Will Fundamentalism eventually triumph?

I read something in Greta Vosper's book 'With or without God' that really got my attention. Greta quoted Lloyd Geering who in an article titled ‘Fundamentalism: the Challenge to the Secular World’ (www.religion-online.org) quoted Kirsopp Lake who in 1925 (86 years ago) predicted that the church is shrinking from the left. He said that the fundamentalists (the right) will eventually triumph in the church. They will drive the 'experimentalists ' (the radicals) out of the church and then reabsorb the 'Institutionalists' (liberals) who under pressure will become more orthodox.

This got my attention because it was 86 years ago and was a prediction about the future and is exactly what I think is happening today. Will fundamentalism eventually triumph? I hope not and I don’t want to be forced out of the church.

Lake said that it was more difficult for experimentalists to establish a viable identity because they had no firm belief structure. It is much easier for fundamentalists and conservatives to brand their version of Christianity. They know what they are on about and can articulate it clearly and quickly because it is made up of rigid doctrines and dogma. The challenge for those of us who hold less rigid views, those who want to experiment, is to find ways to brand Christianity differently than the branding done by more theologically conservative and fundamentalist Christians. This branding has to stand apart from the branding of fundamentalists and reflect a definite direction, not rigid, not dogmatic, but meaningful, inclusive, authentic, spiritually enriching, life enhancing, passionately committed to loving action, to social justice, to mercy, to forgiveness and to making this a better world.

Fundamentalism: the Challenge to the Secular World by Lloyd Geering 

http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=2732&C=2437p?title=2732&C=2437

Today, I was thinking about the spiritual journey a number of us went on in a study group during my last two years as a minister at St. John's Uniting Church, Neutral Bay (Sydney). The journey can only be followed by looking back.

There was no strategic plan to cover all the books listed below, there was no predetermined destination, no outcomes or key performance indicators. Rather it was a journey of exploration, leading from one book to another, like island hopping as we ventured further and further out to sea away from our port of origin. 

Along the way not only did we read books, we met Brian McLaren in person in North Sydney, watched Pete Rollins on Vimeo, had a Skype session with Samir Selmanovic from New York and we often saw Reza Aslan interviewed on ABC (Australia). We were enriched by the journey and very challenged by it.

It made me realise that just there is always more to learn about the people who inhabit this planet, the need for a just an equitable world in which to live, an ability to include one's 'enemies' as well as one's 'neighbours', to learn from all people, to really question the way we do 'our religion', to make meaning for today, to live in the present moment, to live without fear, that there is always more to learn about that whom we call God and lots more. One major thing it taught me is that there is a depth of faith to discover beyond the religious harbours we seek to find safety in. 

I have included the books, authors and some web links below.

Everything must change: Jesus, Global crisis and a revolution of hope’ by Brian McLaren http://www.brianmclaren.net/archives/books/brians-books/

‘The secret message of Jesus’ by Brian McLaren http://www.brianmclaren.net/

‘The fidelity of betrayal: towards a church beyond belief’ by Peter Rollins http://peterrollins.net/

‘It’s really all about God’ by Samir Selmanovic http://www.samirselmanovic.com/

‘No god but God’ by Reza Aslan http://www.rezaaslan.com/nogodbutgod.html

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Jesus Christ Superstar

On Saturday I saw the musical Jesus Christ Superstar for the first time and I was very impressed. It was an excellent production by Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts. It was full of passion and terrific performances in singing, dancing and acting.

Seemingly, it was first performed forty years ago in 1971. I'm older than that. It has been around for a long time so why haven't I seen it before now? I think it was performed in Ireland for the first time at the beginning of 1973 and I remember that there were protests about it when it came to Cork. Some people were still protesting it again in 2003 when it was performed in Cork. Was it those 1970s protests that put me off? I'm sure that at the time the protests acted as the best publicity.

As I watched the performance I thought about the protests.What was all the fuss about? Why were some who claim to be followers of Jesus so threatened by it? I imagined that the protesters could have been part of the script. It would be interesting to place a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar within another musical or play a bit like the plot of the film 'Jesus of Montreal' (1989). The protesters adding more calls of 'blasphemy' would only enhance the script and bring into sharper focus how we can use religion as a negative, oppressive and controlling force in people's lives today just as it was back in the time of Jesus. Perhaps it has been done already.

Just as Jesus challenged the religion of his day so the religion of our day needs to be challenged. We want to challenge people beyond our definitions of the church with the message of Jesus but will we let people 'beyond' or 'outside' the church challenge us with the message of Jesus? Shall we let them speak (or sing, dance and act) or shall we seek to silence them just as we seek to silence those within the church who raise questions and see things differently?

