THE SACRED HEART AS A SYMBOL OF QUEER COMFORT

THE SACRED HEART AS A SYMBOL OF QUEER COMFORT

A Durrell Discourse

June gives us Father's Day and LGBTQ+ Pride, but June (in the Roman Catholic tradition) is also the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Jesus' Sacred Heart represents love, mercy, grace, and compassion. Jesus' Heart is a symbol of divine love in human experience. Devotion to the Sacred Heart reminds us that faith should be kind and caring. Those of us who are Protestant or Humanist may not have grown up with the Sacred Heart devotional tradition, but if it gives us hope or joy, then why not embrace it?

In the 18th century, Pope Clement approved the Feast of the Sacred Heart for certain locations. In the mid-19th century, Pope Pius approved the Feast for the whole Church. In 1899, Pope Leo dedicated the entire Catholic world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. During his pontificate, John Paul 2 maintained a devotion to the Heart of Jesus.

According to tradition, devotees of the Sacred Heart can expect various blessings and aid throughout life, including inner peace and strong faith.

I love that this Sacred Heart celebration shares a month with LGBTQ+ Pride. The Heart of Jesus is a heart filled with justice-love, a heart with room for all who suffer, a heart that wishes joy and healing for everyone. The Heart of Jesus as a symbol of love seems fitting during a month where people are celebrating their love over against objections and insults from the worlds of politics and religion. People who have been heartbroken by rejection and cruelty can imagine a loving Heart that will always embrace them and never turn them away.

The sacred symbol won't be a comfort for everyone, but for those who miss (or never had but would like to try on) some of the metaphors and symbols of traditional faith, the Sacred Heart may be a balm for the pain that others have inflicted in the name of religion. We are certainly entitled to reject religion, but we also can reclaim and redefine religion. Those who weaponized it do not hold the deed to faith.

Today, my reflections include imagining the Sacred Heart as a sign of love for all who need Love's healing touch, especially the Queer children of God.

(Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Sunshine Cathedral)

I'm Interested in Jesus' Love Life BECAUSE I Love Jesus

I love Jesus (not in the imaginary friend way of my childhood, but I love searching for him in history and I love how I come to life when I make certain discoveries...my christology is rooted in a 1st century flesh and blood revolutionary more than in a cosmic Olympian type figure). 

Because I love Jesus I am very interested in his revolutionary, anti-imperial politics, in his work as a healer/exorcist/lay philosopher, in his risk taking, in his intimate/personal connection with the God of his understanding, in his insistence on flouting cultural taboos, in his willingness to rethink and dialogue with interpretations of his inherited scriptures and traditions, in people coming to believe he might be the messiah (and his possibly coming to agree with them), with people’s continued experience of him (or his memory or his values) beyond his execution, and I am interested in his personal relationships...
his closeness to a beloved disciple, his friendship with Peter, his place in a chosen family in Bethany, his interesting relationship with a woman from Magdala, his repeated encounters with a mysterious young man in Mark’s gospel, what it meant for him to look at him “and love him”, what it might mean for him to be called “son of David” (whose love for Jonathan was notorious)...

Because I love Jesus I love exploring his life, his intimacies, his sexuality. Like his ancestor David, he might have been bisexual, or he may have been gay, or he may have been straight, or he might have flowed up and down the continuum. 

Because I love Jesus, I want to know more about him. Just as those who love me must love the Queer me (because that’s the me there is), to love Jesus is to try to know him, and the him there is to know might be gay or bi...its definitely Queer (regardless of the attractions he felt). 

My soteriology is about “wholeness”...and since Jesus is part of the way that I found my path to wholeness (which includes my sexuality), I want to know the whole Jesus (as much as is possible with the years and myths that lie between us) which includes his sexuality. I don’t care if he was celibate or not, that’s none of my business, but he had human feelings and connections and covenants, and those do matter to me a great deal.

