On Church and Religion

Just like Education in the USA, Church is entering a new era. Old paradigms are shifting, opening up chasms which eventually will give birth to new paradigms. However, the paradigm change for Church is one that seems to engage the whole world.

As I am addressing Church and Religion, I need to address a loaded word: “Heresy.”

At first I thought this word should not even exist. But then I realized this word did not always have the negative meaning it has since the early middle-ages.

“The Greek word hairesis means choice – or things chosen. In this sense it was applied to the doctrines of philosophical schools. Already in I Cor. 11:19 and Gal. 5:20 Paul uses the term in a negative sense to mean a divisive faction.”

We can find in the works of Ignatius of Antioch (ca. 35-107), even before the days of the conciliar definitions of Christian faith, heresy to mean theological error.

Eventually, Tertullian, a church father identifies the root of heresy as the willful choice of philosophical opinion over revealed Christian truth.” (The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, pg.249)

Revealed to whom, and who was the one revealing it? The Bible is not a perfect revelation as some claim. First the texts were chosen by just a few Early Church leaders, deciding which text was appropriate to be in this book, while other texts were discarded. The texts were written, even though inspired by God, by human hand. No matter how holy an inspiration, if it comes through a human, the human ego will get somewhat in the way. The Bible also went to quite a few translations and even the most competent translators will water the language somewhat down. Hence, as important, and as beloved as our Bible is, this source of revelation may in some instances be imperfect.

Over time and lately through scholarship the word heresy has become a more questionable and disputable idea. Around the Middle-ages, however, people who expressed different ideas about God than the Church allowed, were burned, hanged or mutilated all in the name of God. Many were excommunicated. In the process many unique gifts were smothered and extinguished.

Excommunications are hardly anymore dealt. The last heresy trial was in 1847. Surprisingly, the Church of England in the UK is contemplating the resurrection of heresy trials in our time.

In our country (USA) the mist of heresy still hangs in the rafters materializing itself every so often in our current churches as expected blind loyalty to a denomination (some more so than others) and a subtle and sometimes not so subtle verbal bashing between the various faith groups. (Denominations seems to be particular to the USA).

When I changed from the Presbyterian Church to the Disciples of Christ Church, a former professor called me an apostate. Apostasy is the deliberate disavowal of belief in Christ made by a formerly believing Christian. How could such a thing be true if both the Presbyterian denomination and the Disciples of Christ are Christian denominations? We deal with only minor differences in each denomination, mostly so minute, that a lay person couldn't figure out what the difference is, nor are they important in the larger scheme.

In this professor's statement the subtle fog of heresy was still at work.

Good thing you can't get convicted, tried and hanged anymore or I wouldn't be writing this blog.

By an accusation of heresy we, whoever we are, claim to have the sole truth. I have visited many churches of various denominations and no matter how much they claim to be different they are not different enough to warrant separation or sustain a hostile attitude toward another denomination. Of course they do things differently, may it be communion or baptism or other liturgies. With some I may not agree, but calling something that differs from my truth, heresy is absurd. (If we think small, the differences become mountains, in the larger picture, however, they are not that important.)

My truth it is...which also implies that I do not know the Whole Truth, and no one else does either.

Not one person on this earth has seen God face to face, or had revealed all of God's truth! There have been partial insights (the Bible only reveals partial insights just by the fact that documents have been left out). We also only have partial ability to interpret the Biblical texts. The texts need to be read with inspiration, not everyone at all times reads the Bible with inspiration, not even pastors. If this wasn't so, we wouldn't be torturing our brains of what the texts in the Bible mean. We only have fragments of the truth. Having only access to partial truth, no one can claim to be the only one who knows God or know what God desires for us. Instead we need to come together, each one of us with their partial truth in order to come closer to the Whole Truth. We all have a particular puzzle piece that belongs to the gigantic Human and Cosmic puzzle, the Divine mystery.

Gaining understanding of the Whole Truth can only be accomplished if we strive for unity and not engage in separation. To be exact, I believe that we gain much more understanding if we work together. The Whole Truth we may only be able to comprehend when we are unified with Christ, in GOD. Striving for more understanding  will require the ability to examine ourselves in combination with the willingness to admit that we by ourselves cannot know everything.

