Musings

A Good Word for Euphemism

My dear friends Maurizio and Anna visited recently.  While we had mostly good news to share with each other, I did tell them about a few challenges I’m facing in my life. Waving his arms, Maurizio said “Challenges?  So American to call them that.  Back in Italy we call them what they really are:  problems!”  I told Maurizio that he and Anna had better start learning and using euphemisms, because after years of waiting, they recently got their US green cards.  So for the rest of the conversation, they used the word ‘challenge’ whenever they normally would have used the word ‘problem’, causing us all to fall apart with laughter.

Yes, it’s very American to use euphemisms – “good speech” in Greek.  We’re still a new country and this is still the land of opportunity.  What are real problems for others look like mere challenges to us.  While I think of myself as a hard-headed realist, not given to rash claims that positive thinking will fix everything, I must admit that I have been influenced by the culture in which I was raised.   Optimism is an American quality that I cherish.

And it would do me good to practice euphemism even more than I already do.  I’ve been pondering new ways to inject more optimism into my life.  These translations might sound a bit extreme or silly.  But I can’t think of any harm in trying them out:

Translate ‘traffic jam’ into ‘traffic meditation’.  When I’m on the road, and all the cars are stopped, I have a choice of perspective.  I can interpret it as frustration: I’m not getting where I want to go at the speed I want to get there, and I don’t like it.  Or I can look at it as a spontaneous meditation event. Suddenly, I and dozens or hundreds of other people are given the chance to still our minds and chant our mantras in our cars:  “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me” or “Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhisvaha” or “Om”.  A pause for bliss instead of road rage.

Translate “going broke” into “going for broke”.  Losing a job, running out of money, going deep into debt; these ways of telling the ‘financial challenge’ story have a way of aiming us backward instead of forward.  Clear thinking and realistic action is always needed, whether life is easy or otherwise.  But alongside practicality, optimism is essential. Often, we have many more choices than we are able to notice or see when we find ourselves in crisis.  ‘Going for broke’ means abandoning inhibitions about asking others for spiritual, emotional, and practical help in finding solutions.  It means embracing new ways of thinking and new skills for acting.  It means letting go of any attitude or habit of mind that gets in the way of moving forward.

Translate ‘waiting room’ into ‘relaxing room’.  Instead of watching the clock impatiently, it’s an opportunity for a welcome and needed break in your routine.  Time for deep breathing, for creative imagination, for intentional release of tensions in your body and mind and soul.  And when the nurse or receptionist calls out your name, you are rested and cheerful for your appointment.

Translate ‘pain’ into ‘compassion’.  The word ‘compassion’ literally means ‘suffering with’.  Now, we all think of compassion as a good thing.  But how can we ‘suffer with’ if we keep our suffering to ourselves, as so often we do?  The church is a community of compassion, where we transform pain into grace.   It’s a place to share the ups and downs of our lives, celebrating our joys and turning our struggles into opportunities to express love. Soon, we will celebrate “Passion Week”, the time from Palm Sunday to Easter, remembering the way that Jesus shared his pain, and shared in the pain of others, creating a community of compassion.

The gospel is “good speech” about the good news of the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus said that this kingdom is all around us on earth, if we have eyes to see it and ears to hear it.  He told his followers that despite the poverty and the disease and the political oppression that surrounded them, the kingdom of God was in their midst.  Faith was required to live as if divine Love ruled the world, instead of the Emperor.  Faithful optimism was needed in order to return hate with love, greed with sharing, anger with kindness, war with peace, habits with creativity, crucifixion with resurrection.   Living this faith co-creates the kingdom of God to which it points.  “In the beginning was the Word,” said the writer of the gospel of John.  I daresay the Word is a euphemism, aiming us toward heaven on earth.

 

The Bible and Religious Pluralism

It’s a common assumption that in order to be Christian, a person must believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation and that Christianity is superior to all other religions.  Progressive Christianity spreads the good news that there is a way to be Christian without making this claim.  There is a way to follow the Christ while honoring the possibility that followers of other religions are also led to the love that is God.

Certain Bible passages are often used to suggest that Christianity is the only way to God.  The best-known is John 14: 6, where Jesus is quoted as saying “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”  Another is John 11: 25-26:  “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”  The gospel of John contains a number of “I am” statements attributed to Jesus:  “I am the door”, “I am the bread of life”, “I am the light of the world”, “I am the good shepherd”, “I am the true vine”, “Before Abraham was, I am”.  These statements may refer to the Exodus story of Moses and the burning bush.  When Moses asked the voice from the burning bush who he was, God’s answer was “I AM”.  In these “I am” statements in the gospel of John, the writer may have suggested that Jesus was identifying himself as God.

