Monday, September 09, 2024

45 (34) is Problematic

 Personal sharing (views not necessarily reflective of anyone else or any group or organization). 


An unpopular, intellectually stifled, morally bankrupt, one-term president who lost pop vote by almost 3 million votes & 4 years later lost by 7 million votes, refused to concede, incited a brutal insurrection in an attempt to overturn election results, twice impeached, boycotted the swearing-in of his successor, first former president to be indicted, 34 felony convictions, adjudicated rapist...


and that's beside "grab 'em by the pxxxy", shithole countries, Mexico will pay, his tragic mishandling of covid, birtherism, "lock her up", tax cuts for billionaires, the apology he owes the Exonerated 5, & packing scotus with antichoice liars who said under oath they considered Roe settled law...


& all that's beside collusion with Russia, tax evasion, draft dodging, less job growth than his  predecessor & his successor, gassing peaceful protestors, & saying he wants to be dictator for a day.


My God! Who, with any sort of conscience, or memory, would even consider voting for him? How much must one hate immigrants, refugees, LGBTQ, women, BIPOC, the Academy, the environment, civil rights, & general prosperity to vote for him over almost anyone with a brain & a soul?


I'm sad, scared, disgusted, & furious that he has any chance at all. He wasn't a good president & you'd have to look hard to find many people who are worse humans. 


Speaking only for myself, a voting citizen & no one else, I distrust anyone who finds him even remotely acceptable. I expect to have room for about 10 new friends after this, but seriously. WTAF? Darth Vader, Jabba, Hannibal Lector (his hero!), Dracula, Satan, & Mussolini can't be on the ballot so he is the sociopaths' booby prize? 


How is it even necessary or controversial to point out that he's a gadomn narcissistic criminal menace unfit for leadership? It makes no sense for any decent person to support him to any degree.


This isn't about party but about naming a racist felonious grifter & trying to protect my country from him. There are people from more than one party who share this sentiment (though I am not claiming to speak for them). This is from ME to whom it may concern.


That's all. Please register to vote. Please vote. Every time.

#deplorables

(dw)

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Doesn't the Bible say that Men Shouldn't Sleep Together? (Spoiler alert: Not Really)

Someone asked me today: "the Bible in Leviticus forbids a man lying with another man as he would with a woman, and for most Christians, the Bible is the primary authority. You've said before that the verses used to condemn gay people are aways in the context of exploitation or violence and have nothing to do with loving relationships, but 'do not lie with man as with woman' doesn't seem to be about violence or exploitation, unless I'm missing something."

I took it to be an honest, snark-free question, so I did attempt to answer it (as follows):

Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone) is a late concept. The earliest church (which had not yet codified a new testament) depended on a few doctrinal statements (such as found in the aposte's creed). Believiing in the bible or believing the bible was inerrant were not requirements in the early church (they would wait almost 400 years for the new testament and 1500 years or so for "sola scriptura").

Leviticus is telling men not to treat other men the way they treat women (as property to own and use - do not exploit other men).

Sodom & Gomorrah (Genesis 19) pictures an attempted gang rape of men (to prevent it, Lot offers his daughters to them...do not treat men the way you treat women is the patriarchal standard) - Lot, the ONE righteous man in the story (who offered his daughters to a rape gang), winds up having incest with his daughters in a cave (and not being chastised for it in the tale).

Romans 1 refers to pagan orgies that get so wild people get hurt ("due penalty in your bodies")...Paul blames it on idolatry.

1 Corinthians 6:9 condemns male prostitutes and their male customers (exploitation, objectifying men the way women are objectified, commodified like property)

1 Timothy 1:10 - (probably an early second century text, not authentically Pauline) scholars are universally stumped by what is meant, but the most common guess is that it is also about prostitution.

All the so-called prohibitions are in the context of violence (Romans 1, Genesis 19) or exploitation (Leviticus, Paul, Deutero-Paul). Meanwhile, Love is a fruit of the spirit, love is not conemned, Paul says there is no law against love, Jesus said love is the hallmark of discipleship, Jesus understood the commandments to be about simply love of God and neighbor (the Good Samaritan parable shows that anyone who chooses kindness is a good neighbor), and one New Testament writer defines God as Love. Love is not condemned, and the very few verses weaponized against LGBTQ people do not even mention consensual, joyful interactions, covenantal fidelity, or mutual affection or attraction.

Monday, August 19, 2024

Pro-Gay, Pro-Trans, & Pro-Choice, with Bible Verses

Pro-Gay, Pro-Trans, & Pro-Choice, with Bible Verses (by Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins)

On the sub/Reddit thread “Gay Christians” a straight identified poster asked, “Is being gay ever approved or said as okay by God or Jesus in the bible? Is transitioning to a different gender a sin? And do you (a gay Christian) believe in abortions (why or why not)? It would be nice for scripture to be included [in your response]. Asking because I’m curious.”

