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The Christian Right prefers the Gospel of John, the pseudo-Pauline epistles and
the Book of Revelation, and the Left tends to read more of the Synoptics, with
timeless wisdom like the Sermon on the Mount. The Right tries to preserve glorious
poetry as if it were ancient science; and the Left tries to save the gospel from the
fundamentalists, whose doctrines have driven many well-educated and thoughtful
people from the church.
Those of us on the Left are persuaded of the truth of the gospel with no less
feverish intensity than those on the Right. We demand for ourselves the integrity
to note the different writings of scripture not as history, but as a parable of
th E ho l y spirit D i D n o t l E A D t h E cr u s A D E s , t h E in q u i s i t i o n,
t h E sA l E m w i t c h t r i A l s, o r t h E p r o s E c u t i o n o f sc o p E s ... [it is]
t h E spirit o f t ru t h A n D f r E E i n q u i r y, w h i c h h u n G r i l y A s k s f o r
m o r E l i G h t t o b r E A k f r o m Go D’s h o l y w o r D .
the kingdom of God, ruled by the two maxims Christ himself said were most
important: Love of God, and love of neighbor. And Christ himself insisted that we
love God with all of our minds as well, and that means close reading of scriptural
passages: not to tear them apart, as the Christian Right fears, but to understand
them more deeply.
It is my vision for the NACCC that it be a church which embraces all of the
human wisdom of modern science, history, archeology, comparative anthropology
and other tools which we have to understand and expand our faith. God gave us
our brains for a reason. It is with great love of God in Jesus Christ that I learn how
God has worked through evolution, through men and women of all ages grasping
for an understanding of the holy.
It is not enough, not nearly enough, to say, “The Bible was created by the Holy
Spirit—don’t mess with it!” The Holy Spirit does not condone slavery, the silence
of women in church, or the dismissing of the humanity of our homosexual sisters
and brothers. The Holy Spirit did not lead the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem
witch trials, or the prosecution of Scopes for teaching evolution. The Spirit is the
spirit of truth and free inquiry, which hungrily asks for more light to break from
God’s holy word. There is no “God’s wisdom” or “Man’s wisdom,” as the Right
keeps putting it. There is just wisdom, the first-born of all creation, poetically
imagined as incarnated in the Christ.
And it is that risen Christ I proclaim and celebrate.
The rE v. GE o r G E E. bl A ir iii received his Master of Divinity degree
from Yale Divinity School, his law degree from the University of Connecticut,
a master’s degree in Philosophy from Trinity College, Hartford, and a
bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Connecticut. He
anticipates a call from an NACCC church.
The Congregational
Foundation
People who are
passionate about
the Congregational
Way have joined
the 1620 Society by
including the NACCC
amongst their bequests.
Interested? Call Diana
at the Foundation’s office
1-800-262-1620, x25
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