January 25, 2012

Is there a moral law?

Is there a moral law written into the fabric of existence? Is there an impulse for the good, the beautiful, the just embedded in human life? As there is a drive known in evolution to refine and uplift, there appears to be an ethical imperative and a life force centered on growth, change and the nobility of others. In recent history the argument has been advanced by the Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis. He sees this moral law written in the history of altruism, which is more than mutual satisfaction, but lies in the impulse to offer to others a benevolence with nothing expected in return. This is not to say humans are essentially good, but that there are those who see beyond the mundane to values and ways to live which are more than “where’s mine.” Without those who have caught that vision, life for all of us would be bereft.

There are almost endless examples throughout history. What impelled Oskar Schindler to endanger his own life while protecting a thousand Jews, or Mother
Teresa to give herself to the nobodies of Calcutta? The New Testament word for this benevolent lifestyle is agape, a love which gives because that is its nature.

The great thinker and philosopher Emmanuel Kant in his “Critique of Pure Reason,” says, “Two things inspire me to awe, the starry heavens above and the moral universe within.”

The great theme of the Christian faith is that there lies at the heart of the universe a moral law which begins with the words, “God so loved the world……” The
Greek word for “world” here’ is the physical world. When the Bible uses the word “world” in a negative sense (‘do not be conformed to this world’) it uses another Greek word which denotes selfish destructive systems.

While there is also deeply embedded in human nature the passion to rule, kill, own, subject and control, at the same time unless these impulses are countered by the moral law evidenced in altruism, all human life would be reduced to tooth and claw, and evidenced only in the survival of the fittest. Good religion is one partner in the quest for the noble, even if much of religious history has evidenced the opposite.
The moral law may not be embedded in human nature, but is incarnate in those who see beyond the tyranny of self.

January 16, 2012

Religion and evolution

Can religion and science find some common ground?

Dr. Francis S. Collins is one of the world’s leading scientists. As head of the nation’s Human Genome Project, he led what may well turn out to be the most important biological breakthrough in modern history. Collins is one of a substantial number of the world’s premier scientists who are also people of religious faith. These theistic scientists have formed a group called “Theologis” believing that science and faith can share common ground. The group includes, among many others, a number of Nobel Laureates. They reject both Creationism in which faith trumps science and Intelligent Design in which science needs divine help. Collins spells out six premises as discussion points linking faith and science. They are:

1-The universe came into being out of nothingness approximately 14 billion years ago.
2-Despite massive improbabilities, the properties of the universe appear to have been precisely tuned for life.
3-While the precise mechanism for the origin of life remains unknown, once life arose, the process of evolution and natural selection permitted the development of biological diversity and complexity over long periods of time.
4-Once evolution got underway, no special supernatural intervention was required.
5-Humans are part of this process, sharing a common ancestor with the great apes.
6-Humans are also unique in ways that defy evolutionary explanation, which points to our spiritual nature. This includes existence of the Moral Law (the knowledge of right and wrong) and the search for God that characterizes human creatures throughout history.

Collins, Francis S. “The Language of God” Free Press (Simon And Schuster) New York 2006 page 200.


While those at both extremes might reject any one or more of the above premises, there are serious scientists who believe these may be a way to start a rational
discussion.

January 3, 2012

the occupyroseparade.

OCCUPY AND THE ROSE PARADE

Having just returned from Occupytheroseparade, I want to share a brief report while it is fresh in my mind—and my tired legs. Four of us from Pilgrim Place marched, including two former seminary presidents and a leader of a laywomen’s Catholic order. We were joined by a retired cleric from the Palm Springs area and a pastor and his wife from Pasadena. As we talked with others in the crowd, it became obvious that there were a significant number who had marched out of a religious motivation—for justice, peace, the preservation of the environment and care of the left out. At least that is why we were there. As I never question anyone else’s motivation, I trust that our motivation will simply be accepted.

People of all ages and economic classes had joined the demonstration for a number of differing reasons. Some were there—mostly younger people—because they had been directly affected. They are out of their homes, out of jobs and overwhelmed with education debts. That was the most important group. Still others were generic progressives, who believed that corporations embody the antithesis of the American dream. Still others represented organized labor and saw rightwing politics systematically choking unions. Others represented vegetarianism, aromatherapy and political anarchy.

