THANK GOODNESS!

Recently I evacuated my area when a hurricane threatened.  It was a category 4 which eventually downgraded to category 2 before landfall and missed my area almost completely but devastated areas further up the coast.  At my evacuation site before I knew its course, I was channel surfing for news when I came across the CBN--Christian Broadcasting Network-- and heard Pat Robertson say thanks to all the CBN prayers, the hurricane  had already lessened to category 2.  At that point the hurricane came ashore, wobbled, slowed, and dumped rain for hours, caused massive flooding and ultimately killed scores of people.  I was so thankful for their prayers.  If not for CBN it could have easily been another Puerto Rico!  (I wonder if Robertson prayed for PR.)

Often I read posts attributing avoidance of natural catastrophes and miracles to divine mercy.  Once I met a woman ecstatic because God had given her a car.   People can see a divine purpose in finding a mall parking space.  People see miraculous cures of illness and pray for such recoveries in special services.  I think I have a better chance of finding a parking space than I have of moving a storm.  Call me a cynic I guess.  But it's enough to drive me to atheism, thank God (as a friend's father used to say before he was called to Glory).

Of course all religions claim divine intervention with prayer and miraculous cures.  And I know others who send out "light" and "goodness" as interventions in life's struggles.  And I recall a friend, an atheist, who was diagnosed with a terminal cancer.  He then arranged all his affairs and papers with his very pessimistic viewpoint.  But when he went to another medical center for specialized treatment he discovered his cancer had left, remitted.  Of course this was without prayer or hope on his part.  Just another expression of life as he saw it.  But of course I can't say others were not praying for him.  After all people do win the lottery.  And one has a slightly better chance of winning if you buy a ticket (only very slightly)--after all someone may buy a ticket for you.

Certainly the unexpected and even the unimagined happens in life.  Thank goodness!  In fact all of life is unexpected and unimaginable.  And maintaining a sense of wonder and gratitude seems warranted.  Let's take a deep  breath and enjoy it.  And furthermore, when someone else suffers let's join them in empathy and loving kindness knowing we all suffer.  It's not that God shines his mercy on us and not you.  We're all one.

THE GOOD BOOK

The Light of Fireflies by Paul Pen is a very difficult, troubling, tragic story, odd from beginning to end.  Early on a major character says there is nothing more amazing than a creature that produces its own light.  And this maybe the compelling truth of the this story, this situation, and this family--but on some level it will shine true for us all--and thus makes it into my religious opinions.  For this set of protagonists there seems to be no other source of light.  There is darkness everywhere, seeping through everything.  Lies stack on lies, love mask crimes and guilt, blame excuses torture, damaged naivete obscures beastly brutality, togetherness blocks freedom,  conviviality hides lack of respect for personal boundaries, steadfastness hides slavery, gentleness overshadow meanness.  Have I said it is a dark difficult story--hard to read (but also hard to not read)?  It reflects to some extent in all of us, that is all of us who care to look into the basements of our souls.  And if we don't care to look into our souls then we just don't see what's there anyway.

Into a this strange underworld is born one of our nameless protagonists.  He is born in a basement with the understanding that there are no exits and no leaving.  It's all mysterious but mystery only begins when we have questions and it takes some growing to have questions.  His parents have disfiguring burn scars and his sister is so disfigured she must wear a mask so he will never be frightened by her appearance.  And grandmother is blind from the fire.  A brother is just mentally stunted and is in frequent idiosyncratic reverie.  However this youth is a clever boy who enjoys a book on insects, his cactus and following a ray of sunshine seeping in from a crack in the ceiling as it crosses the floor. He cradles an unfertilized egg hoping to have baby chick.  His blind grandmother encourages hopes by claiming to show the chick climbing about her only to say later it must have escaped the window (which is barred).  He eventually collects a group of fireflies whose light becomes his inspiration, hope, strength, courage, and source of freedom.

The opening scenes show his father as a doting loving father only to have him appear as a criticizing harsh brute 10 years later.  The developing youth wonders about origin of life, the behaviors he observes, and  in addition to many other things, the nature of mammal offspring (a real reference to humans).  Things go from bad to worse for the youth and the family.  Some family members play one against the other.  Confusion abounds.  Truth is elusive.  Naive childhood protection against suspected wrongs transforms into an unexpected battle with evil.  And through it all the family is together-- held by guilt, codependency, and fear.

The bottle of fireflies--those amazing creatures that produce their own light and that had drifted in from the outside--instill the  young hero with strength to go forward.  In one particular sanguine episode the bottle is broken and the fireflies escape.   The  youth sees them swirling around but no one else sees them!  Now it's clear where the light originated.   Our 10 year old gallant knight is the amazing creature that produces his own light.

