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A Taste of the Season

"Business!" cried the ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

Jacob Marley's Ghost
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

John Shelby Spong #5

There is also ample reason today to believe that the species of life known as Homo Sapiens is not eternal. We have fouled our environmental nest so thoroughly, we have overpopulated our world so irresponsibly, we have developed weapons of mass destruction so totally that human survival faces, at best, long odds. We human beings appear to be incidental, both to the past life and to the future life of this planet. Life seems quite capable of going on with or without human participation. Yet all of our basic religious understandings and interpretations of life still assume a radically anthropocentric universe. The meaning of human life is thought by all religious systems to be central to every other condition.

John Shelby Spong
"Why Christianity Must Change or Die"

Daniel and Revelation

As I learn more and more about the historical aspect of every piece of text within the Bible I find that there are similarities between many of the books contained within the Bible. Most prevalent of these similarities for me at the current time is between the book of Daniel, included in the Old Testament, and the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. Both texts are Apocalypses and include images of the end of the world. But, the two texts were written about 200 years apart from one another. It is generally understood by Biblical scholars that the author of Revelation, "John," was enthralled with the vision of the Book of Daniel (which probably was not written by the Biblical figure Daniel) and wished to continue the apocalyptic visions contained within. Both books paint dire ends for unbelievers but also, historically speaking, are rooted in the political strife of that particular time. Apocalypses are generally of this nature as cited by the Frontline: Apocalypse! presentation by PBS. From the website:

Really, all apocalyptic literature is much more a response to a concrete set of circumstances, often political circumstances that drive this sense that we have to look for a mode of deliverance from God. And Daniel was, as a book, really responding to the political crisis of Antiochus Epiphanes and the political forces of war that are all about. ... For the people of this period there's really no difference between religion and politics. We can't simply look at this work as if its symbolism of good and truth and beauty are divorced from the political reality that's all around them.

Two examples of the similarities between Daniel and Revelation follow as such:

Daniel 7:1-8

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

And:

Revelation 13:1-4

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

As shown by the imagery of this beast, John, the author of Revelation, seems to bite a little from Daniel's earlier text. Considering that both of these books were written while under the thumb of political and spiritual upheaval (Antiochus Epiphanes and Nero Caesar, designated by the number 666), it is no mystery that they share the imagery that they do. Even currently in America, those of us that feel an uprising is necessary against our leaders (in response to religious and political upheaval) look to our country's forbears for words and guidance (Thomas Paine, in paticular, comes to mind). In desperate times, people look to desperate avenues of translating a larger scale problem. The other side of the coin are the peddlers of such Apocalyptic visions in the new millenium. Perhaps world affairs have become so conflicted, complex, and intertwined that instead of working through the knots that bind us, it is easier to peddle the words that call for the end of the world simply because we have the means to do it ourselves. To many, it is easier to just end it by suicide than to take the path less traveled and work through our tribulations. I don't believe that God would ever intend for anyone to have the power to end His creation in a manner so destructive and immoral.

Wrong

Billboards in Arizona

Why We're All In This Together

Jesus' Version of Golden Rule
Armstrong states that Jesus echoed Rabbi Hillel's golden rule when he says "Do unto others as you'd have done unto you." Following are examples of the Golden Rule as taken from sources other than Judeo-Christian origins:

BUDDHISM: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. (Udana-Varga 5,18)

CONFUCIANISM: Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you. (Analects 15,23)

ISLAM: No man is a true believer unless he desireth for his brother that which he desireth for himself. (Azizullah - Hadith 150)

TAOISM: Regard your neighbor's gains as your own gain and your neighbor's loss as your own loss. (T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien)

ZOROASTRIANISM: That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself. (Dadistan-i-dinik 94-5)

JAIN: A man should treat all creatures in the world as he himself would like to be treated. (Wisdom of the Living Religions, #69 - I:II:33)

BRAHMANISM: "This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you. (Mahabharata 5,1517)

Courtesy of Speaking of Faith.

John Shelby Spong #4

The Bible is not the word of God in any literal or verbal sense. It never has been! The Gospels are not inerrant works, divinely authored. They were written by communities of faith, and they express even the biases of those communities. The Gospels are not without significant internal contradictions or embarrassing moral and intellectual concepts. The Gospels are not static. They reveal changing, evolving theological perspectives. They are not even original. They lean far more than has yet been realized on the work of Paul and on the inspiration of the Hebrew scriptures. They are not the words of eyewitnesses, as so often has been claimed. Most eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus were long dead before the Gospels entered history. The Gospels were also shaped by the events of their own time, perhaps even more dramatically than they were by the events of the time in which Jesus actually lived. For example, the capture and destruction of Jersusalem by the Roman army in 70 C.E. is a powerful reality in the background of each of the Gospel narratives. Seeing the Gospels in a proper historical perspective is therefore our first step into biblical knowledge.

John Shelby Spong
"Why Christianity Must Change or Die"

Controversial Kindness

"It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on
fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad
with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial,"
says the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president.
"What's going on here?"

CBS, NBC refuse to air church's television advertisement

John Shelby Spong #3

So I start here. There is no God external to life. God, rather, is the inescapable depth and center of all that is. God is not a being superior to other beings. God is the Ground of Being itself. And much flows from this starting place. The artifacts of the faith of the past must be understood in a new way if they are to accompany us beyond the exile, and those that cannot be understood differently will have to be laid aside. Time will inform us as to which is which.

John Shelby Spong
"Why Christianity Must Change Or Die"

The First Mover

As with many facets of our daily lives, conservative Christianity and its aversion to science continues to creep slowly into our secular public school system.

There's only one creator, and it has to be God," said Rebecca Cashman, 16, a sophomore at Dover High. She frowned when asked to recollect what she learned about evolution at school last year.

"Evolution -- is that the Darwin theory?" Cashman shook her head. "I don't know just what he was thinking!"

Here is the article in full at the San Francsico Chronicle. Thanks to Kim and the Mothers of Revolution for the link.