Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Monday, June 16, 2014

Even the Pope Notices the InEqualities of Life


Pope Francis speaks during his general audience at St Peter's square on June 11, 2014 at the Vatican.
AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)
VINCENZO PINTO via Getty Images


Pope Francis Warns The Global Economy Is Near Collapse

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/13/pope-francis-economy_n_5491831.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000051&ir=Religion


Posted: 06/13/2014 10:16 am EDT Updated: 06/13/2014 12:59 pm EDT

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The global economic system is near collapse, according to Pope Francis.

An economy built on money-worship and war and scarred by yawning inequality andyouth unemployment cannot survive, the 77-year-old Roman Catholic leader suggested in a newly published interview.

“We are excluding an entire generation to sustain a system that is not good,” he toldLa Vanguardia’s Vatican reporter, Henrique Cymerman. (Read an English translation here.) “Our global economic system can’t take any more.”

The pontiff said he was especially concerned about youth unemployment, which hit 13.1 percent last year, according to a report by the International Labor Organization.

"The rate of unemployment is very worrisome to me, which in some countries is over 50 percent," he said. "Someone told me that 75 million young Europeans under 25 years of age are unemployed. That is an atrocity."

That 75 million is actually the total for the whole world, according to the ILO, but that is still too much youth unemployment.

Pope Francis denounced the influence of war and the military on the global economy in particular:

“We discard a whole generation to maintain an economic system that no longer endures, a system that to survive has to make war, as the big empires have always done,” he said.

"But since we cannot wage the Third World War, we make regional wars," he added. "And what does that mean? That we make and sell arms. And with that the balance sheets of the idolatrous economies -- the big world economies that sacrifice man at the feet of the idol of money -- are obviously cleaned up."

Pope Francis is gaining a reputation for pointed comments on the global economy. In April, amid feverish media coverage of French economist Thomas Piketty's bombshell book on income inequality, he made clear his stance on the widening wealth gap with a tweet saying: "Inequality is the root of social evil."

Fittingly, the pope commemorated Thursday's kick-off game of the World Cup – a global tournament that has so far cost host nation Brazil at least $15 billion and sparked violent protest by the country’s disenfranchised poor – with this message to his 4.14 million Twitter followers:

I wish everyone a wonderful World Cup, played in a spirit of true fraternity.



Sunday, June 15, 2014

When Christian Beliefs Make for Unaffected Religious People



"Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are
often shaped and adjusted by our social goals."

- Jim Forest

Here's a painful reminder that Christian belief isn't necessarily translated into Christian action. More the rather, religious belief that is uncrucified to Jesus' reforms and actions will always sustain the religious heart wearing the mask of Christ and not the heart of Christ....

R.E. Slater
June 15, 2014

*ps. It would be similarly interesting to compare the civil actions of the 10 most non-Christian states in America. If this is done please notify this blog post for a follow up reference. Thanks.



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Life in the Most Religious States
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-r-stone/life-in-the-most-religiou_b_5494776.html

Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago

Posted: 06/14/2014 10:48 am EDT Updated: 06/14/2014 10:59 am EDT

I recently came across a list of the ten most religious states in America. They are, in order: Mississippi, Utah, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Oklahoma.

One might assume that life in the most religious states in the nation would approximate the idealized "City upon a Hill" envisioned some four hundred years ago by John Winthrop, the Puritan colonist who served as first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

To check that assumption, I did some research:

Eight of these ten states joined the Confederacy and fought a bloody Civil War to defend the institution of slavery.

Nine of these ten states still had racially segregated schools at the time of the Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Five of these ten states are still among the worst states in the nation in terms of the continuing racial segregation of their public schools.

Eight of these ten states are among the eleven states in the nation with the highest rates of incarceration.

All of these ten states still have the death penalty.

Seven of these ten states are among the ten states in the nation with the highest percentage of their citizens living under the poverty level.

Six of these ten states are among the nine worst states in the nation in rates of obesity.

Nine of these ten states are among the twenty states in the nation with the highest rates of smoking.

Seven of these ten states rank in the bottom ten states in the nation in the overall health of citizens.

Nine of these ten states rank in the bottom thirteen states in the nation in life expectancy.

Seven of these ten states rank in the bottom ten states in the nation in the quality of healthcare.

Five of these ten states are the only states in the nation without a minimum wage law.

All ten of these ten states rank in the bottom sixteen states in the nation in minimum wage.

Nine of these ten states ranks in the bottom eighteen states in the nation in per pupil expenditures for public education.

Nine of these ten states rank in the bottom twenty states in the nation in the quality of high school education.

Nine of these ten states are among the twenty worst states in the nation in terms of gun deaths per capita.

Five of these ten states are among the ten states in the nation whose citizens watch the most online pornography.

I'm not quite sure what to make of all this. Perhaps it just means that people who live in states with bad values are more likely to turn to religion. But "City on a Hill"? Probably not what John Winthrop had in mind.

Oh, one other thing: The citizens of these ten states are fervently Republican. Eighty percent of their United States senators, for example, are members of the Republican Party, whereas only thirty-six percent of the senators from the other forty states are Republicans.


Friday, June 13, 2014

Today's Postmodern Church... Is It Something That Jesus Would Recognize?


Darren Aronofsky's Noah by Jennifer Connelly and Russell Crowe

"In its early stages, religion means certainty about many things.
But... he is most religious who is certain of but one thing,
the world-embracing love of God." 

