.
This is excerpt #5 from "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith"
Patton Dodd remembers a day when he was 12 years old, listening to the singing of hundreds of junior high evangleical Christians. They sing:
I am a sea! I am a sec-aiche! I am a sea-aiche are eye aye en!
He has no idea what they are saying. It turns out they are singing:
I am a C! I am a C-h! I am a C-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n!
Now years later Dodd says that shouting something does not mean it is entered into your heart. He no longer can affirm that evangelical certainty. But I sense that there's something there that he is missing.
There are countless dropouts from Christianity. Other refer to them as graduates. I wish for them and for us all, a more flexible faith, a faith that can mature and develop and continue to evolve. So many exit the faith without realizing that many followers of Christ no longer adhere to the triumphalistic faith of the literalists.
It is possible to be part of a community of the Spirit that enlarges rather than restricts the spirit. I want to say to these foks, don't stop the search.
Peter
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
The Temple Door
This is excerpt #4 from, "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith"
Danielle Trussoni writes of her travel in Vietnam. Is she a pilgrim or a tourist? Her father had been one of the countless tragedies that war left in its wake and now the daughter has come hoping to make some sense of his broken life.
One hot afternoon, Danielle finds her way to the doors of a Buddhist temple. An old monk invites her in. He asks her if she is a Christian. She says she was raised Christian but has no idea what she believes any longer. He looks on her with pity. "You must discover this. It is important to know who you are." When she was about to leave, the old monk offers three joss sticks of incense and tells her that she must pray. "Pray for what?" She asks. "You will know," he said, "when you begin."
As she tries to pray, and through the haze of the incense, Danielle recalls the family movies of her childhood. Before her parents split up, they used to gather in the evening, kids in their pyjamas, to watch 8mm film projected on the wall. Her father always said those were the best years of his life.
She recalls watching those movies again after graduate school. One scene stands out. Her father is walking along side of her as she learns to ride, holding the bar of her bicycle seat. She recalls falling and skinning her knee, but the actual event is captured on film. She doesn't fall. Her father had been there to catch her. Danielle realizes that her memory is inaccurate, coloured by later conflict.
Danielle prays for her father's illness to disappear. She prays that all the terrible things that happened in war would never happen again. She prays for peace.
Some of the most important discoveries come when we are in a strange place. The experience of dislocation allows us to explore in ways we don't when we are in a familiar place. You don't have to step out of your present context to gain perspective, but sometimes it helps.
Peter
Danielle Trussoni writes of her travel in Vietnam. Is she a pilgrim or a tourist? Her father had been one of the countless tragedies that war left in its wake and now the daughter has come hoping to make some sense of his broken life.
One hot afternoon, Danielle finds her way to the doors of a Buddhist temple. An old monk invites her in. He asks her if she is a Christian. She says she was raised Christian but has no idea what she believes any longer. He looks on her with pity. "You must discover this. It is important to know who you are." When she was about to leave, the old monk offers three joss sticks of incense and tells her that she must pray. "Pray for what?" She asks. "You will know," he said, "when you begin."
As she tries to pray, and through the haze of the incense, Danielle recalls the family movies of her childhood. Before her parents split up, they used to gather in the evening, kids in their pyjamas, to watch 8mm film projected on the wall. Her father always said those were the best years of his life.
She recalls watching those movies again after graduate school. One scene stands out. Her father is walking along side of her as she learns to ride, holding the bar of her bicycle seat. She recalls falling and skinning her knee, but the actual event is captured on film. She doesn't fall. Her father had been there to catch her. Danielle realizes that her memory is inaccurate, coloured by later conflict.
Danielle prays for her father's illness to disappear. She prays that all the terrible things that happened in war would never happen again. She prays for peace.
Some of the most important discoveries come when we are in a strange place. The experience of dislocation allows us to explore in ways we don't when we are in a familiar place. You don't have to step out of your present context to gain perspective, but sometimes it helps.
Peter
Sunday, February 7, 2010
What's past Jersey?
This is excerpt #3 from, "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith".
Seth has been visiting with Jeffrey twice a week for several months. Jeffrey is in the Juvenile Detention Facility in the South Bronx. Seth is trying to teach Jeffrey and the rest of the class to meditate. Jeffrey sits in the back and rarely says anything. He appears completely disinterested. Seth asks, "What it's done for you?"
It turns out that Jeffrey meditates every day in his room. Seth is taken aback.
"...every night I go into my room and I read for a while. Then I turn out the light and do the breathing stuff you taught us. In, out, in, out. Fifteen, twenty minutes. Then I do my prayers and go to sleep...There's this place I can get alone in my room. I get into the zone...It's like duhhhh. You know what I mean... I can have everything I want in there, total freedom. It is real strong, like I was...well you know, like at peace."
"..but they don't let me stay in there. The staff kicks out...All day long we got to sit out here on this unit. It f... sucks...I can't be happy out here. All this noise. The TV is blaring all the time...And people always coming up and bothering you...No peace, man. No way I can be in the zone out here.."
Seth says, "That's why it's called a practice. Inside your room you got it, man. And that's great, keep it up, (but it) isn't about finding a place and escaping, that's too easy. The real training is, can you do it anywhere, anytime...the peace is within you, Jeffrey, not within your room."
Seth tells him that he used to live in the quiet woods and meditation was easy. When he came to New York it was tough, but "I didn't put my head under a pillow.."
Jeffrey wants to know if the forest is in Jersey. Seth says, "It's way past Jersey." Jeffrey asks, "What's past Jersey?"
Peter
You can also send your comments to assistant.webmaster@emmanuelunited.ca and I will make sure they are posted.
Seth has been visiting with Jeffrey twice a week for several months. Jeffrey is in the Juvenile Detention Facility in the South Bronx. Seth is trying to teach Jeffrey and the rest of the class to meditate. Jeffrey sits in the back and rarely says anything. He appears completely disinterested. Seth asks, "What it's done for you?"
It turns out that Jeffrey meditates every day in his room. Seth is taken aback.
"...every night I go into my room and I read for a while. Then I turn out the light and do the breathing stuff you taught us. In, out, in, out. Fifteen, twenty minutes. Then I do my prayers and go to sleep...There's this place I can get alone in my room. I get into the zone...It's like duhhhh. You know what I mean... I can have everything I want in there, total freedom. It is real strong, like I was...well you know, like at peace."
"..but they don't let me stay in there. The staff kicks out...All day long we got to sit out here on this unit. It f... sucks...I can't be happy out here. All this noise. The TV is blaring all the time...And people always coming up and bothering you...No peace, man. No way I can be in the zone out here.."
Seth says, "That's why it's called a practice. Inside your room you got it, man. And that's great, keep it up, (but it) isn't about finding a place and escaping, that's too easy. The real training is, can you do it anywhere, anytime...the peace is within you, Jeffrey, not within your room."
Seth tells him that he used to live in the quiet woods and meditation was easy. When he came to New York it was tough, but "I didn't put my head under a pillow.."
Jeffrey wants to know if the forest is in Jersey. Seth says, "It's way past Jersey." Jeffrey asks, "What's past Jersey?"
Peter
You can also send your comments to assistant.webmaster@emmanuelunited.ca and I will make sure they are posted.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
