Just People

I was a big fan of Lewis when I was a believer. When I became an atheist, I went back over his writings and found so many of his arguments I revered as a believer to be too simplistic.

Having been a non-believer for over a decade now, I have come to once again enjoy his insights. Sure, I think he got a lot of stuff wrong... but he got a lot of stuff right too.

I think the balance comes when we quit thinking of authors, priests, parents, and other authority figures as demi-gods - imparting wisdom from on high. Instead, he was just a guy living through his experiences and sharing them. Find the nuggets and shrug at the rest. We are all just people trying "to get through this thing called life."

No Fear

One of the retorts I often get from a fundamentalist/nationalistic believer when they learn that I am an atheist is, "What if you are wrong? What if when you die, you meet God?"

They expect that I would dread such a moment. But that isn't the case at all. I think it would be cool.

See, they have imagined a petulant and capricious god. One who needs its ego stroked and surrounds itself with sycophants. They expect their god to be just like them.

I would expect to meet a deity who is better than the best humans I have known and read about.

I take their scriptures more seriously than they do. Within those pages we read that God is Love.

There is no fear in Love.

Life

In the play, Shadowlands, CS Lewis asks one of his friends if he is content.  He responds, "I am as I am.  The world is as it is.  Whether I am content with that has very little to do with it."

His friend is a bit of a cynic, so it comes off that way in the play but I find myself hearing a certain amount of Zen in that statement.  I never want to become a cynic, but I find accepting that life is going to do what it is going to do helpful.

Question Your Script

 

I started watching Game of Thrones again with my brothers down in Florida. Like every incredible piece of art, you get something different on each visit. This round Arya Stark has stood out to me. Walter Brueggemann says that we all live by a script that is imparted to us as we grow up and that script is based on the narrative of our culture.

Arya examined the script she had been given and decided to question it. She began to discard and free herself from the parts she didn't accept.

Wisdom. 

Anticipation and Dread

A new school year always fills me with anticipation and dread.  The dread part comes from wondering what new whatever the state is going to throw on my plate.  Track this new data strand.  Start doing this new assessment monthly.  Attend these new meetings/classes.  Here's a new program to add to the old program, etc.

What NEVER happens is, "Because you are doing this new thing, you no longer have to do that old thing."  Rarely does anything on our plate get officially removed.  We just squeeze.

Sometimes things whither on the vine.  That thing we had to do because it was the political hot topic at the moment loses priority with a fickle legislature... and it gets less of my time each year until it disappears.

Do I want to add gardening to our class day?  Sure, why not?  Throw it on the pile, we'll get to it.

Something Larger than Ourselves

There is a scene in Game of Thrones where the followers of the Lord of Light are trying to get Sandor Clegane to join them.  They attempt to woo him with thoughts of being part of something greater than yourself.  He replies, "Lots of horrible shit gets done in this world for something larger than ourselves." 

Nowadays, I am hesitant to formally align myself with various groups or causes.  I spent a lifetime in my religion serving "something larger" than myself and encouraging others to join me.  I regret that during that time, though there were good things too, I said and did a lot of "horrible shit".

Be skeptical, question motives, keep your eyes open.

Sticky Wicket

The Bible is a bit of a sticky wicket... if you are going to take it literally.  Are the kids in Oklahoma going to get lessons that include how many children "God" killed?  Cause that number is pretty prodigious.  It could be quite a math assignment to work on calculating that number.

I know, I know.  That's the OLD TESTAMENT... but God is so much nicer in the New Testament.  It's all about LOVE now, right?

Not really.  In the Old Testament, you just died... but in the New Testament, we are introduced to the concept of ETERNAL torture.  You don't get to die.  "God" will keep reanimating your ass so the suffering never ends.

Seriously, when it comes to rape, gore, death, and blood... the Bible would fit in seamlessly with a season of Game of Thrones.

Examine Your Script

"Everybody lives by a script. The script may be implicit or explicit. It may be recognized or unrecognized, but everybody has a script.

We get scripted. All of us get scripted through the process of nurture and formation and socialization, and it happens to us without our knowing it." 
 ~ Walter Brueggemann

Examine your script.  

Dig-in to your programming.  

We have been conditioned and we default to that conditioning unless we hold it up to the light of examination.

Grow.

Bibles in Oklahoma Classrooms?

In the end, I don't think there really will be any state-sanctioned Bible curriculum for the schools in Oklahoma or in any other state.  This is just a publicity stunt to throw out some red meat to the mob.

Even among fundamentalists, there will be too much division.  They can unite when facing a common enemy, but when left in a room by themselves they will never agree.  It's in their nature to be divisive.  

People often ask me if I lost a lot of my believing friends when I became an atheist.  In actuality, the exodus of friends happened WAY before I got to atheism.  I went through years of developing a more loving view of God... that was what got me the heave-ho.  Just removing Hell from your theology will make you persona non grata in many Christian circles.

For example, one of my friends approached me after church one day.  He heard that I had this crazy idea that Jesus saved everyone and wanted to hear it from me.  I was very excited about where my theology was heading and was happy to share.  A few sentences into my explanation I saw his eyes going wide and a scowl forming on his face.  He threw up his hands as if defending himself, took a few quick steps back, turned and walked away.  He never talked to me again.  I lost count of how many times that kind of scenario played out during those years.

I wrote an article titled "Christian... but tainted" on my blog while I was still very Christian and attending church. In it, I tell the story of a woman in my church who wanted me removed from teaching Sunday school because I held views she did not agree with.  I may be wrong, but I just don't think these folks will ever be able to agree on HOW the Bible would be taught in schools.

Religious Liberty?

I believe in religious liberty.  If you want to worship one god or a pantheon, you should be able to do that in peace.

As a teacher, I believe in neutrality.  I want every student and their family to feel supported by me regardless of their household faith.  I feel the best way to do that is to keep my own cards close to the vest.

But...

If you force me to pick up a Bible in my classroom... 

Understand, Christian Nationalist, I know your Bible better than you do.  In your churches, Bible studies, and Sunday schools, you have been given a carefully curated version of scripture.  There are 31,000 verses in the Bible but only a small fraction of those are ever read from the pulpit.  You are used to your scriptures being read in a devotional manner.  They are presented in a way to support your narrative.

But outside the four walls of your sanctuary, the Bible is read critically.  It is no longer read through your filter.  We start reading stories about a sensitive deity who slaughters kids because his prophet was teased for his male-pattern baldness.  You encounter a God who insists on human sacrifice before he will bless the harvest.

Using political power to force-feed your scriptures outside your church may cause you to reap the whirlwind.