That could prove to be a challenge since there seems to be a deadly fear of syncretism (merging of denominations and faiths).

Yet, denominations could easily stay as a denomination in themselves, and at the same time come together in conversation, prayer and contemplation on the larger picture with all the others. Now some of these conversations are already happening and some denominations are more active in this process than others. The Catholic Church, Nondenominational churches and some Baptist churches have in the past tried to come together with other mainline churches but were only partially successful. One of the more successful churches was and is the UCC. There are 6 streams in the UCC that can be traced which all  managed to merge into one denomination and the conversation is ongoing.
It was the Disciples of Christ founders idea (Stone and Campbell) to call all Churches Christian Churches, and put in small letters below what kind. (such as Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist etc.) They were ahead of their time and their idea failed. I think the Disciples of Christ need to make this attempt again. One can only hope that all denominations would eventually join this effort.

One group of religious was always on the brink of being persecuted, those were the Mystics. John of the Cross, Theresa of Avilla and many others of old and present, have had to fight for their stay.

Often they had to evade the charge of heresy. Now a days mystic insights are being disregarded in various ways, including that they cannot be "substantiated" with Biblical texts. And yet we read in Scripture
Jn. 14:12"Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
 It is my question, could Christ reveal all of God and of heaven in one lifetime? Of course! But would we have been ready? I do not believe that any claims of the mystics undermine the Biblical texts, but they are rather a form of expansion. Would we ever have stopped teaching science or math or any other subjects at the level of the 10^th century? No! We continued to study, we continued to explore and learn. Why are we set on stopping on what we have learned 2000 years ago, as the only revelation that God has given us? God continues to reveal God self continuously.

Can we leave the negative connotations of the word heresy behind and reclaim its original meaning so that we could become a large, benevolent Christian Community which offers various paths and options to follow Christ? Jesus was not a dictator who forced uniformity on his followers. Different people need to do things in different ways to get to where they need to go.

Our divisions and bashing between the denominations have caused many people to stay away from churches.

It is the Holy Spirit who guides us all, every individual, every church in its various gifts and abilities to come together and acknowledge God's power amongst us. It is the Holy Spirit alone, who can move our churches in the direction to make them adequate for a new era. We must stand aside and let the changes happen even if they scare us.

It happens through mysticism whether, Christian, Jewish or Islamic, that differences can be transcended. The mystic union with God is very similar in all paths. The mystics know each other on a soul level and God's Truth (whatever they receive of it) through Divine revelation. This is not heresy but an amazing invitation to realize God created us all, that we are all One in God's creation and that God is not passive but continuously revealing. Not only differences in Christianity but differences amongst various faiths have potential to become transcended. All the various paths lead to the center, God.

Exercises

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Envision a group of ministers or people each from a different denomination (if you are an Interfaith  person), envision also rabbis, and other clergy of various faith., There is a big puzzle on the floor or the wall. Each person puts his/her piece into the puzzle. They may not quite know where to put it. You may even think their piece shouldn't be there or doesn't fit. Then envision the fire of the Holy Spirit touching the puzzle and re-arange the pieces into something that makes sense. What insight did you get? Journal.

Read following Biblical Scripture:

1 Cor.12:12-22. 


© 2012 Angelika Mitchell

True Vocation

My blog is a ministry to call awareness to things which are unhelpful or even harmful in our society and with that to each individual. We are human beings, created, creative and with our own  calling and purpose. When we find our purpose we also find our god-given gifts. When we fulfill our purpose and share our gifts we live up to our highest potential and help society to become free and whole.

I encourage you to get the book: "Let your Life Speak" by Parker J. Palmer.
Palmer speaks to that which I deeply believe.

After all our whole reason to be on this earth is to realize and become who we really are.


© 2012 Angelika Mitchell

Concerning the Poor

Biblical texts:

Dt.15:11 “I therefor command you, “Open your hands to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”

Isa: 32:7 “ The villaninies of villains are evil; they devise wicked devices to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.”

Jas 2:2-6 “...do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say 'Have a seat here, please,' while the one who is poor you say, 'Stand there' or, ' Sit at my feet,' have you not made a distinction among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

 I have seen the poor  refused service. Anyone who looks dirty, homeless and impoverished or different will deal with humiliation. Often they receive strange looks.

