I’m not supposed to like Sam Harris – you know, “End of Faith,” Sam Harris, the guy who slices and dices mythical constructions of faith and concludes therefore that religion has nothing to offer. I’m not supposed to like him, but I do. Of course if religion had only mythic constructions of reality to offer, then I’d have to agree with him. But since religion, like everything else, is evolving, I think it’s a bit short sighted to leave it... Read more
We no longer live in a world where we think of God as that old gentleman wandering about in the Garden of Eden, looking for the creature He created from mud and His own life giving breath. No, we now know about the evolution of human life, with its genetic mutations, environmental factors and the like. It is these forces and not the mythic hand of God that shape our lives. These factors were thought to be random, purposeless forces... Read more
It is not an easy case to make, I’ll grant, not easy to support the claim that Christianity has something left to offer to those identifying themselves as “Spiritual But Not Religious” (SBNR). And so as I begin this new blog, I intend to offer a basic rationale, a “theological framework,” to help the reader understand my perspective. To that end the next few posts will have names like, “There is No Such Thing as a Miracle,” “I’m Not Buying... Read more
I’m done with Substitutionary atonement. I’m done with the magical notion that human beings need to sacrifice in order to appease an angry God. Sixteen people died at the hands of Sgt. Bales last week. Sixteen innocent Afghanis dead. It’s not entirely clear what happened, but one thing we can say: life had betrayed Sgt. Bales. Something had gone terribly awry, rage overwhelmed the moment, and erupted in a horrifying act of violence. René Girard, an anthropologist of significant influence,... Read more
Religion. The very word strikes fear in the hearts of your average citizen . . . or boredom, or maybe confusion. My Uncle Joel, a Chemistry professor at UC Berkeley, kept a scrapbook of clippings he said proved religion to be the root cause of humanity’s ills. And who could blame him? The traditionalist mindset holds tight to its religious construct, sure he is right and others wrong, convinced his life depends upon it. Wars are fought, atrocities excused, fear... Read more
I’d like to be able to thank Rev. Smith for taking a stab at describing “Integral Christianity.” We do after all need to reach for meaning beyond the orthodox – liberal – neo-Orthodox debate which has mired the church in endless, pointless controversy, controversy which has eviscerated our congregations at the very time our society most needs communities that foster growth and transformation. The trouble is, he falls so far short of an “integral” expression of Christianity that he obscures... Read more
I need a little help over here on the dark side in liberal, post-liberal, or whatever you want to call it, land. I guess it all started when my wife died and I realized one of two things was true: either the God Id been talking about lo those many years the Father God who intervenes in our lives whenever He deems it prudent so as to serve His inscrutable ends – either that God does not exist, or that... Read more
I worry about a world where the feminine – especially the young feminine – lives so much of the time in the darkness of sexual shadow. This is an open letter to girls becoming women. It is an invitation for you to come into the light and be seen for what you are – the life giving beauty which transforms the heart of any culture. I’m reminded of a story about a girl who was able to save her community.... Read more
I spoke last week about false hope implicit in an anthropomorphic God. It boiled down to this: I don’t believe that God, the magic god, exists; God is not a Father or a Lord, though I think we can, and inevitably do, describe God in those ways. This week several people said to me in effect, “You’ve done a convincing job of deconstructing the anthropomorphic god, but what then can you say constructively about God?” First let me say that... Read more
We speak of a conscious god, one with feelings like sorrow, anger, and joy. We speak of a just god, one who demands moral behavior and forgives moral breaches, one who speaks and gets His way. But is that true? Is there really a god like that or do we simply want that to be true? Is there for instance, a god who has established justice, one who balances the cosmic scales of justice? Let me quote scripture to answer... Read more
Christianity For the SBNR
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