Bad News

I used to enjoy watching the evening news, long before there were such things as cable television, social media, and “fake news.” I got hooked when I was a teenager, watching grainy images of Walter Cronkite with my father in the 1960’s. Later I remember watching PBS’s The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, and coming away with the confidence that I knew what was going on in the world.

Now I come away from the evening news feeling like I have been emotionally assaulted. Senseless shootings, vindictive partisan politics and mindless triviality dominate the news. Whatever is most offensive, sensational or controversial is put to the head of the show, while important stories are ignored. In recent years destructive weather is showcased first because of the dramatic images of floods, tornados, hurricanes and fires.

The antics of entertainment and sports celebrities are paraded as if they were news. They aren’t! And do networks have to repeat the same stories night after night? Can’t they come up with anything new to report? After all, it is called “news.” I am not saying that all journalism is bad. But too much of television journalism is the equivalent of junk food. Too much will make you sick.

Recently we bought a sofa, which we eventually had to return to the store. The off-gasses from materials in the furniture were damaging my health. It took a while for my physician and I to discern what was causing my physical symptoms, but as soon as I removed the furniture from the living room my health improved dramatically. My sofa was poisoning me.

I feel like the same sort of thing is happening with the evening news. It is poisoning the psyches of Americans and causing all sorts of harmful symptoms in our society. Not the least of which is fear, anxiety, xenophobia, and political polarization. Our psyches are not designed for constant bombardments of threats. These in turn prompt the desire to find security in personal arsenals of weapons and political extremism.

The worst thing about TV news is its corrosive effect on the human spirit. It is bringing out the worst in the human soul and American religion, as exemplified in the recent degradation of American Evangelicalism, which used to be my spiritual home. Spiritually speaking our nation is dying, as any study of the state of American religion will show.

There is a need for a spiritual solution. Paul wrote, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8) Breathing such divine fresh air can counteract the toxic effect of much of American popular culture.

I am not advocating Pollyannaish optimism or hiding our heads in the sand like those who have been dubbed “snowflakes,” people too sensitive to hear anything that disagrees with their worldview.  Nor am I calling for an Amish-style withdrawal from the world so as not to be contaminated by it. Sin happens. There is no doubt about it, and we cannot hide from it or ignore it. There is great wrongdoing, suffering and injustice in the world.

I am trying to find a counterbalance to the new yellow journalism that is so pervasive these days. I am looking for an antidote to the poison, something more than the inspirational anecdote attached to the end of each evening news broadcast. I am looking for hope.

I was talking to a friend recently. In five minutes we counted five serious crises, any one of which could cripple our country – climate change, the national debt, healthcare costs, the student loan crisis, and gun violence. We could have doubled that number of crises if we had another five minutes. The world we are leaving our grandkids looks bleak.

That’s the way it is, as Cronkite used to say. We do not seem to have the national will, unity or courage to address these impending crises. Or maybe that is just the poison talking. Maybe it is not as bad as I think. Maybe I have been watching too much television news. Maybe this next election will change things. There is always a next election.

In any case I am lessening my intake of television news and relying more on a diet of print media from reputable sources that look beyond the headlines. I will supplement it with a generous dose of spiritual optimism to put it all in perspective. For as the Scripture says, “All things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to God’s purpose.”

Autumnal Spirituality

As the temperature drops and summer green turns to autumn reds, my spirituality shifts. Living in New Hampshire gives us four distinct seasons. More than that, if you count mud season and black fly season. But I am thinking of the four traditional seasons marked by solstice and equinox.

As autumn arrives I become aware of loss. I am losing the opportunity to take a dip in Squam Lake. I am losing the warm days of tee shirts and shorts. I am losing afternoons sitting on the shore of Lake Chocorua. I am losing open windows and a breeze blowing through my living room. I am losing the sound of crickets and frogs at night. I am missing the sight of loons on the lake and hummers in my backyard.

