Treasures in Clay Pigeons

The first half of my UK trip was pure joy. For the first time in my life I shot clay pigeons. It was more fun than a card carrying gun control advocate should ever admit to. For the first time in many years my whole family (minus one cousin) was in the one place at the same time. For the first time in donkey’s years family members were dancing on tables to 80s music, drinking flaming sambuca shots and laughing for no apparent reason.

The shooting instructor kept saying, “Don’t think about it. Just shoot.” He couldn’t have captured the weekend more perfectly. Stop over thinking and live now. As Alan Watts once said, “We usually don’t look. We overlook.” The instructor said, “See it and shoot. Don’t follow it. Shoot now.”

We were in England for the marriage of my brother to an English woman. Cupid’s arrow hit the mark with this match. My brother’s best man was a Kiwi. Every continent was represented as family and friends joined to celebrate love. Just in our family, there were people present from New York, Michigan, England, Hong Kong and Sydney. The setting was perfect. The mood was blissful. The spirit of Rapunzel was abundant, with hair being let down all over the place.

The healing power of fun and joy are tremendous. I was reading a great journal study on the correlation between children who attend “play free” preschools and later criminal activity. I had the page marked to include some statistics in this post, but then Meg dropped the whole journal in the bath. At first I was annoyed, but then I realized that was perfect too. The numbers aren’t essential (although it was something staggering like one third of children who attend “play free” preschools end up involved in crime compared to one tenth of kids who attend “play full” preschools). The point is that fun is essential. I’m sure there are other studies that show the correlation between play and productivity. If there aren’t, someone should prove that point for me. In the meantime, I will stick to my guns, so to speak.

The instructor was right. Every time I SAW the clay and shot, I hit it (with surprised euphoria). Every time I second guessed myself and waited, I missed. There were treasures beneath the shattered clay pigeons.

Paul describes life in 2 Corinthians 4 as being like “treasures in clay jars”. I’m not sure what he meant by that. Maybe it was a warning not to attach to particular identities or roles or experiences because they are like clay; here one minute and blown to smithereens the next. Beneath the clay exterior is the treasure, the unchanging essence. Maybe it’s a reminder to be humble and flexible. Fun is one way to practice humility and flexibility.

Now I head off on a two week tour of progressive and spiritual groups in England. It promises to be stimulating. We will discuss such weighty matters as the economic crisis, the declining interest in organized religion, and the nature of a post modern God. May a sense of fun constantly remind me that while my truths are partial, and my mind easily distracted, my instincts are often right.

In the midst of crisis, humility and flexibility are treasures. Fun reminds me that life is not as serious as I imagine, my theories are not as accurate as I suspect, and my personas are nowhere near as permanent as my ego would have me believe.

Clay pigeons around the world need fear not. When it comes to shooting, I’m as erratic as Dick Cheney. I’m still learning. I over think more than I realize. I over look more than I see. But then again, I did hit more than I expected. I want to experience in every day life the feeling I had when I hit the clay several times in a row; the sense of instinctive flow. I want the treasures beneath the clay pigeons; the humility and intuitive flexibility.

In the words of Leonard Cohen, “Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."

Spiritual But Not Religious

What’s your feeling about mainstream religion? Do you resonate more with the phrase, spiritual but not religious?

I grew up in the church. When kids said, “You live in a church?” I understood their confusion. I lived so near the church that I could hear church mice eating stale communion wafers. My early memories include over-sized bishops falling through dining chairs, adult home groups singing “trust and obey” with off key gusto and Jesus’ sister (from the local psych. hospital) snoring loudly in the front pew through my dad’s sermons. It was all curious to me, curious enough to draw me into its web when I came of age.

Maybe it was because I was so familiar with church that I never fell for religion’s dogmatic lair. I sat through four years of reformed theological education and didn’t get excited about much of it. It wasn’t that I disagreed. I just couldn’t see the point. My desire to run a church was about nurturing the type of raw human community that had intrigued me as a kid, rather than telling people what to believe.

