Sick May 15, 2012

Some people are “sick” of hearing about marriage equality.

I imagine it would have been easy to say “I’m sick of hearing about freeing the slaves.”
Unless, of course, you were a slave.

It would have been easy to say “I’m sick of hearing about women getting the vote.”
Unless you were a woman.

Agree to disagree?
Sure.  I do that all the time.
But I can’t accept inequality and injustice under the guise of “loving those who disagree.”
Can I love them?
Of course I can.  But I believe the clear choice is that I must stand with the oppressed.
Not with the oppressor.
I truly believe that is the way of Christ.
Things can, though, get very strange when both the oppressed and the oppressors are your brothers and sisters.

You may be sick of any minority taking a stand for rights that you take for granted.
Tough!
They’re sick of having to fight for the rights denied them.

If you need to be sick of something, there’s plenty to be sick of.

It’s time to be sick of centuries of religious oppression in the name of God.
It’s time to be sick of blaming your hate on Jesus, when there are plenty of
God-fearing Jesus lovers who don’t hold your views.
It’s time to be sick of hearing “It’s not me.  It’s the Bible” when there are almost
forty-thousand  Christian denominations who disagree with each other, while
all claiming the Bible as their authority.
It’s time to be sick of people being bullied, tortured, and even killed because of their orientation.

I recently read something to the effect of
“You are free to have a gun.
You are not free to use it against whomever you please.
You are free to have a religion.
You are not free to impose your religious views on the rest of the country.”
If you believe it’s a sin (as some do) to drink beer, then don’t drink beer!
But don’t for one minute presume to inflict that belief on those who wish to drink beer.
You don’t believe in same-sex marriage?  Don’t marry someone of the same sex!

To borrow from a popular ad:
“That was easy.”
Why is it so hard to see that following your convictions is about how YOU act, and
not about controlling others?!?!?! (Of course, control and manipulation are major characteristics of religion in the first place.)

So, your’re sick of hearing about marriage equality.
Well, I guess the first step to recovery is to admit you’re sick.
Please get well soon.

- df

[Also see: FOOTNOTE.]

Blue Like Jazz: The Movie April 13, 2012

FIND A THEATER. SEE THIS MOVIE!


[I just got a call from Donald Miller thanking me for my support of "Blue Like Jazz." Yeah, that's kind of pretty cool. Here's a brief review of the movie.]

I expected to enjoy “Blue Like Jazz.” Yet, I must admit, after all the promotion and high hopes, I had some fear [just a teeny tiny bit] the movie might not be something I would be able to “brag” about.
After seeing the film, all fears have been laid to rest. I thought it was a great movie. My wife and I both really enjoyed it [and not just because our names are in the closing credits].
Good writing. Good production values. Good performances all the way around.
AND a great message! One I can actually get behind.
If you’ve read “Blue Like Jazz,” and listened to some old Steve Taylor records, you’ll have some idea of the creative power behind the movie. It addresses the hypocrisy of religion, while remaining very pro-faith. It’s real, raw, and avoids the clichés and pitfalls that seem inherent with most movies dealing with faith.
I will be seeing this movie again and again. We traveled a couple of hours just to see it. It was more than worth it.
Do yourself a favor: See “Blue Like Jazz.” It’s not just a movie. The background of its making, and the execution make it a piece of cinematic history.



Updated Trailer:



READ MORE. Click Here.

-

Resurrection! April 7, 2012

We aren’t fixed, static beings — we change and morph as life unfolds.
Death, then RESURRECTION.

