Nominal Christians

Unlike Jesus would have done, nominal Christians in America and Europe looked the other way as atrocities were inflicted on Jews and certain Christians. Traditional structures were morally bankrupt and unable to oppose the evils of the contemporary world, even in so-called “Christian nations.” They had no true prophetic voice and were co-opted by political and military organizations within and outside of government.

 

In some of the writing in his letters from prison his thinking about this situation was not fully developed, but he saw that people in Germany and abroad could hold to correct beliefs and moral codes, practicing ecclesiastical customs while at the same time committing horrors against humanity. We can see a similar situation in the treatment of African-Americans in the “Bible Belt” and elsewhere that was nothing short of persecution by white Christians.

 

The love of Jesus and his compassion is passed over in favor of conformity to rituals of the Word and sacraments. For example many preachers denounced the non-violent protest movement espoused by Martin Luther King, prompting King to write his now famous and powerful “Letter from Birmingham Jail' in which  King details the principles of nonviolent direct action, exposes readers to the conditions endured by Black Americans, and defends his belief in the supremacy of moral law over an unjust legal code.

 

Typical Christian religious practice does not guarantee a transformation of the heart nor does it necessarily provide a personal experience with God. [1]

​

Agnosticism and Prayer

This seems to be an odd place to speak about prayer, because this page is for the religionless and non-believer.  If you fall in to the category of agnostic or non-believer, we hope you will be able to withhold your judgments until you have read this section. Bonhoeffer urged an active kind of prayer in which we are the hands and feet of God, that is, we are active in what we want God to do while at the same time putting ourselves in a place of empathy and solidarity with the person we are praying for. He urges prayer that asks God to help or empower us to act in behalf of the person or situation we are praying for. He does not want to encourage petitioners to be passive in their posture of prayer. I consider the whole topic of prayer in greater detail on the Spiritual Growth page of this site.

 

Committed Action

Bonhoeffer encouraged action, standing up for what is right and doing what is right and just. In other words he is urging us to seek justice in society. He acted on this belief when he returned from  a period of time in America to Germany to join a resistance. During this period he added to his teaching and principles as teacher and rector of a seminary for the confessing church.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed that someday, a time will come when Christians will once again be called to proclaim the word of God so that the world will be transformed and renewed by it.

 

A New Language

Bonhoeffer said this: “It will be a new language, perhaps quite non-religious, but liberating and redeeming—as was Jesus’ language; it will shock people and yet overcome them by its power; it will be the language of a new righteousness and truth, proclaiming God’s peace with men and the coming of his kingdom… Till then the Christian cause will be a silent and hidden affair, but there will be those who pray and do right and wait for God’s own time.”

 

I think that Bonhoeffer was saying that the language of the church had become so intricately connected with political or state power that the church had lost its own authentic power and authority in the modern world. In its complicity with evil and in its blessing of the status quo, it had lost its prophetic voice. In his time, the language of the church had become aligned with the political and religious right. [1]  We should keep in mind that during the period in which Bonhoeffer was speaking, many people were being taken in by Nazi ideology and practices, and even church leaders had become puppets of the Nazi government.

​

​

 

 

Because I write poetry enjoy writing as a way of expressing my creative, wild side, I am interested in what Bonhoeffer calls the over-domestication of Jesus that presents him in an almost antiseptic manner. This approach lacks the shocking value expressed by Jesus honestly and openly to the powerful as well as the poor and lame. Bonhoeffer says that we will one day emerge to proclaim the reign of God and it may be “quite non-religious.” In other word, we will some day, maybe in each of our lives, become aware of how a creative force permeates all of creation.

 

Richard Rohr and the Universal Christ: A Critique 

Some people refer to that creative force as God. Christian theologian Richard Rohr seems to be trying to get at this idea in his  very popular book, The Universal Christ in which Rohr says:

"Everything visible, without exception, is the outpouring of God. Numerous Scriptures make it very clear that this Christ has existed 'from the beginning' (John 1:1-18, Colossians 1:15-20, and Ephesians 1:3-14 being primary sources), so the Christ cannot be coterminous with Jesus... [2]

I believe Rohr makes a mistake in his theology, in part because I am not sure he believes that Jesus Christ retained his human nature after his death and resurrection. That theological discussion is for another place on this website.  But besides his theology, I think it is a mistake to more or less discount the fact that millions of Christians speak of Jesus as their personal savior. He says "Our faith became a competitive theology with various parochial theories of salvation, instead of a universal cosmology inside of which all can live with an inherent dignity." [2]  (Underlining and bold by Editor)  I think I understand something of what Rohr is getting at here because I am aware of competing theologies, for example between Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus who is one of the theologians / philosophers who underlies much of Franciscan spirituality, and Rohr is a Franciscan. 

