Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

Dan Wilkinson

The murder of James Foley, ISIS, and Religions of Peace

by in Christian History, Current Events

While discussing the news of the murder of journalist James Foley at the hands of ISIS, a friend of mine posed to me the question: “What does it say about your religion when you have to kill people who won’t convert?”

If the religion in question is Islam, then Foley’s murder says virtually nothing about Muslim belief. The death of Foley is deplorable. The actions of ISIS are despicable. But atrocities committed by ISIS are no more representative of Muslim belief than the actions of extremist Christians are representative of mainstream Christianity.

What extremist Christians? Surely Christians have never killed those who wouldn’t convert? Surely Christians would never slaughter men, women and children in the name of their faith?

Before we conflate the extremism of ISIS with the entire religion of Islam, let’s keep in mind the checkered history of Christianity.

In The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account, the sixteenth century Spanish historian and priest Bartolomé de Las Casas describes the genocide inflicted by the Christian conquistadors upon the native peoples of Haiti and Cuba (warning, descriptions of graphic violence):
And the Christians, with their horses and swords and pikes began to carry out massacres and strange cruelties against them. They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if… [Read more…] about The murder of James Foley, ISIS, and Religions of Peace

The real tragedy of Ferguson isn't on TV

by in Current Events, Uncategorized

#453804768 / gettyimages.com

The ongoing unrest in Ferguson, Missouri is a sobering reminder of the state of racial relations in the United States, and of the out-of-control militarization of our police force. But I fear that the real tragedy of Ferguson is that it’s destined to become nothing more than a momentary blip on the radar of history, one that, despite the historically agonizing cries of “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” will result in no meaningful change. Here’s some of why I fear that:

The social, economic, cultural and racial issues now writ so large in Ferguson are systemic. No single protest can release the nearly 1 million black males currently in prison. No one protest can change the poverty rate for blacks being more than twice that of whites. As media unfriendly as it is, the plain truth is that resolving the problems that caused the situation in Ferguson will take comprehensive and long-term approaches.
The power resides with the status quo. America’s rich, white, male power structure has the time and the resources to withstand any siege such as the Ferguson protests. Just ask the “one percent” how well the Occupy Wall Street protests worked.
The real revolution won’t be televised. Night after night powerful images are coming out of Ferguson, helping to reinforce a narrative that is ultimately as destructive as anything happening there. Images of protestors throwing back tear gas canisters, of police officers dressed in full military garb and clearly ready to… [Read more…] about The real tragedy of Ferguson isn't on TV

A poet, like a priest, works with facts and mysteries: the poetry of Spencer Reece

by in Book Reviews

Poet and Episcopal priest Spencer Reece’s recent book, The Road To Emmaus (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $24.00), is a warm and generous collection of narrative poems that explores life with humble insight and restrained brilliance.

Reece writes about his family’s history, a relationship formed in a coming-out support group, friendship with his AA sponsor, seminary life, and his experiences as a hospital and prison chaplain. Poetry about love and death and God risks succumbing to saccharine sentimentality, but Reece approaches these subjects with an honest clarity and gentle lyricism that is refreshing. Re-reading passages in preparation for this review, I found myself again and again being pulled into these poems, poems that after only a few readings already feel intimately familiar.

Lines such as these from the book’s opening poem “ICU” linger and haunt:

In the neonatal ICU, newborns breathed,
blue, spider-delicate in a nest of tubes.
A Sunday of themselves, their tissue purpled,
their eyelids the film on old water in a well,
their faces resigned in plastic attics,
their skin mottled mildewed wallpaper.
It is correct to love even at the wrong time.
On rounds, the newborns eyed me, each one
like Orpheus in his dark hallway, saying:
I knew I would find you, I knew I would lose you.

Reece’s poetry is accessible without being trite, full of evocative imagery, intriguing personalities, and compelling stories. This collection is a thoughtful exploration of the… [Read more…] about A poet, like a priest, works with facts and mysteries: the poetry of Spencer Reece

Got Religion?

by in Book Reviews

Defying the potentially tedious nature of analyzing the decline in religious participation among young people, Naomi Schaefer Riley’s new book, “Got Religion?: How Churches, Mosques, and Synagogues Can Bring Young People Back,” offers an engaging blend of statistical analysis and on-the-scene reporting about the rapidly shifting demographics of American religious involvement.

