surprise that
there are differences among “effable” formulations, developed in different
religions, of an ineffable reality. In other words, different ways of
describing an ultimate reality encountered in an ineffable experience do not
necessarily mean that the ultimate reality itself is different. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Once again, I recognize the
philosophical and theological difficulties with the question and issues that I’ve
raised. The difficulty is part of what allures me. What are your thoughts? <o:p></o:p></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-15210747710549419072012-05-27T09:23:00.000-07:002012-08-13T06:02:00.068-07:00Purple Songs Can Fly<br />
I was working on a poem last week, gradually developing the words of an almost-poem that erupted in my mind one day. The poem is about the stories that reside in each of our hearts, stories that narrate our lives.<br />
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<br /></div>
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On Thursday morning, I received an email from my friend Anita Kruse, founder and executive director of <i>Purple Songs Can Fly:</i> </div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.purplesongscanfly.org/mission">http://www.purplesongscanfly.org/mission</a> </div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Purple Songs Can Fly</i> is devoted to children <span style="background-color: #fdfbfc;">being treated for cancer and blood disorders at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.txch.org/" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: #fdfbfc;">Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Centers</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: #fdfbfc;">. In this program, which is the first of its kind, Anita and other professional composers help children to write and record their own songs.</span> Each child receives a professional CD recording of the original composition.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Anita’s email contained a <i>Bus 52</i> video describing the profound mission <i>Purple Songs Can Fly</i>. In the video, Tony “Jesus” Alvarez, a young patient at the Texas Children’s Cancer Center, describes his experience writing and recording his own songs. He says, <i>I recorded some songs,</i> a<i>nd now I’m just recording</i> <i>basically</i> <i>my life.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1_xzsNuFyE">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1_xzsNuFyE</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Jesus’ words intermingled with the poem I was writing. Here is the result:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Behind every
brow<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Is a
never-ending story<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Weaving
tales of <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Life<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Within every
heart <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Are
Trail-worn stories<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Seeking a
place that is<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Home<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>I
recorded some songs </i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Said the
smiling child<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Whose purple
songs<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now fly.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>I recorded
some songs,</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>And now
I’m just recording</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Basically</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>My life.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Stories
wander home<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To dwell in
the hearts<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That lived
them<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Where they <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Narrate
plots of life<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Where they<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Grieve or
celebrate<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The everyday
pathos<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of meaning<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Stories
wander home<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To be sung<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To be formed
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In musical
ecstasy<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So they can
express<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joy and
sorrow<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So the life
story<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Will fly,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Will soar in
purple hues,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The colorful
rainbow<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of song.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Tell me
your story</i>, I said,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the
innocence of<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A child at
bedtime.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And the tale
that <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Emerged on
the lips<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of the
suffering <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Told the
story<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That created
the world<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-87786720118794741302012-05-21T06:23:00.000-07:002012-05-24T11:29:48.678-07:00Re-membering to BreatheAccording to some faith traditions, the essential human problem is forgetfulness. We forget who we are. We forget <i>Whose</i> we are. Healing and wholeness come through remembering or, more literally, <i>re-membering</i>. All the broken pieces of life, all the members, are brought back together. They are remembered or recollected.<br />
