George mason university 1

diagnosing and treatingCRIS* in yourself and

others

(conflicted religious identity syndrome)

2

new epidemics often go unnoticed until a high-

profile figure is stricken.

2010

Anne has concluded that she will never truly belong to the “quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group” known as Christians unless she becomes “anti-gay … anti-feminist … anti–artificial birth control … anti-Democrat … anti–secular humanism … anti-science … anti-life.”

Tell that much of the story, and you have the sort of thing the news media love to report—another celebrity break-up, if you will. But this time, the celebrity is divorcing God.

But that’s not the whole story. Really, it’s not the story at all. Anne explains that, “My faith in Christ is central to my life.” She is still “an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God.” “But,” she says, “following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.”

And so, she concludes, “In the name of Christ… I quit Christianity and being Christian.”

Just this week, Israeli intellectual Shlomo Sand ... “I resign from being

Jewish.”

Last Fall:a graduate of anEvangelicalChristian college

Last Fall:

“We’re dropping out because we don’t want to belong to a religion that requires us to be hostile.”

Today: how many of us?

Tomorrow: same? worse? better?

Do you have

CRIS?

ConflictedReligious

IdentitySyndrome

SELF-MEDICATION: ADJECTIVES__conservative ___liberal ___Evangelical ___progressive ___emergent ___moderate ___a new kind of ___mainline ___ not THAT kind of

Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant,

liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical,

charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/calvinist,

anabaptist/anglican, methodist, catholic, green,

incarnational, depressed-yet-hopeful, emergent,

unfinished Christian.

2005

1972

Kelley spoke the then-shocking truth that “Mainline” Protestantism, which had

historically been the main form of Christianity in the United States, was fast

becoming “old line” as it declined in numbers.

ML/OL was losing ground to a “new line” of conservative churches characterized by seriousness and strictness.

serious about meaningstrict regarding their

norms of belief and behavior.

This ... made them socially strong, and this social strength made them grow – as their adherents enthusiastically recruited others.

SERIOUS+

STRICT=

STRONG

lukewarm+

lenient=

weak

According to Kelley, strict, serious, and growing groups ...

are not ‘reasonable,’ they are not ‘tolerant,’ they are not ecumenical, they are not

‘relevant.’ They often refuse to recognize the validity of other Christian churches’

teachings, ordinations, sacraments. They observe unusual rituals … they [persist] in irrational behavior … They try to impose

uniformity of belief and practice among members by censorship, heresy trials, and

the like. (26).

The Paradox:There is about any serious meaning venture a certain irreducible fierceness, asperity, insistence, exclusiveness, rigor – a fanaticism that brushes everything else aside. Yet that very single-mindedness renders it objectionable to those who value balance, brotherhood, respect for individual diversity, mutual forbearance and self-restraint, civic peace, pluralism ... (164)

Chapter 6:Why Not a Strong,

Ecumencial Religion?

“But why must there be any conflict? Are not freedom, justice, respect for others essential parts of the Christian faith? Ideally they should be, if rightly understood. One can conceive of a high-demand religious movement devoted to justice, freedom, beauty, respect for others, and so on, which could effectively explain life to [humankind] without fanaticism, absolutism, intolerance, or judgmental moralism. That is what – ideally – Christianity ought to be.”

“Yet where is such a phenomenon to be found?”

-- Dean Kelley, 1972

In the 40 years since ...

a search for a cure for

CRIS

ConflictedReligious

IdentitySyndrome

We know how to have

a STRONG-HOSTILE CHRISTIAN IDENTITY.

STRONG-HOSTILE

We have the only way.

You are going to hell.

We are God’s chosen.

You worship false gods.

resistance if futile.

you will be assimilated - or eliminated.

we possess absolute truth.

We know how to have

a weak-benignCHRISTIAN IDENTITY.

weak-benign

it doesn’t matter what you believe.

all religions are the same.

all roads lead to god.

only sincerity matters.

doctrines divide.

keep religion private.

Mind/Matter: I don’t, it doesn’t.

strong-hostile

OR

weak-benign?

where did our strong-hostile identity come

from?

From Follow the Sacredness, by Jonathan Haidt http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/forget-the-money-follow-the-sacredness/

Despite what you might have learned in Economics 101, people aren’t always selfish. In politics, they’re more often groupish. When people feel that a group they value — be it racial, religious, regional or ideological — is under attack, they rally to its defense, even at some cost to themselves. We evolved to be tribal...

... The key to understanding tribal behavior is ... sacredness. The great trick that humans developed at some point in the last few hundred thousand years is the ability to circle around a tree, rock, ancestor, flag, book or god, and then treat that thing as sacred. People who worship the same idol can trust one another, work as a team and prevail over less cohesive groups. So if you want to understand politics, and especially our divisive culture wars, you must follow the sacredness.

Religions united our ancestors around a sacred object or idol ... and that unity gave some tribes survival advantage over others.

But it’s not just the idol in the center that unites us: it’s also the

“other” outside the circle.

"Historically, the amity, or goodwill, within the group has often depended on enmity, or hatred, between groups.”