​

The Person, Jesus the Christ, Is Precious

On the other hand, in the above italicized and maroon-colored sentence, I think Rohr glibly dismisses or discounts the beliefs of Christians who are grateful for the salvific work of Jesus Christ and who believe his life and death demonstrate to us the complete and total humility of God, and the authentic loving nature of the Father, our God who is Love itself (1 John 4:7-21). And he seems to neglect or brush aside Christ's continuing humanity which is more than his physical body. I think Rohr would accept that Christ is a person and his personhood is expressed throughout creation, however I wonder if Friar Rohr's thought is limiting the Christ in the kind of relationship he can have with individual human persons who are still earthlings. Why not allow Jesus the Christ the ability to cherish his followers both past and present? That Jesus now has a glorified body, rather than a flesh and blood body in heaven, does not negate his humanity. When people find a connection with God by identifying with the love, acceptance, compassion, and beauty of the human Jesus, wouldn't it be good to acknowledge and affirm those people who feel this strong connection with the Trinity through the Son? The Son is God. Jesus is the Christ, the second person of the holy Trinity. The preceding framing of Jesus the Christ does not take away from the fact that Christ is in all of creation (Colossians 1:12-16). And if you want to call that the Universal Christ, I have no problem with that.  As a Christian and have tried to speak with Jesus in my own language, (John 15:15)  just as I continue to strive for a good relationship with my wife. I make a mistake whenever I take either of these relationships for granted, meaning I should not ignore them. On the contrary I should communicate with these two persons and seek intimacy with them, because that is what these two relationships are all about. Throughout the entire Bible, especially in the Psalms, individuals like David cry out to God in an emotional and faithful way. (Psalm 142: 1-7) David and his voice sound like someone who is close to and trusts his God.

​

Is our relationship with Jesus personal, private, or spiritual?

The Bible does not say we should have a private relationship with Jesus. That means that the relationship needs to be grounded in the church, fellowship, or community. When I have pulled away from others and the church in my thoughts and actions, and when today I speak to Jesus, I always run the risk of my ego/self taking over. I agree with Dietrich Bonhoeffer who, in his approach to prayer encourages an active kind of prayer which puts us in solidarity with the other and asks God in Christ to enter into this bond with us. (Please see my comments about prayer, etc. above.) I think Bonhoeffer and Rohr have a lot in common. Just look at the name of the center Rohr created in Albuquerque, NM, the Center for Action and Contemplation. I think Rohr is constantly viewing things -- that might seem private to each individual -- in the context of community. The reason that is important to me personally is because of my own tendency toward introversion, I am drawn to solitary activities which sometimes take me away from the social realities of which I am a part. I see the tendency to live in one's own private universe as a sin in some powerful people who use others either to aggrandize their power or for sexual favors, which is an abuse of power. God made us social beings and that is one of the reasons for church and fellowships such as twelve step groups like AA. Pride and ego, which some simply refer to as "self", are always just beneath the surface in human beings (some call this "fallen man") and they/we need to be balanced with healthy social relationships. Thus -- a reason for marriage.

[You might also want to look at my section on a Person- to- Person Approach to Atonement]

​

Spiritual Relationship with Jesus

Many Christians assert their personal or even their intimate relationship with God. It is part of their spiritual life and existence. This does not mean that they deny that God permeates the universe and all of creation. And it does not mean that they are social isolates . Unfortunately, Rohr, in effect, puts an overly negative cast on people who strive to nurture a spiritual relationship with Christ. He seems to infer that such an attitude toward Jesus leads to thinking that Christ has nothing to do with the history of war, injustice and other destructive forces. Speaking for myself, I do not think that my spiritual relationship with Jesus means that I am not an environmentalist, and an advocate for social and political justice, which I am. And I do have a sense of the inherent sacredness of the world. I hope that Rohr's writing and thought does not exclude great swaths of Christians who see Jesus as their personal (not private) savior, painting them as narrow-minded, inherently fundamentalist, or even conservative. Which I am not.