Two decades, three countries, and a bunch of grey hair later, I bear the scars of my idealism. In every place, there are people prepared to bleed for their dogmatic comforts. There was the Benedictine Monk. He was an accountant by day, caped crusader by night, hell bent on removing me from “his” church. There was the threat of heresy charges for not condemning my gay and lesbian friends. There was the letter from a Bishop stating that I remain in good standing in the Anglican world, and his sneered tone as he handed it to me, “this isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

Then there were the constant reminders that my presence in churches, though offensive to some Christians, meant something positive to the church alumni. These were the people I wanted to be in community with, and I always believed that I could still nurture the type of community that met the needs of this scattered group. The homeless people, the broken people, the creative people, the liberated people, the recovering people, the inquiring people, the family people, those who put their humanity before their ideology; these were my people. I met them in pubs and on university campuses, in gyms and at school picnics. I stood alongside them at protests and bar lines. I just didn’t see them in church.

It was only when I arrived in West Michigan (of all the most unlikely places) that I found a sizeable population of church alumni who were prepared to get organized into a life affirming community. What’s more, they wanted to be part of a broader vision to resource and connect this massive network of people around the world. For the past 5 years I have worked with the most impressive group of human beings I could ever have hoped to encounter. C3 is ready to explode.

I am deeply committed to C3’s health and growth. I depend on this amazing community to feed and sharpen my vision and ideas. I am intimately related to the people and the shared vision. The next step in this evolution is for me to grow wings and fly into open space, knowing that the nest is secure.

The Spiritual but not Religious community is large in number, somewhere between 25 and 40 million just in the United States. Currently, the community is only loosely formed. A new and wonderful spirit is emerging that is passionate and inspiring. It is not bound by ideology or geography, but by a desire to live with integrity, grounded in the power of presence and compassion.

Together we serve the Greater Good, or God, or Wonder or whatever words best describe the beauty that sources our lives. We promote a sense of wonder, and the rapture of being alive. Spirituality is wonder, experienced in the ordinary and extraordinary moments of life.

I am most familiar with Christianity, but that is not an exclusive identity. I am Australian, but that doesn’t prevent me from being a global citizen. I am a parent, but that doesn’t fully define me. Above all else, I am a human being, on a journey of growth and discovery. The label I am most comfortable with, because it includes without compromise all the other roles I play, is inclusive spiritual.

Will you join me? You need give nothing up; neither identity nor tradition. If you like the idea of connecting with the massive number of people who no longer want to be defined by narrow beliefs, but want to have a deeper experience of life, then join the conversation. If you want to make a massive difference in the world, then join the conversation. Together we will love the world with abandon, in an ever widening circle of kindness, until the day when love conquers all hatred and no one and no thing is excluded from love’s tender embrace.

Spirituality and the Global Financial Crisis

There is so much to be learnt from the global financial crisis. It asks us what is real and lasting and what really matters. It reminds us that circumstances always change. Now is the time, in the middle of the crisis, to find contentment. If you aren’t content now, you won’t be content when the crisis ends. Be present now. That is the path to spiritual enlightenment. Now is when the spiritual gold can be found; treasures of character and strength that don’t depend on circumstance for validation.

My sermon on Sunday was a reminder that spirituality is here and now in the ordinary moments of life, and enlightenment is deep presence.

Here is a loving kindness affirmation that may be calming in the midst of crisis.

May we release all burdens of guilt, shame, fear, and loss from past trauma that no longer serve us and needless fear and anxiety about the future
May we be filled with loving kindness
May we be protected from all internal and external harm
May we be as healthy and whole as possible
May we be centered, peaceful, and at ease
May we be present
May each of us enjoy both spiritual and material well-being

Sarah Palin, Abstinence and Education

It’s the conversation parents dread. The only thing worse is no conversation, and instead finding a stray condom in the washing machine. Meg and I often wonder what we would say if one of our kids was to tell us that they were (or planned to be) sexually active. Would we encourage abstinence? We also wonder what we would say if one of our kids did what we did- that is, get married in their early twenties. Would we encourage them to wait, or would we stay silent and let them live with their own choices?