Lots of Feels as EDS’ St. John’s Chapel is Deconsecrated Today

The Philadelphia Divinity School and the Episcopal Theological School merged in the 1970s to become the Episcopal Divinity School. EDS had diverse faculty (Episcopal, Presbyterian, Jewish, Asian, African American, Caucasian, men, women, gays, lesbians, lay, ordained) and a diverse student body (Episcopal, Catholic, Lutheran, UCC, Unitarian Universalist, MCC, Seventh Day Adventist, Baptist, Anglicans from Kenya, Uganda, Jamaica, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, etc), and it was part of a world class consortium (The Boston Theological Institute) which included Boston College, Boston University, and Harvard.

EDS was a special place dedicated to anti-oppression work, to an inclusive gospel, to sharing the all-inclusive and unconditional love of God.

And, more than a school, it was a community. One never really was graduated from EDS. One was degreed, but never felt the need to “leave.” One to three times a year, every year since I earned my DMin there, I would go “home” to EDS.

EDS lives on in the ministry of the church I pastor and in parishes, Cathedrals, Chaplaincies, service organizations, the diaconate, classrooms, and hearts all over the world.

Last year, EDS was closed down (unnecessarily, in my view, and in ways that many of us resisted). EDS’ name and money still exist as EDS@Union (basically the Anglican house of studies at Union Theological Seminary in NYC, my other beloved theological alma mater). If the merger had been done more transparently and honestly (by EDS trustees), and if EDS could have retained a degree program (MATS or DMin maybe), I think it would have been something I could have celebrated (two great schools joining forces), and/or if they had kept one or two EDS faculty (they sacked them all) that would have been at least kind (and bridge building). Instead, the merger feels more like loss and has caused grief for many.

These thoughts are with me as St John’s Chapel on the campus of what was EDS in Cambridge, MA is deconsecrated today. God bless the EDS diaspora and the EDS energy that still flows through so many ministries.

The Right is Wrong

Christians are not being persecuted in the U.S. Christian fundamentalist domination is being resisted (and rightly so!).
White people are not being persecuted for their whiteness. Their (our) unearned white privilege is being named and challenged (and rightly so!).
Patriots are not being persecuted. The many who love the values of integrity, generosity, compassion, justice, equality, and opportunity which our nation has always claimed (even if it has not always lived up to and into those values) will not let such patriotism be replaced by petty, bigoted, angry nationalism.
The cruelty, fear, tribalism, and violence that has been presented as religion and politics is being challenged, but that is because ultimately, the Good must prevail. This is an anxious time, but anxious times are times for hope, and hope leads to better days. The Good will prevail.

Is the Bible Just a Bunch of Fairy Tales?

I am often asked if the bible is "just" a bunch of fairy tales or "just" some old stories. For a lover of stories, "just" seems misplaced. 

Religion is mythological. Myths are meant to help us get at truth, not facts. 

Bible stories, for me anyway, are allegories for life. I honestly couldn’t care less if not one thing in the Bible ever literally, factually happened...because in my experience, what the stories are trying to communicate are true and timeless and relevant for my life. I’m Joseph. I’m Jacob. I’m Mary. I’m Elizabeth. I’m Miriam. I’m Aaron. I’m Elijah. I’m Amos. I’m the serpent. I’m Eve. I’m Noah. I’m Peter. I’m Paul. I’m Stephen. Each story shows me who I am, or who I have been, or who I can be. Each story shows mistakes I’ve made or are likely to make. Each story shows me that redemption is possible, that I am more than what I currently know and more than what I’ve done so far. So, they are true for me, even if they are not factual (and, honestly, I doubt if many of them are entirely factual).

Remember the famous editorial in the 1897 Sun answering the question “Is there a Santa Claus?” When “Virginia” asks if Santa is real, the writer explains that what Santa represents (hope, generosity, kindness, goodwill, etc.) is very real and very much needed. “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” is the most remembered line from that piece. There isn’t a man living at the North Pole, flying with magic reindeer tossing presents under trees, but there is a human urge and need to care for others, to express love, to be generous...we need, and in our best moments believe in everything Santa is supposed to be. So, Santa is true, while not being factual. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Marcus Borg said there are three phases to faith development:

1. Precritical.
They sold it, we bought it. We accept the stories as they are, taking them as literal facts with no need to question them. This is how we start out.

