Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

A Handful of Reasons to Join a Church [despite the exodus] - Sharad Yadav

S harad Yadav is Lead Pastor of Bread & Wine church in Portland, OR.

As I try to remember why the hell I do this for a living, here is a handful of reasons, dear friends, to consider joining a church:

1. To join a church is to commit to a social circle you do not get to choose and can therefore show you whether your spirituality is bullshit or not

2. Joining a church is a way of practicing - among a small group of people over a significant period of time - what you’d like the world to be like

3. To join a church is to live in rebellion against the neoliberal and capitalist forces which are brainwashing you into making your consumer desire the center of the world, reducing all your experiences of the world (including all the people in it) to instruments and resources.

4. Joining a church is to organize your life around a time to confess your limitations, culpability and imperfections together with other people so that you can get used to receiving divine forgiveness and hope in response to your honesty.

5. To join a church is to resist all traditional loyalties to state, party, culture, family or affinity in an act of loyalty to a group that transcends all natural categories

6. Joining a church organizes your financial priorities around supporting an inclusive community for vulnerable people . . . that you actually have to live with.

7. To join a church is to cultivate an environment unlike your home, work, or play where your life is not measured according to any other purpose or goal than to discover and enjoy your own humanity.

8. Joining a church is a way of maintaining healthy skepticism about human knowledge and capacities in the language of divine mystery.

9. To join a church is to cultivate an imagination for how your unique talents and creative potential can be offered on purpose for love instead of money

10. Joining a church is a life lesson in how to deal with assholes without retaliating, dehumanizing or running away (in the desperate hope of not becoming an a$$hole).

On "A Letter from Hell" by Wayne Northey

Wayne Northey's Reflections in Response to Robin Schumacher's article, https://www.christianpost.com/news/a-letter-from-hell.html 

Interesting that the photo chosen (see it here) for Schumacher's article is along the lines of what Larry Dixon wrote (The Other Side of the Good News: Contemporary Challenges to Jesus’ teaching on hell) in apparent approval of an instance of “horrific violence” by the U.S. Empire in the first Gulf War:

A brave journalist who was in Baghdad when the bombs landed, cried out in his television report, ‘I have been in hell.’As horrible as war is we would have to say to him, ‘No, you haven’t. If we understand Jesus correctly, war is only a small foreshadowing of that final condition of the forsaken (p. 14, emphasis in original).’

Besides the sanctimonious piety in these kinds of warnings, the tragic flaw in Dixon’s book begins with the title: there is no other side to the Good News, or it simply ceases to be such . . .

Or as 19th-century American newspaper columnist, Matt Miller, wrote in an ironic riff on Evangelicals’ all-time favourite verse, John 3:16 (I love the verse too!):

For God so loved the world that he temporarily died to save it from himself. But none of that really matters because most people will be tortured for eternity anyways.

John Alexander dedicates his book,Your Money or Your Life: A New Look at Jesus’ View of Wealth and Power (1986), to his father this way: “He is an unusual           fundamentalist; for he believes that inerrancy extends to the teachings of Jesus.” 

There is indeed an arcane footnote/exception–clause theology of John 3:16 at play – and more generally amongst conservative “Evangelicals” by extension. As a good fundamentalist, I discovered eventually to my shock that apparently John 3:16 has a reprised footnote inserted into so many Christians’ Bibles–what one could call a footnote/exception clause theology at work in the text. It is never stated out loud, however. But it is observably no less binding dogma.

After “world,” “whosoever,” “perish,” and “life” the footnote reads: “except our enemies.” They must in fact be exterminated–and be relegated to hell (whom as God’s enemies Christians are to hate with a pure zeal, so claims Larry Dixon, discussion of whose sad book is in my: WAR AND HELL – and Exception-Clause Footnote Theology)! Yet, I was always taught in my upbringing it was the “Liberals,” so-claimed masters of the exception clause and footnote theology, who played fast and loose with Scripture…

It seems almost invariably the case that apologists such as the writer of the article highlighted below spend inordinate energy “apologizing” for an image of God that if true, would so fundamentally contradict all ethical concepts of human decency, that one could simply grant them such a “god”–and be done with the entire travesty of religion!

