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.

Facebook #12 The Bible is What I Say It Is

A friend posted an article, actually more a list of sayings, that has made the rounds over the past few years. The sayings reframe various Old Testament events as being superseded or completed in Jesus. Here are some:

Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.

Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.

It goes on to make a dozen similar connections to the Old Testament.

My friend, like many, use a list like this to give a poetic licence of Grace to the Old Testament. However, one does not need to be a Hasidic Jew to realize this rendering of the ancient scriptures cannot help but lead to misunderstanding. 

But - this is my point - UNDERSTANDING is not the point. Feeling good about the God of Jesus is the point.

In order to do that, the Old Testament... and some of the New... must be emasculated. All the blood, death, genocide .... the pages saturated with violence and gore must be ignored, glossed over, or re-imagined. Spend too much time in the Bible, reading it as it is, and any person of good conscience is going to struggle to feel good about the God of Jesus.

I appreciate the views of  Walter Brueggemann, a noted Old Testament scholar, who eschews the Christian tendency to avoid the violence of the Old Testament. Rather than avoiding it, or denying it, he attempts to name it for what it is... a reflection of the character of God. He states:

" the God of the Bible is “in recovery” from a propensity to violence, a recovery that requires, on God’s part, intentionality and resolve against an easy reactive treatment of any opposition."

This is not how Christians are instructed to wrestle with the Old Testament. When they think of Noah, they picture cute Arks and animals that children play with in nurseries... not children drowning. When they think of God's commands, they think of the Ten Commandments - not the ones where God encourages the owning of slaves and justifies their beatings. When they think of the armies of the Lord, they picture God as the great and just commander; not one who tells the soldiers to kill every man, woman, and child... but to keep the virgin girls for their own use. You don't tend to hear these scriptures quoted or sung in this fashion on Sunday morning.

No - Most Christians proclaim the bible to be the inerrant Word of God without ever having read it. They grant it unquestioning authority without ever having wrestled with it. This is the definition of blind faith.

Passages like the one I referenced at the beginning serve as a type of inoculation. Having read such items, the Christian feels they have a sense of the "true" heart of the Old Testament. Objective views in church culture are rare, but any that surface will be quickly rendered inert by proclamations of a grace-filled God... who bears little resemblance to the God presented throughout much of the Old Testament.

Great Brueggemann Quote

"When serious people of good faith disagree, they've got to go back into the narratives and come at it again. One of the problems in the church is that people are not willing to do that. People have arrived at a place where they think they have got the answer." ~ Walter Brueggemann

From a talk on Leviticus, given at First Presbyterian Church of Knoxville. Click here to listen.

*Update* Some great Brueggemann videos here.

More Book Commentary

From my web page:

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

Truth can be so much harder hitting than fiction. The book refers to itself as "A Story of Violent Faith" and it tells the story of the darker side of religious life here in Utah. I think its subtitle is fitting and actually speaks to most faiths. There is a Professor who has recently put forth the thesis that "monotheism is inherently violent". I wish I could dismiss that notion quickly, but it can be a stinging truth.

Everyone in Christian circles gets all in a bunch over spiritual relativism (the idea that everyone has their own path and no pursuit is more or less valuable). Walter Brueggemann does an interesting talk where he puts forth the notion that absolutism is no less harmful. Absolutism, he says, invariably leads to denial. Reading this book, you can see the ultimate destination of absolutism. When self reflection stops, when one can no longer look critically at one's own theology and philosophy; suffering is the outcome.

Reading Brueggemann

This a comment on one of Walter's books that I had written last year for my rarely visited web page.

Deep Memory, Exuberant Hope - Contested Truth in a Post-Christian World by Walter Brueggemann

Brueggemann gives me a headache theologically. I say this as a positive. Anytime one moves, as he puts it, from orientation to disorientation to new orientation; I suppose a theological headache is a natural result.

I wish I had come across Brueggemann years ago. His premise of faith being an active process of dialogic interpretation would have helped me to understand a lot of what I was going through both philosophically and theologically. He has given substance to many concepts I felt implicitly, but lacked the vocabulary and the background knowledge to state explicitly.

It is hard for me to grab hold of a particular quote from the book to use as an example. The items I underlined really require the previous page or two to give the full effect from that quote. However, I will give a shot at one. This one grabs me because I am learning that how I come to the text of the Bible will have no small effect on what I receive from the Bible. It is therefore necessary that I maintain and pursue voices that challenge my interpretations; for mine are, at best, penultimate. For as Walter says, "Tomorrow there is always another interpretation."

