Foot note to a road less traveled...

One of the realities that continues to be missed by my progressive friends re: the controversy around Rick Warren is exactly what James Wall noted - only in reverse! Warren, indeed, represents a new type of American Christianity. Call it post-denominational, entrepreneurial or whatever: more and more people have found their way into the Body of Christ through churches like his than churches like mine (or any of the other once "mainstream" but now "side line" denominations.)

What's more, these very non-anti-post-denominational congregations are changing from the once ultra-conservative theology that used to be normative a la Dobson or Falwell to one that puts the issues of justice, hunger and compassion well ahead of the culture wars. (see http://www.newsweek.com/id/143760) Moreover, as more and more young evangelicals live with LGBTQ friends and family, they are discovering that their theology is changing - which is exactly what happened to liberal straight guys like me over the past 30 years. (see http://www.newsweek.com/id/153850)

One of my favorite poets, Joy Mead of Scotland's Iona Community, puts it like this:

Today I shall try to make peace

in practice and in poetry.

I shall choose words and image carefully,

avoiding all that proscribes, restricts,

oppresses, destroys, humiliates, patronizes, enslaves.

I shall fight no fights, not even 'good' ones.

I shall not stand up for Jesus

or be a soldier of anything

not even the cross;

I shall not

wave any flaming swords;

I shall address on-one as Lord

or mighty conqueror;

I shall not put on any sort of armour,

not even the armour of Christ

or the dressings of power...
I shall try to use words

that open minds

and stretch imaginations;

words that show an alternative

to famine, war, racism, torture, unjust structures,

unjust trading systems, violence, war,

all that denies life...

I shall ask questions that stir the heart,

motivate the will,

stretch the imagination,

widen the moral vision,

so that life in all its fullness,

diversity and wonder will be cherished

on this fragile and finite planet...

I shall try to understand compassion

and feel an other's pain

as if it were my own...

I shall look more

and listen more.

I shall live more moments

as given moments.

I shall make mistakes

and admit them humbly...

And at the end of the day,

when things are pretty much the same,

I shall continue to hope.

I shall remember that the personal

is always political; that inner peace

cannot be separated from wholeness

and health in community;

that small acts of beauty

by small groups of people

still carry the potential

to change the world.