Another Voice

January 6, 2021  :  Epiphany

With courage, hope, and creative energy we begin our flight into the New Year. 

For many years, my special area of research and teaching has been religion and values in American society. That area of observation and research is never dull, as we see in this week’s current events. I have no doubts that Covid-19 will be conquered and controlled. The more dangerous virus, however, is hateful and violent socio-political polarization; and this deadly virus will be much more difficult to conquer and control. It will indeed take a lot of courage, reinforced by shared hope, and much shared reflection and action.

Over the holidays I have had a chance to review some of my “religion and values” notes, in preparation for a book that should appear in the new year. I once again read a document written by the Appalachian Catholic Bishops in 1975, titled “This Land is Home to Me.” Their words were so appropriate back then. And…they ring so true today. 

Here are a few lines that have inspired me over the years:

“Although the Catholic tradition fully acknowledges the legitimacy of self-defense and force as the final recourse against injustice, we must beware of the temptation of a too easy violence — of a bitterness which can poison that for which we struggle, or which still worse, can provoke from forces of injustice an even more brutal and repressive institutional violence whose first victim is always the poor….

“We wish to thank the many Spirit-filled and dedicated people…who all along have been struggling in hidden or dramatic ways, for justice and unity among people. We thank the youth who have not given up hope, and who continue to believe in freshness in human experience. We thank parents, whose lives have been such that our youth have reason to hope. We thank the elderly, who despite great hardship, continue to survive with spirit and grace, and whose quiet wisdom inspires us all….We believe in the voice of Yahweh among us….

“Hopefully the Church might once again be known as a center of the Spirit, a place where poetry dares to speak, where the song reigns unchallenged, where art flourishes, where nature is welcome, where little people and little needs come first, where justice speaks loudly, and where in a wilderness of idolatrous destruction the great voice of God still cries out for life.”

*****

The prophetic challenge of “This Land is Home to Me” speaks to all of us today and especially to the institutional church and its leadership.

My very best wishes for 2021. May we be hopeful, collaborative, and creative as we travel into this New Year.

Jack

____________________________________________________________________

Today’s  photo of a great bald eagle in flight was taken by John Zuk, a friend from Battle Creek, Michigan. I use it with John’s permission. It captured for me the vision of courageously flying into the new year. John’s photo also reminded me of lines from “On Eagles’Wings” by Fr. Michael Joncas, liturgist, and composer: 

“You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord, Who abide in his shadow for life, Say to the Lord, ‘My refuge, my rock in whom I trust!’ And he will raise you up on eagles’ wings…”

Journey of the Magi is a 43-line poem written in 1927 by T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). In the poem, Eliot retells the story of the wise men (mágoi in Greek) who travelled to Palestine to visit the newborn Jesus, according to the Gospel of Matthew. It is a narrative, told from the point of view of one of the “magi,” that expresses themes of alienation and a feeling of powerlessness in a world that has changed.

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.’
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

My very best wishes for Christmas 2020 and a hopeful 2021!

Jack

Fourth Weekend in Advent 2020

Today, as we draw close to Christmas and look forward to 2021 with hopes for a more healthy new year, I have a follow-up to last week’s post, where I mentioned that the historical Jesus was religiously critical but not anti-religion.

We begin today with a well-known passage from Matthew and then I offer some brief observations, action thought-starters, and clarifications. [Next week, on Christmas Eve, a traditional poetic reflection. Then, as last year, I will be away from Another Voice for two weeks.]

Today’s passage: Matthew 23:1-6

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and his disciples, saying: “The experts in the law and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. Therefore, carefully attend to what they say and do what they say; but act not according to their deeds. For they say, but they don’t do. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders. They themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by people. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the first seats in the synagogues.” 

Observations and ActionThought-Starters:

• The historical Jesus, whose Hebrew name was Yeshua, belonged to the Hebrew faith tradition and had a keen knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. He did not establish a new religion. He did not set up a church. He called people to a new way of life. “I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.” (John10:10) His early followers were called “followers of the Way.” — Thought-starter: How do we live and promote the Way of Jesus today? How can we really inspire and motivate people?

• The Fourth Gospel even tells us Jesus celebrated Chanukah (Hanukkah). “Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.” (John 20:22-23) — Thought-starter: How do you imagine Jesus in the temple or in a synagogue? Did people stare in awe at him? Or did they raise their eyebrows when he walked in with his band of young followers?

• Jesus’ disciples were young men and women, inspired by his example, teaching, and divine wisdom. — Thought-starter: Where do young men and women today get their Christian inspiration? What do we need to do? Whose wisdom do they admire today? How can we speak meaningfully to them about Jesus?

