Peace/Spirituality

New Year Postscript

Posted on by stephen t berg / 0 Comment

The new year came and went. No marker, no line, no countdown, no climactic catapult into the new year.

Decided to see my year as circular. No line running out, no time ending and starting.

No new resolve except the daily one:

To indwell, undergo and be drawn slowly, steadily, into a Love that is nothing like my own way of loving.

To see well. To ask those around me to consistently remove the reoccurring beam-like-floaters in my eyes.

To be present. To become unhurried inside. Grow a second naivety.

To walk mindfully…open to beauty and songbirds and poetry scribbled on cinder block.

To learn to receive and accept; find myself increasingly comfortable in my own body.

To worship at the right alter that is no alter or temple or church. To be wary of glittering surfaces, quick enthusiasms, excluding remarks, and stunted desires.

To be a minor gift. Cultivating a generosity of spirit. Always giving credit, showing all references.

To daily shun my own security at someone else’s expense. To desire and grow mercy. To want all this for you.

Halifax "street fiddler"
Halifaxfiddler

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Christianity/Peace/Religion/Violence

Make 2007 a Church-free Year

Posted on by stephen t berg / 4 Comments

An article by Wency Leung (Vancouver Sun), reprinted in today’s Journal, held no surprises but did confirm something most lapsed or lapsing conservative evangelical Christians know.

In researching the apparent link between religion and intolerance (believing if there is a link it needs to be shown empirically) University of British Columbia professor of social psychology, Ara Norenzayan, found that faith in God itself does not make people less tolerant to others who don’t share their beliefs. Rather, so-called "boundary-setting" tendencies, or dogmatism, seem to be the culprit. Also, research participants who agreed to the statement, "My God or belief is the only true one," were more likely to support violence.diffeecartoon

No news flash there but another study by Norenzayan and fellow researchers was a bit more interesting. They found that Muslim Palestinians who prayed to God frequently were no more or less likely to support suicide attacks than those who did not. However, those who frequently attended mosque were more likely to endorse violent martyrdom. Similarly, Jewish settlers in the West Bank who attended synagogue were more likely to support violence against Palestinians than those who did not. Norenzayan said synagogue and mosque attendance likely contribute to boundary-setting. "It’s ’my group versus the other group.’

The family resemblance with Christian fundamentalism is obvious enough. And this surely shows the link between the Sunday after Sunday boundary-setting sermons and "worship rallies" of too many conservative evangelical churches and their resultant or correlative acceptance and sometimes endorsement of violence.

According to Norenzayan’s research, perhaps not too surprisingly, prayer on its own doesn’t have that kind of factious effect on people.

So unless your church has given up the taste for group-defining, here’s a New Year’s resolution to consider: Make 2007 a church-free year. But with more prayer.

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Beauty/Benedictine/Christianity/Peace

New Year’s Prayer

Posted on by stephen t berg / 0 Comment

An old prayer for a new year:

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Zeckariah)

There are saints that live out and enjoy bone deep peace. They live around us undetected, and on some level hold our world together.

They love peace. They have loved peace so much as to be guided into peace’s domain.

Ice climber in Malign canyon (January 2003)
Ice climber in Malign canyon

I love peace too, but I fear I mostly love it on my own terms…when my little world is right…which of course isn’t true peace. So perhaps I don’t really love it. I mean really love it.

Because sweet peace, deep peace, is something that lives beyond acquisition, competition, reputation and the fear of death in all its subtle forms.

Well, here’s lifting a glass to at least taking another step in the "way of peace."

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