This is true for ecosystems, food chains, the seasons — it’s true all across the environment.  Death gives way to life.
- From “Love Wins.“

“Some have taken Jesus’ cry that his Father had forsaken him to mean that at the darkest moment, the Father had to turn his back on the Son. God cannot bear to look on sin, they argue, so that when our sins were laid on him, God had to turn his face away from his Son.
God has never run from sinful humanity. He didn’t hide from Adam and Even in the Garden. They hid from him as he sought them out. It is not God who cannot bear to look on sin, but that we in our sin can’t bear to look on God. He’s not the one who hides. We are. God is powerful enough to look on sin and be untainted by it. He has always done so. He did so at the cross
When Jesus asked people to “repent and believe” the gospel, he was not asking them to be sorry for their sins and embrace an orthodox theology.  It is not whether we want to go to heaven or hell, but whether we want to trust God or continue trusting ourselves. “
- From “He Loves Me.“

“Jesus did not die on the cross to satisfy God’s moral rage at your sin. He died to save you from the beast of sin.”
- From “The Misunderstood God.“

“If the gospel isn’t good news for everybody, then it isn’t good news for anybody. And this is because the most powerful things happen when the church surrenders its desire to convert people and convince them to join. It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display.”
- From “Velvet Elvis“

A Generous Orthodoxy March 22, 2012

A Generous Orthodoxy:
Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed- yet hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian.

Wow.  That’s one l-o-n-g book title.  But that pretty much tells you the general material that’s covered in the pages of this book.
Rather than rejecting the various branches on the tree of “Christianity,” Brian McLaren looks for the good that each has contributed to our understanding of, and relationship with God.

This, my 5th McLaren book, was hard for me to get into, at first.  I had started to read it many months ago.  I ended up putting it back on the shelf and reading other books instead.  That difficulty was, I’m convinced, due mainly to all the reading before you ever get to “Chapter One.”  There are TWO forwards, an introduction, and what’s called “Chapter 0,” all before you start the first chapter of the book!  Anyway, once I committed to reading it, I found it fascinating, very interesting, and quite educational.

Indeed, Brian is generous in these pages.  Probably more so than I would have been.
That’s a good thing.
He acknowledges this generosity in discussing the “good”, but admits that much could be said regarding the  ”bad and the ugly.”
But the focus here is what we can take with us as the journey and growth process continue.
Just as the ancient world emerged from the prehistoric world, and the medieval from the ancient, and the modern from the medieval, we are now emerging from the modern to the post-modern (which will likely be re-named by future generations).

With this emergence comes, as it always has, new understanding; new ways of thinking; new ways of being.  This includes a growth and expansion of how we perceive and relate to God.
When we grow up within a particular religious culture, we tend to believe that what we have is that which has been handed down “since the beginning.”
We have it “right,” and those other branches just missed it somewhere.

Well, this book helps us realize there has been a vast variety of “Christianities” throughout the ages.
The first chapter, titled “The 7 Jesuses I Have Known,” sets the stage for our journey of enlightenment through the potpourri of beliefs held by those who have sought to follow the leading of Christ.

There is rich, nuanced history here, of which I was predominantly unaware. I came away with a new understanding of many of the branches named in the expanded title of this book.
Without doubt, there’s enough bad “sap” in those branches (including those I was involved in) that I would not consider being a part of them, but I have a respect for the good in those traditions, as well as those who engage in them.

“A Generous Orthodoxy” is another great adventure in literature. It’s an exposition of where we’ve been, and a look at where, with God’s grace, we are heading.
- df

Buy the book.  Click HERE.

——

McLaren has worked to knock down barriers between Christians of different theological backgrounds by preaching that none of us has a handle on the whole truth.  Christianity is much broader than American Evangelicalism. Sometimes this is hard to grasp in a country where Evangelical has become synonymous with Christian.
- Matt Benzing

——

McLaren argues that all of the theological hair splitting misses the core message of Jesus.  I would challenge those like me in the evangelical circles to read this… not to confirm what we already believe… there are lots of books to do that… but to understand arguments outside our collective comfort zone. Whether you adopt McLaren’s conclusions or not, understanding the thought process can be a helpful exercise.
-  Paul Mullen
——

McLaren has given the church a gift- a way to think about theology that actually brings Christians together again, rather than forever splitting into smaller and smaller and smaller groups. Read it and see if you don’t find yourself challenged, taught and humbled.
- Bob Hyatt

Buy the book.  Click HERE.
——

From the back cover:

Whether you find yourself inside, outside, or somewhere on the fringe of Christianity, A Generous Orthodoxy draws you toward a way of living that looks beyond the “us/them” paradigm to the blessed and ancient paradox of “we.”

