Here's some Good News

In taking a winter intensive this past semester entitled "Evangelism and Contemporary Culture", I came to really resonate with the idea that one's faith and understanding of the Gospel is reciprocal and should be shared with others in a dialogue that opens all involved to new ways of understanding God.  So this posting and likely at least one other will be an attempt to start a conversation on (1) who God is, (2) what God expects of God's followers, and (3) what those that claim the Christian faith are supposed to do with that information.  This will be lengthy, but I truly will value your feedback, be it on this blog, Facebook, text, phone call, email, in person, or some combination there of.

I must start by saying, I don't have all the answers.  I don't want to and I don't want what you're about to read to be taken as my opinion on the only way to understand God.  I must also start by saying I have been shaped to believe what I do through 15 years as a progressive Baptist in suburban Mississippi, about 7 years as a religiously-jaded and detached teenager and young adult in Massachusetts, and 3+ years of a religiously journeying young adult in Texas and again in Massachusetts.  My faith is ever-changing.  And I'm becoming more comfortable with that as time goes on.

1. God, in my experience, does exist.  I believe Jesus existed.  I believe in a divine presence or spirit that still moves in people's lives today that is a part of that God.  I believe in a mysterious God that can do things and comprehend things humans cannot, or at least things humans cannot grasp when so enmeshed in worldly issues, wants, and worries as most in Western culture in particular are.  That said, I have trouble getting behind the notion of an omnipotent God that allows bad things to happen to other people.  I am not opposed to the notion that negative forces (Satan, demons, bad spirits, whatever you'd like to call them) are out there, nor am I opposed to the notion of a God with some limited power; maybe even a God that is limited because God gave humans some of God's power through free will.  To paraphrase a friend of mine, I'd rather believe in a limited God of grace that did not want suffering to occur than to believe in a retributive God that's a jerk.

I also believe it is possible that who I call God is also who others call Yahweh or Allah or Shiva and that God has no gender or physical body.  I realize this last sentence will greatly anger or disturb some of you.  That's okay.  My faith journey has had and will continue to have disturbing periods.  I think that's normal and expected and a place for any individual to grow in their spiritual life.

I also believe it's possible I could be wrong, that there could be only one God out there that expects to be worshiped in a biblically literal manner and understood in a biblically literal way and only allows people into Heaven that do so.  I think it's possible but unlikely.  At least I hope it is unlikely.  If it is not unlikely, then people like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. aren't in heaven, because as prophetic as Rev. King was, he cheated on his wife.  If God is the god of a literally translated Bible, then Rev. King is in hell.  Rather I am inclined to believe in the afterlife experience Paul described to the Galatians: that in Heaven ethnic distinctions, economic stratifications, and socially constructed norms of being (gender, sexual orientation, etc.) will not matter.  What will matter is how the person lived their life in accordance with the faith tradition they claimed.

2. The God of Christianity expects those that claim the Christian faith to act a certain way.  That "way" was modeled for Christians in the life of Jesus.  Jesus lived the fullest human life possible, and such a life allows a human to establish God's reign here on earth.  Jesus took risks to bring the outcast into the community and did so while in community.  God expects Christians to collectively follow in Christ's footsteps by peacefully advocating for society's marginalized groups, respecting differences among people, and humbly acknowledging flaws and transgressions.  Thus the Good News of Jesus invites those that hear it to a challenging, difficult, dangerous life walking with Christ and others in community. Whether embracing Christianity or a different faith understanding, I believe God is happy when anyone embraces peace, advocates for the marginalized, respects others, and lives humbly.

This Christian gospel's salvation occurs by living like Jesus and is salvation from hopelessness or a  sense of anomie.  Drawing upon Pelagius' concept of original goodness and beauty, humans are born pure and come to sin through human weakness.  Christians thus experience salvation as a motivational gift in the Christian community in which they participate and in the personal relationship with the Trinity which they nurture.  The community and personal relationship simultaneously motivate Christians to keep working toward the ability to see the reign of God more clearly in their own lives and to strive to establish God's reign more firmly for future generations to appreciate and nurture.  Christians are saved such that we may better embody the lives God created us to live and work to fix the world we have since broken.

