21st century morality

We're still answering the question, "how did we get here?"

She would've been remiss not to mention Roe v. Wade or Terri Schiavo as an excellent example of the litmus test for morality in the 21st century. Although she gives little commentary on it. She moves quickly from morality into technological advances. Let's just make a list.

Ecumenism and Interfaith dialogue
Vatican I and II
Medical advances and the new role of the clergy
the Walkman/ ipod and its effect on participatory worship
nanotechnology and potential artificial intelligence
Cash replacing blood as power
Television and internet "communities" of faith replaces standard church life - expanding the concept of the priesthood of all believers

But the last portion of this chapter is dedicated to the change in the family unit. She begins (thankfully in a place earlier than my memory) in 1941 with the birth of "Rosie" our nickname for the wife of "Johnny" who was fighting in WWII. Although memoirs from Rosie indicate no feminism per se, this era formed a generation of children who watched their moms go to work each day.


Rosie's happily returned to home at the end of the war. And then technology changed our home life with things like washers and dryers. Rosie had to find other things to do. Tickle makes a case for this being the rise in church life... Rosie couldn't get enough of church programs. We all like to feel useful.

The next generation of women (and men) will be confronted with true equality however with the birth of the birth control pill. With freedom, women and men began to live with the luxury of two incomes, both being filled psychologically by places outside of the home.

Tickle once again turns to the disintegration of the family common meal, with scripture conversation. No one has energy for God - we've spent it elsewhere. Enter the scripturally illiterate generation. (she suggests a book that's long been on my list: Religious Literacy: what every American needs to know.)

21st century spirituality

Let's go back again to her first illustration of the cable taking a huge blow to its outer and inner sheath (our story of community and common imagination). Inside the cable are three strands: the spiritual, corporeal and moral strands. I'm creeping through this chapter still and today I'll only write about the spirituality strand when taken out of the braid of those three strands.

She names three aided non-religious spirituality. I say aided because they're good but I can't believe that this is a comprehensive consideration of that subject matter.

The first: AA. "... to God as we understand him." "a higher power." Words do matter and those phrases are common place at this point in our culture. yet, what I enjoyed most of putting AA on the table for this discussion is the value of small groups and the authority that individuals have in their own spirituality which "took the seat of all good advice, holy counsel, wisdom and amelioration" away from the pastor's study.

The second: The immigration act of 1965 which ended a lengthy debate on letting Asians into the country. I would have put this issue in a different place in her argument but I'm happy to see it at all. From the influx of Asian immigrants and their culture, we have the rise of Buddhism... an intrinsically spiritual but not religious practice that can "insinuate itself quite innocently even into the practice of almost any institutionalized religion without abrasion or apparent conflict for that religion's faithful."

The third: The drug age - as a means of spiritual exploration. the quote I enjoyed most says, "I'm spiritual but not religious, among those who knew to the depths of their interiors that there was more here than the Church had ever known."

Before she moves onto the corporeal and moral strand, she takes a moment to look again at the disintegration of sola scriptura, scriptura sola (our remaining question of where authority lies at this point in religion.) This section leads us to understand how the corporeal strand is examined along the way as well.

Both church and culture have struggled with issues of slavery, the women's vote, divorce, the ordination of women and now the ordination of homosexuals. Each time applying our modern sensibility and experience to the traditional scriptural witness. These issues were cultural wars as much as internal church wars. The new way of considering scripture has in itself created a new corporeal strand or morphed it I suppose. Have we created a new way of being together?

Often when I worry about what church will be or more passionately wonder what kind of church the WWII generation of pastors will leave the 911 generation of pastors, I am met with what I believe is spirit wisdom: it will be the church that I'm creating. There are plenty of spirit-filled, god-fearing pastors who love people, love Jesus and love the culture that has been created by the influences like AA, immigration, Darwin, Freud. and more importantly, there is a culture of people thirsting for a church where those influences are embraced and not shunned.

