Reflecting on Catherine Young's book "Black Diamonds: A Childhood Colored by Coal"

Black Diamonds: A Childhood Colored by Coal by Catherine Young
Torrey House Press
Published: 09/26/2023
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9781948814836
$17.95 paperback

The Lackawanna Valley is a c. 1855 painting by the American artist George Inness

Catherine Young has written a marvelous "personal geography" out of her raw experiences growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania in the final years of anthracite coal mining and manufacturing in Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA). As she says in her Afterword, "...the story connects humanity's choices around the globe. I wrote it to honor a people and a history I felt had become lost, and I wrote it as a way of understanding the choices before us."

Young uses the painting above as her point of departure and gives readers a child's perceptions of life in Scranton, then near the northern tip of the active anthracite coal fields. The book is filled with the innocent questions children ask and the answers given by adults and the memories of walking with her parents through her hollow and through downtown Scranton as the city fell apart. She recalls smells, tastes, sounds and other sensations with complete accuracy. She gives a tragic and stunning account of trying unsuccessfully as an eight-year-old to save her father's life, but this loss of a parent does not stand alone as the book's saddest moment because there is so much other loss recorded here: the insults of people not from the region directed at the people who live there, the loss of civil society and jobs, the loss of a familiar environment, the loss and altering of the region's environment for mining and railroads and highways, and Young's leaving the region as a young adult.

I know a good deal about what Young has recorded because my father's family lived in the Hazleton area, about one hour south of Scranton. She and I are about the same, age, I think, and I expected in my teenage and young adult years to live in the area, work in the mines or factories there, and retire and die there and be buried alonside of my relatives in a quiet cemetery in Weston. It didn't work out that way for me, but I clearly remember the smells, sounds and tastes that Young describes.

Young is absolutely correct when she writes about the mass depression and hopelessness that has taken hold in NEPA. That grim lack of hope likely set in during the early years of the 20th century and deepened over the decades. The region has been exploited by the coal and manufacturing companies and crooked politicians, wounded by union failures, beset by environmental crises that seem irreversible, and has more recently has been overwhelmed by drugs. These are Appalachia's special and concentrated on-going crises that take the intense forms that they do because mining and industrial Appalachia has functioned as a kind of "internal colony" within the United States. Anthracite is hardly used these days and the union-represented garment, textile and other industrial manufacturing are mostly gone and so the region is neglected and impoverished.

New immigrant labor in the region is exploited and faces discrimination not only from employers and political institutions, but from many of the descendents of the immigrants who worked in the mines and mills and who have been stuck there and whose lives are only marginally better than those of the new immigrants if they are better at all. The insularity and clannishness that Appalachia is known and harshly ridiculed for can be both a commonsense response to outsiders who often bring harm to the region and who also often disguise themselves as friends who are trying to help, but it can also be  means of dividing people who objectively share long-range interests. Paul Shackels' new book Ruined Anthracite: Historical Trauma in Coal-Mining Communities gives an excellent overview of these conditions and can be read along with Young's book.

Culm Bank in Beaver Brook, Pennsylvania, 2018. Credit: Paul Shackel

Young's book is filled with endearing recollections and tougher reflections that slowly and carefully build on one another in order to give readers an understanding of how values and world views were transmitted from adults to children in the anthracite region. The region was simply known as "The Anthracite" when I was young, and as the author points out the coal was "our coal" and people felt a defensive pride in their communities. "When all is still, when we're upstairs lying on our beds, we'll hear the coal trains rumble upgrade," Young says, "We know who we are. It's our coal on those treains. Our coal. Our fuel to burn."

 Young also remembers visiting a cemetery and says

Spread across the hill in small clusters, the gravestones mark households, naming those who lived together and leave spaces for those who will join them. Here we trace our names incised in gray granite. Our names: first and last, passed on to us. These are our uncles, aunties, and cousins in this fenced-in yard. They laid rails, blasted coal, opened doors to mines. They hauled and shoveled coal, and drank hard to blur hard living. Their hands pounded bread dough, watched it rise to pound again. They held their children in the night, feverish from influenza, dying from diphtheria.. And now they all lie, side-by-side, tiny headstones clustered behind large ones.