This nameless youth grows up in the outside world glowing in the light of the world and spreading his inner light to his child and nephew (the latter also born in the basement).  But it is not necessarily a  happy ending for the rest of the family.  To escape your self imposed bondage and free yourself from rationalizations are difficult and with time efforts become fossilized, stifled, immobile.  And one just continues to do what one has known even if wishing otherwise.

Paul Pen merritts title of author of a good  book that shows us the light--even if it is dark and difficult.

Matthew 5:25

Breaking Up Is So Hard To Do

As a complete outsider I have been watching a local Schism take place. Well, maybe not as a complete outsider--I do live in the community and have many friends in the churches.  A local mainstream Bishop took as much of his congregation as were willing out of the national church , claiming that his groups was maintaining the true traditional faith and the national group was just a blasphemous watered down version of sin.  The breaking point issue, at least as seems obvious from outsiders, is homosexuality and how to deal with the gay population (and of course the entire LGBT community).  The split away group sees the Bible as clear  in labeling homosexuality a sin while the national church takes a more inclusive non-judgemental stance.  This has played out in many denominations across the country.  The split-aways stress they still love gays but must point out their errant ways.

Compounding the debate about sin and love is the fact that property and money are involved.  The spit-away group hoped to take the properties with them but has been faced with court rulings that return the property to the national church.  This includes some very historical and wealthy churches that date to the earliest times of the state.

And of course the locals wish to point out that it's really a matter of loyalty to Biblical inerrancy and tradition that motivates the schism.  The national church they say has abandoned true religion for a liberal satanic version.  The nationals do this by being inclusive, opened minded to point of recognizing the value of other religions.  In short they take a more ecumenical approach.

There have been many public letters back and forth from both sides.  Each calls for reconciliation but more or less on their own terms.  The locals battle on despite the court's rulings against them.  They often stress the 3-2 vote of the state supreme court as if somehow that means it doesn't really count. And they indicated they will continue to find some issue to dispute in court even if it doesn't really involve the major properties any longer.  For example who can use the seal and logo.  I doubt eviction is a real concern.  At most I could see the national church installing new clergy for what part of the congregation wanted to stay in the prodigal churches.

What does not seem to be a possibility at the moment is simply going your own way.  It's often not just enough to believe you are right but you must also show the other wrong.   It's like lots of marriages I've seen end.  Or even business partnerships.  It's hard to let go and live and let live.

It's nice to know nothing like this could happen the Cathedral House of Good. First of all there is hardly any tradition to follow and everyone in welcome.   Furthermore there is no property. There are not even enough people to have a schism.   Maybe when global warming floods out all the other churches, Good's Cathedral will see a schismatic influx.  

The Good Book

Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time:  the Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith by Marcus Borg is the Good Book for now.  

Borg like many of us first met Jesus in his family's church (Lutheran for him) but has evolved his awareness and relationship through out his life.  And his 30 years plus as a scholar of early Christianity and the Bible have helped.  

Borg sketches Jesus in a manner very different than we learned in Church or that we routinely hear even now among mainstream discussions.  No longer to be found are images of Jesus as divine or as savior by atonement for everyone's sins.  There are no indications he spoke of himself as the son of God, or planned to start a new religion.  He is not the judge of right and wrong and does not insist on believing. 

Instead the Jesus we meet is a "Spirit Man," one of those people who relates to Spirit (and in his Jewish culture this is Yahweh) and can communicate this relationship to others.  And he invites others to relate to this Spirit too.  He stresses a resistance to the prevailing cultural worldly powers as a means of transformation and liberation.  An interesting irony is that even the current church culture can become an oppressive power.  Compassion is the overriding current in Jesus' ministry.  

There was nothing on Easter morning that could have been video taped.  For Borg, the idea of an empty tomb is irrelevant.  What was being described were experiences of the early followers who continued to feel Jesus' presence and influence in there lives.  They could say, "he is Risen and he is Lord."  

And much of what we read in the Canon is the post-resurrection community's efforts to metaphorically express their feelings and experiences of Jesus.  So they saw him as  someone they could hear and see.  Some thought he must have had a special birth.  Perhaps he was even present from the beginning.  

   

Borg easily merits the title of author of a Good Book.

                                                                           ------ the Bishop

                

A New God?

