Relevancy22 - Disclaimer, Purpose, Intention, and Goal

DISCLAIMER:

Relevancy22 is a collection of Contemporary, Postmodern, Critical Theology discussions built as a reference site and not as a personal blog. To make it interesting I try to interact with the material as I have time. Its contents and topics have been constructed to help users think through a vast array of contemporary issues. Using its Indexes on the right hand column will help any explorer begin acquiring the rudimentary knowledge gained from past contemporary and historical discussions required of the Christian faith in this post-truth age of rigorous belief juxtapositioned against known academic truths and post-conservative questions. It is this latter I wish to explore.

Relevancy22 does not purport to be a conservative "safe" site but one asking relevant questions to today's postmodern global cultures especially in light of who God is, what the bible is, and how the church thinks through these issues. The author, me, came to Jesus many, many years ago as a child and grew up in a fundamental church, and later, attended conservative-evangelical churches, all of which I have dearly loved. About a decade ago (2009) the Lord brought all my education, seminary training, and past ministries into re-calibration as I watched the church provide less and less relevant answers to its congregants and society. As such, I respect the past for the beauty it held but must now differ from its conclusions which I've been re-adjusting and updating over the years towards a more contemporary voice. I try to be gracious in my writing or reporting but at times do become passionate about a subject or topic as you will discover.

Relevancy22 was Holy-Spirit-borne for Christians seeking legitimate answers (or helpful directions) to their faith. In a way, I believe Relevancy22 to be recapturing the Orthodox Christian faith from the constructed one being voiced about by today's conservative churches which draw too heavily on their doctrinal commitments and not enough on an open (rather than closed) bible unfettered by traditional teachings. If the articles found within sound different, radical, or not quite conservative, they are. They've been written - or edited from other author's bodies of work - to cause us to think about difficult biblical subjects which have been overly simplified resulting in more fictional narratives of the church's faith than what they really are. In my mind, making the Christian faith "safe" from academic, scientific, and cultural examination is the beginning of all the evils of popular religions refusing to submit to, or enact, God's grace and mercy, peace and forgiveness, into the lives of both the lost and saved. Thus this online dialogue here. We need another gospel which embraces the fullness of God and His salvation through Christ our Savior.

As always, may God's peace and love flood the hearts and minds of readers everywhere.

Your brother in Christ,

R.E. Slater
August 3, 2017

Repost: Thinking Through an Emergent Christianity, by R.E. Slater

In my spare time this past year-and-a-half I have been working through a newer form of theology to help deepen the poems I wish to someday bring to life. Under the web blog title, relevancy22, I have taken both an academic and contemporary approach to the issues of the day that have unnecessarily narrowed the Christianity I grew up in; and, have tried to give newer life-and-breadth by reconsidering non-apropos issues which friends and family have lately been taught to criticize, or not consider, by this past generation of overly-conservative theologs and hasty pulpiteers. It is known as emergent Christianity, which in its own way is a more moderate (or is it progressive?) form of evangelical Christianity become politically unbalanced by the rightist issues of today. And consequently, has limited the gospel of Jesus to our postmodern, 21st Century, pluralistic, and multi-cultural societies. Societies that we as humanity apparently struggle to live within given the many incidents of civil warfare and terroristic atrocities witnessed globally between religious, ethnic, and ideological temperaments rather than seeing the good, the beautiful, the helpful within our human differences.

For myself, I don't pretend to live in the failed eras of yesteryear, nor to pursue the enlightened, late-modernism issues of the 50s and 60s by revisionistic historical practices (from either side of the political aisle). Mostly because I firmly believe that today's Christian faith can be as vital now as it was fifty years ago without having to artificially create invasive thought-barriers and protective screens to shield the faithful from the dialectic events occurring around us in contemporary society. That the life of Jesus was one of action combined with a broadening-out of Jewish theology, itself become constricted and divisive in His day of revelatory illumination. That our actions count as much as our words. That seeing the value of human life is more important than clinging to the traditions of a rich, and faithful, church heritage become insular to the criticisms and needs of the 21st Century. That the human faith must allow for the majesty and mystery of God while doubting the foibles and wisdom of man. Especially as considering God's love as the prime motivator in our Creator-Redeemer's communion with man (and the cosmos) in everything He has done - and is now doing - within our expanding worlds of knowledge and industry and societal evolution.

Consequently, I have spent many recent days and nights digesting the current affairs of Christian theology and practice, and have re-positioned those issues alongside the thoughts and actions of fellow Christian contemporaries excited by the same possibilities as myself of a newer, more gracious form of faith than presently being discovered or practiced. Along the way I have contributed what articles I could to this emerging discussion through personal insight and experience to help lend vocal support to those fellow "miscreant" theologs that my conservative branch of Christianity has purposely flagellated, or worse, ignored, in its struggle to update itself and embrace the unknown, the feared, the obvious and the unavoidable. So that in my first six months of blogging I began unsure of myself, but passionate to the burden placed upon me, by adopting the pseudonym skinhead (which in hindsight more probably indicated mine own personal deconstruction at the time) until feeling surer of myself to hazard my name to that signatory list of evolving practitioners and writers, elocutioners and philosophers, poets and minstrels. I find that I write best in prose but have attempted during that same time to duplicate the more pedantic form of my brethren to help readers along who are likewise investigating the root forms, and basal energies, of their faith. What poetry I attempt (and in truth it has been very limited) is written hastily to match the temperament of the article of that day's contribution or edition. And usually, I save my best prose for the concluding portions of the posting trusting the reader to better appreciate its words when having first read through the opening structures of the ensuing proposition and juxtaposed teaching.

