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Jan. 26th, 2004 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaMost people who read my journal probably know that I'm a Unitarian-Universalist. Probably, fewer people know that I'm also a Christian. Over the last few years, and especially since joining a UU church, I've felt more and more that I want to attach qualifiers to my use of the word "Christian." The Christian religious message has strong personal meaning for me, and I find personal inspiration in the life and teachings of Jesus, but I'm increasingly uncomfortable identifying myself with the Christian church. It seems too closely identified with exclusion, and exclusive claims to truth.
But I don't want to give up Christian religious practice, or my Christian religious heritage. I don't want to turn Christianity exclusively over to those who use it for oppressive purposes. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to work out a balance by practicing Christianity within the UU church - within a context that explicitly rejects the idea that any one religious tradition has the only truth. So I'm excited that my church has accumulated enough people to form a Christian covenant group.
Covenant groups are small circles of people who gather for spiritual exploration. I'm already in one that's made up of people in high-stress human service professions. We meet monthly to discuss the spiritual dimensions of the work we do, and to support and encourage each other through inevitable periods of doubt and burnout. I've been in this group for two years or so, and I find it enormously helpful. The Christian group is brand-new, and I'm not sure exactly what it will turn out to be.
To begin with, we're going to be reading our way through Understanding the Bible: An introduction for skeptics, seekers, and religious liberals, plus the sections of the Bible discussed in the text. This gives me a chance to trot out one of my favorite UU jokes: "Unitarian-Universalist Bible Study will meet after church today. Bring your own Bible and a pair of scissors." But it also, I think, is going to be just exactly what I'm looking for: support in rejecting the oppressive uses of Christianity while celebrating the good parts.
But I don't want to give up Christian religious practice, or my Christian religious heritage. I don't want to turn Christianity exclusively over to those who use it for oppressive purposes. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to work out a balance by practicing Christianity within the UU church - within a context that explicitly rejects the idea that any one religious tradition has the only truth. So I'm excited that my church has accumulated enough people to form a Christian covenant group.
Covenant groups are small circles of people who gather for spiritual exploration. I'm already in one that's made up of people in high-stress human service professions. We meet monthly to discuss the spiritual dimensions of the work we do, and to support and encourage each other through inevitable periods of doubt and burnout. I've been in this group for two years or so, and I find it enormously helpful. The Christian group is brand-new, and I'm not sure exactly what it will turn out to be.
To begin with, we're going to be reading our way through Understanding the Bible: An introduction for skeptics, seekers, and religious liberals, plus the sections of the Bible discussed in the text. This gives me a chance to trot out one of my favorite UU jokes: "Unitarian-Universalist Bible Study will meet after church today. Bring your own Bible and a pair of scissors." But it also, I think, is going to be just exactly what I'm looking for: support in rejecting the oppressive uses of Christianity while celebrating the good parts.
Today, many otherwise well-informed, intelligent people - religious liberals, seekers after wisdom and justice, even skeptics and the news media - often speak as though the Bible says and means only what those fundamentalists say that it says and means!
This shows not only a lack of understanding but also a failure of maturity and wisdom. Those who reject or neglect the Bible fail to recognize that to "throw the Bible out" because others have turned it into an idol, or because you don't accept what you take to be the conventional understanding of its teachings, doesn't mean that it ever goes away. Rather, it simply means that it ends up only in the hands and on the lips of others - often reactionary others - where it can and will be used against you. [...]
Oppressive interpretations of the Bible do kill, literally. You'll find no denial of that here. Massive injustice has been and continues to be done in the name of the Bible...The problem is that all of us allow the powers and principalities of both secular and spiritual oppression to usurp the spirit of the Bible and use it to legitimize such clear sins as economic and environmental exploitation, racism, sexism, homophobia, and more. Meanwhile the Bible is also about the beauty and goodness of creation itself; about the ancient human struggle for freedom and liberation; about frustration with violence and injustice throughout the generations; and about experiences of exultation, expectation, and inspiration that can sustain the human quest for wisdom, justice, and peace. Understood properly, it is also a remarkably honest look at the true religious spirit itself being taken captive, even crucified, by hierarchies of church and state, and at the perennial need to resurrect and renew a true discipleship of equals.The first meeting of the Christian group is tonight. I'm not sure who exactly will be there, or how much we'll have in common. I hope it turns out to be what it seems like it could be. If nothing else, this book has me tremendously excited, and I'm looking forward to reading and discussing the rest. But I've been finding myself wishing for some sort of deeper spiritual experience in my life, lately. Maybe this will be the road in.
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Thank You!
Date: 2004-01-27 05:23 am (UTC)Thank you... you reaffirm my faith. I hope it all goes well for you.
Katrina