Several cities have a law that outlaws the feeding of homeless persons.

Sad, but that is the world.

What does this look like within charitable organizations? Many of them do great work in helping the poor and that needs to be celebrated. Without these organizations many of the poor would be much worse off. Unfortunately, I have also seen organizations and individuals who in the name of charity donate and disseminate outdated can-goods  and stained clothes. The worst I have ever seen was a pair of shoes in which the sole had been shredded, donated to be given out to the poor.  Likewise people donate jackets or blouses but cut off expensive buttons. It would be better if they just kept the item. That is NOT charity, compassion or love! One organization in Oklahoma was feeding poor people but then continued to tell them if they had gas to come to eat their food, they might have as well spent their gas to find a job. We often have unreasonable expectations towards situations of the poor.

We need to get over the ingrained idea, that the poor did it to themselves. Consciously or subconsciously a lot of us believe that their situation occurred because they are lazy or stupid and therefore deserving their plight. I have actually seen poor people who worked two jobs, raised a family and since they could not get any help with repairs, figured somehow out how to fix their own car, their own water-pipes and toilette. It is a lonely life, a stressful life when no-one helps. The poor do not deserve our trash or our contempt.

Having money does not make a person more competent, less lazy or less mentally ill. Money, however, will help to hide those things well. Poor people just can't hide their warts as well, therefore they are being judged. Had emperor Nero been a pauper instead of a King, he would have been put in the insane assylum. But since he was a king, he was considered egocentric and maybe a tad mean or evil.

Even though in the USA most of the poor are criminalized, it is interesting that poverty is spreading. People who were in middle class cannot keep up anymore with the way the economy is going. One thing is really fascinating, a lot of professionals are hired to tell the poor people how to get out of poverty. But no-one involves the voice of the poor to find out what they actually need, thereby being ineffective. Telling a poor person how to get out of poverty according to my standards and life philosophy does not consider their gifts, life philosophy, life purpose or dignity. If they do not follow through we condemn them for being unreliable, having bad habits, or just being crazy. When in actuality those who are poor who are standing up for themselves, are the ones who have incredible strength to hold to what and who they know they are. It might take them a while to rise above judgements that hold them down, but I pray that they will. They deserve respect.

It seems we have regulations and laws which keep the poor poor. At a low income apartment building, for example, I found out that the tenants are not allowed to do yard-sales. The reason given is vague. When they get some financial help, they need to disclose every bank account, every penny in cash and if they go over by even a little they will receive less help, get their food stamps cut and so on. The problem is they already get the bare minimum. The income they receive is little that car repairs or entertainment of a guest is out of the question, as are many of the things the middle-class and wealthy people see as quite natural occurrences. The smallest problem that can be fixed with a few dollars becomes a disaster to the poor person.

The most recent proposed bill to outlaw the re-sale of computers, i-phones or blackberries means the poor will not have access to the technology that everyone else has. I find that is not really fair. If these laws are intentional in order to harm the poor, or if they are just made out of greed they are automatically hurting the poor population.

This is one example how simple decisions which one group might consider practical, may be devastating to the poor. There are very few public phones, and many of them as disfunctional or don't exist anymore. How is a poor person supposed to make a phone call unless they are lucky enough to squeeze a phone into their budget, or are part of a family plan somewhere? Without a phone, how are they going to arrange for services or find a job. To compound the problem, the closing of a post office makes it impossible to do necessary business if you are a poor person without transportation. Whether intentional or unintentional the way society is moving, it makes it almost impossible for the poor to survive.

I think the best gift we can give the poor is to listen to their voices. In doing so we can understand them better and give them the help they really need and want.

I agree with the saying that it is better to teach someone to fish than to give them fish for a meal. If we are to give with open hands, we also need to supply the equipment so that they can fish. Often it is not the skill but the equipment/resource that is lacking.

Exercise:

Ask yourself: “Would I take a poor person to Paneras/ or some restaurant and feed them and talk to them?”

“Would I take a homeless person to my home to sleep?”

“ Would I give a poor person my torn old dress, or one of my newer dresses?

“Am I appalled by their dirtiness?”