Riley spent time getting to know the leadership and participants in eight religious groups that are trying to succeed where so many others are failing. She provides an inside view into how these groups are addressing the decline in youth participation by exploring the ministries of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, MECA: Muslims Establishing Communities in America, the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), Birthright Israel, Mormon Young Single Adult (YSA) Wards, the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens and Charlotte ONE.

All of these organizations are seeking to foster a sense of community, to bring young people together, to allow personal relationships to grow and to lay the groundwork for even greater things. This is the underlying theme of Riley’s book: how can religion create and sustain community when young people are increasingly abandoning these institutions as hopelessly boring, irrelevant and out-of-touch?

Unfortunately, Riley treads softly when it comes to divisive issues impacting the American religious landscape: marriage equality, abortion, women’s rights and homosexuality… [Read more…] about Got Religion?

Three questions about the Bible Jesus might ask

by Chuck Queen in Christian Spirituality

Last December, in a piece for the Washington Post, E. J. Dionne beautifully wrote of our imperfect quest for the truth. Christians need to humbly acknowledge, wrote Dionne, how “imperfectly human beings understand the divine” and how, “over the history of faith, there have been occasions when ‘a supposedly changeless truth has changed.’”

Truth exists, but our experience of it is limited and fallible. Christians would do well to humbly acknowledge that our sacred texts are also limited and fallible. Jesus did.

According to the Gospels, Jesus had no problem dismissing, rejecting, and reinterpreting the sacred texts within his Jewish tradition. Surely, part of reading the Bible through the lens of the story of Jesus involves consideration of how Jesus read his own Scriptures.

For example, some religious authorities in Jesus’ day abusively used Deut. 24:1 (If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house . . .) to justify divorcing a wife for any reason whatsoever, very much the same way religious authorities today abusively use Scripture to condemn the LGBT community, condone violence, and subjugate women in the home and in the church.

Jesus dismissed Deut. 24:1 by offering a critical reading of it. Jesus said that this law did not, as the Scripture claimed, come from God, but from Moses himself, who made the concession due… [Read more…] about Three questions about the Bible Jesus might ask

The Cross and Gendercide

by in Book Reviews

In the United States one out of every four women has experienced domestic violence and one out of six has experience attempted or completed rape.

Throughout the world, millions of girls have undergone the brutal practice of female genital mutilation. Millions of women have been forced to undergo sex-selective abortions. Millions more have experienced the horror of sex trafficking.

More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the battles of the twentieth century.

These statistics are the very definition of gendercide: the intentional effort to harm and injure millions of women and girls based on their gender. Elizabeth Gerhardt’s new book The Cross and Gendercide: A Theological Response to Global Violence Against Women and Girls offers a Christian response to the heart-wrenching plight of women across the globe by engaging with the cultural, religious, historical and political context of this violence and offering a proposal for how the church can work toward ending these heinous crimes.

Gerhardt readily acknowledges that Christianity has failed to meaningfully engage the problem of gendercide. Within the church violence against women is all too often treated as an ethical issue that receives only token acknowledgment. And though there is clearly value in pragmatic and direct responses to violence against women, given the pervasive and systemic nature of these crimes… [Read more…] about The Cross and Gendercide

"God Loves Uganda" highlights anti-gay Christian imperialism

by in Movie Reviews

God Loves Uganda, the 2013 documentary by Roger Ross Williams releasing today on DVD and airing tonight on PBS’s Independent Lens, sheds a much needed light on the ongoing struggle for the heart and soul of Uganda. Framed by the infamous Anti-Homosexuality Act of Uganda, the documentary provides a sobering exploration of the American evangelical mission to impose right-wing Christian values on Africa.

The film offers a ground-level view of the struggle taking place in Uganda through looking at Kansas City’s International House of Prayer (IHOP) and its “God-given call” to bring the Gospel message to the people of Uganda. The Christians of IHOP are on fire for God, eager to spread the Good News of Jesus and to train Africans to continue spreading that news far and wide.