Overall, I have not so much personally blogged as to try to create more of a timeless biblical index to what I consider an emerging form of theology and practice in need of definition, sorting-out, and topical discussion. One that can appreciate the contributions of the church's past creeds and confessions, beliefs and practices of yesteryear, but is willing to move beyond any current mis-conceptions or mis-representations of the bible. Or even the faith of the faithful seeking cultural acclamations rather than the biblical charter and precedence shown to us by the prophets of earlier times struggling with their generation of well-meaning religious priests and temple guardians. An emerging faith which has come to understand that "the human language is both a problem and a gift" - a problem because we wish to make it so mathematic-like. So precise and formal when it is anything but that (credit the Enlightenment for this effort of definitive syllogism and logistical precision found in Evangelical Christianity's popularly acclaimed systematic theologies of today!). And a gift, because through it we may use all the forms of human language and human presence to speak of God - whether poetically, or musically; in chants or in liturgical practice; or even non-verbally by our actions, body-language, and symbolic usage (art, film, etc).

To understand that "last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words are awaiting another voice" and by that mean that each generation has its own concerns and frames of reference that must be addressed. That if we don't learn to speak to one another between our generations - from old to young, and young to old - that we instead will speak past one another. To be aware that the Christian faith is meant to be expanded and stretched past any previous thought categories and semantic definitions into newer thought forms and meanings (Jesus showed us that in the Gospels, even as His disciples and the old guard of Judaism struggled with the same). This is because language itself can be both time-bound to the generation it lives within, as well as timeless to the generations to come. To recognize that human language bears a fluidity, or metamorphosing ability, which allows for its continual reconstitution and reconfiguration through the many eras and societies of mankind. So that we may use this uniqueness of human communication that it might breathe and find new lands of discovery and settlement amongst a wider variety of human habitat and mental conception. That how we might "think" in our people groups may be different from how other societies and generations "think" in their regional (and era-specific) people groups. That one is neither wrong nor right in their Christian thoughts and language. And that by this process we learn to communicate with one another from within our differing philosophical reference points without feeling threatened that our Christian faith is under attack every time we do. For me, Emergent Christianity is just this. No more and nor less. And because it is a different animal from Evangelical Christianity it gets undeservedly bad press by its different look and feel when it is simply learning to speak to the younger generations more attuned to their own issues and needs of their era.

Or, in another sense, we might say "it is of no use to going back to yesterday's voice (or being) because I was a different person then." And by this learn to appreciate and recognize the epistemologic and existential (e/e) growth of a person as experience catches up with the age of our time-worn souls and personhood. As example, I began life within a pre-modern enclave of farming families carrying on the deep traditions of their remembered past (from the mid- to late- 1800s) even as they were trying to absorb the industrial, World War 1 and 2 eras of the early- to mid- 1900s. They began as homesteading families to the wilderness areas of West Michigan when black bear and aboriginal natives were still common to the land. My brothers and I were the sixth generation of a farming lifestyle quickly going out of existence (as well as inheritors to a Scandinavian heritage newly come to America from the "Old Country"). And with it, all the ingrained traditions and agrarian practices of the past. We were left "out-of-time and out-of-place" with a modern day era of public schooling, gas and electricity, TV, music and an encroaching urban lifestyle far more diverse than our own. And when entering university during the upheaval of the Vietnam War era with its civil unrest, angry riots, peace sit-ins, LSD drug experimentation, and societal turmoils, I struggled to "adopt" this strange new land I found myself within which later caused me to enter into a bible school environment which held closer life values to my own remembered background. And yet, over the years I have learned to wean myself away from this (e/e) dependency and to finally make the leap these past dozen years or so towards a more metropolitan way of thinking. So that in a way, its been my third revision of myself, though more probably, my older soul still lives deep down inside of my fractured being even though I am more accepting of contemporary change. And by nature, am predisposed to understand the change I am confronted with, not being content to simply allow it to haunt my pysche without pursuing its causes, permutations, and dissatisfactions.

And yet, this gives me hope that through personal adjustments, whether small or great (however personally painful or disorientating these can be), our God may arightly affect both ourselves and succeeding generations to become fuller participants to this precious life we have been given and seem daily seem to fail to embrace as completely as it could be. To receive each day with thanksgiving. And to learn to behave ourselves more wisely with one another through the service of our gifts and talents, strengths and weaknesses. And at the last, to allow for the mystery and majesty of life itself through Jesus our Lord and Saviour. That language can be a problem, but it can also be a gift, as we accept the fact that we must grow in our communicational strengths with those different from ourselves. And by this communication allow it to bind us into a stronger, healthier society of men and women that celebrates our differences and sees those differences as the key to a brighter future not fraught with warfare, hate, fear, and distrust. May this then be our prayer. Our practice. Our desire. And in all things may we learn to share the grace of God with one another. To allow God's grace to become a vital part of our language with one another... and even within our very selves matriculating with age and experience to adopt God's love and forgiveness within our own lives and livelihood. Family structures and friends. Communities, churches, and workplace. Amen.

R. E. Slater

October 13, 2012

reposted from "the poetry of r.e.slater"

 

 

 

 

Relevancy22 - Emergent Thoughts and Observations

by R.E. Slater

 

 

http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebirth: Towards An Open Bible and Emerging Faith

What seems heretical to the enfranchised must be mandatory

for the disenfranchised in order to regain some semblance of

a living faith unsheltered from this present day world of

postmodern angst, agnosticism, disbelief, and atheism. - R

A little while ago a Facebook friend and I bantered over the meanings of the new Pew report showing how Americans voted in the 2012 Presidential elections between Republican and Democratic party lines (posted at the end of this post).

Our observations ran like this -

"From the survey it is very interesting to look at the voting patterns of Black Protestants, Black Other Christians, and Hispanic Catholics. I think this pattern suggests a difference in interpretation of the Christian message along racial and ethnic lines. Or is there another interpretation? Are the teachings of Jesus better represented by the voting patterns of White Evangelicals, Mormons, White Catholics, Black Christians, and Hispanic Catholics? And if so, is there an implication by the headline of the Pew report that a vote for Mitt Romney was a test of Faith?" - J

In response I made the following observations (which I now take full liberty to elaborate upon!) -

"Good points all J - . Which is why I wanted to put up the link in the first place in order to show how various people groups of faith differed in their perceptions of political issues and events. And how those perceptions then created differing voting patterns amongst those same faith groups.

