New Becoming

I was peering through my kitchen window this morning watching the eastern light begin to illuminate our wooded valley when a bird flew by. It was on its way to warm itself from a cool, and hopefully, peaceful night. Its whole world is the forest near my home. I don’t think about that whole world, or the worlds of others, often enough. I am concerned with filling the holes in my world. There is a selfishness that pervades our postmodern world. There is an entitlement that hides under personal freedoms and fear. These societal ills procreate largely due to poor communication. If I say what I feel or think, what I have done or want to do, I will be condemned. My philosophical hole is more important than your whole. There are several steps we have taken on this path that lead to darkness. I need to take care of myself first. The good thing is that more people are willing to admit they have a hole or a whole bunch of holes. This admission allows us to refocus on the problem and not othe...

"Unchurching: Christianity without Churchianity" is a new book by Richard Jacobson. He seeks to "...paint a picture of the church without filtering the text through the lens of man-made tradition" as well as compare the modern church to the ancient church, and look at church "outside the box and discuss how to make the transition. Unfortunately, the book starts off so doctrinal and full of Biblical literalism that it's difficult to stay engaged long enough to hear how to "unchurch". Jacobson seems to miss the fact that Genesis is a poem. He mentions odd Biblical translations of words but not the textual fallibility that goes with the translations. The book ignores many of the subversive ideals of today's church and gets bogged down in the centuries-old debates of sexism and church leadership that have no bearing on the church outside of stuffy fundamentalism. There is a good recognition of the growing importance of the Trinity in the boo...