2. Critical.

Things don’t make sense and we have a lot of questions. We start to not believe some of the stories. Walking on water? Lazarus coming to life after 4 days of decomposition? Abraham willing to slaughter his son? People in the desert being cured of snake venom by looking at a serpentine tchotchke? At the critical level, we start to call “bullshit.” [Of course Borg didn't say "B/S". The categories are his; the explanations of them in this piece are mine]

Most people get stuck at the first or second level. But Borg says there’s an important third. We have to go through 1 and 2 to get to #3, but 3 is the goal.

3. Post-critical.
That’s where we reclaim the stories and find new meaning and relevance in them. We don’t take them literally, but we no longer need to toss them out entirely. We read them and breathe new life into them and let them be free of the bondage of literalism and they become alive for us and fresh and exciting.


Sometimes people fear that expanding their understanding of and relationship to the bible is akin to giving up on God. One - don't worry about that. Two - we all give up old notions of God as we grow. We've all cast upon the garbage heap of life old gods (or understandings of the divine) that no longer serve us. Meister Eckhart wrote, “I pray God to make me free of God.” When God is presence and power and goodness and possibility rather than a person (with personality quirks), that may not be abandoning God as much as simply letting God be bigger for us...beyond description and images. Graven images of God are too limiting, that’s why the Decalogue discourages us from having them.

And what of the biblical Jesus? Was he a prophet? A teacher? Philosopher? Rebel? Social activist? Healer? Miracle worker? Revolutionary? Messiah? Divine being? Someone who lived so authentically into his humanity that people thought he must something more?

Jesus himself (in the story anyway) asks the important question: “Who do YOU say that I am?” Following Jesus, in my view, will include seeing Jesus differently over time. Relationships grow and evolve. If Jesus is going to have a primary place in my consciousness, then my understanding of him will probably change over time.  I don’t think we can get it wrong really, unless we stop trying. 

No wonder one is to work out one’s own salvation “with fear and trembling” (h/t the Apostle Paul)! It is a lot of work, and every question leads to more questions, and every answer must eventually be discarded or replaced or upgraded. But that’s the journey. That’s the faith walk. Doubting and questioning and wrestling and wondering...that’s the gig! And that’s what we see in scripture...people working out their stuff and sharing their journey in literary, symbolic, allegorical, metaphorical, mystical, mythical, tragic, comedic, political, ritualistic, poetic, clumsy, smooth, and courageous ways. 

Even if the characters aren’t real (and honestly, some aren't), the writers certainly were real, and the writers are using their characters to tell their stories and when we read and question them, we are adding our own. That’s the magic of scripture. Again, I don’t need one character to be historical in order for their stories to be relevant and powerful and life changing for me. 

Those of us who free ourselves of literalism find the Bible to be new and refreshing...offering something powerful with each new reading. It’s a conversation rather than a crystal ball, a builder’s tool rather than an anchor, an open door rather than a locked one.  So, maybe there was no Abraham. Almost certainly there was no global flood (there may have been a regional disaster). Of course Jonah didn’t live three days in a fish. Snakes and donkeys do not talk and never have. Virgins and 90 year old women don’t have babies. And the resurrection may be more about resurrecting hope and purpose and courage than about one body that was reanimated for a few weeks. AND...none of those “facts” change the truth that I find in each of those stories - truth that is applicable to my life, my journey, my faith. 

MLK Holiday Thoughts & Prayers

MLK Holiday Thoughts & Prayers

Jan. 15, 2018

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a prophet of justice, a minister of grace, an orator, a scholar, and a defender of human dignity. He stood up to the evils of segregation. He resisted an unjust war. He advocated for those who worked hard and were paid too little. He stirred the conscience of a nation. He challenged a government as boldly as the Prophet Amos. He comforted the hurting as compassionately as the Prophet Isaiah. He offered healthy ways of expressing righteous indignation in the manner of Jesus. And he envisioned a new, loving, fair world where evil was forever defeated as vividly as John did on Patmos. And, like the prophets and disciples before him, King gave his life for the divinely inspired vision he offered the world. 

Inspired by such a noble example of human charisma, courage, and conviction, let us speak truth today and seek healing where it is needed in our society and in our souls.

