The Unclad Soul

I have confessed here before that I was in a career I often didn’t understand or felt suited for. I was a Baptist minister for more than 20 years. I met some loving, beautiful people in those years. I dedicated babies. I watched toddlers turn into teens and I loved them all. Some of them I married with spouses I thought were perfect for them. Many are still together with children of their own. In my last congregation, I spent nearly 14 years with people I adored. Some of them are still my closest friends. There were, of course, tough years, times when my own search for an authentic theology and philosophy of ministry clashed with the long-held traditional beliefs of some of our church members. By the time I arrived at my last congregation I no longer had any interest in building huge numbers, baptizing people in some kind of competition with other churches, and creating worship that was hyped, emotional, something similar to cheerleading and entertainment. That was not for me....

It saddens and frustrates me to see how religion and patriotism in America have created so much confusion and division in the last many years. The late 1970s brought us the Moral Majority, a loosely held crowd of extremely conservative believers led mainly by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the wealthy and powerful fundamentalist minister reigning then in Lynchburg, Virginia. He became the voice of the Moral Majority and he masterminded the idea that conservative Christians should take over the government in all aspects of its leadership and influence. From the president and his cabinet to all of Congress, to state governors and state legislatures, all the way down to local school boards and polling captains. It took years, but it worked. Today, our government—national, state, and local—is heavily influenced by far-right, powerful politicians and other leaders who use highly conservative, in some instances, incendiary, religious propaganda in order to convince voters and donors to bot...

Emerson, the brilliant essayist, philosopher, and poet, started his long and productive career initially as an ordained minister. When his young wife died of tuberculosis he was devastated. He questioned his faith and the simple beliefs he thought as a minister should be accepted unconditionally and believed by everyone. He left the ministry, went to Europe, met with towering people in literature like William Wordsworth, Thomas Carlyle, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. When he returned to America he was transformed and began a series of lectures on spirituality and ethical living.  In one of his many books, he wrote, “Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.” It is a beautiful and profound statement and one I fully embrace. And it is a part of a personal religious search I started years ago. As a young minister I struggled with biblical texts that I could not make sense of, thing...

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. There it is plain and clear: the earth ultimately belongs to the meek. Which doesn’t mean the pushover, or the timid, or the spineless; the coward or the weak-kneed. Jesus cared about those frightened souls but here he’s talking about the humble, the tolerant, the thoughtful; about people who think before they act; people with a gentle spirit and a kind heart; people of intellect, soul, and substance. The earth is theirs. They know how to care for it, how to cherish and appreciate it, and how to live responsibly in it. Carl Sandburg, the remarkable poet, philosopher and biographer of Abraham Lincoln, described the 16 th president in these words: “Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet, who is hard as a rock and soft as a drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect.” That’s the meekness Jesus was talking abo...

I was out recently in the Christmas crowd shopping for my grandchildren. They don’t really need a thing. They have so much. They fortunately live within the amazing care of a dad and mom who adore and cherish and abundantly provide for them. I wanted to just package up some hugs and kisses and send those as my gifts. Wouldn’t that be enough? It would, for them. They would be perfectly fine with such gifts. But I followed the rest of the holiday legion to Target and elsewhere to lend my effort to our society’s commercial Christmas mania. There is that line in Dr. Seuss’ famous “The Grinch That Stole Christmas” that nudges me this time of year: “ Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!”   Well, there’s an old fashioned idea for you. A sadly archaic thought buried beneath the nearest mall’s concrete foundation conveniently silenced far beyond the...

Fundamentalism in religion is primarily the result of a literal interpretation of a sacred text. This is where it starts. This is how it is fueled. It is an approach where compromise is unacceptable, where the whole text has dominance over any individual passage. Consequently, in the fundamentalist’s mind, everything in their sacred text is pure, r ight, and infallible. The Christian Bible, the Muslim Koran, the Jewish Torah or Old Testament, are the three primary sacred texts that are often taken by their individual groups of believers as literally true in every word. Hindus have the Bhagavad Gita but they do not worship it in the sense these other religions do their Books. Buddhists have no holy text but instead are guided by sutras or the sayings and teachings of Buddha. Rarely do you see fundamentalists among Hindus or Buddhists. I have read from all of these sacred texts. The Bible is the only book I have read completely through and it seemed to take me forever to do it; wh...

The Semana Santa, as they call it in Spain, or Holy Week, begins for Christians all over the world soon. You know the historic story and the familiar scenes of the trial of Jesus and his final journey to the Cross. It is an epic story, a story filled with drama and cruelty and mystery and love. What is it really about? The classic Christian interpretation tells us we are all sinners lost without hope. We were born ruined, the children of the first parents, corrupted by their selfishness, by their ignoring God’s command to stay away from the Tree of Knowledge, and supposedly by their wanting to be like God. As the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve whose sin we inherited and are sure to repeat, according to classic Christian theology, we are all to be punished and sent to hell. So Jesus came to die for our ruined souls. He died in our place so God would not send us to hell. He paid the ransom for us, we are told. His physical death took care of our spiritual debt. He then rose ...

