Issues and Concerns of Progressive Christianity

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Gene Marshall,  January 2010

Witnessing love may be the most important skill for organizing and anchoring a vital circle of Resurgent Christian nurture and mission.

In his sermon “You Are Accepted,” Paul Tillich describes the happening of “grace” as an experience of reunion with Reality.   “Grace,” as this word is used in the  letters of Paul, is an event that happens to us.  Tillich describes three parts to this event: (1) The awakening to our estrangement from Reality, (2) The dawning of our welcome home to Reality, and (3) The choice to accept and live this welcome.

Witnessing love can be described as the skill of assisting grace to happen for another person.  We must say “assisting” not “causing,” for the actual happening of grace is beyond the control of the witness.  Final Reality itself must do the dawning in the life of the other, and the other person must himself or herself see the estrangement, see the welcome home, and accept that specific welcome home to Reality.  The witness is powerless to control Final Reality or the other person.  Nevertheless, the witness has the power to focus the attention of the other person toward “noticing” the possibility of a transforming happening of grace.

Like grace, witnessing love has three parts: (1) Exposing the demons (i.e.  bringing consciousness to bear upon whatever estrangements are preventing the other person from being his or her real person), (2) Welcoming the sinner (i.e. pointing out that person’s welcome home to Reality in spite of that person’s estrangements from Reality), and (3) Beckoning the saint (i.e. encouraging the real person to choose the welcome home and to walk within that home place.  All three of these aspects of witnessing love are a challenge to the witness as well as a challenge to the person to whom the witness is made. Continue Reading »

  A sketch of the Christian story by Gene Marshall, January 2010

Jesus did not establish a religion; he was and remained a Jew for his whole life.  For him there was no New Testament, no Christian religious practice, no intimation that there would ever be such a thing.  Rather, in his own being he felt the dawn of a new day for humanity as a whole.  This is what he proclaimed: the advent of a New Adam, a New Humanity, the coming of a “Kingdom” on Earth characterized by a direct experience of the Eternal in our temporal here and how.  This down-to-Earth yet Eternal dawning meant the advent of a humanity that Trusted “Mysterious Reality” as a loving father; that Loved Mysteroius Reality, self, and others unconditionally; that experienced a Freedom that gave immediate authority, rooted in authenticity rather than in the traditions and laws of scribes and moral teachers.   He saw in his own ministry the dawning of this Eternal Kingdom among those whose lives were being healed.  He signaled the coming of an Eternally sponsored restoration of authenticity for all humanity, not just for that part of humanity that would call themselves “Christians.”

Similarly, Paul did not establish a religion; he was and remained a Jew for his whole life.  For him there was no New Testament, no Christian religious practice, no intimation that there would ever be such a thing.  He did not distance himself from Jews.  He shared his profound awakening in Synagogues with Jews and with Gentiles who were attracted to the rich heritage of Judaism.  Paul viewed himself as a true descendent of Abraham, whom he viewed as an example of the Trust in Mysterious Actuality that he, Paul, was experiencing.  Like Jesus, Paul saw in himself, and in those being healed by his message, the dawning of an Eternal Transformation for all humanity.  He called this New Humanity being “In Christ.”  He believed that everyone was soon to participate in this Eternal dawning of New Life on Earth.
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 A dialogue by Gene Marshall with John Shelby Spong’s essay
Tribal Religion: Recasting the Christian Message for Century 21

I have recently read the presentation/essay by John Shelby Spong on Tribal Religion. I count it as one of the best essay’s I have read by Spong. I agree entirely with Spong’s critique of what he means by “tribal religion,” namely the popular religion of our times (or any times) in which people worship their nation, their religious group, their gender, their race, their sexual orientation, and then project the quality of that group upon the cosmos or upon the God of the Bible, and call that projection of their own selves, “God.” Continue Reading »

Let us suppose that you have already decided that the first priority of your life is Spirit maturity.  Let us suppose that you are like that man in Jesus’ parable that found a valuable treasure hidden in a field and then sold all that he had to buy that field.  Let us suppose that for you Spirit maturity is like that treasure; it claims priority over all else.

