Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

I for one would not change it, for I am not wise enough to know what it should be. I can only attempt to change myself, and let God use his grace on me as he sees fit.
I would hope that Christians could hate each other a little less, but perhaps that is needed to create a greater good.
For now I think I'll just watch the Nataraja continue to dance.
 

I think that's the main point. The only way to show an alternative side to prevailing views of Christianity is to use one's alternative voice. I have no desire to change other individuals; that's up to them and their God. I do want to see quiet believers who've let the Right Wing's be mistaken for Righteousness quit being quiet.

Maybe I should get some T-shirts made up, in the style of the Yosemite Sam "Turn-or-Burn" junk, that have a picture of Tweety with one of his fat yellow cheeks leaning out and a caption that says "Turn and Turn"!

Hey, I stumbled across this on at www.justbegood.net, a Buddhist site. Sounds to me like Jesus is a Buddhist!


Interest in Buddhism is growing steadily worldwide, especially from people seeking answers in this current global age of clashing ideologies, fanatical strife and senseless violence.

Why is this interest now growing so quickly, especially in the West?
Perhaps it is because more and more people are now recognizing these facts about Buddhism:

A religion of true peace that has never advocated any violence in its name.

A religion that emphasizes compassion, tolerance and moderation.

A religion that provides a clear path for spiritual and personal development.

A religion that teaches us to take full responsibility for all of our actions.

A religion that has no room for blind faith or unthinking worship.

A religion that welcomes questions and investigations into its own teachings.

A religion that says sincere followers of other beliefs are also rewarded in the afterlife.

A religion that is very much in harmony with modern science.
 

The Buddhist would claim him as an "enlighted invividual" which make him a Buddha.
As a Hindu, which he would be too according to the Hindus, he is an Avatar which in Sanskrit is called a Daveed or one who has decended from God. Daveed, translated David in Hebrew, of course was the linage of Christ. Maybe it is a longer path to where we are now than we have previouly known.
 

I think "certainties" are marbles God gives us to play with until we actually get on the Path of Faith.

And that's what the Bible, if by that one means "God's Holy, Infallible, Inerrant, Perfect WORD," is: a toy box full of marbles.

Or something like that. One might say I have lot mine. And I wouldn't object.
 

I could join a church like that, except it would diminish my congregation.

Christianity today in America is corrupt and Jesus would have an absolute fit if He saw what was done in His name.
 

There are reasons why some of us continue to be "quiet Christians" as you say (nevermind my postings to blogs -- that's silent too, though it is a way for me to express the inner part of my faith).

For me, it's outlined in I Corinthians 13:1 (the first verse of the "Love" chapter, always worth a re-read):

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."

For me, faith is put into action in a thousand quiet ways: holding the hand of the sick and dying, and hugging those who grieve for them. Hours and hours of knitting prayer shawls to bring comfort, community and love to those who need it. More hours and hours helping to create affordable housing, instead of working to build up a mansion of my own. Providing food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty. Bringing music to worship, because music can touch the heart in ways that mere words cannot. Doing simple household tasks for the elderly who can't get up on a ladder any more to change a battery in the smoke detector, hang a clock or adjust a curtain. Recycling. Using my relationship as a child of God, made in His image, to be a co-creator in ways that I can only pray honor Him. Stopping for periods of Sabbath to refresh and restore my spirit.

There need not be anything loud about these pursuits, and in fact, serving as a quiet example is far more effective.
 

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Absolutely, Trixie.

But ...

The charade that is going on in Jesus's name at the highest levels of government and public discourse in this country is a sin and a shame, to borrow a phrase.

They want a culture war, where none actually exists! Perhaps it will take a religious war -- of words, at least -- to check it.

Remember Arius! Remember Luther! Remember Zwingli!
 

Zwingli, wasn't he the Swiss guy that mercilessly persecuted the Anabaptist because they wouldn't support him in his resistance and war with the Pope (he didn't like their theology either)?
 

Something like that, although politics and government was way tangled up in doctrine -- not unlike today -- and with real pitched battles. One man's persecution is another man's holy war, as you know.

The Right keeps trying to legislate its concept of righteousness, and morality, and whatever else, it'll come to that here, too.
 

The italics meant to indicate -- and perhaps failed to indicate -- that those words were the words of the CrossWalk people, not necesarrily mine, although I lend them my personal attaboys.

My personal animosity toward those who, in my view, bind and gag Jesus yet use his name to promote a theocracy in this very secular, yet very religious, nation may have clouded the point.

However, I *am* angry. It *is* worth being angry about. And I wish Dan Trabue would add this place to his regular blog stops.

I should choose my words more carefully. But I stand by my personal assertion, as reflected in this bit of rhetoric:

Who. Would. Jesus. Bomb.?
 

Grist for the Mill:

"When Christians label non-Christians and even other Christians as infidels, it is because they love the part of the truth they have grasped but their love is still narrow and immature. Most sin is distorted love."
------The Rev. Lowell Grisham

"Certainty can lead to arrogance. Arrogance invariably leads to condemnation. Maybe Christianity's "religion of love" needs less certainty and more trust. At the beginning of this century, I think we need to bring back a book popular last mid-century: J.B. Phillips' Your God is Too Small. The title tells the story. Many Christians seem to have (need?) a very small God. And with that small God they seem bent on whipping the very world that God so loves."
----Rev. Dr. Douglass M. Bailey

"I might be a Christian except for the Christians I have met."
--Mahatma Ghandi


"Christianity is a very good thing, I would like to see it tried sometime."
--- George Benard Shaw

"What profit has not that fable of Christ brought us!"
--Pope Leo X

"Who me worry?"
Alfred E. Newman

Todays dates is 6-6-06.
666 = Ceasar Nero in Hebrew and Greek letter numeric values.
 

