Monday, September 13, 2010

On Burning Qur'ans

This is an alternative column for this week - I did not get time to write it and get it published before my due date... so... for your consideration....


The news this week had a disturbing story for those of us who call ourselves Christian.

It seems there is a pastor in Florida who has convinced his church that it is a good idea to hold a book burning on September 11th of this year. There is one book in particular which has been targeted: the Quran, the holy Bible of the Islamic Faith, passed down word for word to the prophet Mohammed in a vision.

The guy’s name is Terry Jones; and he and his church were unknown until this pronouncement. Now there are 11,600 news stories about him according to the Google news search. Oh, 11601 because I just gave him another one.

What would I have to do to up my Google count from 1400 to 14,000? Maybe convince my followers to drink Kool-Aid laced with arsenic? Perhaps I should lead everyone down to the rain forest and start sending out mysteriously ominous twitter messages? Or how about stockpile automatic rifles and get a few more wives?

I bet those things would get me in the news.

You know what won’t get me in the news? This week in church I will use, at the suggestion of another minister on Facebook, the first Surah of the Quran; the opening prayer of the Muslim faith, as the opening prayer for my congregation.

This week I will give a loonie to someone on the street who asks for it.

This week I will listen when someone tells me why they are having a bad day.

This week I will quietly sit in my office and pray for Terry Jones.

It is not simply that it is a publicity stunt; it is that it works. We eat this stuff up; and what we forget is that “news,” by definition, is anything out of the ordinary. It only makes headlines if it almost never happens. A plane crashes, a politician has an affair, an innocent bystander is murdered, quintuplets are born, and Santa Claus goes on strike... this is news, simply because it almost never happens, or happens so infrequently that it surprises us.

Our minds play tricks on us. We read news and categorize it as universal. A rogue wave hits a cruise ship and we will never, ever, go on a cruise. A plane is flown into the World Trade Centre and all Muslims are terrorists. A crazy nobody in a small town church says God told him to burn the Quran and all Christians are hate mongering lunatics.

It makes me want to resign. It makes me think I could do a heck of a lot more good separating myself from a fold that is broad enough to include Mr. Jones. But then.... But then... he wins.

As the German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine wrote almost two centuries ago, "Those who begin by burning books will end by burning people.” The theatre piece for which he wrote those words, called "Almansor," was addressing the Inquisition's burning of the Quran. In 1933, university students in Heine's own beloved homeland burned his books, along with many others. They burned people soon after.

But then, we are talking about a couple of crazy national socialists who formed a political party during a time when Germany was reeling from defeat in a World War. They played up nationalism, and hid a lot of what they were truly doing.

75 years later we still talk about “The Germans” as if any but a chosen few actually knew what the work camps were all about.

This is always my fear. This is why I want to scream when I hear about some crazy Christian proclamation which is racism wrapped up in religious language.... we are not like that. The spiritual wisdom we all received by our connection to the divine, whether we wrote it down in the Quran, I Ching, Baghavad Ghita, or Bible all says the same thing – Love will save the day.

Anyone who says anything different is lying. So say we all.

Are 'hipster Christians' really that different?

FAITH TODAY Published Saturday September 11th, 2010

Have you ever heard of Hipster Christians?

Me neither. That is, until this week when I all of a sudden realized it is everywhere down in the United States, thanks to some American preachers I follow on Twitter.

According to the press, admittedly, some of their own press, Hipster Christianity is where church and cool collide. Catchy phrase, that.

The problem is, I have no idea what they are on about.

Here are some qualifications for being a "Hipster:" You might have an artistic temperament, or play in a garage band; you might have piercings or a tattoo; you like movies, books and music that is well respected and well, normal; you don't listen to Christian Contemporary music; don't like political evangelists, or televangelists; and don't think people are going to hell.

I have to tell you that I have never been called hip in my life. I sometimes thought I was cool, but certainly not in a hip way. I think you would like me though. I am also very much a mainstream protestant minister - and have been one for 16 years now.

My favourite band is Third Eye Blind. My favourite movies are the same as most of yours - although I am a guy reared on Monty Python, so I have some stupid humour problems. Love Steve Carell, for example.