On this hillside the dead sleep. I imagine that their dreams drift down with the waters, float beneath the plank bridge, and past the tunnel. The quiet dances with the breeze that stirs and shakes the ribbons hung at each gravesite; the brook rolls over stones endlessly shushing, shushing.

But a train comes, breaking the stillness and the voice of the brook... 
  

An aunt, a great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my grandfather.  

Young also tackles how we came to understand something of our pasts, our relations, and Americanization in The Anthracite when she recalls her childhood confusion over when to use "Zi'" and when to use "Aunt" and "Uncle." The Italian words for "Aunt" and "Uncle" ---in my family they were "Zia" and "Zio"---were reserved for people born in The Old Country and the American words were used for relations born here, but these words were also used imprecisely. My Great Aunt Emma remains Zia Emma because she was born in The Old Country, but my Great Aunts Pally (Celeste) and Catherine were Aunt Pally and Aunt Catherine because they were born here. People we had no blood relationships with who were born here might also be called "Aunt Rita" or "Aunt Doris."

Young's memories and mine diverge on a few points, but I realize that the Hazleton area was different from Scranton in some respects despite their proximity and I trust her memory more than my own. She did not see photos of breaker boys as a child, but I certainly did. I don't remember coal trains hauling anthracite coal. Young says

It wasn't bad enough that our valley began emptying of people during the Great Depression and never stopped, or that the land was black while the rivers ran orange. It wasn't enough that smoke rose from the burning piles of waste coal lining the length of the Lackawanna River, and below ground, the mines caught fire. The air we breathed day and night was smoke-filled and reeked of the rotten-egg sulfur smell. The ornate nineteenth-century buildings, our fabulous city architecture, crumbled or mysteriously burned down. Around us everywhere were ill and unemployed miners, machinists, and factory workers. Sanatoriums topped the mountains---refuges for the wealthier members of the community with lung disease to escape the smoke for a while. Twice yearly, the Turberculosis Society van with its heavy x-ray equipment parked in front of our schools. We children entered it, and one by one splayed our chests on the screen to find out who among us were the next victims.    

Breaker boys

While thinking about the differences between Hazleton and Scranton I recalled meeting a man in a church in Baltimore from Hazleton many years ago. I had guessed that many people from The Anthracite attended that church and I wasn't wrong. The man was telling me about his wife and mentioned that she was from Scranton. He then said somewhat wistfully, "Imagine that! A girl from up in the Valley would marry a guy from Hazleton! No one thought that it work out, but it did." The man and his wife belonged to the same ethnic group, attended the same church, and were both blue-collar people, but something still separated their communities.

I want to make three concluding observations here. Whether they intended to or not, it seems to me that the adults in the book were preparing Young for an adult life outside of the region. They often encouraged her childhood curiosity and intellct and they gave her the tools needed to succeed. Young implies this, I think, but she doesn't tell readers if this was the case or not. Second, I think that Young and I share the angst or survivor's guilt that comes with having left the region. There is much in the book about how she left, but there is less about why she left and about why she does not return.

Last, near the end of the book Young provides something like a land acknowledgement that mentions the Lenape people who were forced out of the region by white settlers and colonialism. This is welcome, and it could have gone into greater and deeper detail, but something else comes to my mind here as well. Today across much of Appalachia children will show up for holiday and other social events and go for the candy and presents or prizes, but it happens frequently that they also check to see where the Narcan is for the adults with them. "Look, Grandma, the Narcan is there!" you might hear a five-year-old shout. Young does a great job when she contrasts where she now lives in the Midwest with The Anthracite and when she recalls how people not from the region can be callous when they think about the region and our people. That critique is a necessary part of the story, but time is moving on and we have to see this new development as well. It is not only about mournig what we have lost and about defensively protecting our cherished memories and people, but also about seeing the next step being taken in the region's alienation and fighting back. 

Note: Thanks to Charlie Stephens of Sea Wolf Books for recomending this book. Please see the Sea Wolf Books website for a list of their classes and retreats and to order books.  

A Meditation With Alan Felts

My friend Alan Felts and a friend of his took a hike on an old road in McDowell County, West Virginia where they live and Alan posted the following comments and these phtos---and much more---on his  Facebook page. Alan is a deeply spiritual man and a great photographer, and Belcher Mountain is home to him. That mountain feels to me like a place that encourages spirituality and reverence for creation. When I have been there, and when I see photos from there, I think of Ola Belle Reed's song "High On A Mountain." I know that some of you get tired of hearing me refer to this song, but this is an important anchor in my spiritual life.

