Plan B: Further Thoughts On Faith
- Anne Lamott
I don’t usually read just for “pleasure” per se. I read for information. For education. For enlightenment. For growth.
When I read Anne Lamott, I’m reading for pleasure. In the process, I also get information, education, enlightenment and growth.
This is my third Lamott book. If you’ve read my review of “Grace (Eventually),” you could apply most of what I said concerning that book to this one. Here we find more of Anne’s trademark humor, insights, and commentary on society, life, and faith.
This is a collection of 24 essays.
Lots of wonderful, funny, sad, real-life stories of real-life faith.
Stories of her son, Sam. Stories of animosity toward her mother, and of dealing with her mother’s death. A tale of her experience on a cruise ship. Talk of spider monkeys. Harvey Fierstein. South Park. Dame Edna. Getting old. Metamorphosis. Hope.
There’s also quite a bit of her politics here, and how her faith in Christ directly affects her political beliefs.
If you have ever read Anne Lamott, you’re most likely already a fan. It’s hard for me to see how you could read her and NOT be a fan.
If you’ve not yet experienced her writings, check out this, or one of her other books.
You’re in for a real literary treat.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
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Some Quotes:
- Peace is joy at rest, and joy is peace on its feet.
- I see people rising up, resisting, gearing up for another fight for decency, for freedom, for the poor, for the earth.
- Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli will tell you how to eat it. (The 2000 Year Old Man)
- [The Bible] is a centuries-long reality show — Moses the stutterer, Rahab the hooker, David the adulterer, Mary the homeless teenager. Not to mention all the mealy-mouthed disciples.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
- “Help” is a prayer that is always answered.
- It gets darker and darker, and then Jesus is born. (Wendell Berry)
- This is how we make important changes — barely, poorly, slowly. [This is certainly how it has been for me (df)]
- I don’t know much about God; only that He or She is love, and is not American or male. I do love Jesus, and I’m nuts about his mother.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
- You don’t always get what you want. You get what you get.
- You can either practice being right or practice being kind.
- Everyone has come to understand that unconditional love is a reality, but with a shelf-life of about eight to ten seconds.
- If you want to change the way you feel about people, you have to change the way you treat them.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
- I was so angry with and afraid of the right wing in this country that it was making me mentally ill.
- Rule 1: When all else fails, follow instructions. Rule 2: Don’t be an asshole.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
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Also check out “Grace (Eventually),”
and “Traveling Mercies.”
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Plan B January 15, 2012
2011 in review December 31, 2011
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,500 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Books Make Great Gifts! December 1, 2011
[Every so often, I re-post this list for my new readers. So...]
These are just some of the books that have helped me SO much on my journey.
They have challenged me in ways I could have never imagined!
I believe they can truly help change the way we live.
(CLICK ON ANY BOOK image for a few quotes, or a brief review.)
Velvet Elvis 
He Loves Me 
The Shack 
If Grace Is True 
Blue Like Jazz 
Thou Shalt Not Love
Lies (And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them) 
Grace (Eventually) 
A New Kind Of Christianity 
A Heretic’s Guide To Eternity 
The Naked Gospel 
The Myth Of A Christian Nation
Jesus Wants To Save Christians
Rejecting Religion. Embracing Grace 
(Hey, I’m mentioned in this book!)
The Misunderstood God 
Evolving In Monkey Town 
Love Wins 
Fall To Grace 
A Time To Embrace 
There are so many more; Like Bert Gary’s “Jesus Unplugged,” and Jim Palmer’s “Divine Nobodies.”
There’s “Insurrection,” and “The Orthodox Heretic,” both by Peter Rollins, and “Crazy For God,” by Frank Schaeffer
Most of these, and more, are available at the “Life Walk” Bookstore.” [Click here.]
And, I’m always finding new insights in new books.
For other recommended books, click on the “Books” link to the right, under “Categories,” and scroll through the entries.
Happy reading. Have a good life.
It’s Time November 25, 2011
I present to you an absolutely stunning, stunning ad from Australia.
It is to the point, universal, and says it all.
(And you don’t even really need to have the sound up.)
INSURRECTION November 20, 2011
INSURRECTION
- Peter Rollins
Wow. What a book.
