One more quote

… from a Stanley Hauerwas/David Crumm conversation 13 years ago:

DC: … I certainly agree with you that we’re entering a time of post-denominational mish-mash of spiritual influences. … millions of people … now answer, “None,” when pollsters ask for their religious affiliation. … Many … are picking out the beliefs that make sense to them—and see no reason to give a religious affiliation.

SH: That’s a real problem. If the breaking down of denominational traditions were a part of a rediscovery of faithfulness to the gospel—and if it was helping us to rediscover that our unity is more profound than our differences—then it might be good. But I don’t think that’s the case. I think with the breaking down of denominational identities, we’re really trying to emphasize our own individualism. Now, I don’t think there’s anything so crucial about our denominational distinctiveness. To a certain extent, that distinctiveness really was all about just trying to get our share of the market. But forming ourselves through a tradition is absolutely crucial. We have to learn that we don’t just get to make Christianity up. I think a lot of people who are calling themselves post-denominational think they get to make up Christianity. …

… If we start from scratch as individuals, there’s not enough defense left against narcissism. …

Tomorrow: My take on all this.

The posts for today and the two previous day are from Read the Spirit, an online publication founded in 2007 with the motto, “Good media builds healthy community.”

No time for boredom

Yesterday’s post provides the context for a Stanley Hauerwas quote sent to me from my friend Don:

Atheism is not our problem today. If only we can produce some interesting atheists, which we obviously can, then that’s not a problem at all. The big problem is we’re not interesting as believers. We’re sinking into the worst forms of boring and misguided sentimentality.

Don, a friend and mentor, is among the most energetic and engaging people I know. At 84, he has no time for boredom. He included this postscript to the Hauerwas quote:

Boredom with its corollary irrelevance and incredulity are the driving forces in the Great Exodus (from church) and the most difficult to point toward a cure.

From “Hauerwas: Hanging onto hope in the face of evil,” a conversation with David Crumm, readthespirit.com, May 12, 2010,

Stanley Hauerwas

Stanley Hauerwas, 82, is worth your time. He may be more disturbing than comforting. You may come away with more questions than answers. He will make you think.

My friend Don pointed me to a 2010 Hauerwas conversation with David Crumm about God, Medicine and Suffering. An excerpt:

SH: Our language as Christians oftentimes is shaped by sentimental presuppositions that are not disciplined by the gospels. … Go to a home where someone has died unexpectedly and (you’ll hear people say), “Well they’re in a better place now.”

DC: Sure. We want to help. It’s … tempting to say that.

SH: Never say that! Never. God is not a place. The very idea that you comfort one another with that kind of language, that just—that just betrays what it means to be a part of the communion of saints!

More tomorrow.

From Stanley Hauerwas–Duke University Divinity School

Context, insight, gratitude

As Thursday’s starry night gave way to Friday’s dawn, before sunrise, before Wordle, I was helped by Heather Cox Richardson’s blog post that put much recent political disinformation into its proper context. She deftly unraveled “deliberate lies or misdirection to convince people of things that are not true.”

Pre-dawn help came from a Center for Action and Contemplation daily meditation that quoted Brian McLaren: … we have tried to understand Jesus primarily through his descendants…. it would be much better … to understand Jesus … in the sense of, “Look at his ancestors; look at the lineage into which he came.” … in the context of … his story.

CAC also quoted New Testament scholar (an orthodox Jew) Amy-Jill Levine: Jesus fusses at priests, just like Amos. Jesus tells parables, just like the prophet Nathan and a number of rabbis whose stories appear in post-biblical Jewish sources. 

Finally, a powerful, delightful Morning Rounds blog post, “Things We Never Knew,” from Rita H. Clagett, which begins: I’m grateful for so much today, starting with the middle of last night. Just before I crawled into my cozy bed, for which I am always ever so grateful, I stepped outside on the deck with binoculars to see if I could see comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF).

From “How to see the green comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) visible in the night sky now as it approaches Earth,” by Brett Tingley, Space.com, January 23, 2023

From Edward Luce

Edward Luce writes about America for the Financial Times. The House Republicans’ protracted vote for a speaker and the controversies over various GOP House members reminded me of an August Luce article after Liz Cheney lost the Republican nomination for another term in Congress. Here are three excerpts:

Whether it is Michael Dukakis in 1988 doing a photo-op up in a tank or John Kerry in 2004 dressed in goose-shooting camouflage, US democracy is rich with pandering moments. It is less generous with examples of politicians alienating voters on principle.

Cheney … has laid down a marker that could define the fate of US conservatism. If Republicanism is Trump and Trump is Republicanism, the party and the country are heading for a reckoning. “We stand at the edge of an abyss,” Cheney recently said.

What does her defeat tell us about the future of US democracy? The clearest message is that the Republican party has become an authoritarian cult. Cheney is among the most conservative lawmakers in the US.

