Sufficient Unto the Day...

I have always had this sense that everything was going to be all right.

People accuse me of being too laid back, and I get that. I do not worry or panic about the things that normal people worry or panic about.

(as an aside - the things I DO worry about are weird as well. I worry about what the "best" thing to have for supper is. I worry about how to get 8 hours of sleep. I worry about which shirt to wear today. I worry about whether strangers think I am attractive... But when I get cancer, when there is a pandemic, when the money runs out... no worry at all)

I would love to be able to claim this is the result of faith - that I let go and let God - or put it at the feet of Jesus or some other trite and meaningless convention of faith. But it has nothing to do with faith in that sense.

I have been thinking in the midst of this pandemic and I guess the way my mind works is basically this:

I will probably be dead tomorrow. How do I have the best day ever today?

That is it in a nutshell.

So it totally explains my worries and lack of worry. I really do not care about tomorrow at any deep level. I really do not care about yesterday at any deep level. If it is happening today, then it means everything to me.

Now, as I said, this is not classical faith the way it has evolved through theology - but I wonder if it is closer to the way Jesus intended us to see the world. Is this in fact what "being religious" means?

As you can imagine, I am weathering the pandemic fairly well because I am focused almost completely on today. And today is absolutely no different from any other day in my life - except for some minor variations, and every day has minor variations, so it does not surprise me.

And because of that, I would like to make the case for ancient spiritual wisdom actually giving us the tools we need in times like this.

In my own tradition there is this whole speech Jesus gives where he says that birds of the air and flowers of the field do not worry about tomorrow - and yet they have magnificent lives. He follows this up by saying "sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof" (in the old fashioned way of our bibles) or perhaps if he was speaking to us now he might say - "there is enough to worry about right in front of you - for my sake - let it go."

And the other big spiritual gurus were pretty clear on the same thing... from Buddha who essentially said that concentrating on the here and now is the path to salvation through all the rest of them.

Live in the present. Give thanks for the present. Celebrate the goodness you see.

That is faith in action.

It is hard to do. But it is not impossible. And I guess that is where I hope we can get to. An ability to wake up and see the snow falling outside our windows, where we are locked away from the pandemic, and think - wow, pretty - and go make some toast.

The moment is all that there is. Make the most of it. That is what Jesus would have done.

The Good of the Many - Leads to Loneliness

I grew up watching Star Trek.

Well - obsessing over Star Trek.

I suppose I am lucky that I chose a show that reflected a deep sense of moral value back into the world. Or perhaps I was already someone who held the values of love and inclusion close to my heart and so I loved the show because I saw myself in it.

Nonetheless - I have lived 50 years with the idea of  "do no harm" and that the good of the many outweighs the good of the one. I have lived my life believing that race does not matter and that interfering with the way another person saw the world was wrong.

So the measures being taken to flatten the curve already make sense to me.

I also have been reading about how the same things happened in the early 1900's around the Spanish Flu. The Universities and schools shut down, for example. And there are undoubtedly many other examples.

The real difference I suppose is ease of travel. Back in the day we had to wait weeks till the ship crossed the ocean. Now we are there this afternoon.

I will not pretend that I mind social isolation. I am not a gregariously needy person when it comes to social interaction. I prefer writing on my laptop or playing skyrim.

But my role in life is to interact and care for those who are vulnerable and who need attention. And to offer a spiritual dimension to the reality I witness. Being the op ed type of journalist who tries to delve deep into issues that others find impermanent - like art and faith and society - sometimes means taking a different view of things.

So here is a thought that I think you might all agree with but that not many are putting out there.

The world is a lonely place.

It has been becoming lonelier and lonelier as we spend more time at home, on the internet, as we move away from family and become a global citizens.

We already struggle to find meaningful connection. And this is going to make it worse.

I fear, not the loss of 20% of the population or whatever this pandemic may do in the short term (which, I do not dismiss, it is sad and scary - but reality) What I truly fear is the aftermath.

9/11 changed the world forever. In subtle but interesting ways. We became a nanny state where agreement with the majority became the greatest social value.

It changed us.

Looking back sociologists will be able to point to that one event and say that society was moving in one direction and the twin towers altered the trajectory of social development.

Somehow 9/11 also changed science. I do not know if you remember, but before that we could clone people, we could build space stations, teleportation was right around the corner...

A decade later people turned against science and now we cannot even convince people that the planet is getting warmer or that they should wash their hands.

So what will the outcome of the Corona virus Pandemic be? How much will this change who we are?

That is my fear. That perhaps social contact and the idea of togetherness is at risk. Perhaps we will come to see people who want to be around other people as abnormal. Perhaps we will no longer have group events, concerts, sports...

I don't know. Things never happen in obvious ways because human beings are bizarrely unpredictable. Witness the fact of toilet paper shortages with a disease that does not alter your "regularity" at all.