On this Martin Luther King Memorial Holiday it would be wrong to ignore or deny the rise of fear, hatred, and unrepentant bigotry that often dominate our public discourse.

We who seek to follow Jesus must surely be heartbroken when we hear of proposed "Muslim bans" or hear entire nations (whose populations are largely non-white) disparaged by people in our national leadership. We must be all the more disturbed when we hear such reprehensible speech defended by pugnacious preachers of pernicious piety.

We who have been instructed to love our neighbors as ourselves must surely feel sickened when our Transgender neighbors (and friends and family members) are demonized and dehumanized.

We who rejoice in the words of Jesus, "Come unto me all who labor and are heavy burdened and I will refresh you" must be overwhelmed with regret when we hear women time after time tell about their experiences of being threatened, mistreated, and assaulted. We must feel something close to outrage when their credible stories are dismissed and their assailants are rewarded with power and privilege.

We who pray weekly (if not daily), "Thy will be done" must surely wish for more to be done to help the inhabitants of St. Thomas and Puerto Rico who still struggle following the seasonal hurricanes.

And we who venerate the Prince of Peace must gasp in horror when threats of nuclear disaster become part of daily conversation.

So much healing is needed, and today is a good day to ask for God's grace and guidance. In the name of Martin, and in the name of Jesus whose way and witness inspired him, let us acknowledge the forces of oppression, pray for healing, and vow to resist injustice as Jesus the Christ did, as Martin the Apostle of Civil Rights did.

Let us pray:

Dear God,

     We acknowledge the sin of racism today. Lord have mercy.

     We admit that we have done too little to heal the wounds of xenophobia. Lord have mercy.

     We confess that we have not done enough to end poverty and to care for those who are poor. Lord have mercy.

     We acknowledge that we have not insisted strongly enough that women's sovereignty over their own bodies be respected. Lord have mercy.

     We admit that we have not done all that needs to be done to protect the rights of LGBTQ people. Lord have mercy.

     We confess that we must do more to defend the dignity of the aging. Lord have mercy.

     We acknowledge that we have not always been good stewards of the earth. Lord have mercy.

     We admit that we have rushed too often to war and have done too little to promote peaceful coexistence. Lord have mercy.

     We confess that love of money, power, privilege, or the comfort of the status quo has lulled us into acceptance of possible tyranny, especially when we thought we might not be the victims of it. Lord have mercy.

     God heal our brokenness.

     May love and hope unite us.

     May peace attend us.

     May we remember our divine inheritance and our sacred mission, and may we live more faithfully into our calling to live as if we were ONE (as in Truth, we are).

     Amen.

Yours in shared mission and ministry,

 

Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Senior Minister 

 "Let justice roll on like a river, 

righteousness like a never-failing stream!" 

Amos 5.25 

(NIV)

Will Right Wing Christians Support "Religious Freedom" Based Discrimination When They Are Its Victims?

This is a response to someone who defended the "religious freedom" bills that are meant to allow discrimination against LBGT people. He insisted that same-gender coupling was "sinful" (I strongly disagree) and said that while we should always be polite to people, we shouldn't be forced to participate in same-sex weddings (as if selling flowers or cakes or tuxes to people was "participating" in their nuptials). He further stated that while Jesus associated with "sinners" he probably didn't pay prostitutes for sex or steal people's donkeys. I responded with one of my more verbose rants. It follows:

Actually, the Palm Sunday story features Jesus having his disciples steal a donkey. But, there were so many Messianic figures in the first century that was a common practice...in case the next Messianic claimant was really the one, if they asked for an animal to ride, one usually just let them have it...though, the stories don't show the disciples asking, just taking, and when they are caught and asked, "what are you doing?" only then do they say, "The Teacher has need of it." But, Jesus wasn't the literalist that many of his later followers pretend to be.

Secondly, Jesus may not have paid for sex (though we can't know), but his ancestor (Tamar's father-in-law) certainly did (with Tamar, who is listed in Jesus' genealogy)...in fact, ALL of the women in his genealogy are associated with Taboo activity (Tamar and Rahab were prostitutes, Ruth was a pagan Moabite, Mary was an unwed mother)...that Matthew makes a point of showing Jesus' less than pristine lineage shows that Jesus comes from earthy stock...of course the men were pretty gritty too...Solomon with 1000 sexual partners, David who was a murderer and a rapist, Boaz who seems pretty gay to me, etc.