• As the post-Resurrection community of Jesus’ disciples and followers began to grow, non-Hebrew members also joined. — Thought-starter: How do we welcome God-seekers today, especially those turned-off by organized religion?

• Post-Resurrection Christian structural developments led to two things: the composition of the Gospels AND the formation of Christian faith communities with their own Christian rituals, symbols, and leadership, independent from Hebrew communities.

• There was also a growing concern about passing on the heritage of Jesus the Christ to future generations. This called for religious structuring. — Thought-starter: What kinds of institutional structuring and re-structuring do we need today, especially in view of institutional misogyny, clericalism, and doctrinal rigidity?

• In the earliest Christian communities men and women held leadership roles and presided at celebrations of Eucharist. At first there was no ordination. No separate clergy. Later ordination was introduced, not to transfer some kind of sacramental power but for quality control. Only qualified men and women could lead Christian communities. — Thought-starter: How do we provide quality-controlled Christian leadership today? Have annual performance appraisals for clergy and bishops? Have parishes elect their pastors?

Clarifications:

• In his comments about the “the experts in the law and the Pharisees” in the Matthew text, Jesus was simply stressing that even well-known religious authorities can succumb to distorted religion. We see that today of course. A young Catholic ordained minister told me last week that President Trump was sent by God and that President-elect Biden is an evil pro-abortionist and a phony Catholic.

• The “experts in the law” were part of the Temple hierarchy. The word “scribe” can be misleading because people today think it probably means a “secretary” who takes notes. “Experts in the law” had knowledge of Hebrew tradition and law and could draft legal documents like marriage contracts, documents for mortgages, for the sale of land, etc. Each village had at least one “expert in the law.”

• Pharisees were not part of the Temple hierarchy. They were a school of thought and a social movement. They believed in resurrection and in observing religious traditions ascribed to “the traditions of the ancestors.” They were not per se bad people! Some scholars think Jesus was a Pharisee and that his debates with them were simply par for the course. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Pharisee beliefs became the foundational and ritualistic basis for Rabbinic Judaism.

• Is is unfortunate that historical ignorance and antisemitism have denigrated the Pharisees and given us the pejorative word “pharisaical” meaning “overly self-righteous” and “hypocritical.”

Religion and Faith:  

• Faith or “trust” is our personal and group experience of what we call the Sacred or the Divine: God. In Christian faith that experience is anchored in living in the Spirit of Christ.

• Religion is not faith. Religion is a system of beliefs, rituals, and symbols designed to help people understand their faith experience. We use religion. We don’t worship it.

• Unhealthy religion grows out of and supports clouded vision and hateful hearts.

• Religion is healthy when it points to the Sacred. It is unhealthy when it only points to itself: to rituals, symbols, and religious leaders. Particularly unhealthy when it manipulates and uses people for the leaders’ self-serving goals. When this happens, one needs a reformation.

• In Jesus’ days, as in our own days, some people have used religion-mixed-with-politics to achieve self-serving and ungodly goals. This combination was deadly for Jesus. It threatens our lives today as well. 

Unified in Christian hope, we proceed peacefully toward Christmas…..

​“By the tender mercy of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us,

​To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

​To guide our feet into the way of peace.”

(Luke 1:78-79)

Jack

PS:    In response to a couple questions raised by Another Voice readers: My aim in Another Voice has been to not just pass on information but to offer a different perspective. My inspiration came from T.S. Eliot’s poem Little Gidding, the fourth and final poem of Eliot’s Four Quartets, a series of poems that discuss time, perspective, humanity, and salvation. 

Little Gidding appeals to me as an historical theologian because it focuses on the unity of past, present, and future, and claims that understanding this unity is necessary for salvation. The lines I like especially are these:  “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.”

In this third weekend of Advent 2020 reflection, one can ask what was the experience that Jesus’ disciples were trying to articulate when they declared in a variety of ways that God was revealed in the very human Jesus? The question has contemporary significance as well. What is the significance of Jesus Christ and Christianity today, when human suffering, accelerated Covid-19 deaths, and hardened and hateful political polarization so characterize our contemporary life situation?

What emerges when we trace the Jesus images in the Gospels is a portrait of a human life in which the human opens to the Divine. In our earliest Gospel, Mark, we read: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time is fulfilled,’ he said. ‘The Reign of God has come. Repent and believe the good news!’”  (Mark 1:15)

Most biblical scholars agree that the reality of the Reign of God lies at the very heart of Jesus’ life and message. In the text from Mark we see the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus had probably spent some time under the influence of John the Baptist but then recognized and responded to his own unique call from God. 

