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We interrupt this blog series for a quick bit of mail.

I get notices every so often from Christian groups trying to mobilize support for something. This morning I got one from a group called Church World Direct. I opened it because the name was so similar to Church World Services, which does amazing relief and community redevelopment work across the world.

This is different. Instead of reaching out in service to the hurting people of the world, this group devotes it's time and efforts to working against marriage rights for gay couples. I was disappointed.

This is from the letter:

First, for many, there is some cause for rejoicing given the November 2008 ballot results in Arizona, Florida and California, where same-sex marriages are now banned. Nevertheless, the attack upon the biblical understanding of marriage continues unabated. Still, we are encouraged that thirty states have now passed bans on same-sex marriage.

I have got to say some things about this.

First, I'm sick of slogan "the biblical understanding of marriage". The truth is that marriage in modern America bears almost no resemblance to marriage in the Bible. In those ancient times men were allowed several wives, in addition to the sexual services of any number of female slaves. Women and children were nothing more than property in those unions. A woman could be mistreated and there was next to nothing she could do about it. A man could divorce his wife for any reason and she would be out on the street with no money, no possessions, no access to her children, and no hope of remarriage. She would have to do whatever she could to survive, which could mean gleaning, begging, or prostitution.

The Bible doesn't glorify this; in fact there are numerous passages that scold callous husbands for their abusive behavior. Still, the writers of the Bible assumed that this model of marriage was the way things were. If we modern people assume that there is a biblical model of marriage that we have to copy, we are making the tragic mistake of confusing the culture of those ancient peoples for the will of God.

The truth is that the institution of marriage that we have in modern America is better in many ways than what was known in ancient times. It's better because there is an assumption of equality between husband and wife. It's better because, even when husbands want to treat their wives and children like glorified pieces of furniture, there are legal protections. It's far from perfect, but it's taken some important steps in the right direction.

Groups like this one will point out that there are still many problems. They point to a too-high divorce rate, and staggering number of children being born and raised in single parent homes as a problem. They point to the much higher stresses on children being raised without a father which lead to higher rated of substance abuse, premature sexual activity, and imprisonment and say its crisis.

And it is...but the next thing they say is blatantly untrue. They claim that these problems are somehow caused by, or at least directly connected to, committed gay unions. They claim that allowing gay marriages will somehow worsen the problems facing marriage in America.

It baffles me why they say this. I've looked for some kind of logical argument and have never found one. There's the vague assertion that, as toleration of gays has increased, the problems in marriages have increased. The implication is that one has somehow caused the other, but that's not a logical assumption. Following that reasoning you can also 'prove' that global warming is caused by a decline in the number of pirates.

I was married for 20 years. My marriage recently ended because of problems that had (surprise) nothing to do with whether gay couples were allowed to marry. In fact, I suspect if you poll divorced people or people in struggling marriages in America you won't find any significant number who attribute their issues to gay couples.

Groups like this one don't actually care about the health of traditional marriages, that's just a smoke screen. They know they can muster a lot of support for their cause (marginalizing gay people) by pretending that they're actually protecting something that most people care about. If they actually cared about marriage, they'd likely spend at least some of their time and money creating resources to help people in struggling marriages.

To go back to the Bible for a moment: It doesn't present any clear model for how a family is supposed to be structured, but offers a great deal of guidance on how people in a family are to be treated. If we care for one another, deal honestly with each other, show kindness and respect, make certain the strong do not abuse the weak, and place the welfare of others ahead of our own desires, we will have stronger marriages, stronger families, and stronger communities.

That's the approach of faith, and it's always better than looking for some group to use as a scapegoat.

Phoenix Affirmations #2

2. Listening for God’s Word which comes through daily prayer and meditation, studying the ancient testimonies which we call Scripture, and attending to God’s present activity in the world;

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This one is hardly edgy, but it's very true. There is a great deal to be said for being grounded in an ancient spiritual tradition. If you don't have something outside of yourself to rely on, you run the risk of letting your own desires and prejudices become the standard of truth. (This can happen even if you're got scripture and tradition to help you, but they're the best safeguard I know of. The fact that a lot of smart and faithful people before you have asked a lot of the same questions is helpful. You don't have to buy their answers, but it's wise to consider them thoughtfully.

