{"id":79874,"date":"2010-10-13T19:33:16","date_gmt":"2010-10-14T01:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/?p=79874"},"modified":"2012-10-04T12:38:46","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T18:38:46","slug":"a-letter-to-north-american-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/10\/a-letter-to-north-american-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"A Letter to North American Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Celebrated artist Makoto Fujimura has written <a href=\"http:\/\/www.makotofujimura.com\/writings\/a-letter-to-north-american-churches\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">a letter to North American Churches<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth reading.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a clip: <!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You began to believe in the late 18th century that we needed rational categories, to try to protect \u201cfaith\u201d from \u201creason.\u201d Reason began to win the battle in this false dichotomy. As a consequence, you began to suspect the mystery of our being and the miraculous presence of God behind the visible. What you call \u201cSecularism\u201d is your own offspring*, given articulation by the division and fragmentation within the church. As a result of this dichotomy, you began to exile artists whose existence, up to that point, helped to fuse the invisible reality with concrete reality. An artist knows that what you can see and observe is only the beginning of our journey to discover the world. But you wanted proof, instead of mystery; justification instead of beauty. Therefore you pushed artists to the margins of worship, while the secular world you helped to create championed us, and gave us, ironically, a priestly role.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Celebrated artist Makoto Fujimura has written a letter to North American Churches. It\u2019s worth reading. Here\u2019s a clip:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1436,1533,1532],"class_list":["post-79874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-church","tag-faith-and-reason","tag-makoto-fujimura"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Letter to North American Churches<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Celebrated artist Makoto Fujimura has written a letter to North American Churches. It&#039;s worth reading. Here&#039;s a clip: You began to believe in the late\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/10\/a-letter-to-north-american-churches\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Letter to North American Churches\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Celebrated artist Makoto Fujimura has written a letter to North American Churches. It&#039;s worth reading. Here&#039;s a clip: You began to believe in the late\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/10\/a-letter-to-north-american-churches\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Looking Closer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-14T01:33:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-10-04T18:38:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey Overstreet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey Overstreet\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/10\/a-letter-to-north-american-churches\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/10\/a-letter-to-north-american-churches\/\",\"name\":\"A Letter to North American Churches\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-14T01:33:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-10-04T18:38:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/2675c6d9f6401acd7568e32160e5374e\"},\"description\":\"Celebrated artist Makoto Fujimura has written a letter to North American Churches. 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