So I might be wrong about "what" will be forever changed. Still, I worry that something will be forever changed - and not for the better.

I guess my hope is that we continue to value the good things - love, peace, hope, joy and that we fight to remember to keep those things alive even as the world shifts beneath our feet.

Face(book)ing Depression

Everyone has their triggers. Everyone has something that annoys them.

It has been a year now since the Journal of Social and Clinical  Psychology published a study saying that Facebook leads to depression. Other studies have come to a similar conclusion and it may not be limited to Facebook as a platform.

In my way of seeing it, there could be many reasons for this link. First off social media presents a lot of the world in an easily digestible form. Therefore I end up knowing and hearing all too often that the polar ice is melting, whale carcasses are washing up, mass murder is going on, death, destruction etc... All of the things that would normally depress us are amplified. Then there is the whole comparative factor where I get to see my contemporaries who are enjoying their hot tubs and SeaDoos while I am trying to decide if I can afford to get a coffee at Tim's this morning.

Last but not least there is the way that it somehow makes us lose our faith in humanity. I blame this mostly on the comments section. It is as if we gave all the crazies who used to write letters to the editor (and get weeded out) free reign to instantly publish their diatribe to an audience of millions. Thus anti-vaxxers and climate emergency deniers, evolution protesters and, well, mean people, seem to be getting a louder and louder voice. 

I have my own problem that combines the two of these things. Triggers, depression, and "fake news."

It all started when I went to seminary yet continued my unabashed love of storytelling and movies. I watched a lot of movies. There are religious people in a lot of movies. They are by and large Catholics. I remember saying to anyone and everyone who listened that this was a pretty one-sided view of the church and clergy.

Then the Millenium brought to the forefront the wackadoodles, which is the official term, who thought that the world was ending.

But now... Now... I cannot turn to Facebook and scroll without seeing religion portrayed as some abomination. Whether it is people talking about Trump and therefore the conservative right-wing church in the states, or anti LGBQT+ propaganda, or, well, anything.

We have created a world where the wackadoodles get top billing and the moderates or liberals are left shaking their heads.

The thing is, I am depressed because this is becoming the way most people understand the church. Understand me. And I more than ever think we need the opposite.

I know I am over-educated, I know I am liberal and left-wing, but seriously... how can anyone believe some of the rhetoric of these people who have stolen Christianity and made it so narrow and hateful?

Jesus and his followers were exactly like me. left-wing, lovey-dovey, radical protestors who talked about the hippy ideals of love, peace, and understanding. That is not an opinion, that is not a guess, it is historically and accurately portrayed in every facet of not only the Bible but of Roman history. That is why he was killed, as a traitor to the Roman government, for inciting rebellion, in the name of peaceful civil protest for equality.

It is just not really debatable. "Love everyone," said Jesus... and no matter what anyone else said - "you don't mean Romans? Slaves? Blacks? Jews? Samaritans? Cops? Politicians? Sick People? Poor People?" Jesus said, "Did I stutter? EVERYONE!"

But I turn to Facebook and there is a priest supporting Donald Trump. There is a pastor saying gays are going to burn in hell. There is a sociologist blaming the church for racist political agendas.

And I have been forced into the place of an apologist (for those who do not study church history - I mean that academically as the type of Christian writer who writes about the faith for non-believers in order to point out that it is actually a pretty cool thing).

And it is hard. It is what made me take a break from ministry for a while. It is what keeps me up at night. I don't want to be associated with the wackadoodles. But they seem to be multiplying.

Even in the progressive and left-wing United Church of Canada we are becoming more and more conservative and literalist. Both of which are SO not Jesus like that I cannot believe people are not seeing it.

I don't know. Maybe the psychiatrists are right and the only thing I can do is abandon social media.

But then again - someone has to keep trying to present the other side. 

This is Us!

Donald Trump relies on the fact that you believe in stereotypes.

Other people have said this or things like my opening statement to various degrees and purposes. But for now, let me point out that Mexicans are violent drug addicts who somehow live their entire lives trying to steal jobs from ordinary working-class Americans.

One trip to Mexico City should dissuade most people of this. And if that does not work make your way over to the Museo Nacional de Antropología, one of the ten best museums in Mexico City (yes, one of the top ten - there are more than ten) and you will get a pretty complete education of the cultural and historical people of Mexico.

Defining Mexican people as lazy violent sheep stealing vagabonds is about as useful as defining Americans as orange haired megalomaniac sexist racist narcissists.

Most of the world sees this - right? Very few people are so narrow-minded as to say all Americans are, all blacks are, all natives are, all Irish are... It is impossible to lump a whole people into a category and have it hold up (except for Cape Bretoners - they are all the same, what?)

In fact - white male Maritimers like me range from ignorant bastards right through to saints. From smart to dumb and rich to poor. Some are faithful and some are criminals. And that pretty much is just looking at my High School graduation class for statistical analysis.

