Power of Understanding -- Both Intuitive and Intellectual

On Unity.org's main website, a short article on Spiritual Understanding was recently published by Gail Dobert who is director of Silent Unity's Telephone Ministries. This article is very appropriate and timely since Unity Worldwide Ministries (formerly the Association of Unity Churches Int'l) has declared the month of July as having the theme of understanding -- one of Charles Fillmore's twelve spiritual powers found in each human individual.

In this brief overview of spiritual understanding, Dobert makes the claim that there are essentially two different kinds of understanding -- spiritual/intuitive understanding and intellectual understanding -- and the spiritual/intuitive kind is actually that which reveals true insight into the Divine and is the true source of inspiration and spiritual growth. She sees intellectual understanding as limited and quite inferior to the intuitive type of understanding. She states, "Spiritual Understanding wells up from within through intuition and inspiration. Spiritual Understanding is different from intellectual understanding. While intellectual understanding is important in life, there are things we simply cannot intellectually understand. We must seek to find greater understanding and meaning by seeking Spiritual Understanding."

Though I agree with her when she says that there "is a bittersweet mystery about life" and that we as humans aren't meant to understand everything, this principle must apply to both our intuitive and intellectual natures. Indeed, even our intuition or "gut-feeling" faculty of our being is limited in ways and has certain boundaries. Neither our intuitive nor our intellectual sides are limitless, unbounded, and completely free from mistake or misunderstanding.

With this in mind, through my own personal experience, I believe our intellectual nature is just as insightful and conducive toward spiritual growth and experience of truth as our intuition. In fact, dichotomizing intuition and intellect is failing to take into account the interrelatedness, interdependency of all faculties of human existence. I view our human nature as holistic -- faith and reason, heart and mind, intuition and intellect are cooperatively and harmoniously integrated such that they play off of one another in mutual support. Neither is superior or inferior to the other. They are reciprocally up-building in efficacy and activity.

I've found that some of the most insightful and inspired moments in my spiritual experience about God, Truth, Christ, my Self, etc. have been through intellectual reflection and study. Now, this has most definitely been corroborated and resonated by times of contemplation in the Silence. My point is simply that neither intution nor intellect is necessarily greater than the other and both fall short of fully and totally grasping the eternal, infinite, and ultimate Reality we name God or Truth. We may experience flashes or moments of spiritual insight into the Absolute Nature of Reality or God, but in the end we are individual creations within the Mind of God, part and parcel of God's Mind. In the end, words, concepts, language, categories and understand of any kind falls short of fully experiencing the eternal and infinite Mystery of the Divine in which we live, move, and have our being.

IL State Police Revoke 1st Muslim Chaplain

This story actually hits very close to home for me, since I live in central Illinois and know quite a few state troopers.

Here's a snippet from Faith in Public Life:

"The Illinois State Police has revoked the appointment of the agency's first Muslim chaplain, citing only information revealed during a background check. A national Muslim advocacy group Wednesday blamed the move on Islamophobia.

Kifah Mustapha, a Chicago-area imam, was appointed the agency's first Muslim chaplain in December. Community groups had praised Mustapha's appointment as a nod to the growing diversity among the agency's nearly 2,000 officers." (FPL, 6/24/10)

I'm certainly glad to see that the IL State Police are interested and seeking a greater diversity in their chaplaincy positions, since, no doubt, the religious diversity of state troopers and IL citizens is ever-increasing. However, I'm a bit disturbed that there are groups like the Washington-based think-tank, the Investigative Project on Terrorism, that seem to be dead-set on suppressing this burgeoning plurality and diversity, couching it in the guise of "terrorist threat."

Now, the details of Mustapha's background haven't been discussed because they're considered confidential by the IL State Police Department. Nonetheless, a thorough background check should be administered, but this shouldn't deter the Department from seeking other imams to serve if Mustapha's turns out to be detrimental. We need to encourage our police departments, fire squads, educational facilities, community centers, and other public services to celebrate and affirm religious diversity and see the positivity in it.

Read more of the story by the Associated Press's Sophia Tareen.

