Having freed myself from using videos shorter than five minutes created for middle school students, I’ve decided to move the Monday conversation in a direction that some might find uncomfortable and certainly wouldn’t be entertained on a public school campus. There’s a “Jesus” assumption in our American culture that assumes we’re all on the same page about religion and that there’s no discussing it without someone feeling persecuted. My desire in beginning this Meditation Mondays with this video from New Testament scholar, Bart Ehrman, is that discussing the Bible and Jesus can be done without finger pointing, but it’s going to require something more than a vague understanding of the subjects being discussed.
The video is obviously much longer than the five-minute “breath deep/center your thoughts” from previous Meditation Mondays. I understand if you find watching a 46-minute an imposition. I get that. But with so many voices in our culture shouting that we’re heading in the wrong direction because we don’t have enough “Jesus,” maybe it’s not such a bad thing to spend 40-some minutes on a discussion about what he taught and what the Apostle Paul might have contributed.
I find having spent two years studying Religious Studies at Loyola Marymount University, earned a B.A. in Biblical Studies at Biola University and studied several quarters towards an M.A. in Theology at Fuller Seminary, so much of my life and the culture I grew up in was immeshed with some form of Christianity and the Bible. Try as I might I’ve never been comfortable with those who have no sense of the spiritual or the possibility of worlds beyond our understanding. At the same time I have no confidence with those that speak of the metaphysical as if it’s as clear as day or that they alone have that most important understanding. Right. That said, I’m open to the discussion, as long as it’s an actual discussion.
Where are you on your “enlightenment” journey? How comfortable are you with your place in the universe? Does the writings from 2,000 years ago dictate your decisions or do you feel they should dictate the decision of our culture?