Not unlike legitimizing during the Crusades the kind of message given by the Papal Legate–Chaplain–who told the soldiers at the siege of Béziers France in 1209¹:

Kill them all. God will recognize his own.

How lovely and endearing of “god!”

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Paul Zizka's "Aloft: Canadian Rockies Aerial Photographs" - review by Ron Dart

Ron Dart

Paul Zizka, Aloft: Canadian Rockies Aerial Photographs (RMB, 2021).

There are photographic books on the Canadian Rockies worthy of a few scans and there are superb books on the Canadian Rockies—such is Aloft. The title and subtitle offer the curious the visual nature of this bounty of a book. The photographs are, indeed, taken from above the Rockies and the photographer is very much aloft, the “Introduction” by Zizka worthy of a reflective read (as are his visual gifts).

The photographs taken reflect all the seasons in the Canadian Rockies and track the varied faces and forms of the Rockies in a sort of ordered journey, Rundle Range and Three Sisters near Canmore taking the lead and initial bow, Mount Assiniboine area stepping on stage to strut its sheer beauty. Then, it’s to Banff, Lake Minnewanka, Sulphur Mountain, Mount Louis and Mount Norquay ski hill bounties not to miss.  The photographic journey turns northward to Castle Mountain, Sunshine Meadows (summer and winter on display), Bourgeau Lake, Shadow Lake, Storm Mountain and Shadow Lake Lodge next on the Rocky Mountain and Taylor Lake aloft tour. It was inevitable, of course, on the photographic overview of the Rockies that Lake Louise and Moraine Lake would be next to visit, their expansive and epic-like grandeur worthy of multiple meditative moments. Those who have lingered and trekked in the area are amply rewarded by photographs of Eiffel Lake, Sentinel Pass, Lake Agnes (tea hut ever-present), Temple, Victoria-Lefroy and Louise Ski Hill, of course. Lake Louise freezes in the winter and the shoveled Lake near Chateau is cleared and turned into rinks to skate on (many pleasant memories of skating on Louise in winter). Zizka has eloquently captured the golden beauty of the alpine larches in the early autumn, Abbot Hut above the higher tea hut suitable for many a night stay (such tales to be told from Abbot Hut). The photographic pilgrimage continues to the ever-charming Lake O’Hara region with its rich and layered history, Yoho, many trails done there and Takakkaw Falls a place not to miss (many a night spent sleeping at the base of it). The turn is then made, ever aloft, to Kootenay National Park, the Icefields Parkway the journey ever northward from an aerial perspective, Bow Lake highlighted (treks taken from there worth the doing as is kayaking on the lake), Peyto Lake frontstaged (the starting point for the Wapta Traverse).

The aerial overview maintains a northwards flight, Saskatchewan and Athabasca Glaciers illuminated, crevasses noted and Mount Athabasca (climb worth the effort) duly noted, tourist trips part of the photographic package. Jasper National Park, rightly so, comes into attractive and compelling hue, Fortress Lake, Hooker Icefield and Chisel Peak but tasters and teasers. But, to Jasper and Edith Cavell, Fairmont, Chevron and Ramparts, Tonquin Valley and Amethyst Lakes photographs not to miss (nor, in the Rockies, treks not to miss). Humber Provincial Park is given its prominent places as is Mount Alberta and the ever attractive Maligne Lake, Mt. Robson and Berg Lake next on the agenda as Jasper is left behind.

There is much more that could be said about this photographic and aerial overview of the Canadian Rockies, but for those who have done many of the trips in the area, skated, skied, trekked, hiked and climbed many of the peaks, Aloft is a memory massager and reminder of the vast, compelling, immense and perennial appeal of the Canadian Rockies. Aloft is certainly worth the purchase and the photographs, descriptions and vividness of the tour a journey not to miss.

montani semper liberi

Ron Dart                       

Boaz's Feet and Ultimate Reconciliation - Scott Klaudt

One thing I have found in a life of discovery is once you see something you can’t unsee it. It can be something you weren’t supposed to see but can’t get it out of your mind. Or something you weren’t really looking for, but it was “awakened” in you. Two of those things for me are feet and Ultimate Reconciliation in the Bible.

