A Person of Faith and Science - part 2

I said in my last piece that there are TWO stories in Genesis 1 & 2.  There are, and if you outline them, it becomes very clear.  
In the center is the creation of humans.  That's the main point in the inverted parallel style of most eastern Mediterranean literature, including verbal literature.  See Kenneth Bailey, "Poet and Peasant".

However, these two very different stories have been edited and combined into ONE story.  That story emphasizes that all of us, including the human genus, are creatures, not gods.  Cannot be gods.  Will never be gods.  Not to be worshiped.  etc. 

Careful scholars, who are derieded by the right wing of the Christian church, demonstrate this in their commentaries, monographs, books, etc.  This is not news.  The scholarly work dates back into the 1800's.  However, the understanding of the literary styles of the eastern Mediterranean peoples is newer -- since the 1960s' and 1970's. 

When people demand of me, "Do you take the Bible literally?" I usually answer, "Yes, if by 'literally' you mean as literature, following the conventions, rules of grammar, etc. of all literature.  And I study it as literature, read it as literature, and work at continuing to understand it as translated literature, translated by people who never lived in that ancient culture and are still figuring out what the norms, conventions and so forth were. 

As Kenneth Bailey said in a worshop, "Culture is what everybody knows and nobody knows.  It's just there.  Only an outsider can see it and identify it as culture.  Insiders simply know that that's how things are."


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A Person of Faith and a Person of Science

If you do the following, have a pencil and paper and OUTLINE the story in writing.

1.    Read Genesis 1:1 - 2:4a (the end of the story).

2.    Read Genesis 2:4b - end of chapter 2.

• If you are carefully outlining what do you notice?
  
• Which story is the most accurate?
  
• Which story "grabs" you the most?
  

======= Keep going =====>
Now, imagine this character, but much larger:    
>
Imagine the upper left represents the first segment (first day of creation)

Imagine that the lower left represents the last segment of the Genesis 2 story.
Imagine that the pointy part, pointing RIGHT, is roughly 2:4a and 2:4b.

In the Mediterranean way of organizing thought, that POINTY area is the Main Point.

E.g., the point of the collation of the two legends, stories, etc. is that HUMANS were created by God.

            Al, you ask, why is that important?

Ah!  I say.  Because way too many HUMANS were worshiped as gods.  Pharoah comes to mind. 
Ah!  I say.  Becasuse BAAL worship in Canaan was about worshiping a BULL   But the Bull was created and Humans were to have dominion, not the superstitious way the Canaanites had it worked out. 

These two stories (yes, there are TWO, not One, stories) are not about how the world was created, but that we are ALL, humans, animals, plants, sky, stars, sun -- created.  Not meant to be worshiped.  Creatures, not the creator. 

Once you see that, you have a whole different take on what the Bible is up to, and don't need to abandon science at all.
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Which Perversion of the Faith?

•  Which perversion of the faith you hold works best in the world?
• Which perversion of the faith you belong to do you embrace?
• Which perversion of the faith you claim does the most damage to others?
• Which perversion of the faith you announce hates thinking the most?
• Which perversion of the faith your were born into is the most facist?
• Which perversion of the faith you live by guards personal freedoms best?

All these questions, and many others, make one assumption:  all the faiths, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or (you name it) are perverted by the time we work out what we believe and embrace and act upon. 

What do you think?  What do you think?  Click on the little comment link to the right of “Posted by Al Lustie at ____ AM or PM” and leave a comment.  The link is just to the left of the

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Celebrate Survival or Celebrate Life?

The other day I heard a pastor talking about “celebrating life” as he referred to someone who had come through a difficult illness and was alive.  I believe he meant, in context, that he was celebrating survival.  No mention was made about how the person lived, or plans to live.

Think about it.

Did : the person plan to think?

·      Was the person planning to relate more and better with other people who touch his/her life?

·      Has the person committed to being a better employee or better boss?

·      Will the person spend more time appreciating life, sunsets, music, or art?

·      Has the person one more invention to sketch out and bring to reality?

In my estimation the celebration of life includes the above and more than I can mention here.  Survival – not so much.

What do you think?  Click on the little comment link to the right of “Posted by Al Lustie at ____ AM or PM” and leave a comment.  The link is just to the left of the

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Faith and Observation

Faith takes into account that which cannot be seen -- the unseen.

I think most of us can agree to that.  Thomas Edison seems to have had faith that he could invent a light bulb.  He had never seen one, but he could imagine it.  He could use what he did know to believe that he could invent what he could not yet see.