————

SOME QUOTES:

* The word God itself was reimagined through the experience of encountering Jesus.

* We’re here on a mission to join God in bringing blessing to our needy world.

* [We must] study not only the history of the church, but also the history of writing the church’s history.

* Anabaptist Christians, not unlike liberal Protestants, find the heart of the gospel in the teaching of Jesus. [They] focus on living out Jesus’ teachings about how we are to conduct our daily lives, especially in relation to our neighbors.

* I had met too many certified tongues-speaking Christians who were consistently dishonest, weird, unhealthy, and mean-spirited. Any understanding of being “Spirit-filled” that didn’t include helping people to become healthy, Christlike, and kind didn’t seem to be worth much.

* Most Christians kind of bottom-line everything to heaven or hell, and that makes life feel kind of cheap.

Buy the book.  Click HERE.

* The Jesus Movement, especially in its early days, was a truly wonderful thing. But all too soon [it] was co-opted. It was to a different Jesus that I was gradually converted.

* Yes, you can follow Jesus without identifying yourself as a Christian.

* Some Protestants seem to let Jesus be Savior, but promote Paul to lord and teacher.

* The emerging church has the potential of being to North American Christianity what Reformation Protestantism was to European Christianity. – Phyllis Tickle

* Jesus needs to be saved from Christians…
Can we trust Jesus to save himself from the mess we’ve made of his name, and in so doing, save Christianity?

Buy the book.  Click HERE.

* Christians are not the end users of the gospel

* Scripture is always a factor, but it is never sola. [It] is always in dialogue with tradition, reason, and experience.

* When the scripture talks about itself, it doesn’t use words like authority, inerrancy, infallibility, revelation, objective, absolute, and literal. Hardly anyone notices the irony of resorting to the authority of extrabiblical words and concepts to justify one’s belief in the Bible’s ultimate authority.

* The Bible is a story, and just because it recounts what happened, that doesn’t mean it tells what should always happen or even what should have happened.

* We must accept the coexistence of different faiths in our world willingly, not begrudgingly.

* We constantly emerge from what we were and are into what we can become – not just as individuals, but as participants in the emerging realities of families, communities, cultures, and worlds.

* To be in this creatio continua, this ongoing and emerging creation, in front of all this beauty and glory, meants that there can be no last word.

Buy the book.  Click HERE.


–

Do One Green Thing March 14, 2012

Do One Green Thing:
Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices
- Mindy Pennybacker

You want to make healthier eating choices.  You know buying organic clothing and fair-trade coffee, along with smarter choices for personal products is a good thing.  You know recycling is good for people and the planet we share.
BUT, it’s just all so overwhelming!  Too many claims.  Too many choices.  Too much research.  And it seems to cost more to “do the right thing.”
So, since you can’t “do it all,” you may feel you’re left with doing nothing.

NOT TRUE!

Too many people (including myself) sometimes get locked in an all-or-nothing mentality.  In “Do One Green Thing,” Mindy Pennybacker shows us how to make one simple choice in a variety of areas of everyday living.  One simple choice that can make a difference.
Plus, she sifts through the information, does the research, and give us the bottom line data we need to make the small changes that make a BIG impact.
She also names Brands and items!  Now, it is easy being green.

This would be a great reference book to keep in your car and take shopping with you.
“Do One Green Thing” is a great and very, very practical book that can help us all be better stewards of God’s gift of creation.

- df

Buy “Do One Green Thing”.  Click HERE.