The “Reign of God” is a religious image. It is based on the metaphor of God being depicted as a king. By proclaiming the Reign of God Jesus was using figurative language that evoked the living tradition of an experience of God acting in history. For Jesus, God is not out there or up there but present and active in the events of everyday life, here and now, near and with us. The Reign of God is a new awareness and a creative human environment. The Reign of God meant that God’s justice would replace injustice. It meant that the poor and the marginalized would be reintegrated into society. The content of the Reign of God is reflected in Jesus’ sayings, parables, and actions – in all the contours of his life and ministry.

Jesus experienced God’s presence and influence as close, near, and very personal. God for Jesus was not a cold-hearted taskmaster. He experienced God as an understanding, compassionate, and forgiving “Father.”  (Jesus grew up in the Hebrew tradition which pictured God as male. An Hebraic anthropomorphism. God of course has no gender. God can be pictured just as much as “Mother” or “Father.”) 

Jesus explained life in the Reign of God very particularly in his parables. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, for example, Jesus teaches a universal love that also extends to one’s enemies, whether they be personal enemies in the village or those of a particular group or nation. For Jesus the barriers between insiders and outsiders are broken down. Perhaps Christian political leaders should also be good Samaritains?

The human Jesus opens our eyes to all that God means and enables us to see all that God is. Those who experienced Jesus experienced God’s revelation in his life. Their full understanding came after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Recall Matthew 27:53-55 “After Jesus’ resurrection….When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God.’” One of my favorite post-Resurrection narratives is about the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35): “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him…. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’”

It is through the human Jesus – “Son of Humankind” and “Son of God” — that people were enabled to experience all that the word “God” means. We find that realization is so clearly expressed in the Fourth Gospel with its strong post-Resurrection belief and understanding. Recall, for instance, these passages: “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (John 5:26); “If you knew me, you would know my Father also” (John 8:19); “Whoever sees me sees him who sent me” (John 12:45); “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9); and finally, “[Just as God] has loved me, so have I loved you” (John 15:9). The Christian way of life, as I wrote last week, is a life of spirituality: a journey through and with Christ into the life of God. Life in Christ is a mystery to be lived. To live in Christ is to live what the Apostle Paul called “a new creation.” 

I would emphasize that to be a Christian is not primarily to be “a religious person.” The historical Jesus was not anti-religion but religiously critical. (Something for next week’s reflection.) It is important to remember that Jesus came to show us how to be truly human much more than how to be religious. In the depth of our humanity-shared-with-others we meet the living God. “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20)

To be a Christian is to be a whole human being; and Jesus is the portrait of that wholeness. Consider the faith system in which Jesus’ own life was nurtured. He broke religious boundaries again and again in his attempt to call people into a new humanity and to introduce them to a Divine presence manifested in the fullness of his own humanity. Anything that teaches one to hate or violate another cannot be of God. Jesus’ disciples saw and experienced in him a rare integrity. Each person whom Jesus met seemed to have the potential to become whole, to be invested with infinite worth. 

God was likened by Jesus to a wide variety of images. God was like a father who welcomed home the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). God was like a shepherd who searched for the lost sheep (Luke 15:3–7), or like a woman who swept diligently until she found a lost coin (Luke 15:8–10). The God Jesus seemed to know was one in whom all were welcome to come (Matthew 11:28). 

Christian spirituality requires that one take time to sit back and contemplate. It is through quiet contemplation, not speedy data-processing, that we effectively process our experiences and truly explore the mystery of life. The contemplative mind sees reality in its wholeness not just in its parts. Jesus took time to contemplate as well. Recall when he began his ministry. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that after being baptized by John the Baptist he retreated to the Judean Desert to pray. Through contemplation the historical Jesus came to understand his identity with God. Luke reminds us that “He frequently withdrew to the wilderness to pray.” (Luke 5:16)

Material for our own contemplation: Jesus and the mystery of life. Jesus knew joy and the camaraderie of his close friends. He also faced anger and rejection from narrow-minded religious leaders. He knew fear and anxiety. Recall his “agony in the garden” as he contemplated his own torture and death at the hands of the Romans. “Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’” (Matthew 26: 38 & 39)

Jesus, who uniquely cared, served and loved, suffered at the hands of oppressive religious and political authorities. He lived the mystery of life: the Reign of God. He did not abandon God. God did not abandon him. His reassuring message for us is that God has not abandoned us either, although, like him, we can experience dark days.