In the introduction our author speaks of “reactionary movements that seek to return to the early Church,” but proclaims that one of the shortcomings of such philosophies is that “they fail to go back far enough.”
And so we begin the journey to bring to light the ways “Crucifixion and Resurrection open up a different reality” altogether. A reality that has been predominantly absent from “church” as we know it.
The first 4 chapters make up “Part1: Crucifixion.”
Chapter One begins with a humorous story about a lying pastor, his golf game, and God’s teaching technique.
This story is used to springboard into a discussion about desire. We look at the desire behind desire. Or maybe, the desire within desire. We view different reasons for affirming God, as well as religious control and manipulation. We examine faith, doubt, and the positive aspects of what the author calls a “journey into darkness.”
Chapter Two takes us deep, deep into the Crucifixion, and into participating in Christ’s death. We see how it has often been rendered rather meaningless by a religion that glosses over it to get to the Resurrection. We begin to understand that “The Crucifixion signals an experience in which all that grounds us and gives us meaning collapses.”
Those of you who, like me, are “youth challenged” may remember a 60′s TV show called “The Prisoner” staring Patrick McGoohan. Our author gives us a synopsis of that show, and then draws some very interesting parallels to religion and it’s systems that imprison us. This is the kind of chapter for which I would have paid full book price.
Chapter Three is called– “I’m Not Religious” and Other Religious Sayings. –
This had quite the ring of truth for me. Some of the most religiously legalistic people I know are quite found of stating that “Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship.” Their attitudes and actions prove their statements to be much less than an experienced reality. We see how having only mental assent to a particular truth can itself insulate us from actually experiencing that truth. This is a phenomena we see often among those who love to speak of grace while still trapped in and perpetuating the exact opposite.
“Cartoon physics” is also addressed: “that self-conscious beings will not fall until they look down.” This has to do with facing the inconsistencies between our stated religious beliefs and reality.
We also observe how “communication involves both a stated message and a hidden one.” ”In fundamentalism, we witness a type of psychotic relation to language in that there is an attempt to banish the hidden message from discourse.”
Our next chapter is partially about the cost of no longer pretending to be ignorant. It’s about letting go of the religious machinery that “protect us from facing up to the anxieties of our existence.” We look at the marketability of certainty, and its use by the religion industry.
There’s a small section on Mother Teresa. Although “she never stopped believing in God…she lived beneath the shadow of a profound sense of God’s absence.”
The whole of part one serves to show us the crucifixion in ways modern Christianity (as opposed to post-modern) usually avoids.
Without properly addressing the truth of Crucifixion, Resurrection is robbed of it’s truth as well.
Now we start “Part 2: Resurrection.”
In Chapter Five, Mr. Rollins maintains that “We hide every day behind a mask that is a Photoshopped version of ourselves.” Some of the sections in this chapter are: ”I Wear a Mask That Looks like Me,” “On Avoiding the Truth of Who We Are,” and “Maintaining the Gap between Perception and Reality.”
We read some very interesting insights into people like Hitler and John “Junior” Gotti. We uncover how we can hide the monster we may truly be, even from, or rather especially from, ourselves. Ultimately we learn here that “Our practices do not fall short of our beliefs; They Are Our Beliefs.”
We take a close look at grace and how “it is in experiencing the license of grace rather than the legalism of prohibition that real transformation becomes possible.”
Chapter 6 is titled “We Are Destiny.” We are given the proclamation that “Eternal life is thus fundamentally a transformation in the very way that we exist in the present.” We learn about what it means to participate in Resurrection. This is a recurring theme in the works of Rob Bell, and a number of other good authors. A theme which, if taken to heart, could bring about some rather radical, much needed change among those who name the name of Christ.
A brief analysis of “Chick tracts” is given. Most readers are probably familiar with these miniature graphic horror stories. If not, let me tell you they twist the gospel, and pervert the character of God beyond recognition. At the same time, they “merely reflect what we find in most churches today.”
We also explore the deeper meaning of loving God, religionless faith, how we participate in the creation of eternity, and “the proper Christian answer to the question of what God’s will is for my life.” Wile E. Coyote also supplies some theological insight.