- Charles Hartshorne

Several years ago I began this blog in the hopes of sorting myself out from my past religious background. A good background to be sure, but one still needing sorting out in a very personal way from its institutionalized, religious self.

One that could better represent a very ancient Christian faith much in need of theological renewal, better relevant expression, and a more generous missional outreach to today's postmodern world.

To that end I needed to re-measure the voices in my head-and-heart by selecting the best of my past with the gospel message of the Bible as I now understood it in the hindsight of the 21st century's contemporary issues and praxis.

Of a Christian faith that could hold uncertainty and doubt, and yet a faith that could deeply interact with the social movements of our global societies.

To do this required a very personal effort of deconstructing those institutionalized "religious" voices ringing in my head from those "Spirit" voices I was hearing in my heart.

But it would not be an easy journey....

A New Day, a New Season, to All Things

In a sense, the bells were ringing and I needed to hear them toll afresh by reducing the noise surrounding my faith in order to redact the institutionalized Christianity I was bearing within me. One that had become full of religious opinions that were not Jesus-like, but become very man-like. Whose saving gospel message had become one of judgement and self-righteous indignation rather than a humbler version of its Lord and Savior.

Curiously, in the recent movie Noah (2014), this problem was poised quite succinctly which I wrote about in past articles earlier this year (see reviews here and here). Not only did I find my faith world colliding with my own dissettlement, disillusionment, and disaffections, with the Christian world I once new. I was also seeing it visualized on the silver screen by Russell Crowe's Noah who had to undergo a profound personal change himself to what he thought he knew and deeply believed about his God.

In essence, Noah required a deep change of mind-and-heart of the God he thought he knew in commandment and verse but really didn't know in the Divine's heart and cross of love.

And in a bit of surreal testimony, this Darren Aronofsky visualization of the Genesis Noah targeted the central nerve of what today's postmodern church is moving through in its own journey of spiritual identity and missional purpose.

Which reminded me once again that I was not alone in this journey of rejection and renewal. That there were other similarly minded souls walking Christianity's very tangled paths with me.

And yet, there were none who would personally walk with me during this time of self reflection and personal rewrite. None to share with. Or grieve with. Or be angry with. Or feel destroyed with. That my path was yet mine own solitary path marked only by words and thoughts as I forged through a wilderness of no faith, uncertainty, and doubt.

But in that journey came the deep joy of walking its solitary paths from a dark place to a place of crystallizing light that held a deep spiritual light that I had known all along, but now had better words and thoughts to express it against the growing institutionalization of my faith that had become all rhetoric and condemnation.

For the most part, the people I have meet in my life have helped give words to my journey. Some through their own lives of confusion and interpretation. While others through the sublimity of their grace and good will.

Each personage whom I had come to know held a unique piece of the Lord's puzzle to my own spiritual faith transition that was slowly fitting together into a redeeming picture quite unlike what I would have envisioned many long years ago when first starting out in my youth.

But ultimately, it was myself that had to change. A self that knew no time of rest or faith's certainty. That must travel life's byways from station to station like little Pilgrim of John Bunyan's fanciful story which he had written from prison to his congregants over many long years of religious confinement.

And with that change the Lord added a piece of His own puzzle bit-by-bit from any who unknowingly journeyed with me, sharing a glimmer here or an insight there of His will and heart, wisdom and grace.

Ultimately, the Christian faith is one of paradox. Like the proverbial enigma wrapped in a riddle played out in a mystery to our captive minds and hearts seeking the Lord's direction and grace against our stubborn wills and deafening words.

Or like an onion wherein the Christian faith has many, many layers that stumble on and on and on, not unlike our own journey along redemption's road as it intertwines and bisects with the highways and byways of our own mustering souls, the idols of this world, and even the church's conflicted messages held by pew and religious trowel.

But isn't this what one would expect of an infinite God's many layers of love and wisdom as He seeks out each traveller in accordance with their road of redemption? That we move from point to point, burdened by this or that, seeking enlightenment and encouragement along our long journey's trek?

To not expect that at salvation's first light all is made clear or understood by so simply memorizing select verses, or studying popular chapters and themes of the Bible. That this early effort would be enough to teach the greatness of God's many mysteries and divine will. Or that a church's patient creedal teachings - or a Bible college's ingraining doctrines - are sufficient descriptors of society... or even of man himself. Of humanity's sciences and technologies, history and literature, progress and failures. Or that a certain kind of theology can hold all of the Lord's wisdom and grace in any given time or space.

The World is No Longer Young in its Judgments

Even so, youth doesn't get the last word on one's maturing faith. Nor, do I expect, will death at life's end. But it is this grand journey of faith that we each travel that is our greatest teacher should we seek to stumble along guided by what we think we know while remaining open to modifying those old counselors of yore when confronted by greater sublime truths of the Bible than what we first knew or were taught.

That the Christian faith's greatest asset is its teachability. That a spiritual man or woman's greatest guide is to be willing to relearn what we once thought we knew all too well. To be willing to repent, and let go, and move on, even if it means going against the greater tide of popular religious opinion, itself its own deceiver in so many ways.

And when confused, to consider Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who brings the greatest definition to the God of the Old and New Testament claimed by prophet and apostle, temple and church, priest and king, slave and free, shackled and unshackled. Who taught of a God little recognized by the religious institutes of His day more willing to condemn disbelievers than to repent of its sins and errant renderings of the God they claimed they knew.

