Monday muse
Now and then, from Time to Time as this morning, I check the blog "When Belief Dies" of Sam, a man raised literalist inerrantist pentecostal fundamentalist. Sam, who lives with his wife and children in the North of England, writes on the thesis "My goal is to honestly share my story in a way that makes people think about why they believe what they believe."
Thinking about exactly that, what I believe and why, is part of my own life as well, evidently based in my resistance to authority, which comes from working for my father in his seafood business early in my life, age nine through seventeen, and in his printing plant summer 1955 when I was nineteen and about to enter my junior year at UnivFlorida. I cannot stand, will not abide, anyone telling me what to do, and it flows over into challenging others telling me what to think, believe.
Steve Jobs caught my respect and ratified my perspective the year he told a graduating class "Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking." Just so, my regarding dogma as σκύβαλον, rubbish; "dogma" understood as practice or belief laid on by authority as mandatory for membership. We have doctrine but no dogma in the Episcopal Church, and my disquiet with creeds and doctrine is well known to my inner Being.
Others whom I deeply respect include professor and renowned New Testament scholar Bart D Ehrman, who started religiously where Sam did, and worked his way intellectually through Moody, Wheaton, and Princeton, and in time the Episcopal Church, on his road to acknowledging himself and acting conscientiously. Where Ehrman professes to be religiously has no bearing on his brilliance as expert, scholar, speaker, teacher, author.
So, in my ancient age, as well as being true to the proverb "Seek The Truth Come Whence It May Cost What It Will" inscribed in the lintel over the library door of one of the theological seminaries I attended in my forties, I do my own thinking unapologetically; and as a mentor or teacher I try to encourage others to challenge assumptions and beliefs, and to be open to new learning and discovery.
For myself, allowing that something good may be found in anything but meanness, prejudice, certitude, hate and ignorance, I have come to appreciate religious development's Sitz im Leben, and learned to lovingly honor our holy stories among Historical Documents, while salvaging Faith as "confidence in what we hope for, assurance about what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1), and embracing the Summary of the Law as my religion's essence and entirety:
Jesus said, "The first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second commandment is its equal in every way: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:29-31
My sole mandatory -- dogma - - is promises four and five of the Baptismal Covenant:
- seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving my neighbor as myself; and
- strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.
My personal history, beginning life as an oblivious Southern White American Male, though evolving in viewpoint as my humanity matured, starts me at great unconscious disadvantage in my adventure with the Holy One: all my hope is in the conditional "with God's help".
Currently in our Sunday lectionary we've been reading stories about David and king Saul. Once (somewhat grudgingly) favored by God and filled with the Holy Spirit, in time and failure, Saul loses favor; the Holy Spirit departs him and is replaced with an evil spirit. If that happens, I'm done.
ABC&BLM&RSF&PTL
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