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I read Bishop John Shelby Spong’s latest newsletter, Jerusalem: Where Scholarship Ends and the Tourist Trade Begins with interest. It is about his feelings on touring Jerusalem knowing that most if not all of the touristy stuff there is, well to put it bluntly, hogwash. He is of course a biblical scholar and has spent many years studying the scriptures. I am not a biblical scholar and have only devoted the last four years on a part-time basis to a semi-systematic study of the bible. I know no Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic. I am lucky if I can remember any words from my high school Latin. But thanks to Bishop Spong and others such as Amy-Jill Levine, Bart Ehrman (not to mention Tex Sample, Eric Elnes and Jeff Proctor-Murphy on a personal basis) I have become convinced that my former fundamentalist understanding of the scriptures was wholly incorrect. The process was in my case started by questions arising from life experiences. The journey has been aided by logic and study of the bible itself.
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After Jerusalem: Where Scholarship Ends and the Tourist Trade Begins there was as is usual a Question and Answer. The question is from a Disciples of Christ minister about petitionary prayer. That is a question that brings theological discussion down to the personal level. This is where I find it in my everyday life. I still remember with fondness the first time when prayer and supposed answers to prayer came to conscious thought. I related to a friend how I felt that an answer to a prayer of mine about a very ill relative had been answered. My friend then asked why God ignored other prayers for similar situations. I had no answer then and still have none. It is quite one thing to debate the virgin birth, what Jesus really said, and the details of his life. It is quite another thing to pray “in Jesus’ name” after I became aware that I am a heretic Arian.
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Lately, I also have been thinking what it means to consider myself as following a tradition that has at times been anti-Semitic, racist, sexist and homophobic. Still is among many Christians today. Oh yeah, I forgot the warmongering. It isn’t all negative of course. There is also much to be admired in our long tradition. And many Christians have devoted their lives to doing God’s work as they see it. Mother Teresa comes to mind immediately. Sometimes when I think of the good and bad in Christianity I consider churches in Hitler’s Germany. The contrast there is quite blinding with Martin Niemöller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (along with other members of the Confessing Church) standing in opposition to other Christians that supported the Nazis.
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The basic question is does my answers (to questions about theology and tradition) have any meaning to my everyday life. I refuse to take the easy (according to Spong) road and become an Atheist (or Muslim, Buddhist or convert to Judaism). I did in my journey leave the Episcopal Church and become a Methodist but that move had absolutely nothing to do with theology. Fortunately I found Asbury UMC where both the theology and the social action are in line with my beliefs. Then again I am totally aghast at SMU becoming the home to the Bush presidential library. Just as I am faced with a range of Christians (of all times and places) having beliefs I find reprehensible I am faced with the same situation in the denomination I belong to. Worse than the divergent beliefs are the actions I find decidedly un-Christian. I find no comfort in thinking that they would probably find mine equally objectionable.
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Bishop Spong may find difficulty in Jerusalem with his beliefs; I find mine here at home. And, most of the time I don’t have any answers for the questions.
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I would like to think that had I lived in Nazi Germany that I would have dissented. But, would I have? What would I do if Arian’s were hunted down again?