“One green thing: It’s so simple.  This book takes the pressure off by giving you one easy but effective choice to make in each basic area of your life. And it’s written by a trusted voice in environmental health reporting: Mindy Pennybacker.
- Meryl Streep

“The eco-friendly world is a bitch to navigate.  Do One Green Thing makes it simple, but not simplistic.”
- Donna Bulesco, In Style magazine

“From foreword to index, the succinct book is fewer than 300 pages, but Pennybacker manages to cover a broad range of everyday questions.”
- The Daily Green

Buy “Do One Green Thing”.  Click HERE.

———-

Related Quotes:

“If you think ‘Going Green’ is something new, take a look at your Bible.  There is verse after verse about caring for the environment and all of God’s creation. So, being a good steward over God’s creation is not something new, but instead a responsibility we must all undertake.”
- Kelli Mahoney

“All of God’s creation—nature, animals, and humanity—are inextricably linked to one another. As creation cares for us, we too are called to care for creation and engage in the work of healing and sustaining it. ”
- from the preface of  The Green Bible

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough electricity to power a TV for three hours.

Buy “Do One Green Thing”.  Click HERE.

Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil,  4,100 kilowatts of energy, 3.2 cubic  yards of landfill space and 60 pounds of air pollution.

If the entire world lived like the average American, we’d need 5 planets to provide enough resources.

Buy “Do One Green Thing”.  Click HERE.

Religion Gone Bad February 16, 2012

“Becoming an activist is simply a matter of putting love into action.”

Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers Of The Christian Right
- Mel White
———–

My WordPress stats tell me this is my 200th blog post.
I’m glad it’s dedicated to reviewing a book of this much importance.

While this book seems a bit dated in spots, it remains essential.
It contains vital recent past history, chronicling  and exposing the war on America by the religious right.  The material here isn’t conjecture, or hyped partial-truths.  This book is written by an “insider.”
Mr. White was a significant player in fundamentalist evangelical circles.  And for a time, he bought into the lies.
He knew, and worked with people like Billy Graham,  Francis Schaeffer, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, D. James Kennedy, and Pat Robertson.
[The only one of those men who seemed to have a clue as to who God really is, is Billy Graham.]
Mel White knows of what he speaks!  And what he speaks of is some very, very scary stuff!
We learn of secret meetings, political agendas, manipulation of the masses, and very “un-Christ-like” power-plays of this sect that wishes to control and conform the entirety of America into their own image.

Part of the book descriptions have this to say:

“The Reverend Mel White, a deeply religious man who sees fundamentalism as “evangelical Christian orthodoxy gone cultic,” believes that it is not a stretch to say that the true goal of today’s fundamentalists is to break down the wall that separates church and state, superimpose their “moral values” on the U.S. Constitution, replace democracy with theocratic rule, and ultimately create a new “Christian America” in their image. White’s new book, Religion Gone Bad, is a wake-up call to all of us to take heed.

White is singularly qualified to write this exposé of the Christian Right because he himself was a true believer who served the evangelical movement as pastor, professor, filmmaker, television producer, author, and ghostwriter. As he writes, “These are not just Neocons dressed in religious drag. These men see themselves as gurus called by God to rescue America from unrighteousness. They believe this is a Christian nation that must be returned forcibly to its Christian roots.”

There’s a story of how he was hired to ghost-write a book for Pat Roberston, and Pat wouldn’t even take the time to read it. Yet, there he was at a book signing, autographing a book with his name on it, not fully knowing what was actually in it.

There’s also information about how President Bush actually sought approval from James Dobson on who to appoint to office!!

The section “Idolatry:  The Religion Of Fundamentalism”  should be a “must-read” for Christians everywhere.
It covers “God As Idol” (some GREAT insights here), “The Bible As Idol” (which I’ve covered in a number of other posts), “The Family As Idol” (focus on the Dobson), and “The Nation As Idol” (also see “The Myth of a Christian Nation).

Later we look at “Fascism: The Politics Of Fundamentalism.”  We’re shown the frightening similarities between what’s going on in America, and the way religion and the Bible were used by Hitler to deceive the masses and rally the troops. The “14 identifying characteristics of fascism” are disturbingly similar to fundamentalist Christianity.