And so, what we might had once known in our youth - or had great feelings about later in life - can in themselves become errant counselors to the living, vibrant, faith of God Himself. Such that religious men and women (and even avowed atheists themselves) too-often confuse their Spirit-journey with its many way stations of refreshment and pleasure, darkness and pain, religious principle and dictum.

But the Lord's Spirit is our best, and steadiest, of guides. Albeit, a shifty one. Who, from time-to-time, when seeing our own spirits hold on too much to one facet of belief, or opinion, or willfulness, will re-direct us along tortuous paths to reawaken our souls to God's rights and claims in our lives. While at the same time leaving other more viable paths unseen or unvisited until at a later time when maturity and wisdom might be more present in our lives to measure the councils of God.

To this we each can attest that it was the Spirit of the Lord who led us on our many journey's meandering paths from early childhood to accruing adulthood. From a simple child with childlike faith-and-curiosity to a harden soul aching from the ills of this world whose pains have slashed deep and wide.

That this divine journey was never an easy trek. Nor would it ever be. That each day brings fresh pains and sorrows, new joys and blessings, in this thing we call life and must live discerningly every day.

While knowing that each pain or joy is yet another opportunity to go astray of the path of the Lord. Yea, the human heart is fickled. And its ears too eagerly attuned to listening to too many unhelpful voices with the truest of intents. Whether by pulpit or professor. Parent or friend. Life mate or idle wonder. That at times we must make our own judgments. And perhaps against all we believe knowing in our heart-of-hearts that it is the right thing to do.

But I can say, when reading these past several years of the testimonies of  similarly conflicted brothers and sisters in the Lord, that the blogging of my own journey was the right thing to do. If only to share my own sense of confrontation with the Christian message I grew up with which needed its own deep sense of reformation. A message I have struggled deeply with - even as many have themselves - when sensing its conflict with the broader gospel of our Savior.

That perhaps our limiting hermeneutic of the Bible needed expanding. Or the church creeds we knew so will might need a broader reflection in the pools of God's grace and mercy. Or that the world's scholarship might be allowed a bit more leeway in helping to guide us in the reading of the Bible's many stories; as set against the religious scholarship we had grown up with, knew, and were well versed in. Or that humanity itself, and nature itself, might further teach us of the wisdom of God's Word lying hidden in its pages without eyes to see or ears to hear or mind or tongue to grasp and tell. That in the end, we needed a larger perspective of God than from our own imaginations, religious tribe, and enculturated people.

The Demand to Write a Postmodern Theology

And even now, after so long a time of writing, I still feel the burden to write of my spiritual journey. To put fresh words and prayers to a Christian theology that needs a bit of coaxing from its overgrown garden of thistles and thorns, roses and cream.

To write of a new theology that is fresh, contemporary, and postmodern. If not post-evangelical with all the radical-ness that it implies away from its overly orthodox self. An orthodoxy in need of deep revival. If only to reclaim it back to the paths it once had walked in younger, gayer times, when life was so simply beheld and understood in its innocence.

And yet, if it does not, then I fear for others on this same journey towards God and redemption who might need a timely word of encouragement. Or a bit of coaxing along the path of Jesus to not give up.

To know that Christianity itself is no less in the throes of renewal than that of its present inheritors are who would follow the Christ of their faith against flames and arrow. That with each fundamentally new era (such as this postmodern era which itself is rapidly morphing into something else) the church has entered into a new world that cannot contain an old gospel message written for a classical, medieval, Renaissance'd, or even Enlightened faith many years earlier.

That the story of redemption held upon the pages of Scripture tell of an ancient story that is both old and new. A story which must morph and change to meet the needs of each new era of societal remake and redefinition. Whose very identity demands its readers to remit its truths by what they knew and understood in their timely ages.

A story that can as easily be lost should we try to contain it within the church's older wineskins of truth and knowledge having itself grown outdated and inflexibly bound by dogmatic hide and aging sinew, dithering hand and moiling understanding, societal caricatures and idolizing templates.

But to do this will require a proper critique of the past - both of our own histories as well as the church's in a postmodern deconstructive sense. But also a goodly measure of constructive rebuilding and re-envisioning of what the Christian faith can mean both now and at its best for the next generation of youth next to come.

To write of a postmodern Christian orthodoxy whose foundational elements adhere to an ancient past while avoiding its own minefields of enculturated untruths: heretical witch hunts, church-based inquisitions, disputed disallowance of slavery, denial of civil rights, nationalistic war drums, and etc and etc (sic, When Christian Beliefs Make for Unaffected Religious People).

Which discoveries may lead to fields of faith's opportunity while shedding the death mask of "religious man" himself in need of the "Spirit mask" of God met in human form..... Not only in Jesus, but in the global dress of the Jesus-church itself. In the I's and you's of the world who stumble along in the good and bad of us trying to find a God it seeks but doesn't understand nor perceive its own journey's end.

The Aftermath of a Postmodern Faith

At the last, I am unwilling to lay down mine own personal journey just yet. Whose pen must write until I can hear other voices of reason with mine own telling me I was not alone in my wilderness of distress and dismay with the institutionalized church and its insufferable doctrinal hegemonies. That there were others that travailed with me, though I knew it not. Who were seeing and feeling the same Spirit-led things I was seeing and feeling. And that, with one voice, we had together prophetically cried out, "Even so, Lord, come."

