Beware the "Theological Flummery"

I am not at all sure about prayer, and I know I'm not alone in this... 

What is prayer? What and who is it for? Does it get results? I'm not going to really try and answer these questions in this blog post, because I don't know the answers. I know what some of the answers a supposed to be, but they do not always ring true for me. Many answers to the above questions, can in my opinion, be put under the heading of "theological flummery" - a term I have borrowed from Phillip Adams (this week's "outsider")  and his Weekend Australian column from a few weeks ago, entitled "Island of the gods".

We have had a good week as far as prayers go. My mum has just had an operation to remove a cancer from her brain and hundreds of people across the country and world prayed that this operation would go well, and it did. What role did our prayers play in that? Would the operation not have gone well if people didn't pray? I'm not sure how it all works, but these are the kind of questions that jump into my mind, especially during tough times that draw me into prayer. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to pray in this last week and very happy with the outcome of the process. But... I also know that many prayers prayed by people this week did not get answered favourably, and this is what prompts my questions...

Lately, in a humorous attempt to deal with my own questions about prayer, I've been joking about praying to the "milk bottle" for things. This is a reference to a Youtube video I watched called "the best optical illusion in the world", where the narrator challenges the "thinking Christian" to pray to a milk jug for $1000 and see how it answers. The punchline is that it answers in the same way that God apparently does, with either a "yes", "no" or "wait". It's meant to be serious, but it is kind of funny, peppered with some potentially flawed assumptions about the purpose and nature of prayer and some spurious logic. But the value of videos like this, articles like "Island of the  gods" and the convictions of their authors, is that they give serious pray-ers an "outsider's" view into the world of prayer.

They help us to see that most people do not appreciate simple, inadequate answers to the complexities and disappointments of life, and that we should be suspicious of any such simple answers that come our way, as well as those peddling them.  They also challenge us to ask questions about the nature and purpose of prayer, and to reject any assumptions about prayer that reduce it to a "Christmas wish list" for our lives (no matter how important the wishes), and consequently, God as "Santa Claus". It is possible that something a little beyond that, and us ,is going on when it comes to prayer.

Life, disappointments, prayer - this is sacred ground. Beware the "theological flummery"...

Shalom

Steve

Challenging the Chaplains

I remember going to the cricket one day with a group of friends, and one of them asked me how work was going (I work in the training department of SU Qld, the largest employing authority for state school chaplains in Queensland). I got about one or two sentences into my reply when he said, "You know, I really wish you guys didn't do what you do. I mean I like you and all, but I don't like the idea that there are chaplains in schools." Quite an interesting conversation took place after that. It is not the last one I have had, nor am I the only person who has been having these conversations. There has been a bit going on about it in the media over the last few years. 

The first 'outsider' view I wanted to share as part of my blogging 'come back' is about chaplaincy - a subject that is close to my heart. Not only do I work for SU Qld, but I have also worked as a chaplain in a high school. Compass, the ABC program that looks at issues of spirituality and religion in Australia, recently did a program called "Challenging the Chaplains." It looks at both sides of the "Chaplaincy debate" and challenges the place and value of  School-based Chaplaincy. 

I haven't got any comments I want to make about the program particularly. Maybe just to encourage you to watch the video, read some of the comments that people have made afterwards and reflect on it yourself.

To go to the Compass website and watch the program, "Challenging the Chaplains", click here ...

Shalom

Steve

The View from the Outside...

Well, only one post in four months, and that one was really just an apology for not doing any posts... Not a great record in recent times, but one I hope to rectify over the next few months at least. My study is over for the year, and my plan is to allocate some of my freed-up mental real estate to greenspacey type things, at least between now and mid-Feb 2011 when it will all start up again...

There are a few things on my mind today, and they all relate to "outsider" views on faith and spirituality and so that is what I want to start up on today. I have spent quite a bit of energy in the last few years reading about and listening to views on faith and spirituality from those outside of it, and I have had a number of chats with people who currently sit in this place. For those who hold faith of some sort, this is an extremely worthwhile yet threatening experience. Worthwhile in the sense that there is nothing like an outsider to help you to see your blindspots, and threatening in the sense that their is nothing like an outsider to help you see your blindspots.

