Some Midwestern Representation
I would like to nominate Ian Lawton, a Midwestern Pastor of a Progressive Church. Here is a bit about Ian from his Christ Community Church's website. Ian is quite a writer, be sure and read his piece from his "e-zine" at the end of biography. http://christ-community.net/index.htm
Ian Lawton -
Ian Lawton moved to the U.S. in 2004 with his family (Partner Meg; children, Hugo, Darcy and Raina). They came so that he could accept the position of executive minister at C3/ CCC. Ian has oversight of the whole ministry, as well as having a particular role leading the community's theological exploration.
It's a fascinating journey and an inspirational community. Ian is delighted to have come across more progressive thinkers in this church than he could ever have imagined. During his time in Spring Lake, Michigan, Ian has been exposed to new ideas and philosophers that have broadened his horizons beyond his wildest imagination. It's this interchange of ideas that defines the way we "do" theology together.
It has been a long journey since becoming ordained in Sydney, Australia, in 1994. Sydney is one of the most conservative Anglican dioceses in the world. In seminary, Ian studied Calvinism by day, and Liberation Theology by night and managed to find some time in between for sports and surfing.
It was Liberation Theology that resonated more deeply with Ian's experience of life, and his work on Sydney's inner city streets. Theology that spoke to the reality of human suffering and injustice was exciting in its possibilities. Ian went on to complete a second degree in sociology, so that his theological journey would always run close to an engagement with the world around him. So he thought of his theology as incarnational.
In 2000, Ian left Sydney because of irreconcilable theological differences. Basically, he wanted to open the doors of his downtown church to the GLBT community, and that was taboo. Ian felt the need to leave in order to preserve his humanity and to find a more open place to explore a relevant and evolving theology.
Ian found this in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, where he became the Vicar of St. Matthew in the City. Ian had four fun years there in a never-dull, gothic, white stone building in the shadows of the towering casino. His world opened up during these four years. Exposure to Maori language and culture; mixing in a stimulating, liberal community; and launching an online progressive community were some of the highlights.
One of the features of the move to the U.S. has been a broadening of Ian's sense of sacred to an embrace of all things. Ian has taken up meditation and Zen training which have helped to break down a tendency to divide the world up into good and bad, holy and profane.
Ian is now happy to call himself a progressive Christian. Ken WIlber's Integral Theory has helped to reconcile the huge shifts in him and also in the history of Christianity.
C3/CCC is following its bliss, and Ian is privileged to be part of this alternative to church as usual. We don't want to define too tightly where we are going, and we prefer to immerse ourselves in where we are now.
Now that you are reading this, you are part of our journey, and we are part of yours. Stay in touch, enjoy our site, and be part of an emerging Kosmic consciousness.
e-zine for November 3, 2006
What's your Religion Got to do with Politics?
"Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason." ~Barack Obama
The Courage to be Compassionate
By Ian Lawton
With Americans going to the polls next week, it’s a good time for religious people to consider again how their “faith” informs their public opinions. After all, religion and politics are so intimately related. To paraphrase Gandhi, anyone who thinks religion has nothing to do with politics doesn’t know what religion is.
Religion is concerned with deepening humanity and plumbing the depths of life’s meaning. A person is not religious primarily because they believe in a particular God, or because they have faith in Jesus or Mohammed or any other prophet. A person is religious because they are a person; a living, breathing, thinking, feeling person who exists in a context. We are all religious, no matter what our particular liturgical or theological preferences, because our essence demands a response to the ultimate questions of life. We are religious because at our core we feel a deep pain at the suffering of the world, and want to draw meaning out of pain.
Religious progressives, and political progressives share a common desire to end suffering. We are motivated more by compassion than we are by dogmatics, whether the Heidelberg catechism or the platform of a political party. We are prepared to evolve with the times, hold open ended beliefs and opinions, and respond in each case according to compassion rather than ideological correctness.
Progressive Religion finds its most immediate heritage in two 20th century movements; Liberalism and Liberationism.
