Harper's magazine recently reviewed a novel written over 120 years ago: Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy. This novel outsold every book in America except Uncle Tom's Cabin and was translated into every major language. It is still in print today. I devoured tons of science fiction in my youth, delighting in speculation about what wonders the future might hold for us and even writing a few SF stories myself, and Bellamy's book had quite an impact on me.
I read little SF these days, though. Before seeing Russell Jacoby's penetrating review, I assumed that this was because I had changed, but perhaps it is the genre itself which has changed. Bellamy's book envisioned an egalitarian world based on camaraderie. Technologically, we have progressed beyond anything Bellamy could imagine in 1888, but as Jacoby points out,
"We no longer entertain serious alternatives to the prevailing consumerist society. Indeed, we seem unable even to envision a different social order." If we find optimistic utopian visions silly, he concludes, "it may not be because we are smarter but because we are narrower--and more resigned."
What's wrong with most SF may be what's wrong with some preaching: it offers no hope. What it may take to renew both church and society is imagination, creativity, and dreaming. Healthy religion is all about hope. Passover, the central holiday of Judaism, is a celebration of God's liberation from oppression--both in the distant past and in the future. Easter proclaims the Good News revealed by Jesus that God's power is stronger than humiliation, evil, and death. The spring festival observed by adherents of Al-Islam, I am told, is rooted in the earth's joyful renewal. The ecumenical movement was founded on the hope that we might someday be one. When we gather across theological and denominational divisions, as we did for the Jesus Alive rally in Nassau Coliseum, and when a church invites the "Building Bridges" team to help them understand better their neighbors of diverse faith communities, I am filled with hope for the future.
Teihard de Chardin claimed that "The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason to hope." Or, as Eleanor Roosevelt put it more poetically, "to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." How might the future be different if you lived the Good News? How might our society be different if we followed the urging of Jesus to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, heal the sick, and visit the imprisoned? How might the church be transformed if we overcome our divisions of race, class, and creed? How might the world be blessed if we learned to regard those of other faiths and lands as fellow children of God? Just imagine.
Shalom/Salaam/Shanti
Tom
In writing recently about the brouhaha surrounding tax levies on parsonages in Nassau County, yours truly assumed that if clergy residences did not qualify as "religious use buildings" it was because the Assessor did not realize that clerics routinely prepare sermons, counsel parishioners, have youth group meetings, and teach Bible study in their congregation-owned homes. Charles O'Shea may have not realized how common it is to have meetings and classes in the manse, but it turns out that the Real Property Law specifically states that preparing sermons and counseling parishioners do not qualify a building as "religious use." Go figure. I was wrong and the Assessor was right on this matter: the law itself needs to be changed. Perhaps, though, this reinforces the point I was trying to make, that when legislators, jurists, and elected officials muck around in religion, we are likely to get some pretty strange decisions.
United in Christ/Jesus Alive 2001 is having a concert on Saturday, April 21, 2001, 7:00 p.m. at Christ Community Church, 391 East Main Street, in East Islip. Frank Rendo and the Act II Drama Ministry will perform. All are welcome and refreshments will be served after the concert.
There is no charge for this event, though a free-will offering will be received for Jesus Alive. You also are asked to bring non-perishable food for the hungry.
"Religion and the Founding of the American Republic," a traveling exhibit from the Library of Congress, is on display at the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook through April 29. It examines the way religious beliefs and democratic principles interacted during our nation's early years. Featuring 160 prints, paintings, manuscripts, and artifacts, this exhibit points out that the vast majority of immigrants were seeking freedom to worship God their own way--some gruesome engravings remind us just why many of our ancestors were eager to leave the Old Country--and that most Americans were deeply religious during in the 18th century (with an estimated 75 to 80% regularly attending worship. The lay-lead worship of the frontier and prevailing theological beliefs of the 18th century, we are told, influenced the writing of both the Articles of Confederation and the U. S. Constitution.
There are surpises, here, even for history buffs. Thomas Jefferson, along with James Madison and a coalition of Baptists and theological liberals, managed to separate state from church in Virginia and later throughout the Republic. It was precisely these liberals, scholars now contend, who persuaded the heterodox Deist Jefferson to adopt a more positive view of Christianity during the 1790s. "Religion and the Founding of the American Republic" closes with a section on the persistence of prejudice in the new nation and the rise of voluntary religious organizations which freely crossed denominational barriers. It hammers home a profound and painful paradox: faith can be both a unifying force and a divisive one.
This 90-minute documentary, which airs on Easter Sunday on WNET/13 and most other public television stations, is a stunning travelogue which covers art and monuments from the beginning of the 3rd century to the present. Unique special effects virtually reconstruct art which has been destroyed or lost forever. Digital morphing dramatically illustrates how depictions of Jesus have changed over time. There are also some surprising lessons here: Roman authorities openly tolerated Christian worship in the catacombs; scenes of Christ's suffering and death were quite rare until the late Middle Ages; painting with lapis lazul was more expensive than covering walls with gold.
Also worth watching in April on PBS: "Diary of a City Priest" (April 4 on WLIW/21), "Jesus Christ Superstar" (April 11 on most stations), "Schindler's List," "A Conversation with Elie Wiesel," "There Once Was a Town," "Voices of the Children," "A Life Apart: Hasidim in America," "Witness: Voices from the Holocaust"--the last of which includes an interview with LICC Board Member Werner Reich--and "From Krystalnacht to Crystal Day (April 17 on WLIW)."
Needed:
Offered:
North Shore United Methodist Church is seeking a part-time Director of Family Ministry to support youth programs and family ministry, 16 hours a week. Send resume to North Shore UMC, P.O. Box 555, Wading River, NY 11792 or e-mail Sando@optonline.net.