Salt

A Question

I was asked, on another blog, “What warrant do we have for rejecting the Biblical consensus – or in the terms of the previous paragraph, of reinterpreting (reappraising) the data?”

This is a worthy question. One of the differences between modernists and reasserters is how they understand the biblical worldview. I think that worldviews are varied and plastic - even in our own time. I still hold to a unitive understanding of truth, but I think it is obvious that cultures have created vastly different ways of describing the world.

One aspect of the Old Testament world view was that property and sexuality were intrinsically linked. To have sex meant the creation of a child; children and women were assests to a family. Society, technology, and capitalism, have delinked the two. This is so deeply earthshaking that I suspect even traditionalists haven't gotten it.

Second, the natural law arguments describing sexuality are human interpretations of God's will. I believe we know little about the purpose of sexuality. We do know that sex does create children. But sex also creates bonds between people; it mitigates conflict; it develops communication; it makes people happy. I think scripture makes few claims about the purpose of sex - but its description is wonderfully multivalent.

Third, the biblical consensus around the mechanics of procreation may have been wrong. If semen was a scarce resource for the creation of children, then any misuse - masturbation, for example, would have been wrong because it didn't create wealth. If it not a scarce resource, then the justification for homosexuality may also have been wrong.

Fourth, homosexuality is more of a descriptuion of exclusion than a thing in itself. For example, many human cultures have conflated homosexuality with the foreign. The Old Testament is ambivalent about the status of foreigners - on one hand, we are called to be hospitable and open; but foreigners are also impure. Ethnicities continue to do this - claiming that the foreigner is what is decadent, while we, the nation, are pure. Modern thinking separates these claims.

My remarks simply point out that the "biblical consensus" around sexuality rests upon claims [which it does not make because everyone who read it assumed the same] not shared by a modern worldview. But this does not mean that we have lost everything. Surely, we know that respecting property is part of God's will; that we are called to love one another; and that we are continually accountable for keeping our covenant with God. The world also has not shifted so much that sin and holiness are not inconceivable in our culture.

But when the bible reads into us, it does not read the same people that were read even 400 years ago. Its message of God's love, His grace, and his strangeness, are still present, and still powerful.

Episcopal News

The Church of the Redeemer is in the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire. Recently, nearly forty people in the congregation left to begin a new life outside the jurisdiction of +Robinson's authority. They are worshipping in a Baptist Church.

Apparently, when women were ordained, a fair number of them left to start Trinity Anglican Church. It seems self-sustaining, enough to build its own church.

But there are some who are returning to Redeemer. In an ENS article, one person said, "I lapsed from the church for a while and the fact that Gene Robinson became a bishop brought me back," he said. "The diocese chose him through an open and fair election. The fact that he is gay is immaterial."

Yesterday, the plumber, who is a Catholic, asked me if my parish was decreasing in terms of numbers. "No. Some left before I came, however, because they liked the last pastor a lot."

"I just don't understand - I mean, for all my life, I've taught that it was wrong, you know, being gay. I mean, why is the church changing now?"

"Well you're catholic. Don't you know Gay priests?"

"He stumbled. Well, yeah, in fact, I would say most of them are gay. But they're..."

"celibate."

"I mean, if I were an adulterer, I still think I should be able to come to church."

"Uh, yeah."

"And there are lots of addictions. Like gay people need church too."

"Ok, that's one way of looking at it."

"And I guess that he is a very spiritual person, this bishop up there. I mean, he's from such a liberal state, Massachusetts."

"He's from New Hampshire."

"Oh, New Hampshire, well, is that so?"

"Yep. They have an independent streak, and they did know Robinson for a long time. Look, think of sexuality like food. Some foods you will always like; others you will, because of your conditioning, find taboo. Other foods would never cross your mind."

"I see. Hm, that's interesting, Father. I love having these conversations with you. I mean, I know what you're saying. I mean, I think God welcomes everybody. But I mean, give gay couples, or even any two people, partnerships to manage insurance and the like. But marriage is between a man and a woman. And only between a man and a woman."

"Well, I won't argue with that" if he gives civil rights to gay couples, why bother with semantics?

Archbishop in the News

Rowan is in the news a lot these days. First, he has written an introduction for a bible retranslated for agnostic England. Unfortunately, he will be misunderstood by those already in the club as endorsing something other than thinking.

There is also a rumor he will be on the Simpsons.

One lesson I've been learning about parish ministry is that often parishioners prefer the life of the familiar, rather than a New Life, which means something strange to them. A good part of my work has been done by reaching out to the community to discover how they are trying to wrestle with life and God.

I started a food co-op - which has been running remarkably well. People are entering church who have never entered church before - for organic food. I'm starting a babysitting co-op also. These are easy - just find the right "connector" and the project flows on its own.

A parishioner came to me and suggested a program for senior men recently released from prison. It has a lot of potential.

Been working on a "Sundays on Thursdays" service. We'd have it outside, with a barbecue afterward. Instead of a sermon - a skit or an interview. Music by Hank Williams.

