I hear the accusation made often by religiously trained people that some expressions of Christianity today are turning purely humanistic. To be completely honest...I've grown tired of that standard accusation made by many from the religion I grew up in.
For myself, from the time I began to reconsider some long held notions, the most important change that has happened in my thinking about the common approach to life with God and with neighbor had to do with God himself. In other words, who is God and what is his character and how does he relate to humans. Instead of being so focused on what humans have to do to relate to him.
When I hear religiously trained people railing on other people who express a desire to live their lives engaged with the Creator and that railing often takes the form of the accusation of Humanism, I'm often left saddened by it all in light of what I am learning about the Creator Jesus referred to as Father.
Has the Creator made this all about his self or has the Creator shown us through Jesus that this is actually about us...at least from their perspective? And if it is about us and that reality is actually formed out of the truth that HE LOVES US and because of that love reconciled us to himself, would it change the standard understanding and accompanying message coming from Christianity today? Oh, and by the way...with the people I know that have come to understand from God's perspective that this is all about us, they are learning to live in a way that expresses back to God the Father that as far as they are concerned....it's not about them at all, it's all about him.
Now enter the often heard Humanism accusation coming from people who live under the paradigm that God has made this all about his self and the fruit that seems to come from that paradigm....contempt for humans that are different than themselves or at least humans that won't parrot their interpretation of what this is all about.
If God's ways are far above our ways, how do we humans come to determine what God's drastically different ways actually are?
Jesus seemed to always be pointing to love being at the center of this unfolding story we all find ourselves in. Love seems, at least to me, to be the most un-natural emotion for humans to live out/express to other fellow humans. On the other hand, Hate and Exclusion, in all it's forms, seems to come pretty naturally to us.
Jesus demonstrated God the Father type love for all of humanity. Would Jesus end up being accused of being humanistic by the religiously trained people of our day? I'm convinced he would be....and I'm also convinced that Jesus himself is actually being accused of that as he lives through people that he has taken up residence in that are learning to live in Father's love and learning to love their neighbors. Even the neighbors that at this moment aren't buying any of the message.
6 comments:
Kent,
Great post! Indeed, I am befuddled by those who insist that we who are embracing and trying to Live out the reality of Papa Son Holy Spirit's Love say that we are making God out to be "too nice, too loving," and altogether "forgetting about" God's judgement, discipline or corrective parts of His multidimensional character. Sigh...
Blessings,
~Amy :)
Kent,
I really enjoyed this.....I also really enjoyed the conversations that took place on your previous post (i.e. the one involving how the guy treated the mormon missionary gals differently due to where he's at on his journey now)
i think i'll link to this one....
peace and good to you,
todd
Thanks Kent. This whole conversation has been like a mind splinter for me. Who is God really? If he is like the God I grew up with then there are so many questions and inconsistancies with that system, and quite frankly I don't think I want anything to do with 'that God'. Things started to come into better focus for me with the transitions series that Wayne teaches. This statement was dramatic in the process, God didn't need the cross to love(or relate to) us, we needed the cross to love Father. There is a whole lot packed into that statement. If God's like that then I think I want to follow him.
Can you define what you mean by "humanism" as such? Ive been pondering this since we chatted about it earlier, and I wonder if sometimes there is confusion of terms sometimes?
See, it's funny. I'm reading a fictionalised account of Michelangelo's life at the moment, called The Agony and the Ecstasy, and it's interesting that what is called humanism there reads to my ears and eyes more like the upholding of the basic dignity of humankind. I don't think we need to be told what pathetic drivelling little creatures we are. We see it in ourselves every day we open our eyes and get out of bed. It also concerns me that the church has been so fastidious in enforcing over and over the sinfulness of man, the righteousness of God, the justice of God, the judgment of God, in terms that I just do not agree with (not of course to say that the actions of God and of our sinful world are not severe at times. Anyone who has been through furnace experiences knows that God will not stop because the flames are turned up high at what he is burning off in us. Those times are so painful that I would never presume to bother thinking that God is going to treat me within my own comfort zone. I never see him doing that :)
Sometimes I wonder if a kind of wishy-washy Christianity is what people are getting at when they claim humanistic gospels? A gospel that places the comfort of people above the doings of God? Maybe so. There's a ton of evidence for that all over the place. I wonder if that's where the concerns come in, that when God's love is proclaimed to the exclusion of his hard dealings with us that we get something that just in the end panders to the flesh?
Problem with that one is, I don't think the people who are running with that type of ball have come across enough of God's love. Because it's only when you've been smothered in it, I suspect, that you will allow him to take you into the dark places and the fiery places.
I dunno. This is a good subject, very broad. At least another couple of good blog posts in it :)
Sue, I think there is a confusion when it comes to the use of the term...just like there is with the use of most terms. They are thrown around as a way of marginalizing people. It's lazy and it's par for the course for a people/population that has been shaped by reductionism.
I do not have the intellectual capacity to define the term nor do I really care to attempt to define the term humanism. All I know is I'm sick of the way we have been so shaped to box people in so we can set them aside as less significant then we are. And when this defines much of what is coming from a religion that says it is following Jesus I'm left questioning it all because this doesn't match up with the Jesus I know...nor does it match the Jesus of the new and better covenant described in the NT.
And you are so right about God the Father going hard after the crap inside us so as to free us from it. Love is like that...but at the same time it is patient, it's kind, it's not jealous, it doesn't brag nor is it arrogant, it doesn't act unbecomingly, it doesn't seek it's own, it's not provoked, doesn't take into account a wrong suffered, it doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, it rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things...and never fails.
religion to me seems to train people to violate all of that.
Zinger, I understand.
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