Book Review of The Lost Christianities

During the summer I read The Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Bart Ehrman. It was an intriguing read and exploration of the various Christian groups that formed after Jesus. As the publisher writes, “Some groups of Christians claimed that there was not one God but two or twelve or thirty. Some believed that the world had not been created by God but by a lesser, ignorant deity. Certain sects maintained that Jesus was human but not divine, while others said he was divine but not human.” Every group believed they had the Truth.

Have you ever been to a sports game where you and your friend saw the same events play out in the field and yet when you hear your friend retell the story later to someone else you wonder if they were at the same game you were at? Two people can witness and hear the same thing and come out with two completely different points of views and beliefs. It’s no surprise then that from the beginning of Jesus’ time people had various interpretations and ideas of who Jesus was, what he stood for and how people should follow his ideas. Christian denominations and various different takes on what it is to be a Christian that we experience today are not much different than the ones two thousand years ago. Who’s a heretic depends on who’s got the power.

While I liked this book a great deal, I’m probably going to have to reread it sometime for deeper details. If you want to start off with a good book on early Christian and Jesus issues, I suggest you read Ehrman’s other book, Misquoting Jesus. It’s an easy read – flows wonderfully – and is still highly informative and intriguing. High schoolers could read it with very little difficulty.

For those who’d like a gentle nudge or discussion group to go along with reading this book, attend the next few weeks of adult education class Sunday mornings at 9:15 in the parish hall as this book is on the reading list; the subject at hand: the first four hundred years of early Christianities.

My current book is Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. I read this book at the suggestion of Father Richard back when I was a high school camp counselor for our little Episcopal summer camp called Camp Living Waters. (You may have seen me wearing my ratty old blue shirt from there.) Ft Richard was the first priest who showed me what it is to be an intellectual Christian.

Rally Day

This year at our annual church Rally Day, EYC helped the younger youth have a little fun.

Thanks for helping out guys!!

Lock-In

Thanks to everyone who came and to those who helped. The lock-in was awesome, and surprisingly everyone fell asleep at some point in the morning. We also learned who's cranky when woken up early!!

Madeleine L'Engle, writer and Episcopalian, dies at 88

Taken from the Episcopal News Service.

Madeleine L'Engle, a lay Episcopalian who wrote more than 60 books ranging from children's stories to theological reflection, died September 6 in Litchfield, Connecticut. She was 88.
Her death, of natural causes in a nursing home, was announced September 7 by her publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, according to the Associated Press.

L'Engle was best known for her children's classic, "A Wrinkle in Time," which won the John Newbery Award as the best children's book of 1963. By 2004, it had sold more than 6 million copies, was in its 67th printing and was still selling 15,000 copies a year, the New York Times reported.

She had been the writer-in-residence and librarian at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.

In November 2000, she told an interviewer for Religion and Ethics Newsweekly that suffering and grief are a part of life.

"In times when we are not particularly suffering, we do not have enough time for God," she said. "We are too busy with other things. And then the intense suffering comes, and we can not be busy with other things. And then God comes into the equation. Help. And we should never be afraid of crying out, ‘Help!' I need all the help I can get."

Vintage 21 Jesus Video #4

Vintage 21 Jesus Video #3

In the Spring of 2003, a youth group had a four week series on Jesus Christ, taking a deep look at what He said and did. They took old videos and added soundtracks to them. They write, “It was difficult at times to get past our preconceived notions that had been developed by staunch, starched Sunday School classes of old. This is a satirical look at what some people think Jesus is like. Thank goodness He's not.”

Sunday Education is around the corner!

On this day in 1783, Evangelical Anglican Robert Raikes formed the Sunday School Society to raise money for weekly Christian schools, which met each Sunday from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm—the original Sunday schools.

Aren't you glad Sunday school isn't even a full hour these days, compared to the seven hours back then?

Go here to see what else was happening in 1783.

See you at the Pole

While this may be a stance most youth leaders won’t take, I’d like to express to youth and their families, why I do not support the upcoming annual See You at the Pole (SYATP) event.

The SYATP website declares: “See You at the Pole™ isn't about groups, grades, clothes, or churches. It's about praying. It's about all of us coming together and laying aside all the labels for one day, simply to call out to God, just as Jesus did in John 17 and say, "Lord, may we be one in you--whether jocks, preps, geeks, Pentecostals, Baptists, Catholics, freshmen, or seniors--may the world believe that You are real and have sent us to touch other through you, regardless of the dividing lines drawn by a broken world!" So are you in? Are you ready whatever group you're in, to join us in the circle?”

On some levels these ideas are good and clearly well intentioned. Students, especially Christians, called upon by God, should question social groups, labels, and seek unity and comfort in a world filled with so many challenges (especially during middle and high school years).

On many more vital levels though, the SYATP stance not only doesn’t go far enough in one area, it goes too far in its exclusivity: there’s an innate hypocrisy within the project.

Let me first explain why I don’t think the project doesn’t challenge students (especially Christian students) at a high enough level. Asking students to “(lay) aside all the labels for one day” is a good first step, but it is by no means good enough. Every day students hear and say comments about the groups they identify for others and identity with themselves. Laying aside a label one day indicates it’s fine to pick that label up the moment the prayer is over, or at the very least, adopt the label again the next morning. While it’s naïve to think labels will ever disappear, students (and adults) need to be more aware of possible negative effects labels can have. How closely related are labels to stereotypes, after all? Praying for a few moments before school together with people of different groups may be a good start, but dialoguing about our differences, the labels we give those differences, needs to be a next step.

As for how I view the exclusivity and hypocrisy. Let’s say you’re a Jewish, Muslim, Jehovah Witness, atheist or any other non-Christian type student trying to go to school on SYATP day. SYATP states it’s not about groups, but clearly, they’re putting a limit to whose group really counts – they’re talking about the Conservative Christian students. They’re the groups they’re concerned about – all other students aren’t welcomed. How is that being one in the Lord? While they say they gather “regardless of the dividing lines drawn by a broken world,” they are enforcing several dividing lines as a foundation for their own project. A truly inclusive prayer around the flag pole would welcome various forms of prayer from various religions seeking a closer relationship with God. School social networks can be exclusive and dangerous as they are, why use God and prayer to encourage the dividing lines?

“Fortunately, there is a Biblical passage which precisely defines "What Would Jesus Do" about prayer in public with fellow believers. He specifically prohibited public prayer, and stressed that prayer is to be performed only when one is alone:
Matthew 6:5-6: "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men....when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret...."
The synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) contain many references to Jesus praying. In each case, he withdrew from others and went off by himself to find an isolated place where he could pray alone. Other passages indicate that it is permissible to give thanks to God before a communal meal. More details.
It would appear that Jesus promoted private prayer only, while condemning prayer in public. Christians who wish to follow the Bible and Jesus' teachings might consider not attending a SYATP event.” (Religious Tolerance)

An interesting website with more detailed challenges to SYATP: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_syatp.htm

This year’s SYATP takes place between Yom Kippur and Sukkot and during Ramadan. Why not make this prayer day an opportunity to learn about the Abrahamic religions and discover unity there?