Tuesday, January 31, 2012

What I Meant to Say Was...


It is now confirmed that not everyone likes me… or at least the stuff that I write. I think this is good because the conversation generates better thoughts and articulation of those thoughts. Here are some of the things people said in response to my last article:

Mock, malign and marginalize the spiritual but not religious all you want. They're our fish. They've had spirituality commoditized for them and need to see that a) spirituality involves work and b) that work bears amazing fruit (b before a, really).

Sorry, but I completely disagree with this essay. You're equating lazy with not doing what Christianity and other organized religions prescribe. To me, that kind of logic is lazy and elitist.

Spirituality comes in all forms.

You can read two other comments on my blog.

It seems that some see my previous post as a big ole’ push for organized religion. Granted that is my bread and butter, but it wasn’t my intent. Based on the way I wrote the entry I can see how many reached that conclusion – I really could have said things in a different and maybe more positive way, but then I wouldn’t be so much fun, would I?

I think what I meant to say was that it is important to find and be a part of a community however that looks. Last week’s podcast of Philosophy Bites featured Alain de Botton speaking about Atheism 2.0. He spoke about the importance of a community as a place where not only morals are taught and carried on, but also as a place where ideas of importance, values are tested, shared, and celebrated. De Botton stressed that it was not faith so much that was important (as an atheist that would be weird for him to celebrate faith in God) but the rituals and liturgy of the community stressing the values and morals of a community.

I am not suggesting that Atheists form a church with a liturgy and all that. I don’t even know what that would look like. It is the community that is important and the type of community.

Those who get together on a regular basis have rituals and liturgy and in large part rituals and liturgy express the ideals and values of that group of people – even if it is a group of people gathering around to talk about God over beer, or to talk about beer over God.

It is the individualist spiritual person that I was railing against and I will add to this the individualist Christian, the individualist Jew, the individualist Muslim, and on and on (I’m not attacking groups of people, just individuals). A community requires work. It is work to learn the “grammar” of the community and to participate in that grammar. It is work to share yourself and to share in the life and struggles of others. It is a lot easier to just go to church, say the words proscribed, and then go home without any connection with the people there or any investment in the rituals. It is a lot easier to say you are spiritual but do nothing that considers, expresses, or deepens that spirituality. That is what I meant by selfish spirituality.

For those who are searching – keep searching – that is part of the work. For those who have a community be it an organized religion or not, engage and immerse yourself into that community and push the community to deepen its experience of spirituality however that may be expressed. I guess that is what I meant by being religious – being deliberate about your spirituality.

Of course I really appreciate all of the comments. Well, I kinda appreciate all of the comments – it took me about a week of crying in the shower to find the nerve to write a response. Now I look like a giant white raisin.

Topic closed? Can I move on and blog about Red Letter Bibles and churches with pastors?

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Spirituality = Laziness


Today I had a for real “coffee shop” conversation. I was sitting, minding my own business, looking mousey, when someone asked me if I was a writer. If I was smart, I would have said, “yes,” but I’m still slow to the uptick and said, “nope, I’m a minister.” I even think I felt proud about this declaration. In response, this person told me how he is very spiritual, leaning towards the Zen side of faith and views everyone religious as prophets on equal ground. Yawn.

To be fair, this individual seemed to really know his stuff, knew what he was talking about so he may be the exception to the rule. The rules are:

  1. When someone says, “I am spiritual” that person does not put any real time or energy into his or her own faith and wants to avoid any sense of guilt for sleeping in on Sunday mornings. 
  2. When someone says, “I like Zen” (or any other Eastern religion) it means that he or she wants to seem radical, enlightened, or beyond Christianity but still spirituality grounded to some kind of tradition. Again, it is most likely to avoid the guilt thing.


I want to stress one more time that the person I was talking to seemed to take his stance kind of seriously (or I may just be writing this in case he happened to be reading this right now and I can’t bear the thought of someone not liking me). Yet by in large the rules tend to stand. Why is this a problem? For me it is the same as saying, “I like Italian food” and only eating Chef boyardee or only eating out at Olive Garden. Or saying, “I’m into art” and stocking their house with all of the five dollar artwork that is sold at local auctions (what I term ‘Hotel Art’) or Thomas Kinkade (I am holding the vomit back as I write those words).

First, if you are into Buddhism, Zen or not, then really be into it. Meaning, join a community, go to regular worship, and become fully immersed into the tradition. It only works if you are fully into it and make a commitment. This is actually true of all reputable faith traditions – you have to go all in or don’t go at all.

Second, try to get a clue what “spiritual” means because I really have no idea and think you (the universal you, that is) don’t have an idea as well. If it means finding peace in nature than read some of the transcendentalists, hug a tree, and go to a Unitarian Universalist church. After all, you can’t have enough Emerson and Thoreau in your life.

If being “spiritual” means seeing good in everyone, then join the Optimist club if they even still exist. I doubt that they do.

If being “spiritual” means believing in Jesus, believing in God, but rejecting the church and all that it stands for then you are a hypocrite (ha!). If you really believe in Jesus and follow him, and if you really believe in the God that Jesus represents then you will realize that God/Christ calls for relationships and community. You can’t be a believer or follower without being a part of a community or you are rejecting the relational aspect of God. Yup, pretty harsh, but there it is.

So, get your lazy, “spiritual” a** off the sofa and do something, get involved, even if it means joining a Unitarian Universalist church. Shudder.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Its All About Me!


I’ll admit that the last two posts were kinda lame – what I have watched and what I have read? Really? Who cares?

They were just easy posts to write, compiling data from the past year, but now it is back to business – no more slacking off, no more fluff, no more …  I guess no more of what I usually write.