I am posting this with Alan's permission and with the thought that his words and the photos will make an excellent Lenten meditation for some of us. How many roads have we traveled with others and how many of these have been lost? What do our memories weigh in our lives? Do you feel a resposibility to carry on and tell the stories of those roads and those people? How does this connect to your religion and your spirituality? Where is your "thin space" and are you taking good care of it?

Me and my boy Fritz decided to take a hike along the original road bed that you used to take up Belcher Mountain. If I remember correctly, my grandfather always told me this road was built by hand by convicts. It was humbling to think the last time I was on this road was with my grandfather many years ago. I imagined he and his twin brother walking this road when they were kids. It's hard to imagine that a road once heavily traveled has been lost to the ages, except for the few of us that know it's story and location.

The same can be said for each of our lives. In the end, it will be a select few that remembers us, and eventually we will become but a whisper on the memory of time. Enjoy your family and loved ones ya'll, the memories you make today will become the fading memories of tomorrow. Keep telling their stories so they will continue to brighten our hearts!

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." - Psalm 16:11 ESV

"Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure." - Proverbs 4:26 ESV

"Stay true to yourself, yet always be open to learn. Work hard, and never give up on your dreams, even when nobody else believes they can come true but you. These are not cliches but real tools you need no matter what you do in life to stay focused on your path." -Phillip Sweet

“My Banned Black History Sermons” is now in print

From The South Carolina Uited Methodist Advocate:

A new book from the Advocate Press has been released just in time for Black History Month.

Called “My Banned Black History Sermons,” the book from the Rev. Amiri Hooker features a number of sermons that were rejected from a sermon website because they didn’t align with the site’s view’s about biblical history. Some of the sermons maintain that Jesus was Black and came from Africa.

“As someone with 30 years of preaching experience, 20 of those years ordained in The United Methodist Church, I believe the concept of a Black Jesus is not out of line with Scripture,” Hooker wrote in the book’s preface. “In the midst of the current climate marked by the surge in White Christian nationalism and evangelical divisiveness, I sense that it’s an ideal time to explore the concepts surrounding a cultural perspective of Jesus as Black.

“This is also a prime time for all faith groups to be exposed to Black history sermons that speak to relevant theologies of the post COVID-19 world.”

The book is available from the Advocate at https://advocatesc.org/store/books/my-banned-black-history-sermons and on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTFJRZWJ

A wonderful Lenten reflection for today from Pope Francis

 

The righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ (Mt 25: 37-40)

May our concern for the poor always be marked by Gospel realism. Our sharing should meet the concrete needs of the other, rather than being just a means of ridding ourselves of superfluous goods. Here too, Spirit-led discernment is demanded, in order to recognize the genuine needs of our brothers and sisters and not our own personal hopes and aspirations. What the poor need is certainly our humanity, our hearts open to love. Let us never forget that “we are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them” (Evangelii Gaudium, 198). Faith teaches us that every poor person is a son or daughter of God and that Christ is present in them. “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

— Homily, 24 January 2021

“King Jesus” done by Dootsie Rose---One of my favorites

 

I don't know, but I think that this is how it is supposed to work

I do not enjoy getting labs done before visits to the doctor or visiting with my doctor at Salem Health. The guy who does my medications management and the women who work in that office are great, but I find dealing with even the most competent and friendly people at Salem Health stressful. Part of the problem for me is that Salem Health has either contracted with a security company or has directly hired security staff who I think take matters just a bit too far sometimes. Their jobs seem necessary these days, but their presence and how they handle incoming patients gives Salem Health the feeling of being more of a correctional facility and less of a healthcare facility. And as I consider the situation, it occurs to me that patients and staff are being set up by the system to be in opposition to one another. It's no wonder that my blood pressue is extremely high after I go through security, and no matter what blood pressure meds the doctor prescribes my numbers are going to be high so long as I feel as if I'm visiting a jail.

But today I over-reacted when the young Latine guy at the door did what he gets paid to do and gave the woman in front of me and me a hard time. I was just out of line in response to that. And it's the beginning of Lent. And I ask God every day in my prayers for repentence, reconciliation and the joys of God's salvation and to see Christ in others and to serve others and serve Christ. I wasn't just out of line when I went in, but when I left as well and had to get the Leatherman tool that I carry to be helpful to others back from the guard. What kind of hypocrite and sinner am I?