The life of faith is both irreverent and silly if it only deals with what cannot be seen.  Using the gift of observation given to each human person, and to clusters of human beings, we can build beyond what can be seen.  At no point does the Jesus spoken about in the New Testament assert that the gifts of God, including the gifts of observation, are bad, unnecessary or to be ignored. 

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Learning Inlusion Skills

Many, many faith organizations want to grow, often in order to be able to serve more effectively.  That is commendable. 
  We are part of, or attend, Christian faith organizations.  Most are not growing as they lose as many out the "back door" as they take in through the formal "become a member" rituals.  Having visited many in the past few years I have this observation to make:  very few members of these organization employ any inclusion skills!  When they do, it is almost always by accident.
  Including people takes energy, thought and two-way conversations.  Giving them a name tag helps, but only if you seek them out week after week, learn their name, learn to recognize them by sight, and introduce them to others in the "in crowd" who also learn who they are.
  Side Note:  I attended a church way back when that had a gifted greeter on the front steps.  He greeted every person coming in and learned their names.  He could greet them by name a week later.  Strangers, service men, students -- every newcomer got two things that first Sunday in addition to someone knowing their names. 
  They were invited to lunch with someone.  They were invited to tour San Francisco if they were new, or sort of new, to that city. 

  Now, that is employing inclusion skills, and literally hundreds of members were involved.  And, yes, that organization was making a difference, and it was growing. 

Crazy For The End - 4

Look with me at the uncritical thinking that accompanies contemporary American craziness about end times.  Think about our attitudes and actions concerning the nation of Israel.

• Because of much current teaching about the centrality of Israel as a nation in fundamentalist beliefs about the End Times,
• Christian politicians often excuse Israel of crimes against neighbors and citizens which we would never excuse in anyone else
• Strangely, there is also the belief among meny that Israel has to be nearly destroyed in a “battle of Amerageddon”
• Sadly, our support of Israel is usually based on the nation being around to be attacked
• We withhold appropriate help and support from Muslims who have been cheated out of their homes and businesses without recompense
• We lump al Muslims together because, of course, they hate Israel.
• (Muslims do the same thing -- lump all Jewish people together as objects of hate)

This is a short, simplistic list.  As we think, however, we realize that we are dealing with people holding beliefs that seem complex, but are really quite simple.  Simple minded.  Simple craziness.

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Crazy For The End - 3

For Christians, the lust for End Times is a lust sponsored by an anti-Christ, for sure.  Jesus taught  firmly against this lust.  Matthew 24 records his teaching and he began by saying (NIV translation) ‘Watch out that no one deceives you.  

And later in his discourse had talks about hearing “Look, here is the Christ!’ and instructs “do not believe it!”  

He gives a list of signs, all of which have happened over and over and over again throughout history:

• Nation will rise against nation
• Kingdom agains kingdom
• Famines
• earthquakes
• Persecution and death of his followers
• many will turn away from the faith
• many will betray and hate each other
• many false prophets will appear
• the love of most will grow cold.

If you don’t know your history, you can be seduced by this list.  If you do know history, you will know that this has happened in every century from the time these words were recorded until 2011.  These things are still happening.  And among the people most fascinated by end times love grows cold.  

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Crazy For The End

Some people are psychologically ready to be captivated by thought of eschatology -- the End Times.  They devour ‘clues’, systhensize them with other ‘clues’ and build complex structures they believe will tell them answers to questions like these:

• When will the End come?
• What will be the signs preceding the End?
• Who will be spared at the End?
• Who will be destroyed at the End?
• What must a person do to be ready for the End?
• What must I do, or how must I change, to be ready for the End?
• What must people of faith DO to be ready for the End?

That is a representative sample, but not all-inclusive, of course.  

If you are a Christian you may not realize that the questions are the same for Muslims as they are for Christians.  The unhealthy passions they evoke are the same for both.  Even some members of Judaism are entranced by visions of the End, and the End Times.  (I capitalize because I sense that such folks capitalize the concepts in their minds.  

Among Christians . . . well, let’s save it for the next set of reflections.  Suffice it to say, I believe this passion leads to evil in nearly every person consumed by it.  

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Faith and Thinking

“It makes sense when you put it that way, but I don’t like it!”

I hear that from folks in church more often than I like.  I wonder what it means.

• “God will not let anything be true that I don’t like.”
• “I don’t have to think about things I don’t like.”
• “Your truth is not true for me.”
• “I only believe things I have already decided that are true and new information is not relevant.”