I read graphic novels; my favourites are Planetary and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I play a level 80 Paladin in World of Warcraft online.

My ear was pierced three times until I was 30. I have a tattoo and want another one. I dream of owning a Harley.

I have mostly dressed as Dracula for Halloween and have read and seen every vampire movie there is.

Oh, and I write science fiction for a hobby.

I also visit in hospitals, council people with problems, volunteer my time for organizations involved in change, sit with the dying, mourn with the widows, give to the church and World Vision and the World Wildlife Fund.

I hope you see the point.

Almost every one of the people I know is a Christian. We all drink. We all play Xbox. We all can't wait for Harry Potter to come out. Half of us love comic books and the other half think we are stupid for loving comic books.

To me, "Hipster Christian" is a definition of normal person.

In what far-fetched corner of the galaxy is someone who likes movies, songs and stories that are critically and artistically judged among the best of the best some strange sort of new evolution of humanity?

The labelling has to stop.

I don't even understand why we have Protestants and Catholics anymore. The things we fought about back at the end of the Middle Ages certainly don't matter anymore, let alone the 10 million denominations - and now we are subdividing denominations according to fads?

People do not come to church because they think the people in church are not like them, plain and simple.

Jesus spent his life trying to be "just some guy who understands what you are going through" and he changed the world for the better because of it.

The truth is those inside the church are exactly like those on the outside.

They make mistakes, they make stupid choices, they spend too much time watching TV and eat junk food too much of the time. By creating a whole movement that says "hey, there are Christians who are relevant, who are hip..." you are implicitly stating that the bulk of Christianity is irrelevant and anachronistic.

Which is a lie.

Jesus was a social engineer who lost his life because of his politics. He was not trying to get people into Heaven. He was not trying to leave the world behind. He was trying to introduce religious values into everyday life.

Pray - because it connects you to something greater than yourself. Be humble - you are not the creator of your destiny, the universe is. Love - everyone is connected and we all need each other. Respect - there but for the grace of God.

You get the idea. Stop imagining me as something I am not. Those who are religious, they are pro-human, pro-love, and possibly the community you are looking for, hip or not.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Evolution

Religion Today - Published July 24th 2010

Anyone who picked up this month’s National Geographic would have found a fascinating read on human evolution; and the somewhat shocking discovery of human remains from over 4 million years ago.

Of course, there are those that also argue the world is only 6000 years old; plus change.

Apparently it is some sort of test of faith to believe that the definition of “truth” is severely limited to being written down in history.

I had a High School history teacher who once told us that history is recorded by the victors. By which he was trying to say that the people who sit down and write the history books only tell one side of the story, theirs...

The Bible does in fact contain “a history.” That history has to be understood in two ways, however; first, it is a history told for a reason, it is the history of our religious development as Christians... so a lot is left out. Secondly, it is a history written by the people who saw everything from one side, theirs. One would get a very different history of the Middle East by reading anything written by Canaanites, or Egyptians, or Romans.

I mention this because that whole 6000 year thing comes from the fact that the Bible records, give or take, some 6000 years of the desert trials and tribulations of a particular band of nomads who trace their roots back to the probably real Abraham and Sarah and the mythical archetypes of Adam and Eve.

The only thing that is actually six thousand years old is our ability to write.

And since most of us do not have very long memories, no one wrote about Ardi, the slightly shorter than four foot female of the “Ardipithecus Ramidus” branch of humanity. She wasn’t that far away from Israel, after all, being born and living out her short life in northern Ethiopia.

Evolutionary history can now be traced back conclusively through three periods of human development over 6 million years. For the last two million we have been Homo Erectus, pretty much what we are now, large brain, tool using mammals with opposable thumbs. For the two million before that we were Australopithecus with longer legs, larger chewing teeth, and a bit more facial hair. And then, for as far back as we have discovered before that, we were Ardipithicus and hung out in trees as well as walked, lived in the woods, and ate plants and animals.

As near as they can tell, it was 8 million years ago that humans and chimps diverged.

