MYSTIC
I’m not an atheist nor a theist, I am a mystic. This means I hold our universe to be the manifestation of a vast unspeakable mystery which we cannot know, but must never forget because it is our ultimate home.
I refuse to choose between religion and science. I believe in science because it draws my mind closer to that mystery. But I also believe in religion because it addresses the mystery in terms understandable to my heart.
Through science, I seek to understand the infinite offspring of the one mystery, but through religion I feel my call to serve them.
God or no god?
They are like the positive and negative poles of a magnet.
Do not choose between them.
Instead, ask yourself,
What is the mysterious energy flowing between them both?
I was raised to be “pro-life,” but the more life experiences I had, the more I realized that my worldview was simplistic. I came to realize that women live in the complexities of the real world, not in the simplicity of the world I had imagined for them.
I will never forget the day I realized the red curtain in an anti-choice poster was actually a woman’s uterus. In focusing only on the fetus, I had dehumanized the woman within whom the pregnancy was happening.
I realized that robbing a woman of agency in her own life was not “pro-life” but was itself an act of violence.
As we rise to another day of struggle on behalf of our planet and species, it is important to remember what it is that gives us hope.
The political sphere can seem like a hopeless shell game. What is the point of working so hard to change the world if, at some point, all our great ideals will dissolve into political compromise?
It is important to remember that the political sphere is only a stage upon which we live out our larger principles. We are not foot soldiers in a mere partisan struggle. We are the advocates of a unified humankind. Our values are not on the table to be won or lost. We use defeat as easily as victory to teach and learn what it is to be human. Political victory added nothing to Gandhi’s truth nor would have defeat detracted from it.
In our struggle we are not fighting against any one group, but on behalf of all humanity against every inhuman system. All true revolution is a call to return to our humanity in inhuman times. In such times, just remaining human is itself a victory.
“Nothing great was ever accomplished in a single lifetime.” We must emblazon those words in our hearts. The struggle is always worth it. For, if we do not improve our own age, we have made possible some future happiness. If all around us seems hopeless, then this is the perfect time to begin loosening the soil for future planters. The more hopeless the political situation, the more important are those who live and teach the principles of human decency.
Those who live by great principles are above the ebb and flow of political circumstance. They carry their treasure within. The struggle offers something more than hope. Even if we knew we would lose every campaign between here and the grave we should still choose this path of service to our one human family. It is the sure road to a life worth living.
“The awful story of Shanesha Taylor is what’s wrong with the state of our union: The Arizona mother of two got called to a job interview she desperately needed. With no place to leave her two young kids – no neighbors because she’s homeless, no co-workers because she’s jobless, no paid childcare because she has no money, no free childcare because of our government – she left them in her car, with the windows cracked, at naptime. When she came back 45 minutes later, police arrested her on two child abuse felonies and put her kids in state custody. Leaving small kids alone in a car is a terrible idea. Here’s another terrible idea: Arizona cutting almost half its childcare budget, along with health care, job training and housing, while spending over $1 billion on prisons.”
-Abby Zimet, Common Dreams
Many religious leaders in our time repeat the same mistake made by medieval scholastics. They approach scripture assuming the ancient words translated into modern English mean precisely the same thing today. This practice actually means they are projecting their own cultural assumptions upon the text.
For example, some modern readers see a word in scripture like “family.” They understand the word, not in its original sense of an extended community, but for how that word is heard in their own culture, namely as an American nuclear family.
“Marriage” is no longer understood, as it was in biblical times, as a covenant defined by the parties involved. Instead the word is heard for what it would mean in the reader’s culture, which is a ritual validated by the church and state.
After assuming their own culture’s definitions were original to the text, the literalist reader then adopts a closed system of logic which is impervious to new information. It is the ultimate circular argument.
This method of biblical interpretation can be as effective in silencing modern insights as it was with Galileo. And, when it ascends to political power, even truth itself must yield to this impervious ignorance.
When I used to do a part of the trainings for the local sexual assault shelter, I asked male volunteers if they remembered falling and hurting themselves on the playground. They would usually all say “yes.” I asked if their male friends had comforted them while they were crying. Without exception the men would laugh and say “no” that their male friends had ridiculed them for crying. I asked if the girls had made fun of them, too. They would usually all say “no.” This was how I tried to show men that patriarchy had stuck a knife in their own heart, and that feminism was the only way to heal.
Anyone who believes he or she is taking scripture literally must believe that his or her own subjective interpretation is precisely what God means. In other words, literalists are actually worshiping themselves. When other believers disagree, the literalist deduces they are lost. He or she then uses scripture as a crowbar to force them into their proper place within the literalist’s understanding. When people resist, as their own sanity requires, the literalist then concludes he or she is being rejected and persecuted. Literalism is a hellhole.
“Hang out with Jesus, he hung out for you.”
“Many people planning to repent on the 11th hour, die at 10:30.”
“If your faith is big enough facts don’t count.”
“If man (sic) evolved from monkeys why are there still monkeys?”
“Who’s your daddy?”
“Judas left early, too.”
“Is touching yourself worth an eternity in Hell?”
“Gods love is unconditional as long as you are obeying Christ.”
“Pastors feed and lead, members swallow and follow.”
“The Easter bunny didn’t rise from the dead.”
“If babies had guns they wouldn’t be aborted.”
“God bless our troops especially our snipers.”
“Reason is the greatest threat faith has.”
“Who needs healthcare when you have Jesus?”
“Drop and role doesn’t work in hell.”