"The irascible character of God and the elusive rhetoric of the text mean that the outcome of textual testimony is deeply polyvalent, that is, it speaks with many voices and is profoundly open to rich variation in rendering." ~ Walter Brueggemann

Everything Must Change tour

I am getting older. When I was young, my friends and I were always piling into cars to go see whatever band was in town. Now I do the same thing but with seminars. There aren't too many concerts I would go out of my way to see nowadays, but if Brueggemann ever comes within a state or two of Utah... give me a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, sunglasses - and I am there.

So I was ENORMOUSLY pleased to find out that Brian McLaren was bringing his Everything Must Change tour to nearby Boise, ID. My bros in the faith, Chad and Mark, were with me on this jaunt. Having a chance to spend a few days with these guys, wrestling theology over cloves and beer, was as cool as the event we went to.

I will get into the details over the months to come. At the end of the conference, Brian asked us to write down a word which sums up the weekend. Mine was distill. It takes me a while to sift through information like that so that I can discuss it in any meaningful way. So I am going to take this month to pour over the book again. I will say that, if this tour comes anywhere near your area, I guarantee that this event will challenge you. Brian's message, particularly to the church, is one that needs to be heard.

Book Meme

I have been tagged for a Meme on books (my favorite topic) by my fellow Utahn Kay. The hardest part will be trying to keep this brief. How does one keep succinct a discourse on one of life's greatest pleasures?

1 - One book that changed your life

Impossible. This cannot be limited to one. Do not all books stir us and move us? Still, let us give it a try. Here are a few:

ROMANS- A few months after converting to Christianity at 15 I started to memorize the book of Romans through Bible Quizzing. This was, and in many ways still is, the foundation of my theology. Particularly chapters 2 and 14 (the mind your own business chapters).

The Great Divorce by CS Lewis - This book helped me humanize a lot of doctrine. I have read this book no less than 15 times. His view of Hell and who goes there helped loosen me from the Hell, Fire, and Brimstone doctrines I grew up on.

Teachings on Love by Thich Nhat Hahn - There is NO greater book on the simple teaching of Love. This was the first book that showed me that I could learn deeply from Masters who were not of my faith (I know some of you are thinking "well duh!", but for me that was a big step).

A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren - In this book, Brian articulated much of what I had been thinking for years. There were only a few souls I shared these thoughts with... I was pretty sure I was a heretic. Now I am comfortable with my heresy. :)

2 - One book that you’ve read more than once

I read LOTS of books more than once. Books, like movies, need to be gone back to over and over. Most Lewis books I have read many, many times. Recently, I have re-read If Grace is True... by Phillip Gulley.

3 - One book you’d want on a desert island

For music, that would be easy (Violet Burning-Strength). How do I limit books to ONE? It may seem cliche' but I may have to go with the Bible on this one. That way I get many voices.

4 - Two books that made you laugh

Any Star Trek novel written by Peter David. He is one of the few authors who will make me laugh out loud while reading.

Bloom County by Berkely Breathed makes me laugh no matter how often I read them.

5 - One book that made you cry

I don't know that I actually cried when Fred Weasley died, but I was moved. There were a few times during the last HP book that I had to just set it down and have a quiet moment.

6 - One book that you wish had been written

A follow up to the book of Job... I have real problems with that book; it doesn't seem to fit. I hate how it portrays God.

7 - One book that you wish had never been written

Anything written by a televangelist (I was surprised to find out they were literate).

8 - Two books you’re currently reading

The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman - It has been a while since I have enjoyed a fiction series this much. Wonderful!

The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi - This is just a book of quotes I have been working through. I finally stopped highlighting, because the entire book was glowing.

9 - One book you’ve been meaning to read

I have a never ending list. Here is what is probably up and coming in the next few months (my reading will really pick up during summer vacation).

God and Empire - Dominic Crossan
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent - Elaine Pagels
The Prophets - Abraham J. Heschel
How to Expand Love - Dalai Lama
& a small stack of Walter Brueggemann

I tag two friends who share my love of hanging out in a bookstore with a good book and a hot cup of coffee. Brook and Carrie.

Walter Brueggemann's 19 Theses

This list is making its way to various blog sites. The talk that Brueggemann gave at the 2004 Emergent Theological conversation is responsible for a marked shift in my theology. If you have heard me talk about my faith in terms of "fidelity" rather than belief, this is where I developed that vocabulary. Listen to the audio here.