"This same reasoning lies behind Christianity's history of denominationalism... that the dominate theology of the dominate people-group usually ruled. This has been true since time immemorial (sic, the Church eras of the Early Church Fathers that led to Catholicism's wide acceptance; then its separation into Eastern Orthodoxy's forms of faith; which then led many years later to the Lutheran and Protestant Reformation; and finally, to some form of Evangelicalism in the 19th and 20th Centuries).

"I grew up in a predominately fundamental and evangelical region of the country which means that I have experienced a high degree of religious and social conservatism. However, this same region is now experiencing an influx of newer, non-native people-groups migrating into this area (new students, workers, minority and refugee groups). Which means that the church's traditional evangelicalism is being challenged as to its right to "rule," and "king-making" privileges, within our city/county governments, public and private schools, and churches of varying stripes and colours." - R

I went on to state in a more abbreviated fashion than I do here -

"Moreover, we should be aware that if we fall into a dominate people-group (like I have experienced) that its views of life and, its biblical interpretations of the bible, doesn't get to rule for all other peoples in that area. Living in a pluralistic society will not allow this. Pluralism requires listening to others and adjusting our thoughts and behaviors, practices and beliefs, lest our Christian faith no longer remains relevant to today's multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, societies.

"For myself, I have personally witnessed the boundaries of Evangelicalism as self-limiting (and excluding) in its expressions, beliefs, doctrines, practices and dogmas. It thus must now require a broader, more pervasive, interpretive philosophic framework that must also include the widest number of Christian viewpoints without unduly diluting the original message of the gospel as expressed through Jesus in the pages of the New Testament. As example, when asking "What does the Gospel of Jesus mean to you?" We will find within this topic (dependent upon a respondent's background) a combination of stricter views of religious interpretation as well as less formalized views of interpretive meaning." - R

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Now let me digress for a bit -

For the past dozen years or more I have been on a new spiritual journey away from the Evangelicalism that I was familiar with towards a more open, post-evangelical expression of Christianity. Not long ago I started writing down my thoughts using Relevancy22 as my preferred medium of choice to document my journey seeking the broadest philosophic (or theosophic) frame of reference that would no longer delimit the gospel message to any one particular religious group. I first began this effort by listening to mine own group's rhetoric and disappointments. This meant that I had to evaluate the state of affairs that now existed within Evangelicalism while determining whether its version of the gospel of Jesus could be modified to other forms and frames of Christian reference.  And if not, to determine whether a newer expression of Evangelicalism, or some other form, may be a better representation of the Christian faith. One that might be more rigorous to the original intent of the New Testament Scriptures where the Gospel of Jesus is found. And yet less rigorous to the preponderance of itself as a religious institution. And if so, I would need to address the very foundations upon which this religious expression of faith existed while removing any past claimants become useless, or unhelpful, in the evolving dusts of historical progress.

Of course, this type of effort is being done everyday within the many branches of Christian ministry and education, and under a wide variety of religious views and -isms. However, not all views are as dominate - or as durable - as the Evangelic view. Which, for me, was the very one that was demanding my response to its present contemporary beliefs and practices. It necessitated that I step back from my own faith background and look at larger ecumenical forms and perspectives of Christianity. And specifically, those forms and perspectives that were relevant to today's postmodern (or, post-postmodern) generations while staying faithful to the testimony of Scripture. Along the way I discovered other similar research as my own being conducted that correlated present faith practices and dogmas across the Christian spectrum to one another, and to the NT Gospel itself. This I considered rather encouraging and have made all efforts to correlate and incorporated those newer, more relevant, discoveries and progressive responses to mine own. Thus providing a "hosts of witnesses" to this same effort as mine own so that no one should think that I am alone in my mind and heart on these dis-settling matters.

Overall, the key for me was that of determining the broadest possible philosophical and theological perspectives that might present the widest possible interpretations within the biblical faith without doing harm to Christianity's original content, intent, and message. It would require a broader, more open Bible, and the willingness to leave behind ingrained (conservative) Evangelical (or Fundamental) concepts that have for a long, long time been considered sacrosanct to the church's dogmas. Thus began my journey towards a more progressive form of Evangelicalism I have been calling Emergent Christianity.*

Moreover, I am acutely aware that Emergent Christianity has received bad press and, at times, poor representation amongst its more public adherents. However, rather than throw all out I am preferring to reshape it against the many Christian doctrines being held hostage within the impregnable fortress walls of high Calvinism and Evangelical folklore. Once released and given newer expression of life within the broader philosophic/theosophic interpretations of the bible, I will expect a better PR reception to what Emergent Christianity is now receiving. And if not, then we'll rename it something else with a less disparaging history and move on. Names don't matter. But better biblical interpretive work does matter. As does resultant practice, worship, and mission. The gospel of Jesus needs reclaiming and can no longer go any further along in its present day witness when held imperfectly by all other non-Emergent faith disciplines. Emergent Christianity when done well will reshape each-and-all while respecting the many flavors of Christianity remaining however they evolve. Relevancy22 has hoped to capture this effort through the works of others intent on sharing Jesus to the world.

What seems heretical to the enfranchised must be mandatory for the disenfranchised in order to regain some semblance of a living faith unsheltered from this present day world of postmodern angst, agnosticism, disbelief, and atheism. I want a Gospel that can speak to today's lost generations of disbelievers far removed from God not realizing that Jesus is as much their Savior as He the church's Savior. That Jesus' gospel message of salvation is for all men everywhere and not restricted to those few believers who dance to the required tunes of Evangelicalism (or to any religion for that matter). That Jesus, through the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit, lives and breathes throughout the spaces of His creation - even in the hearts of the wicked refusing His will and word. That there is no place one can exist without God being everywhere present and sharing His love within this wicked, sinful world. That His light can dispel darkness. His grace bring peace and forgiveness. His wisdom deliver us from the wickedness of our own hands. That we live and breathe firstly to love and serve all around us unto the glories of God's holy redemption found in the atoning sacrifice of Christ Jesus His Son and Second Person of the Trinity.