The passion and excitement of IHOP’s workers is palpably sincere. But, as this film deftly demonstrates, the shortsightedness of their work, and the practical outworking of their faith, is cause for great alarm. Their well-meaning naïveté gives implicit support to the vicious hatred of people like Pastor Robert Kayanja, Pastor Martin Ssempa, and Pastor Scott Lively, “Christian” leaders who share a near-frothing obsession with eradicating homosexuality. These men see homosexuality as an abomination that must be eradicated, and Uganda—nearly half the population of which is under the age of 15—as fertile ground to plant and grow that message. So they have spared no measure of zeal teaching Ugandans… [Read more…] about "God Loves Uganda" highlights anti-gay Christian imperialism

The (surprisingly!) profound theology of "Heaven Is For Real"

by in Movie Reviews

“Heaven Is for Real” certainly isn’t worth going out of your way to see – it’s a solidly mediocre and benignly forgettable film. But questions about heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived are always worth pondering, and in that regard “Heaven Is for Real” offers a few theological diamonds in its dross.

“Heaven and hell have always been concepts that have been used to control and frighten people.”

So says church board member Nancy Rawling (Margo Martindale) when she’s confronted by the possibility that heaven may be more than a fairy-tale. Pastor Todd Burpo (Greg Kinnear—and yes, it’s “Burpo”) is dismissive of such concerns. But isn’t Nancy correct? Haven’t the promise of reward and the fear of punishment been used as a means of manipulation and control throughout the history of religion? Shouldn’t we, at least, take such concerns seriously?

Later, Nancy queries Todd about the fate of her deceased son:

Nancy: Do you think my son went to heaven?
Todd: Do you love your son, still?
Nancy: Of course.
Todd: Do you think I love mine?
Nancy: I know you do.
Todd: Do you think I love my son more than you love yours?
Nancy: No.
Todd: Do you think God loves my son more than he loves yours?

Beautiful! And it strikes to the very issue: Who goes to heaven? Does love win?

Finally, in his closing sermon, Todd Burpo frames heaven in terms of our world:

“Haven’t we already seen… [Read more…] about The (surprisingly!) profound theology of "Heaven Is For Real"

The Earliest Picture of Jesus on the Cross

by in Christian History

As we remember the Crucifixion today, it’s important to also remember the extraordinary tradition of our Christian faith, and the centrality of Christ’s death and resurrection to Christians throughout history.

We can glimpse a bit of the historical importance of the crucifixion through early Christian depictions of that event. The absolute earliest visual depictions of Jesus’s crucifixion exist in the form of a symbol called the staurogram.

This is a staurogram:

The symbol was used by early New Testament scribes when writing about Christ’s death: within the text itself, they substituted the staurogram in place of the words “cross” and “crucifixion.”

The monogram comprises two letters from the Greek word stauros, meaning “cross.” In Greek that word looks like this:

You take from that word the letter T (that is, the tau), and the letter P (the rho), combine them, and you have the staurogram—which is also a pictogram of a person on a cross. Brilliant, no?

Though the tau-rho symbol was used as an abbreviation prior to Christianity, Christian scribes appropriated it for their own needs and imbued it with theological significance, using it in late 2nd- and early 3rd-century New Testament manuscripts such as P45, P66, and P75.

You can see the staurogram in this image of John 19:15-20, from the manuscript P66. I’ve highlighted the three spots on this page of the manuscript—much of which, as you can see, is missing—where it… [Read more…] about The Earliest Picture of Jesus on the Cross

World Vision and Children: Love Loses

by in LGBT

Rachel Held Evans offered an eloquent summary of the World Vision debacle and the crumbling façade of evangelicalism in her March 31st piece “How Evangelicals Won A Culture War and Lost a Generation.”

Kanon Simmons’s response to Evans, “Evangelicals and Homosexuality: A Response to Rachel Held Evans,” provides a typical example of the conservative’s understanding of what’s at stake regarding this issue.

Simmons asks, “What does it matter if we feed the poor, but we so mar the gospel of Christ that the poor are lost for eternity?” She closes her post with this deeply troubling challenge:
Is this fight worth it? Absolutely, because it ensures that those thousands of needy children, who are in need of salvation and nourishment, will have access to the only information that can save their souls.
Simmons believes that by tacitly endorsing homosexual marriage, World Vision would have done irrevocable harm to the gospel message that Christians are tasked with spreading. She feels that by over-emphasizing love, much of the Church has abandoned the crucial fact that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

But must a starving child be told that homosexuality is a sin while they’re being given food?

Must the one giving that food publicly profess a specific understanding of the nature of sin in order to receive our support?

The Bible never places such strictures on helping those in need; it consistently speaks out against imposing theological caveats on expressing… [Read more…] about World Vision and Children: Love Loses