Many Christians use the “I am” statements in John as proof that Jesus is the only way to God and salvation, and therefore that Christianity is the only true faith.  But it’s important to look at the assumptions behind this claim.  First, it assumes that the Bible is the last word on the subject of religion.  This makes no sense to adherents of other religions which have their own sacred texts, some of which also make claims to exclusive truth.  Nor is it compelling to non-Christians who don’t start with the assumption that the Bible is the authoritative expression of God.  Attempting to use the Bible as proof of the truth of one’s interpretation of the Bible is an example of tautology, or circular reasoning.  Christians can employ their God-given reason to question those parts of the Bible that violate common sense or common decency.  It is appropriate for Christians to think critically about any passage in the Bible that suggests that Christianity is the only true faith.  Being a Christian does not depend on a rigid presumption that every word of the Bible is literally true or even particularly useful. The Jesus Seminar, a group of biblical scholars who have evaluated the historical accuracy of quotes attributed to Jesus in the gospels, concluded that the “I am” statements in John are very unlikely to contain the authentic words of Jesus.   They were instead reflections of the beliefs of the branch of the early Christian community associated with the writer of the gospel of John.

Another issue is that the first-century Christian community from which the gospel of John emerged did not anticipate the Christian religion as we have come to know it.  It’s particularly ironic that “proof-texts” for the exclusive truth of Christianity used by evangelical American Christians today are drawn from this most mystical, most “gnostic”, and least historically-focused of the four gospels.  It is the gospel that is the least focused on supposed “facts” about Jesus, yet it is the most often quoted to support the supposed “fact” of Christian religious supremacy.  The theology of the first-century community around the writer of John was not the same as the orthodoxy of evangelicals today.  For instance, the infancy of Jesus is not mentioned at all in John, so it has nothing to say about the doctrine of the virgin birth.

Good news:  there is a way to interpret the “I am” passages which liberates them from religious chauvinism.  Jesus was a mystic, especially as he is depicted in John.  That is, he experienced God directly, within himself.  Many Christian mystics have shared this experience over the last 2,000 years.  The “I am” passages may be Jesus’ poetic expressions of such a mystical experience in which his personality and ego fell away and the only reality he sensed was that of God.  If this is how we understand the passages, then when Jesus said “I am the way ... no one comes to the Father, but by me”, this may mean that the way to God was to become one with God, as Jesus did.  It may mean that we do not get to God through dogma or doctrine, but rather through mystical union with God, an experience shared by mystics of many religions throughout history.

Other passages in the Bible provide helpful language to express religious pluralism.  Philippians 2: 5-7 is a beautiful expression of the humility of the Christ:  “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”  We might well ask:  how could the religion of an empty man get so full of itself that it would claim to be the only true faith?  Integral to having a mind of humility among ourselves is abandonment of any claim to the superiority of our religion.  Our walk of faith is hindered by this hubris, and it is insulting and hurtful to others.  Jesus said “whoever would be great among you must be your servant.” (Matthew 20: 26)  To declare that we have the true faith compared to all others would contradict our calling as servants.  It gets in the way of having a mind of humility.  The highest values of our religion, the very reasons that we follow the path of the Christ, are contradicted by claiming that Christianity is superior to other faiths.

The gospel stories of Jesus portray him as a faithful, devoted Jew who had no intention of crossing the boundaries of his native faith.  Instead, as he said in his Sermon on the Mount, he intended to fulfill the law of Israel completely.  In his view, that entailed not only following the letter of the law, but following it all the way to its source in divine compassion.  He set an example for us to emulate: follow the particularity of your religion all the way to its wellsprings in the love that is God.  Once you are there, you will find that you drink from the same well as people of other traditions.  (See John chapter 4, the story of Jesus drinking water with the woman at the well in Samaria.)  This is what led Jesus to serve and honor gentiles and Samaritans, people outside the boundaries of Judaism. 

Christians who immerse themselves in the spiritual practices of their tradition and follow Jesus with acts of selfless service to others discover that they have very much more in common with serious practitioners of other religions than they have differences.  While these differences exist, and should be respected, they are trivial compared to the shared spiritual experiences of people across religious boundaries.

In Revelation 21, there is a vision of a heavenly city coming down to earth that is culturally and religiously pluralistic:  “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and its gates shall never be shut by day - and there shall be no night there; they shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.”  This indescribable, effulgent presence of the divine transcends every religion, including our own, and calls us into deep communion with people of all faiths. 

 

Jesus' Universal Health Plan

Jesus told his disciples to spread the gospel.   In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus first directed them to go all over Israel and heal the sick.  Spreading the gospel verbally was a secondary assignment.  “To heal every disease and every infirmity” was a more powerful sign of the coming reign of God on earth than any words could tell.  Jesus sent his followers on a mission to offer everyone in Israel the best medical care available at the time.  Jesus had a plan for universal health coverage, two millennia ago!

