Reflections

Reflections

Readings and interviews during this last week have raised questions for me that are terribly important, but for which I have no clear answers. Because we are encouraged, by mental health professionals as well as our Lord, to share our burdens with others, I offer to you my questions.

I wonder why, looking at the wide sweep of history since the time of Jesus, “a religion born of a people acquainted with persecution and suffering has become the cornerstone of a civilization and of nations whose very position in modern life has too often been secured by a ruthless use of power applied to weak and defenseless people.”? (Jesus and the Disinherited, Howard Thurman)

I wonder why, in 2008 54% of this country were white Christians, and today that figure is 42% and declining? (Public Religion Research Center). By the way, the answer is not discovered demographically in the growth of Black or Hispanic Christians. The largest growth category in this research is “None”- those who share no connection to a religious community.

I wonder why, in research done by the above Public Religion Research Center, those exhibiting fewer racist qualities were those those with no religious affiliation. I wonder why more disturbing racist attitudes were found in those who were a part of mainline denominations( United Methodists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, etc.)?

I wonder how much of the sentiment of the Doctrine of Discovery, issued by Pope Nicholas V in 1452 and 1453, which gave papal blessing to the colonization, land confiscation and subjugation of Native peoples in Africa and the “New World”, still lives deep within me and the Christian Church? In 2009 the Episcopal Church was the first U.S. Christian denomination to formally repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery.

I wonder how true are James Baldwin’s words, written in the heat of the Civil Rights movement in 1965, “We carry history within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do,” or Mr. Faulkner’s similar observation about “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”?

I wonder.

Thanks for sharing my burdens and wrestling with those angels with whom I often do battle. I trust that such wrestling will bring us, like Jacob, God’s blessing(Genesis 32:22-32)

Other Matters of Importance

The Reverend Christopher Powell -September 10

The Rev. Christopher Powell will be our guest preacher and celebrant this Sunday, September 10. Next Sunday, September 17, Morning Prayer will be lead by our Lay Eucharist minister assigned for that Sunday, Joe York.

Bible Study-The Gospel of John-Begins September 24-9:15am

Our first adult education offering in the Salt and Light building will be a study of the Gospel of John. The most theologically sophisticated of the gospels, John was written almost 100 years after the birth of Jesus and reflects the early church’s deepening thinking about the nature of Jesus. Bring your own bibles and come join us!

Blessings and Peace,

Duncan

Dmgrayiii@gmail.com

(601)260-1937