As I reflect on Jesus and on the mystery of my own life, I recall what Franciscan friend, Richard Rohr, wrote last month: 

“Jesus teaches that right relationship (i.e., love) is the ultimate and daily criterion. If a social order allows and encourages strong connectedness between people and creation, people and each other, people and God, then you have a truly sacred culture: the Reign of God. It is not a world without pain or mystery, but simply a world where we are connected and in communion with all things.

“Who can doubt that this is the sum and substance of Jesus’ teaching? In the Reign of God, the very motive for rivalry, greed, and violence has been destroyed. We know we are all part of God’s Beloved Community.”

And so we journey on…..

Jack

PS   A clarification about an item in last week’s post. I had included a strongly misogynist text often attributed to Albertus Magnus. It appears however that many contemporary scholars attribute that text not to Albertus Magnus but more likely to one of his followers. Albertus Magnus was however a misogynist as was his famous student, Thomas Aquinas, who cited with approval Aristotle’s infamous affirmation that “the female is a misbegotten male.” Aquinas himself declared that women are “defective and misbegotten.”

A few days ago I heard again the old annual refrain: “We need to put Christ back into Christmas.” My immediate reaction was to say: “Ok fine, but first of all, let’s put Christ back into Christianity.” 

A distorted Christianity proclaims a distorted moral vision. It can justify — often with popular applause — racism, xenophobia, and misogyny. It happens now and of course it happened in the past. Saint Albertus Magnus, for example, the “great” 13^th century Dominican theologian, was fond of proclaiming: “Woman is a misbegotten man and has a faulty and defective nature in comparison to his. Therefore she is unsure in herself. What she cannot get, she seeks to obtain through lying and diabolical deceptions. And so, to put it briefly, one must be on one’s guard with every woman, as if she were a poisonous snake and the horned devil. … Thus in evil and perverse doings woman is cleverer, that is, slyer, than man. Her feelings drive woman toward every evil, just as reason impels man toward all good.”

In every age there have been and must still be prophetic men and women who courageously critique “Christian”  behavior and call for conversion and reform.

An important part of that critique is a strong reminder that authentic Christ-based Christianity is anchored first of all in spirituality. We live here and now as Christ: in and with the Spirit of the living God. Christian moral behavior – not a list of rules or narrow self-serving gestures but a pattern of life — flows from that spiritual reality. We live in the Spirit of Christ with personal dignity and respect and compassion for the other. All others! 

More thoughts about Christ and Christianity in the next couple weeks of Advent. Today just an introduction with some observations about Jesus of Nazareth. My immediate thoughts and prayers right now are more with family and friends in quarantine with Covid-19. The pandemic has now claimed more than 264,800 lives in just the USA. 

I have done a lot of reading and study about the “historical Jesus.” My favorite author is the Irish-American New Testament scholar John Dominic Crossan. We know more about the historic Jesus but still don’t know a lot. Jesus was not white, like so many of those images so often showing an androgynous white European male. He was a dark-skinned Galilean. He could have been gay or straight. We really don’t know. Jesus, however, was probably very close to Mary the Magdalene, whom many scholars now consider the “beloved disciple.” I often think about Jesus in his early thirties with a group of disciples, young men and women in their late teens. Teachers like Jesus touch people deeply. They stimulate, support, and help them mature.

Certainly the historical Jesus was intelligent and wise. Like about 97% of the population at his time, Jesus may very well have been illiterate. Jesus was, however, very well versed in an oral culture and knew the foundational narratives, basic stories, and general expectations of his religious tradition. Last week I was thinking about the image of the teenage Jesus described in Luke 2:46-48: “After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished.” Jesus still astonishes. 

We really don’t know much about Jesus’ parents, although there is of course a great body of Marian devotional literature and traditions. Jesus did have brothers and sisters. His brother James was the key leader in the Jerusalem community of believers.

The four gospels are not historical biographies but theological reflections about the life, message, and meaning of Jesus the Christ. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were most likely written between 66 CE and 110 CE. At the early councils of Hippo (393 CE) and Carthage (397 CE), they became the ecclesiastically approved biblical interpretations of the life of Jesus, each adapted to a specific audience. Today we know there were also other gospels, other interpretations. The aim of all was not so much to present historically accurate biographies but to pass on to early (and later) Christian communities the message and meaning of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Jesus the Christ is our companion and trustworthy guide in our human journey. In the next two weeks I would like to explore: (1) Jesus and the God experience, and (2) Jesus and institutional religion.

Warmest regards

Jack

As we celebrate Thanksgiving 2020, we still have much to be thankful for, even if at times it does not appear that way. For my family this is a particularly poignant Thanksgiving because my older brother, Joe, passed from this life to the next life on November 15. We are sad and yet so very thankful for brother Joe.

