The Disappearance of Sin
In the current edition of _National Catholic Reporter_ is a wonderful article by Jerry Ryan called "The Disappearance of Sin." The whole article is well worth reading but I will quote one paragraph:
"Yet whatever name we give it and whatever excuse we might invent for ignoring it, we know deep down that there is something in us that is terribly depraved, that we do not like, with which we do not want to be identified; a complicity with ugliness, a desire to desecrate, to make ourselves supreme at all costs. We hate this, yet it has a hold on us, as an ultimate possibility perhaps, an ultimate 'freedom' to be what we are."
I just found this to be such a great mediation on sin and it draws parallels to the idea of uncontrolled ego, the idea that what we want is very important, more important than anything else. This of course aptly describes our culture.
Ryan also goes on to say that we inevitably acknowledge the imperfection of us in our world and in forgiving others we experience forgiveness from the world and from God. This is a precious idea.
The term 'oppositional
The term 'oppositional personality' comes to mind. We want what we think, beyond other thoughts.We want to be right-that's why we predict or not predict. We want to be 'old school' or 'new think' and we want to be recognised as right. We know where we are. We want to measure sin as to gravity,intensity and objective. Sometimes we should be thinking only direction. Guilt is the great balancing factor and if we are never wrong then we never sin.
'When the stock of wheat bends with the wind in the direction of nature-then Nature and I are happy'
Rev. Dr. Elaine, it is
Rev. Dr. Elaine, it is probably a matter of synchronicity that that podcast was in my I-pod but incompletely listened to. I just watched the video of the segment, which is just incredible and I will listen again.
My son's piano teacher, a wise and wonderful woman, told him that many of the classical pieces are like Bible verses. You come back to them again and again but over time you hear them differently; they say different things to you. The Bible becomes so much richer when we do view it in that historical or language context. (I just recently had a chance to read your piece on porneaia.) But what I loved the most about Bishop Jefferts Schori's comments from my first complete listening is her statement that spirituality/religous practice is access to the sacred and it is probably a conceit of man (my phrase not hers) that we cannot resist trying to control that access to the sacred. That is a profound idea.
Thanks Molly! Katherine was
Thanks Molly! Katherine was raised a Roman Catholic and became an Episcopalian in 1994 I believe. Yet, her theology is smack-dab, right-on, quintessentially Anglican in the sense of her emphasis on Incarnational theology, experience as an essential part of "knowing God", her celebration of the wonderful complexity and joy of the continuing revelation of God-in-Creation, AND her SHARING of authority and mission with the Priesthood of all Believers.
Her honesty and lack of pomposity is a welcome breath of fresh air for us all. We have great hope for the efficacy of her leadership but, as you can tell from the podcast, The attempts at gender-marginalization and out-and-out (if you'll forgive the pun) bigotry will test both her mettle and her faithfulness.
My bets are on the Woman.
The Rev. Dr. E. McCoy
"All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear..." (Romans 8:14-15)
Abu Ghraib is the perfect
Abu Ghraib is the perfect illustration of this. Lord of the Flies made it literature. Psychologist Philip Zimardo proved it experimentally 30 years ago. This is why we have culture, codes of conduct, systems of morality. And why it is so shocking that after millenia of striving to overcome these baser forces within us, we have an administration that thinks the Geneva conventions are quaint and torture is just fine, that thinks a nuclear strike against a country that has not attacked us is more than a possibility,
Sin and NOT Sin from a
Sin and NOT Sin from a different point of view:
See the Bill Moyers video or read the transcript on:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06082007/transcript3.html
The Rev. Dr. E. McCoy
"All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear..." (Romans 8:14-15)
A Zen priest by the name of
A Zen priest by the name of Norman Fisher talks about the tension
between the nondual consciouness of Buddhism and the passionate
intensity of the Psalms. Fisher came from a secular Jewish
background and only recently read the Psalms for the first time. He believes the Psalms to be more resonant with contemporay human
experience and the naked presence of evil and suffering in our world today.
Michael