Walter Brueggemann's 19 Theses
1. Everybody lives by a script. The script may be implicit or explicit. It may be recognized or unrecognized, but everybody has a script.

2. 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.
3. The dominant scripting in our society is a script of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism that socializes us all, liberal and conservative.
4. That script (technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism) enacted through advertising and propaganda and ideology, especially on the liturgies of television, promises to make us safe and to make us happy.
5. That script has failed. That script of military consumerism cannot make us safe and it cannot make us happy. We may be the unhappiest society in the world.
6. Health for our society depends upon disengagement from and relinquishment of that script of military consumerism. This is a disengagement and relinquishment that we mostly resist and about which we are profoundly ambiguous.
7. It is the task of ministry to de-script that script among us. That is, too enable persons to relinquish a world that no longer exists and indeed never did exist.
8. The task of descripting, relinquishment and disengagement is accomplished by a steady, patient, intentional articulation of an alternative script that we say can make us happy and make us safe.
9. The alternative script is rooted in the Bible and is enacted through the tradition of the Church. It is an offer of a counter-narrative, counter to the script of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism.
10. That alternative script has as its most distinctive feature, its key character – the God of the Bible whom we name as Father, Son, and Spirit.
11. That script is not monolithic, one dimensional or seamless. It is ragged and disjunctive and incoherent. Partly it is ragged and disjunctive and incoherent because it has been crafted over time by many committees. But it is also ragged and disjunctive and incoherent because the key character is illusive and irascible in freedom and in sovereignty and in hiddenness, and, I’m embarrassed to say, in violence – [a] huge problem for us.
12. The ragged, disjunctive, and incoherent quality of the counter-script to which we testify cannot be smoothed or made seamless. [I think the writer of Psalm 119 would probably like too try, to make it seamless]. Because when we do that the script gets flattened and domesticated. [This is my polemic against systematic theology]. The script gets flattened and domesticated and it becomes a weak echo of the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism. Whereas the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism is all about certitude, privilege, and entitlement this counter-script is not about certitude, privilege, and entitlement. Thus care must betaken to let this script be what it is, which entails letting God be God’s irascible self.
13. The ragged, disjunctive character of the counter-script to which we testify invites its adherents to quarrel among themselves – liberals and conservatives – in ways that detract from the main claims of the script and so too debilitate the focus of the script.
14. The entry point into the counter-script is baptism. Whereby we say in the old liturgies, “do you renounce the dominant script?”
15. The nurture, formation, and socialization into the counter-script with this illusive, irascible character is the work of ministry. We do that work of nurture, formation, and socialization by the practices of preaching, liturgy, education, social action, spirituality, and neighboring of all kinds.
16. Most of us are ambiguous about the script; those with whom we minister and I dare say, those of us who minister. Most of us are not at the deepest places wanting to choose between the dominant script and the counter-script. Most of us in the deep places are vacillating and mumbling in ambivalence.
17. This ambivalence between scripts is precisely the primary venue for the Spirit. So that ministry is to name and enhance the ambivalence that liberals and conservatives have in common that puts people in crisis and consequently that invokes resistance and hostility.
18. Ministry is to manage that ambivalence that is crucially present among liberals and conservatives in generative faithful ways in order to permit relinquishment of [the] old script and embrace of the new script.
19. The work of ministry is crucial and pivotal and indispensable in our society precisely because there is no one [see if that’s an overstatement]; there is no one except the church and the synagogue to name and evoke the ambivalence and too manage a way through it. I think often; I see the mundane day-to-day stuff ministers have to do and I think, my God, what would happen if you talk all the ministers out. The role of ministry then is as urgent as it is wondrous and difficult.

Significant Destabilizing Event

I read a really great post this week where a gentleman described in 11 steps how he left his faith and was brought in to something better. Although we did not share the same starting points in terms of faith, his journey resonates with me. As I poured over his list, I kept thinking, "Yep...MmmHmm... been there... did that one". I want to share some of his steps in terms of my experience. I think anyone who leaves a paradigm of some kind will go through similar steps.