If your religion helps you manage your addictions; if it creates a safer home environment for you and your loved ones; if it enables you to treat others with respect and worth; if it guides you into responsible life choices; if it enriches your inner self and leads you into a deeper understanding of the human condition; if it nurtures your sense of compassion and causes you to lift up the fallen and the hurting and the damaged and the left out; if it encourages you to embrace all people whatever their race, beliefs, social status, or sexual orientation; if it celebrates the earth and asks you to take care of it; if it ultimately provides you a healthier human spirit, then your religious beliefs and practices serve a useful purpose. But if your religion gives you permission to hate or mistreat other people; if it makes you feel superior to all other religious beliefs; if it says you will always be better than those who don’t believe; if it promises you rewards at no cost to you at...

Let’s let it be said that too much of Christian religious talk and action today is a wild distortion of what we have traditionally understood Christianity to be. This fear driven, hostile, endlessly close-minded Christianity of today is a vulgar mishandling of faith. It is a treacherous attack not on liberalism, socialism, atheism. Its target is humanity. And with unscrupulous ferocity it is deadening the spirits of its followers, and, it is literally destroying any possibility of cooperative problem solving in this country. The institutional Church, whatever Christian form it currently takes—Protestant or Catholic, Liberal or Fundamentalist, Strip Mall setting or giant Multiplex Citadel—is in danger of total irrelevance simply because of the grotesque arrogance of today’s far right radical, strident, offensive Christians and their pervasive attacks on people they dislike. They’re not picky. They’re after anyone who does not walk in lock step with their extremism. This row...

Episcopal minister and author, Alan Jones, tells in one of his books about a discussion he had with the president of a fundamentalist Christian college.  They were discussing their various theological differences and at some point Dr. Jones asked the college president what was the most difficult part of his job.  The man replied, “Everyone here, faculty and students, is a born-again Christian, and we have had food stolen from the kitchens, books stolen from the library, and there’s even been a suicide.” Apparently that was the most difficult thing facing him as the president of a religious school, the violation of students and others of their Christian principles. I learned a long time ago as someone who worked for years as a leader in the church that just because a person accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior does not mean they have lost their humanity.  And accepting Christ, in my thinking, is not about salvation from hell or ridding oneself of selfish desires o...

There is a great line in the movie “Levity” where Morgan Freeman, a wildly free-spirited and wounded preacher named Miles Evans, says to Manuel Jordan, a broken man recently out of prison and played by Billy Bob Thornton: “You think God talks to me?  We argue maybe, but He don’t participate.  It’s all right.  I’ll see Him one day.  When I do, I’m gonna whip His holy ass.” I have never forgotten those words.  So honest and human.  So full of the courage of a man who takes God seriously. Today, God isn’t taken seriously.  Not really.  God is used.   God is toyed with.  God is disgraced by the worst kind of cowardice.  God is betrayed by sanctimonious windbags who brag on themselves and pretend the praise is coming from God. Religious people can be some of the most annoying people in the world.  They are often full of crap.  They talk big but then act petty and small.  They quote scriptures not as guid...

After some considerable thought, well, that’s not quite right. But anyway. I have decided to support Rick Santorum for president should he get the nomination. Here are the reasons why: 1. Back to basics. Mr. Santorum wants to take us back far past the Internet, the computer, the typewriter, the telegraph, the TV, the radio, smoke signals, and all other forms of human communication that might in some way tempt us into anything immoral. We need a leader like that. Someone with a clear vision of what’s right and what’s wrong so that we will only communicate with one another in holy words from pure souls. 2. Contraceptives. Here’s the problem in this country. As Mr. Santorum suggests, women are just being too needy of things relating to their bodies and whatnot. If Eve had listened to Adam in the Garden and simply let him pick all of the fruit while she did all the cooking then we wouldn’t even need contraceptives. Right? Sex probably wouldn’t even exist and we wouldn’t have...

I am often a harsh critic of the church. Most of contemporary Christianity endlessly exasperates and offends me. So many churches today represent so little in terms of anything that comes even close to a sacred space or a place where someone might find arms of welcome no questions asked. A place where they are given room to explore their beliefs, to grow, and to remain human and real. Too many are old fashioned places of outdated rules and harsh judgments against people not like them. Or they are huge corporations for greed with their “seed faith” message and lifestyle of the rich and famous promise. Or they are political action committees that shamelessly promote specific political candidates and advocate one party representation. Or they are entertainment centers filled with garish music and an atmosphere disguised as some kind of contemporary Jesus scene with a Bible verse thrown in here and there sprinkled with empty talk of God that is little more than religious pabulum on...

I recently wrote about the Christian Church dying in America. Here is a brief, interesting article that shows just how difficult maintaining a relevant church has gotten in our country. But there are those who are using thoughtful, creative ways to express their faith in these unsettling times. See the article here: Ten church models for a new generation | The Christian Century