Religion as Performance Art
Sometimes I like to watch the Interfaith services held at First Christian Church here in Eugene Oregon. This strange observance grew out of feelings of great sorrow about the events of 911, sorrow, not anger at the heinous crime committed by Muslim fanatics, not a serious questioning of the premises of "liberal ' religion which says that all faiths are but different paths to one God, and certainly not out of any concern about the theological views of followers of actual religions who might come together in grief to share feelings of dismay. The result has been illuminating. Mostly what you get during these services is one of two things: (1) a lot of performance art, singing, sometimes modern dancing, instrumental music, occasionally some sort of little dramatic 'play,' and the like, or (2) LCD -Lowest Common Denominator- readings of prayers, of homilies, of sermonettes, of essays by departed masters, and so forth, all focused on some objective that everyone agrees is good, like world peace, ending hunger for the downtrodden, or religious toleration We can skip the second part. I have heard all the platitudes about world peace that I have ever wanted to hear and think that one more, or a thousand more, would not accomplish one damned thing. But about religion as performance art, that is a topic that deserves comment. I also sometimes watch 3ABN, the 7th Day Adventist channel. It also features a good deal of performance art even if its message is strictly a 'fundamentalist' form of Christian faith. Regardless, there is much performance art, and sometimes it is quite good. A choir with instrumental accompaniment, for example,singing in an outdoor setting on a mountaintop, little kids enacting something of the Christmas story, or a singer's heartfelt rendition of a hymnal favorite. As a certified prophet of El Shaddai, the Goddess Ishtar, Buddha, Ahura Mazada, Shiva and Shakti, the Tao, and so forth, including Ben Franklin's casual approach to religious faith, I have often thought that a new religion really should pay a good deal of attention to performance art. People need a warm and caring audience to demonstrate their skills at music or film making or theater. This is especially true for the young and it is no accident that any number of pop stars had their start in a church, performing for fellow believers. A religion should encourage the discovery and cultivation of new talent in the arts. At all age levels, and welcoming a variety of kinds of arts from various cultures. This could take any number forms, maybe with one church noted for its drama projects another for its orchestra, another for its fantastic visual artists, and so forth. This ties in with another view of mine, that religion ought to be educational, it should offer people access to the world of ideas, to reliable information about all those subjects that have direct impact on their lives as members of a faith community, including the effects of software culture. In all of this, and my concern is both that of a radical ecumenist as well as a Christian, there nonetheless needs to be focus, a focus that can be defended intellectually as well as being something heartfelt and in touch with spiritual experience. About the intellectually defensible part of this idea, maybe it would be a good idea to make a medieval Christian practice integral to faith. This concerns the 'scholastic' practice of debate of religious ideas as integral to education. Hence Thomas Aquinas, whose books include every possible objection to Christian faith he could identify. I really like that approach and like it even more because it is totally "other" than what you find either at 3ABN or in Dan Bryant's Church of Multiculturalism, aka, the Baha'i version of Christianity, otherwise known as First Christian (wink, wink) Church of Eugene. In my new Church, based on following Jesus as Albert Schweitzer followed Jesus, as Luther followed Jesus, as the Apostle Paul followed Jesus, the prime theologian will be Bart Ehrman, who calls himself an Atheists and who rejects Evangelical religion of which he once was a part -and also has no use for the kind of 'liberal' religion one finds at Dan Bryant's establishment. Ehrman? Yes, indeed, because he is so utterly well informed and challenges Christian views and assumptions up and down the line, boldly, no compromises, just the truth. I happen to disagree with many or even most of his conclusions; its just that he is utterly honest, he raises all the questions that we all need to deal with and answer, and knows the history of Christian faith and the Bible like few others in the world today. Want to believe something? Sure go for it. But in the context of the First Baptist Church of Ishtar and El Shaddai in Jesus' Holy Name, it must first pass the Ehrman test: "Is is really true?' We will need agreement about which scriptures to use but for sure they will include the Bible, the Tripitaka, the Gathas, etc, and -unlike Dan Bryant's holy books- they should include all those passages where other religions are criticized and sometimes condemned. Yes, Virginia, the Bible includes a lot of passages that criticize other religions - as do many Hindu writings, Buddhist writings and so forth. We should acknowledge this truthfully and try to figure out what we should do that is productive with these criticisms. To ignore them would be to fundamentally misconstrue each and every religion on Earth. All (all) authentic religions at least partly define themselves in opposition to other religions. Which takes us to a gigantic problems with Leftist ersatz ecumenism, there is no rational theology of exclusion. Without that you get absurdity, Suppose a group of Satanists wanted to join Bryant's monthly interfaith services? Or people from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Or a group of rogue Scientologists? Or a cabal of Muslims seeking to restore the Hasshasshin of the middle ages that gave the world the Order of Assassins and the word "assassin:? "O, Bryant would never allow that to happen?" I sure hope not. But on what grounds? As things stand there are no grounds, only a sort of fairly tale belief that if we all sing kumbaya, often enough, all will be well and we will all worship Herbert Marcuse together as our lord and savior and live happily after. I think we can do better than that, a helluva lot better. Billy Rojas -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