With my understanding of salvation, Jesus is one way of achieving it, but not the only way.  I believe other communities that encourage their members to practice nonviolence, advocacy, respect, and humility and walk with each other on a spiritual journeys are just as valid and life-giving and life-fulfilling as the Christian walk of life. Thus, embedded in my good news is a "refusability clause", so to speak.  The Christian good news of Jesus is an invitation to one way of life, but because it is an invitation, it may be rejected.  Rejecting this gospel does not eternally damn one to hell but rather implies an individual prefers a different spiritual way of life.  My personal hope is that those that refuse the Christian gospel find solace and comfort (that lack of hopelessness and anomie) in another faith tradition or spiritual path.  I also believe no Christian should resent or pity or condemn anyone that rejects the Christian gospel because each Christian had a choice in choosing her or his own faith.  God's love is evenly available to all of God's creation, which includes those that follow this Gospel and those that do not.

3. There is a distinctive way to live as a Christian.  Christian living should be void of judgment and full of love.  Every single human on this earth was created in the image of God.  Fred Phelps and Steve Jobs.  Adolf Hitler and Rosa Parks.  David Karesh and Barack Obama.  Saddam Hussein and Mother Theresa.  God made all of them.  No matter whether or not we think they were good people on this earth, it is not the Christian's job to judge their actions.  It is the Christian's job to respect the inherent worth of every human life and to do so as best as we can in a peaceable and loving manner; at the very least in a civil manner.  Christians could try putting this into practice by sharing a meal with someone from a different race, class, sexual identity, or religious tradition as themselves and never once bringing up that difference in the conversation.

Christian living should be void of envy and full of hospitality.  Especially in Western society, we are incredibly individualistic, consumer oriented, and profit driven.  Most of us in Western societies are NOT the "poor" Jesus offers solace to in the Sermon on the Mount.  Such self-centered living is not how Christians are called to behave.  Christians are called to live in community.  We think it torture to isolate a person and consider solitary confinement one of the most extreme and last resort options of inmate treatment.  That is because God designed us to be social creatures that live in community with each other, not in individualized compartmentalized bubbles that occasionally bump into each other.  Christians could try putting this to practice in the future by asking the person that drives your bus or makes your coffee or brings you your dinner if they're having a good day.

Christian living should be void of blind acceptance and full of questions.  Christians should always be studying their faith and discussing their questions or revelations or reflections with other Christians and non-Christians.  Education is crucial and education does not only come from the Bible or theological reference books.  Education also comes from experience.  Education also comes from tradition.  Education also comes from reason.  (I'm sure my Methodist friends are jumping up and down right now.)  Personally, before I started asking questions, from a young age, I had a sense that someone or something existed that was "larger" than me.  However, I am only just now starting to know God.  And I have no sense that I will fully know God anytime soon, or potentially ever.  And that's okay.  In the seven years or so that I was jaded and emotionally removed from religion, I began questioning.  In the past three years in particular, I have sought to answer those questions.  The more I get possibilities for answers, the less I know for certain, and yet the more certain I am that God exists and that I should be following the Christian spiritual path.  I try to find friends of varying faith identities that will support me on this journey and I am involved in a Christian community (Episcopal at the moment) that nurtures and challenges my faith as well.  Christians could try putting this into practice by asking someone of the same denomination, someone of the same religion but different denomination, and someone of a different religion to answer the questions I have tried to answer here.

Again, I welcome your comments, am happy to clarify or expound on anything not mentioned here, and hope to be further shaped and nurtured through this dialogue.  It is a vulnerable feeling to post this confessional type message to the blogosphere, but I do hope there is some good news for you in here.