I've often heard the objection from non-Christians that the Bible should be abandoned because it has morally questionable rules and stories of God-sanctioned atrocities. I can understand the objection, because those things are real. They aren't 99% of the Bible, as some claim, but you don't have to read too far to run into one of them. From the laws that ban the eating of shellfish, to the call to execute someone who works on the Sabbath day, to the story of God sending bears to eat the young boys who made fun of the prophet Elisha's bald head, there is a lot in the Bible that is hard to read, let alone understand.

But it shouldn't be a matter of throwing the whole thing out because of the difficult parts. There is irreplacable wisdom about who God is and what it means to be human. The issue is one of learning to read in a careful, disciplined manner and learning to distinguish timeless wisdom from ideas (like slavery, genocide and the notion that women and children are only property) that belong in a long gone era.

It wouldn't be honest to pretend that the ugly parts of the Bible aren't there, or to try to pretend that they aren't ugly. At the same time, it isn't fair to judge the whole of scripture by the worst.

It's probably best to give an example of what I'm talking about. I know someone who dismisses the idea that there is any truth in the Bible by quoting the following three verses.
1 John 4:8 - "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
1 Corinthians 13:4 - 4Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant..."
Exodus 20:5 - "You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me..."

He's clearly right that there is a logical contradiction here. I could argue that it's not the same word being used for jealous (it's not even the same language, Exodus was written in Hebrew and the others in Greek). That's kind of a technical argument though. The more important thing is that these are three different books written by three different authors. Finding this kind of contradiction is a challenge to the idea that the Bible was transmitted verbatum from the lips of God, but it does nothing to challenge the idea that they were written by human authors who, though all faithful and inspired, expressed themselves in very different ways. They were influences by the context they lived in, bu the immediate needs of their own communities, and by their own understanding and personalities. It's no surprise to see that what they wrote contains contradictions, but that doesn't invalidate the writings. That would be a little like suggesting that an idea of Dickens contradicting an idea of Shakespeare's would invalidate all of English literature.

I know that seems like a bit of an apples and oranges argument, but it's not. The reality is that, for all that holds it together, the Bible is a very diverse collection of books, which don't always agree with each other. The holiness code of Leviticus butts heads with the justice-preaching of the prophets in a way that foreshadows a similar argument between Jesus and the Pharisees. Ezra and Nehemiah rail about the evils of Israelites taking foreign wives, but Ruth (written at roughly the same time) exalts just such a marriage.

There are a number of these arguments imbedded in the Bible. People living during it's writing had theological arguments, just as faithful people continue to have. What's remarkable is that both sides of the arguments are preserved in the scriptures, which brings to them an honesty that a book written to push one and only one understanding could never match.

In my opinion, that honesty and struggle are a lot of what gives the scriptures their lasting value. I really see that in the story of Jacob, whose name means "one who wrestles with God". Like him, those of us who are guided by these scriptures, are grappling with a complex relationship. That's not as comfortable as the assumption that the Bible is a book of easy answers, but it's ultimately much more beneficial.

Phoenix Affirmations #1

The first of the Phoenix Affirmations (see my last post if you don't know what these are) is:

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1. Walking fully in the path of Jesus, without denying the legitimacy of other paths God may provide humanity;

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You've got to respect a list that starts out with such a controversial statement.

For most of its history the most common position of the Christian Church has been that it is the sole owner of truth, the only path to God, and the only hope of salvation. The idea of salvation is often expressed as "Christians will go to Heaven, everyone else will be sent to Hell to suffer eternal punishment for all eternity."

Salvation and Hell are big topics and I'm going to hold off on saying much about them for a later post. For now I'll just say that there are a lot of Christians who say that any non-Christian religion is automatically wrong. There's also a line of reasoning that an Evangelical friend once explained to me. Effectively he said: You can't respect another religion, because respecting it implies that there is some validity to it. If you imply validity, then you put it on an equal footing with Christianity. If you do that you're saying that Christianity isn't THE way, only one way of many, and that will lure other people to eternal damnation.

These Christians have a number of scriptures they go to for support, like John 14:6, which reads: "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'."

It sounds pretty simple, but it’s not. John is addressing a specific historical situation. His audience is largely composed of Jews, some of whom accepted Jesus as the Messiah, and some of whom favored other Messiah candidates like Simon bar Kokhba. John is effectively saying to the undecided Jews that Jesus is the one and only Messiah. His pronouncement has everything to do with the situation he was living in and nothing at all to do with the spirituality of Buddhists, or Muslims, etc.