Secondly, let us suppose that you have decided to make Christianity your religious home.  There are many good reasons for doing this: familiarity, experience of its healing strengths, or simply finding in this heritage the Spirit poetry with which you have (for whatever reasons) fallen in love.

Next, a third decision comes into view.  What sort of Christian religious community do you need?  The Symposium on Christian Resurgence for Century Twenty-One came into being to focus on this issue.  This research group has given a name to the Christian community needed: “The Christian Resurgence Circle.”  What is the Christian Resurgence Circle?  It is the Circle you need.  If it is not the Circle you need, it is not the Christian Resurgence Circle. Continue Reading »

Here is my greeting for the season: May the Dark Nights of Advent prepare you and yours in becoming fertile soil for that tiny candlelight of Christmas that can become a fire upon the Earth.

We seldom celebrate Advent anymore. Only a few of us light some purple candles and remember that the four weeks before Christmas were traditionally dedicated to the theme of coming to terms with how shit, piss, puss, slime awful the world situation actually is. Continue Reading »

Here is an interesting but cryptic passage from the Fourth Gospel about shepherds and sheep.

I have come that human beings may have life and may have it is all its fullness. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hireling, when he sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away, because he is no shepherd and the sheep are not his. John 10 :10-12

Those who give sermons on the good shepherd often assume that this ancient image applies to a contemporary pastor who tells his flock what they should believe and how they should act. Such a view also assumes that most people are sheep in the sense of being gullible go-along authority-addicted dumbbells.

I do not believe this was the meaning intended by the original author of these verses. The original shepherd image was grounded in the experience of being or noticing a highly dedicated person living on a hillside with a flock of sheep, providing them grass and water and protecting them from wolves. Being a follower of Jesus means being such a leader.
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Truth is not truth for me unless I experience it in my own being. Something is not true because the Bible says it is true. It is possible to claim, however, that the Bible says things because they are true – because they are true in ways that you and I can experience in our own beings.

If some group is interpreting the Bible to mean things that are not true, it follows that there is something wrong with their method of interpretation. The truth that the Bible can call to our attention is a level of truth this is typically more illusive than reading Bible statements in a “scientific” or “literal” manner. Most of the statements in the Bible are poetry or legend or story, not factual science or factual history. Continue Reading »

Progressive Christians are achieving great clarity about the historical development of the Bible and about viewing biblical passages in a metaphorical rather than a literal way. Using the word “God,” however, continues to be an area of unclarity and outright confusion.

It is, I believe, helpful to begin with H. Richard Niebuhr’s insight that the word “God” is a devotional word, much like the word “sweetheart.” “Sweetheart” points to a particular person, but it also expresses a quality of relationship. Similarly, the word “God” includes the meanings of loyalty, commitment, trust, friendship, and passionate devotion. At the same time, “God,” as used in the Bible, points to an actual experience, an actual encounter with, how shall we say it, the Ground of our Being; the Mystery, Depth, and Greatness of our lives; Final Reality; Reality as a Whole; the Mystery that will not go away. Continue Reading »

People from many political backgrounds are expressing opposition to “rewarding” Hispanic workers who have broken U.S. immigration laws with anything that smells like “amnesty.” Their assumption is that this lawbreaking should be punished not overlooked. But lost from view in this perspective is the fact that we are talking about a set of very inappropriate laws. And the breakers of these laws are not only South-of-the-border workers, but those who hire them. All sorts of firms are glad to have these industrious workers dedicated to a better life for their families and willing to go the second mile to get it. Many families, including prominent politicians, hire “illegal” Hispanics to clean their houses and stay with their children. The lawbreaking, if that is what we must call it, is pandemic. And it has been going on for so long that these so-called laws are engulfed within a vast need to start over with a whole new set of laws. Continue Reading »

The following is one of the most ridiculous ploys ever uttered in political speech: “Our military personnel who died in Iraq have died in vain if we do not stay and win.” If it is true that this war should never have been launched, then indeed, let us face it, these men and women have died in vain. And if this is so, it is not their fault; it is the fault of all those who have promoted this war, whether in or out of military service. Continue Reading »