It’s hard to predict the emotional ties that shape a parent’s response to their kids, but we hope we would encourage both sexual responsibility and waiting to get married.

Abstinence is not realistic. It was a huge moment last week when Bristol Palin stumbled onto this truth on national television, almost convincing herself as she said it- “everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all.” Then Sarah Palin appeared on set and surprised everyone even further by saying this about abstinence- “It sounds naive.”

I am so grateful to the Palin family for being willing to share their experience on the national stage. It can’t have been easy, considering that abstinence is the standard line for religious conservatives. My appreciation for their family has grown enormously. They are real. They have put real issues on the national agenda.

They have confirmed what studies have long shown; that abstinence doesn’t work, and may actually be a dangerous alternative to teaching responsible sexuality.

Hillary Clinton once said- “There is a great deal of political pressure to only talk about abstinence, and to deny support for condoms and education on using them. This policy (abstinence) will lead to the unnecessary deaths of many people.”

Open discussion of sexuality; in schools, in homes, and yes even in churches, is essential. It may even save lives.

On Sunday I made the most overt comments about sexuality that I have ever made in a church. I was nervous to see what the response would be. The C3 community again impressed me with their open embrace of direct and honest thoughts, in this case thoughts on sacred sexuality.

Our bodies are diverse, our experiences unique, but our spirits are joined in intimate embrace as together we create a spectacular, simultaneous, spiritual orgasm that has the foundations of the church creaking like a four post bed.

Please check out the sermon, and feel free to leave comments here about what you think.

Creationism, Evolution and Education

Both evolution and creationism should be taught in schools. There, I said it. It might be the most surprising thing you ever hear me say. Creationism and evolution should both be taught in schools, but they should be taught in different classes (and hopefully on different days to avoid confusion). They are an equally important part of education, but they are as different as carrots and apples (even forbidden apples).

Creationism is not an alternative theory to evolution. Creationism is to evolution as a flat-earth is to the heliocentric solar system. Creationism is to evolution as demons causing disease is to germ theory. Creationism is to evolution as the cabbage patch theory is to sexual reproduction. Teaching creationism in a science class is little different to teaching Spanish in a French class.

Creationism is mythology, and not a scientific theory. Evolution should be part of a science class. Creationism should be part of a history class. Genesis should be studied as an example of the way ancient people made sense of their world. Creationism should be taught as an example of the way cultures take myth, poetry and story and often turn them into literal truth. The science class should outline evolutionary theory as the universally accepted scientific theory of the origins of human life.

It’s important to still teach creationism (as myth) because so many westerners grow up with a form of 7 day creation at home and in Sunday school classes. Its part of western folklore. Young people need to come to terms with their cultural heritage.

Hopefully this way, we might avoid so much of the unnecessary tug-o-war between science and religion. It’s no wonder that so many kids grow up conflicted about science and religion. When creationism is taught as an alternative to evolution, it’s like a “gloves off” boxing match to the death. In one corner, evolution brings an assortment of fossils and ancient tools to the match. In the other corner, creationism has just one tool…. an ancient book, and a very limited interpretation of that book. When the Bible is used as a weapon, it hurts. Believe me. But ultimately, Bible bashing only reveals defensiveness and fear.

There need be no fear on either side, if evolution and creationism are taught in different classes. I celebrate both. I fear neither.

My sermon on Sunday celebrated Darwin’s birthday and looked at the relationship between science and religion. I was pleased to outline a number of ways that we can embrace both evolution and the God of our many understandings, without compromising our intellect or tradition.

Lincoln, Darwin and Unemployment

Unemployed at last! These are the famous opening words of Tom Collin’s classic Australian novel, “Such Is Life.”

Unemployed at last? It seems insensitive to say these words at a time when global unemployment is expected to hit 50 million in 2009. How could losing your job be such a moment of glee and relief? It’s like saying, “Ah, finally my bank account is empty, or at long last my hips are arthritic.”