Sometimes I wonder if there is an invisible box just outside the doors to churches where people put their brains before entering the church.  Most would not run their businesses by excluding inconvenient truth.  They just want to “have faith” without brains.  

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Gays, Lesbians, Christians and Others - 3

What about the purity of the church?  of the faith?
That’s so easy, you probably already have it figured out.  
If we exclude the people who fall short, there is no one left.  Purity = Empty.  
But, you say, even if we aren’t perfect, we need to represent the holiness and purity of God to the world.  We can’t have someone up front who cheats on her husband, or someone in a position of leadership whose views are “liberal” or “conservative”.  
Or homosexual.  Or heterosexual.  (The roman catholic institution has been very effective in making asexual the preferred state for the true Christian.)
In other words,

• excluding certain people is not representing the purity of the church
• including only people like “us” does not demonstrate the purity of the church
• being uptight about sexuality does not bear witness to the purity of the church

We only delude ourselves and make a mockery of everything Jesus lived and died for.
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Gays, Lesbians, Christians and Others - 2

To summarize my thinking:

• We all fall short of God’s intention for humans
• Even right-wing politicians, evangelists, ranters and ravers fall short
• (We must agree that they are humans, too, although they don’t act much like it)
• The Christian “Good News” is that Jesus came to give his life for those who fall short
• No boundaries -- “For God loved the world so much...” (John 3:16
• Therefore people with differing sexual preferences are included in God’s love.

Although “inclusion” is not an English word used in the stories of Jesus, the concept of inclusion underlines Jesus’ behavior in the face of religious opposition.  In his day it was “tax collectors and sinners” who were excluded by the mainstream, and who were included by Jesus.  

In my view, inclusion is what people of Christian faith must be all about.  

Exclusion is what we must not be about.  God will handle that if God needs to.  In fact, churches and other Christian oriented groups would do better to hold classes on “Ways to Include Others” than to hold classes on the Trinity, the Deity of Jesus, or I and II Chronicles.  Most Christian folks I know aren’t very good at including others, even others they believe conform to their doctrinaire positions.  

By extension, then, gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals and heterosexuals along with Middle Eastern people must all be included.  

If you worry about the “purity” of the church, read my next blog.  It turns out to be easy.  

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Gays, Lesbians, Christians and Others

Here's my take on the gay/lesbian issue (as though you asked for it, which you didn't):

First, it is LESS than what God intended for humanity
      Point A:  so is predatory heterosexual behavior
      Point B:  so is gossip, backbiting, lying, cheating, treating other humans with less than respect
      Point C:   so is the behavior of pastors/priests/imams and other religious leaders who bully, etc.
      Point D:  so is bullying in marriage, cheating in marriage, doing the minimum in marriage, etc.

LESS than what is intended by God also includes:
      being born with a birth defect
      being less whole physically, mentally, emotionally, work-ethic wise, etc.
      being born to abusive or absent parents
      being born into nasty neighborhoods
      doing your best to take people's freedom from them


OK -- who have I left out.  You might be able to add to the list.


Assuming God INTENDS wonderful, well-adjusted humans, most of us fall short.  Some more short than others, but SHORT.


The anti-gay folks assume that their shortfall can be redeemed by God even when they have to live with their shortfall every day of their lives, but that people whose sexual orientation is homo rather than hetero MUST NOT and CAN NOT live with it, and God cannot love them.


Hmmm!  VERY faulty spiritual logic. 


I'm nearsighted.  I seem to have been born with a defect (or 2 or 10,000).  Perhaps I cannot be redeemed and welcomed by God.  Is that my fault or God's fault?


Some will use the story of Sodom and Gomorrah to excoriate homosexual behavior.  But they don't get the story. 

    First, the host of the "angels" offered his virgin daughters to be raped by the mob.  That's OK???
    Second, the mob was guilty of many things the the BIG thing was failing to show hospitality to strangers and failing to HONOR the person who did show hospitality.  It has nothing to do with their weird sexual preferences.    Hospitality is a BIG, BIG thing in the Middle East, and was especially so at that time in history. 


So, whether or not anyone cares about my take on this, I have come (years ago) to
    a)  not identify myself as homosexual
    b)  not believe I have any right to exclude people based on sexual preferences
    c)   not believe that child abuse of any sort is right
    d)  not believe that predatory behavior of any sort, hetero or homo, physical or mental or emotional, is right.  It fails the agape' test 100%.

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How Small is god?

Most of us have known some large people.  Large hearted, accepting, giving spaciously and thoughtfully, helpful.  Large, not physically, but in the ways that matter. 

So I’m asking, “How small is god – to you?  How small even compared to the large people you know?