A day later, the OP (original poster) had received 25 responses, including this one from me:

The very few verses used to condemn LGBTQ people are all in the context of violence or exploitation. Love is never condemned.

We now know that gender isn't binary so "transitioning" is just a matter of coming to terms with one's gender experience & identity & then living in one's truth. Eunuchs in the Bible were considered a sort of third gender and Isaiah says they have a special place in God's all-inclusive house of prayer.

I am pro-choice. I believe everyone should have bodily autonomy. In the creation myth Adam is just a body until the breath of life enters him. His life begins with the ability to breathe on his own, not with simply being formed.

Those biblical nods were because you asked for them. I actually do not limit my moral reasoning to ancient texts that have been interpreted in countless ways & used to justify such horrors as war & slavery. I study scripture but I don't use it in place of independent thinking.

That said, I will add a verse that I find to be true, not because it's in a sacred book but because it has proven to be healing in my own life: "God is Love & WHOEVER lives in love lives in God & God lives in them."

Wednesday, August 07, 2024

What Kind of Church is Sunshine Cathedral?

What Kind of Church is Sunshine Cathedral? (by Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins)


Sunshine Cathedral’s theology can be boiled down to “God is the power and presence of love, and that presence is omnipresent, everywhere, fully present.”

 

Every single message you hear at Sunshine Cathedral will feature that simple but powerful and life-changing idea: God is omnipresent Love.

 

Just as our worship is a blend of many ideas, experiences, and traditions, so also is our theology the product of blending. We are historically affiliated with Metropolitan Community Churches, a movement started by a gay, defrocked Pentecostal minister (Troy Perry) with a primary outreach to LGBTQ+ people and an enthusiastic affirmation of LGBTQ+ people as children of God designed to be exactly who they are.

 

We are also affiliated with the International Council of Community Churches, the Divine Science Federation, and the International New Thought Alliance. For decades, we have embraced the principles of Progressive Christianity, the principles of New Thought, and the openness of spiritual humanism. 

 

Progressive Christianity simply says questions are more important than the answers we come up with, that everyone is loved by God, that other religions also have wisdom and holiness, that science is important and not at odds with spirituality, and that scripture can be understood in a variety of ways and the best ways are those that promote justice, tolerance, goodwill, and peace.

 

New Thought began as an American healing movement in the 19th century. Their guiding

principles were the omnipresence and goodness of God, the power of thoughts, feelings, and

attitudes to help shape our experiences in life, and the use of affirmations and visualization to make prayer more effective.

 

Finally, spiritual humanism is also part of the air we breathe at Sunshine Cathedral. Spiritual humanism affirms the innate goodness and the potential of human-beings, allows for spiritual community, spiritual experiences, and a variety of opinions about the existence and nature of divinity.

 

Examples of spiritual humanists (who might have also been Christian or Jewish or Muslim, etc.) include Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius, or the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism Mordecai Kaplan. 

 

Spiritual humanists, while not being limited by dogma or creeds, value the individual spiritual experience and the insights that come from it and also value evidence-based science.

 

Sunshine Cathedral is a diverse, joyful, and non-dogmatic community of spiritual seekers where questions are sacred and absolutes are few. What we will declare without waiver or apology is: You are God’s miracle and not God’s mistake.



SunshineCathedral.org

Tuesday, August 06, 2024

HOW TO READ THE BIBLE


HOW TO READ THE BIBLE

There are actually many ways to study scripture. The various methods of reading and making meaning of scriptural texts are collectively called Biblical Criticism.

The least helpful and least accurate way would be to read as a fundamentalist might. Fundamentalists are narrowly focused Christians who believe that non-Christians are rejected by God and that one must accept certain "fundamentals" in order to truly be Christian. Those fundamentals include:

The Bible is to be considered inerrant (basically dictated by God without any mistake or incorrect information), Jesus' literal virginal conception is not to be questioned, his execution is meant to be seen as our means of salvation, the resurrection must be seen as a literal, historical, physical event, and one must expect his literal, physical return one day.

I, personally, cannot affirm a single "fundamental" as being true for me. The Bible is for me a human project, the so-call Virgin Birth is mythological (comparable to many miracle birth stories in antiquity), Jesus' execution was a brutal act by an oppressive empire, resurrection is an experience we share but not a single, literal, historical event, and Jesus' return is allegorical and meant to help us be Christ in the world rather than have us wait for a hero to tidy up our messes.

But I can easily reject fundamentalist views because I have learned to think critically and because I have been exposed to various methods of biblical criticism.

