A Message of Hope for Survivors of Abuse, Trauma, Tragedy
by Bob ShepherdCottonwood CA
Purging our churches of hypocrisy, repression, and `inebriated virtue`
Shouldn't we who profess the stabilizing anchor of an ancient faith take heed that the forms of our creeds do not slide into what
Algernon Swinburne called inebriated virtue -- which he saw as arising from
"the sexless orgies of morality" and "reeling from the delirious riot of religion." It's a warning we oughtn't ignore.
by Robt Shepherd
Blessed be the Name
OVERCOMERS BY FAITH-
And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. -- 1 John 5:4
Abuse and tragedy happen to us all, some more than others. At times surviving looks difficult, almost impossible. And there are many, very many, far worse than my own. But we can be survivors. We can overcome.
We each seek out sources to enable us to survive, to cope, even at times just to muddle through, to somehow just face each new challenge.
In my case, being Christian by background and by faith, many of my earlier "religious" preconceptions have
matured through time and experience, or been shaken by circumstance -- such as the death
of our daughter Debbie through childhood cancer. Nevertheless faith offers a psalm of hope. We can be survivors -- and more than that, we can, through Christ, be overcomers in a world that is filled with pain and tribulation. By joining together
we reach out, we share, we light a candle and thereby, by God's grace, we even change the world.
OVERCOMING DAY BY DAY-
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. -- Romans 8:37
No matter what horrible abuse I feel I have had to suffer, I am not alone. Escapism offers a false crutch, but hope lies elsewhere. "Blind unbelief is sure to err," William Cowper wrote. Faith is a great capacity which is
ours to nourish, or neglect. It may also be a gift, a grace, which some poor souls are fated
to have in meager quantity - a great loss to themselves.
OVERCOMERS IN THE REAL WORLD-
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. --Romans 12:21
Just as science has learned that right-brain activities and left-brain activities are not in
competition with each other but are each indispensable to our full potential as human
beings, even so faith, imagination, creativity, beauty, and the worshipping dimension are all
important to us -- not less than are reason, logic and intellect.
This is not to say science and logic are not important. "I do not feel obliged to believe that
the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to
forgo their use," said Galileo. I agree with him. Our creator made us to ask, to seek, to
inquire, to wonder. What are our brains for, if not to use them? Are not unused capacities
like buried talents, a theft of our divine inheritance?
Albert Einstein wrote:
"The most beautiful and the most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand in rapt awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms -- this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness."
CREED FOR A WORLD COME OF AGE-
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children. -- Ephesians 4:13
One of the best discussions of the emotional factors underlying the appeal of religion is to
be found in the books of Eric Hoffer. I especially recommend The True Believer, and The
Ordeal of Change. As an impetus to progress and material advancement, Hoffer has high
praise for the Western (i.e. Biblical) concept of a transcendent God. Hoffer also provides
fine insight into what attracts many people to cults and mass movements. I find his
discussion along these lines very elucidating.
On a personal note, there are probably as many facets of my own religious heritage that turn me off
as that inspire me. I am often offended by narrowness and rigidity, by exclusiveness and
intolerance (of wayward ones). I am turned off by a doctrinaire obsession with ideology at
the expense of compassion and ethics. I dislike "litmus tests" of political correctness (or
religious "acceptability"). I am also bothered by hard-sell and aggressive proselytizing.
Hoffer makes the interesting point that often, the less firmly we are convinced of
something ourselves, the harder we try to convince others of it (thereby compensating for
our own lack of certainty).
PAY IT FORWARD -
what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? -- Micah 6:8
Religion inevitably preoccupies itself with theology and doctrine. Yeah, at some
unquestioning level I could probably assent to the creed of my white (Euro) forefathers, or the
"standard" first six councils of the early church. But that's not REALLY what lifts my soul.
I hope you will think about it, too, in your own case. We all have a tribal subconscious, regardless of genetic heritage. We all have a heart and soul rooted in some spiritual awareness little different from native wisdom, or the basic humanity of the Patriarchal Age. Consider: How much was the meek St. Francis
concerned with dogma? How much was Gandhi, or Tolstoy, or Mother Teresa? There was
more of the good Samaritan in them than the religious ideologue.
The mystic in me says:
"There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus, no not one. No not one."
But I am blessed to see how closely some of these others, like Gandhi, St. Francis, and
such, have trod in the same path of service and practical blessing to mankind. They in
some sense embodied The Sermon on the Mount. Hebrew characters following denote the Shekinah presence or glory, the feminine aspect of the divine.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes the point that "God" has been evicted from one realm after
another (science, economics, government, medicine) till in modern life there is just one
domain left for Christ -- the worldly realm of living and loving, or ethics and justice and responsibility. In other words, instead of the glib and frequent repetition of "God-talk", we testify of the presence of Christ who joins in bearing our burdens and cares in this world. Our faith is not a promise of an easy escape FROM this life, but an aid to fully join with us IN it. Perhaps that realm
after all, is the one area that was legitimately his all along. Perhaps THAT is the one area he asked
for, appealed for, and insisted on. Not an opium to deaden our pain, or a magic carpet to take us out
of the world, but a deep and integrated gospel realism that enables us to live right here in THIS world,
lives of blessing and help for others, staunch witnesses for justice and ethics. Overcomers.
John 5 : 39
To dream the impossible dream
to fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow
to run where the brave dare not go.
To right the unrightable wrong,
to love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary,
to reach the unreachable star!
This is my quest,
to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless,
no matter how far;
To fight for the right without question or pause
To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause!
And I know, if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
that my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest.
And the world will be better for this
That one man scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable stars.