And Bob Marley.

Can't go wrong with either.

But tonight... Salsa.

Why Church for those Who Don't Speak Christian

The Church builds trust among its diverse members:
It does this, also, by being trustworthy.
It advocates for the less fortunate;
It cares for those who do not get care;
It harnesses the highest ideals of the West;
It is a place to gather out of mutual affection rather than necessity or profit;
It helps create and develops ideas, talents and relationships of intrinsic, rather than extrinsic, worth;
It provides down time;
It deepens and encourages reverence, which is then taken into society;
It teaches that there is power when gathered;
It also lifts up the limits of our power;

Anything else?

Elements in the Sexuality Debate

A few things to note about the sexuality debate:

I wonder if we should resist making the Good Book into a set of universal laws. For me, all that is universal is the faith of Jesus Christ, as exemplified by him. Some laws are more universal than others, and some have clearer scriptural justification; but there might be only particular laws, and few natural laws knowable in theology.

Second, conservatives do not address Judean pre-scientific understandings of sex. Is this important?

Third, if sexuality is about purity, then why can't we address purity in the light of new testament reconsiderations of food. Conservatives avoid the issues that social anthropologists have made regarding purity, food, and sex.

To say that scripture has context implicitly reminds us of the the scandal of particularity. Plainly, everything is particular. My experience of Jesus is particular; my knowledge of God IS subjective. Otherwise we’d have a set of easy laws. But the law isn't the point.

Bush Going Crazy?

From Capitol Blue

It would make sense. One comment I heard from a socialist fundamentalist parishioner is that Bush is just a "dry drunk." A cheap shot, perhaps, but provocative, surely.

Time to look for parishes in Italy.

Stalker

Had my stalker arrested last week. After several weeks of visiting on Sundays, she had resumed calling me at crazy hours, inviting me over to celebrate friendship.

Last Tuesday she came into the office. She started to giggle. I said, Estelle, get out of here. Why didn't my secretary hear the door open? She was on the phone. I yelled, "Estelle, get out. Now." But why? she asks, startled. "You know why. You have made sexual advances on me, even when I have made it very clear how I feel." My secretary rushed out. I was advancing toward Estelle, who was backing away, into a chair. "Now get out. Go. Now!" She was surprised. My secretary got her out.

On Saturday, Estelle comes over. Jane, my girlfriend, and I are watching "buffy" who is, BTW, the female Jesus. I escape while Jane answers the door.

Jane comes back in and says, call a taxi.

Say, have you ever... exposed yourself to her?

She knows the answer. You've got to be kidding me, I say.

Yeah. Crazy. She told me that you were both having an affair.

Sunday Estelle comes by. I tell the deacon to call the police. A police officer and I talk for a minute. I tell the deacon to ask Estelle to come up and see me, so that the police can arrest her with some dignity. Its too late, one of the policemen has entered through the back into the soup kitchen. The wardens have pointed her out. When I come downstairs, the officer asks, "what do you want to do." He'd taken the report the first time.

"Arrest her."

"thattaboy." Thattaboy?

She considers fleeing, but realizes that they have her in a corner. She giggles for a minute and then, when they put her in cuffs, she realizes this is serious.

They take her away.

One of the police officers asks me to come down to the police station. He invites me into the back seat of the cop car.

There are no handles.

And I'm wearing a collar.

"Can I sit in the front seat?"

"well, I guess. I mean, you are a priest. But it's against policy."

"I don't want to get you in trouble. I'll sit in the back."

I get in, wondering if I should take off my collar. I slip it off, ashamed.

New Sexton

We might hire a new sexton. He was a criminal 22 years ago. We've done an extensive background check, and nothing's turned up. He has been completely upfront with us, and has been a reliable, open, and helpful person as a soup kitchen volunteer.

My secretary said, "could you ask him not to come into the office when I'm here?"

why is that? Has he said anything?

"He comes in an he just talks to me." He does it to me also. Simple loneliness, on some level. "He's around when I come by; and he watches me go." Has he said anything sexual?

"No, nothing. Just comes in to tell me what he plans to do."

[sigh]. I admit, he does have a glare, a glare that was developed in prison. Its the predatory glare that keeps other predators away.

I said, "I'll tell him you have a lot of work to do. You should do that too."

The man was in prison for a good 20+ years, out on good behavior, for being a gangbanger. Been on parole for more than seven.

I want to offer this guy a job. He's got great recs from every place he's worked - but his record prevents him from having anything steady.

but the glare. Know it. Fear it. And then Break it down with love.

Is it possible?

Ronald Reagan

Yes, the end of an era. I offer begrudging respect ad the man who understood the media so well. He was a communicator, and underestimated.

But I don't think he was responsible for undoing communism - in no way save is public disrespect for it; nor was he responsible for any kind of economic recovery.

His ideology, strangely, gave us both Hussein and Bin Laden.

May he rest in peace.