Foolishly, we speak neither of Evangelicalism nor of Emergent Christianity, but of the church of God sent to minister and to save through the Gospel of Jesus. We are neither of Paul nor Apollos. Of Peter nor John. Of Calvin or Arminius. Of Wesley or Billy Graham. We are but one body. And must learn to listen to one another and serve together as we can. That what once mattered in ages past must be re-jigged and re-configured to meet the needs of the world today. First it means opening up our closed bibles to see humanity afresh. And this then means that it does no good to deny scientific discoveries and findings by twisting its results to something we think it should (or should not) be saying; by refusing gender equality under the banners of hierarchical male domination; by repressing the rights of homosexual couples desiring civil union; by refusing to adapt our religious practices and worship to dissimilar non-native groups that are Hispanic, Asian, or Muslim; by declaring God's judgment upon one-and-all for refusing an evangelical (or Western) view of life; by showing an intolerance and exclusion to those (un)faithful daring to speak out on behalf of the church today; and so on, and so forth.

We do both God and His Word an injustice by keeping our hearts closed and refusing the rightness of His reign and ministry. Yes, we struggle to understand God's heart and the meaning of His words. Yes, we do imperfectly see what Jesus wants us to truly see - did not even His own disciples struggle with their religious ignorance and steadfast ways? Yes, the task is too hard, too foreign, too demanding, too unlike us to dare trying. Yes, we feel ill-equipped and out-of-sync with today's societies gyrating to the newest beats of heathen practice and ideologies. But God is for all men and not just the church. The church of God must get its hands dirty and be willing to give up (as it can) its exclusive religious practices and steel-tight religious boundaries. To be willing to see people as men and women loved by God and not as hell-bound souls. A more open mind, heart and soul can begin this next step. The willingness to doubt ourselves and trust God can help. And throughout this spiritual journey Relevancy22 is committed to lending what help it can to this perplexing landscape of disbelief and disjointed wilderness of religion. In mine own journey I have been sharing both my doubts and discoveries suspecting others to have a similar journey to mine own. And throughout its undertaking I pray that God will be honored and His Word declared as true and righteous. Even as it is given for our edification, reproof and rebuke. Be therefore at peace and know that God is gracious and ever true in leading all who wander upon the darker paths of illuminating self-doubt His own guidance and fellowship. Though singularly alone many times the biblical prophets of their day stood for God and declared His Word to the distress and ignoble arguments of His people. Not all will come but still God's Word must be proclaimed.

Finally, in gracious reply my Facebook friend then said in conclusion -

"Thanks. You are a person with whom I could always discuss religion and politics and come away smarter, happier, and know that I have been heard. "- J

It was a nice reply and made me feel encouraged against too many times when there has been little, to no, encouragement given. Even so, I have felt the same way with my friend as with any seeker who likewise journeys through this vale of tears. It is always best done together with an open heart and inquisitive mind sharing doubts and concerns, prayers and hopes, cheers and dismays. For nothing is definitive unless it is our own shut minds and closed souls unreceptive to God's mighty works within our midst. Let us pray then that God's Spirit not allow us this final definition of ourselves. Be therefore at peace and let God's love shine through all that we say and do within our imperfect lights of His great love.

R.E. Slater

November 15, 2012

Revival

by R.E. Slater

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

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*... Should we be thinking in terms of denominational labels let me say that Emergent Christianity (EC) is a bit of a step further to the left of Post-Conservative Evangelicalism (PCE). A cumbersome name at the least! And one I dislike in its witness to the world as it still retains the name of "evangelical" within its much misunderstood label amongst the press - though readily identifiable to the knowledgeable Christian seeking affiliation with the church's historic past. And yet, EC should not be thought of as so far left as to fall into Progressive Mainline Denominationalism (PMD) active in social works, equitable justice, and minority empowerment, but less-focused on Jesus and His Word; nor even left of that into Liberal Theology (LT) concentrated on pure anthropological construction of the biblical text and devoid of Jesus altogether. Why these distinctions? Because many of my evangelical friends believe these things and continue to tell others of these untruths.

Moreover, I have come to believe that EC's present job is to remove the structural restrictions of classical Evangelical expression while making all efforts to create a postmodern Christian orthodoxy that is updated from its current classical expressions of itself. Releasing itself at once from its extra-biblical, non-orthodox past, of disseminated church dogmas and traditions, while immediately seeking truer (more biblical expansive) expressions of historic orthodox doctrines and theologies within the fluid contexts of contemporary, (post-)postmodern global society filling with the unborn generations yet to come. As such, Emergent Christianity - undergirded by an emerging theology - should embrace church movements both right-and-left of itself while providing the Scriptural judgments and spirit of revival requisite for the job at hand for Emergent Christian expression in the 21st Century.

Something classic evangelical churches may attempt to do, but be unable to fully do, if remaining unyielded to critiquing their movement, belief, expectation, hope, and social mores. Even so, it is hoped that migrating PCE congregations will adopt a more progressive tone-and-tenor of toleration within their congregations as they search the Scriptures to determine God's revelation for today's generations. But to simplistic describe one's church as being a "missional church" or a "progressive fellowship" will not be sufficient in the demanding head winds of today's (post-)postmodern societies. To be truly missional, or progressive, is to challenge one's past beliefs and knowledge, relying on the wisdom and power of God's Holy Spirit whom we know as the Fire of God's burning heart alive with the eternal heats of God's divine love unwilling that any be excluded from the Kingdom of God. It is a task we must all unite around.

And because the gospel of Jesus seems to get overlooked in the many good works of PMD, and lost altogether in the biblical redactionism of LT, I don't believe any further movement left by EC is warranted. Consequently, I would like to see the tent of EC expand over all definitive Christian canopies, if possible. Built upon newer, ex-Reformational (ex-Calvinistic) structures, that are more Jewish, more postmodern, more scientific, more pluralistic and expansive. When it does, it will require a global language, symbolism, unity, and faith, that will look wholly unlike anything it does today. In fact, Christianity's postmodern expression will take several generations to accomplish, if not longer. One which we hope to begin here within this era, and by the enterprises of other forward-looking Christian groups, regardless of their heritage and denominational background. Think of these emergent fellowships as "Christian Think Tanks" which will push (lovingly) against the sacred boundaries of the present day Church.

