The Rev. Dr. Anne Brower is the “Healing Chaplain” at the National Cathedral (Episcopal) in Washington. She is also a columnist for the Washington Post‘s “On Faith” column. In a piece that appears today, she ponders why more Americans are telling researchers that they have no religion:
Most Christian institutions cling to the dogma and doctrine established in 325 A.D. by a religious minority. They are not incorporating all the new facts that we have found in recent archeological digs or in recently discovered writings from the periods written about in the Bible. For instance, The Gospel of Thomas, written at the same time as the Gospel of John, yet excluded from the Bible since Thomas did not include the Passion of Jesus Christ, gives us a different insight into salvation.
Fundamentalism in Christianity, or belief in the literal translation [sic] of the Bible (or belief in Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation), while providing a safe haven for many, EXCLUDES the majority of spiritual people. Progressive believers by living a metaphorical translation [sic] of the Bible are INCLUSIVE. They acknowledge the legitimacy of all religions.
The United States is part of the whole world, economically, politically, socially and environmentally. It must be. Why should we isolate ourselves religiously? We need to be inclusive of all religions. According to Houston Smith, author of “The World Religions,” they all lead to the same end.
The late, great theologian Paul Tillich suggested that we get rid of the word “God”, since that word begins to define the unknowable. God is unknowable. God is a mystery, not one to be solved, but one to be lived into. How I perceive God is different from how another perceives God.
To paraphrase Bill Moyers, in every community there are thousands of Gods, because of our differences in perceptions. Until religious institutions understand this and change to become inclusive of these thousands of God, they will continue to die.
This screed is so ignorant that it’s not worth the time dealing with all the nonsense in it. The Rev. Brower knows less about the formation of the Bible, church history, and Christian theology than virtually anyone in my church plant core group, and seems to have gotten some of her talking points from the “On Faith” comments columns, but that’s not really the point. The point is that if people listened to her, and took her approach to religion, there would be absolutely no reason for them to have anything to do with any religious institution. When an Episcopal priest tells you that all religions “lead to the same end,” that pretty much anything you want to call “spiritual” is fine by Whoever (or Whatever) It (or She, or He/She) Is (or Isn’t) that’s in charge (or isn’t) of the universe, why have anything to do with religious institutions at all? Me, I’d just as soon sleep late on Sunday as have anything to do with, e.g., a Cathedral that would employ a person who has such little regard for the faith that she supposedly stands for.
