Intersection

One important feature of the historic 2008 presidential election was the presence of progressive religious voices in the campaign.

So begins a letter I received on Christmas Eve. With that letter was a survey addressed to me specifically and explaining that my name was chosen at random from lists of “active citizens who have a unique perspective on the 2008 campaign”.

Here is the final paragraph from the cover letter explaining the purpose of the survey:

This survey is conducted exclusively for scholarly purposes. It is paid for by the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. John C. Green is the Institute's director, a distinguished professor of political science, and a long-time student of national politics. He is widely quoted in the news media, from the Christian Century to the New York Times. His most recent book is The Faith Factor: How Religion Influences American Elections. Robert P. Jones, Ph.D., a religious studies scholar who is president of Public Religion Research and author of the new book Progressive & Religious, is serving as an advisor to the project. Thank you for your time and consideration.

This is a 9 page survey and therefore somewhat time consuming to complete. Generally I consider myself a moderate in most things and it was a challenge not to choose the “neither yes or no” answer on certain questions.

Here are examples of just a few questions:

•In your judgment, how important was the 2008 election to the future of the country?
•Overall, how would you describe your views on political issues?
•What is your view of the Scriptures?
•What should be the main goal for religious people when they engage in politics?

When I see poll statistics, I often wonder why I am never polled. So this was a welcome opportunity to "speak my mind". Although I am still trying to figure out how I came to be on this list of “active citizens”. But I was glad for the opportunity to take the survey and found many of the questions thoughtful. I was grateful for the chance to stretch my mind a bit when considering my responses.

I will be getting a summary of the results sometime in the Spring of 2009.

Christmas Blessings to All

The Coming

And God held in his hand a small globe.
Look he said.
The Son looked.
Far off, as through water,
He saw a scorched land of fierce color.
The light burned there.
Crusted buildings cast their shadows:
A bright Serpent, a river
Uncoiled itself, radiant with slime.

On a bare hill a bare tree saddened the sky.
Many people held out their thin arms to it,
As though waiting for a vanished April
To return to its crossed boughs.

The Son watched them.
Let me go there, he said.


R. S. Thomas 1913-2000

Hell?

Many of my favorite bloggers are commenting on this topic. And much of my own personal Bible study and reflection lately has me grappling with the idea of a literal hell.

Stephen just sent me this link

It is an interesting documentary from NPR's This American Life.

Below is the description of the audio, link noted above.

304: Heretics Aired Dec 5, 2008

The story of Reverend Carlton Pearson, a renowned evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who cast aside the idea of Hell, and with it everything he'd worked for over his entire life.

Prologue.
Carlton Pearson's church, Higher Dimensions, was once one of the biggest in the city, drawing crowds of 5,000 people every Sunday. But several years ago, scandal engulfed the reverend. He didn't have an affair. He didn't embezzle lots of money. His sin was something that to a lot of people is far worse: He stopped believing in Hell. (2 minutes)

Act One. Rise.

Reporter Russell Cobb takes us through the remarkable and meteoric rise of Carlton Pearson from a young man to a Pentecostal Bishop: from the moment he first cast the devil out of his 17-year-old girlfriend, to the days when he had a close, personal relationship with Oral Roberts and had appearances on TV and at the White House. Just as Reverend Pearson's career peaked, with more than 5,000 members of his congregation coming every week, he started to think about Hell, wondering if a loving God would really condemn most of the human race to burn and writhe in the fire of Hell for eternity. (30 minutes)

Act Two. Fall.

Once he starts preaching his own revelation, Carlton Pearson's church falls apart. After all, when there's no Hell (as the logic goes), you don't really need to believe in Jesus to be saved from it. What follows are the swift departures of his pastors, and an exodus from his congregation—which quickly dwindled to a few hundred people. Donations drop off too, but just as things start looking bleakest, new kinds of people, curious about his change in beliefs, start showing up on Sunday mornings. (23 minutes)

Postscript: Carlton Pearson renamed his church after the story was produced: It is now called New Dimensions.

Song: "Let the Church Roll On," Mahalia Jackson

The Merry Christmas Mandate

There’s all kind of talk out there about the way we don’t say Merry Christmas to one another but instead “substitute” some other pleasantry such as “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings.”

Consider this

I often wonder what is wrong with these “alternate” greetings. They certainly are festive enough and connote a certain sentiment that seems appropriate in the winter month of December. After all, not everyone is celebrating the birth of the Christ child. Some folks are just glad for another reason to go shopping and others are celebrating different holidays that fall within the same time frame as “our” Christmas. Our Christmas? Is that the mall version, the right wing version or the go to church once a year version?

I have been thinking a lot about Christmas. What does the Christmas I see in our (American) culture have to do with the story of a baby sent by God to earth to live among us? A baby whose mother (in her 9th month?) and step-father were traveling because of some governmental directive. Out of town and away from home so that the Christ child was born in a barn on a bed of straw, surrounded by a bunch of farm animals.

I am drawn to the idea of humility as symbolized in the story of the birth of Christ. The gift is from God to humanity, not from me to you or you to me.

Humility has nothing to do with the way our (American) culture does Christmas. It is not humble or humbling, it is insane. Then there are the high expectations around this time of year. Stephen told me of his past experiences of visible looks of disappointment in the eyes of a recipient when presented with the less that “perfect” Christmas gift. It is crazy!

I heard this in a sermon at church and I try and think of Christmas this way;

“God sent the son to take our nature upon him. He came to scatter the darkness in the word made flesh. He came to join earth to heaven and heaven to earth.”

For those who decry not using Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays, let me ask you, do you think you are honoring God or the Christ child because you say Merry Christmas? Is God offended or are you? If you are offended, why?

We are in Advent, the time of waiting and anticipating, what does it mean?
perhaps this

Consider this quote from the November issue of Sojourners:

“The month of November is a lectionary train wreck. The calendars of liturgical and secular feast days collide so that Halloween, All Saints’ Day, Thanksgiving, the busiest shopping day of the year, and lighting the first Advent candle all fall within 30 days.”

and

“Despite green boughs and candles in the darkened church, Advent is not a pretty season. It is a powerful statement of challenge and resistance for Christians during the frenzy of consumption that has been made of our holy days…

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.