If the fundamentalist approach isn't helpful, what are some ways of engaging scripture that might be more energizing?

Allegorical Interpretation: In addition to characters and stories say on the page, a second level of meaning is extracted from (or applied to) the text. Allegorical interpretation might suggest a story from one part of the Bible represents something from another part (like the Ark representing St. Mary sheltering God's people beneath her veil in stormy times) or it might apply biblical stories to larger, universal themes (rather than asking if the resurrection literally happened, an allegorical approach would be to ask how the resurrection story points to possibilities in our lives to rise above defeat, heartache, unfairness, loss, or disappointment). 
Allegorical approaches to bible reading were used by Origen of Alexandria, by the mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg, and has traditionally been a preferred method of bible study in the New Thought Movement (Charles Fillmore, for example, used each apostle to represent mental states, e.g., John represented love, Thomas represented understanding, Peter represented faith and so on). 

Demythologizing Scripture: This approach looks at the fantastic claims of scripture (walking on water, Jonah in a fish, a donkey talking, people living hundreds of years, etc.) and tries to separate the claimed events from the moral lesson or theological point the stories may be trying to make. 

Historical-Critical Method (used to be called "Higher Criticism") - looks at the traditions, languages, oral transmission of stories, and politics that influenced the writers. Asks who is writing, to whom, and why? Has been used since the 19th century and has always been intended to read the texts free from dogmatic bias. Field of archeology is helpful to this method of study. 

Literary Criticism - tries to establish the genre of the documents (poetry, biography, homily, hymn, parable, etc). Examines the structure, date, and authorship of documents based largely on the internal evidence in the documents, but external evidence is employed when helpful (as in dating texts). If one document quotes another, those quotations are noticed and explored. If the voice of the "writer" changes (suggesting, perhaps, multiple writers) if the writing style changes, those things are brought under examination. Literary criticism studies the Bible as literature using scientific techniques to do so. 

Philology - studies histories of languages and compares languages to one another. Comparing ancient documents (biblical and non-biblical documents from the same periods and regions) in the ancient languages (Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Coptic, etc.) is a very academic but also very enlightening field of study. 

Rhetorical Criticism - comparing communication styles and philosophies of biblical discourse.

Social Scientific Criticism - Uses anthropology, sociology, and social psychological to analyze biblical texts. Studies the behavior of people in the Bible in a social or cultural context, noticing ritual, customs, and actions within the environments of the actors.

Now, don't be put off by the word "criticism" - that isn't an attack on scripture. Criticism in this context is the use of scientific criteria and reason to understand and explain the meaning intended by the writers, if possible, with a high degree of objectivity. 

Some hermeneutical methods are more artistic than scientific. Theopoetics, for example, might read scripture through a theological lens, seeking to apply it in personal spiritual seeking, describing the process in artistic or poetic ways. It would try to embrace and communicate the experience of scripture to an imaginative reader. 

Some might find the allegorical method to be more artistic, or at least, more creative, than scientific. So, in addition to the scientific ways of engaging the Bible, there are also artistic ways. 

How to read the Bible? I have found every method described here (apart from the fundamentalist approach) to be helpful and enlightening. And, guess what? There are even more methods! 

Regardless of the method(s) we choose, if we approach the texts with open minds and a joy in discovering new insights, we'll probably find that we haven't nearly exhausted what the Bible has to offer us. Keep reading, keep thinking, keep questioning, and keep imagination, and the Bible will continue to open worlds of discovery for you. It might not support your doctrinal training and dogmatic certainties, but that's actually a good thing. (dw)


Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Protect democracy

 When voter turnout is low, disproportionately organized & capitalized movements win even when their views are not in the majority or when their agenda is destructive. Democracy is fragile & must be protected, & that's done by every eligible voter casting a vote, for every office, in every election.

Vote.org

Litany of Pride and Healing

For Sunshine Cathedral and spiritual communities that refuse to put conditions and limits on divine love,

Welcoming Grace - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For an informed, compassionate, and responsible electorate,

Spirit of Cooperation - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those who have died from homophobic or transphobic violence, and those who mourn, and those who fear they could be next,

Spirit of Indomitable Hope - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those whose governments and religious traditions condemn them, sometimes to literal death, and who experience hell on earth as well as threats of perdition beyond,

Spirit of Compassion - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those who died from AIDS, and those who live with HIV but dare not take their health for granted,

Spirit of Life - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those who know the joy of LGBTQ+ pride, and for those whose hearts cry out, “maybe next year,”

God of the Eternal Now - HEAR OUR PRAYER.

 

Queer Saints in heaven and earth, pray for us, pray with us.

 

AMEN.



--Litany prayed at Sunshine Cathedral on June 30, 2024