Easter - Take 2
I am not trying to perform an attack on anyone's Easter thing. Religion is a very personal thing. I'm just struggling with my own theology this season.
I've realized that at the root of my Easter problem is the fact that Unitarians do not buy into the trilogy. That is why they are not called Trinitarians. Even if Jesus is of the divine, he is not God, said early Unitarians. This got them a toasty place at the stake. They've been around, by the way, since the first century.
So, deep in my bones there is this tradition of a human Jesus who died and suffered and was an amazing person whose message was powerful enough to change the lives of those around him and the lives of people living more than 2000 years after his death.
Reading John Shelby Spong's book
resurrection: myth or reality? has been helpful for me. It made me realize that I don't hate Easter. Good Friday got somehow tangled up with Easter for me because I BELIEVE in Good Friday but got lost on the way to Easter.
Once I untangled Good Friday and Easter, I realized that I didn't have as big a problem with Easter. My problem then is with the literalness of the resurrection.
Spong doesn't assume a literal risen Christ. It is a fascinating look at scripture with a historical background and an attempted reconstruction of what may have happened.
If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. For that view of resurrection is not believable, and if that is all there is, then Christianity, which depends upon the truth and authenticity of Jesus' resurrection, also is not believable. If that were the requirement of belief as a Christian, then I would sadly leave my house of faith. With me in that exodus from the Christian church however, would be every ranking New Testament scholar in the world -- Catholic and Protestant alike...
...There is no exodus of this group from the Christian church because we are convinced that the reality of Easter is not captured in the words of the developing Christian legends. We can reject the literal narratives about the resurrection and still not reject the truth and power of the resurrection event itself. That is the distinction that must be made. We would not have the legends unless there had been a moment so indescribable that legends became necessary to explain it.
I'm okay with that. I have no trouble understanding myths that are far away from the Christian tradition. It is in trying to understand Christian myths that I have the most difficulty. I think it is because I've never spoken with anyone who thinks that Thor really lives in the clouds.
But I've met plenty of people who believe that Jesus was the living God and rose on the third day. And that Eve ate an apple to earn us pain in childbirth. And that the earth was created entire in six days.
It's hard for me to mythify someone's reality. And I guess it is not the myth of Christianity that speaks to me, but the history and the reality of the message. A transforming and powerful message of love, peace and justice. Radical.
This is the Jesus who is alive, who cannot die, who dwells within.
Happy Easter.
Legislation with no defense
Caution: politically liberal views ahead.
The Quaker church that I attend had a 5-hour-long business meeting last Sunday. They are scheduled to go as long as they need to. What was the sticking point? Whether or not to put out a rainbow flag in front of the meeting house in support of our F/friends in the LGBT/Q community.
This was not controvertial for the reasons you might think.
The meeting has been taking same sex marriages "under the care of the meeting" since 1986. That means that same-gender couples are welcome to be married using the same criteria as hetero couples.
It was controvertial because the older, straighter members of the meeting wanted to put the flag out NOW NOW NOW due to impending idiotic legislation to forever destroy legal protection for unconventional families. It was the members of the LGBT/Q community present who wanted to wait until a larger discussion about this to make sure that the whole community and not just the people who showed up for the business meeting were behind the idea.
It is too easy for me to forget that just because I am surrounded by people who accept same-gender couples doesn't mean they aren't under attack.
For me, aside from your feelings about homosexuality, I don't feel that who is allowed to marry should be part of legislation. I don't think majority rule is a good way of determining the right course in this matter. (How very Quaker of me.) Unions are a spiritual matter. They do also offer legal protections, which is I guess why the legislature feels free to put forth the so-called "
Defense of Marriage" act.
It seems much more like the "Attack on Families" act. Particularly because it denies not just marriage but also "its legal equivalent" to same-gender couples.
Why is it harmful to offer same-gender couples some manner of legitimacy and legal protection. If you are against gay marriage, don't have one. Don't use legislation to impose faith.
And in that I have sympathy with religious conservatives who feel that this is a matter of faith. They are correct. Marriage is a faith-based institution. And I believe that legislation such as this infringes on the rights of religious communities to decide for themselves who will be married under their care.
If you are from Minnesota, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell your representative not to vote for this legislation that will affect real families with real children.
Outfront makes it very easy to sign their petition.
Write letters. Call your representatives. It is very important even if you think you don't know any people in the LGBT community. Because you probably do.
Like the oranges
My son is officially smarter than I am. He's almost two and a half. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
We went to visit my friend Kim. We haven't seen her for months. But Owen talks about her sometimes and remembers playing with her puppy, who is an exuberant lab mix.
"Do you know who this is?"
No response. He continues to tell her about the pictures he drew and his friends at ECFE.
"This is Kim. Do you remember her dog's name?
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"It's like the oranges."
