.jpg)
"In telling you all this from the start, I hope you will understand my purpose for this book. I am not writing this book to convince you (or myself) to stay Christian. Nor am I writing this book to convince you (or myself) to leave Christian identity behind forever. Instead, I want to think through the question of retaining or shedding Christian identity with you looking over my shoulder. And I want us to consider how we are going to live, whether or not we identify as Christian.
So in Part I of the book, I present the best reasons I am aware of for answering “Do I stay Christian?” with a decisive no. If Christianity has been nothing but a blessing to you personally, this section may be painful and disruptive for you to read. But I plead with you to grapple with it humbly, honestly, with eyes and heart wide open." BM
Okay, let's stop there. When I blogged on Brian's last book, Faith after Doubt, I split it into two posts. This book is split into three sections, so I will do three blog posts for each section. This blog post is about the ...
NO
I have been waiting for this book. I downloaded it this morning and plowed through the first ten chapters of the first section. Contrary to what Brian said... this was not painful in the sense that I was shocked about the atrocities committed in the name of "God", I was aware of most of the stories, but it was heartbreaking in the sense that Christianity has actually sustained itself in this nightmare of an identity. I am disgusted that there isn't more awareness in our culture of the bloody Christian history.
"Through sermons, books, radio/TV “ministries,” and other media, I was repeatedly informed about the worst atrocities across history committed by non-Christians. (But about our own Christian atrocities, I was kept shockingly ignorant.)
In short, I was taught my religion’s historical upsides and few of its downsides, and I was taught about other religions’ historical downsides and few of their upsides.
That’s a perfect recipe for creating ignorant and arrogant religious jerks." BM
I'm not going to list those atrocities here... you can read the book for a list of those. But I don't remember being enlightened about most of those events in church, Sunday school or even bible school. Who wants to bring that stuff up. It doesn't help with the bottom line of the business.
"Wherever Christians have gone, we have brought a legacy of schools, hospitals, and other institutions intended to improve our quality of life and the lives of others. But make no mistake: we have also brought the fourfold ultimatum of convert, leave, submit, or die, which is the unwritten contract of crusader colonial Christianity, past and present." BM
I think that would rate the highest on my list as the reason I am glad I no longer identify with the label of "Christian". I have no motivation what so ever to convert anyone to anything but the universal experience of Love. The whole mandate of Christianity to assimilate other species makes me ill. (a little Borg imagery from Star Trek)
"A white Christian patriarchal universe is not a safe place for women, children, racial and religious minorities, and nonconformists, and neither is it a safe place for the earth and its nonhuman creatures." BM
This one needs no commentary from me. It speaks for itself.
"I look upstream and see a hump of water in front of a rock: another pattern or event. I see the stream itself … also an event. I look at the rounded rocks beneath my feet: before the stream smoothed them, they were jagged boulders on a mountain, and before that, bedrock under the mountain, and before that, fluid magma deep beneath the earth, and before that, space dust drawn into orbit around the sun. What I see as a solid round rock is just one event in a long, long story.
Then I look down to see my reflection in the water, and behold! I realize that I too am an event, a flow, a pattern of relationships!" BM
This is it! This is how I see my world. This is the "Flow" that I keep visualizing. Brian McLaren is speaking my language!
"The religion that should be leading the way could drop everything it’s doing. It could develop a spiritual vaccine—a set of habits and practices that would inoculate people against hate and fear and help them be carriers of love." BM
I am all for whatever it takes to move Love into the world and move fear out.
I might be tempted to stop reading here. I know what is ahead... all the reasons to stay. But maybe it isn't about going back to what I had, but finding a new expression of Christianity I could share with those who have stayed. Maybe there is some common ground to be had. That is why this I need to get through this book sooner than later.
"I am convinced that these first ten chapters do not foreclose on the rest of this book. Part I actually makes the rest of this book more necessary than ever. So when you’re ready, when you’ve let these first ten chapters settle, I hope you’ll take a deep breath, brew a fresh pot of coffee or tea, take a walk outdoors, and then turn the page to Part II." BM
No comments:
Post a Comment