I have recently been sloughing through War and Peace (I’ve finally gotten past page 1,000 but still have about 700 pages to go). I have to admit it is a very good book that really captures a great deal of the horrors of war and the indifference of the upper echelon of society (among about a billion other things). While a great battle is waged just outside of Moscow, a married woman is flirting with two men, promises to marry both of them, and becomes Catholic in order that she can have her marriage annulled. How’s that for a twist? Become Catholic to end a marriage. In the book the whole scenario is very interesting for many people – it is the gossip of Moscow and Petersburg.

I think the connection between tabloid entertainment and the horrors of reality is obvious. News is made when McDonald’s re-releases the McRibb or when someone’s marriage doesn’t last very long but not when people starve to death, etc. This is fluff, bread and circus kind of entertainment that appeases the masses so as to avoid the festering wounds of society. Yuck.

However, no one likes a dour, sour-puss kind of person. This is the person who is so involved in all of the suffering of the world that just to be in their presence is its own kind of suffering. Know anyone like that?

Activists, tree-hugging kind of Christians (and other do-gooders) again and again remind us that we need to consider the other (in a Lacanian, Buber kind of way). I agree that if we are only focused on ourselves then we are not fully living. Yet I don’t think I would argue that those who focus on pulp news are not focusing on themselves. We have a lot of distractions, crappy, enamoring distractions that keep us from knowing ourselves. So then the guilt comes that we need to help others and we don’t even know who we are and all we have to talk about is the soft-core snuff that passes for television.

Take some time to figure out who you are. Take care of yourself, get to know yourself in a substantial way and then start to consider others. Go for a walk. Read a book. Bake a cake. Etc, etc. This is a selfishness that isn’t so bad and may actually lead to something good. Hmm, maybe it is time for me to think more about myself…

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Book Reports!

Well, I've listed the movies I watched and now the books that I read in the past year. I have to be honest, I am a little disappointed that I did not read more. Twenty-two books, 6,586 pages does not seem like a lot. This year I will see if I can do better - it doesn't help that I am only on page 631 in War and Peace and I keep reading a lot of journal articles.


A Fortunate Life - A.B. Facey
The Wizard of Oz and other Narcissists - Elanor D. Payson
Dishwasher - Pete Jordan
The Foucault Reader - ed. by Paul Rabinow
The Art of Reading Scripture - ed. by E. Davis and R. Hays
The Coming of the Body - Herve Juvin
A Layman's Guide to Protestant Theology - William Hordern
The Secret of Overcoming Verbal Abuse - Albert Ellis and Marcia Grad Powers
Middlemarch - George Eliot
The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis
Freakonomics - S. Levitt and S. Dubner
A Bief History of Christian Worship - James F. White
The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Children of the Self-Absorbed - Nina W. Brown
After Virtue - Alasdair MacIntyre
Prize Stories 1993: The O. Henry Awards - ed. by William Abrahams
Autism, Asperger Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Barbara Quinn and Anthony     Malone
The Nature and Purpose of the Church - World Council of Churches, Faith and Order Commission
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History - John M. Barry
Revisioning Christian Unity: The Global Christian Forum - Hubert van Beek
The Girard Reader - ed. by James G. WIlliams
Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully Engaged Members of Your Church - Nelson Searcy with      Jennifer Dykes
Twilight of the Idols - Friedrich Nietzsche

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Whatca Watching?


It is a new year, so it is a time for lists. I only have two lists (this year, but watch out next year!), so I will make it two blog posts. First, the movies I watched this year.

A little bit of background. I have been trying to watch everything that has been nominated for an Oscar of any kind (even best costume). I started with the most current, which was 2010 at the time, and then added the 2011 list when it came out. Near the end of the year when I finished the 2010 list I started the 2009 list of Oscar nominees.

I have also been re-watching the AFI 100 best films of century (both the original list and the updated list). I finished this list a while ago, so am re-watching them and finding that things are really great the second time around.

Finally, sometimes I just like to watch crap. Deal.

Here is the list in the order that I watched them, more or less:

Movies of 2011

The Imagination of Dr. Parnassus
True Grit
Lost Boys
Nine (the musical)
An Education
The Fugitive
Citizen Kane
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone
The Last Airbender
IP Man
Il Divo
The Door (a short film)
The Kids are Alright
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkahban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Casablanca
The Messenger
The Princess and the Frog
Coraline
The Fighter
The Godfather (part I)
Invictus
The Other Guys
How to Train Your Dragon
Gangs of New York
Megamind
A Serious Man
French Roast (animated short)
Kick Ass
Gone With the Wind
Julie and Julia
Black Swan
Milk of Sorrow
X-Men First Class
Just Go With It
Lawrence of Arabia
Iron Man 2
Food Inc.
Knockaround Guys
IP Man 2
Biutiful
Hot Tub Time Machine
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1
The White Ribbon
The Wizard of Oz
I Love You Philip Morris
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Elsberg
The King’s Speech
Rise of the Planets of the Apes
Silverado
Twelve Angry Men
Sherlock Holmes
Analyze This
The Graduate
In the Loop
Office Space
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Instead of Abracadabra (short film)
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (animated short)
On the Waterfront
Paris 36
Inception
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon
The Zookeeper
Bad Teacher
Green Lantern
Bridesmaids
I Love You Beth Cooper
Wanted
Pirates of the Caribbean – Stranger Tides
The Secret of Kells
Schindler’s List
The Lovely Bones
I Am Love
The Warrior’s Way
The Princess Bride
The Prophet (or A Prophet)
Singing in the Rain
Coco Before Chanel
The Social Network
The One
Romeo Must Die
Exit Through the Gift Shop
It’s a Wonderful Life