He's a young Latine guy trying to make a living and I'm a white retiree who looks and sounds like I'm part of the Trump demographic. We're in a tight hallway, there are other people in line, no one looks happy, and I just want to get in and get the lab work done and get out of there. I have plans to stop at a nearby greasy spoon and eat some down-home-bad-for-you food after all of this is done with. He is probably counting the minutes 'til quitting time. That wand that he's waving and the rent-a-cop vibe does nothing for me. My red neck and my attitude don't do anything for him. All of this is getting paid for by Salem Health, alleged to be a non-profit, taking my Medicare and insurance money, and probably bribes from Big Pharma as well, and then paying him less than a living wage and trying to convince me to take more meds than I need. We pay for insurance, not healthcare. He pays them with his uncompensated labor. 

Under better circumstances, then, that security guard and I would understand that we're both working-class people trying to get through our days and that both our lives would be so much better if we recognized that and acted in solidarity and love in encountering one another. But this was not a moment for that.

As I said, I went out of line with the guy with my attitude and with what I said and with my body language. 

I got through with the lab work, got my tool back, and headed for the car.

My soul just hurt. I don't like that hard and arrogant side of me. A few years back a friend called me out for it and questioned where it came from. I had no good response. He died a few days later without me being able to explain myself. It's a survival mechanism, but wouldn't I rather live and help others than be hard, survival-oriented, reactive and arrogant? 

I went to the greasy spoon and paid too much for a meal that would probably have tasted much better had I not had that ache in my soul.

I headed back to Salem Health and waited 'til the folks in line got into the office and I looked the guy in the eyes and apologized. I tried to explain where I was coming from, how I probably have some PTSD around be wanded, and how the system divides people and makes us opponents. That sounded to me as if I were making excuses so I took responsibility for what I did and asked if he and I were good, I asked his name, and I asked if he needed anything. We had a short and relatively human exchange given the circumstances. We both probably came off a little harder than we had to, but he forgave me. I didn't feel better when I left, but I felt as if he and I had done some of the hard work of being human beings living in an oppressive system during Lent.

The Lord can turn around a bad day, and does that for me most days. If the Lord can turn around a bad day, the Lord will also turn around a bad season or a misdirected life. Most Christians will tell you that if you pray to God then God will step in and work miracles for you. How many of my days begin with sadness and end with joy, and isn't that a taste of heaven right here and right now! Well and good, but what too few Christians will tell you is that we either have to climb over or take a 4340 steel blacksmith hammer to those racial, age, and gender barriers that are intentionally and systyemically constructed and that surmounting those barriers is also a great miracle. Maybe I didn't make it over the wall today, but I saw the potential for a miracle. Just seeing that possibility, being reminded of it, gave me a taste of heaven. I hope that it gave him that taste as well.  

I don't know, but I think that this is how it's supposed to work for some of us.    

       

An Ash Wednesday Meditation from Pope Francis

 

When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. (Mt 6: 5-6)

Prayer, charity and fasting need to grow “in secret”, but that is not true of their effects. Prayer, charity and fasting are not medicines meant only for ourselves, but for everyone: they can change history. First, because those who experience their effects almost unconsciously pass them on to others; but above all, because prayer, charity and fasting are the principal ways for God to intervene in our lives and in the world. They are weapons of the spirit.

- Homily, Ash Wednesday 2022 This came from he Catholic Near East Welfare Association.

A thought-provoking point by Johnny Ova

The following post by Johnny Ova on Facebook says much of what I was trying to say in my post here yesterday.

I do take some issue with the "... spoke with were the people the Church could not stand. They HATED Jesus because He chose to love and serve them rather than the religious" and "The love of Jesus is so deep, it's offensive to the flesh." We need to be clearer about the actual social, political and religious conditions that Jesus lived in. Amy-Jill Levine (see here and here for starters) is tremendously helpful in this area. It seems to me that "the flesh" yearns for the love of Jesus. An old Old Regular Baptist hymn puts this very well. But I think that the main points being made in Johnny Ova in his post are sound.

Johnny Ova wrote: 

How weak does the Church think love is.