Then, in Part Four of the book, we discuss ways to resist fundamentalism. Chapter’s 8 and 9 analyze how to reclaim our progressive political and moral values.
In the section on moral values, we look at the Old Testament prophets and the teachings of Jesus. There’s lots of scripture in this section. We see again how fundamentalists, like the Pharisees, major on the minors, while ignoring or dismissing the real meat of the Bible and of Jesus’ teachings.
While fundamentalists want to “reclaim America,” what’s really needed is to reclaim Christianity from the fundamentalists.

Finally, there’s “Discovering Soul Force.” We look at the examples of Martin Luther King Jr., and Ghandi as we discover the power of non-violent resistance (also known as “Christian Love”) which Jesus taught and lived. It can be, or rather is, very hard to not hate the haters. I see a lot of hater hating these days. It is understandable. But this portion of Mel’s book really helped me remember that love conquers hate. We also see that loving one’s enemies doesn’t mean rolling over and playing dead. It’s not violence or passivity. It is a third way.
[In relationship to that, check out the last paragraph of this previous post: Click HERE. ]


As a gay man, Mr. White does focus on the dangers of the religious right in their war against homosexuals, BUT these dangers are a threat to us ALL! History has has shown us the horrific results of the marriage between church and state. The torture. The intimidation. The outright murder. All in the name of God. That is the direction to which many fundamentalists are trying to take us.
As the famous phrase goes, “The Christian right is often neither.”

This book came out (pun intended) in 2006, and we’ve seen this disease of religious control and manipulation spread even more since the book was written. Some of our current politicians think that their interpretation of the Bible should be the literal rule of the land for all of our blessedly diverse culture.

I echo the previous statement that this book sounds the alarm, and should be a wake-up call for those who value all American’s rights.

- df

Buy the book.  Click HERE.

Check out the organization SOULFORCE. Click HERE.

———————-

Quotes:

- The Bible is not a book of magic. It’s a book of mystery. You can’t just quote verses that support your prejudices or guarantee your health, wealth, and happiness and demand that God “follow through” as promised. God is not limited to the words of Scripture. God is still speaking.

- Fundamentalist Christians are my sisters and brothers, my family and friends, my oldest colleagues and coworkers. But I fear their love for the nation has become an obsession to reshape it in their own image.

- [Billy Graham is an] example that in spite of the fact that all fundamentalists are evangelical, all evangelicals and definitely not fundamentalists.

- Like the people of Israel who created a golden calf to represent God while Moses was away, fundamentalist Christians have built their own idols to represent God until Jesus returns.
The religion of fundamentalism is idolatry.
Buy the book.  Click HERE.

- Fundamentalist Christianity is not just a threat to lesbians and gays, but to all Americans who cherish democracy and the rights and protections guaranteed us by the U.S. constitution.

- When Sally Williams asked her son Matthew why he killed “the two homos,” his answer was recorded by prison officials: “I had to obey God’s law rather than man’s law. I didn’t want to do this. I have followed a higher law. [I was] cleansing a sick society. I just plan to defend myself from the Scriptures.”

- “Fundamentalists are not happy when facts challenge their understanding. For biblical literalists, there is always an enemy to be defeated in mortal combat.” – John Shelby Spong [Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalsis]

- Jerry Falwell turned gay bashing into a very successful art form. [He is] the first fundamentalist to exploit the fear and loathing of homosexuals to raise hundreds of millions of dollars and add millions of new donors to his mailing list.

- It’s beginning to feel like there is no room in America for anyone who is not a fundamentalist Christian.
Buy the book.  Click HERE.

- Although He is regularly asked to do so, God does not take sides in American politics.” – Senator George Mitchell

- Gary Nixon and I have had a loving, committed, faithful relationship for twenty-five years (now over 30) yet we are denied more than a thousand rights and protections that go automatically with marriage.