For a great many people, Covid-19 worries and separation, the loss of family members and friends, and Covid-related financial worries raise dark clouds. But the sun does rise each morning. The sunrise photo I am using today was taken at Goguac Lake in my old hometown, Battle Creek, Michigan, by my friend John Zuk. I use it with John’s permission. John’s photo reminds us that even on cold mornings and with wintry leafless trees the sun does indeed still rise: the Creator’s reminder that, even if we have occasionally cloudy vision and dark days, the Source of Life has not abandoned us. And we cannot abandon each other.

While looking for a Thanksgiving reflection for 2020, I came across a poem by Takashi “Thomas” Tanemori. Takashi was eight years old when, on August 6, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb was dropped on his home city, Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more later died of radiation exposure. Tanemori survived. He is still with us. He wrote this poem called “Looking into Heaven with Love and Gratitude” on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2006  

Turning my face to Heaven

I sense rather than see

the endless blue.

Beyond the dancing leaves and soaring hawk,

its immeasurable stillness

reflects the wonder of all Creation.

Morning dew glittering in the dawn,

like precious jewels;

and twinkling stars echoing in the silent night,

like the songs of angels,

We gather the fruits of the earth,

till the barn is overflowing with bounty.

My heart fills with countless blessings:

food, shelter, clothing and friends to be encircled.

Looking back, I see how

my stumbling steps have become a path

and how, on this lonely road,

I have never been alone.

The kindness of many has been

like a spring rain,

bringing new life to my heart,

as a “Blade of Grass” ever emerging

from the ashes of the Past.

I stand, Amazed at my blessings,

grateful for God’s Wonders!

_______________________________

A very Happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you for traveling with me on Another Voice.

Jack

26 November 2020

A short reflection about religion and reality, with a contemporary  Catholic nuance.

Our word “religion” comes from the Latin root lig, meaning “to connect,” and the prefix re, meaning “again.” We find for example the root lig in the word “ligament,” which connects muscles to bones. 

Religion, ideally, connects us to reality in all of its depth and mystery.

It happens of course that people can also use religion to try connecting to a long-gone past, the good old days, or to an artificial reality, by denying contemporary reality and creating their own truths. Cultic groups, for example, venerate the artificial reality created by authoritarian leaders. 

A contemporary Catholic religious distortion struck me this week, as I read news reports about the Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. He served as the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States from 19 October 2011 to 12 April 2016. He is well known for his conspiracy theory criticism of the pope and has now criticized Archbishop José Gomez, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for congratulating Joseph Biden on his election as the soon-to-be second US president who is Catholic. (Yes, Gomez later said he was concerned about Biden’s position on abortion; but he also praised Biden for his policy proposals regarding immigration reform, refugees, the poor, racism, the death penalty, and climate change. These are truly pro-life issues. I hopeArchbishop Gomez and his episcopal colleagues can truly enter into respectful conversation with the new president and further dismantle US polarization.)

Viganò, however, who has strongly supported the current president has been strongly condemnatory of the president-elect. In a letter sent for publication to LifeSiteNews he stressed that “Covid and Biden are two holograms, two artificial creations, ready to be adapted time and time again to contingent needs or respectively replaced when necessary with Covid-21 and Kamala Harris.” 

“Let us allow light to be shed on the deceptions of Biden and the Democrats,” Archbishop Viganò continued. “The fraud that they have plotted against President Trump and against America will not remain standing for long, nor will the worldwide fraud of Covid, the responsibility of the Chinese dictatorship, the complicity of the corrupt and traitors, and the enslavement of the deep church.” 

When it comes to religion and reality, Viganò and his Catholic supporters twist and mix facts and fantasy. They are “alt-Catholics,” who have found ways to integrate sexism, bigotry, xenophobia, and isolationist nationalism with their religion.Their distorted Catholicism has a seductive appeal. It asks no questions, and it blesses their unwillingness to navigate in the world of contemporary reality. 

Healthy religion focuses on today’s questions and concerns about human meaning, identity, and purpose. The goal is to better understand all human contexts in which faith arises: philosophy, history, literature, sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, and the arts. No single discipline has a corner on the truth. We draw from all and we learn and live together. We strive for collaboration not polarization. 