As such, in answer to this blog title's post, "Today's Postmodern Church... Is It Something Jesus Would Recognize?" Than yes, it is.... If measured in its emerging forms of dissettlement, disillusionment, and disaffection, with the larger Christian world become overly religious. Telling of a Christian faith that is quite unlike its Lord and Savior.

And yes, if it has become one that is measured in the spiritual doubt and uncertainty and restlessness that holds the human breast to a godly belief - and a life's testimony - against biblical untruth and egregious doctrinal presentation towards others dissimilar to ourselves in religious faith and practice.

A more gracious belief seeking to find a more sublime spiritual resonance with the Lord of the Cross who suffered, and died, and was resurrected, in the pains of His own godly faith conscripted for this lost world and condemned for it's courage and clear-sightedness.

Even so, does this same church of the Risen Lord follow in Jesus' testimony: to suffer, and die, and by resurrection find God in this life here-and-now as in the next to come (1 Peter 1.11b,c).

Who can embrace life's spiritual hardships with a testimony of enlightening spiritual light. Who might reject sin's prevailing darknesses with the clarity of divine grace and mercy, hope and forgiveness.

Who declare by present act, and renewing message, of a clearer gospel message become much abused or misunderstood by many... even the present church of its day through the councils of its scholastic bodies and pulpits.

To be postmodern day prophets in the face of postmodern day debates and attrition. To tell of God and His Word in the enlightening truths hard won by so many desperates, martyrs, and suffering journeys of God's attuned people, written in the blood, sweat, and tears of travail and goodwill.

Let us then enter into this grand fellowship of past divines to discover the unity of God's peace, and its meaning of life, as it was meant to be, and not as it was suppose to be by failing human mind and will. To the Lord's glory and praise. And in the truths of His Spirit and Word. Amen.

R.E. Slater
June 13, 2014 (yes, as in Friday the 13th!)
re-edited, June 16, 2014






Why Christianity Is Dying While Spirituality Is Thriving
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/cristinaodone/100078209/christianity-isn%E2%80%99t-dying-it%E2%80%99s-being-eradicated/

Author, Speaker, Thought Leader, Spiritual Teacher

October 12, 2012

The title of this post alone will put some branches of the Christian church immediately on the defense. The fact is, however, I travel all over this country coaching religious leaders and consulting with congregations of every stripe imaginable. And there is one overarching conclusion to which I've come: Christianity is dying. Or, to put it more accurately, the Christian church is dying while the Christian faith, in too few places still, seems to be slowly, but gratefully, morphing into something new.

And better.

Admittedly, there are a few churches that are growing in the U.S. Some are evangelical; others are Catholic, although most of their growth is largely the consequence of the influx of Hispanics who are, almost universally, Roman Catholic. To those blinded by illusion, however, the few churches that are growing has made some feel driven to object, particularly if they happen to be part of such a church, by saying, "The church is doing quite well, thank you!"

The truth is, it is not. And when church leaders are honest, and many of them are not, they will acknowledge that they are drawing most of their growth from the disaffected, disavowed and disillusioned who have left or [are] leaving other churches. If you were to interview those who are leaving and going to these few growing churches, as I have, you would discover that for many of them, they feel spiritually disconnected and displaced, while still desiring to know and to feel a vital spiritual life. Unable to find it in much of the madness they've chosen to leave behind, they turn to these rapidly growing churches, many of which have become "mega" churches as a result of this phenomenon, in a kind of last ditch effort to find something that resembles spiritual sanity.

Regrettably, however, what many of them soon find even in many of these growing churches is just a polished-up and well-rehearsed, as well as well-performed, version of the same madness they left. Before long, scores of them wind up leaving even these [church experiences] and then join the ranks of those persons known today as the "Nones" -- who are, by the way, now one in every five Americans. These "Nones" have all but given up on organized religion and now simply regard themselves as spiritual but not religious. It is to these and for these I regularly write and blog.

So, what do I mean by the statement, "the Christian faith seems to be morphing into something new?"

I do not mean by this a new religion. To the contrary, what I'm seeing is a new and refreshing emergence within the Christian religion itself. Perhaps, as at no other time in Christian history, except perhaps the first few decades following the death of Jesus, the church today is slowly becoming, but in too few places as yet, something that I suspect Jesus himself might actually recognize. There is within this new emergence an affinity for those matters of social and personal justice, compassion, spiritual wholeness and unity within and among all people and faiths. These were the obsessions of Jesus while here on earth.

I regard these few churches as glimmers of hope scattered here and there.

What does this new emergence within the Christian religion look like?

1. This new, emerging church is made up of people who are desperately seeking ways of understanding, and in many cases, rewriting Christian theology. It needs to be rewritten. For decades now, the church has sought to survive on a doctrine of salvation that depended on the shedding of innocent blood to appease an obsessively angry God so as to rescue humanity from what would otherwise result in their conscious and eternal torment in hell. It's crazy theology. It is not what Jesus taught. And as a consequence, it ([evangelicalism])  is more pagan than it is Christian.

