Someone just sent me a link to the "Johari window". It’s a self-indulgent little thing. You can fill mine out and get your own.
A couple of Episcopal Church notes this morning.
My traffic has zoomed up today, as Kendall Harmon has linked to last Thursday’s post on agape, All Saints youth, and the progressive notion of salvation. Kendall comments:
I am with Hugo that we do not get saved alone. However, I worry about his presentation of salvation here. Where is the notion of grace? It sounds as though our obedience is necessary for salvation, if salvation “lies in living out the greatest commandment, which is to practice unconditional agape love.” While such loves flows from the receiving of God’s gift of eternal life, it is not only Christ’s love and sacrifice which is a gift but even the faith to receive it also. We do not have to do anything–it is a free gift. Hugo’s definition is too horizontal–it is not only not focused enough on the cross, it lacks a deep emphasis on God’s undeserved mercy.Hats off to Hugo, though, for getting into theology with the kids. Too much Episcopal youth ministry is entertainment and fellowship without theology–it needs to be all three.
Kendall’s may be the most widely read conservative Anglican blog in America; his commentary is always thoughtful and gracious — while remaining tenaciously committed to traditional theological principles. There’s a lot for me to think about in his words. My evangelical commitment to unmerited grace sits in tension with my progressive commitment to the vital importance of "works"!
Kendall’s commenters also have quite a bit to say, some of it helpful — some not.
The Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, has entered a treatment center for alcoholism. In a letter released yesterday, Robinson writes:
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I am writing to you from an alcohol treatment center where on February 1, with the encouragement and support of my partner, daughters and colleagues, I checked myself in to deal with my increasing dependence on alcohol. Over the 28 days I will be here, I will be dealing with the disease of alcoholism-which, for years, I have thought of as a failure of will or discipline on my part, rather than a disease over which my particular body simply has no control, except to stop drinking altogether.
During my first week here, I have learned so much. The extraordinary experience of community here will inform my ministry for years to come. I eagerly look forward to continuing my recovery in your midst. Once again, God is proving His desire and ability to bring an Easter out of Good Friday. Please keep me in your prayers and know that you are in mine.
I am praying for Gene Robinson daily, and invite readers to join me in doing so. I cannot think of a man who has been under more pressure, spiritual and temporal, in the past three years than the Bishop of New Hampshire. My brief time as a Pentecostal taught me that spiritual warfare is real, and though I am reluctant to admit it, the less-rational part of me does believe that human beings can be attacked by dark forces. How much anger and hatred has been directed towards Bishop Robinson since his elevation in 2003? No matter how careful he is, no matter how attentive he is to spiritual discipline, he is still "under siege" from the enmity of an extraordinary number of folks who hold him personally responsible for the potential break-up of the Anglican Communion. To what degree these spiritual attacks helped exacerbate Gene’s problem with alcohol, we cannot know.
I do know that I have battled what Gene Robinson now battles. Though I entered my first treatment center in 1989 (’twas my graduation present after college), I did not finally get sober until July 1, 1998. I haven’t had a drink, a drug, or an unprescribed pill since. It took me many years to "get with the program", but with God’s grace, the loving intervention of family, and a fellowship of friends, I finally "got it." What some folks call an "obsession of the mind" no longer haunts me. I am praying today that Gene Robinson, a child of God and a bishop of His church, a leader of extraordinary goodness, generosity, and courage, will find the recovery from addiction that has changed my life in countless ways.
I’ve been praying for Gene, Hugo, and I thank God for his work in your life in freeing you from those addictions!
Thank you, Chip — I am fortunate that I don’t have to look far to see abundant evidence of His even more abundant grace and love.
hi there - just stumbled across your blog, and am really happy that i found it.
i have great respect for someone like gene - the courage it takes to come out as gay in the anglican community, to stay visible and with a strong voice, to fight “spiritual warfare” with his face to the wind, to face addiction AND to be open about it … oh my god, can you imagine what it would be like if we had more leaders like that in the world?
thank you, too, for your little comment on spiritual warfare. my spiritual path is very eclectic (i could describe myself as a christo-pagan buddhist with a strong commitment to the 12 steps) but - so far at least - it does not include a belief in the devil (to use a short, crude word for something that of course is quite complex). whenever i hear the word “spiritual warfare”, i tend to short circuit a bit - just can’t help but immediately conjure up fire-and-brimstone fundamentalists.
so it is interesting to hear it mentioned by you - and you strike me as thoughtful and progressive. when you talk about spiritual warfare in connection with the adversities that gene has to face, you inspire me to think about evil/the devil as simply a personification of that which is not life-affirming in the world. i don’t think i’ll ever come around to think as the devil as a real person. however, it dawns on me that just as my small human mind is incapable of visualizing the intangible idea/presence/reality of god without attaching a person-type image to it/him/her/them, it may be impossible for other people to think of evil without imagining him/her/it/them as a person. i hope that makes some sense, and my apologies for all the slashes :)
cheers
isabella in vancouver, canada
isabella
the grace/works quandary seems to be best summed up by thinking of works as not a requirement of salvation, just as evidence of the work of God in one’s life, as well as the outworking of your theology.
Part of the dichotomy seems to rely on the idea that faith is about a crisis point with before and after definitions, rather than about a journey towards God, towards truth, towards the light. In that model, an unfolding realisation that we are in relationship with God through Grace rather than some kind of meritocratic system can easily be seen as a way to free us from the narcissistic tendencies that lead people to evidence much of the selfishness and arrogance that hide those positive qualities we often refer to as ‘works’ in this kind of conversation.
The other liberating upshot of it is that it becomes much easier to see people outside of christianity and the church as being on a journey towards God by recognising God’s fingerprints in their behaviour. People of all faiths and no defined faith can ‘get’ grace, even if they don’t call the source of it Jesus, and we can see it at work in their lives, liberating them to live out a life of justice and mercy, passing on that Grace. Thank God.
I’ll be praying for Gene too - if ever there was a situation where I’d turn to drink, it’d be being in his shoes…
Ah, the johari windows. I have a johari window as well but I seem to have a hard time getting many people to fill it out, probably because it’s one of those silly blog/livejournal memes clearly designed specifically to induce ego stroking from one’s friends list.
If you’re feeling brave, there’s also the nohari window where people can insult you instead. ;)
Congratulations on seven and a half sober years, Hugo. Several members of my immediate family have been through AA, so I know both how hard and how important it is to deal with.
Breadfish, I saw the Nohari window… but am not brave enough yet!
Noumena, thank you — recovery is an extraordinary journey!
The “good bishop” is a blasphemer of the first magnitude. Read Romans 1:18-30. I guess the apostle Paul was just funnin’ with us. sheesh.