In the recent subject I taught at Christian Heritage College (WE301 - Reflections on Human Services) we looked a lot at Michel Foucault's ideas around "discourse", which is essentially about worldviews and ideologies, the associated power arrangements, and the concepts, language and structures infused in those ideas and associated power arrangements. You often hear the terms "dominant" discourse or "competing" discourses in the literature on this stuff. It is very post-modern... One of the quotes I loved was that any kind of ideology or worldview we adopt is a "kind of violence" done on reality, because as soon as we begin arranging 'what is' into some set of ideas about 'what is' we have to  do a fair bit of cutting, pasting, blocking out, focusing on, ignoring this and emphasising that etc etc to make it fit in well enough... So in this way, none of us can have it totally right and none of us can have it totally wrong...

Another related set of ideas we talked about was Paulo Friere's material on "dialogue", which is basically about a  way of approaching and engaging with the different ideas, worldviews and discourses of others. This is done in such a way so as to genuinely consider the views of others, what value they might have in themselves, and even what value they might have for ourselves. In some ways it is an acknowledgement that each of us only have a particular worldview or discourse on life  that we are working with, and that others might have picked up on something that we've missed - like a blindspot for example...

One of the things we talked about in this class was whether Christianity was simply another discourse; that is, another way in which the cosmos can be arranged in our minds, communicated to others, argued about and used as a power tool (so to speak)... Some thought this could be right, others thought that something like Christianity sits above all discourses. We considered the "Big T" truth claims of faiths like Christianity and put them up against the "little t" truth claims of postmodernism and tried to locate ourselves in this apparent dichotomy. I wonder if people of faith, at best, can claim that they believe in "Big T" Truth (EG - God, the Bible etc) but have to admit that they can only ever know this in a "little t" truth kind of way (IE - through their own set of 'life goggles'). There is nothing wrong with this position. But if it is "true", then it is a good thing to acknowledge. It might help to keep us humble, with our adopted truth claims in check, open to what God has been revealing to others about 'what is'.

Over the next few weeks, I want to blog on about some examples of outsider views that are out there at the moment and challenge us all to consider what it is that we might need to consider and take on from these views. After that, towards  the end of November, we're going to engage in a few reflections for Advent in the lead up to Christmas. You are most welcome to come along...

Shalom

Steve

My Apologies For My Blogging Slackness

I just wanted to apologise for my blogging slackness. I've been very busy with work and I've started some post-grad study at uni in politics and government. I can say that my blogging on spirituality in the public sphere, with an emphasis on the political realm, has lead me down this path. Maybe one day, I'll actually know what I'm talking about. Oh, and I also lost my ipod, which was a major source of podcast information and inspiration...

Oh, and I have a wife and kids... They are quite time consuming as well... but also quite nice really...

The really sad thing is that there has been quite a lot going on that I would have liked to babble on about. I would like to have shared a few more thoughts on different people's reactions to Julia Gillard being an atheist. I got some great emails sent to me by different people claiming that she was the anti-Christ etc etc, and then she went and trumped God's own party (the coalition in case you were wondering) by pledging $65 million more than them for the contunuation of chaplaincy over the next three years. I don't know why, but I just thought that was really funny...

Then there was the "ban the burka" debate... now this is fascinating. Bans are already in place in European countries like France and Belgium, and the discussions have already started here. Amazing stuff - what does it mean to be a free society? Should Muslim women be free to wear the burka or should they be freed from wearing it? Anyway, I just haven't had the time to go into it... but I'm sure it's not the last we've heard of it.

Also, I finally finished the "His Dark Materials" trilogy after about a year of reading. Those three books together were about a metre thick. You might have heard of the movie, "The Golden Compass". Well it was that set of books - the "anti-Narnia", a supposed atheistic fantasy novel. That stuff was there, and it was also a ripping good read! I'm back into "Doubts and Loves " by Richard Holloway, but can't seem to get motivated to keep going with "God Delusion".

And then on the weekend, in The Australian Magazine I think, there was an article about guilt and how in some ways modern society has done away with it, along with religion, but in another sense it has just transferred it to a different set of "deadly sins" (one of which was to have religious belief)... There was some interesting discussion about whether the loss of guilt in our modern world had been a good thing or a bad thing. Interesting stuff going on out there...

Anyway, I saw the light on and thought I'd drop in... just touching base, checking in etc etc... I'm not sure when I'll get onto this beast again but I hope it's soon. There are heaps of interesting things going on out there that are greenspace blog-worthy. If I don't get to them and start talking about them, make sure you do...

Shalom

Steve

Campaigning to Christians

Here is one of them articles I was talking about in my previous post... It is called "Campaigning to Christians", written by Professor John Warhurst, an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University and Flinders University.