Then too, there are scriptures like the judgment of the nations found in .”Matthew 25:31-36. The people in this parable are judged, not on faith in Christ, but in how they treat others.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

That scene is even more dramatic when you realize who it is addressed to. When the scripture talks about this as the judgment of “the nations”, it is translating a phrase used to refer to outsiders or non-believers. In other words, this verse is telling us that non-believers will be judged and found worthy on the basis of their compassion.

There are actually quite a few verses in the New Testament like this. They hold out the possibility that non-believers can be good people, can have a full relationship with God and the deep spirituality that comes with it, and can even find salvation. That sounds scandalous to Christians who have been raised on the doctrine of ‘limited atonement’ but the rest of us see them as reflecting God’s loving nature.

That’s not to say that we don’t think our way is special. Far from it, I wouldn’t be anything but a Christian. I find something in my faith that I don’t believe I could find anywhere else. In fact, I believe there is something so special to be found only in following Christ, that I wish everyone could experience it.

But that doesn’t mean that I can’t respect the faith of a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or a Jew. I’ve known people in all these religions whose faith and wisdom puts mine to shame. I’ve seen what I would call a genuine closeness to God in Taoists and Baha’i’s and agnostics, and I have to admire and respect that.

That’s not saying that all other religions are on the right path, and it’s certainly not saying that all practitioners of other religions are on the right path (I should add that many people who are professing Christians are not on the right path either). It’s simply saying that, non-Christians can find God. Actually, since my tradition talks about being found by God rather than finding God, maybe this line from the novel The Shack says it better (I’m quoting from memory so please forgive me if I get a couple of words wrong).

“Not all roads lead to me, but I will travel down any road to reach you."

The Phoenix Resolutions - part 1

Some times it's hard for progressive Christians to say what we are. We're more likely to say what we aren't. We aren't literalists, we aren't Funadmentalists, we don't believe that one has to vote pro-life or even be a political conservative to be a Christian. We believe hating and excluding gays (or any other group of people) is contrary to the teachings and example of Jesus Christ.

All of that is true, but it fails to say who we ARE.

The PHOENIX AFFIRMATIONS are a recent attempt to answer that in a positive way. these twelve points are built around the two most central teachings of Christianity, the Great Commandment (love God) and the Golden Rule (love your neighbor as yourself). They do an excellent job of showing a form of Christianity that many people, sadly, are not familiar with. I'll be going over them in detail in the posts to come. For now I'll just put them out there for you to see.

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THE PHOENIX AFFIRMATIONS
Summary Version 3.8

The public face of Christianity in America today bears little connection to the historic faith of our ancestors. It represents even less our own faith as Christians who continue to celebrate the gifts of our Creator, revealed and embodied in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Heartened by our experience of the transforming presence of Christ’s Holy Spirit in our world, we find ourselves in a time and place where we will be no longer silent. We hereby mark an end to our silence by making the following affirmations:

As people who are joyfully and unapologetically Christian, we pledge ourselves completely to the way of Love. We work to express our love, as Jesus teaches us, in three ways: by loving God, neighbor, and self.

(Matt 22:34-40 // Mk 12:28-31 // Lk 10:25-28; Cf. Deut 6:5; Lev. 19:18)

Christian love of God includes:

1. Walking fully in the path of Jesus, without denying the legitimacy of other paths God may provide humanity;

2. Listening for God’s Word which comes through daily prayer and meditation, studying the ancient testimonies which we call Scripture, and attending to God’s present activity in the world;

3. Celebrating the God whose Spirit pervades and whose glory is reflected in all of God’s Creation, including the earth and its ecosystems, the sacred and secular, the Christian and non-Christian, the human and non-human;

4. Expressing our love in worship that is as sincere, vibrant, and artful as it is scriptural.

Christian love of neighbor includes:

5. Engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God’s very image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, or economic class;

6. Standing, as Jesus does, with the outcast and oppressed, the denigrated and afflicted, seeking peace and justice with or without the support of others;

7. Preserving religious freedom and the Church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of Church and State;

8. Walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies;

Christian love of self includes:

9. Basing our lives on the faith that, in Christ, all things are made new, and that we, and all people, are loved beyond our wildest imagination – for eternity;

10. Claiming the sacredness of both our minds and our hearts, recognizing that faith and science, doubt and belief serve the pursuit of truth;

11. Caring for our bodies, and insisting on taking time to enjoy the benefits of prayer, reflection, worship and recreation in addition to work;

12. Acting on the faith that we are born with a meaning and purpose; a vocation and ministry that serves to strengthen and extend God’s realm of love.