Saturday, December 28, 2024

Musings on Giving the Teachings of Jesus Priority Over Church Doctrine

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., Dec. 28, 2024


Christmas is a time for nostalgic remembrance of good times in the past; and the new year a time to make resolutions for the coming year.  In a democracy we are the masters of our political destiny.  Having elected Donald Trump President in 2016 and 2024, we should be concerned over whether and how we can save American libertarian democracy.


Once the largest religion in the world, Christianity is shrinking.  Greed, materialism and hedonism have corrupted America the Beautiful over the years.  A moral revolution is needed to resurrect the altruistic and universal values taught by Jesus by giving them priority over exclusivist church doctrines doctrines that were never taught by Jesus.


Thomas Jefferson was a universalist who considered the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code developed by man.”  Jesus was a universalist Jew whose teachings are summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and regions as we love ourselves; and it was accepted by Islamic scholars as a common word of faith.


Christian Universalism was a separate Christian denomination until it merged with Unitarian Universalists (UU) in 1964.  Since then no religion has promoted the teachings of Jesus as a universal and common word of faith.  Exclusivist religious doctrines continue to discourage Jews, Christians and Muslims from advocating the teachings of Jesus as a common word of faith.


Universalism in religion is not an attempt to make the mystical nature of religion uniform, but to focus on voluntary moral standards of legitimacy common to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, such as the greatest commandment to love God and all of our neighbors as we love ourselves.  As a common word of faith, it’s a moral imperative to provide for the common good.


The inauguration of Trump is on January 20.  His statements about what he and his minions like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, fellow but unelected billionaires, plan to do after January 20 make it a moral imperative to support a Congress that will prevent Trump and his super-rich minions from further corrupting American democracy.  


Jesus did not teach that riches were evil, only that the love of riches corrupted the soul (e.g. the story of a rich man at Mark 10:17-27; parable of the rich fool at Luke 12:15-21; treasures and the heart at Luke 12:33,34; and you cannot serve two masters at Luke 16:13).  And St. Paul confirmed this, warning Timothy: People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap…For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. (1 Timothy 6:9-10).


America is a rich and powerful nation, but its very soul—the American civil religion—is threatened by the danger of riches.  Self-centered materialism and hedonism have displaced the altruistic faith and collective civic responsibilities that are needed to provide for the common good, and polarized partisan politics are exacerbating that danger to democracy.  


Notes


On Whether America the Beautiful has lost its beauty as well as its political legitimacy, see 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/02/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.


On Musings on on the Teachings of Jesus as a Universal and Common Word of Faith, see 

https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2024/12/musings-on-teachings-of-jesus-as.html.


On a recent commentary and notes on The teachings of Jesus as a universal and common word of faith, see  https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2024/12/musings-on-teachings-of-jesus-as.html.


With Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, fellow but unelected billionaires--with whom Trump has already shared his power and made greed an imminent moral threat to American democracy. “We see a host of billionaire Scrooges bubbling over with plans to enhance their idea of good business at the expense of random, heartless suffering of those in the middle and lower ends of society. Vivek, a pharmaceutical billionaire, has suggested, for example, that the Social Security rolls could easily be reduced by randomly eliminating people based on even or odd Social Security numbers and without due process. Elon Musk is seeking to increase his federal contracts and shut down federal investigations of national security and other legal violations. For good measure, he demanded a government shutdown right at Christmas that intimidated Republicans in Congress and undermined a bipartisan agreement. Meanwhile, the CEOs of all the “tech giants” and major corporations are heading to Mar-a-Lago to bow and scrape to make more money at public expense. Most Americans were converted from supporting Scrooge policies when a depression in the 1920s and 1930s occurred because of corruption and lack of accountability by millionaires and banks. But voters returned them to power after 2000 and brought on the same problems in 2007 and 2008, yet the suffering was not deep enough to prevent returning them to power in Congress in 2010. Even the unnecessary death of half a million people in 2019-20 was not enough to warn the public against delusions of prosperity and competence under the rule of Scrooges. This time the crisis could come toward the beginning of a presidential term, as with Herbert Hoover, rather than at the end of terms as with George W. Bush and Donald Trump. It would appear that at least three or more years of horrific collapse might be necessary to lead supporters of the Scrooges to decide that the business of government should have been (in the words of Marley) the common welfare, charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence.

Christmas is a time of prayers for peace and justice in the world at a time when international conflicts are highly volatile and American leaders are more concerned about their own wealth and power. There is always room for hope that some of the Scrooges will have Marley insights that lead to conversion—that even evangelical Christians will rediscover Jesus’s message that the best way to show dedication to God is by loving neighbors as ourselves.