<br />
Interestingly, remembering is a present experience, not past nostalgia. Allowing the anxious mind to rest by focusing on the breath is one route to remembering. We remember <i>now </i>or not at all. <i>Re-membering</i> is a non-dual awakening to the wholeness and fullness of life. The following poem arose within me through an experience of remembering:<br />
<br />
<b><i>Re-membering to Breathe</i></b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sometimes I
forget<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That life is
beautiful<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That red
flowers blossom in spring<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And the
diaper clad child<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Plays joyfully
after naptime<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sometimes I
forget <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
About rivers
flowing effortlessly<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So I push
the river in fear that it will not flow<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Because<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sometimes I
forget<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sometimes I
forget <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That love
brought us into being,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That we live
and move and have our being<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In a love
that<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Will not let
go<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sometimes I
forget<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To breathe<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But
breathing continues<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Even in the
forgetfulness<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of my broken
heart<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sometimes I
forget<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To breathe<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Until
reminded by a friend<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
One breath
at a time<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To re-member
life, to re-member wholeness<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now I
remember<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I remember
to re-collect<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The colored
broken glass<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So that
joyous light, shining through,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
May awaken
my memory of beauty, so<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I remember<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That life is
beautiful<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That red
flowers blossom in spring<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And the
diaper clad child<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Plays
joyfully after naptime<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I remember
that rivers<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Flow
effortlessly<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Without
needing my push<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To make them
flow<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I remember<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I remember
because<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sometimes I
forget<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And in the
beauty that is life<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Forgetting
allows gracious friends<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To remind me
to re-member</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
*The idea of not needing "to push the river" is from Father Richard Rohr.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-82444959386719919672012-05-11T21:59:00.000-07:002012-05-18T16:17:50.024-07:00My Rose Colored Glasses: A Fresh Look at Millennials<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Millennials, in my experience, frequently rise above the critiques they are receiving
in the media and in pessimistic interpretations of their
values (see, for example, Christian Smith’s <u>Souls in Transition: the
Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults</u>). They are often viewed as
morally relativistic, unwilling to make commitments, and socially disconnected.
While these critiques have some validity, they represent a one dimensional
stereotype that needs to be examined further. These young people, born between
1980 and 1999,* have much to teach older generations. <b><i>What can they teach us?</i></b>
My response to this question is admittedly limited. This is a blog, not a
dissertation. I offer the following reflections on this question out of my
experience working with college students and as an observer of the contemporary
religious landscape. Let’s look at two broad areas, moral relativism and social
engagement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Moral Relativism <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Eric
Hoffer was a longshoreman with little formal education who became one of the
great American philosophers of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. In his most famous
book, <i>The True Believer</i> (1951), he
argued that the basic distinction between genuine commitment and fanaticism is
uncertainty. Fanatics are certain. They know all the right answers. Certainty
is dangerous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Millennials,
generally speaking, seem to be reacting against the dangerous certainty of
previous generations, especially in religion and politics. For example, in <u>American
Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us</u>, authors Robert Putnam and David
Campbell note that young people are increasingly rejecting religious
affiliation <b><i>BECAUSE</i></b> of the perception that being Christian means
identifying with the Republican party. Some are now claiming that the religious
