Part four of many.
Honesty is a good policy, they say. Let's see how that works.
A friend/family member, whose opinion I value extremely highly, remarked to me once (and I paraphrase recklessly) that my foray into Taoist philosophy was a step away from a community-based spiritual life and instead a step toward individual self-fulfillment. This person didn't mean it as either a good or a bad thing, I'm guessing. But as always, it was an astute observation. And since this spiritual journey of mine is taking me far, far away from Christian community at this time, the remark has stuck in my craw. It's been a while since I've attended church. (A while exceeds a year.) And there are reasons for that.
First and foremost, I ceased to experience the benefits of community worship when I realized just how at odds my image of God was compared to most of my fellow worshippers.
I don't believe in a superhuman God who barges in at unpredictable times to address certain situations.
I view most or all of the Bible as allegorical or as a compilation of ways folks have found to explain God and life, not a factual account of verifiable events, certainly not a document divinely dictated. Yes, I mean the Gospels, too.
I am angered by legalism and intolerance and exclusivity, each of which is on ugly display before, during and after most modern American Protestant worship services. As far as I can tell.
I can't listen to a sermon or sing hymns or choruses without discrediting most of the text in my mind. Which sucks, considering how much I love music, and how good music can enhance a spiritual experience. (Come to think of it, that last thought merits its own post, and soon.)
I believe in a highly impersonal God. An inscrutable, un-knowable God who defies definition, whose nature is far too Mysterious to grasp.
Clearly I don't belong in an evangelical worship service. But you want to take this one notch further. I can tell. Go ahead. Ask it.
"I will. How can you be ANY sort of Christian, given those qualifiers? And why would you even want to be?"
Glad you asked. When I say "Christian," your image of what that means probably has little to do with where I'm at.
But think of it this way. What if Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Jay, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, what if some or all of those guys were NOT actual historical figures? What if instead of them having existed, they were instead idealized versions of lesser humans, created by brilliant and powerful storytellers of the late 18th century? Or synthesized from various histories, but not living, breathing people themselves? Or what if four out the seven existed, but the others were made up?
Would America as we know it cease to exist? Would it quit functioning? Would our Constitution vanish into thin air? I'm thinking no on all accounts. It would be some pretty heavy shit to deal with, and we'd have to do more than a few mental somersaults and some national soul-searching, but we wouldn't write ourselves a new set of laws based on communist ideology. (And that's just too bad, I tell you.)
I am NOT saying that God/Jesus/Moses/Paul are imaginary figures. Just that the Bible is here and with us, and how it came to be with us is not as big of an issue as what we choose to do with the information it contains. It's not like the collective wisdom of three millenia of writing and debate about this God, like all of that is somehow imaginary. I can Google all that. It can't be invented or denied; it's there plain as day in trillions and trillions of little 1's and 0's.
What I AM saying is that I see God through the lenses of my personal experience, the wisdom contained in scripture, my upbringing, my friends and family, my limited understanding of Christ. I don't hunt for spiritual truths in the Koran or in Viking mythology and I don't care for atheism. But I'm OK with that; those are not my paths and I could not imagine myself taking them. I do consult the Tao Te Ching. And Jeremiah. And Luke. Those places are where I'm from and where I am.
Therefore, I am a Taoist Christian.
great post, John.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the music post. Hope it appears soon.
Not a single concern here that isn't legitimate. Not sure what your problem is with Viking mythology though. Except for that careless barb, I think I'm with you on most of this.
The Tao is indeed an "impersonal" force, technically. But the appearance of the Tao is utterly personal, prior to any thought or action or conception. The idea of the Tao is already "too late" to describe it. The Tao makes its appearance on THIS side of being personal. It isn't impersonal so much as it is over-personal...too close to have a face, to be called to act, to be addressed in speech or prayer, etc.
Taoist spirituality is therefore self-sufficient; to know the Tao is simply to know myself (though to know myself is also to know the whole universe). This makes the Tao (God, whatever) less than mysterious, at least in the sense of external mystery that I find captivating. The Tao is cultivated by self-care, primarily, not chiefly by the pursuit of the mystery which I am not. Not by the needs of the other person, who in Taoism is mostly just another feature of the environment.
I really like your line about inscrutability/unknowability, etc. But I think the mystery of the universe (God?) is not the mystery of my nature but the mystery of what is not me, the other person, the outside...
Your blog is very fun, John...keep it up!