It was because of His love that I was forever changed.

You don't need to change, then meet Jesus
.
You meet Jesus and then change.

I was told to repent and change so many times and it did nothing but make be rebel even more. It wasn't until I experienced Jesus on a personal level, right where I was at...that changed my life and transformed my heart.

You don't earn His love with your choices. You already are loved by a perfect love. And it is in that meeting with perfect love, that all fear is cast away and transformation happens.

The Church is so scared of Jesus washing the feet of a "sinner" because they feel like they haven't "earned" their feet to be washed.

Every person that Jesus hung out with, named Apostles, ate with, spoke with were the people the Church could not stand. They HATED Jesus because He chose to love and serve them rather than the religious.

The love of Jesus is so deep, it's offensive to the flesh. He needs to love who we love and hate who we hate or else it's not "Christian".

A HUGE wake up call is taking place. Not to the non believer, but to the believer. A Revelation of who Jesus is, will be, and who He always was.

How do we understand "preaching the word of God"?

A preacher posted the following on Facebook the other day:

While I am excited that our church is growing, I am heartbroken to hear what people are experiencing in other places. I had a lady tell me yesterday that she visited 4 churches before coming to our church and none of them where preaching the word of God. Please be kind with your comments, but is this what others are experiencing across the nation? When did the call to preach and teach begin to speak about everything but the word? Church this should sound an alarm in our hearts and we need to pray that God will bring our people back to his word.

Most of the responses were of the order of the following:

* (T)hat new word is often an old trick.

* Absolutely. Preach the word and don't sugar or water it down!!!! Keep preaching my brother in Christ.

* When was it this happened was your question. Judas started desiring the money, and the love of money is the root of all evil. Jesus is and was the Word. Either love all of Him, or the devil will come up with the silver for you to sell out Jesus.

* Everything that is not Christ is antichrist. Whatsoever is not of faith is of sin. Many like Jesus but few really love Him. Love your enemies. Take up your cross. Deny yourself. All of these and many many more are words Jesus taught. Today's lying messages are your best life now, and the carnal man loves that, but it is one of hundreds of doctrines of demons swallowed whole.

* Like chugging a camel, there is nothing there that survives Bible searching.

I think that you can see from these sample responses that there are people out there who have strong feelings about how the word of God is preached and what that means. I believe that everyone who responded is sincere. There are some subtle or emerging disagreements and contradictions expressed in the responses that I believe are healthy.

I wrote a lengthy response---more of a plea, actually---and it was quickly taken down.  I believe that my comments were taken down because I challenged the premise of the pastor's questions. I did not save my response, and I don't want to engage in polemics, but my points came down to the following:

* Let's tread gently here. It may be that some of us are hearing something that we're not prepared for now in a particular church, but we may need that message later in life. It may be that we're filtering what we're hearing only through our experiences and how we analyze those expriences rather than through what the Holy Spirit is calling us to and hoew the Holy Spirit wants us to analyze our conditions. It may be that we're either being mislead by the so-called "prosperity gospel" or that the relative privileges we enjoy here in the U.S. condition us and bend us more towards Ceasar than Christ and that we're confusing the two. It may be that we have a trauma- or abuse-driven mechanism in our heads that pushes us to binary views of the world and of how we encounter Scripture.

* The real issue here may also be our hard-heartedness. Preaching the word of God may take many forms, and not everyone will grasp or feel good about how that happens in environments that they're not comfortable with. For instance, I have attended a church where the majoirity of the congregation were houseless, on various medications, self-medicating, and struggling with surviving on the streets and the mental and emotional challenges that come with that. That is a very different exprience than where Christians are better off and more comfortable. The word of God is necessarily communicated and shared and experienced differently across places, times, and social groups.

* The church has experienced the word of God differently since our earliest days. It isn't news that some Christians object to how the word of God is preached and lived in other churches. If you find yourself in a church where you don't think the preaching and the living out is consistent with how you understand the word of God, take some gentle time to discern where it is that you may belong and search and pray to land in that place. But please be open to the possibility that you may want to return to the place that you're now uncomfortable in some day and that the Holy Spirit may work in that place and lead it and give that place grace and blessings that you are not receiving. 