right won the battle and lost a generation. This generation’s rejection of
religion is not a rejection of God or spirituality. Overall, they are <i>spiritual</i> (i.e. in surveys they are
willing to describe themselves as “spiritual” and affirm belief in God, but shy
away from the term “religious”). <b><i>But</i></b>, they reject the dogma of connecting
religion with specific political issues, or any dogmatic certainty for that
matter. They tend, for instance, to be
“conservative” on abortion and “liberal” on sexual orientation. They recognize
the importance of discernment and reject easy answers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Their
questioning and discerning process may <b><i>appear</i></b> to be moral relativism due to
an unwillingness to give quick answers to complex questions combined, in some
cases, with not-yet-developed critical thinking skills. My observation is that
this stance is not pure relativism; rather, it is an authentic developmental
process of seeking honest answers rather than parroting a previous generation’s
certainties. This “thoughtful relativism” tends to mature over time and eventually
includes some absolute values such as love, justice, and a divine grounding for
life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>What
can my generation learn?</b> We can understand that an unwillingness to parrot
certainty is not the same as moral relativism and is often morally preferable. Face
it, the <b>moral certainty of the 1950’s</b>,
combined with <b>soaring church attendance</b>,
often included <b>racism</b>, <b>patriarchy</b>, <b>heterosexism</b>, and <b>manifest-destiny-nationalism</b>
among the people packing the pews. <b>Pew-packing
and Christ-following are not necessarily equivalent. </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If
an older generation wants young people to express their spirituality in the
context of institutional religion, then we are going to have to let go of
dogma, easy answers, and political polarization while embracing diversity,
discernment, dialogue, and uncertainty. Discerning and following the Spirit’s
leadership will have to trump institutional maintenance. Millennials, I believe,
can support strong, growing congregations, but they will do so for the sake of
mission, not institutional maintenance. If our focus is institutional
maintenance, then we will lose the very institutions we want to maintain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Social Engagement <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In a
helpful article entitled, “Millennials are the New Evangelicals,” Duke Divinity
School student Erin Lane writes, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If institutional leaders are
waiting for us to grow-up, have children and offer our static allegiance, they
will miss out on the feverish energy we’re offering now to those who will take
us seriously.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The takeaway here is if you
give us your attention -- which requires that you really listen to, learn from
and lead us -- then we will give you our commitment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%;">(<a href="http://www.faithandleadership.com/blog/06-14-2011/erin-lane-millennials-are-the-new-evangelicals">http://www.faithandleadership.com/blog/06-14-2011/erin-lane-millennials-are-the-new-evangelicals</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: windowtext;">)</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Lane’s
perspective reminds me of Diana Butler Bass’s insight that the paradigm of
church membership has shifted from “believing, behaving, belonging” to “belonging,
behaving, believing.” She describes this reversal in her most recent book, <u>Christianity
After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening</u>.
I can’t do justice to her book in one paragraph, but here is an essential
insight. The old paradigm for religious affiliation was to believe the “right”
things, behave in the “right” way, and then belong. Of course we know, sociologically,
that believing and behaving are largely constructed in a social context, in
belonging. One could argue that believing, behaving, and belonging are really
circular rather than linear. Nevertheless, her point is well taken. The
old-school institutional expectation follows the <i>believe, behave, belong</i> pattern. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This
approach completely misses Millennials. Bass’s argument, consistent with Lane’s
quote mentioned above, is that engaging this generation begins with community,
with belonging. Then, in community, we can engage Christian tradition along
with the contemporary situation to form, reform, and revise beliefs and behaviors.
(In fairness to Bass, note that the emphasis on revisionist theology is mine,
not necessarily hers.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What can my generation learn?</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> The
problem is <b><i><u>not</u></i></b> that Millennials are unwilling to be engaged
socially, politically, or religiously. The problem is that our institutions are
set up with a <b><i>believe, behave, belong</i></b> expectation that is ill-equipped to
reach young people whose essential approach to life is the reverse, <b><i>belong,
behave, believe</i></b>. We have to invite Millennials first to belong, to be
part of community, to have a role in creating community and becoming
stake-holders in beliefs and behaviors. This
approach is in contrast to expecting them to accept beliefs and behaviors <b><i>because
we said so</i></b>, the tired line of tired parents who know nothing better to
say. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This
post is long enough. I’m interested in your feedback. I’m going to work with a
colleague to develop a more academic, research grounded version of some of the
ideas here. I do not claim to have covered all the bases, just offered some
ideas for dialogue. Please share your thoughts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">*The parameters of the Millennial generation vary in the