- It would be catastrophic if one day these fundamentalists Christians gain enough political power to enforce their literal understanding of Mosaic Law.

- The Roman Catholic Church is without doubt the original source of suffering for gay and lesbian people.

- Because of their excessive commitment to a literal Bible, fundamentalist Christians have fallen into the trap of biblioltry.
Buy the book.  Click HERE.

- Doing justice, loving mercy, seeking truth…these are the issues [the Bible] is clear on.

- There were families made up of Jewish soldiers and female prisoners of war; female rape victims forced by law to marry their attackers; and male slaves assigned to female slaves by their master. Jesus condemned divorce but did not condemn any of the family types common to his day.

- I am convinced that Christian fundamentalism is a far greater threat to this country than Muslim terrorists could ever be.

- “The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”
[Article 11. Treaty of Tripoli. Signed into law by President John Adams. 1797.]

- The words “God is love” conclude a biblical warning, not a warm and fuzzy slogan. “He who doesn’t love [his neighbor] doesn’t love God, for God is love.”
Buy the book.  Click HERE.

- My commitment to the Bible [is my] source of progressive values.

- Although I claim to be a Christian, I live at a moment in time when the Christian faith is being defined by fundamentalists who have dishonored Christ and are in the process of destroying His church. I refuse to wear the “Christian” label without redefining it.

- Without faith in God, man can have faith neither in himself nor in others. The finite cannot be understood unless we know it is rooted in the Infinite. – Gandhi

- When you stand with the outcasts, you stand with Jesus, and when you despise the outcast, you despise Jesus, as well. Becoming an activist is simply a matter of putting love into action.

- [And if you made it this far, thanks for reading my 200th post! - df]

Buy the book.  Click HERE.

Check out the organization SOULFORCE. Click HERE.

Books. I Like Books. February 16, 2012

[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.

Slippery Slope January 31, 2012

THIS IS JUST TOO GOOD TO NOT SHARE WITH AS
MANY PEOPLE AS I CAN.
It’s from the blog of Rachel Held Evans, and I can truly identify.
—————–

They said that if I questioned a 6,000-year-old earth, I would question whether other parts of Scripture should be read scientifically and historically.

They were right. I did.

They said that if I entertained the hope that those without access to the gospel might still be loved and saved by God, I would fall prey to the dangerous idea that God loves everyone, that there is nothing God won’t do to reconcile all things to Himself.

They were right. I have.

They said that if I looked for Jesus beyond the party line, I could end up voting for liberals.

They were right. I do (sometimes).

They said that if I listened to my gay and lesbian neighbors, if I made room for them in my church and in my life, I could let grace get out of hand.

They were right. It has.

They told me that this slippery slope would lead me away from God, that it would bring a swift end to my faith journey, that I’d be lost forever.

But with that one, they were wrong.

————

[Read this rest of this, and other writings by Rachel Held Evans. Click HERE.]

[AND buy and read her wonderful book
"Evolving In Monkey Town." 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

Click September 13, 2011

I recently read this post on facebook:

     ”Sharing enlightenment is practically impossible; it just does not transfer very well.”
      - John Fincher

I have to say I agree. Well, kind of.
I’ve learned that we can put our life experiences, things we’ve discovered, our insights and even our questions “out there”, but like seeds, they fall where they will. We simply sow.
Maybe we’re not sharing our enlightenment as much as we’re expressing its results.

I’ve had many people thank me for my various writings and posts.  Some have said the stories, insights, and sometimes rather personal information have helped them find new freedom, or at least to ask new questions.

There are also those who find my views heretical.  They think I’ve lost my way.  That I’ve been seduced by the dark side (insert heavy mechanized breathing). They seem to think if I’m still “saved,” and that’s a big if, it’s by the skin of my teeth.
The same information that helps some can irritate and even anger others.