A 21st century common imagination

This is another chapter that's going to take a few days to unpack. Go back to her original illustration of the cable. The outer sheath or our "common story" and the inner sheath or our "common imagination" is what has been breached, exposing the three stranded cable of spirituality, religiosity and morality. She goes back to a foundational question that is wrapped up in any "rummage sale" - What has authority in our lives?" The Great Reformation gave us sola scriptura, scriptural sola as a result of their rummage sale from the previous breach in their "cable."

In this next chapter she outlines 10 "things or events" that grew up over the past century that have changed how we answer the question, what has authority? Here are the first six.

First: the effects of Einstein's theory of relativity that stemmed from his description of "motion" that concluded the presence of the atom.

Second: Heisenberg's theory of Uncertainty that proves that the act of observing something changes the nature of the something observed. (this is a great example of things we take for granted within our worldview.)

Third: the quest for the historical Jesus is an attempt to apply the theory of uncertainty to biblical truth. Is the Jesus of Nazareth and the Jesus of Western history and thought the same person or does Jesus change when "observed." Scriptural interpretation is decentralized, "subject to the caprices of human interpretation, turned into some kind of pick and choose bazaar for skillful hagglers. Where now is our authority?" (page 82)

Fourth: Enter Pentecostalism. Einstein's year of "marvel" was 1905, Pentecostalism is considered to begin in 1906 (although there was plenty of Pentecostal activity around the globe before then, Azusa Street was in 1906.) I will quote here a lengthy paragraph that says the effects of this superbly.

"Pentecostalism by definition assumes the direct contact of the believer with god and by extension, the direct agency o the Holy Spirit as instructor and counselor and commander as well as comforter. As such and stated practically, Pentecostalism, assumes that ultimate authority is experiential rather than canonical. This is not either to say or to imply that there is a denial of the Holy Scripture. It is to say, rather that forced into a choice between what a believer thinks with his or her own mind to be said in the Holy Spirit, many a Pentecostal must prayerfully, fearfully humbly accept the more immediate authority of the received message... Probably just slightly more than a quarter of emergent Christians and the emergent Church are Pentecostal by heritage or affinity, and they have brought with them into a ew aggregate this central belief in the Holy Spirit as authority." (page 85)

Fifth: The creation of the car and more importantly its ability to make the Sabbath become known as simply Sunday.

Sixth: Communism and here I offer another quote where she is synthesizing George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel who died when Marx was only thirteen, who taught dialectical materialism. "Good and evil were not antithetical to one another, but rather were two parts of a thing that itself would exist only so long as the two were in opposition to one another. Once the two opposites in anything had resolved their conflict, they would synthesize and the thing y were would cease to be. Thus all life was only a becoming, never a being. And all of creation was simply pieces and parts of some great Absolute that was itself becoming."

For the record, I stand corrected that my affinity toward communism isn't really communism... it's dialectical materialism, and as a theologian, I have grown to understand the kingdom of God in this way.

So let's recap... everything is relative and our involvement in life affects the truth of the experience which combined breaks down our understanding of absolute truth. We go after historical fact, rather than larger truth until that pesky thing called the Holy Spirit comes into play and folks begin to believe in truth discovered by experience. So our relative involvement combined with the movement and power of the Holy Spirit leaves the preacher and the Sunday sabbath trailing in comparison at times. But the shadow side of our internal experience is real as well... as seen by communism.

Although is it possible that the rise of spirituality in our culture is an attempt to merge those opposites within us, synthesized into the great Absolute. The emergent church movement always says that it is deeply grounded in the person Jesus, Matthew 25 Christianity. Based on reading thus far, I'm not sure that running to Jesus is the answer. As my friend Dawn would say, "we need to get over Jesus."

And so I end this post by bowing to the Holy Spirit within me, thanking God for dispensing the divine to individuals.

The 21st century common story

Enjoy this high school project about the Scopes Trial (complete with outtakes.) I include it because of the obvious worldview these teenagers assume.