literature. Generally, Millennials are those born between 1980 and 1999. <o:p></o:p></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-67467680829897694922012-04-27T18:52:00.001-07:002012-04-27T20:55:01.366-07:00When Children Die of Hunger, Heaven Can’t Wait<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">Rethinking
Heaven</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;"> dons the cover of the April 16 edition of <i>Time</i> magazine. Jon Meacham’s article, entitled <i>Heaven Can’t Wait: Why Rethinking the
Hereafter Could Make the World a Better Place</i>, draws upon a diverse range
of religious thinkers. His sources include scholars like Christopher Morse of
New York’s Union Theological Seminary, Cleophus LaRue of Princeton Theological Seminary,
and Anglican bishop and biblical scholar N.T. Wright.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">Meacham
also cites pastors like John Blanchard who serves the 4000-member Rock Church
International in Virginia Beach. Blanchard says, <b><i>Heaven isn’t just a place you
go—heaven is how you live your life. What’s trending is a younger generation,
teens, college-aged, who are motivated by causes—people who are motivated by
heaven are also people motivated to make a positive difference in the world.</i></b>
Meacham continues, <b><i>Heaven thus becomes for now the reality one creates in the service of
the poor, the sick, the enslaved, the oppressed.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">The
model prayer provides a summary statement of the message emphasized in the
article, <i>Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven.</i> An afterlife is not denied or minimized,
just re-framed in light of the transforming work that we are called to do here
and now. Heaven here and now is the <i>hidden
dimension, sacred space, </i>or<i> thin
place</i> in our ordinary, everyday lives. This hidden dimension reveals that
the love and resources that everyone needs are abundantly available, but
co-creating the Commonwealth of God requires us to <b><i>do</i></b> God’s will <i>on earth as in heaven</i>, one drop in the
ocean at a time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">As
I write, McMurry University students, along with some faculty and staff, are
spending a week in <i>World Village</i>, a
tent and shanty city on the grounds of the university, to raise awareness about
conditions in Haiti and India. A mission team will travel to each country this
summer to build homes and work with orphaned children. These students, along
with many others in their generation, inspire me. Their Christian vision is focused
more on joining God in the work of co-creating heaven here, disclosing the Commonwealth
of God in our midst, than on life after death. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">God’s gift of life <b><i>now</i></b>—along with the stewardship of creation and its resources—is not eclipsed by the promise of
a future life, whatever shape that life may take. The gift of life is just as sacred
as a current gift—an <i>on-earth-as-in-heaven</i>
gift—as it is when understood as a future promise. Why minimize God’s good gift
now in favor of God’s gift in the future, as our tradition so often has done? It
is the same gift! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">A
new day is emerging in the church’s mission and in theological reflection when
a Union Theological Seminary professor, an evangelical mega-church pastor, and
college students call us to Jesus’ vision of a changed reality <b><i>here
and now</i></b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">Grace! Costly grace! Amen!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">This post is dedicated to the students living in World Village this week.</span></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-16038911606464184242012-04-20T19:25:00.000-07:002012-04-20T19:33:37.935-07:00Is Our "Good News" as Big as God?<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">About a year ago, I enjoyed an email correspondence about religious diversity with one of my theological mentors and former professors, Glenn Hinson, who now teaches at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky. Glenn said, <b><i>The
God of a universe of 150+ billion galaxies surely does not have such little
candlepower that God can illumine only those in the Abrahamic tradition.</i></b> He went on to say that, <i><b>The future of humankind depends on a very different
attitude toward other faiths than we have shown in the past.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">We've missed the point of John 14:6 if it becomes a truth-claim to be defended rather than a cruciform call to live/follow Jesus' path. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;">The Johannine claim that Jesus is the “way, the truth,
and the life” isn’t a rational truth-claim to be defended, it is a way of life
to be lived. It’s not a truth over against other truth claims. It is simply <b><i>true</i></b>
that living the way of love, self-sacrifice, service, and
reconciliation (i.e. the way of Jesus) is the way to God. Or, better yet, it is the way to awaken to the reality that God is already here. Once we start defending this statement as “a truth” we have,
ipso-facto, denied the very truth claim that we want to defend. Our defensive posture contradicts the way of the cross, that is the way of love, self-sacrifice, service, and reconciliation. One of the most grievous sins of the Christian faith is that we have made “truth” into sets of propositions
to be defended rather than the Jesus-way-of-life-truth to be
followed. Jesus reveals living truth and we Christians tend to reduce him
to propositional truth. Holding fast to propositional truth while failing to
live out Jesus-lifestyle-truth is a primary way in which Christianity becomes a
force for evil rather than for good in the world. <b>Too many Christians are more
concerned with what happens to their precious truth claims than what happens to
their precious neighbor, with what happens to their dogmas than with loving
