Christianity

Getting the Catholic Church Right

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A terminal case of patriarchy or a vibrant source of love and revolutionary potential? In case you missed it, Nicholas Kristoff got the Catholic Church just right in his last column, “A Church Mary Can Love.” It’s both. (I’m hardly an expert but I was happy to ask one or two Catholics who are, whom I met today at an interfaith conference on global poverty at St Mary’s Catholic cathedral in San Francisco: they shared my pleasure at the column). On the one hand, says Kristoff:
The Catholic Church still seems stuck today in that patriarchal rut.

Christianity

Seismic Shift in Seminary Education

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How should future religious leaders be trained so that they can at once be rooted in their traditions and equipped to work with people of others? This question has been asked with increased urgency, as American theological seminaries have tried to adapt to what has become the most religiously diverse country in history. Answers have proven somewhat elusive. This week, from April 14 – 16, a group of remarkable visionaries and emerging inter-religious leaders convened at Andover Newton Theological School and Hebrew College to discuss potential answers during the pioneering CIRCLE National Conference 2010. Participants included Brad Hirshfield, co-Founder of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Ingrid Mattson, Director of the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary and Executive Director of the Islamic Society of North America, and Stephen Graham, Director of Faculty Development and Initiatives in Theological Education at the Association of Theological Schools.

Christianity

Humanist Easter: Egg Art, Feminist Rabbits, Muddy Romps

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When I was a child, my family celebrated Christian holidays in a fairly standard secular way, decorating a tree on Christmas and hunting eggs on Easter, not to mention joining in the customary consumption of marshmallow peeps, “jelly bird eggs” (whatever those are), and other foods invented by companies with a clever eye for turning a profit from a holiday. My version of Easter lacks the radical Christian religiosity that Nichola laid out in her recent post about Good Friday as a time “to look at the crucifixions necessary to preserve the fiction of Pax Americana, or any false peace maintained by force, whether violent or hegemonic.” It lacks the progressive rethinking of the resurrection narrative that Rabbi Lerner highlighted in his spiritual wisdom of the week post with a quotation from Peter Rollins. But it’s still one of my favorite holidays of the year. On its surface, the humanist Easter I grew up with may have seemed drained of meaning to religious onlookers, but it was actually highly ritualized and deep in its own way.

Christianity

Spiritual Wisdom for Easter: Affirming the Resurrection

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With thanks to Brian McLaren for posting this (here). From Peter Rollins on ways in which he denies the resurrection … and so do we all:
At one point in the proceedings someone asked if my theoretical position led me to denying the Resurrection of Christ. This question allowed me the opportunity to communicate clearly and concisely my thoughts on the subject, which I repeat here. Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ.

Christianity

An Eostre / Easter Imperative: Catholic Women's Ordination

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You may know that the name Easter is taken from the Old English Eostre (also Eastre) as in the Anglo-Saxon month Eostur-monath, the month in which the Christian missionaries to northern Europe were already celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus. Why did they choose to rename the holiday, when:
Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover by much of its symbolism, as well as by its position in the calendar. In most European languages the feast called Easter in English is termed by the words for passover in those languages and in the older English versions of the Bible the term Easter was the term used to translate passover. (Wikipedia)
It seems that it is for the same reason that the Virgin of Guadelupe appeared in the place sacred to the Aztec goddess Tonantzin, and so became the old goddess in new guise, with new attributes. The Catholic Church has been masterful at coopting and transforming the previous religion’s rituals (e.g. Christmas took off from the old Saturnalia).

Christianity

Suffer the Children to Come Unto Me: the Pope, Pedophilia and Authoritarian Religion, Families, & Schools

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The newspapers are full of the latest priestly sex abuses. This is an on going story. Within the last year, mass scandals have erupted in Brazil, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria. and the United States. Figures from the John Jay School of Criminal Justice estimate that since 1950, an estimated 280,000 children have been sexually abused by Catholic Clergy and deacons.

Christianity

A Million Christians for Social Justice: Glenn Beck and Jim Wallis

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Two weeks ago Sojourners’ Jim Wallis,  the most prominent social justice evangelical in the country,  responded to Glenn Beck’s outburst about social justice Christians (which Valerie Elverton-Dixon wrote about on Tikkun Daily):
Beck says Christians should leave their social justice churches, so I say Christians should leave Glenn Beck. I don’t know if Beck is just strange, just trying to be controversial, or just trying to make money. But in any case, what he has said attacks the very heart of our Christian faith, and Christians should no longer watch his show. His show should now be in the same category as Howard Stern. Stern practices pornography and Beck denies the central teachings of Jesus and the Bible.  So Christians should stop watching the Glenn Beck show and pray for him and Howard Stern.

Christianity

How about those nuns? Defying the bishops on what "pro-life" means.

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In terms of news, this is old: five days already! And the health care bill just passed the House, which is what this group of nuns wanted to happen, so why mention them? But in terms of the annals of courage, this is big. Now that the bill has passed the House, and for whatever reasons (like giving in to Stupak) and with whatever results, let us celebrate these women. From the On Faith blog last Wednesday:
Hard to say which men will find this more troubling, U.S. Catholic bishops or Glenn Beck, but a “social justice” coalition representing 59,000 U.S. Catholic sisters sent a letter to Members of Congress Wednesday urging them to pass the Senate’s health care bill.

Christianity

Why Is Liberal Religion So Race And Class Bound? Can Love Break Through?

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The Census Bureau projects that by 2042, whites will no longer constitute a majority of the U.S. population… the fastest growing group will be those who identify as multiracial…. If we fail to respond to this new multicultural reality – if we choose to stand rather than to move – we will not only fail to honor this core principle of liberal theology, we will simply become irrelevant. This is from the lead article in the current Unitarian Universalist magazine, UU World. Being good liberals, Unitarian Universalists have been engaged in wrenching self-examination for several years now, at least since the 1992 General Assembly Resolution on Racial and Cultural Diversity.

Christianity

Video Interview-Brazilian Claudio Oliver

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Some of you Tikkun-ers have told me from time to time: “Share with us about the people who inspire from your context in Brazil.” Fair enough. I’ve already posted a link to one other video of my dear Brazilian friend, Claudio Oliver. But I couldn’t resist posting another: a video interview that took place earlier this week in Australia. This video continues the same line of reflection regarding poverty, friendship, and the presence/action of the local Christian communities.