"How can a religion that speaks so eloquently of love
so brutally destroy its questioners, its dissenters,
its innovators, and its competitors?"
— page 150 in Christianity for the Rest of Us
1. What do you think of the idea of diversity as a spiritual practice? Can you come up with biblical stories and texts that speak to a Christian practice of diversity?
2. Which of the churches presented in this chapter are most like yours? Which would you most like to resemble? What kinds of diversities are present in your congregation? Try to identify as many different kinds of diversity in your congregation as possible.
3. What do you think of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's ubuntu theology? Does it reflect your hopes for human community?
9 comments:
1. Diversity is a must. The key is for everyone to agree to respectfully converse and to participate. Growing community members who are committed to the idea that actively loving God and loving all of God's creation is all that is needed to be "saved." That is what Jesus preached.
There are oodles of stories -- starting with the Creation stories, Good Samaritan, Mary Magdalene's discipleship, Ruth and Naomi, Lydia, etc.
2.Goleta Presbyterian is the closest congregation that reflects the diversity of Ashland Terrace Christian Church. I say this because the leaders of the church come from very diverse religious traditions, but most have stayed and actively taken on leadership roles because of their love for God and love for the people of the church. I think it is easier for people at ATCC because of the simplicity of worship in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) tradition.
I would like ATCC to be more like the Church of the Epiphany. We have one black gentleman who is a member and one black pre-school child who attends with her grandparents. I have had a couple of conversations with the gentleman about the differences in ATCC, my personal spiritual pilgrimage, and the church in which he was raised. ATCC's diversities are political, economic, in religious traditions, and in schooling.
3. We are not God's children in isolation. We must commune with others and with all of creation in order to fulfill God's vision for the world. I love Bishop Tutu's words, ". . .In our world we can survive only together. We can truly be free, ultimately, only together. We can be human only together, . . ."
1.Diversity is a must. The key is for everyone to agree to respectfully converse and participate. Growing community members who are committed to the idea that actively loving God and loving all of God's creation is all that is needed to be "saved." That is what Jesus preached.
There are oodles of stories - starting with the Creation stories, Good Samaritan, Mary Magdalene's discipleship, Ruth and Naomi, Lydia, etc.
2. Goleta Presbyterian is the closest congregation that reflects the diversity of ATCC. I say this because the leaders in the church come from very diverse religious traditions, but most have stayed and actively taken on leadership roles because of their love of God and love of the people of the church. I think it is easier for people with ATCC because of the simplicity of worship for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) tradition.
I would like ATCC to be more like the Church of the Epiphany. We have one black gentleman who is a member and one black pre-school child who attends with her grandparents. I have had a couple of conversations with the gentleman about the differences in ATCC, mu personal spiritual pilgrimage and the church in which he was raised. ATCC's diversities are political, economic, in religious traditions, and in schooling.
3. We are not God's children in isolation. We must commune with others and with all of creation in order to fulfill God's vision for the world. I love Bishop Tutu's words, ". . .In our world we can survive only together. We can be truly free, ultimately, only together. We can be human only together, . . ."
Is anybuddy else having trouble posting comments? Donna's first one (above) took days to get to me, so she retyped it. And Shirley's comments are not posting at all.
Chapter 10—Diversity
Hopefully, three is the charm and this set of comments one will go through. Each time I do this, I realize that my comments vary so if the earlier comment posts are found they will all be different.
1. What do you think of the idea of diversity as a spiritual practice? Can you come up with biblical stories and texts that speak to a Christian practice of diversity?
God’s created us with diversity so it follows that our spiritual practices would reflect that diversity. However, as summarized in Galatians 3:28 (There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.), Christians should still be one in Christ.
2. Which of the churches presented in this chapter are most like yours? Which would you most like to resemble? What kinds of diversities are present in your congregation? Try to identify as many different kinds of diversity in your congregation as possible.
Unfortunately, none of the churches in the chapter resembled the church I belong to. Especially with the current political climate, I liked the political diversity of Church of the Redeemer and the way it tried to provide an atmosphere of discussion rather than one-sidedness.
The only racial diversity in our church is three biracial children born to two women in our church. Although the presented face is neutral in politics (last Sunday’s prayer included a petition for wisdom as the members vote—I hope for the same, but have little faith that much is there), the congregation is primarily right wing Republican. In the last newsletter, they expressed the need for “religious freedom” which is being denied under the Affordable Health Care Act since churches are being required to allow full coverage to all. My experience with expressing religious differences proved discouraging early on (after I mentioned that I disagreed with their position on infant baptism at the church we attended before transferring to our current church, caused concern on their part since I was teaching Sunday School and the minister came to our home and gave me material he felt supported their stance) and one seldom hears dissenting voices.
3. What do you think of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's ubuntu theology? Does it reflect your hopes for human community?
I especially liked the quote “In God’s family, there are no outsiders. All are insiders.” The idea of being all inclusive realizing our dependence on one another appeals to me.
" ....a new member who "takes the Bible fairly literally" was preparing to teach Sunday School"...
There are some situations that I would not want my children to be faced with, and a fundamentalist Sunday School teachers is one of those situations. I want my little children to be taught about God's love and God's Word in the tradition that I believe; I do not want to have to 'unteach' them. When they are old enough to form their own rebuttal for fundamentalism, they can be in this teachers class, and stand up for their beliefs.
1. What do you think of the idea of diversity as a spiritual practice?
I want to attend a church and be a part of a community that is racially and economically diverse, but not a church that teaches both fundamental and traditional interpretation of the Bible or is ambiguous about sensitive topics like homosexuality, poverty, healthcare, etc. I do have an idea about what I think Jesus would do if faced with these sensitive situations, and I don't want to be at a worship service or in a community that is against God's love for ALL his people.
Can you come up with biblical stories and texts that speak to a Christian practice of diversity?
Let's see.... The Good Samaritan, The Prodigal Son, Jesus and the Prostitute, The Tower of Babel.
3. What do you think of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's ubuntu theology? Does it reflect your hopes for human community?
"I cannot be without you" - ubuntu. I am actually surprised that I am having such a hard time accepting the idea of diversity as it applies to fundamentalist religious beliefs and political ideology. I guess that I really do need to be more open-minded toward Republicans and Fundamentalists. But boy I surely am not there yet!
Zorro makes a good point about the need for parents to make sure that their children are being taught in Sunday School by those who share their beliefs. A work colleague told me that he lost his faith as a child when his Sunday School teacher dismissed his questions on dinosaurs and insisted that they did not exist. It made me realize that I needed to be careful when answering the questions of those in my class to be honest and to try not to say anything that could have such a lifelong negative impact on them.
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