Author Rachel Held Evans stated “it’s still really hard for me when people question whether I’m actually a Christian.”
Sometimes it seems like the more “Christ-like” ones views become the more they’re challenged by traditional religion. That makes sense in light of how Christ himself was treated.

I think that our responses to ideas that are different from our own says a lot more about where we are in our journey than they do about the ideas themselves.

I had a friend years ago who tried to tell me that I didn’t understand grace.  He tried to sell me on “eternal security.”  I let him know that I understood grace just fine.  Maybe he wasn’t using grace as an excuse to sin, but certainly he was leading people down the path of that possibility. Maybe his salvation was intact, but what about all the people he was misleading?
My fundamentalism was is full force.

The thing is, he could never have argued me out of my beliefs.  No one could.
No one could have argued me out of my right-wing fundamentalism.
No one could have reasoned me out of my limited view of grace.
No one could have convinced me that issues of social justice weren’t just predominantly forms of anti-God secular humanism.
I knew right-wing politics and “true” Christianity went hand in hand.
And all that “green” tree-hugger nonsense? Well, we won’t even go there.

I’ve never known anyone to be argued out of their long-held, deeply ingrained beliefs. For that kind of change, something has to “click” inside them.  I don’t know how or why this happens.  It’s probably different for everyone.  I’m only vaguely familiar with how or when it happened to me.  The “click” isn’t the actual change in beliefs.  Change is a process.   And as I’ve said, there is no growth without change.

But the “click” is, I think, a necessary precursor.  THEN the seeds of the knowledge and experience of others (their enlightenment) past, present and future, start to take root. Once that initial switch is thrown, lights everywhere start coming on.  The false glow of the light we thought we had may finally go out. The journey takes on a “life” of its own, and all you can do is hold on. (We must also remember though, that all of our life up to any given “click” has also been an integral part of the journey. Realizing that can help prevent some tendencies of beating oneself up over what “should have been known”.)
I’m still convinced that one of the greatest “new” pieces of knowledge is the realization and acknowledgement of how little we do know.  Then we can be less afraid, and more importantly, less combative of the ideas outside of our theological clique.

This is, IMHO, one of the great flaws of most religion, certainly of fundamentalism.  ”I don’t know” is not a comfortable option.  Instead, everything has to have a concrete answer.  I mean, just look at all the apologetics books.  Everything must have a clear, locked-down explanation. AND we must be able to defend it tooth and nail.

I had an extended “run-in” with one young fellow who loved the phrase “spot-on.”
“Do you think that’s spot on?”  ”Is your belief spot-on with the Bible?”  For him, there was one right answer, and he knew it!
What I’m saying is not that there are no absolutes.  But we don’t have to dig too deep in our own lives to realize our understanding is certainly not absolute.

Naturally, when we discover a new facet of ultimate reality, or a new-found freedom, we want to share it.  The rude awakening comes when we find that not everyone shares our enthusiasm.  Not everyone believes you should think, explore, investigate, or be allowed to experience life the way it comes to you. Mostly, this is fear.

So yes, “sharing enlightenment is practically impossible”. Enlightenment arrives on it’s own terms.
Still, we sow.  And we reap from the sowing of others.  And the sowing can play a large roll.
Especially when at last the switch is thrown and something clicks.

It may start with letting go of the need to be “spot-on.” We start to see that life and perceived truth might be a little more fluid, rather than carved in stone.  It seems to me, that without a strong ability to be comfortable with “I just don’t know,”  we can never really grow, because when we think we know all the answers, we stop searching, and we make the fatal flaw of no longer asking the questions.


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To read more quotes by John Fincher, you can “friend” him on facebook.
You can also check out his bussiness at: USMaterialHandling.com

Rachel Held Evans is a blogger, speaker, and author of “Evolving In Monkey Town.”
Check out here site here: rachelheldevans.com
Read my review of “Evolving In Monkey Town” here: EIMT


Disclaimer:
Neither Mr. Fincher nor Ms. Evans are associated with this blog. The view expressed are those of the author (Me.)
- dave


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