I don’t expect its true for everyone, but I keep meeting people who announce their lay off with a sense of cautious optimism. I can understand joy at good news. The fact that January retail sales rose by 1% is cause for cautious optimism. But I don’t immediately understand the joy of being laid off.

I look to Darwin and Lincoln for the answer. They both share today as a birthday, and they share much else in common. They were both heretics in the truest sense of the word. They chose to follow their own intellect and wisdom even when it meant being unpopular. Like other fine heretics, Jesus and Einstein, St Francis and Galileo, they promoted the idea that all things are related.

This was a radical departure from the worldview that they (and many of us) inherited. We were taught that life is like a pre pay phone card. The beginning and ending is pre-determined. In this analogy the phone company is God. God made the world with an order that we are not to mess with, lest we breach our contract.

The truth of evolution is so liberating. Even death, especially death, is necessary for natural selection. Without huge amounts of death, nothing changes. Without huge change, nothing new can emerge.

And this doesn’t have to compromise religious beliefs in any way. If God is the source, evolution is the process. If God did it, Darwin described it. Or maybe to continue the phone analogy- Evolution is God’s way of doing upgrades.

While some find a manual for pre-pay creationism in Genesis, I see Genesis as free form brilliance. It is ancient poetry describing evolution before they had words or science to match. It is camp-fire story telling with the intention of praising an unseen order to which they felt intimately related. This unseen whole grounded them as it does us, no matter what name you call it. It gave them a moral compass, as it does us. It gave them a sense of wondrous kinship, as it does us.

I’m excited about Darwin’s birthday. I’m excited to be part of a community that embraces the best of science without fear. I hope to alleviate any anxiety about embracing evolutionary theory, and to show the spiritual liberation that evolution points to.

And now I get it. Unemployment, no matter how death-like it feels, is a natural selection for new possibilities and growth. Unemployed at last. Such is evolutionary hope.


NB I ran my thoughts by our resident physicist Howard Van Till (another fine heretic) to make sure I wasn’t committing any scientific blasphemy. He replied with a nice description of genetic variation and natural selection. He said I could include it here

Spontaneous genetic variation is the way that Earth's ecosystem explores new possibilities for life forms. No exploration = nothing new to look forward to. Thank "God" for genetic exploration.

Natural selection = go with whatever happens to work best at this time and place. That implies that the future will be interesting but admits that the details are yet to be worked out. This approach preserves the possibility of surprise. Thank "God" for surprise.


One last note- I LOVE this Darwin quote on attention.

“Attention, if sudden and close, graduates into surprise; and this into astonishment; and this into stupefied amazement.” Darwin Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals p. 278

Wonder and Action

I don’t often get excited about the words of St Paul, but this phrase really captured my imagination. “God’s love was poured into our hearts.” (Romans 5; 5) The context of the words was the power of hope in the midst of disappointment.

On Sunday I gave a sermon on the connection between receptive emotions like love, joy and wonder, and action. I spoke about a jug; empty, open and ready to be filled. Once the jug has been filled, it’s only natural to share the love. If you have a heart full of love, then pour your love out like a jug of compassion.

The real pearl of wisdom though occurred after the service in a newcomer’s brunch. Several people shared similar stories. They had been laid off in the last month. Instead of becoming discouraged, they were seeing this as an opportunity. They were looking to shift their attention to work that captured more of their vision for the world.

The spiritual truth (and the wisdom of Romans 5) that perceived disappointments are so often new opportunities in disguise was manifesting in these courageous people. It tapped into what for me is part of the wonder of evolution. I don’t always know how or why life is unfolding the way it is, but I can take strength from the fact that it is unfolding. There is always more. Life is packed full of second chances.

At a time when so many of us are craving a new expression of hope, a new form of activism, my hope is that we pause to wonder at our hearts filled with love, and allow this love to cascade out of our hearts with compassion. The power of wonder-filled activism is that your heart always has more love to give.

May all be blessed with moments of love and wonder that take our breath away, and fill our hearts with compassion