Thirdly, these scriptural and theological discussions are IRRELEVANT for civil law. We aren't a theocracy. All citizens should have equal opportunity and equal protection. Religion shouldn't even be part of the discussion. We already have religious freedoms...we can worship anywhere in anyway or not at all. We are at choice. But religion can't be an excuse to discriminate against others in public life (and business and politics are public life). We settled the issue of if diners could refuse service to people because of race long ago...can they now refuse service to Muslims, atheists, gays, single mothers, non-citizens...NO. 

If Christian Business Owner doesn't agree with abortion, then she shouldn't have one, is free to pray for unwed mothers, donate money to anti-abortion "counseling" services, but is not free to say "I won't sell you my product because i heard you had an abortion." When you open a business, the social contract is that you will serve the public without discrimination. You don't have to agree with Hindus, but you can't deny them service. You don't have to understand that sexual orientation is innate and not chosen, but your ignorance of sexual diversity isn't a reason to refuse service to LBGT people. You can think atheists are on a fast train to hell, but you can't humiliate them by denying them service in this life. If I sell you flowers or cake or a veil that you will use at your wedding that i don't understand or like, that doesn't imply that I agree with you, only that I don't use my personal prejudice as an excuse to humiliate or dehumanize you. You have a business, gays want to support your business (but if they know how you feel about them, I wonder why they would), and that's that. YOu aren't allowed to use your business to force your religious values on others (or to punish them for now sharing your beliefs).

You can even let the Bully Some Homos for Christ Club put posters advertising their next meeting in your window, but you can't refuse to do business with someone just because they are the target of the BSHFCC.

These onerous and odious "freedom" bills are a petty backlash against marriage equality. In the end, they will be ruled unconstitutional (and are already proving to be vastly unpopular) and those who wish to marginalize same-gender loving people will have to find new and more novel approaches to do so. 

One final point: Sauce for the Christian goose is sauce for the non-Christian gander. Will the Christians who assume these new bills give them a blank check to dehumanize same-gender loving people, be as supportive of the laws when Muslim business owners refuse to do business with "Christian infidels", when Wiccan shop-keeps refuse service to anyone driving an Earth harming SUV, when Christian Science teachers won't send your injured child to the school nurse, when Gay Christians won't serve homophobes...If religion is the legal excuse to deny service, then any religion can be used to deny service to anyone...will Right Wing Christians support the law when it is used against them?

Reflection: St Francis

"My God and my all." St Francis of Assisi 
St Francis' affirmation makes for a very convenient spiritual exercise. We can use the phrase "My God and my all" as a Lectio Divina exercise...(1) Reading or reciting the phrase slowly, then (2) meditating on what the phrase means to us or what a word or part of the phrase brings to mind for us, then (3) asking questions of the insight that has come to us (dissecting it, deconstructing it, probing it, arguing with it, trying to see it from a variety of angles), and then finally (4) releasing it all while slipping into deep Silence beyond discursive thinking.
"My God and my all."

Another way to use St Francis' phrase is as a mantra. Simply say over and over for several minutes non-stop, "My God and my all, my God and my all, my God and my all, my God and my all, my God and my all..." Soon, we'll find ourselves in a meditative state letting the words wash over us while our deeper Selves simply commune with the Infinite. The words may plant themselves deeply in our subconscious minds where they will later sprout as spiritual insight or profound optimism, or they may simply serve as a screen to keep out distracting thoughts so that we can immerse ourselves in abundant peace.

Finally, St Francis' statement can serve as a simple theological observation. Believing that Life is infinite, that the Life-force is omnipresent and enfolds, flows through, and expresses as every life, that the "Ground of being" is the All-in-all (and All-as-all), that there is one divine, universal Presence and Power which many of us call "God," can be simply summed up in the words, "My God and my all." It is a simple and still powerful reminder of supreme Omnipresence, the Light within all life, the Source of life that includes all life, that fills all space and is everywhere fully and evenly present. As we often say, "there's not a spot where God is not." But before our catchy rhyme, St Francis said, "My God and my all."