“Do I feel embarrassed to talk to a homeless person. Do I hope no-one who knows me will see me doing so?

“ Do I feel that a homeless person is abusing their right and little money by eating in

a restaurant?”

“Do they annoy me when they beg on the street corners?”

“Would you be willing to have one of them do some work for you?”

“Would you be willing to teach one of the poor a skill?”

Meditation:

Breathe deeply. Invoke God's light into your inner vision and let this light flow through you and envelop you. Stand in God's light. Then think of a homeless, dirty or a person you would never want to talk to. Bring them into God's light with you. Greet them, bless them in the name of God. Ask God to show you their real self and their actual beauty. Journal your insights.


© 2012 Angelika Mitchell

Equal Opportunity

I don't kow how often I hear that we all have the same opportunities, especially children who go to school. Well in theory this makes perfect sense, if we believe that all should have what they need just because they are alive. That idea only works if we look at others with a benevolent eye. It cannot work in a society in which everyone is in competition with everyone else.

When one examines the American school systems one will soon encounter opportunities which are more equal than others. Communities who are wealthy and who have more home owners esp. of expensive homes, will also have schools with more technology and more arts. As we know, the homeowners pay a part of their taxes  to support the school system and those home owners feel since they pay, they ought to be getting plenty for what they pay.

I saw one such highschool which has a Science and Math center as well as laptops in most of their classrooms. That is wonderful. However, schools who are supported by a poorer population do not have such special equippment and often do not even have an art curriculum.

Once I saw an article in a local news paper in which someone suggested that the resources from richer districts should be evenly distributed among all schools. That article was silenced very quickly. Not even a pro or con response was printed. It was as if it never had been printed in the first place. It makes sense, we all work hard and we want to keep what we have. At least that is the expectation under a Capitalistic system. If someone asks us to share we quickly call them a Communist.

This particular word is a word that is freely used, if we want people to feel guilty over being compassionate or the sharing of their wealth.  Even if they only voice the idea of sharing wealth we want to render that idea inappropriate.  And it is quite effective, because we have created a set of paranoid fears around this word  "Communist", through which we immediately are able to conjur up terror in people and a need to defend their territory. It seems an effective way to defend our rights and all that we think we earned rightly.

At the same time we also have managed to villanize the poor making them look incompetent and lazy. This idea serves us quite well as a society. We make the poor criminals who want to steal from "us hard working people". And anyone who suggests otherwise we call a Communist, which renders him instantly harmless and an enemy of everything American. To an undiscerning mind this is quite effective.

 Most of us have only a very vague idea of what Communism really is and so it is easy to cram our minds full or untrue ideas. As Christians we know that Christ calls on us to share with those less fortunate. I believe that other religions have similar provisions. I certainly like to hear from you if you want to add to this. Christ was not a Communist. Christ came to show us the value of each and every person, whether they are poor or wealthy. All people are created by the Creator with unique gifts.

If we do not give equal opportunity and share with those less fortunate, we let those gifts go to waste. Many of those gifts cannot come to the surface because the resources will not be present to bring them to the surface if we do not share our resources. Not only our gifts have value, ALL gifts have value and are essential in the evolution of humanity.

I like also to point out that just as everyone has gifts so does everyone have weaknesses. Those who have resources can deal with those weaknesses easily. A handicapped person with means still can persue a carreer, can hire therapists and buy equipment of any kind needed.

But those who are handicapped and have little means, may be stuck in an institution, and may never get that van for handicapped persons in order to drive to work or fulfill their god-given purpose. Whether we support gifts or help those with weaknesses to survive, if we have the means we also have a responsibility.

The knowledge that God created all people, and the striving and hope for equal opportunity in this country, should call to us to pull together and reach out in compassion. 


Meditation

Envision yourself in a group of people. Each one has a special gift in their hands. So do you. But each one has also something missing. They need that missing piece in order to be able to share their own gift appropriately.

Imagine yourself sharing a piece of your gift with someone who needs it. And as you do, this person is able to share with someone else their gift. Pretty soon everyone is sharing and receiving and everyone is becoming whole at the same time. Envision this exchange! What a wholesome, dignified moment. Journal what you learn from it. 


© 2012 Angelika Mitchell