I found the Book of

I found the Book of Esther to be a compelling story that touched me to the core.  I saw the most powerful message was the very absence of God from the text.  It served to remind me that oftentimes we have to help ourselves if we expect to be helped.  I believe that the Jews of the Diaspora must have felt the very same way as they sought to survive in a foreign land.  They were trying to live out their lives and found themselves plagued by the same problems that afflict so many minority communities.  Powerful forces were arrayed against them, they were singled out for their unique beliefs and practices, and they made enemies who sought to destroy them.  Were it not for their own actions, enacted on their own behalf, it seemed likely they would be encompassed by the doom that surrounded them.  Esther’s personal bravery is the brightest spot in the story.  She was in the right place at the right time to do here people a great service and she was willing to put her faith into action.  Through her example she shows us the courage of selflessness and commitment.  She puts her own life at risk in order to serve her people.  She does what is within her power to attempt and does so with resolute steadfastness. Her example teaches us what each of us can do if we just put forth the effort and use the tools at our disposal, and do so without fear in service of a greater good.

The Book of Esther taught the exilic people to rely on themselves, to use the tools, their abilities, their own cunning, whatever they have at their disposal to survive.  But, for this strategy to be successful there must sometimes be situations where they must be willing to put themselves at risk in order to accomplish their goal.  God will provide for them if they are willing to provide for themselves.

Social Gospel

I am fascinated with the Social gospel. It seems to me to be the most sensible way to practice religion. Rauchenbusch tried to put the plain and simple truths of Christianity into practice and make the lot of the disenfranchised members of society better. Perhaps it is best stated by Walter himself, when asked about the nature of the Kingdom of God her replied that it, "is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven." Walter's theology puts aside all the irrelevant rubbish, the smoke and mirrors, and the dog and pony shows found in most theological approaches. Walter said, "Theology needs periodical rejuvenation. Its greatest danger is not mutilation but senility. It is strong and vital when it expresses in large reasonings what youthful religion feels and thinks. When people have to be indoctrinated laboriously in order to understand theology at all, it becomes a dead burden. The dogmas and theological ideas of the early church were those ideas which at that time were needed to hold the Church together, to rally its forces, and to give it victorious energy against antagonistic powers. Today many of those ideas are without present significance. Our reverence for them is a kind of ancestor worship. To hold laboriously to a religious belief which does not hold us, is an attenuated form of asceticism; we chastise and starve our intellect to sanctify it by holy beliefs. The social gospel does not need the aid of the church authority to get hold of our hearts”.  
I am so impressed with Walter’s perceptions.  When we hold on to the theological truths of times gone by we fail to truly serve the needs of the masses.  We trade their needs for service to an elect few whose authority is bound up with the maintenance of the status quo.  When churches fail to meet the needs of the people in the present and instead choose to hold fast to their traditions they are failing to meet the most basic needs of their congregations and lose something of their foundational nature.
Walter said, “Very well, if to seek for the establishment of justice and mercy among men is an error; if an attempt to carry out the principles on which Jesus lived into all the departments of life is a heresy; if the effort to make life on this dear old earth sweeter and purer for the dying men who live on it is doomed to failure… then let my life be a failure! I shall meet my Master with a serener face, I think, amid the ruins of such a failure, than if I had successfully fostered a spiritual life which had left justice prostrate on the street and the oppressed crying in vain to God for a champion.”
He faced much criticism during his life from people who either failed, or for reasons of their own, refused to recognize the simple sacredness of his message.  Today many progressives of faith face the same sort of attacks from our brothers and sisters on the right.  Walter was able to see beyond their shallow and self-serving recriminations and pursue a higher ideal. Progressives of faith need to show the same disdain and disregard for the rhetoric of the right and stride forward resolutely and do what is right.

If the Social Gospel had a weakness it was that it’s adherants were so busy going about the business of God they failed to take note of the opportunists from the right who were going to great lengths to undermine it’s foundations with conservative rhetoric.  By the time they looked up from their work it was to late.  The very nature of the Christian right requires followers of the Social Gospel and Liberation theology to proceed with their important work with one hand while keeping the other free to fend off the attacks from their conservative brothers and sisters.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Social Gospel needs to be re-born.  It has never been needed anywhere at anytime as much as it is needed today.  Let the churches of the world lay aside their petty doctrinal differences and try to make a difference in the lot of the least amongst us.  Stop trying to convert people to their unique theological perspectives for “the salvation of souls” and worry about the temporal and secular needs of the disadvantages.  If this could be accomplished people could be free to look after their own souls.Walter provides us with some wonderful quotations; here are three I consider amongst his best;
(1) Sin is a social force.  It runs from person to person along the lines of social contact.  Its impact on the individual becomes most overwhelming when sin is most completely socialized.  Salvation too, is a social force.  It is exerted by groups that are charged with divine will and love.  A full salvation demands a Christian social order that will serve as the spiritual environment of the individual (2) Theologians have felt no hesitation in founding a system of speculative thought on the teachings of Jesus; and yet Jesus was never an inhabitant of the realm of speculative thought.(3) We never live so intensely as when we love strongly. We never realize ourselves so vividly as when we are in full glow of love for others.(4) History is never antiquated, because humanity is always fundamentally the same.

I was not surprised

I was not surprised to learn that women were/are the backbone of the Catholic practice of devotion to the Saints. The Braude article we read has given me a different paradigm through which to view the role of women in church.  I see the rise in the veneration of Jude in direct correlation to the rise of a new sense of self worth in women.  The model of Therese (at least as she was viewed in the time referenced) was a model of submissiveness, humility and silence.  It was a model whose time had come and gone, and I for one say good riddance.  I am glad that the new version of Therese as envisioned by contemporary scholars represents independence and innovation; perhaps those characteristics will resonate with a new generation of young women.  Perhaps this new vision of spiritual innovation and independence will help lead American Catholicism towards the liberalization of its outmoded & gender biased policies.