Beyond the God Gap

A new study by Public Religion Research and Third Way have produced a paper this week entitled "Beyond the God Gap: A New Roadmap for Reaching Religious Americans on Public Policy Issues." It deals with four major Christan religious groupings that dominate U.S. life and how a new but increasing array of diverse progressive religious voices is burgeoning, and how there is a broadening of political agendas among many people of faith.

With this kind of research and the amount of media attention dedicated to this issue, maybe it's time to rethink our assumptions about religious Americans and public policy.

Jim Kessler and Robert P. Jones of the Huffington Post have published a great article that reviews the "Beyond the God Gap" paper and the prominent issues concerning the growing chorus of progressive and liberal religious perspectives in the U.S. and how this affects public policy. Read it here.

Silent Unity Celebrates 120 Years

This year marks the 120th anniversary of Silent Unity. Literally millions of people have contacted Silent Unity for affirmative prayer, and there are countless extraordinary stories of people's faith being uplifted, health renewed, relationships restored and prosperity realized.

Visit Silent Unity's webpage to learn more.

Watch the celebration video:

Unity World Day of Prayer 2010

This year's annual Unity World Day of Prayer will be on Thursday, September 9, 2010. With the theme "Living in the Flow," the event will also mark the completion of the Unity Village central fountain restoration, which has been an ongoing project for a couple years now.

The opening ceremony will be live-streamed on the Web from Unity Village on Wednesday evening, September 8, with keynote speaker Rev. Paul Tenaglia from Unity of New York. Spiritus, a vocal ensemble from New York, along with Broadway singer Rosena M. Hill, will perform at the opening. Events on Thursday will include a fountain dedication ceremony, a seminar based on Rev. Eric Butterworth's book In the Flow of Life, and a closing celebration and ceremony.

Visit the World Day of Prayer website for details and information on other events that will be live-streamed.

Unity Seminary Sunday: Funding Our Future

For those involved in the Unity movement, help pave the way for the next generation of Unity leaders by participating in a new campaign to benefit current and future ministerial students (like myself) -- Unity Seminary Sunday.

Unity churches are invited to choose a Sunday in October 2010 or March 2011 to let congregants know about Unity Institute and up-and-coming Unity ministers, and take a second offering to support them. If you feel so inclined, you may arrange for a ministerial student or faculty member to speak at your church or center on the designated Sunday.

According to Unity and Unity Worldwide Ministries (formerly the Association of Unity Churches, Intl.), this campaign is designed to give congregations an opportunity to join with Unity School and Unity Worldwide Ministries to create a stronger, more vibrant learning community to serve congregants, churches, and the wider Unity movement.

Here's a video about Unity Seminary Sunday:

Evangelical Pastor Tests 1st Amendment

Evangelical pastor, Rev. H. Wayne Williams, is endorsing from the pulpit conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate Gordon Howie (South Dakota), likely hoping to take this issue all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now, I don't often make posts concerning issues explicitly related to politics and government, but this activity is a blatant disregard of the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which guarantees the freedom of practicing any (or no) religion that we choose and freedom from any religion being established as a state religion or being favored over others, and I'm a huge advocate in support of this very important Amendment (in line with the advocacy of the Interfaith Alliance).

The issue is this: the Johnson Amendment of 1954 enacted by Congress states that no 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization can make political endorsements. This is because tax-exemption status amounts to a public subsidy since the rest of the tax-payers shoulder more tax burden of this exemption. Congress determined (appropriately and fairly) that such organizations that benefit from tax-payer subsidies shouldn't be able to endorse political candidates.

So, along with Episcopal priest and U.S. religious historian Randall Balmer, I say to these folks who want to have tax-exemption AND the benefit of political endorsement -- if you want to endorse political candidates, fine, but to make it balanced and fair, give up your tax-exempt status and thus your subsidies from the people, the tax-payers.

The no establishment clause of the 1st Amendment is the very reason why religion flourishes in great and rich diversity in the U.S. When freedom of religion and freedom from religion being tied to the government functions as a legislative principle, then religious plurality and variety and fervor burgeons, which is a wonderful thing and which is a great asset to our nation.

Those of us who are religious leaders certainly, as American citizens, have the right to walk our religious path any way we choose (granted it doesn't infringe on the rights of others) and endorse privately as a citizen any candidate we want. But the Johnson Amendment rightly disallows us from endorsing these candidates on behalf of a non-profit tax-exempt organization. And this has been upheld by the Supreme Court for years.

