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Every person is a designer of his or her own “soulprint.” A soulprint is an identifying theological perspective, which is unique to each individual. When we truly own our own theology, differing viewpoints shouldn’t threaten us. That which we own, cannot be stolen from us. However, the soulprint we have chosen for ourselves, should never be forced upon other souls, just as we wouldn’t want another person’s soulprint, forced on us.
Over the past 2,000 years, Christians have been celebrating a Trinitarian perspective of God, Jesus, and the Spirit of God. In the beginning of the Christian tradition, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, along with the coming of God’s Spirit, was enough to celebrate. However, as time passed people formed differing opinions about God, Jesus, and Spirit. They argued over whose interpretations of the Bible were right, and judged certain interpretations to be wrong-headed—heretical!
In her book, “Christianity after Religion,” author Diana Butler Bass briefly discusses the First Great Awakening, launched in 1730, followed by a Second and Third Great Awakening. Bass mentions the 1960’s as the beginning of a Fourth Awakening in North American religion. Following her brief discussion on these four awakenings, Bass writes:
Once upon a time—before the Gutenberg printing press, in 1450, the church patriarchs had it made! Week after week, an eager audience of people rushed through the church doors to hear a reading of the Bible, which couldn’t be printed to the masses. The work of the church was synonymous with instruction. “Right-Believing 101” was the course to take and pass on to others.
As I write today for the church of tomorrow, I am mindful of an ever-increasing uptake in church bashing. It’s a rising trend. After all, what’s not fun about jumping on a bandwagon that’s rolling through town? If everyone else is criticizing the church, why not join in? But Socrates had a different take on things: “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
Have you heard? People are leaving institutionalized religion by the droves in order to seek spiritual autonomy. Why? Because the general public is sick—to the point of nausea—of the idea of religious superiority. Like kindergarten kids, fighting over toys in a sandbox, too many adults actually believe their religion is better than their neighbor’s religion. God is on their side in every argument, and God’s enemies are strangely the same enemies they have encountered.
Is it possible to achieve spiritual purity? Some people think it is. For those who are trying to achieve it, I thought it might be helpful to discern the difference between white as a color, and white, as light. If we can’t appreciate the difference between color as pigment, and color as light, we could be in big trouble, spiritually speaking!
I recently attended an interfaith discussion on the book of Genesis. As we know, the biblical characters in Genesis claimed to hear God’s voice—all the time! Genesis is filled with phrases such as, “Then God said,” or “God told so and so.” The same is true for the prophets! What are we to make of these biblical claims? Do we believe them? Do we trust them? Should we question and test these biblical claims? Yes, we should!
I have a theory regarding the grand spiritual canyon that divides conservatives from liberals, and fundamentalists from progressives. Since I write today, for the church of tomorrow, I am compelled to understand this theological and social divide, especially as it manifests itself in North America. The church will forever consist of people who see our social issues from different perspectives. Conservatives conserve. Liberals liberate. That’s life!