God Is Not 3 Guys

Understanding spiritual concepts can be challenging. It’s not like understanding science or math or a thousand other ideas related to physical reality. I suspect many readers who begin my book think it’s all about debunking the Christian myth. I often hear Bishop Spong mentioned and confess it slightly disappoints me. But I savor the comment of the reader who said my book gave him a clear understanding of the distinction between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. This suggests an understanding of religious myth. I’d like readers to see that religious myths are not lies, not deliberate deceptions. This is important. Another is the distinction between God and external deities. The mythical figures in religious mythologies are God-IMAGES, not the spiritual reality called God. Almost all our public discourse in the West muddles this distinction. It speaks of God as an external deity, a separate entity, an individual, a humanlike figure with humanlike thoughts. Leading-edge scien...

The Doctrine Committee of the U.S. bishop’s conference states that Asian-American theologian Fr. Peter Phan creates “confusion” about Catholic teaching regarding Christ, the Church, and other religions. So reported National Catholic Reporter ’s John Allen, writing, “The statement at one point accuses Phan of having left behind a ‘specifically Christian’ framework in favor of ‘a more universal religious perspective.’” The universal perspective is precisely my theme in God Is Not Three Guys in the Sky . Interpreting Christian doctrine inclusively, I cite the findings of mythologists and scholars of comparative religion, who point to many parallels to Christ. But the bishops’ Doctrine Committee insists Christ has “no parallel in any other figure in history.” It claims, “salvation is always accomplished in some way through Christ.” Other religions, states the document, are merely “a preparation for the Gospel.” So I was taught in the Catholic schools of my youth. But Catholic educators in ...

The steady theme of the inspirational and brilliant orator Jesus of Nazareth was the Reign of God. In God Is Not Three Guys in the Sky I avoid using the term “Kingdom” because of that word’s misleading connotation. Now I find affirmation of my interpretation in The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus by Neil Douglas-Klotz. Studying an Aramaic translation of the gospels called the Peshitta, Klotz uncovers meaning that the Aramaic speaker Jesus would have conveyed to his Aramaic listeners. The earliest manuscript of the Peshitta is from the fourth century and its language reveals aspects of Jesus’ message hidden from Western minds by Western translations. Usually translated “Kingdom” in English, the Aramaic word malkuta , the Hebrew mamlaka , and the Greek basileia all are feminine-gendered nouns. “Queendom” would be a more accurate translation, “quite apart from any considerations of political correctness,” writes Klotz. “As we now know from archeologic...

One of my repeated themes in God Is Not Three Guys in the Sky is playing out in my family. The winter solstice in a mysterious way directs us toward spiritual awareness. My oldest sister died yesterday. She and her husband were the godparents of my niece who is pregnant with child expected on Christmas Day. This is the Paschal Mystery—death giving birth to new life. I wish readers a blessed and reflective winter solstice, whatever the feast and tradition you associate with it. In connection with my tradition, I invite you to reread Christmas Commercialized on this page. A Your Turn column of mine in the St. Cloud Times may interest you as well: “Romney wrong about religion, freedom: U.S. should embrace secular spirituality.” http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071218/OPINION/112180009/1006

OK, I’ll dive into this issue. Both sides are right. Scientific advances have personalized the fetus, so that we no longer consider her or him in the womb merely a blob of tissue. But let’s have compassion for the stricken girl or woman unable to nurture the new life growing in her. It would be as wrong to destroy her life as the life in her womb. Abortion may be murder (depending on when it's done), but it should not be criminalized because banning it does not save any babies—the rate of abortions remains as high in societies that ban abortion as in societies that don’t. But banning abortion kills more women, who use desperate measures to end their pregnancy. Let’s focus on what we all want—reducing the number of abortions. That means increasing the availability of contraception, and that means supporting Planned Parenthood, which maybe more than any other organization reduces the number of abortions by providing birth control. A stance against abortion loses credibility if it inc...

A lecture by an ordained minister who calls himself a “Buddhist Christian” confirmed my ideas about God and the relationship between Christianity and Buddhism. At St. John’s University, John Butt described his experience of living with Theravada Buddhism in Thailand for many years. Although Buddhists deny that theirs is a religion, John Butt calls Buddhism a religion. He explains that they have faith. They deny it because they identify faith with belief, as do many Christians—inaccurately. Faith is trust. As I explain in God Is Not Three Guys in the Sky , when my professors at the School of Theology separated faith from belief and gifted me with faith as trust, they liberated me. I could let go of anxiety, worry, fear. And I could see that all spiritual traditions are based in trust. The 8-fold path of Buddhism begins with trust, said Butt. Christians are saved by faith, and Buddhists are saved by wisdom, but they’re the same thing. Both are based in trust. Buddhists say they are athei...

Americans are advised to focus on our marketability and security, but we have all heard and read anecdotes similar to this one: At a 25th class reunion of Yale Law School, half were unhappy or bored with their work as lawyers, despite making comfortably high incomes. I wish this comment by Bertrand Russell would invade our marketplace: “It is preoccupation with possessions . . . that prevents us from living freely and nobly.” John Stuart Mill said that those only are happy who are fixed on something other than their own happiness—on the happiness of others or some ideal end. Then, “they find happiness by the way.” Chinese Taoist Chuang-tse described happiness as “the absence of striving for happiness.” The renowned missionary Albert Schweitzer observed that real happiness comes from serving. Michael Lerner and T.S. Eliot observed that joy comes from sacrifice. William James wrote that to feel vitally alive we need to follow our inner voice, the one saying, “This is the real me.” ...