Then there were those with a highly developed ethical sensitivity arising from a variety of sources, some religious some anti-religious. Among them were those whose sensitivity came from a religious imperative. Occupy is not a religious movement—not even mainly so— but it is infused with people who find their ethical imperative rising from their religious faith. They are embarrassed by the religious rightwing, which seems to trust not only in corporate power but also in the inequality and injustice which comes with that political perspective. Along the way we encounter three counter demonstrators on the sidewalk with banners proclaiming that only in Christ is there salvation—with the appropriate Bible texts. While we were angry and embarrassed, others in the crowd were verbally clear that this sort of “evangelism” was abusive and not wanted or helpful.

Our little group’s estimate of the crowd ranged all the way from 800 (mine) to 2,000. Take your pick. It was a loud but orderly assemblage. The police were almost invisible and there was no threat of trouble or any inappropriate disruption. Most of us carried signs about one of Occupy’s issues. Mine said, NO KEYSTONE PIPELINE. Fifty or so demonstrators carried a great plastic-bag octopus, and others a hundred and twenty feet long edition of the Constitution. It was all a great deal of fun. We received a variety of responses along the way. Mostly cheers and thumbs up, but particularly from the high-priced stands, thumbs down and a few catcalls. Along the route, we encountered a few white-suited Pasadena parade officials—none of whom were smiling.

When I arrived back at our community, I was told that none of the TV stations carried our march, and had turned off the cameras as the last “official” float had passed. It is no secret that TV stations are owned by the very corporations that were the objects of the demonstrators. So while coverage was limited, the movement- building among the marchers was worth the effort. I’m glad I was able to participate.

December 30, 2011

I just got a strange message

which only said, "you shouldn't be seeing this." And a request to report it here? What is this about?

December 28, 2011

A post-Christmas reflection

We’ve done it for another year. While the liturgical calendar mandates that Christmas lasts for twelve days, let’s face it: when the football game ends sometime on the evening of Christmas day, for most Americans it is time to get over it. All the presents have been opened, and in a couple of days what is left of the live trees will be on the curbs ready for the trash hauler. Shortly the credit card statements will arrive and the merchants will tell us whether Christmas was a grand success or financial disaster. And isn’t that what the whole thing has been about—or at least much of it? But maybe not for everybody.

Not for Howard Thurman. After serving on the faculty of Howard University, he founded the “Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples.” in San Francisco. His final post was as and Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University (1953-65). But perhaps he is best remembered for his poetry.
For Thurman, as for many millions of others, the message of religion, particularly Christmas, is the entrée to a life-changing encounter with the Holy, and that means with the world. The mystery surrounding Jesus’ birth is far more than the telling of a beautiful story of angels, shepherds, wise men and a star hung over the manger. So what do we do when the last carol is a fading memory and the remnants of the feast have been safely refrigerated? Here is how Thurman put it:
When the Song of the Angels Is Stilled
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.

From The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations by Howard Thurman.
Friends United Press, 2001 edition
Here lies the critical difference in how people see religion. For some it is the belief in the story’s truth. For others it is a hope in life beyond the grave. For still others it is a mystical vision. But for many it is a call to bind up the world’s wounds. And that is what it was for Thurman and is for most of the Christians I know. It doesn’t bother me that probably for lots of religionists it is truth, hope or mystery. People see what they see. But what gives me hope each year when the angels have gone and the star is dimmed, is living with and knowing about Christians all over the world who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of peace, justice, compassion and the vision of a better world. That is what the story of the Christ child is at its core, and that is the heart of Christianity. Thurman’s vision is what goes on these days in seminaries, in thousands of congregations and in millions of homes, even as the decorations are being taken down and safely put in their boxes.
Have a blessed new year even as you are a blessing somewhere and to someone.

December 28, 2011

bigotry abounds

The United Methodist church in our city produces a large Christmas display each year. Last year it was a modern homeless family in the manger. This year it depicted three life-sized couples each holding hands--before a representation of the manger. Two women, two men and a heterosexual couples. Christmas night vandals destroyed the images of the two gay couples. Outrage in the community and in support of the church is rampant. We will gather to witness the rebuilding of the display. The bigots are not yet unidentified. Most of the churches in our area are welcoming to GLBTQ people. They are about the only places in town that are open and affirming.

December 22, 2011

Bah! Humbug!