 

Finally, I hope that Father Rohr's theology makes room for holding all people accountable for their sins of abuse, entitlement, and hubris.  Although, as a sociologist, I am familiar with the concept of the power elite, I also see the abuse and sense of entitlement present among many houseless people. In Portland, Oregon, for example, I also observe a concomitant over-extension of an ethic of acceptance and tolerance of lawless houseless individuals. Ask Portland residents about the unwillingness among authorities to enforce consequences for violations by the houseless, leaving injection needles and other detritus strewn about public parks, for example.  Many so-called progressives readily accept the importance of punishing polluters, white collar offenders, and self-centered, self-serving wealthy elites. I am progressive, and understand how the powerful escape accountability for their crimes and abuses, but this failure to impose consequences on unhoused offenders is a weakness in the progressive movement. Having said that, I also understand that houselessness in the cities is an extremely intractable problem - for progressives and conservatives alike. 

 

God Becoming Every Thing

Father Rohr speaks of God becoming every thing. I believe that, in this thinking, Rohr ultimately wishes to encourage people to love the earth and its creatures. But this does NOT mean that those things ARE God. I do not think Rohr believes that, and I hope his followers do not. Making a god of creation violates the first two commandments. Yes, I know we should not be so focused on the commandments that we miss how much God gives us freedom and how free he is. But the commandments are important moral baselines -- another topic in itself. To be clear, Richard Rohr says he is a panentheist.  Panentheism  is the belief that the divine intersects every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time.   Panentheism should not to be confused with  pantheism or pandeism).  Pantheism is the belief that God and the universe are the same things rather than separate things. In other words, 'God is all, and all is God. ' The term pantheism was developed in the eighteenth century from the Greek roots pan, meaning all, and theos, meaning God.

 

Rohr has a beautiful and elegant way of expressing his theology. I have been an  admirer and supporter of his and the CAC for many years. Rohr says that matter is the hiding place for Spirit.  "God's Spirit has been revealing its glory and goodness through the physical creation."  [2] (p. 16)  I agree. 

 

Poetry and the Religionless

All humility aside, it might  be that an example of a non-religious approach is found in the way I have written much of my poetry. When I post my poems on two international poetry websites, I hardly ever use the word God, much less Jesus, yet most of my poetry expresses my personal spiritual journey, my tripping, and wandering, as I tried to either find a power greater than myself or simply let my imagination wander to "Triggering Towns," as Richard Hugo calls aspects of poetic creative efforts. For some years, I tried to run away from the "thing or the person" who people referred to as God. I'm not sure what I was afraid of. Maybe I feared losing my self.  I want to further explore this amorphous fear in another essay. For now, however, I think I have conquered that fear, at least to some extent. 

 

It is worth noting that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in speaking of religionless Christianity, was in no way diminishing the importance of church or community. In fact he wrote a book about community, Life Together, speaking of the many dimensions of communal life. Since Bonhoeffer was always open to what his experience was telling him, in that book, he wrote of what he was learning and teaching in the seminary, of which he was the rector/director. That book proclaims that an essential aspect of Christianity is community, or in what some refer to as the Body of Christ. I personally relate to the concept of religionless Christianity due to the fact that into my late twenties, I was a member of the Catholic Church. I focused on the liturgy and rituals to the exclusion of any meaningful conversation with Jesus. the Father, or the Holy Spirit in any intimate fashion.  Maybe I was afraid of intimacy itself. But it was not until I became a Protestant and renewed my fascinated with the wisdom literature of Christians and Jews in the Bible., that I began to see the possibility of trying to make friends with God, which I now believe is God's fondest dream for us.  Speaking of friends of God I recommend the Conversations with God book series by Neal Donald Walsh including Friendship with God. I read all of these books and they gave me many breakthroughs in my understanding, appreciation, and love of God.

 

Many of these changes in my thinking and curiosity came about in the embrace of two different Protestant church communities, both opening up the channels of grace for me, each in their own way. My involvement with a small men's group at first church was one of the most important “sacraments” for me. I use that word because those guys, in that group, we typically "warmed up" by talking sports, yard work, and  various details of our lives, but we soon got down to serious study of books such as the one written by the great NFL coach, Tony Dungy, called, Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance. The men in this group unabashedly spoke of Jesus and prayer and their struggles of faith. They were men practicing being Christ-Followers right in front of each other. This was no empty ritual but an encounter, which at times, became a form of spiritual intimacy. – GCC

 

Much of this essay is based on and paraphrased from the wonderful article, “religionless Christianity” on the following web page:  https://followingjesus.org/religionless-christianity/  I am grateful for the insights and information in the article that does a great job of explaining this unique concept bravely put forth by Deitrich Bonhoeffer.

 

 [1]   https://followingjesus.org/religionless-christianity/

[2]   The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Every Thing we see, Hope for, and Believe, Copyright 2019, Center for Action and Contemplation, Penguin Random House LLC. p. 13