Here are some excerpts from some recent posts...
Again, the earliest and most consistently enduring valued aspects of the Gospels (as far as I can tell) include the belief that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is an indication of God's solidarity with humanity and an opportunity to participate in his divinity as fellow children of God. To know God not as a distant, alien ruler or tyrant but as Abba - our Father. That trusting in the insights offered by the Gospels and following the example of Jesus are a means of salvation, of transcending a limited life characterized by alienation from an appreciation of the intimate presence and unyielding love of God. That following Jesus often means to defy convention and tradition in order to be liberated in a way that even death could not taint or corrupt.
This is what my intellect, my heart, and my conscience tell me is the most relevant and essential aspects of the Gospels and the Christian tradition. Everything else either points back to these basic beliefs or attempts to explain, rationalize, or justify them. Some of these additional efforts are useful for many, some are useful for a few. Some are logical and consistent with the values expressed in the basic beliefs mentioned above, others or inconsistent or tangential, either because they are anachronisms, culturally inappropriate, or because they came from a human need to control and exclude along tribal, regional, racial, economic, ethnic, or political lines.
-from Oh, They've Encased Jesus in Carbonite
What each tradition offers (including the newer ones) is a unique story that speaks to certain people, echoing their pain, their joy, their confusion, and their hopes. Each story paints a picture and offers a path leading to surrender and transformation, complete with rituals to commemorate and reaffirm one's journey. Each tradition offers a common history and presents a vision of the future that resonates with those who embrace it. Each tradition challenges preconceptions, egos, and a self-centered view in its own way. Each tradition provides a complete working system that can assist us to see and fully embrace its received wisdom, like having a coach and teammates working toward a goal, to encourage or carry us when we are tired and when we stumble.
I have found that the reason so many things good or bad are associated with religion is that it is a fundamental structural aspect of most societies - in other words, everything by default has some religious significance. Religion is used to address the existential issues people face and in each society it lays out a map for how to live a complete life. In fact, in most cultures there isn't a separate category "religion" apart from the rest of life. It is simply a part of the whole. Hence cultural and societal values are officially accepted and made part of tradition by being incorporated into religion.
-from Why I am not anti-religious
Each culture collects, shapes, and transmits different ways of knowing, different ways of experiencing the world. We may refer to them as different metaphysical systems, different philosophies, or different world views. Some lenses are better for experiencing and understanding larger phenomena and expressing big picture notions. Others are useful for appreciating the details. Some have to do with intuition and others with the physical senses. Various religions are subtypes of lenses within a larger spiritual lens. Science is another kind of lens.
I have spent a significant portion of my life trying to find the correct lenses to properly examine or appreciate various phenomena and the ideas resulting from experiencing them. Some say that they have found a lens superior to all others, but they have always ended up revealing some kind of distortion. That is to be expected, since it is this distortion, this difference in magnification and reflection, that gives those who use them a distinct perspective. But is there a lens that we all can share? Is there a lens that we can always use, even while using other lenses for particular tasks?
-from The lenses we use to see the world
Too often many people who take human suffering and dignity seriously and personally are viewed in some quarters as being wimpy. As pansies. Or as "bleeding hearts". I, for one, pray for the strength to be a bleeding heart. It is a label that should be worn with honor. There is nothing weak or shameful about learning to surrender to, realize, accept, and promote boundless compassion. To cultivate bodhicitta. To embody agape... caritas... divine love.
The use of the term as an insult comes from failing to parse "weak" and "meek" in the sense that it is one thing to forgive or be patient when you are in a position of perceived powerlessness and when you display such qualities from a position of strength. Bragging, boasting, bullying, and intimidating those weaker than yourself is not courage or bravery. It is a sign of inner weakness and insecurity. Imposing your will on someone through force isn't nearly as tough as submitting to faith, hope and love. To have restraint. To forgive. To care. And so in a classic form of desperate rhetoric, those too weak to show restraint, to offer and accept forgiveness, and to care and be cared about by others, try to re-define their weakness as a sign of strength. They confuse force for power, fear for respect, and arrogance (which is threatened by the success of others) for confidence (which celebrates and is strengthened by the success of others).
-from Bleeding Heart (Remix)
Through my exploration of liberal religions like UUism and my exploration and practice of Buddhism I healed and reconciled many "wounds" I had regarding religion, and I began to appreciate the more expansive understanding of religious terminology, sacred traditions, and other things associated with religion. To appreciate what such elements can do for people in terms of liberation from preconceptions and becoming open to amazing possibilities, mysteries, and wonders which are beyond any human system of knowing as well as what it can do to heal and transform people.
I have been exploring spirituality and looking for any reality behind words like "sacred" and "holy" and have come to hold intellectual positions which release me rather than inhibit me and allow me to open myself to seeking and appreciating the validity of talking about "God" and reflecting on "Jesus" as more than just a prophetic Rabbi with great teachings. This appreciation follows a reappraisal of how one conceives of the reality and meaning of spiritual experience and religious teachings. A panentheistic view of God as the Source of all Becoming/Being, that all things are manifested from divinity (i.e. all real things are sacred), and that the figure of Jesus presented in the Gospels and the Cosmic Christ that emerges in the rest of the New Testament is a reflection of ourselves in the Divine. We can relate to God reflected through the Cosmic Christ precisely because we can relate to the human Christ presented in the Gospels (see for example this thread).