(Robert Wright, Nonzero: The Logic Of Human Destiny, quoted in Evolutionaries by Carter Phipps)

Give people a common enemy, and you will

give them a common identity. Deprive them

of an enemy and you will deprive them of

the crutch by which they know who they are.

- James Alison

unity viahostility

Misconception:

Our religious differences keep us apart.

Actuality:It is not our religious

differences that keep us apart, but rather a haunting religious similarity ... that we build strong identities through hostility.

Can Christians today re-build our identity and ethos without hostility to the other?

STRONG-HOSTILE

We have the only way.

You are going to hell.

We are God’s chosen.

You worship false gods.

resistance if futile.

you will be assimilated - or eliminated.

weak-benign

it doesn’t matter what you believe.

all religions are the same.

all roads lead to god.

only sincerity matters.

doctrines divide.

keep religion private.

strong-benevolent

Because I Follow Jesus, I love you.

I move toward “the other.”

I break down walls of hostility.

i stand with you in solidarity.

you are made in God’s image.

i am your servant.

I practice human-kindness.

Can there be

A strong and benevolent Christian identity centered on

Jesus and his story (good news) of the kingdom/commonwealth of

God?

6 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,   because he has anointed me     to bring good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives   and recovery of sight to the blind,     to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’

23He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’

24And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. 25But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27There were also many lepers* in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’

When they heard this, all ... were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

a 5-part treatment plan for

CRIS

ConflictedReligious

IdentitySyndrome

The historical challenge

Jesus - we killed the prophets, God loves the other ...

Stephen - our violent past

Paul - I was a violent man

Emperor Constantine

Colonizers and Conquistadors

“Biblical” racism and apartheidt

The Doctrinal Challenge

Trinity - litmus test for persecution

Election - justification for genocide

Original sin - God as hostile

Doctrine - divisive teachings

Trinity - image of one-anotherness

Election - chosen for the benefit of all

Original sin - original violence

Doctrine - healing teachings

The Liturgical Challenge

Baptism - reinforcing clean/unclean?

Eucharist - an altar of sacrifice

Baptism - repentance = rethinking!

Eucharist - a table of reconciliation!

The Missional Challenge

the old colonial “evangelism” - you give us your resources & labor in this life; we’ll give you heaven after death.

the old liberal “development” - you give us your resources & labor in this life; we’ll give you western medicine, technology, government, economics.

words from vincent donovan

“‘…do not try to call them back to where they were, and do not try to call them to where you are, as beautiful as that place might seem to you. You must have the courage to go with them to a place that neither you nor they have ever been before.’ Good missionary advice, and a beautiful description of the unpredictable process of evangelization, a process leading to that new place where none of us has ever been before.” - Vincent Donovan

The Spiritual Challenge

in/out - WE are IN; THEY are OUT

membership - status

simplicity - dualism

complexity - pragmatism

perplexity - relativism/pluralism

harmony - transcending, integrating love

a 5-part treatment plan for

CRIS

historicaldoctrinalliturgicalmissional

spiritual

From Catherine Maresca (Catechesis of the Good Shepherd) -

Finally, [Maria] Cavalletti emphasizes the importance of being specific. You can’t teach children language without teaching children a language. She writes, “Wishing to stay on a vague level without any specific content is the same as wanting a child to talk without using any particular language.” Some parents say they don’t want their children to learn a particular religion because they want them to be free to choose their own. But these children are missing the opportunity to become spiritually literate.

To be initiated into the signs of their religious tradition creates the possibility of grasping the signs of many traditions, and of respecting the integrity of each of those traditions. So we need to be religious in a particular way, true to the faith we affirm for ourselves, in order to foster the spiritual and religious literacy of our children. world this is a service to our children. We have to be specific.

While we don’t reject other traditions, a particular religion has to be our starting point. To say, “I’m spiritual but not religious” is like saying, “I’m linguistic but don’t speak any particular language.” Everyone has innate linguistic capacity that gets activated as one learns a particular language or languages. Likewise, everyone has spiritual capacity that gets activated and mobilized through becoming religious in a particular way. Becoming religious in a particular way is foundational for relating to the religious other.

Children who have learned their native language well are poised to learn new languages with greater ease. Children who learned the language of their religious tradition are likewise poised to grasp the sacred signs of another tradition. As we nurture the spiritual life of young children with sacred signs, we simultaneously build the foundation of respect and understanding for others’ beliefs. With spiritual literacy, faith and interfaith formation work hand in hand, promoting in turn a more peaceful world.

Children, Signs, and SpiritualLiteracy: An Interfaith Experience

By Catherine Maresca

Graciously holding a strong & benevolent identity.

What does it look like?

Sound like?

Feel like?

The Anonymous Member Approach:

“You are really one of us - you just don’t know it.”

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

The Incarnational Approach:

“I am really one of you - you just don’t know it.”

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

The Common Ground Approach:

“We’re talking about the same thing ...

using different words ...

or different imagery ...

reflecting our different cultures.”