Tickle has subtitled the next chapter (chapter 4), "Darwin, Freud and the Power of Myth." When I consider the changing face of the church, I often wonder how much of my thoughts are simply a product of my worldview. How much of my worldview is different from the generation of pastors before me? I went to seminary in the "911" crowd. Many don't know, but a large portion of 2nd career students entered seminary after re-evaluating life post September 11, 2001. (It's also important to note that there was a rise in seminary graduates post WWII. I can imagine a similar evaluation of life and one's life work was present at that time as well.)

The worldview of pastors has changed. Evolution isn't going anywhere (in fact, I saw a bumper sticker that said "evolution is a theory - like gravity.) The concept of "self" and our drive to understand who we are at our core is foundational to understand the current generation's want for spirituality. But it's the power of myth that got me really going in this chapter. I love Joseph Campbell, my family loves Joseph Campbell, I was thinking that I could do a class on Joseph Campbell as a way to create a larger community.

I pastor a church in a region of the world where a majority ethnic group is diminishing one town at a time. Because of the influence of other cultures, ethnic food is a staple. Other cultures are fascinating to me and all of my friends. The background for every one of my sermons is the undeniable truth that we live in a pluralistic world of complex individuals.

These truths have aided in my own faith development. The challenges of scientific discovery push my faith. The complexity of "self" makes me a better pastor. The broad scope of religion in the world has only served to make God too big to define. I see none of these as attacks on my faith development. I take these things for granted.

It's a transition chapter... more tomorrow.

Catalyst for change, part two

This chapter is packed. If you're wondering about the author's credentials, click here for her website. I found interesting that her perspective of religion is more from watching trends as the first religion editor of Publisher's Weekly. She essentially has been in the right place at the right time to see things from farther outside than me.

Tickle begins by connecting the Renaissance with the Reformation in that both required the culture of the near east to infiltrate Europe. With the growth of Islam, the capture of Constantinople, the question of the rightful papacy and then the consequent move of Orthodox scholars (with their ancient writings) to Europe, she builds a picture of groundwork being laid for the Reformation. While we date the Reformation with Luther, certainly we understand (as I have already begun to question in the last post) that the need an desire for change had already begun. She asserts that the Fall of Constantinople is as good a candidate as any for dating the beginnings of the last "rummage sale."

"The intercultural, inter-religious clashes of the late 14th and 15th centuries, combined with the rediscovery of the Classical writers and the vulnerabilities of exaggerated human suffering, led the people of the peri-Reformation to a reconsideration not only of the Church but also of the state and of social and economic order."

What happened next? the rise of the individual and the idea of capitalism, the family replaces the clan, the middle class emerges, the idea of nation-state and a new form of Christianity called Protestantism.

As a person rooted in this "emergence" or this shift, I can wholeheartedly say that individualism has turned into an acceptance of selfishness. Capitalism might be a good idea but without a moral imperative to care for our neighbors it has reaked havoc on global commerce. My family lives all over the country and I have replaced the gift of family with a community of friends. I'm not sure who is in the middle class anymore. I hope for my country (nation-state) to be a brother or sister to the neighboring nation-states - When we say "God Bless America", I wish we would think of north, central and south America. And finally, I wonder almost every day what new form of Christianity will emerge to expand the gospel of Jesus Christ and will I recognize it?

So on my rummage sale table today, like Tickle has argued, lies: the individual, capitalism, the family unit, the middle class, national identity, and Protestantism (with all its denominational disunity.)

No wonder I am so offensive to so many. And so to remind me and you if you're reading that this emergent movement is really rooted in Christ's command to love our neighbor, here's a youtube clip from Rob Bell.

Catalyst for change, part one

Here we go with the second day of reading Phyllis Tickle's "The Great Emergence." I've read chapter two and the teaser for section two. And the question that I'm left with is "What happened over the last 100 (or maybe 200) years that would create the need or desire for change in the Christian church?"

But before we get to that, here's what she says (essentially)...