-from Discovering the CUA - a new voice of Christian Universalism
Again, the earliest and most consistently enduring valued aspects of the Gospels (as far as I can tell) include the belief that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is an indication of God's solidarity with humanity and an opportunity to participate in his divinity as fellow children of God. To know God not as a distant, alien ruler or tyrant but as Abba - our Father. That trusting in the insights offered by the Gospels and following the example of Jesus are a means of salvation, of transcending a limited life characterized by alienation from an appreciation of the intimate presence and unyielding love of God. That following Jesus often means to defy convention and tradition in order to be liberated in a way that even death could not taint or corrupt.
This is what my intellect, my heart, and my conscience tell me is the most relevant and essential aspects of the Gospels and the Christian tradition. Everything else either points back to these basic beliefs or attempts to explain, rationalize, or justify them. Some of these additional efforts are useful for many, some are useful for a few. Some are logical and consistent with the values expressed in the basic beliefs mentioned above, others or inconsistent or tangential, either because they are anachronisms, culturally inappropriate, or because they came from a human need to control and exclude along tribal, regional, racial, economic, ethnic, or political lines.
-from Oh, They've Encased Jesus in Carbonite
What each tradition offers (including the newer ones) is a unique story that speaks to certain people, echoing their pain, their joy, their confusion, and their hopes. Each story paints a picture and offers a path leading to surrender and transformation, complete with rituals to commemorate and reaffirm one's journey. Each tradition offers a common history and presents a vision of the future that resonates with those who embrace it. Each tradition challenges preconceptions, egos, and a self-centered view in its own way. Each tradition provides a complete working system that can assist us to see and fully embrace its received wisdom, like having a coach and teammates working toward a goal, to encourage or carry us when we are tired and when we stumble.
I have found that the reason so many things good or bad are associated with religion is that it is a fundamental structural aspect of most societies - in other words, everything by default has some religious significance. Religion is used to address the existential issues people face and in each society it lays out a map for how to live a complete life. In fact, in most cultures there isn't a separate category "religion" apart from the rest of life. It is simply a part of the whole. Hence cultural and societal values are officially accepted and made part of tradition by being incorporated into religion.
-from Why I am not anti-religious
Each culture collects, shapes, and transmits different ways of knowing, different ways of experiencing the world. We may refer to them as different metaphysical systems, different philosophies, or different world views. Some lenses are better for experiencing and understanding larger phenomena and expressing big picture notions. Others are useful for appreciating the details. Some have to do with intuition and others with the physical senses. Various religions are subtypes of lenses within a larger spiritual lens. Science is another kind of lens.
I have spent a significant portion of my life trying to find the correct lenses to properly examine or appreciate various phenomena and the ideas resulting from experiencing them. Some say that they have found a lens superior to all others, but they have always ended up revealing some kind of distortion. That is to be expected, since it is this distortion, this difference in magnification and reflection, that gives those who use them a distinct perspective. But is there a lens that we all can share? Is there a lens that we can always use, even while using other lenses for particular tasks?
-from The lenses we use to see the world
Too often many people who take human suffering and dignity seriously and personally are viewed in some quarters as being wimpy. As pansies. Or as "bleeding hearts". I, for one, pray for the strength to be a bleeding heart. It is a label that should be worn with honor. There is nothing weak or shameful about learning to surrender to, realize, accept, and promote boundless compassion. To cultivate bodhicitta. To embody agape... caritas... divine love.
The use of the term as an insult comes from failing to parse "weak" and "meek" in the sense that it is one thing to forgive or be patient when you are in a position of perceived powerlessness and when you display such qualities from a position of strength. Bragging, boasting, bullying, and intimidating those weaker than yourself is not courage or bravery. It is a sign of inner weakness and insecurity. Imposing your will on someone through force isn't nearly as tough as submitting to faith, hope and love. To have restraint. To forgive. To care. And so in a classic form of desperate rhetoric, those too weak to show restraint, to offer and accept forgiveness, and to care and be cared about by others, try to re-define their weakness as a sign of strength. They confuse force for power, fear for respect, and arrogance (which is threatened by the success of others) for confidence (which celebrates and is strengthened by the success of others).
-from Bleeding Heart (Remix)
Through my exploration of liberal religions like UUism and my exploration and practice of Buddhism I healed and reconciled many "wounds" I had regarding religion, and I began to appreciate the more expansive understanding of religious terminology, sacred traditions, and other things associated with religion. To appreciate what such elements can do for people in terms of liberation from preconceptions and becoming open to amazing possibilities, mysteries, and wonders which are beyond any human system of knowing as well as what it can do to heal and transform people.
I have been exploring spirituality and looking for any reality behind words like "sacred" and "holy" and have come to hold intellectual positions which release me rather than inhibit me and allow me to open myself to seeking and appreciating the validity of talking about "God" and reflecting on "Jesus" as more than just a prophetic Rabbi with great teachings. This appreciation follows a reappraisal of how one conceives of the reality and meaning of spiritual experience and religious teachings. A panentheistic view of God as the Source of all Becoming/Being, that all things are manifested from divinity (i.e. all real things are sacred), and that the figure of Jesus presented in the Gospels and the Cosmic Christ that emerges in the rest of the New Testament is a reflection of ourselves in the Divine. We can relate to God reflected through the Cosmic Christ precisely because we can relate to the human Christ presented in the Gospels (see for example this thread).
-from Discovering the CUA - a new voice of Christian Universalism
