Can We All Get Along?

Yes, Rodney King said it best.

I received an email yesterday from a person on MySpace who lists his religion as “atheist.” I had found his profile because he wrote a poem called “Self-Deification” (in which he basically talks about being his own God). I had done a keyword search for people in MySpace with “deification” in their profile, and sent him a message without taking the time to really consider that his idea of deification probably was worlds away from my own.

Okay, my bad. But his response basically said, “I don’t need Christians trying to preach to me because I’m an atheist. So go away.” I sent him an apologetic note, saying I’m sorry for bothering him and certainly didn’t mean to cause offense. I doubt if I will hear from him again, and that’s okay. He probably sees me as just another bigoted, self-righteous religionist who can’t help but annoy people whose views differ from my own. Of course, I prefer to think of myself as someone who takes delight in the fact that so many different people hold different (and even mutually exclusionary) perspectives; to me, that’s part of the beauty of creation, and it is because I find creation so beautiful that I have chosen to interpret my transpersonal experiences as evidence of a loving creator. But of course, not everyone sees it that way. Different views.

I’m sad now, not because Mr. Atheist rejects me and certainly not because his viewpoint is so foreign from my own. I’m sad because so many Christians have raised spiritual salesmanship to an art form, that those who have hung “no soliciting” signs around their souls need, out of sheer self-defense, to push me away before either of us have a chance to get to know one another. Perhaps I would have surprised this fellow with a Christian spirituality unfamiliar to him, one steeped in mystical agnosticism and (hopefully) radical trust and compassion. And he undoubtedly would have surprised me in some ways as well. But we’ll never know, most likely. And like I said, that’s okay. But also, that’s too bad.

Contemplative Prayer

I’ve just posted an essay on Contemplative Prayer in the “Spiritual Formation” section of this website.

Click here to read it.

Introduction to World Mysticism (Evening at Emory)

I’ll be teaching the following class through the Emory University Center for Lifelong Learning:

Introduction to World Mysticism

Madonna is studying the Kabbalah. The Secret is a runaway bestseller. Seven hundred years after he died, everyone’s reading Rumi. Yoga, Buddhism and other eastern practices are more popular among Americans than ever. So what gives? At the heart of all these cultural trends is mysticism, a vague word that can be translated as “the spiritual principle at the heart of religion.” Many people believe mysticism is the golden thread that unites all the world’s religions. Others scoff at the idea. Come decide for yourself in this class as we explore major themes and writings from the world’s great mystical traditions. Using Andrew Harvey’s The Essential Mystics as our textbook, we’ll examine the world’s great wisdom traditions — Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, as well as pagan and philosophical forms of mysticism — acknowledging both the common ground and the distinctive qualities of each mystical path. Class is taught from an academic/nonsectarian perspective.

Textbook: The Essential Mystics : Selections from the World’s Great Wisdom Traditions by Andrew Harvey
Instructor: Carl McColman
4 sessions: Wednesdays, October 3-24, 2007 / 7:00-9:00 pm
Registration fee: $90

To register for this class, click here.

Orthodox enough?

My recently redesigned Myspace page has made me plenty of new friends and has received many warm comments and messages from people who are enjoying a glimpse into my appreciation of the Christian mystical tradition. For this, I am most grateful.

Ironically, I’ve also received several messages from people who want to check out my theology and/or my beliefs.

New blog discovery of the day

Check out Heather’s Poor Excuse. Not only does she provide as an epigraph an irreverently-translated quote from Hafiz, but she’s got plenty of thoughtful posts like her recent How Not to Read the Bible, an intelligent rant about the many misuses of scripture by both Christians and non-Christians, filled with nuggets like this: “…the arrival of Christ into the history of the Jewish people is like the plot twist in an M. Night Shyamalan movie.”

How Many Social Networking Sites Can You Be on Before You’re Certifiably Compulsive?

Okay, as I alluded a few days ago, I’ve dusted off my heretofore inactive MySpace page; found a great layout for it that is elegant rather than flashy, set up “fan pages” for Julian of Norwich and The Cloud of Unknowing, and am now happily sending friend request to anyone with a listed interest even vaguely related to Christian mysticism. Meanwhile, I kept hearing wind of other social networking sites… Facebook… Virb… Ning… even — egad! — Zaadz. I had already established an account with LinkedIn, and have been having way too much fun at LibraryThing, and of course, there’s my good ol’ LiveJournal account, which is pretty moribund since I migrated first to SquareSpace and on to WordPress, although I do pop back in there for a visit every now and then. At any rate, last night in a burst of giddy internet enthusiasm, I set up accounts with all of the above (except Zaadz; there I merely applied for an account, it seems they are a bit more, er, exclusive). What’s next? The Ooze? Care2? ThySpace? Orkut? Should my social networking ambition be to recieve an invitation to join A Small World? At what point is too many social networking web accounts, well, too many? A therapist friend of mine warned me when I became a Catholic that I was immersing myself into the OCD playground. Is social networking just another way for me to live my compulsive life?

I’m rationalizing it this way: currently I’m “dating around” all these different sites. Do I like the “big city” feel of MySpace, or do I want something more elite à la Zaadz or Virb? Or would I find a happy medium between those two extremes at FaceBook? Should I go for a strictly business approach, courtesy of LinkedIn? Or should I just blow off all this cyberdistraction and keep reading the mystics and writing about them here????

Stay tuned…

Virb and Ning

Is anyone who reads this using Virb or Ning? If so, please let me know, I’d love to pick your brain.

Julian’s best translator

I have just learned of the blog that belongs to John Skinner, an English spiritual author whose translation of Julian of Norwich is by far the best available. He has also done translations of The Book of Margery Kempe and The Confessions of Saint Patrick. His own book, Hear Our Silence, about a two-week period spent with the Carthusians, looks quite tasty but is, alas, out of print and used copies are rather expensive.

Visit his blog at Hear Our Silence.

Scary Sexist Homophobic Christian Preacher, Revisited

If you’ve got some time to burn, check out the Mystery of Iniquity Blog — the link points to a post in which the author comments on my post (and critique) of Mark Driscoll’s “Jesus wasn’t a hippie in a dress” video. The conversations in response constitute a microcosmic example of just how hard it is for gender-traditionalists and feminists/post-patriarchalists to discuss the core issues that divide us. Here is an enlightening glimpse into the values rift that is at the heart of both our cultural and our ecclesial paralysis.

What’s at the heart of this particular conversation? The Bible and how we interpret it. Basically, the traditionalist position is “The Bible is God’s word, and God is not sexist/misogynistic, therefore the Bible is not sexist/misogynistic.” The post-patriarchal position runs more along the lines of “The Bible is sexist/misogynistic, which means either it fails as God’s word, or it implies that God is also sexist/misogynistic, or at the very least it points to how far we have evolved in both our understanding of God and of ethics; in any case, the Bible remains relevant only to the extent that we can honestly criticize it.”

Similar rifts divide those who argue for and against the acceptance of gay and lesbian persons in church and society; those who argue for and against the morality of legally available abortion, and those who argue for and against the acceptance of religious diversity and interfaith respect.

My friends, we who both love the Christian faith and identify with post-patriarchal, post-homophobic, post-modern ethics, have quite a task before us. We must find ways for the trads and the posties to talk to each other. Not past each other, but to each other. This will be a slow, painful process. But I am convinced that God will have it no other way.