The Faith Club Blog

Thank you Vicky!

The Faith Club — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:25:12 +0000

Vicky Collins very kindly emailed us that she’s been using The Faith Club “as a framework for spiritual growth.” What a lovely Jewish New year’s present! Thank you Vicky. And we hope readers will enjoy your blog!

How Can We Make Civility Interesting?

The Faith Club — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:58:37 +0000

President Obama, reflecting on the coarseness of much of the political debate taking place these days, said on 60 Minutes tonight that the challenge moderates now face is “How can we make civility interesting?”

I was reminded of the remark a minister made to us two years ago when she said it seemed The Faith Club was trying to help create a “Passionate Middle.”

I was beyond dismayed this week to see that some of the recent “Tea Party” protesters in Washington made remarks to reporters like “Muslims are taking over the White House.”

Where are all the moderates? Where are the voices?

Three years ago, when someone asked if we were preaching to the choir, we said “The choir’s not singing loud enough.”

Where is the choir these days? I’m reminded of John Legend’s song “If you’re out there, sing along with me…”

Sane or Insane?

The Faith Club — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:25:06 +0000

I came across a poster online this morning that I thought might provoke some comments. It certainly provoked me.

130 right wing Israelis, members of a group called Hazit, photoshopped a picture of President Obama, placing a keffiyah on his head. Alongside this image of him on the poster they wrote “Barack Hussein Obama, Anti-Semitic Jew-hater.”

Just as I was fuming and formulating a response in my head, I found this comment, posted by “Sane Jew in Israel.” I think I’ll let his words stand on their own:

“Obama will probably make history as one of the finest American presidents as well as one of the best friends Israel ever had. If we don`t have the power to rid ourselves of this lunatic racist religous zealotry which is rotting our conscience and decency as a people and a nation then Obama will do it for us. Obama is in my prayers as the best friend the Jewish People could ever have. If I have to protest on his behalf against these “Anti-Semitic so called Jewish Ayatollas, then there are thousands among thousands of Jews in this country who will stand beside me. Yes we can free ourselves of this self destructive occupation. Yes we can!”

President Obama’s Cairo Message

Suzanne Oliver — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:54:18 +0000

Hearing President Obama’s Cairo speech, I felt he may have kept a copy of The Faith Club on his night stand. The brilliant address echoed so many of the principles of The Faith Club, and our president represented our country’s ideals without arrogance.
He recognizes, as we do in The Faith Club, that in order to build trust we have to say openly what we previously shared only in private. Then, after addressing our differences, we can build relationships based upon our shared humanity and common ideals.
Obama extended a hand to Islam. He gave dignity to the Palestinian people simply by naming Palestine, a place denied by many for decades. He said Islam is not a problem, it is an important part of the solution. He mentioned that all of our faiths are built on love of God and love of neighbor, something we talk about in The Faith Club, too.
Unlike many conservatives feared, he didn’t sell-out America. He promoted our ideals and extended a hand of partnership. What a refreshing change in our international relations. I pray to God for the success of our president, our nation and our new effort in cooperation.

Jewish Democracy

Ranya Idilby — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:43:05 +0000

As American Jews celebrated at the Israel Parade this Sunday, I could not help but think of some stark differences that govern the lives of minorities in the US and Israel. How would non- christian Americans feel about taking an oath of loyality to a theoretical Chrsitian United States of America? See below:

ISREAL CRIMINALISING COMMEMORATION OF Al-NAKBA
The Ministerial Committee on Law and Constitution has
approved a preliminary proposal which would make it
illegal to hold events or ceremonies marking Israel’s
Independence Day as a “Nakba,” or catastrophe for the
indigenous Palestinians who were dispossessed of their
homes and land in 1948 and are still being
dispossessed today leaving them without rights in their
own homeland. According to the bill, those found in
violation could face up to three years in prison.
• ISRAEL ENFORCES A ZIONIST LOYALTY OATH
The party of Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
“Yisrael Beitneu” is submitting a bill for cabinet approval
which would require all Israelis to declare loyalty “to the
state of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state”
before they can be issued a national identity document.
This blatantly discriminates against the indigenous
Palestinians who are not Jewish or Zionist.

Where do you find comfort and healing?

Priscilla Warner — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:14:54 +0000

I was reading today about the murder of Dr. George Tiller, who performed abortions in Kansas and was killed in his own church while attending Sunday services. Many statements condemning Dr. Tiller’s murder were issued by people on both sides of the issue of abortion.