But with the coming of autumn I also gain things. The enjoyment of fall foliage, the smell of wood smoke, vibrant blue skies, invigorating walks in crisp fresh air. There is also the anticipation and preparation for fall and winter holidays.  I can’t say I am looking forward to winter, but I am excited about fall! Autumn invites us to a spirituality sensitive to both loss and gain.

As we age we become more aware of what we have lost. I am particularly conscious of this because I just celebrated another birthday. It happens every September! I am now 69 and starting my seventh decade of my life. (Remember that we number birthdays by the year just finished.) Next year is the big 7-0. Young, according to my octogenarian friends, but still a milestone for me.

My nine-year old grandson, who is almost exactly 60 years younger than I (our birthdays are three days apart, which makes it easy to remember his age) stares at me wide-eyed when I tell him we did not have cell phones and video games when I was his age. Not even computers! “What did you do?” he wonders aloud.

The longer one lives, the more one loses. One loses family members and friends to death. One day I realized I was the oldest living member of my family. My family’s property on Lake Winnipesaukee – so much a part of my childhood and our children’s childhood - is gone. Sold to pay the taxes. I drive through town and identify houses by who used to live there. I realize that I am the only one who has certain memories. Then you begin to lose your memory!

While celebrating my grandson’s ninth birthday at the Common Man restaurant in Ashland recently, a graying man came up to our table and asked if I was Marshall Davis. I reticently responded “Yes,” careful to put my feet on the floor in case I needed to make a quick getaway.

He introduced himself … and his wife at the next table … and explained that I performed their wedding on Church Island 31 years ago. They were there celebrating her birthday and their anniversary! Furthermore their 27 year-old daughter is getting married soon. Would I mind if they took a photo of me with them to post on social media?

Time marches on, as they say. My body is also clearly marching on. When I mention symptoms to my doctor, she graciously uses the word “maturing” rather than aging. After a while I realize I am going to deal with some ailments for the rest of my life. Middle age is past. Middle means halfway. When I do the math, I realize I do not know anyone who is 140.

Aging is not a bad thing. We gain things with age, just as autumn brings its gifts. It brings a certain degree of wisdom (although I know some old fools!) It brings happiness. Studies show that the happiest times of life are childhood and retirement. Age brings free time and independence (if one is blessed with an adequate pension and health insurance). For me it brings the thrill of exploring the spiritual depths of life untethered from pastoral responsibilities and undeterred by the glare of doctrinal watchdogs.

I am grateful for the autumn of life. Even losses can be blessings. For example my doctor says I should lose weight! So I am trying to lose pounds in order to gain years. Autumn is beautiful because of the losses. The loss of chlorophyll in the maple leaves is what brings out the color! Spiritual insights come forward when one is forced to let go of what one cannot keep. That includes material things as well as career and professional prestige.

It also includes letting go of one’s soul. Jesus said, “Whoever seeks to save his soul will lose it, but whoever loses his soul will keep it.” The New Living Translation puts it: “If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.” Another translation says, “Whosoever shall seek to save his soul shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose it shall cause it to live.”

Our lives are not ours to keep. It is better to learn that before we are forced to surrender them. Our bodies will return to the earth from which they came. The spirit of life that animates our bodies will return to God. Our “self” will dissipate like the mist it is. In the end we lose everything – except who we truly are. I am speaking of our undying nature. Some call it the immortal soul. It is often called eternal life.  

Our true nature, our divine life in God, cannot be lost because it is not ours. We belong to it, and not it to us. The sooner we identify with what cannot die, the better we will live. As missionary Jim Elliot famously said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Autumn reminds me of this reality. It reminds me of what I gain by losing. That is why I love fall. It renews life in me.

A Blog about Nothing

Those of us of a certain age will remember the long-running television sitcom Seinfeld, which was known as “a show about nothing.” That is exactly what a blog about spirituality is: a blog about nothing. Spirit is by definition beyond the world of things. Spirit is not of this world - not matter or energy - and therefore not verifiable by the scientific method.