And then we come to church.

There is this most bizarre of phenomenon where "Are you a Christian" usually means, are you a clone of me. Which is ridiculous.

I overheard a story where a minister actually said: "We don't believe that." to someone. And I am afraid it sort of set me off as this column testifies to. There is no "we." There really isn't. There never was.

If I preach a sermon to 50 people and say something fairly benign. Like, Jesus wants you to be good people. Then I guarantee I have just encountered 51 completely different definitions of the word "good."

Even should I choose to go completely religious on people and say Salvation through Jesus means acceptance into heaven, I have now exponentially diversified belief.  Every single person in the room has their own definition of Jesus, salvation, acceptance, and heaven.

"We believe that Jesus saves us so we get into heaven" is almost a nonsensical statement when you stop and think about it.

And this is where religion has always broken down in my mind - there is no US.

There does not need to be, there should not be. I was asked in an interview "what is your theology" and my answer was that it did not matter. I am not there to make you believe what I believe, I am there to help you work out your own existential questions and come to peace with the universe.

And when we say, people are not coming to church anymore, people are not Christian anymore, etc. The truth is we are defining narrowly again. People are having trouble subscribing to a set of beliefs that institute one way of thinking and declare it to be universally right for everyone.

People are still asking religious questions like why am I here, and what is my purpose, etc. But they want to come up with answers that echo truth and their own experience.

People like Richard Rohr on the one hand, or John Shelby Spong, or Greta Vosper or even Michael Hutchins are actually doing a better job of evangelizing God than most churches. Why? because they are the ones pointing out that the know it all answers of a hierarchical and medieval church might not actually capture faith for the majority of people.

When we step out of the comfort zone and realize that there is no universal truth in the way the church has argued, then we begin to allow people space to actually find faith.

And it is faith in the axioms, the overarching things that human experience reminds us are part of the sacred, part of the divine, like love, like acceptance, like grace, like passion...

Jesus said different things to different people. So did Muhammed and Buddha. All of them were trying to help people find deeper meaning within themselves, to get in touch with their own divinity.

And the only way we are going to contribute to this endeavour, to this "work of God" is to stop with the narrow definitions. To stop with the assertion that there is a right and a wrong way.

I am a Christian who thinks reincarnation makes more sense than heaven (or at the very least I am for Elysium Fields and Valhalla) I am a Christian who thinks Jesus was no more divine than I am. I am a Christian who thinks God is the force from Star Wars. I am a Christian who thinks that Shamanism makes complete sense in a way that Christian Theology does not.

But most of all - I am a guy, who wants you to find and be your best self. I want to explore that with people in song and story and conversations over hot or cold beverages and try to make this world soooo much better. That to me is at the core of the ministry. It has nothing to do with what I proclaim from the pulpit unless what I am saying is, you are loved, you got this, whatever you believe is valid if it brings you a sense of the sacred, and we are all in this together.

Saying there is one true path has never helped anyone. Ever. Ask Jesus.

Musings On Critical Thoughts

I have a friend who grew up in a somewhat harsh religious environment. It became a defining moment for him when the minister continuously called out people for thinking too much.

Education was just a way, after all, of putting your trust in the "man" and in the world - rather than in God. So we are talking no university, cursory public education, and certainly no questioning of the biblically inerrant truths.

Now - my first reaction to hearing stories like this is always to be shocked. My second reaction is, admittedly, sort of snobbishly belittling the folks who do not have 12 years of University education like I do and certainly know far less about the world then I do.

But later, when I am putting my ego and elitism to rest and letting go of my own raft of insecurities, I react differently.

There is some truth here. 

The overwhelming plethora of knowledge that has come to haunt us has moved us away from the mystery. And it is not always a good thing. We seek answers in order to seek control. Control of the weather, control of the knowledge, control of the building blocks of life itself.

And perhaps I would never stand in a pulpit and say that rocket ships invading the space of heaven are angering the old man in the clouds. Nor would I say that cloning is usurping the power of God and we are headed for a Babelesque fall...

But the idea that I can explain everything because I am smart, does not serve me very well.

Religiously it serves me even worse. Instead of asking what the story of the flood was all about, I can claim that it is a myth, present in all world religions and cultures, that speaks to cultural insecurities. Instead of seeing Jesus as somehow so special I should actually pay attention to him I can tell you through critical analysis that most of the words attributed to him in the Bible are made up - and the stories - the miracles - pfffft. Wishful thinking of later followers looking back.

But does that knowledge serve to deepen my faith, or weaken it?

Let me throw something at you from left field to show what I mean. If any of you have ever gone to Disney World as a child, and then again as an adult, you will realize that there is a WORLD of difference. When I was nine, I actually flew over London with Peter Pan. When I was forty I was able to say, this is really cool how they create this effect like we are flying! I dove 20,000 leagues under the sea at one point, in later life to realize the submarine never even went under the water.

