What do you think of this? What would you add? Subtract? Do you track with this? With something else?
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From Robert Farrar Capon: Advent is the church's annual celebration of the silliness (from selig, which is German for "blessed") of salvation. The whole thing really is a divine lark. God has fudged everything in our favour: without shame or fear we rejoice to behold his appearing. Yes, there is dirt under the divine Deliverer's fingernails.
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STATION: Vox
Choose a reader to read the regular type, communal response in bold. Brigid of Ireland Brigid is believed to have been the daughter of a pagan Scottish king and a Christian Pictish slave. Even as a child, she was known to have a generous spirit and a compassionate, tender heart and was drawn to help the poor, the hungry, and the cold. Eventually Brigid’s father decided she must be married or taken into someone else’s household, because he could no longer afford to keep her (especially in light of her excessive giving to the poor, which he feared would be the ruin of him). Brigid refused marriage and became a nun with seven other women. At Kildare, she founded a double monastery for monks and nuns, assisted by a bishop. The perpetual fire at the monastery became a symbol of its hospitality and constant, undying devotion to God and the poor.
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The story begins as the European pioneers crossed the Alleghenies and started to settle the Midwest. The land they found was covered with forests. With great effort they pulled up the trees, pulled up the stumps, and planted their crops in the rich, loamy soil. When they finally reached the western edge of the place we now call Indiana, the forest stopped and ahead lay a thousand miles of the great grass prairie. The Europeans were puzzled by this new environment. Some even called it the Great Desert. It seemed untillable. In 1837, a blacksmith in the town of Grand Detour, Illinois, invented a new tool. His name was John Deere, and the tool was a plow made of steel...
I would add a commitment to Jesuslike peacemaking–practicing nonviolence, addressing injustices with nonviolent resistance, and working for reconciliation.
I agree, Josh! Thanks for adding that in.
The Dali Lama said, “If science demonstrated Buddism is wrong, then Buddism needs to change.”
I think Christianity needs to consider the truth of this statement and re-think some of it’s theology. Process Theism is one example of a theology that is in line with science.
What is progressive Christianity?
Of course, I had to Google “progressive Christianity” and I found this: “Seek community that is inclusive of ALL people.” This goes along with affirmation of human diversity. Does this include reaching out to help human diversity (community) or does it only speak about acceptance?