Nothing New Under the Sun

In the world of Progressive Christianity and the SBNR (in its various forms), there seems to be a growing belief that we are on the cusp of a new age of spiritual enlightenment. This has engendered an enthusiasm much like in the 1960s, when the “spiritual but not religious” of that time thought they were ushering in the Age of Aquarius–a time when peace, love, and understanding would reign. Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

The hippies of the 60s and early 70s quickly became the yuppies and capitalists of the 80s and 90s. All that talk about letting the sunshine in was well just talk. Many who grew up during that generation simply chalked it up to youthful idealism. While others grew bitter that the generation which held such promise turned slowly into a Generation of Swine. Such is the way of the world. And the way it has always been. Every generation likes to think itself as special. And in many ways every generation is special, with unique experiences to celebrate and unusual challenges to overcome. But we ought to leave it that.

Think globally, Act locally is an ecological dictum. It doesn’t translate into spiritual affairs–which demand that we act locally and think locally. In other words, the big picture will work out on its own if we simply endeavor, like Gandhi said, to become the change we want to see in the world. This “becoming” though is a lifelong process. It is not a pinnacle that we reach which then allows us to go conquer the world as missionaries or become spiritual gurus for the public at large. To nurture the idea that we are igniting some grand church revolution or world awakening is little more than self-aggrandizement–which is why such transformations never actually take place.

So the next time we find ourselves becoming enchanted with ideas of ushering in a bright new spiritual epoch, let’s turn to the wisdom of Ecclesiastes:

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

Or in the words of David Byrne & The Talking Heads

Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
same as it ever was…same as it EVER was…

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Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

The Founding Fathers On Christianity, God, & Religion

Many of the Founding Fathers of the United States could be best described as SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) Progressive Christians. We at The Living Hour often look back to them for inspiration, for they were leaders who possessed a solid sense of reason that was backed by an understanding of the divine nature of creation and their place in it. As such, they strongly demonstrated all the characteristics of the truly progressive Christian.

Therefore for the next month, our SBNR Motivational series will be featuring passages from Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, John Adams, and other early Americans, on the subjects of Christianity, God, and Religion. To get the ball rolling, let’s begin with the following passage from Thomas Jefferson, taken from a letter to Moses Robinson, the governor of the Vermont Republic who helped usher Vermont to statehood.

In this passage we find Jefferson commenting on the Christian clergy, the Church, and the State, comments which still are very relevant today. Jefferson’s hope that “good sense” will prevail among orthodox Christians is unfortunately still waiting to be realized:

The Eastern States will be the last to come over, because of the dominion of the clergy, who had got a smell of union between Church and State, and began to indulge in reveries that can never be realized in the age of science. If, indeed, they could have prevailed on us to view all the advances in science as dangerous innovations, and to look back to the opinions and practices of our forefathers, instead of looking forward, for improvement, a promising groundwork would have been laid.

But I have hopes that their good sense will show them that since the mountain will not come to them, they had better go to the mountain: that they will find it in their interest to acquiesce to the liberty and science of their country, and that the Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.

I sincerely wish with you, we could see our government so secured as to depend less on the character of the person in whose hands it is trusted. Bad men will sometimes get in, and with such an immense patronage, may make great progress in corrupting the public mind and principles. This is a subject with which wisdom and patriotism should be occupied.¹

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Read the next in the series: Benjamin Franklin’s Religion & Jesus of Nazareth.

Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

1. Some very small edits were made to above passage to make the reading easier for the contemporary reader [↩]

Your Personal Legend?

In our SBNR motivational about William Blake and seeing Heaven in a Wildflower, we talked about the transcendent personality of Jesus Christ and how that should be one of our goals as Progressive Christians (or as Sons and Daughters of God, regardless of our religious persuasion).