The Seventh Chapter dives into the “Violence of Resurrection.” Not “the type of violence we witness in fundamentalism;” which is usually one directed at people, but “a violence against those systems that would oppress, destroy, and bring death.”
This chapter also mines real-world applications of truth from the movies “The Dark Knight,” “Collateral,” and “The Matrix.” Through these we recognize how we may be feeding the very systems we say we oppose, and how some of our “supposedly ethical acts come to resemble the exercise of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Chapter Seven also provided me with one of those wonderful “Wow” moments where you finally see something that has been in plain sight all along. It has to do with the ripping of the temple veil at the Crucifixion. It was one of those times where I saw how my religious training had blinded me to a very obvious truth.
Our final chapter unpacks Paul’s words in Galatians 3:8. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
These divisions were considered the divinely mandated “natural order.” “Paul is here describing here how Christianity cuts across all political, cultural and biological divisions, rendering them null.
There’s also some interesting information about the difference between traditional Western fairy tales, and those from other cultures.
This is a very interesting, wonderful, and I thought, unique book.
In his comments on this book, Rob Bell says that Pete takes you to the edge of a cliff, and then pushes you off.
That’s a pretty accurate description of reading this book. It’s a fall I would highly encourage you to take.
—–
Buy the book (and read some other short reviews). Click HERE.
SOME QUOTES:
- We must not be afraid to burn our sacred temples in order to discover what, if anything, remains.
- To truly unplug from the god of religion, with all the anxieties and distress this involves, takes courage.
Indeed, one could say that it takes God.
- The felt experience of God’s absence [is] the fundamental way of entering into the presence of God.
- There will always be an army of Job’s comforters who attempt to save our mythologies, and like Job, we must resist them.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
- By allowing the Church to believe on our behalf… we remain firmly embedded in a religious worldview while denying it.
- [We need to bring] radical doubt, ambiguity, mystery, and complexity into the very heart of the liturgical structure itself.
- The foot of the cross is the graveyard where religion is buried.
- The “heart” in the biblical sense in not the inner life, but the whole man in relation to God.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
- Religious experience cannot be properly approached as an experience at all. Rather, God is that which transforms how we experience everything.
- The claim “I believe in God” is nothing but a lie if it is not manifest in our lives, because one only believes in God insofar as one loves.
- [Concerning many fundamentalists] Their often sexist, homophobic, and racist rhetoric is aimed frimly at maintaining their position of power and thus is designed specifically to prevent change.
- “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist.”
Archbishop Dom Helder Camara.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
- Faith is about this life. Faith is lived out in love of the world.
- Resurrection is not something one argues for, but is is the name we give to a mode of living.
- It can be so hard to give up on easy answers and face up to our feeling of finitude, meaninglessness, and guilt.
- You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave not free, male nor female, black nor white, rich nor poor, Republican nor Democrat, liberal nor conservative, orthodox nor heretic, citizen nor alien, gay nor straight, Israel nor Palestine, American nor Iraqi, Christian nor non-Christian, for you all are one in Christ Jesus.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
Davy Jones at BearCreek November 13, 2011
Another fun concert experience. At 67 years old, Davy still sounds great.
The six-piece band was absolutely top-notch. When the concert was over and most of the crowd gone,
my wife yelled “You Guys Are Awesome!” at the remaining band members onstage.
Dave Robicheau did some amazing guitar work on “Valerie.”
Aviva Maloney is a multi-talented wonder.
You can check out them and the other band members here: http://davyjones.net/djband.html
Davy sang some of his solo songs, did a number from his Broadway days in “Oliver,” and lots of Monkees favorites.
His wife was onstage for a couple of really good dance numbers.
Jones, of course, shared many stories and jokes, and had frequent audience interaction.
We saw The Monkees June 13th, 2001 at the Fort Wayne Embassy (with some of the same band members).
That was a great concert, but this was a more “personal” overall experience.
Especially since we got to meet him and get our pictures taken with him!
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AND here are some general pix from Bearcreek Farms:
The Jesus Lens October 27, 2011
“Jesus didn’t give his followers a book.
He gave them his holy spirit.”