Let us pray that a new and deeper world depression or another world war caused by Scrooge indifference will not be necessary before the American people and leaders in Congress put aside delusions and stand up for charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, and the common welfare.”  See A Prayer for Biiionaire Scrooges for Christmas 2024 at  https://progressivechristianity.org/resource/a-prayer-for-billionaire-scrooges-for-christmas-2024/.



Saturday, December 21, 2024

Musings on Jesus as the Logos, and the Light of God's Word in A Dark World

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., December 21, 2024


Jews and Muslims consider Jesus a great prophet and the source of God’s word (the Logos).  Christian doctrine requires belief in Jesus Christ as God; but for Jews and  Muslims that’s blasphemy.  Jesus was a Jew who never claimed to be divine, and John’s Gospel presents Jesus as the Logos who called his disciples to follow him, not to worship him.


It’s ironic that John’s Gospel is most often cited by Christians who affirm that belief in Jesus Christ as a Trinitarian form of God is essential to their salvation (e.g. John 3:16 and 14:6).  If Jesus is the Logos, following the teachings of Jesus as God’s word is more important than worshiping Jesus Christ as God; and following Jesus is not blasphemy for Jews or Muslims.


John’s Gospel provides a unique Christmas story, with the advent of Jesus as the light of the world and the Logos.  Like Mark’s Gospel, John’s Gospel does not include a virgin birth.  John 1:1-5 says: “In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God…and was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” 


John’s Gospel tells us: “The true light that gives light to every person was coming into the world.  The world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet all who received him became children of God--children not born of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:9-13)

 

In The Apostle’s Creed Christians affirm belief in exclusive church doctrine with Jesus Christ as God’s only Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary.  A Modern Affirmation is a more universal creed that affirms belief in God the Father, infinite in wisdom, power and love, whose mercy is over all his works, and is ever directed to his children’s good, as set forth in the service of love, to the end that the kingdom of God may come upon the earth.  


The Book of James emphasizes faith and belief as deeds of love: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds [of love] is dead.” (James 2:26)  The question for us is whether our faith is based on our belief in Jesus Christ as a Trinitarian God, or as a Jewish sage and prophet who came as the Logos teaching the universal and altruistic Word of God.


The greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves is a summary of the universal teachings of Jesus as Logos, or the Word of God.  It’s a common word of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims, and the new command of John’s Gospel to love one another complements that moral imperative of faith. (John 13:34-35)


The teachings of Jesus are the light of God’s word for people of all faiths in our dark world.  We need to let that light of God’s reconciling love dispel the darkness of our world, or that darkness will overcome us.  Donald Trump and his minions are waiting in the wings to further darken our democracy.  While most Christians voted for Trump and claim that Jesus Christ was God incarnate, incredibly few follow his teachings as the word of God.         

 

Notes:


Unlike the first three Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John is unique.  It’s more a gospel of the Holy Spirit than an historical account of the life of Jesus.  It presents Jesus as the mystical Logos made flesh (Jn1:1-18).  Logos meant more than a word; it refers to the awesome power of God.  The unique I am statements of Jesus in which he refers to himself as the way, the truth, and the life, the light of the world, living water, and the bread of life, all describe the divine power of Logos or Holy Spirit, rather than the historical Jesus. John’s Jesus is also unique in telling his disciples that after he leaves them God will send them the Holy Spirit as the Logos to teach them all things and remind them of everything he had taught them (Jn 14:26). In John’s Gospel the Holy Spirit sustains believers in God’s word and redemptive power.

John’s Gospel, like that of Thomas, has a Gnostic flavor with its dichotomies of spirit and flesh and light and darkness. As in Mark’s Gospel, there is no mention of a virgin birth in John’s Gospel; but like the other gospels it has the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus in the River Jordan. The Synoptic Gospels emphasized the coming kingdom of heaven as an apocalyptic event (Parousia) within the lifetime of the apostles. But there is no little apocalypse in John’s Gospel; the emphasis is on how love, the Holy Spirit, and the gift of peace can lead to faith and eternal life. In John’s Gospel, Jesus taught that eternal life begins when one is born again of the spirit, and his one command for his disciples was to love one another (Jn 13:34). After 2,000 years without the end times, this interpretation of the coming kingdom of God seems more relevant than preparing for an apocalyptic second coming. Even though the Gospel of John is more mystical than moral, the new command to love one another is at the heart of John’s gospel, and like the greatest commandment to love God and neighbor found in Mark, Matthew and Luke, the new command is a summary of the teachings and example of Jesus. See Musings on the Advent of Jesus as the Light of the World and the Universal Logos at the Teachings of Jesus and Muhammad on Morality and Law, the Heart of Legitimacy, page 301 at  https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/.html.


On the Logos, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo.


On Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Jesus as the Logos in John’s Gospel (2/18/23), see

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/02/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on-jesus.html;   see also, Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Irony of the Logos in John’s Gospel (2/25/23), http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/02/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on-irony.html.

 

The greatest commandment was taken from the Hebrew  Bible, taught by Jesus and accepted by Islamic scholars as a common word of faith.  See The Greatest Commandment: A Common Word of Faith,  http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/the-greatest-commandment-common-word-of.html.


Dr. Rick Herrick has opined that “Jesus and God are one in the Gospel of John.”  Most Christians believe that salvation is limited to those who believe in exclusivist church doctrines that affirm Jesus Christ as God.  Who can blame them?  It’s a deal most Christians can’t pass up since correct belief is all that’s required.  “The first problem with this approach is that it’s an invention of the first century church with no ties to the Jesus of history; yet for 2,000 years the vast majority of Christians have based their faith on such exclusivist beliefs as the only means of salvation; but it has no historical validity.”  An even bigger problem is that it’s an ideology with no connection to the heart.”  It’s all about me, me, me and feeds the ego rather than helping to transform it to make it more open to the needs of others. Jesus is worshiped as a God, but not followed.  This has made the church more a part of the world’s problems than a solution to them.” See https://progressivechristianity.org/resources/sadly-the-bible-is-the-problem/.


Rev. Brendan Robertson has answered the question, What does it mean to be a believer? He said “There are no creeds in Scripture or in the early church that were exemplified by people changing the way that they lived to be more service-oriented, loving, and resistant to the oppressive ways of the Empire that Christianity was birthed within. This is why Jesus never called his followers “believers” but “disciples. 

A believer merely has faith in something or someone, while a disciple seeks to emulate and follow someone.”  See Progressive Spirit, November 9, 2023.


In American politics, Donald Trump can be said to be at the heart of darkness.  He has said, “We pledge to you that we will root out the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections.” Trump has also said, “The real threat is not from the radical right; the real threat is from the radical left.  The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within.”   Trump has described himself as a “very proud election denier.” and has repeatedly threatened and intimidated judges, witnesses, prosecutors, and even the family of prosecutors involved in the cases against him, going so far as to say that his legal opponents will be consigned to mental asylums if he’s reelected. He has suggested that the man he picked for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff deserves to be executed on grounds of treason. He’s called for investigating NBC and possibly yanking the network off the air, also on grounds of treason—one of his most direct attacks on the First Amendment. And he’s vowed to arrest and indict President Joe Biden and other political opponents for no apparent reason other than that they oppose him. The fact that Trump’s ideas have become more authoritarian is not yet fully appreciated. One reason is people have heard Trump say outlandish things for so long that they can’t identify what’s new, or they’ve become numb.  “The first time Trump says something, people react with shock and compare him to Hitler. The second time, people say Trump is at it again. By the third time, it becomes background noise.  This is just the sort of “normalization” that Trump’s critics warned against from the start, but it’s also a natural human response to repeated exposure. The result is that Trump has been able to acclimate the nation to authoritarianism by introducing it early and often. When a second-term President Trump directs the Justice Department to lock up Democratic politicians or generals or reporters or activists on flimsy or no grounds at all, people will wring their hands, but will also shrug and wonder why he didn’t do it sooner.”   https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/01/trump-veterans-day-speech-vermin-reelection/676137/.


The Apostles’ Creed is taken from church doctrine and affirms belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ.  A Modern Affirmation is based on the teachings of Jesus and emphasizes the service of love as God’s Word:

The Apostles’ Creed affirms belief in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

A Modern Affirmation affirms belief in God the Father, infinite in wisdom, power and love, whose mercy is over all his works, and whose will is ever directed to his children’s good. We believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of man, the gift of the Father’s unfailing grace, the ground of our hope, and the promise of our deliverance from sin and death. We believe in the Holy Spirit as the divine presence in our lives, whereby we are kept in perpetual remembrance of the truth of Christ, and find strength and help in time of need. We believe that this faith should manifest itself in the service of love as set forth in the example of our blessed Lord, to the end that the kingdom of God may come upon the earth. Amen.


On Jesus as a universal Sage see  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burton_L._Mack#.  On Jesus as the Logos; and see Ben Witherington III, Jesus the Sage, chapter 4.


Saturday, December 14, 2024

Musings on the Teachings of Jesus as a Universal and Common Word of Faith

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., December 14, 2024


Church doctrine continues to limit salvation to Christians who profess belief in Jesus Christ as a Trinitarian form of God.  Jews and Muslims reject the divinity of Jesus, but they accept his teachings as God’s common word.  Christians should consider whether salvation requires worshiping Jesus Christ as God, or following Jesus as a prophet of God’s Word.