Step 1 - Blissful Ignorance
He states that this is the step where, "we see all opposition as evil, sin, 'the adversary', tempting people to stray from the truth." Growing up charismatic, I learned that we were right and everyone else was wrong. Since we believed in the "gifts of the spirit" we were "Full Gospel" (so by definition, everyone else was only "part gospel"). Nearly everyone else was considered "other", so we believed we had a lot of opposition trying to water down or destroy our truth.

Step 2 - Niggling Suspicions
Here he states that we start to see that the opposition may hold something of value and words like "perhaps" enter our mind. These started for me when I joined Bible Quizzing in my early teens. I was learning the books of Romans and James, and I noticed that neither Paul nor James seemed to talk like we talked, or feel like we felt. In fact, I started to come across a fair amount of scripture which seemed to contradict what I had been taught.

In addition, all of the quizzers from other churches were not anything like what I had been told to expect. Instead of playing church and being lukewarm, I found peers that had profound insights into the things of God and were passionate for their faith.

Step 3 - Active denial of Step 2
I never actually went through this step. Being a teenager, I had a natural rebellious streak anyway, so the idea of being a rebel for Christ was appealing. However, I have seen a lot of people hit this point. They are so afraid of being wrong, or being out of the right group, that they aggressively squash any questions that had been forming in their head. They recommit and become more fundamental than ever.

I think step 3 is more involved with leaving a faith paradigm (though I suppose it could happen in other things). There tends to be more than an idea at stake when shifting within or out of your faith. Faith groups have words like heretic, apostate, excommunication, damnation, etc... which are strong inhibitors to keep you from questioning or investigating too much.

Step 4 - Significant Destabilizing Event
I LOVE this phrase. It speaks volumes. I pray each of you reading this may have MANY Significant Destabilizing Events. The author of this list says that this is "some critical incident that throws one out of the denial stage". I would also add that it solidifies your niggling suspicions if you never had a denial stage.

As I look over my history, most of my paradigm shifts had some kind of S.D.E. (or at least a D.E.). I can look back and think, "That is the event or item that caused me to question ____".
My ultimate point in writing this blog was to share a few of my significant destabilizing events (perhaps in the comments section you might share some of yours).

I remember when I first allowed the question to form that perhaps God was not a Republican. :) I was at the music festival Ichthus, reading a Christian Rock magazine. The editorial was written by a man who was obviously passionate about Christ, but he was criticizing the Republican administration for its lack of concern for the poor. I remember just staring at the magazine. I couldn't get the two ideas to fit... man of God... not Republican...man of God...not Republican. There may have been smoke coming out my ears as I wrestled with that one.

I had an SDE concerning Hell, and it has remained destabilized ever since. I was in my early twenties and worked with my Dad's carpet company. He had a couple installers and a number of guys from church he had hired as laborers. One of the installers was a guy named Jerry. Jerry was a kind and honest man from what I knew of him. He always put in a good day's work. I knew he had gone through a bad divorce and struggled to gain the acceptance of his son. Sadness hung over him. Through things he said I slowly pieced together that he had never felt truly accepted by anyone. He presumed he would always be rejected. So he drank... a lot. The man was just plain lonely.

His drinking got worse over the years. He literally drank himself to death. We were on a job when my dad told us. We all just shook our heads. It was so sad. Later in conversation, one of the guys from my church said, "The real tragedy here is that Jerry didn't accept Jesus. Now he is in Hell."

I couldn't sleep that night. Was Jerry in Hell? After all of the rejection Jerry had dealt with, did God reject him too? It is the rejection Jerry would have expected from God. This wasn't equating to me. Doesn't God save the day? Doesn't he rescue? Doesn't he love the rejected? Does salvation really come down to a set or right words or beliefs? Doesn't that make God rather small? Isn't he bigger than our expectations?

Steps 8 and 9 - Belief system collapse and belief system rebuild.
The author says that going through these steps requires one to sit with uncertainty. This is a hard place. Most of our faith structures tell us to be certain. However, a willingness to sit in this place allows us to move forward to new paradigms.

Step 11 - Openness to repeat this cycle.
The thing is, once you do this cycle, you never stop doing it. Walter Brueggemann says that this is the only way to truly grow in God because "God will not be settled".

I have read so many authors lately that I cannot remember who to credit this thought to, but the point is that when you "settle" God, when you say "This is who He is", you have created a graven image and have stepped into idolatry. Faith lived out must always be thesis/anti-thesis, because God is always on the move. He will not be calculated and predicted (read Job). The Spirit blows wherever it pleases.

If we are to be followers of Christ, we must be willing to move.