Chaplains at the 2010 Winter Olympics

The Salt Lake Tribune has published an article that speaks of the presence of chaplains serving at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The article chronicles the work and feelings of the chaplains for the '10 Games who represent five major religious traditions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

Many people, religious or otherwise, don't realize that there actually are chaplains for the Olympics and wouldn't think of such a need. However, in the wake of the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, it's quite apparent that chaplaincy at the Games is quite important. The head of the interfaith team of Olympic chaplains, Rev. David Wells, relates what happened after the accident when he had to confirm that Nodar was Eastern Orthodox and then arrange for an Orthodox priest who was accompanying the Russian luge team to compassionately fill in as the spiritual support.

All of this simply goes to show how important the spiritual and emotional support of chaplains is for many arenas of life, even the Olympics. Just being a listening, receptive presence can be the most encouraging, nourishing, and supportive activity that chaplains do. And the response of the Olympic chaplaincy team at Vancouver simply confirms the significance of the work of chaplains.

Read the entire story at Faith in Public Life.

Buddhism and the Dalai Lama on Unity.FM

Rev. Dr. Tom Shepherd's online radio program "Let's Talk About It" is featuring discussion on the topic of the Dalai Lama and his Buddhist teachings in relation to the Christian season of Lent (which we're currently in).

Here's a short description of the upcoming show:
"His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the great spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, is known worldwide simply as the Dalai Lama. He has written a grand summation of the most important things in life, which includes these words: 'Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.' Buddhism generally understands love as compassion for all sentient beings and, paradoxically, detachment from desire itself. Christian love is about forgiveness and altruism; there is a self-sacrificial tone to the love of God in Jesus Christ. Yet there is much that Buddhists and Christians share in common. Compassion, kindness, and selflessness. This week Dr. Shepherd looks at what Christians can learn from their Buddhist counterparts as his panel of distinguished guests discusses 'Lenten Lessons From the Dalai Lama.'" (Unity.FM)

As a scholar of Buddhist-Christian dialogue and a participant in interreligious interface, I'm curious to see who Dr. Tom's guests are and where the discussion leads, especially in terms of relating Tibetan Buddhist principles to Christian practice of Lent. Since Lent is normally understood as that time in the Christian liturgical year when we recognize our mistakes and shortcomings and reflect on how we might improve ourselves through anticipating and then sharing in Christ's death and resurrection, which are essentially archetypal symbols for the process of overcoming unsatisfactoriness and distorted relationships and living a new existence characterized by life in Christ. This world-renouncing activity of self-emptying and self-discipline in the Christian practice of Lent resonates quite well with the Buddhist ideas and practices of anatta/anatman (no self/soul) and paticcasamuppada (dependent origination) that tend to emphasize the importance of the interdependency of all phenomena and the resulting ethical implications of compassion and altruism that follow.

Tune in on Friday February 26, 2010 at 4pm CST for what ought to be an exciting and stimulating show on "Let's Talk About It."

Sin and Repentance in Progressive Christianity

The latest e-bulletin published by the Center for Progressive Christianity is concerned with the concepts/realities of sin and repentance in progressive, liberal Christian circles. Those of us Christians who adhere to a more open and inclusive theological understanding of Christian scripture and tradition have tended to either downplay or outrightly ignore sin and repentance. Sin is often denounced as an outdated, negative notion that is a product of tribal thinking and those in power attempting to control the religious masses through fear and divinely sanctioned legalistic judgment. However, is it possible for progressive Christians to retain sin by re-conceptualizing its function and presence in Christian theology? I'd like to think so.

In my progressive Christian denomination, Unity, we generally begin this reinterpretation through an etymological examination of "sin." "Hamartia" in Greek is the New Testament and Septuagint rendering of "sin," which is an archery term meaning "to miss the mark." As a metaphysically oriented tradition where consciousness is primary, Unity tends to understand sin as not so much an ontological condition in which we exist as humans, but rather actions in thought, word, and deed where we aren't in line or harmonious with the Christ presence within ourselves. That is, we sin when we aren't in conscious awareness of the imago dei of our being. in which we were originally created. The Fall happens in our consciousness, when we start believing in our separation from God, each other, and all creation. And repentance is the process by which we re-align our consciousness with God within and further express Christ's work through our actions of love, equality, and justice.