         

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh-- I had forgotten him.  But then I recalled those turbulent, controversial days in Oregon in the early 1980's.  He came out of India to settle in central Oregon with quick confrontation with the authorities.  His followers were moving there, buying property and voting.  And then there were his counter culture teachings of sexual liberation and love.  I remember him as the Cadillac Guru who drove around his compound in his  sedan with followers throwing flowers on his hood.  His Ashram came to an ignominious end in the mid 1980's when his private secretary and a small cadre were implicated in heinous crimes including plots to murder local and federal officials and poisoning a local restaurant salad bar. There has been no substantial evidence that Rajneesh himself was involved in the crimes but he did plead guilty to an immigration offense and was deported.  He eventually returned to India where he has become more popular than  before and has even undergone what some have called an apotheosis. 

In autumn 2002 I went to a retreat in the NC mountains with a group of Osho followers.  I didn't know Osho but learned he was a new incarnation of a guru who had died in the 1990's.  Previously he had been Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh! What I went too I would call a dance meditation--not being into the language of the group.  A free style movement, present in the now was what I experienced.  They were a pleasant group with many having Eastern names in place of their Western birth names.  They emphasized love and basically emanated peace.  All this along with hikes in the mountains added up to a very nice weekend for me.  I've had no further contact with the group.

All this came back to me today when I read an article from a researcher at the University of Oregon who conducted research on the group in the 1980's in Oregon and later into the late 1990's with members who had moved on to different locations.  

The researcher pointed out that members continued to hold faith in Rajneesh (Osho) into the late 1990's and saw him as a great force in transforming their lives and helping them live comfortably with their goals and balance the many difficult conflicts of life and career.  Two thirds of the Oregon followers had college degrees and/or lucrative careers.  More than half were women.  And many of these had left successful well paying careers because they still felt lonely and anxious and thrived in the love and affirmation of Rajneesh.  

As mentioned, Osho has been undergoing something of an apotheosis.  So perhaps we are seeing formed now, a major religion of tomorrow just as Christianity formed in the first and second centuries.  I imagine most contemporaries never even heard of Jesus and his followers and most who did found the whole idea as absurd.  Jesus in his day was  a Roman criminal and had his own counter culture movement.  And even so the movement changed with time and came to dominate the Western world.  

Also today I read the basic "Ten Commandments" of Osho.  They really don't seem such a bad set of principles to live by:  

1.  Never obey anyone's command unless it is coming from within you also.
2. There is no God other than life itself.
3. Truth is within you, do not search for it elsewhere.
4. Love is prayer.
5. To become a nothingness is the door to truth. Nothingness itself is the means, the goal and attainment.
6. Life is now and here.
7. Live wakefully.
8. Do not swim—float.
9. Die each moment so that you can be new each moment.
10. Do not search. That which is, is. Stop and see.

                                                                                 ---- the Bishop

It's a Resurrection not a Resuscitation

A casual comment  reminded today of an experience several years ago in the Thyssen- Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.  After closely admiring a painting (now forgotten) I turned left 90 degrees and came suddenly and unexpectedly face to face with life size image of "the Resuscitated Christ."  His expression of sadness and suffering was palpable.  I was looking into his watery eyes, gaunt cheeks, and his slightly opened mouth.   He had an air of bewilderment and seemed to question what had happened and why.  A very human Jesus was looking for consolation while at the same time giving hope.  For me at that moment Jesus was very much alive!

The reverie passed and I moved on to other art in the museum, in that day before good cell phone cameras.  But in fact it never occurred to me to photograph the painting since my experience was not photographable.  To be in the presence of the Divine is unforgettable.

But forgettable were the name of the artist and time of completion.  All I could recall was some school from the 15th century and I wasn't' sure of that.

Subsequent Google searches have not produced totally conclusive results, but almost.  And looking online at wonderful art is not the same as being there, especially true when the experience is numinous. 

At the Thyssen, there is a painting from the late 1400's once attributed to Bramate but more likely by his student Bramantino.  But it's title is "the Risen Christ," not "the Resuscitated Christ" that I recalled.  Is it the same painting?  Has my memory just tricked me?  Has the title been changed?  Did I see what I already believed?  Actually it was probably my thinking in English and reading in Spanish.  You know, Cristo Resuscitado.  But whatever was the case, from the 500 year old painting, I was able to see a living Jesus.  He stood removed from canvass and not confined by frame.  His shining tears, the warmth of his breath, and the smell of his wounds hung in the air.  There was not a single word, just acknowledgement.

I assume Bramantino and Bramante must have had a similar experience and brought it to life on canvass.  And I can understand too how then this experience has proceeded for milenia from the earliest such experiences.