By the way, it was as far back as 160,000 years ago that we became religious, thought about death, and earned the title Homo Sapiens... the thinking person. They know this because they have found a child’s grave in which the body was prepared for death rather than just disposed of.

So, a whole group of people out there will tell me that I am just believing stuff that was made up by scientists with some bizarre plan to discredit religion. But seriously, why would they do that? What is there to gain in saying that we have been here a long time? What is there to lose in saying we have been religious and believing in God for some 154,000 years longer than the Bible talks about?

The Bible is not a science textbook; and science and religion are not at odds. In fact, religious scholars were the only scientists for most of the history of our planet; and most scientists today are religious.

Those that say they are atheists are probably just so fed up with people who read the Bible wrong and try to enforce their views through violence... unlike the person they are supposed to be following Jesus, who believed in everything the Jews, Greeks and Roman’s knew; and just realized there was more we did not know.

Religion will die out or become irrelevant if it continues to fight against the truths that God has opened up through scientists. It is time to start seeing the world for what it really is, and living faithfully in it.

Summer Sabbath

Faith Today - published 19th June 2010

The natural rhythm of life is an interesting thing.

Summer is virtually upon us and it has brought with it a certain different pace of life; or at least a different set of activities.

I often wonder if those who live in the Polynesian Islands see life as being more constant than we do. I suspect they do, as they do not have to deal with the vagaries of summer following Spring following Winter. Or at least, I suspect they follow a completely different set of rhythms.

Of course, we are Nordic people with a limited growing season and an even more limited outdoor pool season. So we know life has rhythms, we see them every day as we watch flowers spring up, wither, and return to the ground.

For some reason we fail to see this as part of our spirituality – we fail to see that this is the way the world is intended to be.

Those rhythms are also present in the human body and the human condition.

My legs ache almost half of the time now that I am over forty. My ability to compete in reflex based video games also seems to be waning. Of course, I am gaining some wisdom and stability and perseverance to overcome these bodily defects; I suppose I should see it as a trade off, r at least accept it as part of the natural rhythm of life.

Passion wanes and re-ignites over time as well. It is a constant ebb and flow of rhythm that changes daily whether you are talking about passion for your loved one, your chosen career, or a particular ice cream.

This too is related to our faith.

This is something I think we have lost when we became mostly urban, mostly consumed with career, mostly over-rushed people. Any rhythm in our life that could be called natural has been pushed to the background by the artificial rhythm of 24 hour availability, 60 hour work weeks, 10 minute family times, artificial lighting, and time shifting PVR cable... any number of things that make it so that we control the rhythm and no longer follow the rhythm of nature and the world.

In my last column I compared God to the Force from Star Wars. In essence what I am talking about is the original Christian doctrine of Logos the Greek word for the creative power or spirit of the Universe. You see the universe functions according to rhythms and progressions that have to do with life and death, high energy and low energy, movement and entropy.

One ancient writer famously coined it thus: “for everything there is a season, and a time for everything...”

In a little over two weeks my church will close down, people will be off at the cottage, or visiting relations, or hanging on the beach. Hopefully some of them will visit our sister churches if it is rainy on a Sunday morning. Hopefully some will head to Synagogue or Mosque; a contemporary service at Allison or something at the Wesleyan church.

Perhaps not though as summer is a time when t he rhythms slow down and allow us to be focused on rest, relaxation, family, and sunshine.

And I guess the point of all this is that I think that summer and doing less is exactly what we were created for; and exactly how we get in touch with our true selves and commune with God.

In old fashioned religious terms we are talking about the Sabbath.

I don’t believe the Sabbath is Sunday. I don’t believe it is Saturday or sun-down Friday to sun-down Saturday either for that matter. I believe Sabbath is any time we accept and live the natural rhythm of life and become one with God.

Sabbath can be the ten minute coffee break where we find ourselves staring at beautiful fluffy clouds, or the week off fishing in the woods.

I encourage you over the next few months to build Sabbath, and the appreciation of life itself, and therefore God into your rhythms. There is no better time than summer to reignite your passion for the life you are supposed to live.