However, there are a few important aspects to the notions of sin and repentance that I think Unity has missed or at least that haven't been prominent in Unity writings and conversation. Sin not only is actions we do through our thinking, speaking, and acting but can also be thought of in the more traditional Christian idea of the limitations (a bad word in Unity circles, by the way) or boundaries of our existence as human, finite creatures living in a relative, dualistic physical realm. That is, the fact of the matter is that we, as humans, tend to make mistakes, do things to others or ourselves that we regret, and generally fail to always be in harmony with the Christ within. This isn't to say that we can't be, we simply tend to not be. The tendency to "miss the mark" could be said to be a tendency that can be cured through prayer, meditation, and spiritual social action in the process of redemption or being re-born into a new existence in Christ (living out our Christ nature in the world), but it nonetheless is a reality present in our individual and social lives as part of the problems of the human condition.

My favorite statement about sin comes from Dr. Rosemary Radford Reuther, a contemporary Roman Catholic feminist theologian and one of the professors I studied under at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. She states, "What is appropriately called sin belongs to a more specific sphere of human freedom where we have the possibility of either enhancing life or stifling it. It is the realm where competitive hate abounds, and also passive acquiescence to needless victimization . . . the misuse of freedom to exploit other humans and the earth and thus to violate the basic relations that sustain life. Sin lies in the distortion of relationship, the absolutizing of the rights of life and power on one side of a relation against the other parts with which it is, in fact, interdependent." (TCPC) What I love about this description of sin is that relationship is at the center of attention. Sin is, at its core, the distortion of healthy, mutual, loving relationship among humans, with nature, and with God. Unity has the metaphysical understanding down pat, but we could certainly inject the relational component to our conception of sin. Sin is about the misuse of our free will to promote greed, hatred, enmity, ignorance, falsehood, victimization, etc. in the context of being the relational beings that we are as humans.

So, as Lent begins, let's remember the essential, basic meaning of sin and repentence, which is about healing ourselves, mending brokenness in our relationships, and cultivating the love Christ so it abounds in our lives.

To read more about sin and repentance in progressive Christianity visit the Center for Progressive Christianity and Unity.org this Lenten season.

Portrait of Dalai Lama on Interfaith Voices

Interfaith Voices radio program will be rerunning a conversation with Pico Iyer, a long-time friend of the Dalai Lama, about the life, teachings, and spirituality of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

If you haven't heard this interview with Iyer by host Maureen Fiedler check it out at Interfaith Voices online. It's an excellent portrait of the Dalai Lama's biography (from how and when he was chosen to his issues with the Chinese government as the leader of Tibet) and Lamaism in Tibetan Buddhism.

Sacred Awakening Series

From Feb. 17 through April 3, 2010 Unity, Gaia Community, Intention Media, Integrative Spirituality, among many others will be sponsoring a teleseminar series called "Sacred Awakening Series: 40 Days with 40 Spiritual Leaders." This teleseminar is free for registration and features such spiritual teachers and leaders as the Association of Unity Churches' own president Rev. James Trapp, Buddhist social activist A.T. Ariyaratne, Hindu gurus Swami Chidanand Saraswati and Dattatreya Siva Baba, Buddhist scholar and teacher Tenzin Robert Thurman, progressive Christians Bishop John Shelby Spong and Matthew Fox, Buddhist monk Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Rabbis Lynn Gottlieb and Yehuda Berg, Muslim scholar Abdul Aziz Said, and many more.

I've already signed up for this teleseminar, which should prove to be quite spiritually stimulating. With such a diverse array of spiritual leaders specifically tackling the issue of "how we can live a truly sacred life" participating in this seminar will foster interfaith interaction and learning concerning a central religious issue - spiritual transformation (which is really what living the sacred life is all about). And, for those of us who are part of the Christian heritage, this seminar comes just in time for Lent. Sharing in this interreligious encounter will certainly help engender the spirit of resurrection, rebirth, and renewal of being that the Lenten season is truly, at its core, is all about. I, for one, will be participating in this seminar as a Lenten practice of personal and communal spiritual growth.

Join me in registering for this teleseminar at the online website.

This week on Unity.FM (2.15-19.10)

This week on Unity.FM radio programming there is going to be a wonderful discussion on Rev. Dr. Tom Shepherd's show "Let's Talk About It." The topic of discussion will be religion and humor. Here is Unity.FM's own description of the upcoming show this Friday:

"What’s your favorite religious joke? (Hopefully, it’s something you could repeat from the pulpit on a Sunday morning!) What is the nature of humor, and what places in the Bible is it found? Does God have a sense of humor, or is there too much tragedy in the world for that question not to be offensive? Can we laugh in the face of disaster without seeming airy-faerie or disconnected with reality? This week Dr. Shepherd’s panel will tell some good ones and discuss the nature of humor as a spiritual discipline."

It should be a thoroughly interesting and comical conversation about theology, God, humor, and the human experience.

Tune in this Friday Feb. 19, 2010 at 4pm CST to listen to "Let's Talk About It" on Unity.FM.