neighbors and enemies.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> Evangelism is living and sharing God's good news. Sometimes this means that someone will be converted. Sometimes it means that people of different faith traditions can work in solidarity to create a better world while remaining faithful within each tradition. Sometimes God's good news <b><i>happens</i></b> when we learn from someone of another faith tradition. Sometimes it <b><i>happens</i></b> when they learn from us. Always, living God's good news is cruciform, living in the form of the cross. This is to say, living sacrificial love while trusting the power of resurrection; losing life and--<i>good news</i>--finding life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Glenn emphasized, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><i><b>The future of humankind depends on a very different attitude toward other faiths than we have shown in the past.</b></i> What if God's good news mandates taking on this <b><i>different attitude</i></b>? What if all of our exclusive defending of Christian belief has created bad news in the name of God who seeks to bring good news to all? What if we are more faithful to our beloved "evangelism" by working in solidarity with faithful people of other traditions rather than trying to convert them? </span><b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The God of a universe of 150+ billion galaxies surely d</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-indent: 0.5in;">oes not have such little candlepower that God can illumine only those in the Abrahamic tradition.</span></i></b></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315724828290780460noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7774242758189731296.post-2335216480027984562012-04-20T11:45:00.000-07:002012-04-20T18:37:09.708-07:00Dialogue, Theology, and Growth<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Expanding the Circle: Dialogue,
Theology, and Growth</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Poet Mary Oliver wrote, <b><i>Tell me, what is it you plan to
do with your one wild and precious life?</i></b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>As my 54th birthday approaches, I am
keenly aware that my response to this question is a process, a journey, a
bundle of additional questions, a vocation (calling) that ever-beckons and never
ends. Gregory of Nyssa said that the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b><i>essence
of sin is the refusal to grow.</i></b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>If
I understand Gregory correctly, his affirmation included this life and the
next; death is but a new chapter in the ongoing narrative. Theosis, according
to this view, never ends. In God we<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><i> </i></b></span><b><i>live
and move and have our being.</i></b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>There
is infinite room for us to grow within the infinite Life of God. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I'm starting this blog to challenge myself to grow in theological
reflection through dialogue with others. Hindus talk about different kinds of
yoga, spiritual disciplines to help one to be yoked to God ("yoga" =
yoke). The different yogas are, in part, for different personality types:
devotion (Bhakti), meditation (Raja), action (Karma), and knowledge (Jnana).
One size doesn't fit all. Analogously, I'm practicing<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Jnana</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>yoga. I don't claim an exact parallel
with the Hindu practice. My point is that, for me, theological inquiry,
reflection, and dialogue are spiritual disciplines, ways of connecting with
God, not just academic exercises. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I hope that portions of this blog will eventually become a book.
The discipline of blogging will help to keep me responsible to others as well
as myself to keep my writing fresh, critically reflective, and
consistent. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I want my reflections to be reasonably accessible to people with
or without formal theological training. Simultaneously, I will use some
technical jargon, below, to build a conceptual foundation to explain the
purpose of this blog. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Theological reflection at its best is an ongoing conversation, a
generative dialogue, among the faithful of a religious tradition. A so-called
hermeneutic circle or arc (think Gadamer and Ricoeur) develops in dialogue.
This circle is an interplay of questions; I question the other and the other
questions me. Insight, understanding, truth, and meaning tend to emerge in the
synergy of dialogue. Moreover, the horizon of one world of understanding (in
this case one religion) can fuse with the horizon of another. Analogical
understanding across religious traditions--what theologian David Tracy calls
similarity-in-difference--can emerge. In this light, my theological purpose is
two-fold: (1) dialogue with Christians to contribute to Christian theological
discourse and, perhaps, a constructive theological project and (2) dialogue
with people of any faith tradition, or no faith tradition, to help construct an
approach--yet to be discerned</span><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">--to </span><i style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">theologies of religions<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">(plural intended). By the way, no
worries if you aren't familiar with Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Tracy. The central
point is that dialogue is a back and forth, synergistic dynamic--richer in
questions than declarative answers--in which understanding, meaning, and truth
have the potential to emerge. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">So, I invite you into a conversation. This form of learning is not
only an academic exercise; for me it is a spiritual discipline. I don't
know where the conversation will lead, but I trust that we can learn and grow
together. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Peace,</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mark</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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