Some readers have interpreted this motivational to imply that we advocate the building of personal legends ala Paulo Coelho. Nothing could be further from our intent. Legends are by their very nature simplistic but fanciful variations of the genuine life–which is littered with multiple twists and turns, failures and triumphs, and punctuated by long bouts with the mundane.

Legends are often built on the idea of the mythological hero, who follows a straightforward path of separation, initiation, and return. That is, we (as heroes) leave our homes and/or comfortable surroundings (separation) to confront new, mysterious, and life-altering experiences (initiation), which ultimately lead us back again to our community (return) as a kind of savior or spiritual gift giver.

If only life worked out in such a tidy fashion. But it doesn’t, and never has. For centuries we’ve been building personal legends around prophets and artistic geniuses, forgetting that it was not they who built their legends but us. How much better for the suffering artist legend of Van Gogh to have him cut off his own ear and give it to a prostitute than tell the more likely story that it was cut of by his friend (and fellow painter) Paul Gauguin because Vincent attacked him.

To truly build a personal legend we have to give up all ideas of a personal legend, and simply live, laugh, and love. That is how we build the transcendent personality of Christ. To the victors (survivors) go the spoils, as well as the legends they create about their predecessors.

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The Living Hour’s motivational series combines history, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion to help bring about new perspectives for Progressive Christianity and anyone who seeks a better understanding of “God” and life’s purpose. Sign up to have these progressive Motivationals delivered to your e-mail box three times a week.

SBNR Progressive Christianity

Since starting LivingHour.org, we have received some wonderful letters from Progressive Christians. This feedback has shown us how truly diverse the “progressive” Christian community is.

Some folks have wondered why we still choose to identify ourselves as “Christians”; while others question our focus on Jesus Christ. A few progressive readers have taken exception with the “authority” we take on The Lord’s Prayer. After all, no one knows for sure whether Jesus of Nazareth even existed, so who are we to say what Jesus “wanted” us to believe?

Good questions all. And we could write long scholarly replies to each one, but as you have come to notice, that is not our style. We expect that Living Hour visitors know that what they read here is simply our educated opinions–ones which we have arrived at after many years of serious reflection and joyful living. If we were to use phrases such as “I think” or “It seems to me” that would be unnecessary, not to mention an insult to our old English professors who wisely counseled, “Don’t tell me it’s your opinion. I already know it’s your opinion! Just say it.”

And say it we have. But why in such a way? Well, suffice to say we keep Jesus as our centrifugal point because we are Americans/Westerners, ones who have been raised within a Christian culture and are the products of a Christian history. To cut ourselves off from that would be like cutting off an appendage. It is ill advised. Rather than abandon Christianity, it is our duty to lift it up and reclaim the spirituality of Jesus from the gatekeepers of religion–in other words, the organized Protestant and Catholic Churches who refuse to evolve and meet the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual needs of their 21st century congregations.

The term “Progressive Christian” though does not necessarily identify someone who shares these evolutionary spiritual beliefs. So in the spirit of camaraderie, and building a community of like-minded individuals that share a common vision (and helping these people find each other), we offer the term SBNR Christian or SBNR Progressive Christian–which can serve as a descriptive for new blogs and websites.

We can expect great diversity in SBNR Progressive Christianity and among SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) Christians, but the core beliefs might be defined as follows:

1) A belief that Jesus was a prophet, and that his divinity is one in which we all share, as Sons and Daughters of God.

2) A belief that we should not abandon Christian traditions and iconography, but reinterpret, refashion, and reinvent them.

3) A belief that reason and faith walk hand in hand.

If you launch an SBNR Christianity website and would like us to link to you, please drop us an email at living (at) livinghour.org.

Lastly, for those who might say that being an SBNR Christian is a contradiction in terms, we point them towards the post: Praising Contradictions.

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Sign up to receive The Living Hour’s SBNR Daily Motivationals. This free series combines history, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion to help bring about new perspectives for Progressive Christians and anyone who seeks a better understanding of “God” and life’s purpose.