Brian McLaren EMC

Where will you be August 8-11 this summer?

Hundreds if not thousands of great events happen in the Christian community across North America every year. But nobody brings together a wider and wilder spectrum of people to engage with spirituality, art, and justice than Wild Goose. Amazing people contribute their music, curiosity, intelligence, energy, stories, talent, good cheer, passion for justice, and creative genius to produce four days that will easily become a highlight of your year. The outdoor setting, the fantastic food trucks, tents, campfires, impromptu jam sessions, and the presence of the holy make the Wild Goose Festival a delight, a joy, and a growing catalyst for goodness in the world. People who read my blog can use this code - WILDGOOSE13 - to get a 20% discount if you go here:http://wildgoosefestival.org/tickets

About race ...

It's time, folks, for North Americans - and especially North American Christians - to have long-resisted conversations about race. My friend Bruce Reyes-Chow has written a needed book on the subject.

And several friends from the Native American/First Nations communities contributed to this superb and important book, Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry. I was honored to be a contributor as well.

It's time. These books are good on-ramps into this conversation.

Need a Father's Day Gift?

Here's a good one: a book called Men Pray to which I contributed.

Q & R: Was this original to you?

Here's the Q:

I thought of "The Story We Find Ourselves in" when I read this from Gregory of Nyssa Reminded me strongly of your description of Resurrected body as composite of every moment of the human's life, all remembered by God into existence . Did his work inspire yours, or were they just similar thoughts ?

Gregory wrote:

“But still the question remains: Is the state which we are to expect to be like the present state of the body? Because if so, then, as I was saying, men had better avoid hoping for any Resurrection at all. For if our bodies are to be restored to life again in the same sort of condition as they are in when they cease to breathe, then all that man can look forward to in the Resurrection is an unending calamity....”

“If, then, a particular man is not the same even as he was yesterday, but is made different by this transmutation, when so be that the Resurrection shall restore our body to life again, that single man will become a crowd of human beings, so that with his rising again there will be found the babe, the child, the boy, the youth, the man, the father, the old man, and all the intermediate persons that he once was.”

Here's the R: I hadn't heard of anyone talking about this ... but it's pretty encouraging to find that one has stumbled on one's own (so to speak) into an insight articulated by a great theologian centuries ago. Thanks for sharing this!

Links Roundup

A reader asks us to help with a worthy cause ...

Did you know three of your books are in an audio format specialized for the learning disabled, at LearningAlly.org? I have a learning disability and utilize the resources that LearningAlly provides. I hope you'll excuse my direct email to you, but I wanted to make a quick (and urgent) appeal. You have a widespread network ... and I know you care about social justice. This is a petition for LearningAlly, the nonprofit that provides books in audio format to those who learn differently, such as the blind and dyslexic ... Since I personally utilize the services this organization provides, I'm personally invested in it. But regardless of that, I still think LearningAlly is a vital resource for some of those on the margins of our society. ... Much love, Mr. McLaren. Keep it up. I pray and wish peace and blessings upon you.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/side-blind-over-obstructionist-companies-secure-treaty-blind-makes-books-accessible-globally/ZJtgcVph

I'll be with the Network of Biblical Storytellers in August. What a fantastic group! Learn more here.

If you're a church leader looking for a good conference this summer, and other excellent resources too, the Center for Progressive Renewal has a lot to offer.

And Wild Goose - you should come in August. It's Wild:

I wish I could have been there ...

The Theology and Peace conference grappled with racism this year. Learn more here. Quotable from Tony Bartlett:

Black theology allied to Girardian theory shows us that the God of Jesus has always been with the black body suspended lynched and crucified on a tree. That’s the point, and it always was the point, and now the whole post-platonic community of Jesus is beginning to understand this, white and black. White because Jesus reveals the victim and undoes all the violence fastened upon him or her, and now the meaning of Christianity is not to get to an ethereal otherworld, but to transform the violent material existence of this one. Black because as James Cone wrote “’Calvary’…was (always) redemption from the terror of the lynching tree.” “Oh see my Jesus hanging high” Black Christians sang, and they knew that Jesus’ death already transformed their body terrors, and by extension those of all other human victims.
Lynchings are now faith, in the strange paradoxical, subversive language of the gospel, and they are faith for black and white alike. They are a faith which leaps beyond the dangling monster on the tree into a radical future of life. Because Jesus was the first monster: for the temple authorities—“He has blasphemed”; for the emperor—“There is no king but Caesar”; for the ungovernable crowd—“Crucify him!” But for the God who raised him from the dead he was the beloved Servant and Lord of creation, of a new creation without violence, without victims.
The Black body knew this truth, despite Anselm, despite Calvin, and before Girard. This for me was the great discovery of our conference. From now on Theology & Peace cannot go forward without the active participation and leadership of people of color. (This was already evident in the splendid election of Julia Robinson to our board!) The black body experience has become an icon and pathway for the transformative post-platonic Christian faith that we long to build.

