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| Diana Butler Bass, signing a copy of Christianity for the Rest of Us, three weeks ago |
1. When you think of America’s religious past, what images come to mind?
2. Do you, or people you know, suffer from “historical amnesia”?
3. Which image for the church presented in this chapter best describes your current faith community?
4 comments:
1. When you think of America’s religious past, what images come to mind?
I think of Billy Graham and his crusades around the country, while remembering that I (in my mid-teens) walked out of his crusade here in Chattanooga. I was very religious as a teenager, and I remember thinking it was wrong for him to invite people to come forward, even if they were already active members of a church, and then report all those numbers as converts he had made.
2. Do you, or people you know, suffer from “historical amnesia”?
A lot of people in churches, it seems to me, think of their religion as happening only to themselves. They don't know or care about what happened before – and don't care to learn about what was really happening in the early church. Few have probably ever heard about the Council of Nicea and all that happened in the fourth century. One person close to me told me she was "comfortable" with everything the way she understood it and, although she forced herself to listen to me (reluctantly), it was obviously painful to her to hear what I was learning. Apparently, it was easier to think I was going to hell than to consider changing what she had learned as a child in Sunday school.
3. Which image for the church presented in this chapter best describes your current faith community?
I am new to the church where I am now, so it's hard to say. What I'm looking for is a "creative new way" church, as described on page 35:
"Creative third ways provide open spaces amid cultural questions and tensions. Typically, such open spaces are found in congregations that value comprehensiveness over exclusion."
1. When you think of America’s religious past, what images come to mind?
Puritans
2. Do you, or people you know, suffer from “historical amnesia”? I have taught students who suffered from 'historical amnesia' and also they seemed to have been programmed to reject scientific thought/theory (evolution). Their church had almost brain-washed them with rejections to spout out in class.
3. Which image for the church presented in this chapter best describes your current faith community? My current faith community? I am not involved with a faith community at this time. I benefit from the faith communities of my children when I am with them and from reading and prayer.
1. I think of freedom of religion and the fact that the colonists came to America to get away from "forced upon" religion in England. I also think of my chosen denomination's symbol of the red chalice with the St. Andrew's cross. The Disciples of Christ denomination was formed on the frontier in the early 1830's, using our polar star of unity. (No, we aren't a part of the Mormon sect.)
2. Yes, I know many people who hold on to what they were taught as children, some things the pastors are "not allowed" to pass along, and never grow in their spirituality. McLaren's NAKED SPIRITUALITY addresses this nicely.
I am currently reading Butler Bass's THE PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY and being further awakened to the real history of the "growth" of Christianity. It is good for me to read this.
3. I would equate ATCC to the Church of the Redeemer at the time Lillian Daniel arrived there. We have a young minister who is trying new things with a predominantly older congregation. I believe we will die or be renewed. We are what I consider a mission church in a Good News tradition.
1. When you think of America’s religious past, what images come to mind?
I thought of the irony that the colonists who came to America to find religious freedom soon practiced intolerance themselves.
In my own lifetime, I realize how religious practices have changed. When I was in school, it was assumed that everyone was Christian; we even said the Lord's prayer in upper grade school as part of our opening exercises (this was a public school). In the 1970's, in our school district, a Jewish family protested the "Christmas" vacation and Christian Christmas program. Following this, schools began having winter break and Christmas carols were replaced by more secular songs (Grandma got run over by a reindeer, etc.). I think the change was probably for the best, but hate that the traditional Christmas carols will probably no longer be as much a part of Christmas for the general public--maybe an incentive for parents to be sure to take their children to church if they don't have song fests at home.
2. Do you, or people you know, suffer from “historical amnesia”?
Recently, Clay Jenkinson (Jeffersonian scholar from North Dakota) used one of his Jefferson Hour podcasts to point out the errors of David Barton's book The Jefferson Lies which claims that liberals are denying Jefferson's Christianity.
Several years ago, a friend of mine was quite disturbed that after she read Aliki's Corn is Maize: A Gift of the Indians to her daughter's class at a conservative Christian private school that she was criticized since the book refers to the production of maize as occurring thousands of years ago while the school teaches (unbeknownst to my friend who pulled her children out of the school at the end of the term) that the earth is too young for that to have occurred.
Although I can appreciate the exploration of various historical events from various viewpoints, I think that rewriting history to suit one's belief system goes against the truths that historical research should reveal.
3. Which image for the church presented in this chapter best describes your current faith community?
Both the church I grew up in (Baptist) and the church I now attend (Missouri Synod Lutheran) would be considered exclusive even though I have never felt any ego trip from their practices. The Baptist church's hellfire and damnation teachings except for those who were saved gave me nightmares rather than feelings of security of being part of the saved. The Lutheran church requires confirmation for its members and practices closed communion. I learned a few years ago that their concern of not causing damnation to anyone led them to the policy of not allowing mentally handicapped persons (the son of a neighbor) to become a member of the church. One member tried to comfort the son by giving him candles used in an advent service, but the hurt of the family was so great that they stopped attending. My supervisor later told me that he left the Catholic church in order to be a heathen with his daughter who was not allowed to become a member since she was unable to memorize the required parts of the Catechism.
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