May 31, 2005
Fruits of the Spirit?
Reading this case study, I find myself somewhere in the middle between the two polar positions of Gloria and Jessica.
Scripture gives us example after example in the OT of people who incur God's wrath by going after other gods, and the Acts famously remind us that "there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved". It is clear that we must worship only God as revealed in Jesus Christ - it is only in that name that we can put our trust.
That said, I believe that the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves (Lev 19:18, Mk 12:31, Rom 13:9, etc) entails understanding our neighbors, knowing who they are in order to come into real encounter with them. Therefore we should make ourselves informed and familiar with the faiths of the people around us.
I am not sure that what is described in the case study is offered in that sense. The programs offered may fall short of outright worship, but they are not informational or educational in nature - it is clear that the programs are primarily for spiritual formation. The passage from the Tao seems generic enough - one can certainly meditate on the concepts it offers without compromising one's Christian identity. This material is similar to our Wisdom literature. But spiritual formation in the mode of Mother Goddess and the Universal Divine are quite different.
I am not inveighing against feminine concepts of the divine, but the term "Goddess" is inherently gendered. God can be male or female, but Goddess cannot. This is a linguistic quirk of English, but there it is.
Fuller understanding of what is contained in the exercises in paragraph 4 would permit a better evaluation of the situation. But overall, while I would love to see Episcopal parishes learning and teaching about other religions, especially with genuine input from members of those faiths, I cannot advise the use of non-judeochristian meditations, which stray too close to praying to other Gods.
Posted by David Hedges at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)