As a result of the great wars of the 20th century, liberal theology took a deeply human journey. Theology that searched for meaning in the face of harsh realities would never be the same again. The benevolent, interventionist God died on the battlefields and in the gas chambers. Instead God was resurrected in liberal theology as presence in the midst of suffering and pain. The shackles of dependence on the mythical, father God were broken by the flourishing post war human optimism. Now liberal theology saw God resurrected in the human spirit’s search for hope and meaning.
Paul Tillich was one of the principle war theologians; a naturalist and a socialist. His belief in God as existence itself, as the Ground of Being, grew out of the reality of human suffering. Only a God who dwelt in the midst of suffering, a God who was essence or potential in the midst of the agony of existence, was worth pursuing.
Politically for Tillich, socialism was just a contextual application of his religion; i.e. it was the compassionate response to his experience of oppressive nationalism. It was a manifestation of his essential humanity at the time. In fact, when Tillich moved to America after the war, he shifted his focus from socialism to philosophical questions of meaning and existence.
Humanizing religion urges us to follow the call of our essence. When we hear cries of pain, we respond out of a place of deep awareness and compassion. Choose to be a socialist, a republican, a democrat or anything else. Those labels are incidental. They are significant, but fluid, manifestations of human essence applied in a particular context.
Liberation Theology had quite a different manifestation to the Existentialists like Tillich, but the religious motivation was similar. It was the innocent suffering of poor and oppressed people at the hands of the powerful that motivated the religion of Liberationism. The God who rules from his heaven, died in the poverty stricken barrios of Venezuela and was reborn in every act of defiance and liberation. The manifestation in Central America was local, base communities of resistance. The off shoot manifestations were Black Theologies in American, Feminist Theologies, Third world Theologies and ultimately the most encompassing of all liberation movements, Ecofeminism. Ecofeminism addressed a core structure of injustice that connected the suffering of the earth with the suffering of women, and all oppressed people.
Both the Existentialists and the Liberationists are inspirational for us in our contemporary context. They put suffering and compassion at the heart of any religious reflection. They sent us on the inner journey, in the case of Existentialists, and they sent us on the public journey, in the case of Liberationists. They gave us permission to challenge the status quo, doctrinal in the case of existentialists, and political in the case of Liberationists.
However they are not prescriptive for how we express our compassionate nature. Now we have the opportunity to include their gifts of passion and existential enquiry, and transcend their too narrow definitions of suffering and estrangement. Their limited sense of the cause of suffering had the danger of leading to scarcity theology rather than abundance theology. That is, if God is seen as inhabiting the space of impoverishment in the human spirit then why would a person be motivated to burst forth from that tomb of poverty into an embrace of life that is full of self realization and public action.
This may get to the heart of the distinction between liberal and progressive. Generally speaking, “progressive” is the broader term indicating open-endedness and evolution, while “liberal” indicates the particular modernist trend to historical criticism and reform. Progressive encompasses the liberal break-throughs, but transcends liberal by seeking a revolution that will shatter the very conditions and structures that create suffering, both internally and externally.
Consider for example the socio-political issue of health care. A liberal policy towards prescription drugs would channel taxes to provide medicine to the poor. A progressive policy would address the interrelated issues of price regulation and bulk purchasing, government as well as corporate accountability, in an attempt to bring down the actual price of medicine. Medicine for the poor is good. Lower prices all around are better. In the meantime, let’s seek both.
Consider the religious institutional issue of gender equality. Women have been ordained in most churches for several decades, but generally only to lead male structures and use either male language or language stripped of depth by political correctness. Women’s ordination is good. Institutions where the feminine life force, or “Gaia” awareness, revolutionize the very core of religion are better. In the meantime, let’s seek both.
Whether you are part of the American political landscape, or part of our interconnected global community, this is an appropriate time to reflect again on your religion, your essence as a human being. What does inner abundance look like in your life? How does a deep awareness of both suffering and abundance manifest in your public opinion? How will you respond to the elections and their impact on the globe in a way that reflects your deepest sense of compassion and justice?
In the words of Barack Obama, how will you translate your religious motivation into universal values that benefit all people, especially those who suffer the most?
Citizens Research Council of Michigan Helps Inform Voters
Are you having a hard time sifting through all the political ads to get the facts straight on the numerous Michigan proposals to be voted on next week?