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How the Faithful Voted: 2012 Preliminary Analysis

http://www.pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/How-the-Faithful-Voted-2012-Preliminary-Exit-Poll-Analysis.aspx

ANALYSISNovember 7, 2012

In his re-election victory, Democrat Barack Obama narrowly defeated Republican Mitt Romney in the national popular vote (50% to 48%)¹. Obama’s margin of victory was much smaller than in 2008 when he defeated John McCain by a 53% to 46% margin, and he lost ground among white evangelical Protestants and white Catholics. But the basic religious contours of the 2012 electorate resemble recent elections – traditionally Republican groups such as white evangelicals and weekly churchgoers strongly backed Romney, while traditionally Democratic groups such as black Protestants, Hispanic Catholics, Jews and the religiously unaffiliated backed Obama by large margins.

Vote Choice by Religion and Race

Religiously unaffiliated voters and Jewish voters were firmly in Obama’s corner in 2012 (70% and 69%, respectively). Compared with 2008, support for Obama ticked downward among both Jews and religiously unaffiliated voters in the exit polls, though these declines appear not to be statistically significant. Both of these groups have long been strongly supportive of Democratic candidates in presidential elections. Black Protestants also voted overwhelmingly for Obama (95%).

At the other end of the political spectrum, nearly eight-in-ten white evangelical Protestants voted for Romney (79%), compared with 20% who backed Obama. Romney received as much support from evangelical voters as George W. Bush did in 2004 (79%) and more support from evangelicals than McCain did in 2008 (73%). Mormon voters were also firmly in Romney’s corner; nearly eight-in-ten Mormons (78%) voted for Romney, while 21% voted for Obama. Romney received about the same amount of support from Mormons that Bush received in 2004. (Exit poll data on Mormons was unavailable for 2000 and 2008.)

Compared with religiously unaffiliated and Jewish voters on the left and white evangelicals and Mormons on the right, Catholics and white mainline Protestants were more evenly divided. Among white mainline Protestants in the exit poll, 54% voted for Romney, while 44% supported Obama. This is virtually identical to the 2008 election, when 55% of white mainline Protestants voted for McCain and 44% backed Obama.

White Catholics, by contrast, swung strongly in the Republican direction relative to 2008. Nearly six-in-ten white Catholics (59%) voted for Romney, up from 52% who voted for McCain in 2008. Three-quarters of Hispanic Catholics voted for Obama, and Catholics as a whole were evenly divided in 2012 (50% voted for Obama, while 48% backed Romney).

Vote Choice by Religious Attendance

As in other recent elections, those who attend religious services most often exhibited the strongest support for the Republican presidential candidate. Nearly six-in-ten voters who say they attend religious services at least once a week voted for Romney (59%), while 39% backed Obama. Romney received as much support from weekly churchgoers as other Republican candidates have in recent elections.

Those who say they never attend religious services were again among the strongest Democratic supporters in the presidential election. More than six-in-ten voters who say they never attend religious services voted for Obama (62%). Voters who say they attend religious services a few times a month or a few times a year also supported Obama over Romney by a 55% to 43% margin.

Religious Composition of the 2012 Electorate

The religious composition of the 2012 electorate resembled recent elections, though there are signs that both the white Protestant and white Catholic share of the electorate are gradually declining over the long term.

 Slightly more than half of 2012 voters describe themselves as Protestants (53%), compared with 54% in each of the three previous elections. Roughly four-in-ten voters were white Protestants in 2012 (39%); by comparison, 42% of 2004 and 2008 voters were white Protestants, as were 45% of 2000 voters. The decline in white Protestants’ share of the electorate is most evident among non-evangelicals, whose share of the electorate has declined slightly from 20% in 2004 to 16% in 2012. White evangelical Protestants constituted 23% of the 2012 electorate, compared with 23% in 2008 and 21% in 2004.

One-quarter of 2012 voters were Catholics, including 18% who were white Catholics. By comparison, white Catholics constituted 21% of the electorate in 2000, 20% of voters in 2004 and 19% of the electorate in 2008.

Jews accounted for 2% of the 2012 electorate, and Muslims and members of other non-Christian faiths together accounted for 7% of the electorate. The religiously unaffiliated made up 12% of 2012 voters; the religiously unaffiliated share of the electorate is unchanged from 2008, even though the religiously unaffiliated share of the adult population has grown significantly over this period.

For more election-related analysis from the Pew Research Center, see "Changing Face of America Helps Assure Obama Victory,”Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, Nov. 7, 2012, "Latino Voters in the 2012 Election," Pew Hispanic Center, Nov. 7, 2012 and "A Milestone En Route to a Majority Minority Nation," Pew Social & Demographic Trends, Nov. 7, 2012.

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Footnotes:

             

1 This preliminary analysis reflects data for 2012 as published by NBCNews.com as of 10:15 a.m. on Nov. 7, 2012. If data are subsequently re-weighted by the National Election Pool (NEP), the consortium of news organizations that conducts the exit polls, the numbers reported here may differ slightly from figures accessible through the websites of NEP member organizations. As in previous years, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life plans to conduct a more detailed analysis of religion in the 2012 campaign once the raw exit poll data become available.

© Joshua Bickel/Corbis

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Index to past articles on "An Open Faith and Open Theology"

My Faith Journey from Evangelicalism

 

"...In hindsight, my faith didn't require abandonment. No.

Simply a better resonance with what it wasn't hearing

in today's current generations of God's faithful."  - re slater

 

Years ago I began the process of investigating what evolution might mean to me as a Christian and found myself in the long process of re-thinking the fundamental progress that science has been making these past many years without my personal involvement and investment. However, about a year ago I began reporting on the Christian understanding of evolution and all the affects this understanding would have upon Christian doctrine if it were to be incorporated into a normalized view of Scripture (see the sidebars under "Science" on the right hand column) . I began by splitting articles up between anthropological and cosmological studies starting with what we know about hominids and the homo sapien genome structure and progressing forward towards Earth studies and studies related to the universe. Along the way I discovered a Christian organization by the name of Biologos to be deeply involved with the same concerns as I had and so, began utilizing their research and opinions to help more quickly form some basic ideas of what evolution means for the Bible and for the Christian dedicated to understanding the Bible's ideas about God as our Creator-Redeemer.