I hope you find it interesting reading... Shalom...

Steve

Gillard Won't Play the Religion Card

It has been a fascinating last few weeks in politics. The events around Kevin Rudd’s demise and Julia Gillard’s ascendancy to the role of Prime Minister have dominated the news cycle. Some of the articles in the news have focused on some of Julia Gillard’s unique characteristics as a Prime Minister: that she is a woman, that she is unmarried, living in a de-facto relationship; that she doesn’t have children; and that she is an atheist. 

Last week, there was an interesting ABC Online article called “I Won’t Play the Religion Card”. In the article, Gillard shared that she is an atheist and that she won’t be pressured into pretending that she is a person of faith for political benefit. 

I find it so interesting, but not surprising, that she has to make a statement like that. There is this often talked about perception in Australian politics that it is advantageous to be affiliated with some kind of  branch of the Christian faith, even when Australians are less and less affiliating themselves personally with it. Kevin Rudd knew it and was was more than happy to have a weekly press conference out in front of the local church he attended (with the church shown prominently in the background). And John Howard new it too and closely linked a number of his policy decisions and directions with his Methodist roots.

(Another article from the previous week worth looking at is one from the Courier Mail, entitled, "Julia Gillard Offers Rule Without Religion")... The theme of religion and politics in Australia is always bubbling along just below the surface, regardless of who is in charge. I wrote in an earlier post that I thought it would be interesting with Rudd and Abbott going head-to-head at the next election, but what will it mean now?

It certainly won't be last time we hear of this, in fact, what I think will happen, is that something that has been puttering along in the background of Australian politics is going to come more to the forefront. Australian Christian lobby and interest groups are going to have to re-adjust to new religious/political landscape after 14 or 15 years with a religious person in charge of the country.

I'm guessing that Julia Gillard won't have the same connection and empathy with certain religious agendas and religious groups might find themselves looking for new ways to get the government's ear...

'Twil be very interesting... Watch this space - I'll try to keep up...

Shalom...

Steve

Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy

A friend of mine sent this to me today and I thought it was pretty funny...

Morality in the 21st Century

One of the podcasts I listen to and admire a lot is “Philosophy Bites”. David Edmunds and Nigel Warburton interview philosophers on various topics and put together very interesting 15 minute segments. In this episode entitled “Morality in the 21st Century”, Susan Neiman, the head of the Einstein Forum in Berlin, talks about the progress humanity has made in relation to morality and the Enlightenment as a good source for a moral code for our time.

Neiman suggests that the Enlightenment is often misunderstood and caricatured in ways that aren’t helpful. Contrary to these views, she proposes that the Enlightenment was essentially about 4 things:

(1) Happiness: Neiman is not talking about that warm, fuzzy feeling we get inside here, but happiness in terms of personal and societal wellbeing. She thinks that the Enlightenment thinkers believed that people should be free from worry about their basic survival, and free to pursue a life with meaning and purpose.

(2) Reason: Neiman says that this has been an absurdly caricatured aspect of the Enlightenment and criticises the “new atheists” for getting on board with this. Reason is not the polar opposite of faith. The Enlightenment thinkers were not coldly rational and saw the very clear limits of reason. They still strongly emphasised passion, intuition, and the transcendent.

(3) Reverence: This is the big surprise for many people. The Enlightenment thinkers were not against spirituality, but they were opposed to organised religion and the way it had been used to oppress and control people. There was recognition that the Judeo-Christian religious traditions and positions were strongly reasoned ones. The scientific methods grew out of a desire to know the Creator better through understanding creation better. Neiman suggested that the core of this element was essentially a sense of gratitude about the world and an appreciation that we didn’t make it. A notion that could unite secular and religious people.

(4) Hope: This is very different from optimism. Neiman says that the Enlightenment didn’t necessarily see humanity is good, marching forward to this positive future based on their goodness. There was a lot of attention given to the problem of evil in the lives of people and in the world. However, they did believe that these ideals they were thinking through could actually improve the world and make it a better place should people commit them and act upon them.

It’s very interesting stuff and there is a lot more than what I have previewed here. It’s less than 15 minutes long, so it won’t take long to have a listen and to see what you think...

Shalom...

Out of the Mouths of Babes

My son Lewis is 4 years old and conversations with him can begin and end anywhere. This morning, our conversation began with, “Dad, do you still have that sore in your bottom?” I couldn’t work out what he was talking about and then he reminded me that I had had a sore in my bottom a few weeks ago. This is where the conversation went from there...