Deen = Tao = Torah = Kingdom of God

Satyagraha = Holy Spirit

Mindfulness = mind of Christ

Trinity = nonduality

The Common Ground Approach:

Strengths

Weaknesses

The Incommensurable Approach:

“We’re not saying the same thing about the same thing ...

Nor are we saying different things about the same thing ...

We are saying different things about different things. We are asking different questions, solving different problems, engaged in different research.”

The Incommensurable Approach:

West: Rights of the few/one versus the rights of the many.

East: Rights of the dead versus the rights of the living

Indigenous: Rights of the living versus the rights of the not-yet-living

The Incommensurable Approach:

Buddhism: personal enlightenment before death/solving problem of desire/attachment/suffering

Conservative Christianity; personal salvation after death/solving problem of original sin

Prophetic Judaism/Progressive Christianity: being a just person and a just people to make a more just world/solving problem of personal and systemic injustice

From E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973)

The Christ of the Indian Road

Pentecost Sermon (Paul Nuechterlein)

For me, another clear sign of hope comes through the irony of God raising up a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ who was a Hindu and remained a Hindu. I'm talking about Mahatma Gandhi, who said this, among many other things, about Jesus:

“Jesus expressed, as no other could, the spirit and will of God. It is in this sense that I see him and recognize him as the Son of God. And because the life of Jesus has the significance and the transcendency to which I have alluded, I believe that he belongs not solely to Christianity, but to the entire world, to all races and people.”

We might ask, So why didn't Gandhi simply convert to Christianity? But I think the better Pentecost question would be, Why should he have to convert? Why should he have to change religions? Why should he have to play into religion into the negative ways that bring division? Did Jesus come to offer us a new religion to add to our ways of dividing into differing cultures and languages -- the Tower of Babel reality? Or did he come to help each of us within our own religions and cultures to find the one true God of unity? I think that Pentecost shows us the latter. We can welcome, as many Christians are coming to do, the diversity of religious practices that help lead to the experience of our oneness in God. Christians are learning from Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims and indigenous religions the effective religious practices of how to become closer to the God of Jesus Christ. That's the Pentecost pouring out of the Holy Spirit on all peoples, so that their experience of oneness transcends their many languages and cultures.

Finally, the greatest sign of hope to me is how Gandhi helped deepen our understanding of the Spirit of Truth, the Advocate. He had his own name for it in Sanskrit: Satyagraha, he called it, which translates as Truth Force. Satyagraha moved him and many millions of people over the last century to learn Jesus' way to peace through loving, nonviolent resistance to evil. Like Jesus on the cross, in this way to peace we risk taking that old way of sin, righteousness, and judgment on ourselves in order to reveal its futility, its wrongness, and offering instead God's way of grace and forgiveness. Pentecost is Satyagraha poured out on us so that we may bring peace to our lives as family members, co-workers, neighbors, citizens, and, yes, as both Jesus and Gandhi compelled us to do, as children of God -- all of humanity, children of God. Amen

Rev. Paul J. Nuechterlein

Delivered at Prince of Peace Lutheran, Portage, MI, May 27, 2012

As the child of missionary in India, 

who was the child of a missionary in India, 

who was the child of a missionary in India, 

I have 

a lot of India 

in my soul/marrow/terra forma.

I breathed 

the ancient heritage of India 

when I was three.  

I learned Marathi.  

I ate jalebes.  

I sucked the delicious juice of the sugar cane.  

I played in the dust of our school-for-orphans-yard 

with Machinder

 . . . and, then I got older 

and went south 

to Tamil Nadu 

and Kodaikanal 

to boarding school near Madurai.

I visited,

as a child,

the caves of Ellora.  

I didn't know what to make of them,

then.

As an adult 

i visited them 

again . . . 

Hindus and Sikhs and Buddhists and Jains . . 

all carving caves 

next to 

each other 

in ancient times . . . 

side by side.

The Anonymous Member Approach

The Incarnational Approach

The Common Ground Approach

The Incommensurable Approach

The Neighborly/Common Good Approach ...

We are different families with different traditions bound together by the past, present, and future ...

and we must figure out how to work together

for the common good,

for the alternatives to conviviality are unacceptable.”

What do good neighbors do?

They love one another as they love themselves.

wanted:people in recovery from CRIS

to help others get the healing they need.Every sermon

Every songEvery prayer

Every interactionEvery week

diagnosing and treatingCRIS* in yourself and

others

(conflicted religious identity syndrome)

a prayer for disciples

O God, whose love makes us one family -

May your unspeakable Name be revered.

Here on earth may your commonwealth come …

on earth as in heaven may your dreams come true.

Give us today our bread for today.

Forgive us our wrongs as we forgive.

Lead us away from the perilous trial,

Liberate us from the evil.

For the kingdom is yours and yours alone,

the power is yours and yours alone,

the glory is yours and yours alone,

now and forever. Amen.

(Hallelujah … Amen)

spiritual but not

religious:

a cliche?

boring?

not enough?

we may be bored

but they SBNR’s

are not to be

ignored.