Secularism helping religion

Every worldview has gaps in it. These gaps that are exposed when we meet someone with a different worldview and they begin to ask questions of or about us. This is one of the great values of diversity, our strengths may supplement the weaknesses of others and others' strengths can supplement our weaknesses. 

So it is with the religious worldview. Those of us with this worldview understand that we see through a mirror only dimly. The question posed in the previous post is what does the secular worldview have to offer the gaps in the religious worldview? I would like to submit one of the things the secular worldview can help the religious worldview is, perhaps paradoxically, something that used to be the bread and butter of religion - storytelling. 

Jesus was a master storyteller when the people wanted to discuss the issues of the day, he wanted to tell stories. Religious people may be a people of the book, but at the core religious people are people of story. We tell the same story every Christmas and Easter. We use calendars to force us to bump into different stories every year. We are a people who talk about how our story and God's story intersect. 

While we may have great storytelling pedigree, we have moved farther and farther away from telling captivating stories. This is why, no matter how crummy the movie is, some Christians will get excited when a Christian movie is released - we are parched for good stories that we will celebrate even the mediocre stories.

Storytelling is something that the secular worldview is really doing very well these days. Just look at the entertainment industry. From movies to books to video games, the secular worldview understands the power of stories in the same way the religious worldview may, but the secularist worldview makes and takes time to cultivate the storytelling craft.

For instance, there is this great story about a company called the Dollar Shave Club. And in 90 seconds they tell you their story and many of us are compelled to sign up just to be a part of this creative company. A beer company can tell a story in 60 seconds and people talk about it. Even Facebook can tell a great story that borders on sermonizing. 

We will sit through commercials during a sporting event with the full knowledge that these stories are have one goal in mind - get you to buy their product/service. We know these stories are being told in order to get us to open our wallets and we will happily do so. 

Perhaps we are not annoyed at churches that ask for our money or ask us to conform our lives to that of Christ. We are more than willing to do that for companies around the world. Perhaps what we are annoyed with the most about churches is that the stories we tell are just boring and crummy. They are not compelling or engaging. Heck they may not even be interesting! Perhaps we are becoming more secularized because humanity is drawn to stories and we desperately want to hear and participate in the best stories. 

The storytelling monopoly that religion may have enjoyed in the past is now over. And this new storytelling machine, secularism, are telling some amazing stories. 

We religious can learn from the secular by listening to the stories. 

Secularism filling in holes in religion

Alain de Botton gave a TEDTalk called Atheism 2.0 and I commented just briefly on why you should see this talk just over a year ago. 

If you have not seen this talk, or if you do not remember what this talk is about, Botton has the thesis that the world is secularizing poorly and that secularism has holes in it. He goes on to argue that, of all sources, religion provides models for the secular world on filling in these holes. 

Imagine that. A secularist is looking at religion to help fill in the holes of the secular worldview. This is fantastic because he understands that every worldview has holes in it - including religious worldviews. Botton's humility to reach across the chasm (that has been created by fundamentalists on both sides) and incorporate some things from the "other" side is what we need more of. 

My question to us religious folk, can we do the same thing? Are we humble enough to recognize the holes in our worldview and look to models in secularism to fill in these holes? 

The next post (or 2) I will submit some thoughts. Leave some comments if you have anything to add!

When good news is bad news

When it comes to fundraising, there are many approaches to the non-profit world. Over my time in ministry I have seen a number of them on display in the different people. These approaches all seem to boil down to two different philosophies.

The first philosophy I call "good news is bad news" and it is built on the worldview of scarcity. It assumes there are limited resources and the best "sales pitch" for those resources will win the prize. And because your organization wants those resources to go to your organization and not another, you need to constantly reminded to give to your organization. You talk about how your organization needs are very large and broad. You show images and graphs that convey how short the organization is to the goal or how many "needs" there are. This philosophy would hesitate to refuse a gift of any type out of fear that the donor would be upset and give future gifts elsewhere. It also hesitates to spend much time celebrating reaching a goal because that time and energy would be taken away from the time and energy that could be used to secure future funding. In this sense, the good news of reaching a goal would be a sort of bad news because then you have to generate a new set of needs. 

The other philosophy is what I call "bad news is good news" and it is built on the worldview of enough. It assumes there are enough resources in this world and regardless of the resources, creativity can multiply those resources in ways previously unimagined. It believes that the "bad news" of not meeting the financial goal can be a source of good news for creativity and imagination. It views other organizations not as competition but as partners and future collaborators. This philosophy shows images and graphs that convey how close the organization is to meeting the goal or opportunity. It does not fear refusing gifts that do not fit into the mission of the organization but in fact will refer the donor to an organization that may benefit more fully from their donation (another reason to build relationships with other organizations). It takes time to celebrate reaching a goal because it assumes that donors desire to achieve goals and that no one wants to give to a sinking ship of needs. It also subscribes to the idea that life attracts life and with each celebration there will be another and another. Even if the goal is not reached (bad news) the organization affirms what was given and then uses creativity and imagination and trust to bridge the gap to the goal (good news). 

Jonah son of "My truth"

The book of Jonah begins this way:

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,

It is worth remembering that this opening line is very similar to the modern day story opening, "Once upon a time..." This is to say that like any good story, the truth of Jonah is not limited to the historical or the scientific. The Truth in Jonah is of the poetic and mythical. 

And like any myth or poem, there are layers of meaning that go deeper than the surface. For instance in the name of Jonah's father - Amittai. 

Amittai means "my truth" in Hebrew. Which begs the question, what truth is Jonah the son of? Who is the "my". Is God the "my" or is Jonah's father the "my". Based upon the later actions of Jonah I think it is a safe assumption that Jonah is not the son of the Truth of God, but in fact the son of the anyone who has "my truth". 

You have your truth and I have my truth. It all depends on how we look at it. For instance, depending on how we look at light, it can be a wave or a particle. The problem is not that there are multi-truths in the world but when we are holding too tightly on "my truth" to not make room for other truths. This is a dangerous place to be. And this is the place Jonah is in. 

A brother asked one of the elders: What is humility? The elder answered him: To do good to those who do evil to you. The brother asked: Supposing a man cannot go that far, what should he do? The elder replied: Let him get away from them and keep his mouth shut.

Jonah is holding so tightly to his truth that he is unable to repent. The people of Nineveh repents (3:5), the king of Nineveh repents (3:8) and even God repents (3:10). But not Jonah. Jonah is the only one who is holding on to "my truth" so tightly that he cannot do what his enemies or even his God does. 

It seems to be the case that Christians have been known more for the tightness of truth that we cling to rather than the humble love of Christ we are called to. Even after all these years, even after all the times we have heard the tale of Jonah, even after the example of God in Christ, still many of us are convinced that "my truth" is "The Truth". 

Can we really be that certain of our understanding of "my truth" when we are so easily fooled by optical illusions and sleight of hand? Theist or Atheist, all of us share the same temptation - we all think that "my truth" is "The Truth" and "your truth" is just silly, wrong, fantasy, inaccurate, false, or a lie. 

Perhaps there is wisdom in the desert fathers and mothers who believed the goal of Christianity is not truth but Love. What would my life look like if I were to embrace love rather than grasping "my truth"?