2. These new churches have a healthier view of their sacred text known as the Bible. They revere the Bible without making a god of it. Instead [of] worshipping the Bible as a kind of "Constitution," as Brian Mclaren dubs it in "A New Kind of Christianity," they interpret the Bible for what it is: an inspired book, capable of providing inspiration, wisdom and spiritual direction, not a textbook on science or morality or answer-book preachers might use for "Stump the Preacher" talk-shows.

3. These Christians no longer feel the enemy is liberalism, even "secular humanism," as it is commonly labeled in the declining and dying branches within Christianity. Admittedly, they see dangers in any extreme notions, whether in liberal theology or humanistic philosophy, but they have awakened to the realization that the church has met the "real" enemy -- and the real enemy is the church itself. Furthermore, these Christians no longer believe gays will destroy the institution of marriage when heterosexuals have successfully accomplished that all by themselves. Waging war against gays, lesbians and those within the transgender community is like trying to defend slavery. Furthermore, these have given up the church's war with science and psychology, choosing instead to embrace the truths science teaches us, not only about the origins of the universe, but about the complexities of the human mind, human development and sexuality.

4. Further, I see this new evolving Christianity being birthed in the hearts of sincere and devoted Christ-followers who are open to what other religions can teach us about spirituality, too. They would regard, for example, Desmond Tutu's statement "God is not a Christian," as the truth. While affirming that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19), and cherishing that belief within their own faith confessions, these Christians would embrace and, in fact, do embrace the spiritual insights that may come from Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and scores of other spiritual traditions. They have exchanged the insanity of the dying church that insists "We're right! You're wrong," for the sane "We're in and you are, too" approach to human and religious solidarity. Together, these Christians seek spiritual awareness -- spiritual enlightenment -- and they seek the good of all people, too, even those who embrace no religion.

5. Finally, but I could go on and on in my observations, this emerging new Christianity no longer interprets Christian "hope" as some "pie-in-the-sky" future paradise that they alone will enjoy, along with those who agree with their theology, their eschatology and their exclusivist beliefs. No, these Christians would view "hope" the way Jesus their leader viewed it; the way the prophets of old viewed it; the way the entire biblical narrative views it: as a vision of the world wherein peace and justice and plenty for everyone exists in the here and now; a world that reflects "God's will on earth just as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10); a world where all people are treated equally, cared for, respected, fed and nurtured for the wonderful creations of God that they are; a world where all people regardless of color, sex, race, religion, political party, nationality or sexual orientation have a voice and a place; a world where people and nations, as the Prophet Isaiah put it, "beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; where nation no longer takes up sword against nation; where war is no longer learned" (Isaiah 2:1-5).

It is this kind of church that will emerge and thrive. The others will die a slow and agonizingly painful death.

For all the reasons above, and a host of others, spirituality is thriving both inside and outside these new and emerging expressions of the Christian faith. For me, and a growing number of other progressive-minded Christians, that is a cause for hope.


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



Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mcswain/why-nobody-wants-to-go-to_b_4086016.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000051

Author, Speaker, Thought Leader, Spiritual Teacher

October 14, 2013 

That's the title of a new book written by Joani Schultz and Thom Schultz. And it's a question those leaving are more than ready to answer. The problem is, few insiders are listening.

And, of course, that IS the problem.

In a recent issue of Christianity Today, for example, Ed Stetzer wrote an article entitled,"The State of the Church in America: Hint: It's Not Dying." He states: "The church is not dying... yes... in a transition... but transitioning is not the same as dying."

Really? What cartoons have you been watching?

Clearly, the Church is dying. Do your research, Mr. Stetzer. According to the Hartford Institute of Religion Research, more than 40 percent of Americans "say" they go to church weekly. As it turns out, however, less than 20 percent are actually in church. In other words, more than 80 percent of Americans are finding more fulfilling things to do on weekends.

Furthermore, somewhere between 4,000 and 7,000 churches close their doors every year. Southern Baptist researcher, Thom Rainer, in a recent article entitled "13 Issues for Churches in 2013" puts the estimate higher. He says between 8,000 and 10,000 churches will likely close this year.

Between the years 2010 and 2012, more than half of all churches in America added not one new member. Each year, nearly 3 million more previous churchgoers enter the ranks of the "religiously unaffiliated."

Churches aren't dying?

No, of course not. Churches will always be here. But you can be sure, churches are going through more than a mere "transition." I study these things carefully. I counsel church leaders within every denomination in America, having crisscrossed this country for nearly two decades counseling congregations as small as two hundred in attendance to churches averaging nearly 20,000 in weekly attendance. As I see it, there are "7" changing trends impacting church-going in America. In this first of two articles, I'll address the "7" trends impacting church-going. In the second part, I'll offer several best practices that, as I see it, might reverse the trends contributing to the decline.

Trends Impacting Church Decline:

1. The demographic remapping of America.

Whites are the majority today at 64 percent. In 30 to 40 years, they will be the minority. One in every three people you meet on the street in three to four decades will be of Hispanic origin. In other words, if you are not reaching Hispanics today, your church's shelf life is already in question.

Furthermore, America is aging. Go into almost any traditional, mainline church in America, observe the attendees and you'll quickly see a disproportionate number of gray-headed folks in comparison to all the others. According to Pew Research, every day for the next 16 years, 10,000 new baby boomers will enter retirement. If you cannot see where this is headed, my friend, there is not much you can see.