Healthy religion, above all, recognizes the depth of the mystery of life and allows the God-mystery to stand as the horizon for all learning. God is disclosed in the human journey even when some humans cannot find or refuse to find God. We are never dismissed or abandoned by God. When we open our eyes and hearts to the people around us, we open the way to God’s revelation.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945), pastor and theologian, said it so well in one of his Advent reflections: “Living WITHOUT mystery means knowing nothing of the mystery of our own life, nothing of the mystery of another person, nothing of the mystery of the world. It means passing over our own hidden qualities and those of others. It means remaining on the surface, taking the world seriously only to the extent that it can be calculated and exploited, and not going beyond the world of calculation and exploitation. Living without mystery means not seeing the crucial processes of life at all and even denying them.”

Take care. With healthy religion we can dialogue, collaborate, and move ahead. Religion is at its best when it forces us to ask the hard questions. May we ask and listen and learn together.

Jack

___________

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Some brief (and non-political) thoughts this weekend about biblical translations. 

Over the years I have done a lot of translation work and have learned that a translator must try to understand the context, meaning, and nuance of the original text and then pass that on in the new other-language version. It is not always easy. For many years I was the ghost translator for a now deceased cardinal, who wrote in French and Dutch. We became good friends and he said he liked my work because I understood what was going on in his head: I understood his nuance and context. 

SAME WORDS DIFFERENT MEANINGS: If one does not understand the contextualized meaning of the original words, sometimes rather humorous mistakes can be made as well. Years ago while shopping in London, I discovered much to my surprise that the word “pants” in British English means underwear. British “trousers” are what Americans call “pants.” I had told the fellow in the London men’s clothing store that I wanted a “nice pair of pants” to visit the Archbishop of Westminster. He just started laughing. 

INTERPRETATION: Translation is also a work of interpretation which can become especially significant if one is translating Sacred Scripture. When the Hebrew version of the Old Testament (what we prefer to call today the “Hebrew Scriptures”) was translated into Greek, there was interpretation. When Jerome translated the Greek New Testament into the Latin Vulgate, he did a lot of biblical interpretation, nuanced occasionally by his own misogyny. 

JEROME: Jerome (c.342 – 420 CE) did profoundly influence the early Middle Ages. He often stressed how a woman devoted to Jesus should live her life and, somewhat ironically perhaps, he had close non-sexual patron relationships with prominent female ascetics who were members of wealthy Roman families. Personally, however, he was strictly anti-sex. He advocated and praised virginity. He found women too often vain and demanding and denigrated their sexuality. Here are a couple examples: In the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39, where she attempts to seduce him, the original Hebrew text narrates the story in a straightforward, non-judgmental way. The woman says to Joseph “Lie with me,”and the Hebrew text says simply “and he refused.” Not so in Jerome’s translation: “And he refused” becomes in Jerome’s translation “by no means agreeing to this wicked deed.” And then in Jerome’s translation of Genesis 3.16 we read that God has been addressing severe words to the serpent in the garden and God finishes with a warning to Eve in these words: “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” While “he will rule over you” makes clear the husband’s predominance over the wife, the impact is softened somewhat by the other half of the verse, “Your desire will be for your husband.” The Hebrew word for “desire” here has a sexual nuance. In Jerome’s version, however, that half of the verse is changed to “You will be under the power of your husband” and “he will rule over you.” The complete subjection and subordination of the woman is now clearly stressed in Jerome’s interpretive translation.

SEPTUAGINT – FROM HEBREW TO GREEK INTERPRETATION: In the Hebrew language version of Isaiah 7:14, we read the prophet Isaiah, addressing King Ahaz of Judah (763 – 710 BCE) promising the king that God will destroy his enemies. As a sign Isaiah says that a specific “young woman” (almah in Hebrew) will conceive and will bear a son whose name will be Immanuel, “God is with us,” and that King Ahaz should not worry because the threat from his enemy kings will be ended. When the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek however, in what is called the Septuagint, the Hebrew word for “young woman”: almah was translated as the Greek word parthenos meaning “virgin.” And so we end up in Matthew 1:23 with no mention of Ahaz and the re-worked translation from Isaiah 7:14:  “Behold a virgin will conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Immanuel.” And ever since the text has been understood as a prophecy about Jesus’ “virgin birth.”

NEW TESTAMENT BROTHERS AND SISTERS: Many New Testament books and letters are written to or about people called adelphoi in Greek. The word is often translated in English as “brothers.” Many translators have argued that, since the Greek says “brothers,” texts using that word should always be translated “brothers” in English. In fact, however, the Greek does not say “brothers.” The plural Greek word adelphoi refers to siblings in a family. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, adelphoi may refer either to men or to both men and women who are siblings (brothers and sisters) in the Christian community. 