I am also not suspired to learn that there are varied and differing reasons between the practical and spiritual aspects of devotions.  I can see why, for strictly materialistic reasons one parish, diocese of shrine would want to promote the veneration of one saint over, often at the expense of another.  When I was living in Germany I did a little travel around Europe.  And, although the churches are pretty much empty there is a large tourist industry built around the saints.  It was everywhere; come see the hand of so-and-so, the virgin appeared here, or we have the skull of St. someone else in our cathedral.  My friends and I talked about it at the time but we failed to understand the spiritual ramifications of such tourism.  It just seemed rather gruesome and somewhat opportunistic way to make a quick buck from the tourist trade.  After reading this article I understand that the money made from tourism may well be just the tip of the iceberg.  I imagine that there are many devout Catholics who donate huge amounts of money to the cult centers of the various saints.  On the other side of the coin there are many people whose lives have been changed by their devotion to their particular saint.  The deep spiritual transformations, the personal mystical experiences, and the heartfelt loves these people have experienced should not be cavalier dismissed, even if the tradition is alien to us.

Orsi and I seem to have come to a similar conclusion that women turned away from Therese and her “suffering” and “self-abnegation” towards “…a saint whose existence was rooted in their needs and who would not only understand and comfort them, but empower them as well”.  But I would add that Jude should be just one next step in the emancipation of Catholics of both genders.  This new vision of Therese sounds like just the tonic needed to stir things up.

1. Early Therese…Submissiveness, Humility and Silence


2. Jude…Understanding, Compassion and Empowerment


3. New Therese…Fierce Independence & Spiritual Innovation

wisdom

“The beginning of wisdom lies in taking seriously that we are dealing with a reality that transcends the world of the everyday, even as that reality is known in the world of the everyday.  (Marcus Borg)

I believe that his female personification of Wisdom is important for a number of reasons. First, the illustration that Wisdom is something real and tangible.  Something we can truly and fully know rather than something conceptualized or idealized.  Wisdom is a real thing that we can come to understand through effort, study and adherence to its manifested leadings.  Also, I believe that it is important to show the female gender in a different light than what may be found in some other books of the bible such as Hosea 1:2-3:5 or Amos 7, where the wives of the Prophets are described as prostitutes even if meant allegorically it does damage in the hands of patriarchal conservatives.  The prejudice in scripture against women can be seen as early as Genesis where blame for the fall is cast upon Eve.  In Exodus 20:17 we see women described as property. Leviticus 12 teaches that women are made unclean by giving birth (of course for a longer period for girls as opposed to boys) and in Chapter 15 we see the text condemn them to uncleanlieness for something as natural as a menstrual cycle.  The “test” for adultery in Numbers 5:13-21 or the “virgin” test of Deuteronomy 22:13-21 are truly barbarous folly.  As we move through the scriptures we find more and more unflattering and cruel representations of women.  Deuteronomy 22:28-29 is perhaps one of the most insensitive and cruel, commanding that a woman is required to marry her own rapist.

Admittedly the personification of Lady Wisdom-Sophia is counterpoised by Mistress Folly but, even in that incarnation the feminine image is independent, alluring, and powerful and compelling in her own right, something that seems lacking elsewhere in scripture.

The Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance was a religious expression of desperation and hope.  The Lakota and other Native Peoples had seen their lands seized, their people killed, and they were looking out of their desperate straits for some glimmer of hope.  The teachings of Wovoka gave them that.  The idea that a new world waited for them on the other side where their old friends were waiting and the old ways were still valid must have been quite compelling.  I imagine it must have seemed like a cool sip of water for a parched man.

The Native Peoples and the Whites had very difficult times understanding one another on a wide variety of matters.  Most of these differences stemmed from the two completely differing and diverse worldviews each espoused.  The Native Peoples saw themselves a part of the world and the line between the spiritual and the material was hazy at best.  Their spirituality was represented by the harmony in the material world that surrounded them.  The whites did not seek so much to be one with the natural world as to control it.  This factor produced a tension between peoples and religious systems that could not easily be overcome.

The Native peoples seemed to be drawn to millenarian movements for much the same reason they were drawn to the Ghost Dance, the promise of a better world to come.  The Mormon Church and its “Mission to the Lamanites” was one of particular success.  Wherever the Latter Day saints went they endeavored to establish good relations with the Native Peoples whom the believed were descended from the lost tribes of Israel.  They promised their native converts that through their obedience to the dictates of God their faithfulness would be rewarded with ethnic transformation.  The LDS believe that the Native Peoples in the Americas were once a white people and through their disobedience and evil ways they were transformed to dark people and cursed.  Only through their obedience and submission could this change and they would be made into a “White and delightsome people”.  While this may not seem very compelling to us and perhaps we may be repulsed by such teachings, there was something in it that many Native Peoples found compelling.

Millenarian movements give hope to the hopeless.  It is comforting to some to “Know” that Jesus will “Soon” be coming and everything will be okay.  It reinforces the”us or them” attitude that many people of faith need to feel secure in their religion.  It is comforting for such people to feel “Chosen” but, if some are chosen then it stands to reason that some are not and this is can be dangerous.  This idea of choseness promotes the cultish hive mentality that so many of the millenarian sects have exhibited over the years.  I believe, and this is just me, that this sort of religious expression promotes social laziness,  allowing people not to have to worry about things like population control or the environment because, “It’s almost time for the Rapture” or “Jesus will be coming to reign soon and everything will be made right”.  This sort of rubbish allows people not to have to face the ugly problems in the world.  Millenarianism acts like rose colored glasses & team colors for its adherents.