Which brings me what I heard today:  a local Roman Catholic clergy reported Easter that "it was a resurrection and not a resuscitation."  As this was a second hand report to me, I have no idea what the clergyman meant but you can see how it brought me back to the Thyssen Resuscitated versus the Risen Christ.

From what I can tell, the general belief is that resuscitation refers to a person coming to life again in the same body only to die again later.  Resurrection is to rise from the dead with a different even glorified body never to die again.  These are probably more important distinctions to believers in the traditional Christian doctrines.  But for me both words can be used and are used to designate  "revivalize."  You can resurrect an old idea or resuscitate a forgotten technique.  And you can revitalize the ability to experience the mysteries of life.

A Jesus 500 years encased in canvass burst to life for me.  And Elijah can walk through opened doors.  Ganesha can remove obstacles.  Buddha can bring peace.

To be clear, I am not referring to a physical resurrection.  The Jesus I encountered was no physical body but a mental--or spiritual if you will--experience.  But that is no less real.  My scientific orientation tells me physical bodies die and don't return.  But images and experiences can be without time constraints, caught in the eternal moment.  And as such, the numinous of life, the sacredness of being, can be reinvigorated, revitalized and rejuvenated.  It's not resuscitation.  It's resurrection!

                                                                            ---the Bishop


Cristo Resucitado
https://www.google.com/search?q=cristo+resucitado+thyssen+museum&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=ctxAHdVJE4v1AM%253A%252CWUrkECPS4cp-QM%252C_&usg=__nkkyyTpUf3cm2ddbwl4Ni6Ul0jc%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiT9-r2h9baAhWK1lMKHeW0CVYQ9QEINDAB#imgrc=ctxAHdVJE4v1AM:

A little something about the Bishop

His Happiness, the Good Revved Dr. P. R. Gunter


My background of involvement as a minister in a denominational movement began in 1969 with my ordination in the Universal Life Church under leadership of Kirby Hensley. Like Hensley, I learned later, I had grown disappointed with my religious life and affiliation and sought some relief; and comic relief was good enough for me.   As I remember there was somewhere in ULC's official wordings the statement "It's all funny until you believe." I was also affiliated with some other fine groups.  The Unitarians have a solid if not funny church with no burdensome doctrines.  The Buddhists may be the most reasonable of all.   The Hindus were  broad, open and flexible.

There were also some not so reasonable groups for me. The Presbyterian--founded by John Calvin who had no humor and would burn you at the stake in a skinny minute.  Lutheran--founded by Martin Luther a real tight ass, quite literally.  Episcopalian--where do I begin--with Henry VIII?  Baptist--boy could they have used a drink.  Methodist--I didn't see a much different method than the Baptists. Quakers--a quiet bunch.  Roman Catholics--really celibacy and weird birth control?  And they started and perpetuated much of this mess we have.  Orthodox Catholics--they sound so nice but surely they burned somebody and also there are no super-titles in the services.  Latter Day Saints--whatever they are they are gold plated. Pentecostal---I couldn't understand what they were saying.  Unity--touchy-feely, but not so grounded at times.   Christian Science--I kept looking for the science part.  Non-Denominational--follow the money. Scientology--maybe it was founded by an Alien.

In those days nearly 50 years ago my ministry was limited to blessing the beer at parties, occasional memorial services for anatomy cadavers, and prayer services to aid my fellow students pass their tests.  The parties were successful and all students graduated and no cadavers complained.

Kirby was an illiterate, self taught eccentric who left every minister alone to pursue their own path and had no rigid, onerous doctrinal  requirement.  I had grown up in churches and felt relaxed in them, I noticed, until dogma arrived.  And dogma invariably arrived brought by serious minded, educated, well meaning people--clergy and lay.  Hensley's approach was refreshing and thumb in the eye of those who used degrees to bash everyone with doctrines or beliefs as well as to those not so well educated who just took what they had always  heard with no questioning.

Hensley contended all was legal and all ministers were fully qualified for their ministerial duties.  I certainly had no one question my roll in those days.  However I never had any brick and mortar church and never got into tax issues or funds.  In the early 1970's I became an apostate and eventually lost track of the ULC.  About that time too I learned the ULC was having IRS problems with charges of tax evasion.  This was my time to explore all those other groups.

But I continued holding forth as  a ULC minister.  At times I would bring out my ordination card and humorously tell my story through the years.   It was usually a a time when someone needed a little religious humor.  A good laugh goes a long way.

Fast forward to the late 1990's.  A friend who had been one of those in need of the humor when he was being defrocked from his church due to his liberal beliefs asked me to perform his wedding. This took my ministry to a new level.  I had to officially register in his county as a "minister of the Gospel."  And of course I had a  Gospel to share!

