Even before our children were born, my wife, Rïse, and I, like many a parent, sang and read to our children. Later, nestled between us in bed and then resting upon our laps, they listened intently as we read about rabbits, moons, gardens, fingers, toes and smiles. Bit by bit, these little beings began to imitate us, holding the book precariously in tiny hands; looking first at the pages and next at the words as if reading, and eventually, eagerly, albeit clumsily, turning the book’s leaf. And then one day it happened, as if by magic – they themselves were reading. They had taught themselves to learn how to read. Such pride in their newly discovered competence. And the truly magic sojourn into the land of truth had begun in earnest. They were experiencing the exhilarating freedom of moving beyond the two-dimensional landscape of imitation into the endless world of exploration, made possible by following the Spirit’s invitation to learn how to learn. Imitation is a fine and necessary beginning, but as an ending it is claustrophobic, and stultifying as death.
Do you believe in Christ’s Resurrection? If not, what distinguishes you as a Christian vs. something else?
Dear Todd,
I don’t believe in the literal resurrection of Christ. I do believe—and I’m showing some influence from Buddhism here, which forewarns you already that I can’t in any way be a purist in my definition of “Christian”—that a person’s physical touch and presence extends beyond the body. Since even the air is not merely “nothing” but rather is composed of atoms that mingle with the atoms of my skin in touch, it is easy to imagine how one could really be said to “touch” a distant person or place. Close your eyes and appreciate that we exist as an ocean of molecules all nestled together. No wonder both violence and healing reach so far. How much the more so when we have instruments like the human memory, voices, art, and texts to aid in extending our reach?
Jesus is one of those rare human beings whose reach extends very far in this sense. For all that the Christian tradition may be indicted for diluting or distracting from the teachings of its founder, even so I believe his teachings and on some deep level his presence are still with us, such as in his parables and sayings and in the itinerant spirit of many aspects of the Christian movement. To the extent that a person welcomes that reach and presence, and is guided by it, that person can be called a Christian. This, as I understand it, never has to extend beyond a secular understanding of Jesus.
This definition, however, can never be “pure” in the sense of creating walls and borders. It is not a sturdy foundation for an ethics of us versus them. If by “Christian” we are trying to mean “good,” that’s a losing battle. I’m only willing to see it as a descriptive term, not a moral one.
~ Cassandra Farrin
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