Love vs Fear

The Way of Jesus

“The way of Jesus is thus not a set of beliefs about Jesus. That people ever thought it was is strange, when we think about it — as if one entered new life by believing certain things to be true, or as if the only people who can be saved are those who know the word "Jesus". Thinking that way virtually amounts to salvation by syllables. 
Rather, the way of Jesus is the way of death and resurrection — the path of transition and transformation from an old way of being to a new way of being. To use the language of incarnation that is so central to John, Jesus incarnates the way. Incarnation means embodiment. Jesus is what the way embodied in a human life looks like.” 
Marcus J. Borg  (Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally)

Alabama is the buckle of the Bible Belt. Here it sometimes feels as though Christianity is stuck in an old testament, pre-Jesus mentality. God is a celestial bully and the church is God's enforcer. Mess up and you will be struck dead or worse. There is a strong "belief in beliefs." That is, if you swear to a certain set of beliefs about Jesus, most of them supernatural in nature, then you are an authentic Christian, and if not, then you are among the goats who will be separated out from God's sheep and sent to the fires of hell for eternity. This form of religion has done terrible damage to all sorts of people, and honestly, has nothing to do with Jesus or his ministry.

Marcus Borg, theologian and author, was a great teacher of progressive Christianity. In his book, Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power—And How They Can Be Restored, he reports the results of a survey: “More than half [of those surveyed] described Christians as literalistic, anti-intellectual, judgmental, self-righteous, and bigoted.” Unfortunately, all of Christianity gets lumped equally into this descriptive category whether deserved or not, because this represents the vocal minority. The political ads we were subjected to prior to last Tuesday's primary election were a case in point. Candidates for government offices represented themselves as “Conservative Christians” with a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other, bent over a prostrate animal which presumably they had just shot dead. It was simply embarrassing.

Here's the thing—you can believe in anything. You can believe in fairies and pixie dust and little green men from Mars if you want, but that does not make it true. The way that Jesus lived, his teachings about the poor and the rejected, his willingness to break the laws by touching sick people and eating with “sinners,” of showing compassion to everyone, that was the real message. That is the part to pay attention to. The transformation is from the old testament, bigoted god, who only protected the “chosen children” to the new testament god who loves all people equally. It means that there are no chosen children, because all are chosen whether they “believe” or not.

One form of Christianity is based on fear and damnation, the other is based on love and transformation. And we get to choose. I choose the way of love.

                                                          In the Spirit,

                                                              Jane