Having been risen in a culture of Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism requiring a form of biblical literalism and inerrancy, and holding to the more stricter view that evolution was fundamentally anti-biblical, I felt led of the Spirit of God to place these categories to the side and hold them in tension so that I could begin a re-investigation into what my faith might mean in light of all that we now know about ourselves and our world in evolutionary terms. From that day until this present I have undergone a radical change that has uplifted my reading of the bible and understanding about God. I have come away richer and more satisfied with the journey I've taken and now regard my past with some little bit of skepticism. The bible is no longer as literal as it use to be for me and in exchange I've come away with phenomenal spiritual insight to what God is presently doing in this world of ours. How I read the bible (cf. the sidebars Hermeneutics, Bible), how I understand Jesus in His many redemptive aspects (Gospel, Sin, Salvation, Love, etc), how I understand God (Theism, Narrative Theology), what I expect for the future (Kingdom, Eschatology), and for the church today (Faith, Church, Christianity) has become greatly enriched and fundamentally deepened. I did not expect this when I began. In fact, I expected quite the reverse (if not hell itself! according to disconcerted friends and family). But am amazed at how untangled I've become from the many binding cords of my more traditional faith heritage. An heritage which I can only have the deepest appreciation for, but one that I must transform away from towards  a type of one that I've been writing and describing as Emergent Christianity... which itself is in a similar state of transition. This is important to know as newer adherents like myself seek to gather into a broader space of faith acceptance, practice and worship. One more richly filled with an orthodox biblical tradition expanding outwards. But perhaps not spoken as well as it could be by some of our earliest emergent advocates.

In essence, I've evolved, or am emerging, into a Christian that is more open and freer of my more-restrictive, past traditional Christian beliefs and structures. And if you had started with me last April of 2011, when writing under the pseudonym of skinhead, you would've read of my dismay with Evangelicalism and my perplexity over a newer direction called Emergent Christianity that had gotten a lot of bad press and was being plied with a lot of misinformation. No less from the fact that I had to also sort out what my Emergent brethren were saying as they seemed to blindly stumble about the theological room examining differing parts of the same elephant and declaring "Aha, this is what faith means!" Or, "Oho, this is what it means now!" Each one using a differing non-rigorous structural, theosophic or philosophic, element to re-create a Christian faith that needed re-birthing, re-ordering, re-examination, and re-discovery. And it was this very thing that I felt I could do and had quickly become burdened to express. Driven by the Spirit of God as it were. Relentlessly. Tirelessly. Till I've arrived here in this present space tired and weary and glad for the burden to do what little I could in the area of Christian epistemology set within a postmodern framework. And since then have endeavored to take all the parts and pieces of my past training and understanding to reconfigure an expanded sense of evangelicalism that is more progressive. Less judgmental. More open to broader ideologies and methodologies. That is global. Transformative. Multi-generational. Pluralistic. And more attune to the postmodern cultures and societies of our times. Regardless of whether we call it Emergent or not. I needed a faith that saw Jesus in all His many forms and beauty. And this I believe is what God gave to me as my vision.

Thus, I have begged, borrowed and reconfigured every helpful idea that I could find among the brotherhood. And have dearly tried not to limit the power of God in this endeavor even as I've tried to recreate a more open conformity to Scriptures. Overall, I have first and foremost sought biblical direction and support for these newer (Emergent) ideas than simply stating mine own preferences and opinions. Or when I do, admit it while investigating these newer transformative ideas and insights. If ideas like evolution is true, or that God is closer to us today than He ever has been before, or that the essence of the Christian faith is Jesus, than I need to know how to arrive at these conclusions from a biblically supportive structure. At first this task was one of redefining Evangelicalism's ingrained "definition" of itself. I found those definitions self-limiting and fast becoming the very sacred altars of a church no longer living in this present world but in the past worlds of yesteryear's Christian endeavors, confessional commitments, and sanctified organizations. As such, it was no longer useful except for historic guidance and orthodox support. Otherwise, it seemed like all things Christian needed the probing scalpel of deep re-examination and re-orientation. This deconstructive effort was painful (both personally and corporately) but it promised a brighter re-constructive future. One that I've had the great, good joy of sharing however solitary its serpentine road of travel. There was no one road to follow but dozens of scattering bunny trails that went every which way requiring the sleuth of a detective to hunt out its main branches and estuaries.

And much like solving a Sudoku puzzle where one finds solutions to answers that are not there, so I began to examine my earlier Christian antecedents and theological structures for what they were not saying (not simply Evangelicalism this time, but denominationalism, and Christian traditionalism itself) to glean fundamental directions not earlier apparent to me. What I found was a space that was deafening in its silence and fearfully darkened to the willing traveller. But it was there behind the shut door (or doors in my case) and when pushed open, came upon a labyrinth of competing ideas and misdirections each requiring the lamp of discernment and patient examination. To venture into this mass of entanglement required a sturdy compass and the help of the Spirit, for without either I would be lost, and left either destroyed of faith or abandoned all together.

Consequently, my first 6-8 months of articles will speak to my dismay with the Christian rhetoric I was listening too. This then began the first part of my awakening. Part of that dismay was in Calvinism itself which I played off against with Arminianism to help re-balance my systematic heritage with a broader scope of heaven, hell, sin, and judgement. I needed to hear and see that God's mission of restorative fellowship to a broken creation is even now being remitted with His great, good love, and understanding of man in his human condition of pride and fallenness. From there I began to positively expand upon what a more progressive structure of Emergent Christianity may look like from topic-to-topic as I had time or insight. In the process I gained more confidence and began to use my own name for propriety's sake and in the great good tradition of journalistic ethics when doing the work of an essayist. At this point I knew I was moving in the right direction but that it needed further definition and structure as I could lend to it given time and information.