This is definitely a 1st Amendment separation of religion and government issue. To learn more about this issue, read Randall Balmers post on Religion Dispatches, or visit the Interfaith Alliance website. It's and excellent and informed read.

'UN' of Faith Groups Set Roles in Disaster Relief

For every disaster - be it natural or otherwise - there always comes help from religious groups, setting aside their denominational, doctrinal, and worldview differences to come together and offer physical, emotional, and financial support: food, water, money, and crews of volunteers to come and help out in practical ways.

Tom Breen of the Associated Press writes an article about this often largely unknown hodgepodge of religious communities and their dedication of social action. Read the story here.

New Book on Scripture to Comfort the Sick

With so much focus in America on health care and health care reform, a new book by Beth Bosserman, Medicine from God: Scripture Verses to Encourage and Comfort the Sick (Pleasant Word, 2010), takes a pastoral care angle by offering a treasury of Bible verses offering strength, encouragement, comfort, and inspiration for those who are ill and for those who minister to the ill.

In the midst of debate, contention, and controversy over the legislation and implementation of new health care models, this book is a rather different and important Christian spiritual angle to address the needs of the sick. This is a side not covered very much in the media and so I'm glad to see it's being addressed in this way.

For more, read the entire story here at RNS.

Christian Science Names New President

For those New Thought folks out there, Christian Science (the New Thought movement grounded in prayer-healing and founded by Mary Baker Eddy) has just named a new president. Fujiko Signs, a Japanese-born practitioner, will take the annual position as president.

According to the Religion News Service, Ms. Signs says, "...my passion is to communicate the universality of Christian Science."

Since Signs is a woman from Tokyo, this appointment certainly speaks to the global reach of the Christian Science movement, the oldest of the New Thought churches. I wish Ms. Signs well and hope she shines in her role as president, leader and advocate for the power of prayer and of the mind to influence our experiences for the better.

The RNS has the whole story.

Unity Lecture - "2012: Birthing a World of Unity and Compassion"

On Thursday June 24, 2010 from 7-9pm, Christine Page, M.D. will be giving a lecture at Unity Village about the upcoming and much talked about 2012 prophecies.

Join Christine for what ought to be an exciting lecture, where she'll explore 1) The Mayan prophecy that speaks of a future world of peace and unity; 2) Why it is so important to stay present during these times of change; 3) Why this life, more than any other for the past 26,000 years, is so important for the manifestation our unique soul's destiny; and 4) How to safely surf the waves of change that accompany any birth.

Though I'm not a huge proponent of making too big of a deal of the Mayan calendar and what it might mean, I'm certainly interested in what Dr. Page has to say concerning the hype and oftentimes fear surrounding these "prophecies" and the implications it has for our individual and collective spiritual growth into the future.

Should be interesting. For more info on Dr. Page, the event, and tickets, go to Unity.org's webpage.

New, Intriguing Topics on Interfaith Voices

For those interested in interfaith issues and aren't aware of the Interfaith Voices radio program, there are some intriguing and stimulating topics recently covered on the show.

1) Last week, host Maureen Fiedler interviewed Stephen Prothero, professor of religion at Boston University, who has just come out with a book called God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World - and Why Their Differences Matter.

This is a very important book and interview. For one, Prothero is a wonderfully clear and interesting speaker and writer. But also, his points are extremely crucial for students, practitioners and leaders of religions and interfaith groups. He argues that there are very significant, very real differences among the world's religions and that we need to start recognizing this.

Indeed, he's right - many of us, especially in the liberal-progressive wings of religions and those involved in interfaith efforts have often been overly focused on the similarities or convergences between faiths. But, we can't ever ignore the beliefs, practices, rituals, myths, and textual traditions that set our religions apart in divergence. Acknowledging and lifting up the similarities is quite necessary for building trust and rapport between religious peoples, but solely focusing on these without recourse to the real distinctions actually does a disservice to the uniqueness and special quality of each religion. This is not to mention the notion that it's the differences that makes each religion so interesting to study, for me. If Confucius was the same as Jesus, if Buddhism was no different than Judaism, if the beliefs of Advaita Vedanta were identical to that of Islam, then studying and engaging the world's religions would be quite boring!

