I probably have mentioned this before, but I am a Christian. And, as we are all aware, there are at least two types of Christians. There are, as Marcus Borg likes to say in his books, those of the earlier paradigm and those of the emerging paradigm. In our congregation, we have both types represented and we love one another and do not worry about the differences in our theology.
Many people have left the Christian church because of they are not able to reconcile some of the typical Christian beliefs with the later findings of science, theology, and history. Others stay with the church yet are struggling with the beliefs they learned in their childhood that they feel they must be able to accept to remain Christian. Many of those under forty, have never had much experience with Christianity and cannot find anything that draws them to it yet are looking for something to give life meaning and values.
However, I have found in my own serious spiritual search that there are no serious intellectual obstacles to being Christian There is a way of looking at Christianity that makes persuasive and compelling sense of life in the broadest sense. This point of view took several years for me to develop. For about ten years, Christianity did not make much sense to me at all. Certainly, the form of Christianity from my youth ceased to make much sense to me anymore .
The earlier paradigm is definitely the dominant Christianity in America today. It includes those who view the Bible as the unique revelation of God and emphasizes it's literal meaning. This same group sees living the Christian life now as a means of salvation later. It also generally views Christianity as the only true religion.
Yet there are literally millions of folks out there who are looking for a religion that makes intellectual sense to them. This movement has been developing over the past hundred years or so. It is a product of Christianity's encounter with the modern and postmodern world. This encounter includes science, religious pluralism, cultural diversity and historical scholarship. On a less positive note, the movement is also aware of how Christianity has contributed to harmful ideologies such as racism, sexism, exclusivism, and nationalism.
In order to embrace Christianity in the modern world, many of us have had to examine what my church calls "core values" but what Marcus Borg calls the "heart of Christianity"...the really important things that tug at our hearts. So what is most central to Christianity and the Christian walk?
Out of my own personal search of recorded scripture, I have discovered one thing that really matters to me. It appears, at least from the material we have that has endured, that the message of Jesus was not the message of personal salvation. It was a message of transforming society. Jesus taught "the kingdom of God on earth" in a day when kingdoms were the dominant form of government. In literally dozens of places in the New Testament, Jesus is quoted as saying the "gospel" is his teaching about building the kingdom...what we, in today's world, would call building community....changing the society in which we live.
To me, that is the larger message of Jesus and it is that message I emphasize when I preach. I am involved in the communities our congregation serves. I believe that is necessary to help build communities into places Jesus would be comfortable and proud to call his disciples.
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I think Christianity involves a helping hand and a love for your fellow man, being a good person, and having a good heart. Margie has your son tried E-Harmony? It is different from other match making places. It costs a little more but they match you by personality. That is where I met my Bob and we are so suited to each other I could not have picked anyone better for me.
He has started one on E-Harmony but has not yet paid for it. I think your remarks have made him think more seriously about doing it now, Judy. Thanks for the suggestion.
I agree with your assessment, Judy. Those are the things that help build community...and peace.
It's an easy problem to fix, though. The biggest problem with Christianity, in my opinion, is that somewhere in the past, whoever it was made belief in the Nicene creed as the requirement to be considered a Christian. Thus, it set a tradition in which beliefs mattered more than actions. That led to hypocrisy, which is basically a sign that a person doesn't really believe what he or she claims to believe (because when action and words don't match, it's the action that counts, not the belief or words).
To give an example, a friend of mine said that he thought co-habitation outside of marriage is wrong. Yet, when he met a girl he fell in love with, he moved in with her before they got engaged and eventually married. I tried to point out the hypocrisy but he refused to talk about it. My complaint was, how can you tell other people that co-habitation is wrong when you are doing it? And if you believe it is wrong, why are you doing it? For me, I don't believe co-habitation is wrong but I personally probably would not do it myself. I want to enjoy living alone until the last possible moment, which would be wedding night.
Anyhow, that's where I believe Christianity went wrong...when it made belief more important than actions. We need to get back to the central message of Jesus, which is that your actions reveal your true beliefs and we are judged on that criteria. It has nothing to do with "good works" as a way to "fool" God, as some think.
I think they got the message wrong from the very beginning. Nothing was written for scripture for 30 - 50 years after Jesus' death and in trying their best to explain why Jesus died, they chose to follow the way the Roman's and Greeks believed and attribute saving powers to Jesus and to those privative people that explained why he died instead of God saving him at the last minute.
I too believe that the Christian community is so powerful and important. I noticed that you and Judy were talking about E-Harmony. How old is your son? I take it, there aren't a lot of girls around for him to meet.It's sometimes a God-send, that brings people together. I do have family in Kansas, (I think we talked about that before), and you just never know, who might know someone etc..etc..etc.. A friend of mine has done and is doing "plenty of fish" dating service. It's free and I don't know what statistically the success rate is, but I hear it is suppose to be pretty good and similar to E-Harmony, but you dont take the detailed evaluation test etc..., just nice people who seem to be very nice! I'll look up the site and send it to you. Also, thanks for commenting on my camera critters! I'll look up the site and write you back in a few minutes!
Kelly
Ok, here it is.
http://www.plentyoffish.com/
He might give it a try, or else give me some info about him, I have some wonderful single friends, don't know what his age, likes, dislikes etc...are, but, like I said, you never know, God works in mysterious ways as I know you are well aware of!
Kelly
Kelly, Scott is 47 and weighs 163 pounds. He is in great shape. He is stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri. He has tried My Space and one other, whose name I can't remember right now.
I will send him your link Thank you so much.
I wish we could find a church like yours, Margie. We've had a difficult time finding a church where we felt accepted for who we are (I guess we're kind of unusual). And I believe that your church family is the one place where you should feel accepted. So we've been without a church home for twenty-five years, but have still maintained an active spiritual life with our children. And, thank God, they have both found wonderful church homes in college, where they are very active.
Where are you located? We have churches all over America and in 53 foreign countries. We have people who drive 60 miles to attend our congregation.
I should tell you though that we are not a large church and when our congregations get to 150, we like to divide them into two. That helps us to keep everyone active. The entire church worldwide is 250,000 people.
Every congregation has it's own personality. This one of ours is simply great.
I think I've read almost all of Borg's book. It was his book "The God We Never Knew" that gave me some glimmer of hope that I could somehow find a connection progressive Christianity and perhaps even a progressive Christian community. It hasn't really worked out that way, but I still appreciate what Borg has to say.
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