Writing about spirituality is literally talking about “no thing,” not even an ultimate Spiritual Thing called God. God is not the Greatest of all things. God is not the Supreme Object, not a Divine Superman sitting on a celestial throne somewhere “up there.” The spiritual realm is not “up there,” as any astronomer can tell you.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human launched into space, purportedly remarked that he had been into space and did not see any God. Of course not. God is not a divine Helicopter Parent orbiting our planet. God is not an entity in space, like Bertrand Russell’s rhetorical teapot. God is literally no-thing.

Likewise the Kingdom of Heaven is not a place, as Jesus repeatedly said. Jesus said to Pilate: “My Kingdom is not of this world.” When the Pharisees asked Jesus about it, he replied, “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs. Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of God is within you.”

The Gospel of Thomas, which you won’t find in your Bibles but was written at the same time as the gospels in our Bible, has a very similar saying. When asked by his disciples about the coming of the Kingdom, Jesus said, “It will not come while people watch for it; they will not say: Look, here it is, or: Look, there it is; but the Kingdom of the Father is spread out over the earth, and men do not see it.”

God is No-thing that dwells No-where. (For some reason I find myself whistling the Beatles song, Nowhere Man.) Those born of the Spirit participate in this nowhereness. Jesus said, “The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

An unknown 14th century Christian mystic called this the Cloud of Unknowing. Buddhists call it Void. Taoists call it Tao. Ancient Hebrews called it YHWH. Early Christians called it Logos. There are a dozen names for the Divine, all of which are merely placeholders for That Which Cannot Be Named. 

While doing my daily walk round the village recently, I was very aware of this ever-present Reality, which underlies and permeates all existence. This Presence is my constant Companion. (Jesus called this the Comforter or Counselor.) A life of Presence is living in the world but not being of the world. This Reality is so obvious and so simple - so omnipresent that it is routinely overlooked.

If we stop naming things, the Nameless is revealed. If we pause the internal dialogue in our minds for a moment, then the Unthinkable is present. If we step back from our “self” for a moment, then God steps to the forefront. If we just stop – stop all this selfness – then God is. This is the everyday truth that Jesus called the Kingdom of God. 

Theologian Paul Tillich called this the Ground of Being. It is the background and foundation of existence. We don’t have to be taught it. This is our present awareness. Everyone knows this intuitively, but not everyone recognizes this consciously. Everyone notices this Awareness at some level, but not everyone pays attention. This is the answer to every spiritual question and the end of every spiritual quest.

This is the Kingdom of God. It is spread over the earth, but people do not see it. It is behind every thought and beneath every emotion. Everything lives within it and cannot exist without it. The universe is born from this. It is within us and enfolds us. It is inseparable from who we are. It is us, and we are it.

In the Christian tradition this via negativa is symbolized by a Cross, which is the center of heaven and earth, where the human and divine meet. In some incomprehensible way the Cross is the death of a human and the death of God … or at least the death of our concepts of God and human. Most importantly, it is the prelude to resurrection and an embodied spiritual life.

The “wise ones” of this age – both secular and religious - call it foolishness, according to the apostle Paul. He calls it the wisdom of God and the power of God. He also calls it “good news” – the gospel. It is what every spiritual seeker is looking for. It is nothing, and it is everything. It is present … here … now … for those with eyes to see.

Lakeside Meditation

Recently I have gotten into the habit of waking up early and going to the lake to sit in the presence of God. It is not that God is absent from my living room or back porch, but I am more present to God at the lakeside. On those mornings when I awaken before dawn and cannot fall back asleep, I accept it as an invitation from the Spirit to sit by the lake.

I make a cup of tea and put it into a travel mug. Then I drive the two miles to the town beach before anyone else comes to take their morning swim or go on an early fishing expedition. I sit on a rock by the shore and let the stillness of the early morning sink into my soul.