* Matthew 10:14-15 does show that Jesus gave clear instructions to His disciples about how to respond to those who who reject the preaching of the word in the Spirit, but that was a commandment given to the disciples that came with other commandments regarding "the lost sheep of Israel," the radical message that "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," and curing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, and driving out demons without cost. We should set ourselves the tasks of healing the sick and raising the dead through social action, a necessary form of preaching the word of God. But so many Christians in the United States do something else. We judge ourselves and others when we're told not to judge. Please try to leave judging to God and be about the work of taking care of the hungry, the thirsty, the poor, the naked, and the imprisoned. We are quite busy shaking the dust from our feet because of what we think happened at another church---and folks at that church are doing the same after encountering us. And, meanwhile, creation is suffering and crying out in agony.

* Who do I know who preaches the word of God? I know a fellow in Southern West Virginia who is not a preacher in a conventional sense but who is gentle and soulful and cautions folks not to judge, and you can feel the Spirit moving in him. His life is a good sermon. I know a preacher in Southeast Kentucky who is part of the Primitive Baptist Universalist community who preaches a Biblically-based universalism and Preterism that most Christians around there can't yet accept, but they can't explain why and he has gotten run off from some churches. You might come into my church on a Sunday and not hear what you think is the word of God being preached, but my pastor's sermons have moved the mountains of my conscience. There is often "something in the air" in my church that assures us and heals us. When our pastor absolves us of our sins as a pastor I can feel that healing taking place. These are among the continuing miracles to be found in the churtch to this day. Bishop William Barber II and Repairers of the Breach  preach the word of God and live the word of God. Why is their message sidelined or ignored by the church? You will need much more than proof texts to challenge these preachers if you don't believe that they're preaching the word of God.

* The idea that some pastors or churches are not preaching the word of God comes as part of a construct that seems to be saying that the word of God must come to us as harsh condemnation. From my universalist perspective, Scripture seems to say instead that the word of God is sweet ("sugarcoating"?) even when it calls us to repentence and correction. That construct also seems to be saying that it's a one-size-fits-all message, but God gave us diversity and gifts of the Spirit, and Scripture opens the door to many possibilities---and God is still speaking and creation still holds us despite our sins and errors. The preachers who I most often hear working within this conservative construct often pose as radicals. "I may get arrested or get in trouble for preaching this, but..." is often used. But, in fact, their message is not a dangerous one or out of step with the society we live in at all. The victimization being preached suits the Trump folks perfectly. It seems to me that "bring(ing) our people back to his word" (see above) at the present moment is very much about building new relationships with one another and doing this in ways that both weaken the conservative paradigm and builds God's kingdom from the kinds of people our Lord loved most deeply.  

* At this very moment the scandal that we are trapped in is not about a moderrn church not hearing the true word of God being preached, I think. It's about how deeply the legacies of relative privilege and power, racism, sexism, militarism, and trauma have conditioned us. It's about our excesses while the world is suffering, and it's about our lack of sobriety and healthy relationships. It's about the church being silent as Israel carries out genocidal policies and about how complicit we are in that. It's about living in a world that can still be saved if we make God real in our prayers and in our lives and in our daily work, and it's about how so many of us opt for forms of death (addiction, oppression, injustice, violence) when God offers life.

        

 

Denny Karchner gets it mostly (and helpfully) right

I don't know who Denny Karchner is, but as a univerasalist I identify with much of what is said in the graphic above. Denny Kartchner has a website and he has a couple of Facebook pages and a strong presence on other social media as well. 

My quibbles here are with the idea that we will have a post-mortem conversation with God in our bodies and that some folks may take from this graphic that some kind of punishment or an eternal hell awaits people who have not loved people as God called us to. "The world to come" refers to both actual social and human relations in this world and to an after-death and resurrection that is spiritual. I believe, or tend to believe, that people who do not love others as God called us to---almost all of us---are experiencing degrees of hell now for not loving others. I also tend to view hell as something cleansing. The Holy Spirit is there and everywhere and God can and does save us from suffering; hell is not eternal, at least not as we think of "eternal." Those who do not or cannot love here may well find themselves in their spiritual forms there having to come to terms with why love didn't work for them and learning love as their necessary lesson before entering heaven. 

Anyway. I do deeply appreciate Karchner's point of view as expressed here.      

Joan Chittester on traditions and welcoming others

All our traditions, Jewish, Christian and Muslim teach that the human race and every human being is created in the image of God.