As I was reading a Huffington Post story I saw this:

Troy Newman, President of the Kansas-based Operation Rescue said in a statement that his organization “has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning. We pray for Mr. Tiller’s family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ”…

While I was heartened to see Mr. Newman “denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took Dr. Tiller’s life,” I couldn’t help but think of the countless ways people on this planet find comfort and healing in the most difficult times, including - but not only - through Jesus Christ.

Where do you find comfort and healing?

Faith Club on Gayle King Radio

Suzanne Oliver — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:17:55 +0000

The Faith Club spent three Thursday mornings this April talking to Gayle King on her XM radio show. Among other things, Gayle learned she can say “Jew” without being considered offensive. You can listen to the clips at the Oprah radio website.

Exile Amid Millions

Suzanne Oliver — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:21:45 +0000

My copy of J.S. Spong’s Jesus for the Non-Religious is highlighted, dog-eared and marked-up. There are notes tucked between the pages written on stationery from Chicago’s Sutton Place Hotel where I burrowed under the airy down and read for most of the day. It felt illicit. That was the intention of the book’s cover image — a shadowy Shroud of Turin corrupted by bold, red stripes. There will be no truck with superstition within these covers, it screams.
At the time, I found that exhilarating. A Christian, no less than a retired Episcopal bishop, didn’t believe in a bodily resurrection of Jesus! Gospel writers used the Hebrew Scriptures to create biographical details of Jesus! The pre-modern symbols and mythology of the Gospels aren’t effective in a postmodern era! One dog-eared page contains the highlighted passage: “The anxiety experienced by many is that when this structure is dismantled, nothing is left. If that is so, then let us be honest and face the fact that Christianity has died and the history of a post-Christian world has begun.” Aha, doctor. Here is my diagnosis!
The structure had, indeed, collapsed for me. The mechanism for this discovery was an interfaith dialogue project with a Muslim and a Jew. As the unfortunate product of a Catholic upbringing in which faith consisted of going to church and a parochial education in the decade after Vatican II in which it seemed the old books had been chucked into the dumpster but nothing had replaced them, I didn’t have developed explanations of Christian symbols and theology that I could deliver readily in a 21st century dialogue of faith.
In the end, I came out of that dialogue with a message that each of the Abrahamic religions contains the love commandment, which was articulated by Rabbi Hillel, Jesus, and Muhammad. I buttressed this with examples of Jesus breaking unjust religious laws, and the aphorism, “The opposite of faith is not doubt. It’s certainty.” I embraced my doubt and began to rebuild my Christian faith.
I traveled the country presenting myself as the Christian in an interfaith road show based on our book The Faith Club, but in truth I wasn’t sure my convictions were Christian enough. And, indeed, in some audiences they weren’t. I was “liberal,” “watered-down,” and “denied the exclusivity of Christianity” according to some evangelical experts. As a female raised in the Catholic tradition of dogmatic and male clerical authority, I was quite vulnerable to these attacks. They made my palms sweat and my confidence waver. When I spoke to crowds, I searched for the faces of the white males, especially those wearing collars, anxious for their approval. (It took me a long time to realize that the enthusiasm of thousands of women outweighed the disapproval of one man in a white collar.)
Now, as I read Spong at the Sutton Place Hotel, I realized I wasn’t alone in my doubt. The trouble was, I thought I was alone with Spong. He called himself a “believer in exile.” I entered his exile, too. He led me down a corridor but neglected to turn on the lights so I could see how many others were in this new room with me. At Faith Club presentations, I met thousands of church-goers who confessed doubt at the Bible’s supernaturalism and Christianity’s superiority to other faiths. At Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com I picked up books by everyone from Bonhoeffer and Borg to Pagels and Tillich. But for every insight that upheld Christianity, there was another that knocked it down. My deepest suspicion was that in the end social Darwinism would, indeed, explain it all.
Two years later I was holed up again in The Grove Hotel in Boise, Idaho on another Faith Club trip, but this time I had Gary Dorrien’s textbook with me. I was finally being introduced to the long history of liberal and feminist theology, and I was uncertain my highlighter held enough ink to mark all the passages that resonated for me. I found many of my own reflections in those pages, though I had struggled to formulate them in isolation.
As a female in support of women’s ordination, I was thrilled to learn of Georgia Harkness, ordained a Methodist Episcopal minister in 1927. Brightman’s idea of world religions was one I had articulated in my own presentations. When I came to Tillich’s rules for interfaith dialogue I wished I had discovered them years earlier. I agreed with Niebuhr’s theory that groups were more self-serving than individuals. I believed that reason and experience are the only ways I can judge the truth, and I savored Harkness’ simple and generous definition of religion as “faith in a meaningful existence.” The theologians I’ve read about in this class have had a practical effect on my life as well. After starting Susan Johnson’s book, She Who Is, I have expunged the human and male-oriented phrase “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” from my family’s pre-dinner prayers and begun to focus my own prayers toward the idea of Sophia.
All of these discoveries, however, are accompanied by frustration that the liberal message has not been more readily delivered from pulpits. Why hasn’t it translated well from seminaries and universities into a, dare I say orthodox, way of understanding Christianity? People are still interested in reading about God; every time Newsweek puts the word God or Jesus on the cover its sales climb. But we don’t read about liberal theology in the popular press.
I agree with those who have observed that part of the problem is the complexity of the language and arguments of many of the liberal theologians. The old symbols and language are easy to deliver in comparison. I recently tried to explain to my skeptical 11-year-old son that God doesn’t have to be thought of as a separate entity living in a heaven beyond space but something that encompasses us all, his reply was, “I don’t get it.” And, though I am a newcomer to the subject, I’ve had a hard time, myself, with some of the concepts of process theology, for instance.
I think there are a lot of people in the pews like me for whom the old creeds and symbols need to be reinterpreted openly – not while hidden underneath the covers in far-away hotels. Perhaps surprisingly, interfaith dialogue is an effective way to facilitate this. In fact, I think interfaith dialogue is one way out of the “double bind” articulated by Van Harvey — the problem “that theologians who identified with modern rationality and secularity became alienated from Christian communities, but those who identified with Christianity became alienated from the academy.”
In interfaith dialogue, one is forced to articulate a view of one’s faith that is personally meaningful, relevant and doesn’t rely on an established understanding of the symbols and creeds of the faith. That is because in such a dialogue, there are no common assumptions about those meanings. There can be as many interpretations of the meaning of the cross as there are people in the room. My own opinion is that each of those meanings tells us something about God.
There is a rich history of interpretation in the Jewish tradition. In fact, years of interpretations, known as commentaries, are written into the pages of Jewish holy books. My daughter has been to a dozen bar and bat mitzvahs this year in which 13-year-olds stand in temple and interpret the scriptures in their own voices. We need more of this in our churches. We need a freedom to interpret, and we need to be offered options of new language. After all, isn’t that an example set by Jesus in the Gospels? He delivered an interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures that shook the foundations of the traditionalists of the day.