At first I didn't get it. I was thrown by Kim saying that yes, she was an orange dog. That is not what he was saying.
Her name is Clementine -- like the oranges.
A woman in my fiction class started telling us about her trip to the mall where she stopped by Banana Republic. "This is litererary, I promise," she insisted.
She walked in and saw signs for their "Bright Lights, Big City" sweepstakes. Hmm. She asked "the nine-year old behind the counter if he'd read the book." No.
Maybe he was more familiar with the movie starring Michael J. Fox?
Who's Michael J. Fox?
"And at that point I wanted to kill myself."
She explained that it was a book about yuppie drug culture in the eighties. About a guy doing cocaine. Did he think that was a very good theme for a promotion?
She got the name and number of the 28-year-old head of marketing for Banana Republic and asked him if he'd read the book. No. She didn't tell him what it was about, just told him to ask his mom what SHE thought of the idea.
He sent an email back to her. Mom's response: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?
Our prof. did point out that a store with a social conscience probably wouldn't be named the Banana Republic in the first place.
Shooting the Thorn Tree
So I've been writing up a storm on my thesis project. Learning more and more about the main character as she becomes less and less me.
Turns out she is totally into photography. Handy, because I have an interest in it and I have an ancient camera that I learned on that takes fantastic pictures so I can write about it with some confidence. But for me it's a hobby and for her it is more of a passion. What music is for me, photography is for her.
This knowledge is helping me frame the whole story. The title - Shooting the Thorn Tree - and the titles for the sections will come from photographic terms. And I think I'm going to ditch my previous intro with a less dense one:
You see the problem? Usually she takes fantastic pictures.
Haven’t seen one of those in years. Miranda? They went out of business before you were born.
Here’s some close-ups I shot earlier in the trip. But look. This last roll only exposed half of each frame.
All metal body… probably outweighs you too.
The shutter feels sluggish. I cleaned her out as best I could, but I didn’t want to risk scratching the lens.
These were fine cameras. You shoot black and white?
Some.
Wow. Where did you take these? Those trees are amazing.
Acacia Thorn. I stayed with a relative in Kenya this summer.
Look! A giant stuffed Rabbit.
Not yet happy with this post, but it's going out anyway...
We were in a mall with my son Owen and there was an Easter bunny. Of course. "Look, Owen, a stuffed rabbit." was my brilliant comment.
Couldn't bring myself to say Easter Bunny because then I would have felt obliged to explain Easter and try to cover how the torture and killing of my favorite historical figure ties into cute bunnies with baskets of eggs and other pagan rites of Spring.
I can do it, don't get me wrong. I was raised Unitarian and if I think about it I can retrieve all the bland equinox celebration-type things. And the ties between Christ rising and all the spring fertility stuff is not that big of a stretch. Still. I do not care for this season. In fact I have a bit of a problem with Easter.
Growing up in a liberal UU home Easter was not much of a religious holiday. It was a rite of spring. In fact, my mom was a little appalled at my fascination with Christianity and Bible stories and Jesus in general. She was convinced that I was going to rebel against my religious liberal upbringing by becoming a Catholic nun.
I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work, given the fact that my Jesus is not divine. This is fine at Christmas, but considerably less comfortable come Good Friday.
Here is the problem I have with Easter: I get stuck on the cross. It has always disturbed me that Christians chose to use an implement of torture as their symbol. And that for so many Christians it is the bodily resurrection of Christ that cements their faith. I had one friend tell me that if they ever found the bones of Jesus that would be the end of her entire belief system.
For me the bones are not the important issue. His last tortured moments are not what I want to focus on. I don't want to observe the gruesome and horrible event each year. (He was lucky, in some ways. It took most people 3 days to die after being crucified. Jesus went in only 3 hours, likely because of massive internal injuries caused by earlier beatings.)
And because I don't really celebrate the resurrection in the bodily way-- his death seems pointless, cruel and unnecessary. And depressing. I can't understand how people can be so happy or why it is the most important day in the liturgical year.
Now that I'm a Christian again, I feel like I should want to reclaim Easter in some way, but instead I find I'm pushing it further away. I don't want any Eastery things in the house. I would rather not go to Easter dinner. I am reading John Shelby Spong's book Resurrection in the hopes that it will help me calm down a bit about all this rising again. He's not so literal.
And the Quaker in me really believes that the risen Christ is within us all. ALL. Not just Christians. And bodily resurrection need play no part in that.
In the mean time I'm keeping my eye out for more stuffed rabbits and trying to come up with an answer for Owen when he asks about Easter that's better than "It's a holiday your Grandma Jo celebrates."
I heard these poem on NPR a while ago as read by the poet and I was thrilled to find them again.
A really cool poem mocking pretentious poetry -
The LitanyThis great one in praise of a dog -
Dharma
