Quarentine Roulette

I have posted memes on Facebook which amount to saying this: Things were broken, let's not go back.

The black and white divide between the past and the future I am calling out is, of course, artificial. And I have attributed those posts to economics, capitalism, lack of socialism, broken health and tax systems... a number of "culprits" who when taken at face value, are probably not to blame.

The other thing I have seen over the last few weeks is a so called divide opening up between introverts and extroverts. Those who are okay with being locked in a house and those who are needing to leave.

Now this divide is also artificial but has equally black and white factors attributed to it. I need to see people, I need a hug, I never liked people anyway, I read books, I have a cat... all kinds of people saying all kinds of things as if they were the one and only answer.

A problem with social media has always been presentation of ideas. How I present something makes a difference, and in social media most people present "opinions" as not merely "facts" but as somehow brought down from the mountain on stone tablets.

Carved in stone truth for everyone is rarely found in social discussion.

But we sort of know that.

So I wonder what is really behind the messages. What is at the root of thrive or failure to thrive in the pandemic world?

I am going to present some ideas born from discussion with my wife and consideration of our families and see if they might not round out some of the edges of what is causing problems both now, before, and potentially after.

None of this might ring true for you - but I think good discussion makes you think, and so I am presenting this as something to think about.

Extrovert and Introvert is a false label. Or rather, has become a shortcut, used to describe very limited understandings. To be an extrovert means more than needing to go outside. To be an introvert means more than needing to be alone.

Here are some issues around that - how comfortable are you reflecting on your own life? How comfortable are you in your own house? How much do you need to be around other people? Do you like to be in a crowd? When new ideas crop up in your head do you need to talk to other people about them? How much television is actually healthy?

You see - the ideas are complex. And when we say, I am an introvert I am ok - it could mean SO many different things that there is no easy label on why that is true.

Take me, I am somewhat introverted in that I recharge emotional energy by being alone. However, I cannot for the life of me sit in one place for longer than, say, half an hour. In the round of a week I usually travel, say, 400 km just driving from one place to the next - sometimes for no reason.

I cannot not have my mind occupied - so I need to be "doing" something all the time. But is that an extrovert quality or ADHD?

I have anxiety and PTSD but that does not mean that I do not thrive off of constant newness. I do not even drive home from the store using the same route I took.

So jsut for myself, there is no easy label. And I imagine that is true for others as well.

How about the economy, social safety net, etc.

I say it was broken but the reasons I say it was broken may not resonate with anyone else.

I think it sucks that the main point of most of our lives is sustenance employment. It takes two breadwinners most of their week to earn enough money to provide human basic needs. That should not be true. We should have way more time to paint, make music, love, food, etc. Or at least that is how I feel.

I always thought communal living would be a better answer. Still do. If we were in groups of 10-15 now instead of groups of 2-4 would that not be better? But again, that is me.

I do not value "stuff" the way others do. I wear old clothes and buy most of what I own at Giant Tiger. But I need high end tech and expensive rum, as well as trips across the country.

What we value and why differs from each person, and it differs greatly.

I guess when I say the old system was broken I am meaning the system that said getting rich was the plan, having 1.4 kids was the plan, working more than 40 hours per week was the plan, always buying the next new thing was the plan... these are the things I am glad have been taken away by the pandemic.

Now what is important is keeping healthy. What is important is finding joy where you are. What is important is spending time with family. What is important is making do with what you have.

And in those ways I feel joy in my heart.

But "I" think, and again, this is an opinion, that what needed to change, and may yet perhaps change in this - is that our value system needs to change.

And it is not about how we run an economy, it is not about whether we are introverted or extroverted, it is not about rich or poor, gender, sexuality, or anything that we have been fighting over before...

What needs to change is the recognition that each individual person is just that. And what I need, how I meet those needs, and how I fit in with others is unique to me alone. And I wish we could create a society that valued that - the individual and how they fit into the common good without losing their identity.

That is why I keep saying I want to go back to the hippy movement. I think they were on to something when they claimed that each person was a wonderful person just for being them.

But maybe I am wrong...

Either way - each of us needs to find how THEY thrive in this new world. I don't think we will go back to the way it was two months ago - there will be more diseases, more natural disasters, more political turmoil in the months and years to come. And they will change us. So maybe be patient with each other and try hard to help everyone be the best person they can be.

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.

From Martin to Martin

"If Church history teaches us anything, it is that we cannot afford to be a vacillating Church. We minister to a people who are in great need of hearing the truth, we dare not make any attempt to soft-pedal that glorious truth." - Martin Luther

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

Ahhh... But What is Truth

So often I hear it joked that one should never talk about religion, politics, sex, and money. I am sure you have heard this said before as well. We make the joke but in reality, we are trying to convey this social contract that we somehow believe will make the world a happier place. 

Let's not talk about the things that we might disagree about. 

The other side of this is that somehow we have gotten ourselves to a sort of social popularism where what matters most is our own opinion. (Yes, I do see the irony as an opinion writer that I am putting my opinions out there as truth and thus... well... nevermind)

My point is that "but I feel like it" often trumps the "but this is the way it really is" way of seeing the world. 

And I think "the church" has become more and more afraid of its prophetic role as time has gone on and we have started fighting for our survival. Martin Luther was not only right, but he was also prophetic in saying that we were becoming an irrelevant social club.

I am not meaning to misrepresent either of these fine gentlemen, and I am not even sure what I am meaning when I say "the church" I do know there is a great variety of denominations and callings, as well as a great variety of faiths and understandings. 

But overall - I think religion in North America (my only context) bought into the idea that we should not talk about some things and so we should try to be what people want us to be. we decided, to misquote the older Trudeau, "in the bedrooms of the nation" 

But the thing is that if the church stood up and said proudly what we know to be true - we would be relevant. 

AND NO - I DO NOT MEAN THE THINGS THAT MAKE NEWS ALL THE TIME - GOD DOES NOT HATE FAGS AND TRUMP IS NOT ANOINTED.

I mean if we could honestly say to rulers - rule justly or get the hell out. If we could honestly say to people possessions don't matter and stop chasing after the wrong things. If we could echo the Bible in saying race, religion, sexuality, class don't matter - we are all the same. And if we had the courage of our convictions - do you not think we might be relevant on the current world's stage?

But no, we get bogged down on virgin births and the ten commandments and other petty articles of faith that Jesus told us right out do not matter at all. 

The thing is, and I believe this completely with every bit of my essence - we in the church are not Christians. 

I wonder if that has anything to do with declining numbers?