The Bible is a wonderful gift from God, when it’s not worshiped and is properly viewed, not as a legal document, but as part of the “story of God’s unfolding revelation of himself.”
People like Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Spencer Burke, and Wayne Jacobsen have not abandoned their Bibles.
Quite the contrary, they all hold scripture in very high regard.
They all just realize how terribly misused, abused, misunderstood, and misapplied its contents have been.
Books like “Velvet Elvis,” “A New Kind of Christianity,” “He Loves Me,” “The Misunderstood God,” and “The Naked Gospel,” all, to varying degrees, deal with what the Bible really is and how to properly approach it.
The Bible, according to the book of Timothy, is “useful.” As someone else said, ”That’s a far different job description than we have given it.”
Certainly, from verse to verse, the Bible does “contradict” itself. That’s because it is a “progressive revelation of God,” by people inspired to record events the way they remembered them at the time.
Anyway, this new series “The Jesus Lens” by Wayne Jacobsen seems promising. I’ve only watched one session so far.
In it Wayne addresses those who have basically thrown out their Bibles altogether due to the way we’ve been falsely taught to approach these inspired writings; a way that can make God seem to be a distant, mean-spirited overseer.
One thing we see in this first session is that truth is not revealed in this verse or that verse.
But rather “in the sum total of the scriptures we have the truth.”
Watch this first session, see what you think.
It’s only about 20 minutes.
I’ll be interested to see where Mr. Jacobsen takes us from here..
[Go to Session One of "The Jesus Lens." Click HERE.]
How To Die October 19, 2011
How To Die
- Branden Holder
I really loved “The Shack.”
Yet, unlike many of my more lengthy reviews, that particular review was only about half-a-dozen sentences.
Why? I don’t read a lot of fiction. It’s not normally what I enjoy.
["Les Misérables", "The Shack", and "So, You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore" are some notable exceptions.]
I’m not great at reviewing fiction, either.
So, I’m not the best person to review Mr. Holder’s “How To Die.” There will be others who will do a much better job.
I can say this: I enjoyed it.
It’s a story about heaven, hell, and purgatory. It’s also a story about how we should live now.
In this fictional setting, Branden tackles many of our beliefs and how they might “play out” if indeed they are correct.
Ultimately, this is an expose of how we view God. It is a challenge to re-think some of our preconceived theological notions.
Certainly, the major questions and ideas here are not new. They are ones that have been addressed, probably, since the dawn of time. It has been my experience, however, they are not often addressed seriously among those who identify as “evangelical.” To question such things is seen as, at best, a lack of faith, and at worse, denying God himself.
But Mr. Holder does put a fresh spin on these questions, and manages to create an interesting journey into the unknown.
“How To Die” is a relatively short novel, so even if (like me) you’re not that into fiction, you can enjoy a brief departure from you regular reading material without an overwhelming time investment.
I do recommend this book, and look forward to future offerings by this young new talent. Who knows, maybe he’ll give us a non-fiction book as well. 
- df
Buy the book. Click HERE.
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From the promo:
Follow one young man’s journey through an unexpected afterlife. When his existence is cut short by an unfortunate incident, Nicholas Walker finds himself at the gates of Heaven. However, upon entering his celestial life after death, Nicholas finds that nothing about Heaven, Hell, or anywhere in between is as simple as he once thought. Through experience and revelation, Nicholas embarks on an adventure bound to leave him changed forever.A relatively short, yet thought-provoking, philosophical allegory confronting the potential dangers of never questioning one’s personal beliefs and values.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
Is This The End? October 14, 2011
“End Of The Ex-Gay Movement?”
After decades as the director of Love In Action, the country’s oldest and largest ex-gay ministry, John Smid says, ““I’ve never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual.”
[Imagine the hundreds or thousands of men he's seen go through that program. Saying he's never seen a change from gay to straight is quite a statement!]
His break with ex-gay orthodoxy is a sign that, even in the evangelical world, the notion that sexual orientation can be altered is increasingly crumbling in the face of reality.
Smid regrets the way Love In Action hammered away at “demonic homosexuality,” he says. “I think that… for kids that are 15, 16, 17 years old… With all the things they’re already struggling with, I can’t imagine what that might have been like for them.”