WHAT’S WITH THE HUMBUG? (12/21)

In earlier years I often got my knickers in a twist fuming about the commercialization of Christmas. “Santa has replaced the manger child! Ain’t it a shame? Grumble, grumble, grumble!” The issue has not gotten any simpler. The whiskered man in the red suit still increasingly dominates the season, and the manger has been increasingly replaced by the mall. But an important change has taken place in me. I am devoted to the story of the manger child. And while I still tend to avoid the malls and the hectic shopping sprees, I now spend more time and energy listening to those I casually encounter as they talk about childhood memories, family gatherings, the empty place at the Christmas table and ways they plan to do something for needy people they don’t even know. Some of those to whom I listen find themselves regularly in church. Some just show up at Christmas, and perhaps Easter. And others never darken the church door. But regardless of their religious practice, or even their religious attitudes—or lack of them—there is something about the carols and songs, the decorations, the colored lights framing the eves of houses or viewed through picture windows, the manger scenes and even the plastic snowmen silently performing their sentry duties on neighborhood lawns.

Some people sing out “Merry Christmas” to friends and strangers alike. Others say “Happy Holidays,” but it’s the same message. “No matter who you are, we are neighbors on this troubled planet, and at least for this short time, we have each other.”

Sometime during these days many of us will either see a production or listen to a reading of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, and take pity on Ebenezer Scrooge with his dismal “humbug.” And if we run across someone who also sneers at the season because it is too religious or not religious enough, we will smile, perhaps invite them in for a hot drink and recall the words of Scrooge’s nephew when confronted with his lonely, old, grumpy uncle.

Humbug uncle? I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!
And finally we will recall the words of Tiny Tim, who was not making a theological statement, but offering a heart-warming song of love to anyone with ears to hear and hearts softened by the season, when he said, “God bless us, every one.”
So whoever you are and wherever you find yourself in life’s journey, my word to you echoes that sentiment, and I also say, “God bless us, everyone!”

December 21, 2011

OWS, trinity church and a manger scene

Check this one out--for where religion is both a gift and a burden.

December 19, 2011

Cornel West was at our church yesterday.

Cornel West and Serene Jones spoke at our church yesterday. Jones is President of the Union Theological Seminary in New York, and has just hired West away from Princeton. West is and has been a committed Christian activist. They appeared to talk about the religious involvement in the Occupy Wall Street action. Both made it clear that Occupy is not primarily or even substantially a religious phenomenon. However, substantial part of the progressive liberal community is deeply involved as supporters. Jones reported that 45 Seminary students have been in Occupy every day since it began. There are councilors to help those in trouble over the rough spots. While Occupy picks up anarchists, communists, street people and a collection of the fragile, religious leaders are on hand to help all sorts of people deal with the wounds life has handed out. Religious groups from both New York and Boston have consistently been present as part of Occupy, to help keep the movement non-violent. Many of us in the Occupy ranks are also there because we believe in the issues Occupy has raised.

A number of us from my religious community, who are part of a local Occupy action, plan to join with the Los Angeles group in generating a float and somehow marching in the Rose Parade. Working out the details is a substantial job. But we are detemined.

www.occupytheroseparade.org

As an aside, West indicated that while he is still unhappy with Obama’s lean to the center, he is horrified by any Republican alternative. My guess is he will finally support the President.

December 14, 2011

Supporting the occupy demonstration in our city

Occupy had had a small tent demonstration at our City Hall for almost two months. The City Council has been asked to remove it.
I appeared to testify before the Council as a member of the community. I had formed my opinion out of the imperative of my religious faith. Others came from other perspectives just as legitimate, but I came because that is what my faith demands. Here is a slightly edited copy of what I said.

“For some weeks I have personally observed what has been happening on our doorsteps. I have been to all the town meetings of the Occupiers and have dropped by late at night to see what was happening, and to talk with those, mainly students, sleeping out in the cold. I have observed them being polite, clean, orderly, peaceful and sincere. I have seen nothing that would constitute a violation of the law or a public disturbance. Their effort has been to talk about injustice in society, and I applaud what they have had to say. Their models are Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and other non-violent heroes of faith and action. If corporations can now sink millions of dollars—which is now called speech-- into political campaigns, why should these poor students and those with them, having only their bodies, and sleeping in the cold, be denied the freedom of speech they have exercised? I am not a lawyer, but your City Attorney has said there is nothing they have done which is a violation of the law. But out of my ethical formation and faith I believe that to deny them the right is not only illegal but also immoral.”

I would be interested in what others here have done and said either in support or in opposion to the Occupiers.