CONTEMPORARY INCLUSIVE PRACTICE: Contemporary biblical translations AND all who read or proclaim the Scriptures in public should always use inclusive language: “humankind” in place of “mankind,” “brothers and sisters” in place of “brothers,” “men and women” or “all people,” when the meaning is clearly about men and women. The practice should be followed by writers of church documents. I once told a bishop friend, when we were both attending a conference, that it would be better if he used inclusive language in his pastoral letters. He thought that was a bunch of  “feminist foolishness.” When I got back to my hotel room and my laptop later in the day, I took the first two pages of his most recent pastoral letter and changed all of his masculine nouns, pronouns, and adjectives to female nouns, pronouns, and adjectives and sent it to him as a friendly “inclusive language meditation text,” starting with his opening greeting “My Dear Sisters in the Lord…” He was not amused.

MOVING AWAY FROM PATRIARCHAL INTERPRETATIONS: Just because the Bible has sometimes been used to reinforce patriarchy does not necessarily mean that that was the original intention of the biblical authors. For many years, the only voices that were heard when interpreting and describing the experiences of biblical personalities were the voices of men. Even passages about women were often interpreted from the male perspective. When one looks at life through male-tinted glasses, one writes about and interprets life in that light. Moreover, women’s experiences can be depicted in such a way as to justify their subordination, as we occasionally see in Jerome. Fortunately today we have a great number of biblical scholars who are women and who are correcting earlier patriarchal and misogynist translations of Scripture.

A FINAL OBSERVATION: Many biblical translations have interpreted words in ways that reinforce an institutional understanding of Christianity. Some items that immediately come to mind: the words ekklesia in Greek and ecclesia in Latin should not be translated as “church” but as a “gathering,” “assembly,” or “community of believers.” The words “episcopos” and “episcopus” should not be translated as “bishop” but as “overseer.” The development of the monarchical bishop in the second century had a big impact on reinforcing what one can call institutional translation interpretations.The historical Jesus did not found an institutional church. He called together a group of followers. After his death and resurrection those followers became an energetic faith community. The institutional church came later and expanded along Roman imperial structural lines.

Jack

Annual Donation

Once again, between now and December 20, I invite my readers for a contribution to keep Another Voice speaking. This annual donation helps cover computer upgrading (needed) and internet and website costs. It is especially helpful because my retirement income is limited. I don’t use PayPal but here are four ways readers can contribute:

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Ordinarily I would not have posted another reflection until the end of the second week in November. But as I stressed last week, we are now in a time of transition and in many ways in an extra-ordinary phase. 

The major news outlets announced on November 7th that Joseph R. Biden, Jr. has won the 2020 US Presidential Election and Kamala Harris the Vice Presidential Election. This is a major and significant event. It marks an historic transition for the United States as well as the entire world.

Now we need to put political rhetoric aside for a while and confront polarization with its violent destructiveness. We need thoughtful and respectful conversation and peaceful collaboration – without demeaning or denigrating one another. One can agree or disagree with a former or future president; but we all need to collaborate in constructing and maintaining “the common good.” T.S. Eliot’s words in “Little Gidding” call out to us strongly: 

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language

And next year’s words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning.

In the coming months, I hope to offer clarifying theological and ethical perspectives anchored in ongoing historical research and discovery.  I greatly appreciate the observations of all who have journeyed with ANOTHER VOICE so far this year…..That being said, it is time once again for my annual financial appeal. 

ANOTHER VOICE is offered without a fee. That will not change. Between now and the first week of December, however, I invite my readers for a contribution to keep ANOTHER VOICE speaking. This annual donation helps cover computer upgrading (needed) and internet and website costs. It is especially helpful because my retirement income is limited and Covid-19 has halted some of my part-time teaching revenue. Small or big I appreciate what you can do.

I don’t use PayPal but here are four ways readers can contribute:

(1)       With a US dollars check, from a US bank, sent to: 

                      J.A.Dick

                      Geldenaaksebaan 85A

                      3001 Heverlee

                      BELGIUM

(2)       By ZELLE  using:        jadleuven@gmail.com

(3)       By US bank transfer to:  

                      Account    7519230887 in name of John A.  Dick 

                      Routing  number   072400052 

                      SWIFT CODE    FTBCUS3

(4)       By international  bank transfer to my Belgian bank:   

                     BNP Paribas Fortis Bank

                     SWIFT CODE     (BIC): GEBABEBB    

                     IBAN: BE83 2300 3923 6015

Many thanks for your support and warmest regards.

