June 24-25, 2006, weekend
June 24, 2006
AT GOD'S ORDER, SHE SIGNED
Just before heading to the Vatican for a visit with the pope, the president of the Philippines signed a law that abolished capital punishment because she felt she had to "yield to the high moral imperative dictated by God." I've always been against the death penalty and am glad to see it abolished anywhere, but are you, like me, a little uncomfortable with politicians who say they are sure they are doing God's will?
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TRINITARIAN LANGUAGE. OR NOT
When folks in my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), last week accepted a paper calling for new ways to describe the Trinity, it left lots of folks scratching their heads. Click here for one report about that. Maybe it's just proof that all language purporting to describe God is inadequate.
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JEWS IN PREDOMINANTLY CHRISTIAN ARKANSAS
Many of the stories of the changing demographics of religion in America in recent years have focused on the ways that Muslims, Hindus and others have been seeking their place in our culture.
But The New York Times recently reported from Wal-Mart's hometown of Bentonville, Ark., that Jews in America still sometimes have to find their place in a predominantly Christian context.
In this northwest county of Arkansas, The Times reported, there are 39 Baptist, 27 United Methodist and 20 Assembly of God churches. But now Jewish Wal-Mart executives have been arriving from the northeast and other East Coast areas, and are beginning to make a difference.
The Jewish population of the U.S. (depending on who is counting) usually is put now in the 4 million range. Spread among nearly 300 million people, that's not very many. So historically they've tended to cluster in certain areas. But wherever they are, they've had to negotiate their place in a country where Christianity always has been the dominant religion.
As regular readers of this blog know, I've spent a chunk of this past year studying the long and shameful history of anti-Judaism in Christianity. So Jews in a predominantly Christian population understand that they are dealing with a faith that has often been unfriendly (to say the least) toward them.
The Times in this case has done the kind of reporting the mainstream media should do more of -- help us understand how different faiths in our growing pluralistic society are learning to live with each other.
To read my latest Kansas City Star work, click here. (My Saturday column is about faith and families and was written from a family reunion I attended in Wenona, Ill.)
Today's religious holiday: St. John the Baptist (Christian; 24th).
I love this quote from Gary Compton, the superintendent of schools in Bentonville and a member of a Methodist church in town:
"We need to get better at some things," he said. "You just don't go from being noninclusive to being inclusive overnight."
Sad that many are so impatient with people and progress.
Posted by: Kansas Bob | June 24, 2006 at 07:20 AM
I love this quote from Gary Compton, the superintendent of schools in Bentonville and a member of a Methodist church in town:
"We need to get better at some things," he said. "You just don't go from being noninclusive to being inclusive overnight."
Sad that many are so impatient with people and progress.
Posted by: Kansas Bob | June 24, 2006 at 07:20 AM
Wow Bill, all hell broke lose when I clicked on what the PCUSA had to say this time about the Trinity. It seems that my browser or whatever found this to be subversive. I am interested in what the very thorough analytical persistent and formidably organized Presbyterians have to say about this. Please have mercy now and attach me a copy, preferably in Word so I can knock out the fancy formatting.
A few months back our inter-religious group was treated with a visit of Father Dougherty who encouraged us to say what was on our minds. The first question was from a Muslim gal who did not understand why Christians claimed to worship one god but then said there were 3 of them.
This used to bother my dear Jewish friend Sid we have known since he and my husband were students in 1952. It has taken years but we have finally convinced him that we worship just ONE god. He and other Jews are amazed that we Christians presume to nail down and define God when we are so limited in our ability to do so. Sid reminded me of what God said to the Jews “I am who I am”.
That led to comments that it was too bad that the word persona (mask worn by Greek actors to REVEAL attributes) was translated as “persons”. Fr. Dougherty noted that there were lots of unfortunate translations in the Bible. When we were talking about how sometimes it was necessary to be “comfortably vague” (an expression a rabbi used at Ghost Ranch) about some points in order to come together on more important ones, Fr. Dougherty said that they were wearing persona. It looks to me as if the PCUSA and Episcopalians and others are doing that with sex and other hot topics.
Religions use a lot of metaphors that help and also confuse. “God is like the Greek actor who wears 3 different masks to reveal attributes” – or as a Buddhist friend said, “God has many faces”. They help us understand but they also introduce fiction. We scientists do the same sort of thing with our models.
So - what are the good PCUSAers saying now?
Posted by: Ruth from Tucson | June 24, 2006 at 10:27 AM
Regarding the question: "...but are you, like me, a little uncomfortable with politicians who say they are sure they are doing God's will?"
I'll offer this -
"Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people." ~~~Eleanor Roosevelt
Pretty much applicable to the continuing efforts at both the state and federal levels here in Missouri and the U.S. as well.
Posted by: D.A. | June 25, 2006 at 07:17 AM
So many people work so hard to either understand the nature of the Trinity, or to deny that the Trinity exists at all. As usual, both extremes fall short, not because of their intentions or intellect, but rather their attitudes. They are trying to answer the wrong question.
The Trinity is not a formula to define God. Rather, it is an expression by which our relationship to God can be described. It isn't our place, nor is it possible, for us to "understand" God. Enough has been revealed about God to let us get to know Him, but only in regards to how we relate to Him, and He to us.
No language can ever define God, but human language can easily describe the relationships between us and the Persons of the Trinity. God is one "what" and three "who"s. God is one singular I AM, but I AM relates to us in different ways and is expressed as three co-equal but eternally distinct persons. Changing the expression of gender, or of any other aspect by which God has been revealed to us through Scripture, changes the nature of the relationship.
My wife and daughter, for instance, will not be queens or princesses of heaven. They will be kings, just like my son and I. This gender specific nature of Scripture does not speak to the value of gender, but rather defines how God relates to us in terms we can understand. As every major human civilization has been, and continues to be, patriarchal, God chose this word picture to reveal the nature of the inheritance of God's Kingdom. The same issue is addressed in the distribution of the "promised lands", a portion of which was bequeathed to Zelophehad's daughters (Num 27).
We need to get past the notion that any gender-based distinction is somehow sexist. We also need to get past the foolish idea that we have to understand God before we can obey Him.
Posted by: SC in KC | June 25, 2006 at 11:15 AM
The latest attempt of PresbyUSA to change what they don't like in the Bible reminds me of a joke that seems now true more than ever: When asked to sum up the Presbyterian theology, an old minister said "I can do that in one word: 'whatever!'
Posted by: David Green | June 25, 2006 at 11:41 AM
Too all of you a warning. I tried again to bring up the article Bill said to click on to see what the PCUSA had to say about Trinity.
I finally got it and higlighted and got it ready to put into a document. When I tried to paste, I got a warning that a virus was detected. It is a reminder to be be very careful about what you open even with a friend's name on it.
Enjoy the comments of all of you.
Posted by: Ruth of Tucson | June 25, 2006 at 04:20 PM