...A Heretics Thoughts...

Where Do We Go From Here?

2007-03-01T17:41:00.000-08:00

The study of the foundations of the Christian Church and the notions
of doctrine and orthodoxy have a strange way of forcing those of us
who consider ourselves critical thinkers to question the voracity of
these claims. On a most general level, the central query begins
something like this: "What do doctrinal positions, creeds, authority
(scriptural or institutional), and the overall minutiae of what we
consider "church" have to do with God? Are we not human beings, yes
finite and mortal, but created in the likeness of and out of the very
being of the Divine? If this logic follows, why then must I subscribe
to any faith position outside of such an ontological recognition to be
in fellowship with the source of my being?

What astonishes me most of all is that one does not have to sacrifice
one's rooted-ness in the teachings of Jesus to come to such
conclusions. Salvation History can be summed up in short: God created
man, man became more enamored with creation than with the Creator
causing man grow increasingly more distant from God. As love is an
emotion based on free will, God continually offered God's-self to man
with mixed results as man risked becoming dangerously distant. God's
love abounds at this critical juncture of separation resulting in the
uniting of complete divinity and complete humanity for the purpose of
rekindling the waning fire of man's spirit. Jesus, in perfected
humanity shows man the way back to the heart of God--turning from
their self-absorption and idolization of God's blessed creation
re-centering their being on the Creator thus being able to enjoy the
creation in the manner intended.

What we term evil is nothing less than the lack of rightly ordered
love. When our spirit is ordered rightly, we can do no less than
address issues of social justice and communitarian ethics. While
becoming spiritually centered is an inward act, it is by no means
individualistic. We are all created out of the same spirit, sharing
the resources of the same creation. This, my friends, is the teaching
perfected in Christ, but is by no means limited to a singular
revelation.

What baffles me is how we continue, as we have for millenia, to prop
up and preserve the exclusivistic, culturally formed and deformed,
propaganda laden vision of the institutional church as we have come to
know it. I am a ardent proponent of social institutions as they serve
an invaluable role in cultured society. Nor am I naive to think that
the answer is creating other organized bodies whether Fellowship
Churches, New Thought Centers, or any other institution to remedy our
central problem of institution overshadowing spirituality.

I do propose, however, that we revisit the notion of ecclesia in it's
most essential form. An organization who's concern is not doctrine or
orthodoxy but fellowship and support for the journey. My challenge,
and indeed our collective challenge, is to find a way to package and
deliver this message in a manner that at the same times resonates with
people in their social, cultural, and ethnic location yet transcends
the privileging of any one persuasion.

To borrow from one of our elder brothers, the challenge thus: Where do
we go from here; the chaos of doctrine and dogma or the beloved
community of seekers committed to knowing and loving?

Crying Out In The Wilderness, I am

Ernest A. Brooks III

The Inner Frustrations of a Contemplative Soul

2006-11-10T15:05:00.000-08:00

I am beginning to think that this life wasn't made for people like me. Maybe I am of another era, but then as is now they likewise faced the vissicitudes of life, albeit with different manifestations. It is essentially the age old Philosophical/Religious juxtaposition that I am faced with: How do you claim to be in the world but not of the world, when you love both the world that you are in and the world that you are of? It is as if there are two people living in one mind who could not be more different. One would be satisfied living a life of cotemplation set apart from the world in the cloisters of the mind reading, writing, pondering, praying, and teaching others the wonders of the mind and soul. On the contrary, the other loves life and it's offerings from politics to social institutions, to community and family with all of the beauty of career success and social networks.

Where does one find the common ground on which to stand amidst these two poles? How does one ever find satisfaction when they need both of these polarities in their fulness to be satisfied? This gives new meaning to the thought of living a "double life". Which one is the spouse and which the mistress? Is it possible to love both with your whole heart? Even if possible, this world and it's institutions aren't structured to handle people like me. If there were too many of us, I could envision the screen of the world's mainframe flashing cautions of overload as circuits begin to fry and wires smoke.