We must remember to welcome ourselves and each other and all who begin as strangers into the Tent that is open to all.

--Joan Chittester

Photo from the National Catholic reporter

Responses to "My problem is that I have said things and done bad things and I have a very difficult time forgiving myself."

 A friend of mine posted the following message on Facebook last night:

In my life, my walk of Faith is difficult and fraught with doubt. I have no trouble with believing that Jesus loves me; He proved that to me 2000 years ago on the Cross at Calvary. He loves us all.
My problem is that I have said things and done bad things and I have a very difficult time forgiving myself.
Does anyone out there relate to me in this situation? I'm a Senior citizen with health issues. In my last years, I want to be useful to God, not running away from Him
I was prayed over by five Christian friends today....
Maybe I just need to trust God's Love and help others...

These are common and real concerns that many people have. How do we know love and do forgiveness? How do we help ourselves and help others along as we struggle with questions of faith and meaning? My starting point here is in the Christian Bible with Philippians 4:4-9, but I am not one for giving people a Bible verse and leaving things there. I asked a few trusted people in my life for their reactions and suggestions. I'm going to post their responses as I get them, but please feel good about posting your reactions as well and please check back to see additional responses. 

One friend wrote:

When Jesus died on the cross he said it was finished... I struggled with that too but one day someone asked me if the God of the universe forgives everything I've ever done wrong then who am I to not forgives myself. I would suggest prayer and read the bible ask God to help and he will praying for ya in Jesus name. Also tell him to think about Paul the man who wrote most of the new testament. He was a persecutor of christians.

Another friend wrote:

Well . . . To me, this falls in the “What is mine?” category. Forgiveness of my sins is not mine to decide. My opportunity is to ask for forgiveness. My responsibility is to learn how to not do it again. Too much time worrying about my future - obscures my seeing and serving others. [Easier said than done] One more: The future is unknown. We can plan. We can guess. We can discuss. We can worry. How much have we spent on the unknown.

And another friend wrote:

Sounds like that cloud of doubt is trying to block him from really knowing God’s love.
God loves us like we love our children, unconditional love. When He looks at us, he doesn’t see our faults and sins, He sees his Son, Jesus, who gave his very life for us.
Love beyond measure is hard to accept.
We only see our sinful selves. But God looks at us with the eyes of a Father. It brings Him joy to forgive us. He wants to smother us with His love.
But we see ourselves as unworthy and miss out on the blessings He willingly gives us.
God is love, that’s not a feeling He has, it’s who He is.
Sometimes we just need to be silent and feel that love He has for us.
We need to stop arguing in our hearts and minds and just be quiet and listen.
We get in our own way.
I’ll pray your friend finds that peace he’s looking for. More important I pray he sees who God really is.

A good message for Mondays

 

How others become refugees....

 

A Poem By Steve Cline And My Reflection On That Poem

One of the more difficult barriers to get over in religion or spirituality is the difficulty so many of us have in holding several opposing notions in mind at the same time. We can be pretty set in our ways and unwilling to consider other opinions when what's needed is just that ability to deal with dualities and contradictions and living with some mystery for a time. 

Think about how we might see things: sinner versus saint, good versus bad, others versus me. Most of the time these constructions are convenient ways of justifying ourselves and damning others, or they are concessions to an unjust social order. "What a coincidence it is that God hates the same people and the same things that I do!" we might say. "That woman up ahead in line should have planned her shopping ahead of time and shouldn't be holding me up looking for money she doesn't have!" we might say out of a place of being judgmental and self-centered while waiting in line with our groceries. Maybe being too set in our ways reflects past disappointments or loss or abuse, or perhaps for some of us it's an easy way of giving in to the conditions we live under rather than trying to change things. Some folks attach themselves to holding one set of opinions or one worldview to the exclusion of all others because something has hurt them in the past and now they want order and control over something or themselves.   

I am not saying that there are not sinners and saints and good and evil or to argue for a world in which everything is relative and that human beings do not have choices and power. I am not saying that human kindness and solidarity do not have their limits. I'm not objecting to people with good ideas or lots of questions being passionate about what's on their minds. I do want to suggest that there is another way to frame our experience in the world.

