- To Benjamin – First and foremost I must tell you how sorry I am that you feel that way. The problem with Jon Ohlhauser must have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back as far as your faith was concerned. The issue you have with the God of the Christian faith is not new and many have abandoned the faith because of the apparent evil in this world. For the Christian,however,God is not some distant creator or impersonable “Ground of Being” but a loving Father who hurts with us and who enters our pain through Christ on the cross; Jesus endured suffering beyond comprehension. When we comprehend his suffering, it put the problem of evil in a different perspective. The problem is not how can God justify himself to us rather the problem is how can we be justified before God. Even though we might not fully understand the problem of evil, ultimately God is the only solution to the problem of evil. If God does not exist we would be locked in a world of pain and unredeemed suffering. He redeems us from evil and invites us into a fellowship with him.
- I must take the time to thank Bill and Donna. It is evident these are people with integrity and sincerely believe in an Evangelical God/god. I am trained the same way, and the answers you have given here, are the ones I am familiar with, with one different note, it is no longer intellectually tenable anymore for me. What I would say is that, we thank god/God for good people with integrity, but we each must be responsible and courageous enough to stand in the face of evil, such as child/wife abuses that people suffered through at this place, or have the courage enough to say, enough with this, God/god or no god. Do the right thing by facing up to a suffering humanity, and do so with such grace and dignity that people out of your faith will wonder what type of a god you worship. So far, with the rescue of Prairie, there is a lot to be done, but the answers that I see comes from a community of people not in a belief in a God/god. That is irrelevant to me. The god talk no longer has any significance, but the love for the earth, animals, and the people whom we live with as neighbours. And if the belief in a personal god causes one to be abused as a child, I see that belief negated, and should be thrown out, as the words of Jesus, by their fruits you shalt know them. These are the fruits of bitterness, I am not sure the tree is worthwhile saving. For me, this fundamentalist approach is nothing other than an anachronistic way of life in the face of modernity. God/god, I hope will transcend all this and survive, not in the memory of the past, but as the scriptures says, he is not God of the dead, but of the living. The sacred words of Scriptures are dead to the dead, but the spirit is alive and brings life. In this mystery I still profess, but I no longer believe in this Evangelical God of Prairie. I see the inactivities of God but I seek no more of his personal side so many of you profess. But as I said before, I place my faith in the human relations and communities, and in the earth and the animals we share this place with. The evangelical zeal has died with me, but a new form to appreciate others has been reborn, of gays, sinners, and molesters. While the last ones should be put away, but the first two categories are fine with me as they were with Jesus.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
For the love of God Part II
For the love of God
Hi Linda:
We have never met but my time at Prairie was idealized during 1984=1985 with the High School. Beyond my years at Prairie we continue to support the school financially until I was asked to be on the Board by Ohlhauser in 2003, which I joined the Board and quit in 2005 after the General Ed was closed. Your letters to the past and present president of Prairie are carefully read and appreciated and although I have no such experiences with Prairie, I thought the best is to continue to encourage you and be brave enough to do the right thing. Bringing things to light and to allow these people to have a voice, it is not with intentionto destroy an institution such as Prairie, but rather as you have said, to allow victims to speak and to get closure.
I must say that after the Board experience, it too was deeply troubling and traumatizing because working with Ohlhauser was no more conducive than what you are trying to do with Ted Rendall. Almost all fundamentalists have a trait of dead hard hearts to science or truths. All they want to hear, in my opinion, is their voice. Drowning out others, silencing others, and most all, ignoring others.......it is a trait. Ohlhuaser did it to many others, and he is a prime example for me to finally quit the school thing altogether, no longer give money to this school. My ideas about God has undergone tremendous evolution, and if you read the Calgaryswerve about my respsonses, it would not to an understatement.
Past victims such as your group, and many others, I do seriously wonder where is this 'god' of love when all these atrocities were carried out and covered up. All this done in his name, and god has not responded. I think I understand why many left after abuses they suffered in the belief that God/god is love. I think I am better off putting my trust in a human community. This is where we all belong, and into this community we each play a role and finally, if there is a God (must it be so?), it is about the human relations we each cherish. God for me transcends all these, and is in capable to deal with such until we take the helm and boldly go with our inner guiding light.
Thanks once again, and save another child, prevent this from occurring to anyone we know.
Ben
We have never met but my time at Prairie was idealized during 1984=1985 with the High School. Beyond my years at Prairie we continue to support the school financially until I was asked to be on the Board by Ohlhauser in 2003, which I joined the Board and quit in 2005 after the General Ed was closed. Your letters to the past and present president of Prairie are carefully read and appreciated and although I have no such experiences with Prairie, I thought the best is to continue to encourage you and be brave enough to do the right thing. Bringing things to light and to allow these people to have a voice, it is not with intentionto destroy an institution such as Prairie, but rather as you have said, to allow victims to speak and to get closure.
I must say that after the Board experience, it too was deeply troubling and traumatizing because working with Ohlhauser was no more conducive than what you are trying to do with Ted Rendall. Almost all fundamentalists have a trait of dead hard hearts to science or truths. All they want to hear, in my opinion, is their voice. Drowning out others, silencing others, and most all, ignoring others.......it is a trait. Ohlhuaser did it to many others, and he is a prime example for me to finally quit the school thing altogether, no longer give money to this school. My ideas about God has undergone tremendous evolution, and if you read the Calgaryswerve about my respsonses, it would not to an understatement.
Past victims such as your group, and many others, I do seriously wonder where is this 'god' of love when all these atrocities were carried out and covered up. All this done in his name, and god has not responded. I think I understand why many left after abuses they suffered in the belief that God/god is love. I think I am better off putting my trust in a human community. This is where we all belong, and into this community we each play a role and finally, if there is a God (must it be so?), it is about the human relations we each cherish. God for me transcends all these, and is in capable to deal with such until we take the helm and boldly go with our inner guiding light.
Thanks once again, and save another child, prevent this from occurring to anyone we know.
Ben
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Face up to our humanity
what I would add is that our institutionalised churches face a greater challenge, as this society in the North America. Our society functions and operates with 'greed' as the underlying operating principle. Unchecked Capitalism, with unchecked self interest and greed, that is a combination for disaster. Consumerism has crept into churches for sometimes now, and they cannot shake this off, for the fear of the lesser income (see the Faith Blog on the last taboo). When Jesus mentions economic activities, he rebukes more often than he affirms, Perhaps he also has grown uncomfortable about the future he sees in the churches. That is why the irony of it all, is that at the end, itis not about profession of faith (quite a heresy here!), but about what you do with it, not about eternally secured salvation but exactly what you have done with your faith. Maybe Calvin is dead wrong about this. It is about feeding the poor, the hungry, and the homeless. Maybe we got this all wrong. It is not about trying to achieve a personalistic salvation only, at the cost of society or others, but to disregard one's own theology, critically reflect on the fact that our own deity is insufficient to meet our daily needs, unable to stop the perpetrators and abusers, and we have to affirm our humanity by taking things into our own hands.......as it was said by the Internationale of the socialists, there are never deities that save us, we must save ourselves.
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