What is the resolution? Are their answers? Maybe I should ask Aristotle or Plato or Thomas Aquinas or Anselm of Canterbury or Kant or Barth.........

Is it possible to love the God of truth with the totality of your mind and also enjoy the social structures of this worid???

Developing A Live Worth Living

2006-07-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

Life is an interesting thing. It's a conundrum of vacillations between the opposite poles of life. In a sense you should say that life is inherently schizophrenic. You make decisions only to second guess them. You go from one extreme to another. People are quick to say that when you're as low as you can go the only place to go is up or the higher you climb, the further you have to fall. These are nice "catch all" idioms, but I'm not sure I really subscribe to them. Life is a game of choices; your choices and the choices of others. This is what it means to be caught in an inescapable web of mutuality. We are all as impacted by the decisions of others as we are by our own decisions. People are quick to say that you only have power over your own choices, but that's where social action, public discourse, collective bargaining, and diplomacy come in.

To this end, I find myself asking what value does being a career minded, upwardly mobile, but insular and disconnected intellectual have. Now I'm not bashing scholarship, quite the contrary, I desire to be counted among the most prolific of thinkers; however I'm beginning to question the efficacy of obtaining a PhD for someone like me who can't be contained by the academy. Academics serve an important role in our society, but I feel that many of us that have a strong scholastic leaning turn to the academy as a safety net rather than using our gifts to "be the change that we wish to see in the world." So, don't be disappointed if I decide not to do the PhD and go instead the MBA or MPP route in preparation for developing and leading comprehensive social organizations that meet the increasingly complex demands of 21st Century Humanity.

In His Service,

EAB III

Life ???

2006-02-16T07:23:00.000-08:00

I wonder if most great personalities of history knew that they would be great before they became great? Please don't mistake my inquisitiveness for arrogance; it is a valid question, isn't it? I have no doubt of my potential for greatness, but sometimes I just don't know...

..This is one of those times.

I don't know which way I'm going sometimes...Yes I procrastinate...Well, I procrastinate chronically. Missed opportunities? Plenty. Frustration? Of Course. Are these divine revelations helping me change? Hell No!!! Forget divine revelations, I need DIVINE INTERVENTION!

One day in all of my greatness I shall look back upon these times of shallow fears and frustrations and laugh, maybe write some memoirs advising young, lazy, arrogant, stubborn, future leaders like myself not to worry because even you can't mess up God's plan for your life and as The Reverend Jesse Jackson said, "Your gifts will make room for you".

But until that time...

...I NEED TO GET MY LIFE TOGETHER

Heretic?

2006-01-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

Yes I said it.

I'm a HERETIC!!!

Now what?

Burn me at the stake you say?

My uncritical Christian friends, before you attempt to crucify me, let us remember that being a heretic was the indictment against Jesus by the Jewish religious leadership in the Jerusalem Temple after He opened the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah and read:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to

preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

I wear the title "Heretic" as a badge of honor. I refuse to continue to preach a comfortable Christianity of personal piety and individual salvation without a focus on social responsibility and Jesus' equally piercing message of worldly salvation form the hell of daily living. For far too long there has existed two competing streams of theological thought in the Christian church. One stream believes that central to the gospel message is spiritual salvation from evil and access to the throne of God's Glory through spiritual worship; the other stream of thought identifies the centrality of the gospel message with a communitarian social ethic focusing on justice and righteousness through social responsibility.

I believe that God has uniquely qualified and positioned me to serve as a bridge between these two schools of Christian thought. Yes! I am Evangelical, Yes! I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit; but I don't stop there, Yes! I also believe that we can't preach personal salvation without practicing collective salvation.

I am well aware that very few understand my religious thought process and I am also aware that many of my brothers and sisters in both camps consider it traitorous to identify with these two seemingly divergent viewpoints, but know that just like Jeremiah before God formed me in the womb, He sanctified me and ordained me a prophet unto the nations...

...And there isn't a DAMN thing you or anyone else can do about it!!!