Ethic of Jesus
“…the scriptures are essentially a manual for suckers. The teachings of Jesus have ‘gotten us nothing.” – DJT, Jr
…the ethic of Jesus has gotten in the way of successfully prosecuting the culture wars against the left. If the ethic of Jesus encourages sensibilities that might cause people in politics to act a little less brutally, a bit more civilly, with a touch more grace? Then it needs to go. Decency is for suckers.
- unreligious cruelty toward immigrants,
- selfish refusal to vaccinate to protect the most vulnerable
- veneration of a vulgar, misogynistic cult leader.
If you wonder how so many “people of faith” can behave in such ways, understand that their “faith” has become hostile to traditional religious values such as kindness, empathy, self-restraint, grace, honesty and humility.
Peter Wehner
Wisdom
Maybe what we lack isn’t love but wisdom. It became clear to me that I should pray above all else for wisdom.
We all want to love, but as a rule we don’t know how to love rightly. How should we love so that life will really come from it? I believe that what we all need is wisdom. I’m very disappointed that we in the Church have passed on so little wisdom. Often the only thing we’ve taught people is to think that they’re right—or that they’re wrong. We’ve either mandated things or forbidden them. But we haven’t helped people to enter upon the narrow and dangerous path of true wisdom. On wisdom’s path we take the risk of making mistakes. On this path we take the risk of being wrong. That’s how wisdom is gained.
Richard Rohr
Social media
Krista Boan: We hear from families that technology is the No. 1 battleground in their homes. Qustodio, a leader in online safety, recently released its annual report and found that 70 percent of parents assert that screens and technology are now a distraction from family time and device use causes weekly or daily arguments in nearly 50 percent of households. A big new study from Cambridge University, in which researchers looked at 84,000 people of all ages, found that social media use was strongly associated with worse mental health during certain sensitive life periods, including for girls ages 11 to 13. Compared with their counterparts in the 2000s, today’s teens are less likely to go out with their friends, get their driver’s licenses or play youth sports.
Purity
Our purity systems, even those established with the best of intentions, do not make us holy. They only create insiders and outsiders. They are mechanisms for delivering our drug of choice: self-righteousness, as juice from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil runs down our chins. And these purity systems affect far more than our relationship to sex and booze: they show up in political ideology, in the way people shame each other on social media, in the way we obsess about “eating clean.” Purity most often leads to pride or to despair, not holiness. Because holiness is about union with, and purity is about separation from….
Nadia Bolz-Weber
Finding truth
“The process by which we find truth is maybe the most important thing. It takes work to locate, and often as soon as we think we have grasp it comma it slips away. Truth is not a script. It is not a cheat sheet for life. Truth does not come from picking a set of answers and then arranging all the questions so that they line up correctly. Truth starts with questions, it requires an openness – to other points of view and experiences, to being wrong, to changing one’s mind. A commitment to truth involves A passionate embrace of critical thinking.”
Jon Ward
Presented without comment
Abraham Twerski:
The bearded Twerski goes to the airport in his Hasidic garb — the hat, the long coat, the buttoned white shirt. Another Jew, this one modernly dressed, is annoyed by Twerski and unloads on him: “What’s wrong with you? Must you insist on parading around in that medieval get-up as if it were Purim? Don’t you realize how ridiculous you look? You bring nothing but scorn and embarrassment upon us Jews!”
After letting the angry man continue for a while, Twerski says, “I fail to understand what thee art saying. You do realize that I’m Amish, don’t you?”
The modern Jew’s anger quickly turns to embarrassment. “Oh, I beg your pardon,” he says apologetically. “I didn’t realize that you were Amish. You look so much like those Hasidic fellows. You should know that I have nothing but respect for you and your people — keeping to your ways without bowing to society’s wills and whims.”
Belonging
Most Americans report significant feelings of non-belonging. As the report notes, “64 percent of Americans reported non-belonging in the workplace, 68 percent in the nation and 74 percent in their local community.” Even worse, “nearly 20 percent of Americans failed to report an active sense of belonging in any of the life settings,”
Belonging Barometer
Tithing
The study released last week by Lifeway Research, a firm affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, found that 77% of Protestant churchgoers in the U.S. affirm that “tithing is a biblical command that still applies today.” Only 10% rejected this belief and another 13% were unsure.
Yet, the study found that only 12% of Methodist churchgoers tithe; 17% of Restorationist/Church of Christ churchgoers tithe; and 19% of Lutheran churchgoers tithe. Lutherans were also most likely to reject the notion of tithing, with 59% saying they don’t embrace the teaching.
Evangelical beliefs in tithing have declined by 6% since 2017, according to the online survey—and also varied by age. Only 66% of respondents aged 18 to 34 affirmed that tithing is currently applicable, the lowest of any demographic group.
Faith
Faith is not something we are trying to do well or to somehow get right. It is rather an immersive participation in the very life of God—on earth as it is in heaven. To be full of faith is to be infused by the life of God in such a way that crucifies our old sin-sick life and reveals our resurrected life in Jesus Christ, filled by the Holy Spirit, to live the glorious life human beings were originally intended to live. All along, from the very first day to the present day, from first to last, we were intended to live by faith.
J D Walt
View from the front porch:
Today is my 81st birthday. Not much pizzaz with 81, but I appreciate the many Happy Birthdays. It is always good to have another birthday.
I am coming to understand this time of my life is liminal space. Richard Rohr describes liminal space well:
Liminal space is an inner state and sometimes an outer situation where we can begin to think and act in new ways. It is where we are betwixt and between, in transition, having left one room or stage of life but not yet entered the next. We usually enter liminal space when our former way of being is challenged or changed—perhaps when we lose a job or a loved one, during illness, at the birth of a child, or a major relocation. It is a graced time, but often does not feel “graced” in any way. In such space, we are not certain or in control.
The very vulnerability and openness of liminal space allows room for something genuinely new to happen. We are empty and receptive—blank tablets waiting for new words. Liminal space is where we are most teachable, often because we are most humbled. Liminality keeps us in an ongoing state of shadowboxing instead of ego-confirmation, struggling with the hidden side of things, and calling so-called normalcy into creative question.
It’s no surprise then that we generally avoid liminal space. Much of the work of authentic spirituality and human development is to get people into liminal space and to keep them there long enough that they can learn something essential and new
I just hope I can remain here long enough to learn something essential and new.
STILL ON THE JOURNEY
Well!! Then May you remain in that liminal space long enough to learn something essential and new!!
Happy Bir were thday! George!! ???
It’s 11:59pm, still your birthday!! ?
Ok definitely need spell check! And my emojis became ??? Ugh!!!
Well!! Then May you remain in that liminal space long enough to learn something essential and new!!
Happy Birthday! George!!
It’s 11:59pm, still your birthday!!