·      Is god so small he can only be properly worshiped on a certain day of the week?

·      Is god so small he demands certain phrases, maybe in a specific language?

·      Is god so small he cannot handle human sexuality, the sexuality invented by god?

·      Is god so small he requires followers to abstain from food at certain times?

·      Is god so small only persons of a certain sex can lead people to worship, or represent god in some way?

·      Is god so small that healing is withheld when the “right” phrases in a prayer are not uttered?

·      Is god so small that the architecture or décor of a worship center has to be correct?  Pulpit in the center, or on a certain side?  Candles where they would not be scandalous?

·      Is god so small, puny really, that worshipers must have beards or head covering or not have beards or not wear neckties?

Examine the things you believe that demonstrate to the world that the god you believe in is really, really small. 

More on the So-called Lord’s Prayer

Maybe it’s not a prayer, as such.  Perhaps this thing that millions of people repeat every day, every Sunday, is mostly an affirmation.  Maybe the answers are in the phrases.

“Give us our daily bread.”

Well, what is daily bread?  It is that which nourishes our body.  Keeps us alive.  So far, so good.

“Forgive us. . . as we forgive our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

I suspect that the way to get my daily bread is to become a forgiving person.  The way to be “not led into temptation” is to stop looking for ways to “get even”.  The way to be delivered from evil is to find ways to authentically forgive the person, nation or situation that owes me one. 

Not easy.  Not comfortable.  TV shows, novels, sports,  and popular culture generally praise  the notion of revenge, of getting even, of winning next time. 

Anyone seeking revenge after saying the Lord’s Prayer hasn’t been listening to Jesus or listening to herself.

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Sucks to be Human

Here we are, humans all.  There is God, dealing with humans.  On the one hand, we are told, we can do nothing in our own strength.  On the other hand we are to bring the Kingdom on earth.  We are to emulate Jesus.

Our problems are:

·      Global

·      National

·      Regional

·      Cultural

·      Political

·      Legal

·      Economic

·      Psychogical

At the least.  How can we, forgiving one another, agape’-ing one another, relating to people who don’t value Jesus, be anything that doesn’t suck?

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Were the Events Structured to Help Us Reflect?

Pastor Ann kicked me in the rear and woke me up last Sunday when she said that the Cross event was  “Good-bye” experience, and then again –the Ascension event was another “Good-bye” experience occurrence.  That insight triggered my understanding of the common Mediterranean use of inverted parallel structures. 

Try this:

A.              The Disciples are gathered and learn to follow Jesus

  B.              The Cross – they say GOOD BYE

       C.                    The resurrection       - Hello in a new way  (point of turning)

       C’               Jesus teaches for 40 days – they learn again  (Essential new twist)

  B’.          The Ascension – they say GOOD BYE

A’            The church is gathered and learns how to follow Jesus

What do you think?  Does this help you sense something useful and, perhaps, new?  Sign up and use the comment field to let us know.

Having Faith - 10

Here is what one Bible teacher says about “having faith”:

“In the general sense of the word, to have faith is to believe in something or someone, to fully trust, to be so confident that you base your actions on what you believe. To have faith is to be fully convinced of the truthfulness and reliability of that in which you believe.”

For this person is could be more than mere wishful thinking.  Or, it could be misplaced wishful thinking. 

Could a Jewish person, perhaps steeped in Old Testament wisdom, “have such faith”? 

How about a Muslim person, steeped in the Quran?  Could he or she have faith as described above?

A Hindu person or a Buddhist person might have such faith. 

Thomas Edison seems to have had faith that he could “invent” or “discover” the way to harness electricity in a light emitting device, what we came to know as the incandescent light bulb.  After a thousand or more attempts that failed, he succeeded.  Was it because of having faith?  Something else?

What do you think?  Sign up and let me know. 

Having Faith - 9

“Flyers have faith in Bobrovsky” reads the headline on the web page, http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm.  Here’s another take on “having faith”.  Some people, apparently, have faith in another human bering. 

Many people had faith in Osama bin Laden.  Others had faith in President George W. Bush. Many have faith in the Chicago Bulls.  Few have faith in the Chicago Cubs. 

“Have faith”,  say many.  When is it a pseudo-sophisticated form of wishful thinking?

Even having faith in Jesus can be a form of wishful thinking.  Preachers rant on TV that you can have faith in Jesus to get a new car, a great career, or to close that deal that will put big bucks in your hip pocket (or bank account).  It may be simply wishful thinking. 

What do you think about “having faith”?  Sign up and let me know