Here's another excellent article at T&P. Quotable from Lindsey Lopez:

Being made in God's image need not mean being made perfect before falling and being redeemed. Virtually Christian, which explains how humanity is continuing to evolve in heart and mind from our violent natures into the peace of Christ, and also The Joy of Being Wrong by James Alison, which explains how we cannot understand original sin except retrospectively from the vantage point of seeing the mess we are coming out of in the light of Jesus, helped me reach this understanding. There was no pristine humanity before Jesus from which we “fell”; rather, we are created to “rise” to Jesus. We are created with the potential to form and understand meaning and to be transformed by the meaning of Jesus. In fact, if Girard says that human consciousness was formed by an act of violence, but the absolutely nonviolent Jesus is the truly human one, then we're not done evolving... we're not fully human yet... we're still in the process of becoming, being transformed. We're evolving because of Christ into his body. This is how God is forming us in God's own image, and God's not finished with us yet... In the light of Christ we look back at all the violence we were and are still involved in and see that we are sinners, but we can only see this because we're on the way out.

Q & R: Mission agencies

Here's the Q:

Here is a question I have been wondering about and am personally interested in:
Which mission organizations today are theologically and missiologically compatible and supportive of your teachings and viewpoints?

Here's the R:
I'd LOVE to answer this question, but I am hesitant. Let me explain why.
I have close relationships with the leaders of several mission organizations. I know they are personally "compatible and supportive" (which doesn't mean 100% agreement on every issue, obviously). But I also know they have a wide constituency that includes people who do not consider themselves compatible and supportive (often, based on misunderstanding and misinformation). There are people who monitor this site and if I were to mention the names of some mission agencies that I consider supportive, they would use my "endorsement" to harm those organizations. So ... I think I'll defer, and hope you understand why.

Going to Carolina ...

I'll be in Hendersonville this weekend. If you're in the area, c'mon over. Details here.

Will Campbell

I didn't know him, but I started reading him when I was in college. And I liked him.

He represented a different kind of Baptist. An old kind, but in today's world of "neo-Baptists" (see below), a new new kind. You'll get a feel for him here:
http://www.abpnews.com/opinion/commentaries/item/8560-what-happened-to-the-baptists#.UbEW2pW--K8
Quotable:

Oh, when I was a boy in Mississippi we claimed that we weren’t [creedal]. But we were. We said the Bible was our creed and made a fetish, an idol of the Bible. Which part of the Bible? Certainly not those parts where Ezekiel said, “She lusted after lovers whose genitals were like a mule’s genitals and whose ejaculations were like that of horses.” (That’s from Chapter 23 of Ezekiel, verse 20. I’m sure some of you want to grab that Gideon Bible when you get back to your room and check the text.)

I cite it here for more than comedic or melodramatic effect. The significance of that text for this gathering is that the prophet was addressing a group not too dissimilar to the neo-Baptists of our day. (And neo-Baptist would be a more accurate designation than Fundamentalist.) “Your genitals are like mule’s genitals.” If you grew up in the country as I did you know what God was saying through the prophet Ezekiel. A mule is a hybrid. Sterile. God was saying to that right-wing bunch, “Ha, you can’t even get it …” Well, never mind.

I was speaking to the state annual meeting of the ACLU in Mississippi not long ago. It was not a large gathering, which struck me as being odd for Baptist is the state church in Mississippi and the First Amendment was the idea of a couple of Baptist preachers. Anyway, some Baptists were protesting the gathering because the ACLU defends pornographers. It does, but it also defends Baptists, if it can find any, which isn’t easy to do these days. Anyway, I cited that passage and challenged the censors to burn that book because it contains hundreds of passages equally tempting to the aggressive scissors of censorship.