From “The truth that set Liz Cheney free,” by Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 17, 2023; also published in The Irish Times, August 17, 2023

“Christian” freedom

Historian Diana Butler Bass provides a sequel to yesterday’s post about “Christian” as adjective. Her latest blog post comes from The Cottage, where she wrote about Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis: “The Freedom State or the State of Freedom?“

Her first three sentences: “DeSantis calls it the Freedom State,” a friend from Florida recently moaned to me, “but that’s Orwellian. He’s taking freedoms away. It is frightening.”

Bass says freedom is “DeSantis’ slogan, a key part of his political brand. And in the final ad of the campaign season, his campaign specially linked ‘freedom’ to white Christian nationalism.“

DeSantis’ efforts to control higher education are troubling, such as “a new state list of every teacher or class that mentions diversity or racism.” Bass cites a Florida statute that defines state universities as “agencies of the state which belong to and are part of the executive branch of state government.”

From the DeSantis campaign ad linked above from the Diana Butler Bass blog post.

“Christian” as adjective

“Christian” is a daunting adjective, as in Christian pastor, Christian church or Christian nation. I’m hesitant to claim it for myself or my group. It’s better, though still a daunting challenge, if others apply it to me or my group.

When this adjective is a label worn too lightly, too quickly or too proudly, it demeans a great tradition. To misuse, or thoughtlessly claim, this adjective for self or group, or to wear it while attacking someone else is profanity–meaningless talk about God.

One Sunday, my district superintendent attended our worship service unexpectedly. A choir member said, “The DS is here. Does that scare you?” I said, “No. But it keeps me on my toes to believe God is listening here every Sunday.”

This 1995 quote from Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird (sent from my friend Ernie) and a 2022 blog post by Diana Butler Bass, “Christian Nationalism Everywhere?” reinforce my reluctance to use Christian as an adjective, as in “Christian nation.”

A disarming chart

A January 23 article in The New York Times “The Morning” newsletter by German Lopez, “Mass Shooting in California,” was a brief, “just the facts, ma’am,” story about a 72-year-old male shooter who shot others, then took his own life. We search for a motive, but a more important issue is the weapon, a semi-automatic assault pistol:

This kind of mass shooting has become tragically common in the U.S.; what would be a rare horror in any other developed country is typical here. Yet the cause is no mystery. America has an enormous amount of guns, making it easier for someone to carry out a deadly shooting.

It is a point this newsletter has made before: All over the world, there are people who argue, fight over relationships, suffer from mental health issues or hold racist views. But in the U.S., those people can more easily obtain a gun and shoot someone.

Last night, word came of another shooting with multiple deaths, this time with a 67-year-old male in custody. To better cope with our gun insanity, I’m trying to set my newsfeed to give me a weekly summary of these events, rather than hearing about them immediately. It’s too much.

Chart by Ashley Wu, The New York Times (the US is almost “off the chart”)

John Cobb and Jennifer Grancio

Spiritual Bankruptcy, by John Cobb, was the focus of several posts, beginning 9/25/22. One Cobb sentence lingers with me: Being religious tends to confirm existing patterns of behavior or even those of ancestors rather than encourage drastic innovation.

I thought of Cobb when I heard Barry Ritholtz interview Jennifer Grancio, CEO of investment company Engine No. 1. Grancio’s company sees sustainability as essential for long-term profitability. It’s just common sense, but some corporations don’t think enough about the long term. It made me wonder if I helped my congregations think enough about the long term.

Cobb and Grancio come from different perspectives to share a common theme, described in Wikipedia’s article about Cobb: A unifying theme of Cobb’s work is his emphasis on ecological interdependence–the idea that every part of the ecosystem is reliant on all the other parts. Cobb has argued that humanity’s most urgent task is to preserve the world on which it lives and depends….

Engine No. 1’s first project was Exxon Mobil, which Grancio and company believed had not addressed long term issues facing a changing oil and gas industry. They successfully elected three new directors to the Exxon board, noting … the changes it has made … including maintaining capital allocation discipline, setting more aggressive GHG emissions reduction targets, and increasing resources for its Low Carbon Solutions business unit.

From “Can Engine No 1 lead Wall Street to ‘beyond investment as usual’?” by Billy
Grider, Climate & Capital Media, April 13, 2022

“Let ’em go”

Years ago, an automobile dealership’s advertising punch line was, “The boss said, ‘Let ’em go.'” As in, “Should we give a big discount on these vehicles? The boss said, ‘Let ’em go.'”

I’ve thought about that line as United Methodists move deeper into the “disaffiliation” process. It has been personally painful to watch it unfold, but Phyllis Tickle’s wise observation has been helpful. She said this era of deep change in our culture and all religions will be like the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s–the faith and the planet will emerge stronger as various groups go their separate ways.

The Lester Memorial UMC in Oneonta has worked out a relatively amicable divorce, where a sizable contingent of those not desiring to disaffiliate are forming a new congregation. In a large city, those wishing to stay with the denomination, but find themselves in a group where the majority want to leave, can easily join another UMC that intends to remain. In a small community like Oneonta, it takes more creativity.

From “Oneonta United Methodist Community,” by Rachel Simmons, The Blount Countian, January 11, 2023 (via StayUMC Facebook page)