Brian McLaren spoke tonight at Buffalo Billiards in D.C. to promote his latest book, Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in 12 Simple Words. The following are my tweets from his talk:
“Story: ‘God spoke to me that Richard Dawkins speaks truth.’ God of Jesus isn’t white or European. SHOULD be atheist about that.”
“A lot of people don’t believe in God for good reason. They’re saying whatever’s out there has to be better than that.”
“Afterlife in Egypt: only rich get afterlife — your best bet is slavery, a religious racquet that perpetuated injustice.”
“Abraham did not believe in the afterlife.”
“We’re ALL in process. We all need to be ethically open to change.”
“We have to confess contradictions of our own life: I care deeply about environment and flew up here in plane: unsustainable.”
“We often tell heroic stories of our past w/o telling shadow side.”
“At Eucharist, spirituality and religion can merge: realizing my neighbor really is my sister or brother.”
“I have to keep drawing a bigger circle to inscribe those who would exclude me from their circle.”
“What’s helped me most in my spiritual growth is not books but friends who model for me what I don’t have.”
“Only way most have to find a healthy church is to come w/ a trusted friend b/c would cuss out a flyer left on their windshield.”
“You can’t learn to be reasonable w/o unreasonable people in the room.”
“You can’t learn to love w/o annoying people in the room.”
“Whenever you get religious people together, you are guaranteed that there will be neurotic people in the room.”
“We need to disrupt the status quo, BUT what are we disrupting the status quo FOR?”
“Charity ultimately moves towards issues of justice.”
“We have to get back to a mission centered around those at the margins.”
“We want to insert a ‘but’ after any religious confession b/c we are reacting against colonialism.”
“Instead of modern/postmodern, use colonial/postcolonial. Christianity has been deeply complicit w/ colonialism.”
“When you move from simplicity and complexity to latter stages of perplexity & harmony, the churches don’t know what to do w/ you.”
“What I mean by spiritual is that when I go outside I notice the trees.”‘
“When I say I’m Buddhist, it’s a defense mechanism against conservative Christians.”
“The tension people feel b/w spirituality and religion is important and worth paying attention to.”
“My father is 85-years-old & can’t bare to say the title of my book: wishes I’d called it, ‘Transparent Spirituality.’”
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