Just a little post to say that IMHO, the idea of Christ being born in the rubble of Gaza is the most authentic manifestation of Christianity that I can imagine.
For more about where I'm coming from, see my review of 'Christ in the Rubble' by Pastor Munther Isaac in Sofia Magazine.
I recently attended a funeral at the local crematorium with about 17 mourners. I didn't really know the deceased, though he was someone known to my wife, and I had developed an indirect liking for the man.
Two months ago a friend only had a couple of people at his cremation, but invited friends to think about him on the day, which my wife and I did.
Earlier this year I attended a funeral at my church of a member of the congregation. The church was packed with family and friends.
When Queen Elizabeth died two years ago, millions of people across the world mourned her death and watch the funeral on television.
Meanwhile, people all across the world die with no-one to mourn them.
Are some of these people of more 'value' than others? Is the life of one more meaningful than that of another? Humanly, it is difficult not to draw that conclusion. We may say 'all human life is worth the same', but it is difficult, really, to believe it.
So, we invent a God for whom it is true.
From 2025 I shall be editing Sofia magazine: the magazine of the Sea of Faith Network.
Or, more precisely, I shall be editing the magazine of the Sea of Faith Network which is currently called Sofia, because it is not a forgone conclusion that it will retain the name Sofia. Personally I think Sofia is a great name: 'Wisdom' and a clever play on 'SOF'. But some network members have suggested that with the change of editor it might be appropriate return to just calling it "Sea of Faith" as it was before the present editor, Dinah Livingstone, took over in 2006.
Knowing that I am taking this on has spurred me into thinking about my faith, and especially exploring just how well I fit to the Sea of Faith Network. At the moment I would say: surprisingly well!
My plan is to use this blog chart the exploration.
A sentence on the front page of the Nework website declares:
SOF is about exploring and promoting religious faith as a valuable human creation for this life
I've been working on the consequences of religion as a human creation, and that's what I hope to discuss in the next few blog posts.
Here's a start.
One of the ministers at the church I attend likes to engage with the congregation as follows:
Minister: God is good
Congregation: all the time!
Minister: And all the time
Congregation: God is good!
I, along with some of the other old reactionaries in the membership have been reluctant to join in. I think that if I am honest it is because I feel manipulated that I don't like it, but someone else said they just couldn't go along with the simplistic notion: God doesn't always appear to be good!
Well now here's what I'm now thinking from a "religion as a human creation perspective". This mantra that God is good all the time is not descriptive: it is normative. We are creating/defining God, and we require that (s)he is good all the time. This makes a whole lot of sense to me. A God that is not good all the time is no use to us, so we define God as such.
That's enough for today.