The world before us

I was driving to Sydney the week before Easter and found myself singing a chorus from my childhood except that I was singing a line the wrong way round and I realised that I was expressing how my theology has changed. Of course this would be heresy to some Christians but for me it is a very important fundamental shift.

What was the chorus? Answer: I have decided to follow Jesus. The original version goes like this: I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. The cross before me, the world behind me, the cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back, no turning back. The line I had reversed was being sung like this: the cross behind us, the world before us...

When I look at a lot of Christianity it seems to have turned its back on this world in which we live. It's focus is on the world to come. Some Christians appear to uncritically follow the symbol of a cross, they have exchanged living life to the full for a narrow version of the message of Jesus. Suppose we were to see the cross as the beginning or the spring board for living life rather than the end. After all don't we turn on Easter Sunday from an empty cross and an empty tomb in the power of the resurrection to follow where the Spirit leads us in life?

The cross is symbolic of a God who suffers with humanity, with all creation and who frees us to live the life we were created to live. With the cross behind us, with the foundation of that theology, a theology grounded in the suffering and death of Jesus we focus firmly on making this world a better place. The cross behind us. the world before us...

Looking and listening for emerging theologies

I think that one of the hardest things for us leaders in the church to do is to humbly look at and listen to what is going on outside the church (or even outside our particular denomination). Could there be emerging theologies brewing outside the church which are consistent with the stories of Jesus and being given life by the Spirit? Do we only consider that which is arising from within recognised Christian denominations as emerging theology?

If you search on the internet you will see that there are many male church leaders forcefully speaking and writing against what is emerging within the church. Why is this? Are they afraid that Christians will be led astray once more or are they afraid of losing power or what? I am not surprised at this because this has been the history of the church. Church history has been written by the victors, not the losers. The victors being those who exercised power and excluded others with an alternative view or theology. Often these were excommunicated from the church or from a particular denomination. Theological view points were enforced by threat of death and by the use of armed forces. Writings were burned along with their authors. Thus we have had a suppression of female voices, alternative voices, minority voices, prophetic voices etc. So when I see this debate going on within the church I just think here we go again.

Rather than defending the truth at all costs, would it not be more in line with following Jesus to take a more humble approach? If we are so set in our beliefs as being right may we not be in danger of not following the Spirit in this day? My experience has been that there are many people outside the church who do not consider themselves as Christian but who are engaging with the teaching of Jesus and living this out in their lives. Surely how we live is more important than what we believe or at least what we believe must be lived out not just believed?  Unfortunately many of us live out what we believe the gospel to be in a violent way and unaware of the violence we do to others. Is this the gospel of Jesus we are living out or is it the gospel eclipsed by ego, power and the desire to control? How different might the church be if we emphasised living out love and if we looked and listened beyond the church to what may be emerging?

Creating space for gathering and reflecting

Creating space for gathering and reflection

Recently, I and another person were speaking at the North Sydney monthly Business Network Lunch associated with the Uniting Church. The title for our presentation was ‘Holding space for change’. This particular meeting had the highest turn out of female attendees ever. I asked a few of the women why they had come to this particular meeting. It was the title and the different descriptions of space used in the advertising that had captured their imagination; words such as: community space, sacred space, liminal space, suspended space and neutral space. In our presentation we also spoke about safe space, shared space, uncontested space, and cyber space. The words had resonated with their own desires to enter a space which would enable them to explore and open up to possibilities. By using particular language we were able to create a space for reflection.

Samir Selmanovic — learning to love well

Samir Selmanovic — learning to love well

Space for Gathering and Reflection

In Lieven Boeve's book 'Interrupting Tradition: An Essay on Christian Faith in a Postmodern Context', Lieven looks at the future possibilities for the church. Faced with declining attendances while at the same time a growing interest in spirituality outside the church, Lieven suggests three ways that the church may go. The church could retreat into absolutism, authoritarianism and fundamentalism, or it could embrace the marketisation of religion and compete alongside every other religion and spiritual idea, or the church can create space for gathering and reflection, a rich seed bed from which new forms of church may flourish. 

I like the idea of churches creating space for people to gather and reflect. To be a place where people gather, the church must be a welcoming place not just for some people, not just for the people who think like us, but even for people who do not think like us. This is very challenging for me. It means that when I gather with people whose ideas and beliefs I do not share, I need to suspend those ideas and beliefs for a time, to put them to the side, and step into a space where I can be open to other people, to see beyond our differences, and to find openings where together we can proceed further in relationship with one another, and where together we can tackle the issues and challenges we face in this world at this time.