A Tild PSA: Spong on Evolving Christianity

OK, so lately we’ve seen the latest in a long line of bozos seeking to return us to the Dark Ages by bashing Copernicus, not to mention all other science that doesn’t fit with said bozo’s belief in the Bible as literal truth. Cripes, here we go again. Didn’t we settle this about 500 years ago? It really makes me wonder if it’s true, that old saw about there being nothing new under the sun..

And BTW, don’t you forget, sinners – - per Congressman Warren Chisum (R-Ye Olde Bizarro Faerie-land), that sun revolves around the earth, dammit!

Well, to put that nothing-new talk to rest, try out this kinda new-sounding concept : Evolving Christianity.

Consider that some people are witnessing an evolution, a re-invention of their beliefs as science reveals more and more about the nature of humanity and the nature of the universe.

Whoa, nellie. Am I saying that spiritual beliefs can evolve with expanding scientific knowledge? Am I saying that all physical laws, all science, the entire universe itself doesn’t have to conform to a static interpretation of, oh, say, some 2000-year-old belief system? Am I saying that scientific knowledge can illuminate and elucidate and thus sometimes reconfigure the meaning of our spiritual beliefs? Yikes. Sounds pretty damn progressive to me. Cue the retired Episcopal bishop….

We haven’t heard from John Shelby Spong in a while, so let’s take a look at this Q&A about Evolving Christianity that arrived in my inbox a few days ago:

Steve Langley from the Internet writes:
“I am a 63-year-old man who was raised in the Pentecostal Church until I rebelled and forced my way out at about age 14. I subsequently have lived my life with the existence of God as an open philosophical question to me and with utter contempt for all religious structures and teachings. I have always thought they were self-serving as institutions and for the people who wrap themselves in those teachings.

I once had a conversation with two doctors who were both raised in the same Muslim faith. One remains devout in the most human way. The other has drifted from the religion of his birth. He now believes that ‘democracy’ is the best religion. I have thought about his concept and your teachings as I have read them in your newsletter and several of your books. Democracy, in its purest form, and the Christ experience as you ponder and teach it. What a marvelous concept. In a pure democracy there would be neither ‘man nor woman’ nor any other of the differences that exist now in our world and religions. For me, my recent reading of your teaching on Paul and the scripture quoted above seems to make ‘democracy’ and humanity the best religion. As for the Christ experience and your teachings not just of faith but humanity in the Christ experience, it is something I have started to think about. I must thank you for a lifetime of faith, work and all that goes into it so that one day I might pick up your writings, read them, and begin to think about WHY AM I HERE DOING THE GOOD ‘CHRISTIAN DEEDS’ IN MY LIFE WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF RELIGION OR EVEN A BELIEF IN GOD BECAUSE I BELIEVE THEY ARE RIGHT?? Maybe there is a new Christianity that would reveal itself in me, but perhaps not in my lifetime. Thank you for reaching out to people like me. I look forward to each newsletter.”

Dear Steve ,

Thank you for your letter and a description of your pilgrimage. You are certainly traveling in the same direction that I find myself walking. I think faith is a journey to be undertaken not a set of propositions to be believed.

Religion always seems to begin in childlike immaturity in which God is portrayed as a being, supernatural in power, eager to bless, protect and care for us in our childlike fear. As we mature, the need for the parent God fades and the divine, as being itself or as that experience of transcendence, comes into focus. The boundary between humanity and divinity also fades and the two seem to penetrate each other, making the way into the divine and the journey into self-awareness quite similar. The goal of the Christian life then becomes not rescue from the bondage of sin, but expansion into a deeper sense of what it means to be human.

This approach represents, I believe, a significant shift in consciousness. It also makes it clear that the content of the traditional religious myths is no longer operative. Facing the end of traditional religious systems, we fear that nothingness dwells at the heart of life and that drives us to create security systems to protect us from our fear. Some are religious and they always claim to possess inerrant truth or to be guided by an infallible authority. Others seek to lose themselves in the pursuit of the idols of alcohol, drugs, sex, wealth and pleasure. Still others sink into the despair of being alone in an impersonal universe. I believe there is a better option.

My sense is that the Christianity of the future must be willing to let go the content of yesterday in a far more radical way than people have yet imagined, but to do so without sacrificing the experience that created yesterday’s content. Only then can we begin the slow and laborious task of developing new content to make sense of the eternal experience of being human.

Long after fundamentalist churches have moved away from their excessive but uninformed zeal and long after Benedict XVI has discovered that no one can return to the Middle Ages without committing intellectual suicide, a still, small voice will speak and a new reformation will begin on the edges of yesterday’s religious systems and slowly begin to make its way into the center of our reality. I live for that day.

– John Shelby Spong

You and I may not be on the same path of spiritual evolution as Spong and Steve here, but isn’t it beneficial to know that some self-identified Christians are?

This has been a Tild Public Service Announcement. Thanks for your attention.