Where once I had been committed to writing poetry over the previous two years as a lifetime goal, and quite removed from the sacred worlds of ivory towers and flaming pulpits. Now my heart was burdened to lay my pen down for awhile and pursue, as I could, this newer task of re-igniting our Christian thinking imperiled by so many frailer (and untrue) epistemologies of what the Christian faith was traditionally considered. It had become a folk religion instead of a living faith. A divisive institution rather than a living fellowship. A political polemic rather than a compassionate faith ministering to the suffering masses around itself. A religion requiring too many rotten supports built upon the sinking sands of human idealism and disillusionment; and not upon the truer, time-tested bedrock of Christ Himself. As such, I began to write in prose using a combination of academic and devotional tracts. And before I could write I could only quote sympathetic Christian sources that were thinking aloud with me what I was thinking in my head. But speaking it much better than I could. And with much better background and information. From then until now I have been learning to blog my thoughts more openly, more intelligently, and hopefully, in a way that is helpful to other Jesus followers having the same questions, dismays and experiences as myself.

Eighteen months later I believe the burden of this webblog to have attained some semblance of transition and maturity that it did not hold when it first was begun. As marks of graduation, I can now read and listen to a wider branch of ideas and discoveries, and reconfigure them into a more helpful understanding of my faith, where earlier those same elements would've been ignored, discarded or heavily criticised. (But not all ideas or discoveries have been helpful, as in my experience of beholding the misdirectional, cultic expressions of New Ageism or Gnostic Mysticism of the Christian faith. Within them may lay some biblical truth that they have apprehended and made their own. But it is not the biblical truth that I recognize within my transformative Emergent faith based upon orthodox doctrine and biblical principle. To those groups my Christian faith will ever be at odds with, refusing to be waylaid along the highways of misguided inspiration.)

This journey is but a small beginning - but one that was necessary. And as encouragement, however imperfectly I may have written, I offer this blogsite as a source of direction into any-and-all areas requiring the postmodern care and acumen of Emergent Christianity. I have tried to create this blog as a wikipedia of sorts to theological questions. To my readers I give it away for comfort and guidance to be used as it can.

In hindsight, my faith didn't require abandonment. No. Simply a better resonance with what it wasn't hearing in today's current generations of God's faithful. These are my brethren, not my enemy. My brothers and sisters requiring better leadership and shepherding. And in its absence - constricted as it were by fearful judgmentalism and naive condemnation - I suspect that God is working diligently within the very rank-and-files of His body to help lead, guide, pray, and shepherd His fellowship until the church's pulpits and university staffs become more properly engaged with society's needs and advancements. At least this is my prayer.

Therefore, be at peace and know our God is great and will not be muffled by the ignoble speech and acts of men. Nor by his ignorance and pride whatever their positions in the church or in the ranks of men. God is great. And greatly will His works show forth both now-and-forevermore despite our best efforts to stop-up His voice. He speaks as a mighty river unbounded to the generations to come yearning for the sustenance of His gracious, compassionate, loving heart. No words of man may prevent His salvation to all men everywhere. This God is the God who will lead His Church unto salvation - by vision, by dream, by pen or by will. Sanctified in the blood of Jesus. Blessed by the power of the Word. Protected in the depths of the Spirit. May our almighty Redeemer be ever praised. May His glorious name be lifted up unto the high hills in shouts of acclamation. Amen and Amen.

 

R.E. Slater

November 13, 2012



 

Thinking Through a Post-Modern, Post-Evangelic Christianity

Lord of the Harvest

In my spare time this past year-and-a-half I have been working through a newer, more relevant form of theology to help deepen the poems I wish to someday bring to life. Under the web blog title of Relevancy22 I have taken both an academic and contemporary approach to the issues of the day that have unnecessarily narrowed the Christianity I grew up with. One that would write of a wider breadth of faith that is less constricted by conservative boundaries and barriers, and more centered in Jesus, if possible. A kind of post-evangelic Christianity which in its own way is a more moderate, or progressive, form of evangelical Christianity that has become politically unbalanced by rightist, conservative issues which have marginalized the church's message and ministry. And in the process politicized the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to our postmodern, 21st Century, pluralistic, and multi-cultural societies. Societies we struggle to live within given the many incidents of civil warfare and terroristic atrocities witnessed globally between religious, ethnic, and ideological temperaments, rather than seeing the good, the beautiful, the helpful within our human differences.

For myself, I don't pretend to live in the failed eras of yesteryear. Nor to pursue the enlightened, late=modernism issues of the 50s and 60s by revisionistic historical practices (from either side of the political aisle). Mostly because I firmly believe that today's Christian faith can be as vital now as it was fifty years ago without having to artificially create invasive thought-barriers and protective screens to shield the church's faithful from the dialectic events bombarding us in contemporary society. That the life of Jesus was one of action combined with a broadening-out of Jewish theology, itself become constricted and divisive in His day of revelatory illumination. That our actions count as much as our words. That seeing the value of human life is more important than clinging to the traditions of a rich, and faithful church heritage, itself become insular to the criticisms and humanitarian needs of the 21st Century. That the human faith must allow for the majesty and mystery of God while doubting the foibles and wisdom of man. Especially as considering God's love as the prime motivator in our Creator-Redeemer's communion with man (and the cosmos) in everything He has done - and is now doing - within our expanding worlds of knowledge and industry and societal evolution.

Consequently, I have spent many recent days and nights digesting the current affairs of Christian theology and practice, and have re-positioned those issues alongside the thoughts and actions of fellow Christian contemporaries excited by the same possibilities as myself of a newer, more gracious form of faith than presently being discussed or practiced. Along the way I have contributed what articles I could to this emerging discussion through personal insight and experience to help lend vocal support to those fellow "miscreant" theologs that my conservative branch of Christianity has purposely flagellated - or worse, ignored - in its struggle to update itself while embracing the unknown, the feared, the obvious and the unavoidable. So that in my first six months of blogging I began unsure of myself as writer and commentator, but passionate to the burden placed upon my heart, by adopting the pseudonym skinhead (which in hindsight more probably indicated mine own personal de-construction at the time) until feeling surer of myself to hazard my name to that signatory list of evolving practitioners and writers, elocutioners and philosophers, poets and minstrels. I find that I write best in prose but have attempted during that same time to duplicate the more pedantic form of my officiously ranked brethren to help readers along who, with me, wish to investigate the root forms, and basal energies, of their faith. What poetry I have attempted (and in truth it has been very limited) is written hastily to match the temperament of the article of that day's contribution or edition. And usually, I save my best prose for the concluding portions of that day's posting trusting the diligent reader to better appreciate its words when having first read through the opening structures of the ensuing proposition and juxtaposed teaching.

