Our message rocks. It shifts easily into gospel gear, and soars gracefully into language that has no echoes of academia. We can go there, we are going there, and we have a wonderful new crop of young ministers to forge the way. I have just a bit of concern, though, as our language shifts with more references to God, the bible, and Christian traditions.
I have a couple of concerns about all this God talk. One is that while it's a simple way to find common ground with people of other faiths, it's not totally honest. As Christians, we mostly have such a low Christology that many would say it's not "real." Furthermore, a lot of us are not into any kind of Christianity, or actually not theism at all.
Are we teaching our energetic young ministers about the rich tradition of humanism that is part of our way?
Many of the "nones" we want to reach say they are atheists, agnostics, and other variations of nontheistic posture. Some of us have spent years learning to talk to congregations with nontheists, Christians, and people who started out with other religious traditions, especially Judaism. It's not easy. It's a skill we need to refine and expand in this new time of turning, I'm thinking. Sure, our congregations are plagued by elderly humanists who have a "culture of umbrage," reacting intolerantly to any mention of the G-word. How easily we slip into a reactive affirmation of the importance of using it!
I'm thinking that rather than turning away from a humanism that has become unfashionable, we need to embrace it, shifting to disarming that umbrage rather than casting aside the underlying theology, or should I say, a-theology. And then we can hope to make a home for the young atheists and agnostics who might come our way. Embrace them. Love them. Learn from them.
And rock on!
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