In the difficult times faced by spiritual institutions, it is interesting to imagine why anyone would bother connecting themselves to a spiritual community. What might make it worthwhile to accept the inevitable awkwardness, inconvenience and pain of joining other people in a shared expression of the spiritual journey?
To read the rest of this post, please go to: http://blogs.timescolonist.com/2012/08/03/spiritual-institution-crisis-2/
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August 3, 2012 at 9:20 am
lindsay
The thread that holds us people of seemingly different and opposing viewpoints together and allows us to rise above our common day-to-day frictions and ideological differences most often is having a common purpose …
Sometimes this common purpose is artificially contrived, sometimes it involves fighting a common enemy, sometimes it comes from being in the same geographical location and being forced to find ways to live together in a semblance of harmony… but whatever this higher common purpose is, it helps to have it put into simple, straight-forward words, to hear it and be reminded of it, often … because the temptation to become embroiled in the “smaller than”, argue out of self interest and drift away or fragment to make life easier is equally as strong ….
The challenge, of course, is in defining exactly what our common purpose is … A common purpose which is too small will invariably exclude people and assist in enemy formation … When this happens it can have the opposite effect …i.e fragment. For example nationalism is built on this … pitting one group … any group … against another …. Pride in our own accomplishments is another problem … then we feel we want to protect what we have …
What is it we have most in common … ? A desire to love and be loved …
Spiritual institution in it’s purest form offers a vision of this common purpose … the larger common thread … the golden rule –
Love God (whatever form God takes … if God is synonymous with Love, love Love) … love one another, love Life … We have high expectations of our spiritual institutions … which essentially means we have high expectations of ourselves …
Do we absolutely need a large, structured spiritual institution to remind us constantly of our common purpose, what we know inside ourselves to be true … possibly not … but if not a spiritual institution … where else?
My muse of the day … as Rob says … btw where is Rob?
August 3, 2012 at 9:35 am
Steve
I am having a little trouble with this topic of spirituality. I am not sure what it has to do with Christianity and why you seem to throw it in with the spirituality folks if that is what you are doing. Spirituality just doesn’t seem like a thing in and of itself to me. What ever happened to “the holy catholic church: the communion of saints”. I don’t see Christianity as necessarily spirituality or religion, those two belong in another discussion or vice versa. I do, nevertheless, agree with all your assertions about “spiritual institutions” as they apply to Christianity and I think they are very important to the future of the church.
August 3, 2012 at 9:42 pm
jaqueline
the fact that many who call themselves Christian cannot see how spirituality has relevance to Christianity might be the biggest reason for it’s irrelevance. People are thirsty for the spirit…and insofar as religion fulfills that longing for the spirit, to that degree religion is relevant, not the other way around.
August 4, 2012 at 11:33 am
lindsay
Hey Steve, I’m trying to figure out what you mean when you say you don’t see “Christianity as necessarily spirituality or religion” ?
August 5, 2012 at 3:54 pm
Steve
Lindsay, If one were to take, as I do, the definition of religion as being “The outward and mechanical participation in prescribed rites and rituals and acceptance of prescribed beliefs for the purpose of winning favor with God” then Jesus is anti-religious. That’s what I meant. As for spirituality, it is hard to explain but let me put it this way. I saw a sign on the side of the road the other day that said “Madame Mary – Palm Reader and Spiritual Advisor”. I suppose what Madame Mary does would fall under the broad category of “spirituality”. I can’t, in good conscience put Madame Mary, even if she were to say she loves God, in the same category with the Son of God. Hope that explains it. To lump religion, spirituality, and Christianity together and say we all have one common purpose is a statement that does not sufficiently grasp the radical nature of the claims of Jesus and the doctrine of the Cross. It is either true or it is not, it can’t be partially true. He is the Son of God or He is a fraud.
August 5, 2012 at 5:06 pm
jaqueline
elsewhere Steve…you were very open about acknowledging the relevance of other religions and that Jesus was the fulfillment of all of them , not just of ‘Christianity’ I do not understand this flip flop back and forth between acceptance of a wider revelation and then back to a fundamentalist description of it.
Jesus may be unique…but he is not exclusive.
August 3, 2012 at 9:37 pm
jaqueline
so…apparently what will happen to everyone who clicks on the TC links is that eventually TC will block them with a message that they have read 20 articles…is the TC going to be the venue from now on?
August 5, 2012 at 8:54 pm
Steve
Jacqueline, you said I acknowledged “the relevance of other religions and that Jesus was the fulfillment of all of them, not just of ‘Christianity’”. That’s not what I meant. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. I was equating other religions with the Old Testament, not Christianity.
I don’t know about where you live but where I live these people you continue to demonize, Christians with fundamentalist and or evangelical orientation are for the most part kind, loving, generous, and gentle people. I can only pray that I can measure up to the example they set. You have no way of knowing if the harm you think they do outweighs the good nor is it yours to judge. I have expressed my own objections to some of their practices and dogmas and I think that is proper as we, the people who for the church continually and constantly need to keep the gospel message fresh and reinvent ourselves, our organization, but not our beliefs. It is the living Jesus, the living Word of God, it is a living faith. It cannot be captured in dogma, customs, rituals or church doctrine.
