Raisins

I'm reading a book by a Canadian journalist named Irshad Manji. She's Muslim. And, a lesbian. Needless to say, she has lots of questions about her faith, and the book is mostly an account of her journey to understand her faith and what it means. She poses lots of sharp, but valid questions to Islam; ones which I'm considering in regard to Christianity as well. Here's one point she makes:

In Arabic there is the word 'hur'. Depending on intonation, hur has a few possible meanings. One meaning is raisins. Now in Arabia grapes do not exactly grow with reckless abandon. So, one can imagine that in Muhammad's time, to Arabians grapes were almost unheard of. The only way an Arabian could taste a grape was in the dried form of a raisin, and even this was rare and most like something that was costly. This is the kind of delicacy that rich merchants could bestow upon people they were attempting to charm. To receive raisins was to receive the favor of someone who was rich and influential, because in all likelihood the rich were the only ones who would have raisins.

There is another meaning to 'hur' should the intonation be different. Virgin.

If you can't see the problem here, allow me to elaborate:
In the Qur'an, martyrs of Jihad are assured of 70 'hur', and Arabic has no scripting for intonation. Depending on the unsure pronunciation of this one word extremists imagine a heaven where they will have a full-blown harem, when it is possible they might merely receive a sack of raisins, representing God's favor. It's impossible to discern absolutely what Muhammad meant, and it's possible that even he did not know which inflection God used in revealing the Qur'an. The problem is that Muslims are taught to not interpret the Qur'an, but to simply follow . . . mindlessly. So, when your imam tells you it means 70 virgins, it means 70 virgins. Period. This carries all kinds of implications: the inferiority and subjugation of women, that sex is a petty tool of Allah, that violence is ultimately the will of God, that paradise is euphoric because of its "earthly pleasures" and not because of the Presence of Allah . . . on and on.

Or, it could just mean that God shows favor to those who die for his sake . . . and they get a snack.

If it sounds trivial, Manji asks, would those involved in the September 11 attacks been near as likely to take such extreme and horrific actions if the Qur'an had been subjected to criticism? If they had been exposed to the slightest degree of doubt would 5000 people have died on that day?

I think our current world is filled with people who sadly know the hideous evils that have been done, mostly by people of undoubting faith. I hear preachers time and time again criticize the pluralism of our current context. That people are not willing to take a stand, but what are we standing for??? The past 2 years, the message of Jesus has shown me more an more that we stand far too often for the trivial. We stand for family values! We stand for decency in the media! We stand for the American Dream!

We stand. . . . but too often we stand with our backs turned to the fact that we stand for consumption. We stand on greed, blind patriotism, and demonic ideologies that ravage the world around us while we watch baseball, and talk about cars. We assume that our religion supports us in this. A preacher I've been listening to in my car says that our culture is one of "highly sophisticated unbelief." Maybe. But, how often is our belief a system of 'highly sophisticated blindness' that allows horrific actions because we have no doubt?

Another point that Manji makes is that Judaism embraces the diversity of interpretation. The Talmud places conflicting concepts of different rabbis side by side for mass consumption. Diversity of thought is embraced. What a profound idea.

Then there's Christianity, which stands somewhere in between. There's a staggering array of divergent opinions about our Scriptures and what they mean. Yet, there is also the all too common voice of fundamentalist evangelicalism that demands exclusive thought and action. A voice that is strikingly similar in tone to that of extremist Islam.

The more I understand our Scriptures, the more I come to see how the book we believe is truly a pluralistic book. There are many different voices represented in it. Polytheists, henotheists (one God above many), strict monotheists, extreme nationalists, philosophers and pluralists, rabbis, evangelical enthusiasts, and a Gentile who thinks its all awesome: all these voices can be heard from our Book. Yet, we still say that the Bible says what it means? This book that has been edited countless times, passed down orally, translated from language to language . . . but some still seek a single unified meaning out of it.

This Bible has resulted in the greatest acts of compassion and mercy the world has known. It has evolved human character immensely beyond the greater evils of our nature. It has been a cornerstone in the transformation of humanity. Yet there have been Crusades with the most staggering of atrocities, cruelty, persecution, deplorable justification of evils ranging from suicidal cults to Rwanda. Would these evils have occured had dissent and doubt been voiced?