I hate feet. I wear socks all the time. When I was playing basketball, my feet would get sweaty gross and needed to breathe. I didn’t care, I wore my socks to bed. Looking back, I know why my feet hurt. By the end of the season, they looked like swiss cheese. Hating feet sounds anti-gospel since we’re called to “wash each other’s feet.” Sorry, give me garbage, a scrub brush, anything but feet.

Ruth is a story about feet, some of it anyways. A story where a young woman, far from home, caught the attention of the owner of the property she was working on. She was kind to her mother-in-law Naomi (husband was dead) and word spread throughout the camp. Boaz, the owner of the field, made notice. If I can be somewhat politically incorrect, I’m guessing it wasn’t just her kindness that caught his attention. You get it, don’t cancel me, please.

When Naomi finds out Ruth has caught his attention, she devises a plan. Ruth is to go to the threshing floor and lay at Boaz’s (gulp) feet. Gross. She listens to the advice of her mother and in the middle of the night lays down to warm his feet. The same way my wife puts her ice-cold feet on me to warm up. Not my thing, but Boaz dug it.  

He wakes up, makes a vow that he will redeem her if he can’t find anyone else willing to do so. He was an older man, so maybe his insecurities were sprouting up, who knows. What we know is redeeming her meant buying her. Taking her from her current situation of slavery and bringing her into his home at a price. What does she have to do? Nothing, just believe he has paid for her freedom. Sound familiar?

He goes to town but nobody thought she was “worth” the money so he did what he said. Paid full price for her, paraded her around as his bride, had children with her, and they lived happily ever after. That’s it, cool story, I guess. Just wait.

The thing that I couldn’t unsee, besides disgusting feet, was something Naomi said to her while giving her the game plan:

Ruth 2:20 “Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn His kindness from the living and from the dead.”

Notice, “living and the dead.” Like those who are on the other side of the great chasm that separates us? Like his mercy that never ends, in this age or the next? I get it, some might say that’s a stretch. She was clearly referring to her dead husband and two sons we read about in the beginning. That’s true, but do the scriptures not reach into every age? Could there be a message behind the message?

The great Church Father Origen thought so!

“If you try to reduce the divine meaning to the purely external signification of the words, the Word will have no reason to come down to you. It will return to its secret dwelling, which is contemplation that is worthy of it. For it has wings, this divine meaning, given to it by the Holy Spirit who is its guide ... But to be unwilling ever to rise above the letter, never to give up feeding on the literal sense, is the mark of a life of falsehood.”

 Ouch.

Here is why I believe this story is worthy of the “hope” of Ultimate Reconciliation. Ruth was a Moabite who married into a Jewish family. The “chosen” ones.  Where did the Moabites come from? I won’t get too graphic since maybe you don’t want images you can’t unsee yourself, but you can read it in Genesis 19. The short story: Ruth was a byproduct of an incestuous relationship between Lot and one of his daughters. One daughter had a son from a booze-filled night and named him Moab. Good luck with that.  

Ruth was an enemy of God since she was an enemy of Israel. She was lucky to be married into the family to be “saved.” Then she finds herself unworthy again, and in that culture, if you were an unmarried women life was pretty much over. Dead. Then her redeemer stepped up and paid for it all bringing her, even in death, into the fold once again. Will Jesus stop doing this, even after death?

Once you get the lens of ultimate reconciliation, the lens that God’s kindness never runs out, these passages pop off the page. The same way I can go into a room and instantly see if someone doesn’t have their shoes on. It’s hard not to see it once you see it. Both the Moabite and the Jew needed saving. Both needed grace and both got it at the threshing floor which was symbolic of redemption.

Ruth and Boaz did have a child named Obed. Guess where? Bethlehem where Jesus was born too! Obed gave birth to David who would become the king of Israel and of course go way down the line, and Mary would have Jesus, who would eventually have his feet pierced so we may have peace. It’s what he does. Why? Because he is kind to both the living and the dead.  

This passage, in the spiritual realm, speaks to this matter. Jesus has even redeemed my feet. Across the top, I have tattooed “blessed are the feet that bring good news.” I took something ugly, to me anyway, and made it hopeful. Should we not hope the same from our redeemer? Can you see it?