Jack

November 5, 2020

The election of 2020 remains a major event, regardless who is eventually and officially proclaimed the winner. Much more than the election of 2020, however, we are clearly in an historic transition, with socio-cultural and political change not just in the USA but everywhere around the globe. It comes too often with violent eruptions. 

In this national and global transition, we really have to start working together to change the conversation and change course. We need new directions for church and civil society. We need confidence, courage, and creativity. It has not yet happened but we can and will overcome Covid-19. Just in time for climate change: our next big challenge?

At home in the USA, we have urgent issues: health care, jobs, financial security, and civil unrest. We need to reassure people, deflate violence, and conquer ignorance and falsehood. We need to reaffirm our commitment to truth and honesty. We have had enough empty political rhetoric and headlined falsehoods.

Changing the conversation and charting a new direction means moving beyond self-centered “my group” expediency to a more genuine human community and a safe and healthy society for all citizens. What we used to call “the common good.” It means looking at life and talking about life in new ways. It means moving beyond racism and hateful behavior. It means humbly and honestly acknowledging that big changes are reshaping our lives, our environment, and our understanding. 

What are my conversation and course change topics right now? 

POLARIZATION: The 2020 election has revealed the alarming depth and extensiveness of societal polarization. Well, we need to seriously reflect, converse, and change course. We are all part of formal and informal interlocking institutions: schools, neighborhoods, churches, companies, families, and political parties. Each comes with personal and group collaborative roles and responsibilities. Polarization destroys collaboration and could very well be the national dysfunction destroying our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness…Either Trump or Biden will win but with unresolved polarization America’s deepest problems will remain. 

A WARNING: It has happened in highly polarized (and “civilized”) countries that conversation stoped, collaboration ceased, and one group led by a cultic authoritarian dictator, warning of chaos, assumed control. Patriotism became unquestioned obedience and loyalty to the dictator. The “disloyal” were set aside and one way or another eliminated.

WHITE CHRISTIAN AMERICA: Are we experiencing the “end of white Christian America”? Probably. Should we be anxious about this? I don’t see why. It is not the end of Christianity. It is not the end of America. It is reality. Now how do we talk about it? How do we live with the new reality?

AMERICAN DIVERSITY: Americans in the United States are more racially and ethnically diverse than in the past. They will be even more diverse in the coming decades. By 2055, the US WILL NOT have one single racial or ethnic majority, and “white people” will be a minority group. It may come as a surprise to some observers; but Asia has already replaced Latin America (including Mexico) as the biggest source of new immigrants to the United States. The US Asian population grew 72% between 2000 and 2015 (from 11.9 million to 20.4 million), the fastest growth rate of any major racial or ethnic group.

LGBTQ: One of my correspondents wrote recently that “gays are destroying American society and thanks to them family life is disintegrating.” Well that is one way of looking and speaking. What, however, would gay people say about American society today? How would they speak about family life? If we can shift our conversation from quick condemnation to dialogical comprehension, we might also become a bit more understanding and supportive of men and women living and struggling in a variety of family situations. Now even Pope Francis sees the importance of same-sex civil unions, because “They are children of God.” The Catholic Church has a lot of catching up to do. It is still officially anti-gay and yet thousands of the church’s priests are gay. By the way, that includes a lot of bishops.

INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AND RESPECT: Another important element in changing course and changing our conversation must be inter-religious dialogue. As we chart a new course, we need to start building bridges with Islam.  By 2050, the number of Muslims in our world will nearly equal the number of Christians. In our churches, we can and should have Muslim/Christian discussion groups and adult education programs. Why not have an adult ed. presentation on “Understanding the Qur’an: Islam’s Holy Book.” Let’s not forget Judaism either. Antisemitism is on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic. Muslims, Jews, and Christians are brothers and sisters in the same Abrahamic tradition. With one God who is Father and Mother of all.

CHURCH LEADERSHIP: We need a change of course in church leadership. Protestant theologian and professor of sociology at the University of Giessen in Germany, Reimer Gronemeyer, recently concluded that Protestant and Catholic Churches will only survive amid the multiple crises currently gripping Christianity and the world to the extent that they open up their leadership to non-white, non-male people. He stressed that the church will have a future “only if it frees itself from the rule of old white men.” I thought immediately about the old men at the Vatican and the Roman Catholic college of cardinals…

Well enough thoughts for today. (I am still pondering the election.) I have quite a list of topics for change, but these are at the top. 

Even if it is hard to see it right now, a new age is being born. Now is the time to look ahead with courage and creativity.

Jack

P.S.

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time we stand up for an ideal, or act to improve the lot of others, or strike out against injustice, we send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” — Robert F. Kennedy, 1966