Twenty-three years ago I met Bruce. Among other identities (father, spouse, social worker, business owner) Bruce identified himself as a Jewish-Buddhist. This did not strike me as odd for when I was an adolescent I told folks that I was a ‘Catho-Presby’ (my mother was a Polish Catholic and my father was an English Presbyterian); now, when I am asked, I refer to myself as a ‘Religious-Spiritual-Ecumenist’ (I believe that there is ‘truth, beauty and goodness’ in all faith, humanist, and philosophic traditions).
As we know, today more than ever before there are more and more ‘movements afoot.’ One of the movements I relish is the movement to what I call ‘Enlarging the Garden’ movement. Not only are more and more folks taking on hyphenated appellations, more and more folks are searching and seeking out the ‘truth, beauty and goodness’ of other faith, humanist and/or philosophic traditions. Those of us who are engaged in this searching and seeking have found the ‘garden’ to be too small and not diverse enough.
This ‘garden-expansion’ is not to the advantage of rigidly institutional- or denominationally-identified ‘churches’ (I use the term ‘church’ as a catch-all term). Consequently, the movement to enlarge the garden meets with some resistance (how’s that for an understatement). One of the gifts of this movement is that the boundaries of clear distinction between ‘religious’ traditions is narrowing; the ‘no-man’s land’ between them is not as threatening (again, I am using ‘religious’ as a catch-all term).
Given this, I believe there are a number of questions that we are invited to hold and engage; here are a few of them: How might we respond to the multi-cultural and multi-religious and multi-philosophical and multi-humanist ambience of our post-modern culture? Must we ‘keep the doors closed’ while reinforcing our defenses so we become less communal and more factional? Are we discerning an invitation to continue to take steps toward a broader and deeper engagement with an infinitely indefinable God? What attitudes must I-You-We immerse ourselves in that will best serve all humans – AND honor the ‘Unfathomable Mystery of God’?
Look at the ‘Garden’ we call ‘the Universe’. It reminds me, among other things that, as Annie Dillard noted, ‘the creator loves pizzazz.’ [An Aside: Check out Annie’s book: ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’] I spent the first 18 years of my life living in Wisconsin. In case you have not heard, it snows a lot in Wisconsin – and not only during the ‘winter months.’ I was six when my mother, who was helping us shovel the snow from our sidewalks stopped, came up to me and held out a hand of snow. She informed me that ‘no two snowflakes are the same!’ WHAT!!!
During the following years I learned that there are few things that are ‘alike’ – no two leaves are alike, no two hairs on my head – or yours gentle reader – are the same. Even identical twins ware not truly ‘identical.’ Talk about a creator with ‘pizzazz.’ Not only are no two things alike, the creator continues to add to the garden – new species emerge; other species continue to evolve.
We humans, even after thousands of years, are just beginning to understand that we are participants in – as in ‘taking part in’ – the broad and deep evolutionary process that has been continuous since the creator planted the garden. We now reach out and come in contact with both stuff ‘out there’ and ‘in there’ – breadth and depth again – that our forebears could never imagine. We are challenged to shift (or is it change or even transform) a world-view in which things are solid, fixed, permanent, knowable and predictable; we are learning that nothing in our universe is standing still – all is evolving. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote that ‘Change has become systemic. It no longer takes place within a frame of the things that do not change.’ [An Aside: Check out his book: ‘The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations’]
Like all humans before us, when faced with this understanding we feel disoriented, uprooted, and less than stable. We move toward embracing the evolving garden or we become defensive and fear-full – some of us actually ‘become’ fear.
The idea that you would affect evolution is a very profound thing. –Jennifer Doudna