It is a lazy man’s form of meditation, a spontaneous form of spiritual practice. No need to pay attention to my breathing, utter a centering prayer, or intentionally allow invasive thoughts pass through my consciousness. No spiritual discipline at all is necessary on such mornings. The lake does it all for me. I sit and watch the water, and the calmness of the lake’s surface produces a calmness in my soul.

One morning the water was warm and the air was cool, producing an airy mist that rolled over the surface of the bay. It was the perfect metaphor for human life. The ripples caused by fish plucking their breakfast from the surface was another message. The deep silence that moved over the face of the water was another. The clouds settling into the valleys of the mountains in the distance gave more teachings.

These were not ideas addressed to my mind, but “the Spirit speaking spiritual truths in spiritual words” as the apostle describes it. The psalmist describes it as “Deep speaks unto deep.” The presence of omnipresent God is revealed in my innermost being. The Divine within communes with the Divine without, and the mist of my individual identity rides the surface.

These are moments of full awareness. Time unfolds and reveals eternity beneath the surface. When I try to describe this to myself using Christian terminology, it adds nothing to it. In fact theologizing draws me away from Presence and into my mind. So I let the thoughts ripple across the surface, and I return to the quiet which is the heart of existence. This is my spiritual practice on these precious final summer days.

The Duality of Politics

Recently I have been doing some reading on the age-old “problem of evil” and the theistic solution to it called theodicy. This is the attempt to comprehend how a good God can allow evil in this universe. For some strange reason it got me thinking about American politics.

Politics in America is divided between warring perspectives. People call them by different names (not all of them fit to print), but the two sides are typically referred to as liberals and conservatives, usually divided into Democrats and Republicans. Capitalism is championed by one side, socialism valued by the other. The Donald on one side and Bernie on the other. The more you tend toward one end of the spectrum, the more you see it as a battle between good and evil.

Each side of the political spectrum has its extremes – Proud Boys on the right, antifa on the left – as evidenced in the recent standoff in Portland, Oregon. Both see the other as evil, dangerous and anti-American. Fascism on one side. Communism on the other side. I could spend half the blog listing the pairs of opposites.

I find myself caught up in it, choosing one side (at least a moderate form of it) over the other, opting for what I see as the lesser of two evils. Even though I consider myself an Independent - neither Republican nor Democrat - I usually vote for one of the two major parties when I go into the voting booth. In the past I have sometimes chosen a “third party” candidate. But the stakes seem too high these days for me to opt for that alternative.  

As I play my role in this the battle between Right and Left in our country, part of me watches the drama of dueling dualities from a distance. This watcher is my “better angel,” my spiritual and true self, the image of God in me. I take a breath and see that the phenomenon of warring dualities is the never-ending pattern of history. It is human nature and will continue until humankind draws its last breath. It has always been this way and always will be. There is no earthly utopia on the horizon. History repeats itself with endless variations on the theme.

This is not pessimistic resignation or fatalism. It is the shape of reality. There can be no conservative without liberal; they need each other to exist. That is true politically and religiously. To be on the side of the good, one needs an enemy on the side of evil. To be right, others must be wrong. To be on the side of the angels means there must be demons. If we are on God’s side, there has to be a devil. Voltaire famously said that if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. The same is true of the devil. The righteous need him.

How would we know we are good without evil to contrast ourselves with? How could we be right unless there are people who are wrong? Religiously speaking, how can we possess the truth unless there is falsehood? There can be no orthodoxy without heresy. This is the play of duality. It is alright to play the game as long as we realize that it is a game. Only when we mistake the game for Reality are we truly lost.

The True Believer is capable of true evil, as any online manifesto penned by a mass murderer will show you. Great evil has been done by those inspired by both religion and politics – or both. To quote Steven Weinberg’s oft-repeated statement: “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.” Substitute the word “politics” or "ideology" for religion, and the statement is equally true.

We are all capable of self-deceit when it comes to politics and religion. We all are capable of evil when caught up in a righteous cause. The only way to ensure we are not ensnared by the dark side is to rise above the fray and transcend the play of opposites, if only for a moment.