Today is the Feast Day of St Francis. Often we use this day to give thanks for our pets and for the opportunity to care for them and we wish them long lives of contentment. We think of animals because Francis is said to have honored all life and to have ministered to animals as well as people.

Beyond the tradition of blessing animals, let's remember that Francis was a simple cleric who saw and served God in all life. He was aware of the Omnipresence and remembering him today can help us acknowledge and commune with the Omnipresence as well.

There's not a spot where God is not.
My God and my all!

 - Durrell Watkins,  MA, MDiv, DMin

You Die & Then What?

&A with Dr Durrell Watkins
     Question: What is your understanding of where we "go" after death?  When someone dies, invariably people will say, he or she is now in heaven, but then what is the reference to the second coming of Christ when the dead will rise?  
     Answer: I know that energy can't be destroyed, it only changes form; so, I assume the energy of consciousness is also never-ending. As a person of faith, I trust that life is somehow never-ending. Beyond that, I probably don't know any more than you do.
     During Jesus' execution, a fellow rebel who is being killed next to him reportedly says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your Realm," and Jesus responds, "...today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23.42-43). Luke also has Jesus telling a parable about a poor man who suffered in life but who, after death, was "carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham [& Sarah, & presumably Hagar]" (Luke 16.22).
     Luke is writing at least 50 years (and some scholars think as many as 90 years) after the crucifixion of Jesus. The Apostle Paul, only about 25 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, writes, "...we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep; for the Lord...will come down from the heavens, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are...left, will be caught up together in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4.15-17). Luke's idea seems to be that consciousness survives death immediately, while Paul, at least in his early writings, suggests that maybe those who die are simply resting and will be raised back to life later.
     Paul believed that Jesus would return to earthly life in his lifetime. So, the resting period, in Paul's mind, wouldn't have been a long one. Decades later, when Luke is writing, no such "second coming" had occurred, and so Luke may be rethinking the issue. In any case, Paul and Luke have different ideas of how consciousness survives death; what they both believe is that consciousness does survive death.
     Paul and Luke are each making his best guess, but what happens beyond this life is a mystery to us until we experience it. What the writers are saying is that the value of our lives is not limited to our earthly years, but as far as what is next, we may just have to "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5.7). What we can trust is that life is good and sacred and that its importance is not limited to the years we spend on this earth. That's pretty "heavenly" regardless of how it plays out.     

 {This Q&A was first published on July 20th, 2008 in The Sun Burst, Sunshine Cathedral's weekly newsletter}

The Story (such as it is) of Satan

Q&A with Durrell Watkins (from Sunshine Cathedral's weekly newsletter)

Question: God is perfect. The angels are perfect. Satan was perfect. If heaven was perfect along with Satan how did Satan sin? Why did God allow sin to be known in heaven?

Answer: The first time we see “the satan” (i.e., the accuser) is in the Book of Job. In that story, “the satan” has full access to the heavenly council and is apparently simply doing his (or her) job as an accuser (sort of a prosecutor). It isn’t until much later (and probably as a result of Persian influence) “the satan” becomes “Satan”…the cosmic boogie man who is the cause of all mischief, suffering, and evil.

In the first century, it was commonly believed that difficulties and diseases were caused by evil spirits, and so “Satan” not only came to be thought of as the personification of evil, but as a leader or driving force of supernatural evil entities. Satan as a sort of Lord or Potentate of an afterlife prison called “Hell” is an even later development most vividly depicted in the literature and art of the middle ages and the Renaissance (e.g., Michelangelo’s Last Judgment and Dante’s Divine Comedy).

The story of Satan misbehaving in heaven and getting cast out isn’t really told in any one place in scripture. To form that story, one has to piece together unconnected texts: Luke10.18 (quoting Isaiah14.12, with some license…Isaiah is calling a political ruler “Lucifer”/Morning Star, the planet Venus), 2 Peter 2.4 (referring to angels being chained in “Tartarus”…a term borrowed from Greek mythology), Jude 6 (speaking of angels who did not keep to their proper domain, probably referring to the story in Genesis 6 where angels were said to have seduced humans), and Revelation 12.7-12 (a battle between angels and a dragon, the dragon probably representing Roman imperial power). By taking these disconnected texts and combining them together (and assuming that Lucifer, Satan, and the dragon are all the same character), the story of Satan as a fallen angel emerged. It is a story that developed over time, and one that I do not take literally.