With a smile, I said, “The sore is gone now buddy. It got better.”

“Why?”

Why did it get better?”

“Yes.”

“Well, your body is designed in such a way that when you get a sore, it gets better over time and it goes away.”

Long pause.... “Dad..... Why did God make things so hard?”

Slightly taken aback, I asked, “What do you mean, why did God make it so we get sores and things like that?”

A little nod...

At this point, I’m moved, amazed and impressed by my little man and his big question – probably the biggest question that a person can ask at almost any point in their life (although it seemed a little out of place coming from a 4 year old) - “Why did God make things so hard?” So, we talked about this for a short while. I told him that God had made things good and that when people decided not to do things God’s way, it wrecked a whole lot of stuff for everyone and made things hard. I went on to say that God wanted to try to get back all the good stuff for people. He wanted people to live God’s good way.

Lewis then said, “God doesn’t want people to go to jail does he?” (I love the leaps)

I smiled and said, “No, God doesn’t want people to go to jail. He wants good things for them”

“What if they keep doing bad things? Will he put them in jail?”

“Well God wants good things for people. He is very patient and kind and he wants to give them lots of chances to be good and enjoy his good things.”

Another pause... “I think I’m going to talk to God now.”

“Okay...” (trying to keep up with whatever is happening)

Lewis, walking around the lounge room prays, “God, can you fix everything and make it good? Can make things right?”

“Amen.” I said.

Lewis then looked at me and said, “I’m not going to pray to God anymore.” To which I replied, “Well, I think God is going to miss you talking to him. I’m you daddy and I love talking to you, and God is like your daddy in heaven and he loves talking with you too.”

Another pause, then, “Well, I’ll talk to him and I’ll just tell him that I love him.”

Tears in my eyes... “I think he’ll like that buddy.”

A morning to treasure...

Shalom...

Heaven Can't Wait

There is a lot being written about spirituality and religion at the moment – even if most of it is negative or dismissive. This weekend, the Weekend Australian Magazine published an article called “Heaven Can Wait” by Johann Hari. With the tag line, “It’s time to get over the myth of the hereafter” (or something like that) it’s not too difficult to work out the direction the article takes.

It’s a mixed article. It suffers from the foibles of a lot of atheistic writing – it has a lot of “straw man” set ups; weak arguments with large holes; a convenient and creative historical account of the development of ideas; language designed to make anyone who is even considering there might be an afterlife feel like a mindless zombie; and most of all, it suffers from that classic rationalistic, atheistic assumption that anything you can’t see, tag and classify, isn’t worth considering and reflecting on... The good thing about the article however, is that it provides us with a challenge to reflect upon our beliefs about heaven and how these beliefs impact upon our lived out lives.

When most people think about heaven, they think about a future, disembodied, other worldly existence in the presence of God and all the other “saints” that goes on forever (and many also see clouds, wings and harps somewhere in the picture). But the interesting thing is, when we look at what the Bible says when it talks about the “age to come”, it talks about God coming and making his dwelling place on earth among his people (Revelation 21: 1-7). It seems that heaven might not be the end of the world after all, and that God is committed to renewing this world and this life, and making sure that all that has been lost to God and the cosmos through sin is won back once and for all. This view of heaven is amazingly affirming of this world and this life, and we see the first evidence of this in the very physical resurrection of Jesus, celebrated at Easter.

The other thing that is worth noting is the way Jesus talked about heaven. He spoke a lot about the “Kingdom of Heaven” and said things like “it is near” and that “it is among us”. He taught about this, told heaps of stories about this and lived out the vision of this in the community of people he set up around him. This is where Hari’s main argument really falls down. “Heaven can’t wait”!!! When heaven is seen as a future, disembodied, other worldly experience, then there is a real danger that the concept can at best, be of no use to us, and at worst cause harm to us and others. But when we conceptualise heaven as Jesus did, as a future hope that can be lived out in the present, then it becomes a potentially transformative vision worth living out – especially one that can be “good news to the poor” (because the last will be first “in heaven”)...

When Jesus taught us to pray, he put it to God, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth like it is in heaven.” Jesus was committed to and working toward God’s vision of Shalom – God’s cosmic groovy-ness where everything is at is should be - and that is a vision just might be worth living for in this life, and carrying forward into the next.

Shalom...