What we need is a good dose of an analogical imagination (to use a term coined by Fr. Dr. David Tracy of University of Chicago Divinity School). That is, rather than the relation between religious perspectives being seen as either totally the same or completely disparate, he suggest the category similarity-in-difference, which is essentially the mode of analogy. Neither a watered-down, lowest-common-denominator kind of sameness, nor an irreconcilable, unrelated disparity, what is needed is a creative, imaginative ability to perceive and understand both simultaneously -- similarity-in-difference.

2) Also, the latest episode is a very controversial topic - don't ask, don't tell and gays in the military. Very provocative stuff. Maureen mediates two opposite positions on the repeal bill in the House currently -- Daniel Blomberg of the Litigation Council of the Alliance Defense Fund (anti-repeal) and Rev. Dr. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance (pro-repeal). Listen to this show for an excellent crash-course on the topic and to experience religious perspectives on both sides of the issue.

3) And lastly, later in the latest episode there is a brief segment concerned with the 2010 World Religions Summit in Canada, an effort to push the UN to follow through on its commitment to fight poverty, AIDS, and other global difficulties. Maureen interviews Karen Hamilton of the Canadian Council of Churches. She answers tough questions on how to move beyond religious finger-wagging and inspire the UN to get the ball rolling.

All these shows can be streamed and listened to at Interfaith Voices. Check them out!

Forthcoming Unity Book on Christology

Rev. Dr. Thomas Shepherd, a Unity minister and chair of the Historical and Theological Studies department at Unity Institute, is coming out with a new book this summer that is centered on Christology - the theological term for the study of who Jesus Christ is and his importance for Christians. It is going to be entitled: And He Walks with Me: Jesus 2.1 - Interactive Edition.

This should be a very intriguing and instructive Unity Christological perspective. Here is an excerpt from the beginning of Dr. Tom's book, explaining the rationale for writing such a text:

"Why add to the towering pile of books about Jesus of Nazareth? One might reasonably argue that too much has already been written about him. What possible good can another volume of Jesus-talk do in today’s postmodern, post-911, post-Christian world? Surely, all the great ideas about the man from Galilee have already fought their way into print. What fair wind of change could another discourse on Christology—by yet another self-appointed theologian—add to the hurricane of words blowing through Christendom for the past 2,000 years? People have continued to eat, drink, marry and give in marriage, and they have muddled through quite nicely without the current volume to guide them. Isn’t it obvious that, while making their lives and raising their families, people have successfully managed to make and re-make Jesus Christ based on the needs of each successive era?

"Yet, it is just that observation—the successive re-making of Jesus, vertically through history and horizontally through contemporary cultures—which distinguishes this book from other works of Christology. And He Walks With Me: Jesus 2.1 – Interactive Edition differs takes seriously the creative process by which people have shaped their Jesuses. In fact, I will argue that creative interaction with inherited images and ideas about Jesus constitutes a healthy, positive course of intellectual and spiritual growth, an essential component in any understanding of Jesus Christ and the faith bearing his name."

This excerpt (as well as my familiarity with his past work) leads me to believe that Dr. Tom's treatise will likely be engagingly written, relevant to our present contextual concerns in 21st century America, and well-informed in terms of the primary and secondary sources used in treating biblical and theological problems. It also is a much needed academically sound and intellectually stimulating treatment of Christology to be read in Unity circles, especially for ministerial students like myself.

Check out Dr. Tom's blogsite here for more info.

Social Justice is a Virtue

Here's a very good article by Cathleen Falsani of Sojourners magazine about the practice of social justice as a rather forgotten but re-surging Christian religious value.

It's an excellent appraisal of how actively working for equality and justice in our societies and communities is part and parcel of ethical uprightness and spiritual growth, grounded in the example and identity of Jesus the Christ.

Check it out!

Building an Interfaith Community in Switzerland

This July, a seminar at the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland will bring together over 30 young adults from the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian traditions to address the question: "How can we affirm our identity as Muslims, Jews and Christians not in separation or against each other but in relation to one another?"

Activities will include spiritual and educational exercises as well as sports, recreational activities, and everyday tasks, done in the spirit of togetherness in diversity.

For more info visit the WCC website.

(Image from WCC website.)