Take a breath and look at our current political ruckus from a higher perspective. When we put a little breathing room between us and our beliefs, we see things more clearly. Even matters of life and death are seen as part of the dance of duality, a cosmic drama of opposites which never ends.

If we loosen our grip on ourselves often enough, we can glimpse the God “who is above all and through all and in all,” to quote the apostle Paul. Only from this perspective can we reenter the world to play our role in this earthly pageant with greater wisdom and integrity.

Rethinking Anti-Semitism

President Trump’s recent rhetoric and treatment of Muslim American congresswomen has me concerned. So has the rise of white supremacy and Christian nationalism in the United States, as well as the increase in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe and the United States.

The term “anti-Semitism” has always been used to describe anti-Jewish attitudes and behavior. Indeed that is how the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it: “hatred of Jewish people.” But I remember from my seminary training that the Semitic peoples were originally much broader than the Jews.

The term Semite comes from the Biblical name Shem, one of the three sons of Noah who survived the Flood in the Book of Genesis. According to the story, all peoples on the earth are descended from three men – Shem, Ham, and Japheth - and their wives. From Shem came not only the Hebrews but all the peoples of the Ancient Near East that we now know as the Middle East. The Hebrews were just one branch of the family tree of Shem.

Modern dictionaries define “Semitic” in this wider context. Once again Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Semitic as “of, relating to, or constituting a subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic language family that includes Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Amharic.” It defines Semite as “a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs; (2) a descendant of these peoples; (3) a member of a modern people speaking a Semitic language.”

The term Semitic has always applied to a group broader than Jews. Yet the term anti-Semitism has been narrowly defined as applying exclusively to Jews. In this age of increasing ethnic violence, it is time to expand anti-Semitism to include hatred toward any Semitic peoples, including Arabs and Palestinians.

Insofar as anti-Semitism normally includes hatred of the Jewish religion and not just Jewish ethnicity, a broader definition of anti-Semitism would include prejudice against Arab religion as well as Arab people. Although not all Arabs are Muslims, the two often go together in bigots’ minds. Anti-Muslim prejudice is part of anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment.

However you want to define it, it is hate. Those who think they can love Israel by hating Palestinians are deluding themselves. The same is true of Muslims who hate Jews. We are one race – the human race. Of all nations Americans ought to know this, given our history and struggles for racial equality. Yet we still struggle.

In our country anti-Jewish bigotry is immediately called out for what it is. It is time for anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies to receive the same treatment. They should be labeled for what they really are: ethnic bigotry.

This idea may be difficult for many Americans to swallow, so entrenched is the Muslim stereotype after 9/11, the Iraq wars, and the endless war in Afghanistan. But in the end the hatred of any ethnic or religious group is just a form of racism, which divides people into imaginary “races” based on geography, language, religion and physical appearance.

Truth be told, when I studied in Israel for a semester I could not distinguish a Jew from an Arab if it wasn’t for distinctive clothing and language. They are physically indistinguishable to me. Modern genetic studies bear that out. Israeli Jews are related to their Middle Eastern neighbors.

The Bible confirms that we are all interrelated. In preaching to the Athenians, the apostle Paul said that God “has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth.” Even the Flood story says that Canaan, the ancestor of the Canaanites (the indigenous peoples of the Holy Land) was the nephew of Shem and Japheth. We are all cousins.

Readers may not agree with my proposal to enlarge the scope of the term “anti-Semitism,” and that is alright. I don’t really expect the idea to progress beyond this blog post. Furthermore I don’t actually care what anti-Muslim prejudice is called, as long as it is identified as a problem. Call it Islamophobia. Call it anti-Arabism. Call it racism. Call it religious bigotry. Call it whatever you want. I call it unchristian behavior.