Weddings beget weddings so another ensued.  But weddings are not my real interest. I'm  more interested in what people believe, the meaning of beliefs and why we believe what we believe. This I hope will be the focus of this blog.   We shall see!

With my friends' wedding I returned to the ULC and after a rigorous exam became a Doctor of Metaphysics so I could understand anything and everything.  More importantly I patted myself on the back (a form of laying on of hands) and became a Bishop, a recognition of my 30 years plus as ordained minister with the ULC.  By the way, I was not ordained by this current fad of on-line ordinations.  I did it by the old fad of snail mail--envelop and stamp.  Ordination papers then were really sealed certificates, not these printed out versions--which are just as legal.

And the ministry continues with support for the orthodox challenged,  the eccentric or free thinker, and those in need of a laugh.

The following link provides an interesting sweeping history of the Universal Life Church--although I can't vouch for it's accuracy.  Some see Hensley as a complete fraud or con artist and others see him a religious seeker.  I'm thinking about making him a  saint.  Saint Kirby!  But I'm having a little trouble. I don't know any miracle he performed.   I haven't heard of anyone healed by him. But there is the story that he liked to say the ULC was the only church ever declared a legal church by the U.S. Court System and so acknowledged by the IRS.  Maybe that's enough.


http://califias.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-universal-life-church.html

Easter 2018

For Easter reading I recommend E. Bruce Brooks' book:  Jesus and After  The First Eighty Years.

The author analyzes the New Testament Canon as a philologist and shows a chronology of canonical writings from the earliest to the latest with interpolations.  He distinguishes alpha Christians (the earliest), beta Christians (the second wave) and even gamma Christians (Gnostic).  The alphas did not focus on resurrection and stressed doing good deeds and keeping the law, with Jesus as their guide to return to God.  Much of Mark is in this vein as is also Epistle of James (to Brooks this is Jacob as a more authentic name).  Paul began his mission before the end of the  Apostolic Age and in fact saw himself as an Apostle by Jesus Christ and is pretty much the inventor of the beta beliefs.  He stressed the resurrection and atonement for forgiveness of sins. 

Brooks shows how the early Christians usurped the Jewish texts for their purposes and how later the beta group usurped alpha writings by insertions for their purposes.  The three epistles of John show this transition well.  

The alpha group was basically a sect of Judaism and even kept some of the writings along side the Torah in synagogues.  With the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. Judaism and the Christian groups became less centralize (not in Jerusalem any more).  Christianity became an almost exclusive gentile religion.  Initially Matthew as Brooks sees it became the most vocal to distinguish the Christian sect from Judaism, not so much as anti-Semitic as pushing for direct ownership of their religion.  There are conflicts back and forth among the alpha and beta groups too.  Each group considered itself the correct interpreter and sent letters to churches admonishing adherence to their views and rejection of the other.  

Brooks' chronology is a little different than what I have seen with other scholars but not so far off. Mark he dates to the 40's and John's Gospel to around the 80's.  Matthew and Luke are in between. But interpolated parts and revisions of all the Canon are at different dates.  

Eventually too Brooks deals with the writings of the Church Fathers e.g. Clement.   I havn't yet finished the book but I will by Easter and will update this blog.  

                                                                                              ----The Bishop

Jesus and After continued

The latter part of Brooks' book deals with the gamma Christians i.e. the Gnostic group.  They offered another way to salvation.  Theirs was through a special knowledge, not from good works (alpha) nor from sacrificial atonement (beta).  This was especially strong in early second century and again in the 3rd century in some who objected to the Trinity Doctrine had been recently codified.  They could not logically grasp how a Father and Son could both exist eternally simultaneously (the construct in the Nicene Creed).  The Son from the Father also implied a more human Jesus--also an alpha Christian concept.  These anti-trinity believers were banished outside the Roman Empire but persisted and reemerged in the Reformation and even exist today (e.g. modern Unitarian-Universalist Church). 

While Brooks says his book is not a history book but rather a philology work, he paints a vivid historical sweep of Jesus' ministry, his death, and subsequent events.  We see the changes in writing that take Jesus from being human calling for a return to God (Mark) to Jesus being recognize before his ministry with special birth (Matthew and Luke) to his being the same as God (John).  The more simple Christian sect is seen in early Mark, the Epistle of James, and the Didache.  Paul in his writings brings in the atonement understanding and Jesus dying for salvation and his resurrection as assurance for His followers.  The Canon contains evidence of struggles between the two groups to sway people from the other group even to the point of usurping the other's text by interpolations.

                                                                                       
                                                                                          ----the Bishop