I agree Modernity often overwhelms us with a deluge of conflicting ideas that can leave us without hope and faith if we would allow it. Yet, these ideas arose from the Christian context. Modernity is an extension of Christianity, and I believe we can firmly reject its evils while still appreciating its amazing value. I believe that pluralism is a part of this inheritance, and like all things taken to an extreme, it is subject to human sinfulness. I don't advocate that we stand still in the pretense that all things are ok as they are. Yet, I firmly reject the sort of dogmatic assertion that would tell us to flee doubt as a tool of the devil. I reject that faith would EVER place one human above another, or justify war and oppression in the name of God. I reject any faith that has the slightest room for hate or indifference, whether that be displayed in terrorism or imperialism. I reject that God's will is to see me become a petty king whether in paradise with my virgins, or in suburbia with my personal mansion, wife, and 2.5 children. Especially when his favor is all Jesus claimed to bring.(Lk. 4)

Bring on the raisins. Long live Christian pluralism.

another poem

**What I've learned from Trees**


If a tree falls and finds a spark to ignite its potential
It is only carbon combusting
Yet more, finding freedom apart from life
reuniting with chaos
Until God speaks order again
and the cycle repeats
the universal redundancy

Smaller the perspective of leaves
Who need no ignition to burn slowly
like the underbrush of Washington's forest
where Autumn changes essences
to refract light differently

Shades of fire
underneath canopies of clouds
here even rain cannot extinguish the flames

I want to run into it
I want to be consumed
for I too am carbon combusting slowly
Yet for me life remains as God continues to speak order
even as I evolve through new shades of character

Even here as colder, bitter, lonely seasons
strip me of hopes
with faith forgotten
Yet love lies dormant until the glory of God's presence
will reside long enough to put on foliage again

So much is lost as summer fades
For all that grew beside me were flowers . . and one
beautiful
And I'm striving at gratitude, but I asked God for a tree
yet I rarely see such permanence
and I'm waiting with fragile hope that, for whatever reason
the coming season will be different
actually
beyond illusions

Yet for now I shed the hopes and plans of summer
all now revealing their colour and character
each a page of poetic thoughts
falling to decay
nourishing the possibilities of Spring
And briefly now as new potential waits in dormancy
This time of cold awaiting the New
listening as footsteps on Winter's floor
Loud with crushing sadness
Remind me of life
which, is never mere resuscitation,
but more costly and of highest worth
Always the redemption of yesterday

Faith

I had a roommate in college who on the rare occasion we talked about God would tell me that faith was simple. I didn't like this. Faith has never been simple for me. Yes, I get that God is a mystery. I understand that he is so high above us that he will never be reduced to some complicated formula. These facts are not new to me. I promise I have no illusions of ever figuring God out.

Yet, so often it seems that simple faith misleads us. Widows sending in food money on 'faith' so that some televangelist can drive a Porsche. Cancer victims refusing to cope with death on 'faith' they will be healed. What of 'faith' that causes people to support political endeavors that are blatantly not Christian. Why is it that so often simple faith simply leaves us blind to reality?

It seems to me there are countless people who pull their salary from simple faith. There are countless politicians who maintain their office as long as they maintain their "Christian" image. I am confronted daily with shallow and occasionally idiotic decisions that people make and justify them with faith.

I thought understanding the complexities of Christianity would save me this. Recently I've realized that the biggest difference is that now when I get taken advantage of with everybody else, I am sadly aware, and mostly unable to do anything about it. Complex faith enables me to wrestle daily with doubts of all varieties. I find to a large degree I actually enjoy this, until after overcoming some doubt, I look to others to let them in on this victory and find no one there because it seems everyone else solved the problem by running away from it . . . or maybe just 'speaking truth' so loudly they have deafened themselves to the presence of doubt.

Complex faith generally takes one down roads that shake simplicity to the core. If you choose complex faith you are forced to leave no question unasked. At least that's what I've found. I think I'm curious anyway and have always loved the thrill of exploring. So, complexity is more like something I was built for than something I arbitrarily chose. It's challenging now for me to listen to people of simple faith. I can point out inconsistencies and flaws in logic. I can give a historical context. I can play the devil's advocate until I have no idea where to make a stand on anything.

My friend Jonathan and I were talking about the concept of second naivete. It was a philosopher named Paul Ricoeur who coined the term. The idea is that eventually knowledge leads you to the realization of your own ignorance. You realize in knowing that you don't know much at all, and if God is included in that realization, you worship again like a child. Jonathan and I realized last night, that maybe it's not one sudden paradigm shift from enlightenment to second naivete, but more like a fluctuation between that eventually chooses the latter.