Q & R: Using New Kind of Christianity for a group study

Here's the Q:

I am currently leading a small group discussion on A New Kind of Christianity. I'm using the downloadable discussion guide as a resource, and I find that it's been very thought-provoking for our group.

he question has come up as to whether its necessary to study the whole book, in sequence. Some of the 10 questions are going to end up being more important (to us) than some of the others. It looks like we could take the first five questions in series, and then pick and choose from the final five as standalone issues for discussion.

What are your thoughts? I'm sure your initial reaction will be to 'read the whole book', but is it truly that inter-linked?

Thanks, and thanks for writing these inspiring books.

Here's the R:
I think you have a good plan. It's a good ideato work on the first five questions together - but then, for the second five, you can pick and choose in whatever order makes sense for you.

A reader writes: Sanest answers

I divorced the institutional church when I gradually came to believe its message as it is currently being preached was superior/exclusionary/hostile to those who do not self- identify as Christians. I have spent many years in the wilderness bereft of an understanding that resonates with what I have prayed the church could be, while still loving the church. I am currently reading Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammad Cross the Road? I believe it offers the sanest answer yet to how the church can begin a return to the spirit of Christ. God bless you for your understanding, your love, your compassion, your scholarship and your effort in this.

Thanks for these encouraging words.

A generous impulse?

You can indulge a generous impulse today by helping Little LIghts, founded by my friend Steve Park in Washington, DC. Little Lights helps kids in one of DC's toughest neighborhoods. Learn more here.

links roundup

Here's something I wrote about my indebtedness to Walter Brueggemann. I've been thinking about that debt as I'm working on my upcoming book that should be published about a year from today. The title will be A Table, a Bible, Some Food, Some Friends: 52 Experiments in Spiritual (Re)Formation. It's an overview of the Bible and an introduction (or catechesis) to the Christian faith. It reflects Brueggemann's influence on many levels.

Like a lot of people, I've been pretty disappointed with the US Congress for quite a while now. It's unlikely they'll get much done of value this year ... but it's possible they'll do something positive on Immigration Reform if enough of us speak up in a variety of ways. The Evangelical Immigration Table is mobilizing people in needed directions - learn more here: http://pray4reform.org

Christine Sine posts thoughtfully and helpfully (as always) about yoga and Christian practice here. People interested in this intersection should check out a project I completed recently with my friend Suzanne Jackson.
http://wordlessprayer.com/store.html#simplewords More information here: http://brianmclaren.net/archives/get-involved/a-new-video-resource-integrating.html

Some friends in Santa Fe are working on solar energy and energy democracy ... by watching the accompanying video, you help them get a grant - and you learn something valuable. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s4a-9V-6eWI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Ds4a-9V-6eWI

There's some important new work being done on the Christian teaching of the Trinity. Check out this book on worship and the Trinity (to which I contributed) ... and this new resource from Cynthia Bourgeault (which I endorsed).

Some cool musical developments from South Africa (HT GC):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBYsU4zu3HM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky4IMtP4hEg

Also from Africa - an excellent article by a friend of mine from Ethiopia:
https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/from-abba-salama-to-king-lalibela/

And in gratuitous turtle news (HT GS) ...
http://smithsonianscience.org/2013/05/first-turtle-shells-are-40-million-years-older-than-previously-realized/

Q & R: Bible as constitution or library?

Here's the Q:

I have searched your site for two days trying to find additional resources where I can learn more about what you wrote about in New Kind of Christianity regarding how to read the bible (library or Constitution?). I couldn't find any resources to read further on this. I even checked the notes section in the book. Can you offer any suggestions or send a link to a post on your blog?

I'd recommend you read books and blogs by Peter Enns, Derek Flood, Sylvia Keesmaat and Brian Walsh for starters, and of course, Walter Brueggemann. My next book will try to exemplify this ... I'm deep in the writing process now.

A reader writes ...

Hi, Brian - I greatly enjoyed your provocative presentation at the Festival of Homiletics today. I was put in mind of a song by Peter Mayer, a singer-songwriter in my Unitarian Universalist tradition, that I thought you would enjoy. It's called "the Birthday Party," and it concerns the aforementioned holy ones getting together to attend a birthday party for Jesus.
It's here . Another of Peter's songs that would speak, or sing to you, I think, is called "Everything is Holy Now." It's here

You are a great encouragement to those of us who are trying to build bridges among and between religious communities where they have been blown out, mostly a lack of imagination and commitment Never stop.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm a big Peter Mayer fan, but I hadn't heard "Birthday Party." It's a treat when songs and books strike a synergy. Here's one you might like from Phil Madeira.