Now, “Satan” is a convenient way of blaming the appearance of evil in our world on “someone.” But let’s also look at the rest of the Satan myth… “in the end” we are told, Satan is finally defeated by the forces of righteousness. What the story illustrates is that evil is not ultimately real. Evil is the absence of or the opposition to Good; but God, the Good, is omnipresent and so for God to be omnipresent means that there is nothing “real” that can ultimately oppose God/Good. A Course in Miracles states, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists; herein lies the peace of God.” Nothing can ultimately threaten or oppose what is truly Good. The appearance of evil must eventually give way to the Truth, just as darkness must be expelled the moment a candle is lit. Satan, as a literary figure representing evil, is only a temporary appearance, or illusion, which ultimately  must be banished by the light of Truth, which is that God is omnipresent and God is All Good. Good is what is true, what is real, and what must ultimately be experienced. 

(originally printed in Sunshine Cathedral's The Sun Burst in June 2010)

Never Assume...

Today is the Feast Day of the Assumption of the Blessed Lady Mary, Mother of Jesus, if your personal piety or religious tradition observes it. Those who observe it call it the most important of the Marian feasts.

Jesus' ascension is modeled after the story of Elijah being taken into the heavens/eternity (without dying) by a whirlwind (althought Jesus was executed and it was his resurrected presence that was said to ascend).

The Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox traditions have continued the story telling tradition Ascension by applying the same phenomenon to Mary. The Eastern church doesn't have a dogma about Mary not dying first, but in 1950, Pope Pius (speaking ex cathedra, and thus relying on papal infallibility, a doctrine only from the 19th century) dogmatically defined the Assumption of Mary declaring her to have been taken into heaven (bodily) without dying.

There isn't much about Mary in the bible (there is actually more about her in the Qu'ran).

Some value Mary as a co-Redemptrix, Queen of Heaven (a title held by the Egyptian goddess Isis as well), spiritual mother of all people (based on the story of Jesus telling his beloved friend that Mary would now be his mother). For those who have a "high" Mariology (a devotion to and detailed mythology about Mary), she shares in the work of Redemption, and may even represent the divine Feminine.

For others, Mary was a European looking figure stitched on banners of armies coming to conquer peoples of the Americas. For them, Mary is not so much divine figure as a symbol of colonialism, European imperialism, and the decimation of native cultures.

For some feminists, Mary (as presented by the male dominated hierachy of the Christian Ecclessiastical institutions) represents the silencing and control of women. An instituion that will not ordain women or allow them control over their own bodies or sexuality elevate a woman to almost divine status...a women, just one; and that one woman is a perpetual virgin who said "yes" to her impregnation that had already happened without her consent. The one woman worthy of adoration in the misogynistic church tradition is a woman who does as she is told and never has sexual urges, feelings, or needs. That, they argue, is not a realistic picture of flesh and blood women nor is it an empowering image for women.

For most Protestants, Mary is simply a rural peasant girl who had a baby who grew up to be a remarkable person, a teacher and healer, and lasting figure on the human imagination for millennia. Even if they have a high Christology (belief in Jesus as a redeemer of the world and somehow uniquely God-filled), they usually do not have a similarly high Mariology.

But then Dr Doreen Virtue puts a New Age spin on the "Beloved Mother." She suggests that Mary might have taken baby Jesus to live among the Essenes for a while where they both learned mysticism. She sees Mary as a nurturing, protecting figure for children. She believes those who claim to have vision sof Mary are experiencing something truly supernatural reminding us that miracles are possible. And she says that she personally asks the Blessed Lady for help from time to time.

Whatever we believe about Mary, it might be useful to look at the various ideas about her and let those ideas fire up our imaginations and help seek a more mature, life-giving faith, regardless of what part Mary may play in that.

On this feast of the Assumption, let's not make the assumption that there aren't new ways to look at it :-)

HAPPY FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION.