I don't know where I'm at, honestly. Somewhere anonymously between the two poles wanting to call each side home. I struggle a lot with how to reconcile the two. For the longest time I just wished that everyone could start asking the hard questions, but that would be like taking someone who's lived their life at sea level to Denver and telling them to play a game of soccer. And yet, when people tell me to not question things I feel restricted and it seems like my world gets flatter.

If I'm required to choose, I choose complexity. I would choose freedom, even where that means standing alone. The question is how to have both? I'm still working on that. . . .

What the heck are we talking about . . .

There is a dialect of English that we rarely talk about, but commonly talk in: church-ese. We throw around all kinds of fancy words: grace, sin, hell, heaven, atonement, glory, praise, on and on and on. Yet, I am constantly amazed at how little I understand this dialect. From time to time I read something that explains to me the contours of this language and suddenly I realize that these sayings have meaning!! Who would have thought?

"Amen"

I had heard that this meant "may it be so", but that's not exactly the case. It's actually Hebrew, go figure. The word is "aman" or "he'emin", which would be pronounced something like 'hey-men' with a soft H. Translated "aman" means something like "be firm", and "he'emin" means "believe/trust". In church I always hear people shout amen at things they agree with. Like an obnoxious way of saying "I wish to remain anonymous while supporting that statement." This is not really in line with what the word means. It's more a way of saying "I trust that, and will remain firm in that belief." Or more simply it merely means "faith". It is a way of saying I have faith in, and faith resting on what we are hearing. In modern context it is something that we could benefit from understanding: in spite of doubt, in the face of opposition, and in subversive refusal to despair we hold to 'faith'. Even when the world appears to refute the very truths we rest on, we say 'amen' and rest on them anyway; generally uncomfortably, but with firm, unrelenting trust nonetheless. That is the great possibility of this word.

". . . in the name of . . "

This is much more than just an association with, and indeed more than some mystical union to. A name evokes the whole essence of a person. Pre-modern people were generally awed by the fact that one word could evoke a response from a person. If you knew someones name you knew how to get their attention. You could make them listen. Essentially to know a person's name was to have a relationship to them. This is largely why it is so important for Israel to revere God's name and not take it in vain. This is why for hundreds of year before Jesus religious Jews would not even say God's name for fear of his holiness breaking out against their unholiness in calling his attention.

This is also why the act of naming a child was (and is) of such great importance. This was setting the precedent for who that child would be. This is why when God reveals his names, each one is of vast importance in understanding his character. Yet, eventually the child transcends his name. Jesus was born as "the one through which God saves", but he revealed in his life that this salvation is nothing like men would expect. YHWH is the Lord, King, Shepherd, . . . . but these are quickly superceded as we come to understand that he ultimately is! We, like God, quickly surpass the metaphors, names, and adjectives which only begin to describe us. So, eventually our name is not an encompassing discription of us, but a link to the essence or presence that we are.

So, when we are baptized into Jesus' name, at first we are soaked with his saving acts: his healing, his liberating, his spirit, his grace and mercy. Yet, these are all initial abstract descriptions. Being baptized into his name is really becoming his essence. We cease to be merely ourself, but are overwhelmed with Jesus' self. We now share his essence, not just his qualities, but his very being which is far beyond what his qualities could ever add up to.

Baptism is not, as church of Christ kids are taught, simply the moment where we inherit a depersonalized Holy Spirit and are assured salvation. It is that, but if that's all we see or is the primary way we understand baptism we have severly missed the point. The point is that we have become Jesus. We are now everything he was. In essence we have taken on his name, which is much more than just a title, but is a representation of everything that he was. Immersing ourselves in his name is the same as immersing ourselves in him personally. We are now coated in the very presence of Jesus. At first this means we take on his qualities, but as our relationship to him grows and our understanding, so also does our life beging to take on more than simple kindness, holiness, compassion, freedom, liberation, or power. Instead we actually begin to act like Jesus who didn't concern himself daily with being any of the qualities for which he was known, but instead simply, essentially was the embodiment transcending those qualities: being all of them and still more.

Being baptized in his name is more than a bath which gives you a magic ticket to heaven. It is an act of becoming/being made into someone else.



. . . I'll probly continue this as I think of more sayings we throw around, forgetting what they mean.