2. Technology.

Technology is changing everything we do, including how we "do" church. Yet, there are scores of churches that are still operating in the age of the Industrial Revolution. Instead of embracing the technology and adapting their worship experiences to include the technology, scores of traditional churches, mainline Protestant, and almost all Catholic churches do not utilize the very instruments that, without which, few Millennials would know how to communicate or interact.

However, when I suggest to pastors and priests, as I frequently do, that they should use social media and, even in worship, they should, for example, right smack in the middle of a sermon, ask the youth and young adults to text their questions about the sermon's topic... that you'll retrieve them on your smartphone... and, before dismissing, answer the three best questions about today's sermon, most of the ministers look at me as if I've lost my mind. What they should be more concerned about is why the Millennials have little or no interest in what they have to say.

3. Leadership Crisis

Enough has been written about this in the past. But you can be sure, clergy abuse, the cover-up by the Church, and fundamentalist preachers and congregations have been driving people away from the Church, and continue to drive people away, faster than any other causes combined.

4. Competition

People have more choices on weekends than simply going to church. Further, the feelings of shame and guilt many people used to feel and church leaders used to promote for not attending church every week is gone.

There are still those, however, who want to categorize Christians as an explanation for the church's decline in attendance in a futile effort to make things not look so bad. But this, too, is the illusion that many church leaders and denominational executives are perpetrating but nobody is paying attention. They are just too blind to see that.

For example, in the very same article I referenced above, Ed Stetzer has concocted three different categories of Christians he conveniently thinks explains the dire situation faced by the church.

He says there is a kind of "classification" system between those who "profess Christianity" as their faith choice.

  • First, he says there are cultural Christians or those who "believe" themselves to be Christians simply because their culture says they are. But, clearly, he implies they are not.
  • Second, he classifies a group of congregational Christians which he says are not much better off than the first misguided group, except that these are loosely connected to the church.
  • Third, he notes the third group, which no doubt he ranks as "his" group, that he calls the convictional Christians. These are the true Christians who are actually living their faith, according to Ed Stetzer.

I've got news for you, Mr. Stetzer, there are scores of people who have left the church, not because they possess some phony or inferior faith, as you would like to believe, but precisely because they do not want to be around judgmental people like you. They have left, not to abandon their faith, but precisely because they wish to preserve it. You would be much better off to leave the judgment-making to Someone infinitely more qualified to do so (Matt. 7:1).

5. Religious Pluralism

Speaking of competition, there is a fifth trend impacting the decline of the church in America. People have more choices today. Credit this to the social changes in the '60s, to the Internet, to the influx of immigrants and minorities, to whatever you'd like, but the fact is, people today meet other people today of entirely different faith traditions and, if they are discovering anything at all, it is that there are scores of people who live as much, if not more, like Christ than many of the Christians they used to sit beside in church.

The diversity of this nation is only going to expand. Which is why, you might debate some of Diana Eck's conclusions, the Harvard scholar and researcher, but her basic premise in correctly stated in the title of her book, A New Religious America: How a 'Christian Country' Has Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation.

6. The "Contemporary" Worship Experience

This, too, has contributed to the decline of the church. It's been the trend in the last couple of decades for traditional, mainline churches to pretend to be something they're not. Many of them have experimented with praise bands, the installation of screens, praise music, leisure dress on the platform, and... well... you know how well that's been received.

Frankly, it has largely proven to be a fatal mistake. Of course, there are exceptions to this everywhere and especially in those churches where there is an un-traditional look already, staging, an amphitheater-style seating, as well as the budget to hire the finest musicians to perform for worship. In traditional, mainline churches, however, trying to make a stained-glass atmosphere pass as the contemporary worship place has met with about as much success as a karaoke singer auditioning for The X Factor.

7. Phony Advertising

There's one more trend I'll mention I believe is having devastating impact on the Church and most certainly contributing to its decline. You cannot tell Millennials that your church welcomes everybody -- that all can come to Jesus -- and then, when they come, what they find are few mixed races or no mixed couples.

You cannot say, "Everybody is welcome here if, by that, you really mean, so long as you're like the rest of us, straight and in a traditional family."

In the words of Rachel Evans, a millennial herself and a blogger for CNN, "Having been advertised to our whole lives, we millennials have highly sensitive BS meters."

In other words, cut the bull. If everyone is not really equally welcomed to the table at your church, stop advertising that you are open to anyone. That is not only a lie, but Millennials can see through the phony façade as clearly as an astronomer, looking through the Hubble telescope, can see the infinity of space.

There are other trends. These are just a few of them. In Part Two, I'll offer some "best practices" I think the Church should seriously consider if it ever plans to get real and honest about its future and its influence on culture and society.


Thursday, June 12, 2014

Huff Post - 10 Things I Want to Tell My Kids Before They're Too Cool to Listen



10 Things I Want to Tell My Kids Before They're Too Cool to Listen
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-bartolotta/10-things-i-want-to-tell-my-kids-before-theyre-too-cool-to-listen_b_5142810.html

Posted: 05/21/2014 5:25 pm EDT Updated: 05/23/2014 9:59 am EDT

Owner and founder, Be You Media Group

This week, my daughter turns 10, and two things occurred to me about this:
  • How the hell do I have a 10-year-old? Is a real adult going to show up and help out with this sometime soon?
  • There are so many things I want to tell her -- now, before she is in the onslaught of middle school and too cool to listen.
So, here are 10 things I'd like to tell her and her younger brother, before I suddenly go from Mommy, who knows everything, to Mom, who couldn't possibly understand.

1. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.”

I truly believe what John Lennon said with all my heart. We've had some tough times, and you'll have a lot of tough times on your own--but it's worth it. It builds character and teaches you compassion. I can trace some of the best stuff in my life right now to things that were really hard when I was going through them. So when things seem like they are impossible, or you're never going to feel better, just know you'll eventually look back at them in amazement. It's going to be okay.

2. The whole drugs and alcohol thing isn't really about drugs and alcohol.

You're going to try stuff; I'm okay with that. Most of us do, whether it's bumming a cigarette from a friend you think is cooler than you, getting drunk at a party or smoking pot because it feels like everyone else but you has. But here's the thing: all of that stuff is just another way not to be present. Being present, being aware of what's actually happening is pretty awesome. And when you try and push away those feelings of being uncool with alcohol or drugs (or food, or shopping, or anything) they don't really go away. Eventually you're going to have to deal with them, and life gets exponentially better when you do. (And on a side note, if things get out of hand and aren't sure what to do, call me. And if you're too embarrassed to call me, call your uncle Charles.)

3. Figure out what you love and own it completely.

If you spend your life trying to define yourself by what someone else loves, you're going to be miserable. Try things, try everything. See what makes you hear music inside and what makes your heart swell and then go do it. Find out everything you can about it. Find other people who love it too. If you waste time pretending to like something because other people you think are cool like it, you're going to end up with the wrong people in your life. Love what you love and be yourself. You end up with people who genuinely fit that way.

4. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.

I always loved the Neil Gaiman quote:

"If you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world."

We can't make anything valuable without making mistakes. Not a painting, not a relationship, not a career -- not a life. If you wait until you have it all figured out to try, you will be waiting forever. I still don't have it all figured out, but I keep at it. The mistakes aren't failures; they're how we learn.

5. You deserve respect.

You deserve it from me, from your dad, your friends, your teachers -- from everyone in your life. The best way to receive respect from others is to begin by respecting yourself. Speak clearly and keep your head up. Stand up for what you believe. Make choices that you feel good about. And if someone in your life is being disrespectful‚ call them on it. If it doesn't change, limit the amount of time and influence they have in your life. We need people in our lives who challenge us and disagree with us, so we can learn new perspectives. We don't need to be constantly torn down by people who don't respect us.

6. The first person who catches your eye isn't "The One."

And probably not the second, third or fourth either. You know why? It's because youare the one. Love isn't something out there somewhere that someone else can give to you. It's already inside you. It's that golden part of each of us that makes us alive. And some of the best moments in life are when we truly connect with someone else and share the love we have inside with them. But don't ever forget to love yourself, first. When you start by loving and respecting yourself, it makes giving that to other people infinitely better. You're going to meet so many amazing people in your life, and I hope that at least once you meet someone to share that love with and truly find partnership. Before you do, fall in love with your own life, because no one else can do that for you.

7. Romance is great and it isn't the same thing as love.

Sex with someone you love is a wonderful thing. It also isn't the only thing. You're going to have first kisses you feel all the way down to your toes and think "OMG, I love him," but really... you loved the kiss. You are going to see someone and feel something that feels like movie love, but is actually just phenomenal chemistry. You are going to explore this part of your life with people who aren't in it for the long haul -- and that isn't a bad thing. Life is a series of stories and the way our stories intersect is fascinating. Sometimes people are in our lives for the whole story. Sometimes they are just a chapter. It takes a brave person to know when that chapter is over and let go gracefully.

8. Kindness is always an appropriate response.

When you get to be an adult, you'll forget a lot of the stuff that seemed so important in high school and college. You won't remember what your GPA was. You will look at your old classmates on Facebook and wonder why you ever had a crush on that guy. You will look at your old yearbooks and wonder what the hell you were thinking with that haircut. But you will never forget the people who were genuinely kind, who helped when you were hurt, who loved you, even when you felt unlovable. Be that person to your friends.

9. I don't have all the answers, but I'm always here to listen.

Right now, you guys think I have all the answers. I know that time is going to come to a close pretty quickly here, but in a way, I'm glad. One of the greatest gifts my parents gave me wasn't their wisdom, but setting the example that adults aren't static: they keep growing. They keep learning. When they find one way doesn't work, they get up and try another one. Real maturity is letting go of what doesn't work and being open to try something else. You're going to make your own mistakes and find your own answers, and while you're sorting it out, I am always here to listen.

10. It's never too late to live a life that makes you proud.

If you don't learn anything else from me, learn that. We get one shot at this. There's no age limit on changing your course, and to settle in and be stuck in a life that isn't authentic is a tragic waste. F. Scott Fitzgerald said it best:

"For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again."

And finally,

I love you. Go make brilliant mistakes and fall in love with your life.


Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Relevant Magazine - 4 Lies the Church Taught Me About Sex




4 Lies the Church Taught Me About Sex
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationships/4-lies-church-taught-me-about-sex

June 10, 2014

By Lily Dunn
Lily Dunn loves dessert before dinner, stories that make her laugh, and living authentically. She lives and teaches with her husband in Daegu, South Korea and blogs at lilyellyn.wordpress.com.

Girls don't care about sex and three other lies I've had to unlearn.