Good News! Ron Dart's "The Beatitudes: When Mountain Meets Valley" is back in print

The contemplative tradition within the West tends to define the spiritual journey in three phases: purgative, illuminative, and unitive. This classification tends to ignore the fact that the contemplative journey has substantial political, social, and economic implications as well. Many modern mystics have recognized this failure in understanding and defining the contemplative pilgrimage. That is why a fourth stage has been added: transformative. It seems to me that the Beatitudes embody all four phases: purgative, illuminative, unitive, and transformative. This makes perfect sense, of course, Jesus understood the waymarks of the mature and integrated faith journey, and the Beatitudes best embody such a path between peak and valley.

This missive is a brief reflection and commentary on the rip-rap steps that make up the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes can tell us much about the deeper meaning of the time-tried path to the eternal peak. They can also ensure that we do not lose our footing as we traverse the slopes where mountain and valley meet.

Stephen Hui's "Destination Hikes" - Review by Ron Dart

Review of Stephen Hui, Destination Hikes In and Around Southwestern British Columbia (Greystone Books: Vancouver, 2021). Foreword by Cecilia Point

I have before me a few first edition books (collector’s items I assume) that were pioneering guide books in their day: Mt. Garibaldi: Vancouver’s Alpine Playground (1922) by Don Munday, a signed edition of Dick Culbert’s 1960s A Climber’s Guide to the Coastal Ranges of British Columbia, a splendid 1967 copy of Glenn Woodsworth’s A Climber’s Guide to the Squamish Chief and Surrounding Areas (signed by the superb climber and search and rescue legend Tim Auger—we spent some lovely time in Lake O’Hara many a year ago) and the many editions of 103 Hikes in Southwestern British Columbia by, initially, David/Mary Macaree, then Jack Bryceland. The more recent stepping on the stage by Stephen Hui has enriched and enlarged, updated, and revealed yet a greater variety of more and less demanding treks to take.

The publication of Destination Hikes In and Around Southwestern British Columbia is a fit and fine companion to Stephen’s earlier book, 105 Hikes In and Around Southwestern British Columbia. The style of both books is much the same, but this new book adds to the possibilities of trails yet to take and destinations yet to see. The book is divided into four regions: 1) Hikes North of Vancouver, 2) Hikes East of Vancouver, 3) Hikes West of Vancouver and 4) Hikes South of Vancouver (in the United States). Each hike is replete with superb photographs and headings that include distance, time, elevation gain, high point, difficulty, maps and trailhead. Photographs also include a variety of animals, waterfalls, scenic sights, thick forests, carpeted forest floors, signs, alpine flowers, wooden cabins, richly coloured clouds, and various types of glaciers. There are also many “Stop of Interest” sections that make a trip to the mountains yet more attractive and worth the effort in doing. Stephen, rightly so, makes it clear that for those keen to take to the mountains (shorter or longer trips) preparation and precautions are needful and necessary—he has a fine few pages that cover the basics of outdoor rambling so that one and all return safely and in good form.

The 55 hikes included in Destination Hikes do, as the subtitle suggests,

point to “Swimming Holes, Mountain Peaks, Waterfalls and More”. The “More” opens up more enchanted trails worth the trekking. 19 of the hikes are north of Vancouver, 20 of the hikes east of Vancouver, a mere 7 of the hikes west of Vancouver and another 9 hikes south of Vancouver (in the state of Washington). So, the bulk of the hikes in this timely beauty and bounty of a well-crafted book are north and east of Vancouver.

The Foreword by Cecilia Point is a keeper not to miss. Cecilia has an evocative way of inviting those keen to take to such sacred and time tried 1^st Nations landscapes to realize many have gone before them and their footprints still remain for those with eyes to see and hearts to feel. The Foreword is, indeed, worth a few meditative reads and much inward digesting.

The “Overview Maps” (pages 30-37) are well worth the pondering as plans are made for trips into the backcountry and means of evaluating the expectations and demands of such trips, mountain weather, and group dynamics, always, of course, the variable and unpredictable elements in any mountain and rambling trip.

I have done most of the trips that Stephen so well describes and there can be no doubt that Destination Hikes is a must-have book for those eager to take to the mountains, alpine lakes, peaks, ridges, and much else in southwestern British Columbia and further southward into Washington. The book also provides most of the information needed for safe trips there and back again and continues the unfolding journey

of solid and reliable guidebooks for those interested and committed

to mature trips into the bounty of beautiful British Columbia.

Montani Semper Liberi

Ron dart