He also published an apology on his website, inviting those who’ve been through Love in Action to contact him. “If you have been wounded by me or harmed through the hands of my leadership; please come to me and allow an opportunity for me to personally apologize.
Read the rest of this article by Michelle Goldberg in “The Daily Beast.”
CLICK HERE.
Also, from Truth Wins Out:
He had incredible dedication, adhered to a hardcore form of fundamentalism, and enforced a strict cult-like regimen on his charges. Yet, years later, he is faced with the daunting reality that “ex-gay” programs are a Religious Right marketing program, not a legitimate movement.
Read more Here:
Truth Wins Out
and Here:
Lucas Grindley
AND, in case after all this time you’ve still not read it, here’s
my take on sexuality:
Tribbles & Labels
The Orthodox Heretic October 6, 2011
The Orthodox Heretic
and Other Impossible Tales
- Peter Rollins
This book is a perfect example of good things coming in small packages. It’s a tiny hardback, black-cover (without the sleeve) that reminds me of my marriage manual.
This a book of tales; a book of parables. Some are taken from the Bible. Some are not.
Each one is a relatively short read, followed by a commentary. There’s much wisdom here, as well as humor, suspense, and unexpected twists.
“In the parable, truth is not expressed via some detached logical discourse…
Parables subvert the desire to make faith simple and understandable.”
We look at “the true meaning of the phrase Word of God,” as Peter declares “it is impossible to affirm God’s Word apart from becoming that Word, apart from being the place where that Word becomes a living, breathing act.”
We view many of the parables of Jesus from slightly different perspectives, which can sometime render very different understandings.
Mr. Rollins believes, as do I, that we should not “treat the Bible as a type of textbook providing us with an ethical blueprint,” and that we must question “whether the Bible can be treated in this way without doing the teachings of Jesus a great injustice.”
The new insights on “turn the other cheek” were both eye-opening and, depressing. We look at the kind of people Jesus was speaking to, and contrast that to the kind of people he was speaking about. When we realize that “through the clothes we buy, the coffee we drink, the investments we make, and the cars that we drive,” we are often supporting slave labor and suffering, we can see ourselves not as the ones turning the other cheek, but rather, as the ones doing the slapping.
[That's one reason my wife and I now only buy "free-trade" coffee. I know it may not be possible (or feasible) to eliminate all avenues of our negative footprints, but if we at least do something, we can make a difference.]
There’s a simply wonderful tale of a kind, well-respected elderly priest, and a jealous, self-absorbed prince who’s hell-bent on exposing the priest as a “coldhearted liar who sells the people lies in order to live.” I had my wife, Kathy, read that one. She didn’t see the “twist” coming, either. It’s really good.
There’s also some fresh material on “the pearl of great price,” “the prodigal son,” “feeding the five-thousand,” and many others.
This anthology is, I think, perfect for short, meditative daily readings (or, as some prefer the term, “quiet-time.”). It’s really not a book you should even attempt to read in one or two sittings, although it would be easy to do so. At least half of the value of reading this book is the story-by-story personal reflection.
I didn’t know this was a collection of short stories when I ordered it. If memory serves me, I purchased this book on the recommendation of a Facebook friend. I do not recall which one. Whoever you are, “Thank You!” I loved “The Orthodox Heretic,” and will certainly be reading more writings of Peter Rollins.
- df
Buy the book. Click HERE.
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Quotes:
- The truth of faith is not articulated in offering reasons for suffering, but rather in drawing alongside those who suffer, standing with them, and standing up for them. This is pastoral care at its most luminous.
- Religious belief can itself be a barrier to living the life of faith.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
- There is a Biblical injunction to question authority, regardless of who or what that authority is, when we believe that authority is not defending the persecuted.
- Christ is found in our interaction with others.
- Every description of God testified to in the Judeo-Christian tradition falls short. Refuse to let any conception of God take the place of God.
- We must question the difference between the heresy of orthodoxy, in which we dogmatically claim to have the truth, and orthodox heresy, in which we humbly admit that we are in the dark but still endeavor to live in the way of Christ as best we can.
Buy the book. Click HERE.
