stfranman Compassionate Living, Spirituality/Religion

In Their Own Angry Image

If you keep an eye on what’s happening in the Church here in the U.S., you’ve no doubt noticed that huge sections of the Church–including the vast majority of those who call themselves Evangelical Christians–have given enthusiastic support to the current administration and most of its policies.

I see this as being diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus and a very, very troubling thing.

The other major criticism of the way the modern Evangelical movement has clearly gone astray concerns its indifference to the plight of the Earth as she continues to suffer at the hands of rapacious and uncaring humans.

The near-total failure of Evangelicals to take any action to save our planet–or to even mitigate the damage–is a tragedy of the highest order and is one more reason why so many Evangelical Christians are running for the exits.

Trying to do something about these two tragic trends lies at the very heart of what the FSF is all about.

In one of our founding documents, I wrote:

“These two unfortunate trends–the abrogation of the clear teachings of Jesus to follow in his footsteps and live in a compassionate way and our failings to care for the Earth and all her inhabitants–must be resisted and must be countered with clear teachings and committed actions.”

from Why the FSF was created

The embrace of extreme right-wing views and practices by so many in the modern Evangelical movement bodes ill for them, for the American Church generally and for our Faith.

Their remaking of Jesus in their own angry, strident image is the greatest tragedy to befall the Church in America since the South’s embrace of slavery in the early and mid 19th Century.

John Pavlovitz is an activist Minister and blogger who’s been speaking out fiercely about how right-wing elements within the American Church have perverted Scripture to their own ends. And something he wrote in his blog posting for today is spot-on and deserves the widest possible dissemination:

We have read and extensively studied the Bible, and we know when someone is twisting it to their advantage; when they’re distorting it to oppress and discriminate, when they are making God in their own angry image—and we believe this is happening more egregiously than ever in America in the highest levels of Government and Church leadership.

from We Are the Christian Left

It is so urgent that the segment of the Church that has not embraced these two tragic errors to be continually engaged in speaking the truth and tirelessly calling the Church back to an authentic practice of Jesus’s teachings.

This we must do.

Brother Ben

© 2019 The Fellowship of St Francis, Inc.

stfranman Bible/Sacred Literature, Spirituality/Religion

Divinity and Gender

Introductory note: if you’ve read more than one or two posts on this site, you may have noticed that female pronouns–she and her–are sometimes used when describing God and not male pronouns only. If you’ve been wondering why this is so, this post will go a long way towards explaining it.

If you were raised in the Church–as I was–you grew up with a definite idea that God was a dude.

You know what I mean. I think we all imaged “him” as a grandfather-type. A man, say in his 70’s, with a long gray beard and wearing a pretty spiffy robe.

A robe that looked like a cross between the one worn by your favorite priest and that awesome one that Charlton Heston was sporting when they shot The Ten Commandments.

It took a full thirty years or so for me to realize that the way I imaged God was just that and it didn’t affect the actual nature of the Divine One at all.

It took even longer–and completing a year of Seminary–to see clearly that the ways any of us think of God are colored by a thousand different variables, including what our early religious training was like, cultural biases and so much more and vary greatly from one person, one believer to another.

And it’s worth saying, once again, that none of our images or conceptions of God affect God’s true nature in any way! The map is not the territory!

The writings we have embraced and believe contain God’s revelation were written by mortal, fallible men and were the product of the times in which they were written.

The men–and they were all men–who produced the many books of our Bible were immersed in cultures that were thoroughly Patriarchal and saw little-to-no value in the contributions of women to their cultures and their literature.

I’m thinking it would be more accurate to say that none of the men driving the bus in that time had the slightest idea about what womens’ thoughts about the nature of God might have been.

And the writings we see as being sacred and containing the revelations of the Divine One sprang from a culture that was Patriarchal, completely male-driven and that is still influencing the ways we think about God today.

If you are embracing a concept of God as a wise, bearded old dude, let me invite you to take a step back and see this in a new light. It can be truly transformative.

Whatever else we may opine about God’s nature, I think we have general agreement that he/she is transcendent, is wholly-other and that the ways we describe or image “him” tell only part of the story.

When the story we tell about God’s nature and being reflect the whole of humanity and not only the male half, it’s a more complete and more accurate depiction and can help to end the systemic bias against women.

This bias is real, it’s very easy to see and it’s been a stain on religious communities and on the Church since day one.

God’s a man, you say?! Really?

Brother Ben

© 2019 The Fellowship of St Francis, Inc.

stfranman Bible/Sacred Literature, Compassionate Living, FSF News/Events, Humane Treatment of Animals, Spirituality/Religion

What We Believe

The Fellowship of St Francis lists the following Six Principles and commends them to all People of Good Will:

The First Principle: On Compassion for All Compassion is the highest, purest and best motivation for People of Good Will in dealing with one another. Calling people of faith back to the practice of compassion is the first great urgency of the times in which we live.

The Second Principle: On Compassion for the Earth Compassion for the Earth and all who live on it–not only the human species–is the second great urgency of the times in which we live. St Francis is our unique example and modeled this compassion in his day and we aspire to do the same. Therefore, we commit to caring for our Earth compassionately and we use compassion toward all animals–whether wild or domesticated–at all times.

The Third Principle: On Prayer Prayer is the Universal attempt on the part of mankind to appeal to the Divine One(s) for comfort and help. Prayer–which may be seen as focused intention–is to be commended but not to be used as a thoughtless incantation or treated superstitiously.

The Fourth Principle: On Sacred Literature We commend Sacred Literature to all people of faith and people of good will and do not claim that the Christian Scriptures are authentic and binding but that Sacred Writing from all other religious traditions are invalid, counterfeit or sinister.***We especially reject the teachings from any religious tradition that say there are people destined for heaven and happiness but that other humans are accursed, condemned or damned and that eternal punishment in Hell is appropriate and the will of the Divine One. ***As to a general principle in interpreting or making sense of Sacred Literature, we commend the use of literary criticism and historical and scientific tools and reject superstition in the interpreting of Sacred Literature.

The Fifth Principle: On Respect for All All persons bear in them the imprint or image of the Divine One and are therefore worthy of love and respect. We clearly disavow and condemn any teaching of any religious tradition that says some people enjoy God’s favor and that others are to be shunned, persecuted or denied respect or any of society’s considerations or protections.

The Sixth Principle: On the Make-up of a Church or Fellowship The benefits of a Church, Congregation or Fellowship are not reserved only for people with religious beliefs and practices which might be considered to be orthodox in our time and cultural setting but are the right of any association, congregation or fellowship of like-minded individuals for the purpose of fostering greater faith, love, compassion and any loving, positive spiritual practice.***We especially disavow any teaching or understanding that individuals who participate together in a Fellowship or Congregation must believe, embrace or adhere to any particular doctrine or dogma to be accepted or loved or to be acceptable in the sight of God.

© 2019 The Fellowship of St Francis, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Fellowship of St Francis is a new and completely independent work and is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church or any other church or ministry.