Purpose of this Blog

It seems apt to begin blogging with a post on the purpose of this blog:

This blog is not to be another Christian voice for Hate, Indifference, and Fear.

This blog is to be a Christian voice for Love, Change, and Acceptance.

I first decided to make this blog out of anger, righteous anger can be a good thing, the Prophets were filled with it, Jesus had it when he kicked over the tax collector tables in the Temple; likely not because it was wrong to sell things but because it was wrong to extort the poor.. lots of Jesus's mission was to help the poor but let's get to that later.  I was filled with anger, I feel righteous anger, due to reading a blog post (http://www.dunkerjournal.com/?p=6743)   from another Brethren Blog called the Dunker Journal.  And I immediately whipped out a response, which I haven't posted, though I may do so here.  However righteous anger, and ranting, is not enough, what is needed is to be a force in the world, to be in the world and working for the change one hopes to see in it, which is why I am in Missoula Montana starting a church called Open Spirit Church of the Brethren.

Open Spirit Church of the Brethren, will be a place for all those who are hurting, seeking spirituality, or simply wish for a place to gather with others to do good in the world.  The Church of the Brethren which is a Historic and Living Peace Church (a church dedicated to peace) has done a lot to challenge discrimination of all kinds though it still wrestles with how to respond to the GLBTQ community, there are some churches which are open and affirming, and others that are decidedly not.  It is my hope that Open Spirit Church of the Brethren will welcome all people no matter who they are or where they are in their life's journey.  It is my hope that Open Spirit will be able to take a cue from the life and teachings of Jesus and be a place of love and acceptance and not one of hatred and fear.

The life and teachings of Yeshua ben David, who we call Jesus, is filled with lessons concerning the welcoming of those who are on the fringes, inviting those who were seen as sinners and outcasts of society to come and eat his table.  Jesus himself was homeless (at least for his adult life that we know of) and would wanter around Galilee (which is like Everett Washington, or any other place that is rundown and pretty horrible.. and people say.. "nothing good comes from there") and try to encourage people to be righteous to one another and that there was another way of doing things, a way that wasn't filled with violence and fear of the oppressive government which was the Roman Empire.  My hope is that we can follow Jesus's teachings, I am honestly far less concerned with what you believe and far more concerned with what you do, I hope that you might be able to learn some things from me and come to understand why I believe what I do, but I hope that you know that living peacefully and acting justly is far more important then what you believe.

So Colin what do you believe?  I believe that God is a God of love, yes the God represented in the Hebrew Bible is scary, but he's also a loving God, God takes care of and shepherds a little nomadic people through drought and famine, tons of oppression, and horrible national catastrophe (such as being enslaved and being overrun by other nations).  Yes God smites people in the Hebrew Bible, it happens a lot, but take a look at the culture, look through an anthropological lens, ask yourself what made a strong god for that time period, someone who was willing to smite, and did so.  God in the Christian Testament is a little less present, God's there at the beginning of the Gospels somewhat, and people talk about God in the rest of the Testament, but similar to now, God just isn't speaking as much, or at least God isn't speaking in as direct ways, kind of like now.  Certainly God is still speaking, just in different ways, now and in the Christian Testament God is speaking through teachers, people, scripture, culture, art, music.  The big thing we are faced with in the Christian Testament though is of course Jesus, the Messiah.  The Messiah who is supposed to be mortal (and is), is supposed to free the oppressed (Jesus offered a life under a different kind of Empire, a different way of living).  Jesus taught people to live in communion with one another, to help the poor and not just help the poor but be with the poor, Jesus taught people to seek justice to try to change the ills of the world through non-violent means, and then Jesus dies in a horribly catastrophic manner by that very Empire he was working against (people who benefit from the status quo hate people that try to change it).  The rest of the Christian Testament is a story of the community that Jesus had formed, not all of it's perfect, there are some instances of the community fighting against its self, lashing out against those who have kicked them out of the Synagogues (again changing status quo is dangerous, and will get you ostracized), and things that have meant one thing (such as be careful not to contract std's) that have been twisted by some people to mean some horrible things, there is however a lot of good things in the book as well, but I'm getting off track and chasing rabbit holes.  I also believe that the Spirit of God is moving throughout the world through the actions of good people, that the Spirit of God is the tangible aspects of an intangible God.  I believe that sin are the actions of people who do things that harm others.  I believe that the Church Universal can be a force for good against those sins but that the Church has done quite a lot to harm people as well, which it must atone for.  I believe that all people no matter what they have done or who they are, are people of God and should be loved and accepted as such.  Those are some of my beliefs.