As followers of Jesus, we are called to put that plan into action, here and now.  You and I don’t need to wear whites and carry stethoscopes to do it, either.  As faithful voters, we now can make a big difference in the lives of the 45 million Americans who have no health insurance, and the millions more who have inadequate or unaffordable coverage.  Praying for the sick is very important.  It binds us spiritually to those who suffer, and joins our souls with their process of recovery.  But prayer isn’t enough.  Citizen activism is needed for us to become Jesus’ agents of healing.

I have relatives who have no health insurance because of unemployment or other circumstances.  Their assets could be wiped out and their credit destroyed if they had a catastrophic illness.  In my work with the homeless, I met hundreds of people who were de-motivated from participating in the “above-ground” economy because they had no hope of ever paying off their debts to hospitals and doctors.  A percentage of what little wages they earned would be garnished for the rest of their lives. Poor people often avoid going to the doctor when they are ill, turning minor health problems into major ones.  Today I know people who remain on Social Security disability status because it provides health insurance they couldn’t replace if they returned to work when they were able.
 

The inhumanity, the bureaucratic waste, and the extreme inefficiency of the current health care delivery system in America are especially appalling when compared to the extraordinary quality of care that is available to many in this country.  America is the center of medical innovation for the planet.  It’s time to employ that ingenuity to offer decent, basic health care to everyone.  Oft-heard objections to so-called “socialized medicine” don’t hold up as excuses any longer. 

There are moments when ideology gives way to practicality, and this may be one of them.  Changes in public opinion, a shift in the winds of politics, have opened up the conversation about universal medical insurance.  In California, our governor and legislature appear to be serious about creating a system that will ensure universal coverage.   Of all the proposals that I have seen, the bill offered by State Senator Shiela Kuehl, SB 840, looks best.  It would mandate coverage for everyone while maintaining patient choice and competition among providers through an efficient system.  (See more at www.healthcareforall.org .)

Our letters to our legislators now can mirror the acts of healing that Jesus’ disciples performed in the first century.  This is an important way we can answer his challenge to help make whole the bodies and souls of our brothers and sisters.

 

 

The Open Secret

A few months ago, Roberta and I watched “The Secret”, the  new film about the “law of attraction”. We saw it before Oprah pitched it on her show and made it famous.

          

I had two quite contradictory responses to the film: disdain and delight. 
      

First, the disdain.  “The Secret” contains little that can't be found in a 50-cent used paperback self-help book from the 1970's. The film begins with a dramatic Da Vinci Code-flavored introduction suggesting that there is a secret hidden through the ages and revealed only to a select few – now a select few hundred million.  The "secret" is that your  mental attitude is the primary cause of your reality. Visualize  intensely what it is that you want, in a detailed, positive way, and it will be attracted to you automatically. The film illustrates the verbal commentary of various “metaphysicians” and motivational speakers with visual skits depicting the power of this “law of attraction”. I was appalled by the  materialism of the skits, which showed the use of the “law of  attraction” to get big houses and fancy cars.

          

Quantum mechanics was invoked in support of the absolute effectiveness of the “law of attraction”, but there is no scientific basis for the film’s claims. No mention was made  of the obvious logical flaw in a “law” that doesn’t reconcile competing visualizations. If I visualize getting ownership of the Mona Lisa and hanging it on the living room wall of my McMansion, and you visualize the same thing for yourself, one or the other of us, along with the Louvre, is going to  experience a breakdown in the “law of attraction”.

         

At  another level, the film was a lively dramatization of something that I find to be  true. Positive visualization can help us to live happier, more fulfilled, and more compassionate lives. Coming up with a detailed, positive mental vision of our highest and best intentions, maintaining that vision with mental and spiritual effort, and backing it up with practical action, help greatly in making intentions become realities. It’s not automatic. It isn’t a “law”. It doesn’t always work. But it is often helpful, and, in any case, positive thinking is its own reward .

          

The film reminds us that focusing on the negative tends to  perpetuate negative outcomes. Focusing  on the positive tends to encourage positive outcomes. Again, there’s nothing foolproof about  it. Hard work is needed to achieve the  positive outcomes we want. Very often, bad things do  happen to positive-minded people. But habits of mind do matter a great deal, and the film entertainingly demonstrates this perennial wisdom.

          

I had to chuckle at myself when the film was over. I was challenged to ignore the outrageousness that permeated so much of the film, and to focus on the kernels of usefulness to be found in it instead. And isn’t this the challenge of life for us all?  Life is better when we refrain from dwelling on insults to our intelligence and scruples, and dwell on the good  and the wise and the true instead.
 
So here’s an open  secret: you can skip the movie. Just come up with a list of a few worthy things that you want to do and be, and then repeatedly visualize them with intensity and intentionality, feel what it would be like to reach these goals, and take action to make them real. Visualize the common good, too. Imagine that a world of justice and decency surrounds us all, and work for that as well.  It might not always get us what we want, but we'll have a wonderful time imagining and trying along the way.