In Support of Heretical Catholic Grandmothers

Suzanne Oliver — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:59:50 +0000

Yesterday I went to Philadelphia for the celebration of the ordination of two women to deacon and priest by the Roman Catholic Womenpriests. What a fabulous occasion it was! Of course, it wasn’t held in a Catholic Church. In fact, the women were excommunicated the moment of their ordinations. These brave women, both of whom have graduate theology degrees and have been working in religious education and pastoral care of the sick and poor for decades, were ordained in a Reconstructionist synagogue in the same city where the first Episcopal female priests were ordained, contrary to church law at the time, in 1974. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church hasn’t caught up to the Episcopal Church or many others in opening the priesthood to women. So these women and others around the world — nuns, mothers and grandmothers — have determined to break this unjust Catholic law. They deem their ordinations valid in that their bishop (Patricia Fresen, a former nun and seminary teacher) was ordained by a male bishop in good standing with the Catholic Church. His name has been locked in a safe. She, in turn, has ordained others, thus retaining the apostolic succession that is prized in the Catholic Church. This is not merely a feminist movement as was evident by the number of males in attendance. It is a movement of justice and renewal of the Catholic Church, which is suffering from a lack of priests. Enrollment at American seminaries last year was less than half the number it was in 1965. As a result, seminary standards have declined, churches have closed, and more foreign priests have been given parishes in the U.S. The elderly man who stood next to me leaning on his cane finally gave up on his local New Jersey pastor this spring. At the ordination mass he whispered to me as the homily began, “The women are usually better than the men.” It’s unfortunate that the Catholic hierarchy, which appears to have made an idol of its own celibate (or professed celibate) maleness, doesn’t recognize that these women could be the key to the survival of the Catholic Church in America.
If you want to know more, read yesterday’s article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Start or Join a Faith Club!

The Faith Club — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:01:48 +0000

Do you want to start a Faith Club? Post your name, email addresses and location OR you may post your name, a link to your myspace or facebook as well as your location page in the comment section of this post, so others in your area can contact you. Be sure to leave your email or snail mail address so that people can find you!