And if you don’t believe in the divinity of Christ and the basic tenants of the Christian faith then we are worlds apart, no amount of discussion will ever bridge the gulf between us. It is Jesus that said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”, not me.
August 5, 2012 at 9:18 pm
jaqueline
I do not agree with fundamentalism….but .that does not mean I am demonising if I partake in healthy debate and disagree with your, or fundamentalist views…
And please do not make assumptions about my belief in Christ just because I disagree with you.
Strangely it IS possible to accept evolution, gays, women’s rights to abortion, helping the poor , a socialist style government, gun control AND believe in the divinity of Christ and the basic tenants of the Christian faith.
August 6, 2012 at 7:37 am
Steve
My views are not fundamentalist, I grew up with that, much of my adult life has been spend trying to reprogram that twisted form of Christianity out of my mind but I wouldn’t dare assume God does not use fundamentalist and/or any other manifestation of the faith for His own purposes. I don not believe anything happens that is not allowed by God for His on purposes and the power of evil in this world has been defeated by Jesus on the cross. The truth of that statement is very hard to grasp but in my version of Christianity I don’t get to pick and choose.
The Bible presents Jesus as God; as the Creator; as the only Savior of the world; and as Lord. He described Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Jesus died so that we can live as children of God. These are exclusive claims.
I did not mean to infer I was making assumptions about your beliefs; I apologize if it came across that way, for me to do that is to contradict myself. I know I must open my mind to the possibility of all the things you mention but it is very hard for me. I will not accept the part about abortion.
What I want you to understand about me is that my faith is not simply about theology. It is about the living Jesus. Once I saw that my life changed and that was after 35 years of deep devotion to the theology of Christ. I believed it with all my heart but I did not grasp that Jesus still lives, not in bodily form but inside me. I learned that on the very edge of the pit of hell, figuratively speaking. I experience it all day, every day. Where once I was depressed, despondent, and hopeless I now have enthusiasm, hope, joy and every day I am constantly filled, just like Jesus said, overflowing with the excitement of a child.
Can you see why when someone contradicts the theology that brought this to me I see it as an absurdity? It’s like somebody saying they don’t believe in gravity. Can you also see why I guard these truths and hold them up as sacred? But there are still remnants of that old self and I often loose sight of the patience, tenderness, and unconditional acceptance with which He as dealt with me and I am less that that way with others in my zealousness.
Arguing this basic reality is pointless to me but I am always ready to explain it. I just wish everybody could see what I see. It is the most liberating and freeing experience I know of and I can’t see why, rightly understood, anyone in their right mind would want to reject it.
Today I am having this conversation with you. Yesterday I was having a conversation with a fundamentalist Christian man who has the mistaken idea that it is his job to defend the institution of marriage. In the process he is creating stumbling blocks for some of God’s children and causing them to fall. In the process he is not demonstrating the love of God in his life. He is contradicting Jesus’ message of reconciliation. I was trying to get him to understand this.
Christopher, I am sorry for hijacking your blog. I will try to keep my comments brief in the future.
August 6, 2012 at 7:39 am
jaqueline
please note, I wrote: with you OR fundamentalism.
August 6, 2012 at 8:01 am
jaqueline
Look, you say arguing is pointless..but you do it..but you do it dishonestly..you take a question and say someone is demoninsing, you take a disagreement and say someone is anti Christ, you take a point of view and say…we cannot talk about this because you disagree with me.
Arguing is valuable if it brings forth more understanding but not if it trying to win…you did not mean to assume my beliefs but you did…you accused me of demonsation when, for the life of me, I look at my question and think..and how exactly did you get that form that question? You , my friend, have already dissed liberals even so far as the ( jokingly ?) assume they are exempt from the kingdom of God. But you did worse…you assumed that because I did not agree with you that I was a liberal there for in the camp that is ‘wrong’. Spitting a dummy and sayin ” I will keep my comments brief etc..is not repentance it is being unconfident of being in discussion.it is s dislike of disagreement, not a dislike of argument.
fundamentalism does this:
It moves the definition of Christianity FROM ‘the belief in Jesus as God reconciling the world to himself’ TO a Christian is ‘some one who anti abortion , anti gay, anti liberal, anti socialist, anti welfare, anti whatever’.Fundamentalism defines itself by what it is against..
BOTH right and left wing can be fundamentalist …hence the horrid excesses of the gulag and the Stasi….
You can tell fundamentalism when it crops up because it takes what ever does not agree with it and accuses it of being the polar opposite.
Hence…health- care being the next step to medical experimentation a la Hitler..( good grief, were people SERIOUS? The drongo who first went there may have been…but that it caught on???)