What I want to introduce is another thought and a change in direction when we consider dualities and contradictions. Think about how God may see things. God is All-Knowing, but God is also approachable. God is Absolutely Pure, but God took human form and dwelt with us in our messiness. God is Almighty, but God suffered and died on the cross, and that cross holds all of our sins. God is All Powerful, but God is alongside us and shares in our weaknesses. God exists outside of time, but contains time and is The All-Responsive One who bestows mercy to us within time.

There is in God a necessary comprehension of duality and contradiction. It is not that God has to or may contain this, or that God chooses to love and not hate, but that love is God's nature and that in love there are spectrums and possibilities and mysteries. Time as we know it is the space or place or event within which (or during which) we cross spectrums, work through possibilities, resolve contradictions, and come to freedom with others and within God. You can test this next time you're in line at the store by looking around you and reflecting on God's presence in the people you see, in their very faces.

My friend Steve Cline recently posted a comment and a poem on Facebook that may open a door to considering what I'm saying here. I don't think that Steve is a universalist, as I am, but his comment and poem speak to how our lives develop in the context of God's creation. The poem speaks to change as being a constant within that creation, and a constant that gives us choices. Here is Steve's comment and poem:  

I whole heartedly feel like this was given to me from the Lord a couple days ago, I just started writing.

Many broken branches
Many trees with shallow roots,
When they were young, they flourished,
but now have become dry and brittle
A day has past and still no thirst for life
Tomorrow darkness comes, then the rain
Will any trees soak up the water
Or will death consume them?
Fear of the Lord is the way to Freedom
Some of you have lost your First Love
It's time to return
Don't hesitate, make haste, REPENT

A blessing-filled Friday to you and yours!

 

An encounter between the Murid and Mennonite faiths

The Anabaptist World of January 31, 2024 has an interesting article by Lynda Hollinger-Janzen on an encounter between the Murid and Mennonite faiths in Paris on November 25. We generally think of Murids as part of the Sufi tradition, although the article in The Anabaptist World describes them as a  "Muslim renewal movement." The Mennonites self-describe as being "an Anabaptist, Christian denomination with roots in the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe." I want to recommend that you red the short article and prayerfully consider what is being said there and the implications of the encounter.

Photo from The Anabaptist World

I believe that the Holy Spirit leads people of faith to such work as this. I also believe that people who attempt this work have to be prepared for it by the Holy Spirit. The article points out that both Murids and Mennonites

— Practice nonviolence, which grows out of a belief that all people are children of God and are called to forgive their enemies rather than take revenge.

— Have histories of migration and establishing self-supporting faith communities wherever they go.

— Tend to be inwardly focused on sustaining religious life and practice yet have made positive contributions to the societies in which they have settled. For example, Infinity Mennonite Church and the Murid Islamic Community in America — each unaware of the other’s work — both contributed to the revitalization of Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City, in the 1990s and early 2000s.

In a sense, then, preparation for this encounter began decades or centuries ago and proceeded through times of difficult struggles, violence and persecutions and then entered into community building. The "heat" of the past made people malleable and (I think) then cleansed and sharpened them so that they could approach one another within democratic and non-violent contexts and begin conversations that allowed the participants to "talk respectfully about what separates us" and not "risk falling into squishy dialogue that isn’t fruitful.” From that "atmosphere of confidence and trust" something "wholesome and solid" might be constructed "that we can offer our religious communities and the societies in which we live.” This paraphrasing is taken from the article.

My point in looking at this in the framework that I am is to recall that the hard and difficult times come to us as tests and that they create possibilities that we cannot imagine in the moment. Also, these possibilities often blossom into their full beauty under conditions of democracy and relationship-based trust and non-violence. Political conditions and political consciousness matters because they interact with our spirituality, each shaping the other. And if the Holy Spirit is indeed guiding us to encounter and love one another through tearing down the walls that separate us, then the Holy Spirit desires democracy and peace. These encounters strengthen my universalism in the sense that they help me better see and appreciate how Spirit-led movements function across time, countries and cultures.  Finally, I am mourning for the lost opportunities over the centuries and for our unwillingness to encounter others as equals and as partners. We are making "the work of making God real" incredibly difficult by allowing unreasonable and ill-advised competition, violence, exploitation, offenses against creation, racism and sexism and national chauvinism.

Thank you to the Murids and Mennonites for stepping forward!