Overall, I have not so much personally blogged as to try to create more of a timeless biblical index to what I consider an emerging, post-modern form of theology and practice in need of definition, sorting-out, and topical discussion. One that can appreciate the contributions of the church's past creeds and confessions, beliefs and practices of yesteryear, but is willing to move beyond any current misconceptions or misrepresentations of the bible. Or even the faith of the faithful seeking cultural acclamations rather than the biblical charter and precedence shown to us by the prophets of earlier times struggling with their own generation of well-meaning religious priests and temple'd guardians. An emerging faith which has come to understand that "the human language is both a problem and a gift" - a problem because we wish to make it so mathematic-like. So precise and formal when it is anything but that (credit the Enlightenment for this effort of definitive syllogism and logistical precision found in Evangelical Christianity's popularly acclaimed systematic theologies of today). And a gift, because through it we may use all the forms of human language and human presence to speak of God - whether poetically, or musically; in chants or in liturgical practice; or non-verbally by our actions, body-language, and symbolic usage (art, film, etc).

But to also understand that "last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words are awaiting another voice" as one youth had expressed it to me. And by that means help each generation through its own concerns and frames of reference that must be addressed if it is to evolve into its own habitats, expressions, cares and concerns. That if we don't learn to speak to one another between our generations - from old to young, and young to old - than we will instead speak past one another. To be aware that the Christian faith is meant to be expanded and stretched past any previous thought categories and semantic definitions into newer thought forms and meanings (Jesus showed us that in the Gospels, even as His disciples and the old guard of Judaism struggled with the same). This is because language itself can be both time-bound to the generation it lives within, as well as timeless to the generations to come. To recognize that human language bears a fluidity, or metamorphosing ability, which allows for its continual reconstitution and reconfiguration through the many eras and societies of mankind. So that we may use this uniqueness of human communication that it might breathe and find new lands of discovery and settlement amongst a wider variety of human habitat and mental conception. That how we might "think" in our people groups may be different from how other societies and generations "think" in their regional (and era-specific) people groups. That one is neither right nor wrong in their Christian thoughts and language. And that by this process we may better learn to communicate with one another from within our differing philosophical and cultural reference points without feeling threatened that our Christian faith is under attack every time we do. For me, Emergent Christianity is just this. No more and nor less. And because it is a different animal from the more popular Evangelical Christianity I grew up within, it gets undeservedly bad press because of its different look-and-feel when it is simply learning to speak to younger generations more attuned to their own issues and era-specific needs.

Or, in another sense, we might say "it is of no use to going back to yesterday's voice (or being) because I was a different person then." And by this learn to appreciate and recognize the epistemologic and existential (e/e) growth of a person as experience catches up with the age of our time-worn souls and personhood. I feel I have gone through a minimum of three personal revisions to myself. As example, I began life within a pre-modern enclave of farming families carrying on the deep traditions of their remembered past (from the mid- to late- 1800s) even as they were trying to absorb the industrial, World War 1 and 2 eras of the early- to mid- 1900s. They began as homesteading families to the wilderness areas of West Michigan when black bear and aboriginal natives were still common to the land. My brothers and I were the sixth generation of a farming lifestyle quickly going out of existence (as well as inheritors to a Scandinavian heritage newly come to America from the "Old Country"). And with it, all the ingrained traditions and agrarian practices of the past. We were left out-of-time and out-of-place with a modern day world of public schooling, gas and electricity, TV, music and an encroaching urban lifestyle far more diverse than our own. And when entering university during the upheaval of the Vietnam War era with its civil unrests, angry riots, peace sit-ins, Hippie and LSD drug experimentation, and societal turmoils, I struggled for many years to "adopt" this strange new land I found myself within. But which later caused me to seek a bible school environment which held  the stability I found I needed, along with familiar values to my own remembered background. And yet, over the years I have learned to wean myself away from these (e/e) dependencies and to finally make the leap these past dozen years or so towards a more metropolitan way of thinking. So that in a way, its been my third revision of myself, though more probably, my older soul still lives deep within my fractured being as I have become more accepting of contemporary change. And by nature, am predisposed to understand the change I am confronted with, not being content to simply allow it to haunt my pysche without pursuing its causes, permutations, dissatisfactions, and general disorders.

And yet, this deconstructive process has given me hope that through personal adjustments, whether small or great (however personally painful or disorientating to friends and family), our God may arightly affect both ourselves and succeeding generations to become fuller participants in this precious life we have been given - and daily seem to fail - when coming to embrace it as fully, or completely, as we might. To receive each day with thanksgiving. And to learn to behave ourselves more wisely with one another through the service of our gifts and talents, strengths and weaknesses. And at the last, to allow for the mystery and majesty of life itself through Jesus our Lord and Saviour. That yes, language can be a problem, but it can also be a gift, as we accept the fact that we must grow in our communicational strengths with those unlike ourselves (and perhaps in as much turmoil as we have experienced). And by this communication allow it to bind us into a stronger, healthier society of men and women that might celebrate our differences while seeing those differences as the key to a brighter future not fraught with warfare, hate, fear, and distrust. May this then be our prayer. Our practice. Our desire. And in all things may we learn to share the grace of God with one another. To allow God's grace to become a vital part of our language with one another... and even within our very selves matriculating with age and experience to adopt God's love and forgiveness within our own lives and livelihood. Family structures and friends. Communities, churches, and workplace.

R. E. Slater

October 13, 2012

Relevancy22 - Post-Evangelic Christianity: Topics and Theology

by R.E. Slater

 
http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/



The Poetry of R.E. Slater


http://reslater.blogspot.com/



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Index to past articles on "An Open Faith and Open Theology"