Statement About Pope Francis I

http://gaysofla.com/index.php/article/commentary/item/57-sunshine-cathedrals-senior-pastor-makes-statement-about-new-pope

Published on GaySoFla.com on March 13th, 2013

Is Christianity the One True Religion (12 minute video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KelbEBJZA3Y&list=UUi1vfps751gSRdDZIIzhkvw&index=1&feature=plcp

Pentecost Reflection

Spirit-filled

“Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the

served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness

before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.” Gandhi

The Pentecost narrative imagines a special moment when the

wind of the spirit blew in a powerful way to invigorate and empower the

young Christian movement. Of course, that movement wasn’t about

worshiping a person or creating a new institution; that movement was

about confronting injustice, offering hope and healing to those in need,

organizing and relieving the poor, and affirming the sacred value of all

people. When we joyfully and selflessly offer ourselves in service, we are

reliving the spirit of Pentecost. When we are so spirit-filled, we are then

the resurrected and returned presence of Christ on earth.

Prayer Treatment

My hands are God’s hands. My life is Spirit in action. My joyful

service is Heaven’s way of blessing our world. Alleluia! Amen.

Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

They're Running for President of the United States, Not President of the Southern Baptist Convention!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104575/Reverend-Franklin-Graham-says-Obama-faking-Christianity-Romney-isnt-Christian.html

OMG, I wish a Druid or a Hindu would run for president, win, and do an amazing job as world leader just to put this question of who is and isn't "Christian" to bed once and for all. Christianity, by Graham's or anyone else's definition, is NOT a requirement for public office in this country. Remember?!?!

Stop the Homophobic Insanity

I'm reading the Jamaican Observer. Someone writes a letter to the editor. He's outraged that good people in his country and beyond are concerned with the unchecked violence against perceived gays and lesbians in Jamaica. He says that Jamaica has the right to deny human rights to its gay and lesbian citizens. He says that no one in Jamaica or beyond can "push" homosexuality "down the throats" of average Jamaicans. He suggests that violence against gay Jamaicans is a reasonable response to their hatred of the idea of same gender love and attraction. And finally, he even invokes the bible to justify his hatred. He says that the bible condemns homosexuality and that St. Paul even devotes a whole chapter to slamming gays. His ignorance is eclipsed only by his arrogance. My blood begins to boil with righteous indignation.

"The bible" is not a unified document. Its a collection of books. It has many authors. It covers a period of more than a thousand years. Not a single original copy of any of its texts is in existence today. The bible was written in ancient languages and must be both translated and interpreted for it to make any sense to most people. Not a single biblical author spoke out against slavery and every single one believed the world was flat. Not one person in the bible knew how babies are "made." To blame any prejudice on the bible is absurd.

To make the homophobic editorial even more disturbing, St. Paul did not write an entire chapter condemning homosexuality. I can only assume he is referring to the first chapter of Romans in the New Testament. In that bizarre chapter, Paul says that people who worship "idols" are being punished by being zapped gay by God. In that passage, homosexuality isn't the sin, its the punishment for worshipping improperly. That's Paul's logic. Any sane person today would surely disagree with Paul, but even if one totally agreed with Paul the fact remains - homosexuality isn't the offense, its the punishment for the offense of idolatry!

We've learned a lot since the last half of the first century when Paul was writing. We understand human sexuality differently than he did. We don't think that homosexuality is a disorder nor do we think its the punishment from a jealous god who can't tolerate anyone worshiping other gods. Its just part of the diversity of life. Same-gender love and attraction is normal for a significant percentage of the population. Genuine and mutual love couldn't possibly offend a just god or a rational person. To blame homophobic prejudice on the bible or God is beyond silly. It's unforgivable.

If the bible said on every single page, "Gay is bad," that still wouldn't justify dehumanizing gay people or targeting them for abuse. And, if the bible said on every single page, "Gay is bad," thinking people of conscience and compassion would certainly be free to disagree. To reduce God to an excuse for hating others is to render God totally irrelevant and meaningless. It is to make God into the deity of hatred and ignorance, an idol to intolerance. And that's what St. Paul devoted most of a chapter condemning.