Jesus was a 1st century Palestinian Jew who never advocated a new religion, only reforms in Judaism that put God’s love over Mosaic Law.  His teachings are summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves; and it’s a common word of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims.


Christianity has long been the world’s largest religion, but now it’s declining--likely because exclusivist church creeds and doctrines never taught by Jesus limit salvation to Christians.  Reform is not likely since exclusivist Christian beliefs are sustained by the inertia of an institutional church as the one true faith.


Thomas Jefferson considered the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code ever designed by man,” but he disdained exclusivist church doctrines never taught by Jesus.  While his Jefferson Bible affirms God’s will as universal and his universalist views have been praised by theologians in the Jesus Seminar, no church has affirmed Jefferson’s Jesus as God’s Word.  


In the 1830’s Alexis DeTocqueville observed that moral values are needed to sustain a healthy democracy, and asserted that religion is the source of moral values.  The Civil War underscored the lack of moral unity opposing slavery; and the reconciling altruistic moral values of Jesus have remained corrupted by materialism, hedonism and polarized partisan politics.


Since 2016 most white Christians have supported Donald Trump’s divisive radical right partisan politics and ignored the reconciling universal moral values of Jesus.  The Christian religion has become the handmaiden of the Republican Party with Trump promoting demagoguery in democracy as a divisive antithesis to the reconciling moral teachings of Jesus.


There are doctrinal differences in the wide variety of churches in America, but all share exclusivist beliefs in Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation.  In a world of increasing religious diversity, religious reconciliation requires eliminating exclusivist doctrines of salvation; but that seems highly unlikely given the prevalence of exclusivist Christian doctrine in America.


Christian Universalism was a Christian denomination until it merged with the Unitarian Universalists in 1964.  Since then no denomination has advocated following the teachings of Jesus as God’s word for salvation rather than worshiping Jesus Christ as God. My Christmas commentary next week will suggest an alternative: promoting Jesus as a universal Logos, and the light of God’s word in a dark world.  

     

Notes:


Richard Rohr is a universalist who describes “the horrible impact the doctrines of original sin and blood atonement of Jesus have had on Christian faith, including how God is depicted as a sadistic deity that needs payment before He can love His creation, and that nothing Jesus said, did, or taught in his lifetime means anything because his death is all that matters for our salvation.”  Rohr asserts that “we must reject any theory of salvation that is based on violence, exclusion, social pressure, or moral coercion.” See Christian Universalism, meet The Universal Christ at https://christianuniversalist.org/2021/02/christian-universalism-meet-the-universal-christ/ 


On the Greatest Commandment as a Common Word of Faith, see

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/the-greatest-commandment-common-word-of.html.


Universalism can reconcile progressive Christians, Jews and Muslims.  While universalists are a minority in those competing religions, they can be a reconciling voice promoting a universalist common word of faith.  On universalism, see Universalism: A theology for the 21st century, by Forrest Church, November 5, 2001, at Universalism: A theology for the 21st century | UU World Magazine.


The Teachings of Jesus and Muhammad on Morality and Law is an interfaith study guide based on the teachings of Jesus and Muhammad taken from  the Jefferson Bible.  It’s  posted in its entirety in the Resources at  https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com.


Thomas Jefferson considered “the teachings of Jesus as the most sublime moral code ever designed by man,” and detested exclusivist church doctrines.   https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com.


In 1831 Alexis deTocqueville toured America and observed that its many Christian sects shared a “Christian morality” that produced common standards of political legitimacy that defined what is right, and imbued American politics with its moral authority.  On the views of Thomas Jefferson and Alexis deTocqueville on the moral values of religion in American politics, see Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy (July 1, 2017) at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/religion-moral-authority-and.html. See also Musings of a Maverick Methodist on a Universal and Altruistic Jesus, August 19, 2023, at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.


Carl Krieg has distinguished between The Political [exclusivist] Jesus and The Real [universal] Jesus at https://progressivechristianity.org/resource/the-political-jesus-and-the-real-jesus/.


The title of Robin Meyers’ book says it all: Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus (HarperCollins Publishers, 2009).  Meyers spoke at the Barnes Symposium at the University of South Carolina on April 12, 2019 on From Galilean Sage to Supernatural Savior (or, How I Became a Heretic with Help from Jesus). While Meyers is critical of the church, he was pastor of Mayflower Church, a large UCC congregation in Oklahoma City, for over 30 years.  


On the belief that God saves only Christians and condemns all unbelievers to hell, see Hell No! at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/hell-no.html.  Maybe a minority of Chrstians can still save the church from its divisive doctrines that were never taught by Jesus.  Next week my Christmas commentary will be Musings on Jesus as the Logos and the Light of the World.