I’ve heard people say that growing up as an evangelical meant they never talked about sex. This wasn’t my experience. I grew up in the thick of evangelical purity culture and we talked about sex A LOT. We just spent all of that time talking about how and why NOT to have it.
As someone who waited until I was married to have sex, I was assured that I would be guaranteed an easy and rewarding sex life. When reality turned out to be different, I was disappointed and disillusioned. Only through gradual conversations with other married friends did I realize I wasn’t alone.
I started to wonder if maybe the expectations themselves were wrong. Maybe what I’d been told or inferred about post-marital sex simply wasn’t true.
Here are four of the biggest lies about sex I believed before marriage:
1. Any and all physical contact is like a gateway drug to sex.
Once in high school I attended a big Christian youth conference. One night, one of the chaperones addressed the girls: “Girls, we have noticed some very inappropriate touching going on...”
The inappropriate touching she meant turned out to be two high school couples in the youth group holding hands. This woman was deadly serious. “I know it may not seem like a big deal to you,” she said. “But hand-holding leads to OTHER THINGS!”
I heard similar things from parents, teachers, church leaders and books. In my church it was not unusual for people to pledge not only to save sex until marriage, but even to save their first kiss for their wedding day. “Don’t start the engine if you aren’t ready to drive the car,” and other similar metaphors warned me that any physical contact was a slippery slope straight into the jaws of fornication.
DESPITE WHAT HOLLYWOOD SAYS, CLOTHES DO NOT TAKE THEMSELVES OFF AND BODIES DO NOT MAGICALLY AND EFFORTLESSLY FIT TOGETHER.
On this side of things, I can honestly say that there are SO many conscious decisions you have to make between kissing and having sex. Despite what Hollywood says, clothes do not take themselves off and bodies do not magically and effortlessly fit together.
If you are committed to waiting until you’re married to have sex, there are many valid reasons to set boundaries on your physical relationship, but the fear of accidentally having sex shouldn’t be one of them.
2. If you wait until you are married to have sex, God will reward you with mind-blowing sex and a magical wedding night.
Before my wedding night, I had been told that honeymoon sex isn’t usually the best sex. I had heard that good sex takes work. I knew that it would probably be uncomfortable at first. But what nobody ever, EVER told me was that it was possible that it just might not work at all at first. On my wedding night, my mind and heart were there, but my body was locked up tighter than Maid Marian’s chastity belt.
I entered marriage with the firm conviction that God rewards those who wait, only to find myself confounded by the mechanics. I felt like an utter failure, both as a wife and a woman. And while we did (eventually) get things working, this was hard, frustrating, embarrassing and a huge blow to our confidences.
Saving sex for marriage is not a guarantee that you will have great sex or that sex will be easy. All it guarantees is that the person you fumble through it with will be someone who has already committed to love you forever.
3. Girls don’t care about sex.
As a teenager and young adult I cannot count the times I heard something to this effect: “Boys are very visual and sexual, so even though you aren’t thinking about sex, you need to be careful because you are responsible for not making them stumble.”
Let’s disregard for now how degrading this is toward men and focus on the underlying assumption that boys are sexual and girls aren’t. For years I was told that “girls don’t care about sex.” Well, as it turns out, I do. This has been a deep source of shame for me. For a long time I felt like a freak, until I started to realize that I wasn’t the only one, not by a longshot. But I never knew it because no one would admit it.
Many girls (yes, even Christian girls) think about sex. Many girls (yes, even Christian girls) like sex. This doesn’t make you a freak. It doesn’t make you unfeminine or unnatural. God created us, both men AND women, as sexual beings. Enjoying sex makes you a human being created by God, in the image of God, with the capacity and desire to love—physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and sexually.
MANY GIRLS (YES, EVEN CHRISTIAN GIRLS) THINK ABOUT SEX. MANY GIRLS (YES, EVEN CHRISTIAN GIRLS) LIKE SEX. THIS DOESN’T MAKE YOU A FREAK.

4. When you get married, you will immediately be able to fully express yourself sexually without guilt or shame. 

Many Christians have spent years—from the day they hit puberty until their wedding day—focusing their energy on keeping their sex drives in check. Then, in the space of a few hours, they are expected to stop feeling like their sexuality is something they must carefully control and instead be able to express it freely. And not only that—but express it freely with another person.
Many of us have programmed guilt into ourselves—this is how we keep ourselves in check throughout our dating relationships. And that “red light” feeling we train ourselves to obey doesn’t always go away just because we’ve spoken some vows and signed some papers.
It took me several months to stop having that sick-to-my-stomach guilty feeling every time I was together with my husband. Not everyone experiences this, but for the many people who do, it’s terribly isolating. Once again we’re experiencing something our churches and communities never acknowledged as a possibility. We feel alone and broken and filled with a profound sense that this isn’t the way it’s meant to be.
I don’t regret waiting until I was married to have sex, and I’m not advocating that churches stop teaching that sex is designed for marriage. But I do think there is something seriously wrong with the way we’ve handled the conversation.
If our reason for saving sex until marriage is because we believe it will make sex better or easier for us, we’re not only setting ourselves up for disappointment, but we’re missing the point entirely. Those of us who choose to wait do so because we hold certain beliefs about the sacredness of marriage and about God's intentions and wishes for humanity, and we honor these regardless of whether they feel easier or harder. In the meantime, we in the evangelical church has a lot of work to do correcting the distorted ways we talk about sex and sexuality, especially to our youth.