How about Christmas, Easter, Losing my teeth? Are those things better or worse with more knowledge?

Do you remember when a tree fort was an actual fort in the middle of the wild west, or you really were looking for buried pirate treasure in your backyard?

The dissolution of childlike wonder and innocence are the greatest loss possible for a human being.

But... And this is a real problem... I know better.

I see how the Bible was written, edited, redacted, changed. I have personally translated books from Hebrew to English and know how each translation requires making things up and choices. The curtain has been pulled back on most of the world - from Disney through to movies, right down to McDonald's. And I do not think I am the worse for knowing the machinery that makes the magic happen.

What I have to do is a psychological process called willful suspension of disbelief.

In other words - in order to enjoy Christmas I have to somehow will myself to believe that Santa exists. In order to enjoy Disney World I have to willfully believe that I have traveled to another realm - be it the jungles of Africa or outer space. In order to engage - I must disengage some critical thought.

I am a progressive, over-educated, liberal Christian. I do not rationally believe in miracles or divine beings.

But some of the time - some of the time I do.

What is it that Shakespeare once put in the words of Hamlet?

"There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy"

And so I think we often get lost on the wrong things. It does not matter whether Adam and Eve are real, the flood happened, or even if Jesus came back from the dead. In my mind it is probably bunk. But what matters is how I feel when I let myself believe.

When I do that - I see the world as full of miracles - and I beleive in everyone around me.

I DON'T BELIEVE THAT!

Creeds

I often hear people saying that the reason they cannot hold on to Christianity comes from their inability to believe in all the magic stuff - the supernatural stuff...

I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to either saying things like this or nodding my head knowingly when someone else says it. But for some reason, it has never occurred to me to ask what exactly I am talking about. What "stuff" are we having trouble with? And why?

I have simply made the assumption that people are talking about where science and religious history part ways: seven days to create the universe, Adam and Eve, the flood, parting the red sea, virgin birth, angels, resurrection of the dead... those sort of extravagant times when God causes the impossible to become reality.

I realize that thousands of years and far better minds than mine have fought these arguments and argued even wilder realities from how many levels of hell right through to angels on the head of a pin.

Without fact checking every verse of the Gospels I have to say that it seems to me that Jesus never, ever, said we had to believe certain facts, miracles, or proofs in order to follow his way. Not only that, but it seems to me he had campfire discussions with Nichodemus and upper room demonstrations with Thomas that made it clear that even the opposite is true. I don't care what you believe, I care what you do. That could almost have been the motto of the early church.

So what happened?

How did:
Do you follow Jesus - meaning do you live like Jesus lived
Become:
Do you believe this teaching?

In the traditional historical way of thinking it was the "church" that developed the "creed" As the organization got more power, and the people solidified who was in and who was outside of the church - certain statements of belief, the earliest being the Apostle's Creed and later the Nicene Creed became sort of gate-keeper documents. Believe this and you are like us... So basically you are talking about these points as a minimum you "must" believe:

 - There is one God who created everything
- There is one son of God, Jesus, who was born by a virgin named Mary
- Jesus suffered, was crucified, died, descended into hell, and rose from the dead three days later
- Jesus went up to heaven, alive, and is coming back to judge us.
- There is a holy spirit that is active in the world in between. 

I don't know - even that is more basic than where we are now. As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of people out there who think that you are not a real Christian unless you believe certain things.

Fundamentalism

At the turn of the 20th century, there was a movement that traces its roots back to Wesley and the Great Awakening but basically culminated in the publication of a book called "The Fundamentals" which was distributed throughout North America for free and was sent to over 3 million clergy and laypeople. It made the case that there were certain fundamental things - there were a lot, but these are the key ones:

• The inerrancy of the Bible
• The literal nature of the biblical accounts, especially regarding Christ's miracles and the Creation account in Genesis
• The virgin birth of Christ
• The bodily resurrection and physical return of Christ
• The substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross

Okay, but seriously - why? Again the case is being made that what matters most is that you ascribe to certain beliefs, certain "truths" that in and of themselves do not matter...

I can believe the Bible is completely true, every magic thing Jesus did was true, and that Jesus died on the cross to forgive my sins - and I can also abuse my wife, own slaves, torture children and in fact kill a whole lot of people without contradicting those beliefs. How can that possibly be the truth?

But this is the thing we have forever lost sight of - the letter of the law is almost not important at all compared to the spirit of the law. If you want a biblical proof text to back me up, how about that whole time when Jesus said, if you were my followers you would have treated the widows and orphans better. 

There it is in a nutshell - following Jesus is taking care of all the widows and orphans. 

It makes me wonder what would happen if we totally lost the rulebook and started a church that just did what Jesus did....