To hate Arabs for being Arab, Jews for being Jewish, Muslims for being Muslim, or Christians for being Christian, is nothing more than hatred. Jesus called us to love our neighbors and our enemies. As a practicing Christian, those of every faith and ethnic group are my brothers and sisters. To admit anything less is to fall short of the ethic of Jesus.

Greetings Earthlings!

The creation stories found in the opening chapters of Genesis are among the most famous accounts in the Bible. Christians fight over whether to take the stories literally or figuratively. I am more interested in what they mean. As I read the creation story found in the second chapter of Genesis, I find an important spiritual truth: we are earthlings!

That may not seem like a new revelation to most people, but it is more revolutionary than you may imagine. In everyday speech we talk about our origins very differently. We talk about coming into this world at birth and departing this world at death, as if we were from someplace else. We inherited this way of thinking from Greek philosophy and the later books of the New Testament, which were not written by Jesus’ apostles but by a later generation of Christians deeply influenced by Greek dualism.

The First Letter to Timothy says, “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can take nothing out of it.” In his second letter this same author says of his forthcoming death, “the time of my departure is at hand.” The Letter to the Hebrews says we are “foreigners and strangers on earth.” The First Letter of Peter calls us “aliens and sojourners.”

If we see ourselves as aliens, it should come as no surprise that we are “alienated” from the earth. The way we treat the earth reflects our attitude. This earth is seen as something disposable that we will leave behind one day. It will be eventually destroyed by God in eschatological fire and replaced with a newer model, so it doesn’t matter very much how we treat it. Jesus is coming soon to take us to heaven, so to hell with the earth!

But the Hebraic biblical stories in Genesis present a more holistic view of our origins. We are not aliens temporarily residing on earth. Genesis says we came from the earth, and we have been given a divine responsibility to care for the earth. The Creator is pictured as a potter who forms humans from the clay of Eden and breathes life into us.

In fact the Hebrew word for “human,” as well as the proper name of the first human, Adam, is the masculine form of the word for earth. Adam emerged from adamah. Etymologically and physically humans are earthlings. God makes that clear later in the story: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

We are literally earthlings, birthed from the womb of the earth. Every molecule of us is earth. We were earth before we were born. We will be earth after our death. We are earth now. We are not strangers to this planet. We are not spiritual beings who fell to earth. We are the earth, related to every other life form on earth. As the earth we are 4.5 billion years old! All of a sudden I am feeling very old.

The first creation story in the Bible (which is actually the second creation story chronologically; Genesis 1 was written centuries after Genesis 2) adds another dimension to human origins. It says that earthlings were created “in the image of God.” Theologians have argued for millennia over what that phase means. But it seems clear that it has something to do with the spiritual dimension of our existence.

I think it most likely refers to consciousness. In particular the type of self-consciousness which seems to be unique to humans – at least on this planet. We are the earth conscious of itself, and that consciousness is our divine connection. 

Now consider the fact that earth was born from the universe, which is 13.7 billion years old. Every element on earth – which includes every element in our bodies - was forged in the interior of stars, which exploded their contents into space to form galaxies, solar systems, planets, and eventually life. We are made of the universe. We are not only earthlings, we are universelings. We are the universe conscious of itself.

But most people do not live from that reality. Instead we convince ourselves that we are separate entities. We view ourselves as mortal creatures, little islands of temporary consciousness imprisoned in bags of flesh and skin, which will one day die. If we hold to a religious tradition, then we vary the narrative somewhat.

In the West we see ourselves as souls who sojourn for a few years on earth until we return to our true home in heaven. As the old hymn says, “This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through.” If we ascribe to an Eastern religion, we are spiritual beings reincarnated on earth again and again until we realize it is all illusion and are set free from the bonds of material existence.

But the biblical Creation stories – backed up by science – tell a different story. This earth and this universe are home. We do not come into it or leave it. We are it. We are earthlings and universelings. We are the universe conscious of itself, and that universal consciousness is divine. The spiritual life is the quest to realize and live our true nature in everyday awareness. This is who we are. This is the Kingdom of God. Welcome home, earthlings.