"It has served us well, this myth of Christ." (sometimes misquoted as "How profitable this fable of Christ has been to us.")
It is a mis-atribution to Pope Leo the X. From a satire by John Bale (1495-1563), The Pageant of the Popes: "For on a time when a cardinall Bembus did move a question out of the Gospell, the Pope gave him a very contemptuous answer saying: All ages can testifie enough howe profitable that fable of Christe hath ben to us and our companie."
But Leo X did say: "God has given us the Papacy, let us enjoy it."
 

Re, "Maybe Christianity's 'religion of love' needs less certainty and more trust."

Amen and amen.

(Psst. A.E. Newman said, "What? Me worry?")

( ... as did G.W. Bush, he added [cough] ...)
 

If you could change the face of Christianity in America, what would be different about it?

Well, approaching it as strictly a spectator sport for me, I'd like more spectacle: costume, drama, elaborate ritual. Would be nice if he got a new Bach or Milton out of it rather than choirladies and the Left Behind series. I realize that what I want may indicate decadence in the system, sort of what pearls mean to the oysters, but the nice CrossWalk people did ask.

But to agree about the separation issue: I don't want the spectacle to go zooming off the track onto the stands, engine belching fire and all that.

Do I get any points for expanding to a semiNascar metaphor?
 

Heck TS, we got the Twin Towers and a War of Choice out of it and it's companion Islam. How much more spectacle can we stand. GW only has 2 years or so to create "The End of Days". Let's not encourage him.
 

I'm not so sure Christianity is any stronger now. In fact, I honestly think the opposite. Which is my constant refrain: Most of ehat passes for it in this country right now is sound and fury signifying nothing. It's strong politics, big money and flag-waving sheep. Mega-church Christian social clubs have lots of numbers, but size does *not* matter. Faith? Is blind hope really "faith" or is faith saying, OK, I will, at the Jesusian invitation, "Follow me." Near as I can tell that has always really meant one thing: Love God, Love your neighbor, love yourself. I don't think any of the wars fought in Jesus's name were ever fought over that. But I might be wrong.

I'm with Drlobo on the spectacle. No mas! Although I do like the smells and bells since I didn't grow up with that kind of thing.

s for Left Behind, that fiction -- and where oh where are the protestors? -- has done more to propogate the idea of Jesus and End-Time Avenger than anything. No wonder there are so many punks running around with a chip of the Cross on their shoulder, sneering at everyone not in their camp, just *hoping* they get to see the flesh of their enemies melt off their bones! All in Jesus's name, of course!
 

I went to the deal to see the CrossWalk people. Very cool. Very sincere. Somewhat overly hopeful -- but don't that always beat the alternative?
 

Got a movie recomendation for the E. Historian in you. Get a hold of the four disk version of the Kingdom of Heavan. It is a wonderful epic of the fall of Jerusalem after a hundred years of Crusader occupation. Sucker is 4 hours long but it is easy to watch and very accurate (for a movie). This extended version is soo much better than the movie was in the theaters.
 

Leo's NE 36 street OKC. Go at lunch.Go in a group of four or more. Be sure to go early enough that they still have a selection and do have a piece of their bananna cake.
 

The "emerging Christian movement -- one that joyously embraces the love of God, neighbor and self (Jesus' core values)" is nothing new. It actually "emerged" a couple thousand years ago.

It's alive and well today at soup kitchens, prisons, wherever people reach out humbly and quietly to model the servanthood exhibited by Jesus Christ when he washed the feet of the disciples.

Christianity is prayerful, committed, characterized by love and the stirring need to respond to undeserved grace. It has little to do with all the shouting that goes on in the blogosphere, endless theological debates.
 

Then call it "reemerging" -- because it has been all but lost in the wider, loud, arrogant sphere of American "Christianity" my entire lifetime, which, admittedly, is a blip compared to 2,000 years.

And I do, indeed, blame the fundamentalists of 100 years ago, and their modern descendents. That, truly, is when the most decline began.
 

"most recent decline"
 

Perhaps some of the bloggers on this site might read a bit further than the opening comments on the CWA website. If they read the Phoenix Affirmations, they would find that we don't ask anyone to change their beliefs, we just seek to carry on religious discussions without anyone throwing stones at each other. Most of us in CWA quietly demonstrate our faith in the excellent ways some of your correspondents have already mentioned, but now find that some whose voices are listened to by the media and the politicians are putting a face on Christianity that drives away good people who don't wish to be identified with the "Christian" label. Our group is walking so that some of these people will know that being a Christian doesn't mean that you have to apologize for your beliefs. A CWA Worker
 

Thanks for stoppin' by, CWA worker! Godspeed, y'all.
 

BTW, the Sunday school class I attend is using The Phoenix Affirmations the next few weeks. I've already read it. It will be a cool next few weeks. :-)