Using the illustration of a cable with an outer coating, an inner sheath and three bound wires, she walks through the process of "re-formation." The outer coating is our larger societal story (I like the word meta-narrative.) the inner sheath is our collective imagination. The three wires are spirituality, corporeality, and morality. She argues that from time to time, something big - a storm of sorts - breaks through the coating and sheath exposing the three wires.

Inquisitive as we are, we begin to explore the three areas of our worshiping selves: the makings of an individual spiritual being, the way that individuals interact in worship corporately, and our moral compasses. (I was a tad confused at where she was going until she said, "We pull each [wire] up, consider it from every possible angle, and at times finger it beyond all imagining. (Consider for example, how many thousands and thousands of Americans over the last fifty years have been vociferously "spiritual but not religious.") One we're satisfied with our understanding of one strand, worry it to death, in time return it to its former place, and take on the third and last strand." (page 37)

So it's about inquisitiveness? Or is it about the blow to the cable in the first place? Is it about mending the breach? I hope all three. But for today, I was left with the question of what caused the breach?

It's not really every 500 years though... the breach happens, it takes awhile to check the three strands out, re-form, and then I would assume a period of rest settles in. So, maybe every 200 years? 100 years? That's why I was left with that question... what happened over the last 100 (maybe 200) years that would create the need or desire for the Christian church to change?

Here's my list (and in no order of importance): the industrial revolution, the creation of the car, train, plane, and the internet which leads to travel which leads to interaction of cultures and the flattening of the world (see Thomas Friedman).

Our meta-narrative has changed and our imagination has exploded and we're left with exposed spirituality, corporeality and morality.

The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle

I began reading this new book this morning after a fitful night of sleep. Perhaps it's an occupational hazard, but I often wake with people and problems from church on my mind. At first, I try to pray. This morning that lasted for an hour and then I got up for tea.

I've long been a voice of change in the church. Even in my days working for para-church organization, I was a voice (often unheard, but always met with confused, skeptical looks) that asserted that something was changing in the way that we celebrate and practice our Christian faith.

The church has a movement called "the emergent church." (If you're new to the emerging church concept, click here for an article from Christianity Today.) I like the distinction. Although all I've heard at this point is the ancient practices have become desirous again. I've wanted the church to talk about something new... really new... Reformation new.

I have great hopes for this book by Tickle. She begins with the image of a rummage sale quoting Dyer who says, "every 500 years the church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale." She goes onto name the "rummage sales": The Great Reformation, the Great Schism, Gregory the Great and the Monastic movement, and finally the introduction of Jesus of Nazareth and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I read a book almost a year ago that talked about the Phoenix (and I believe that I'm repeating myself even here on this blog). The mythical bird, the Phoenix is engulfed in flames only to be reborn of its own ashes. It emerges as a hybrid of what it was and what it will be.

Between you and me, I have been praying for fire for a long time for my beloved church.

Confessions of a post-Christian

Newsweek recently ran a cover story about the decline of a Christian nation. I was horrified to think that we were a theocracy in the first place. (Although i didn't look up my 5th grade social studies textbook to confirm what we all should know... we are a republic not a theocracy.)

I found Judith Warner's response to the Newsweek article particularly insightful. The quote that I'm considering says, " “The great end in religious instruction is not to stamp our minds irresistibly upon the young, but to stir up their own … Not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs,” William Ellery Channing, the Unitarian theologian, once said."

"What identity will my children have to rebel against, in the course of growing up? Is there a way to make their experience be a moving-toward, instead of away?"

For years in and with my own family, I have sought that "moving-toward" attitude. When each child came home interested in spiritual things of any kind, my response was continually, "go try it, practice it. Faith is practiced." And over time, that is what has happened to our family... we have become a group of individuals that practice faith in a meaningful way as individuals. And consequentially, our practices have blessed the others' practices.

I hope for our country, and for that matter, all living things, to touch our inward springs. I hope that instead of creating a society without religion, we are creating a society filled with people comfortable sharing their spirit, conversant about faith, and ever-inquisitive about that which we cannot understand.