The Dark Side (Rob Gieselmann, January 13, 2008)

It seems to me, each of the major religions of the world has its dark side, just like people do. You know what I mean – the yin and yang, the shadow side, like the far side of the moon, where it is colder, even deceptive.

If I were to name the dark side to Christianity, I would say it is the marriage of authoritarianism to moralism. Authoritarianism – when one group or even a person commands obedience by others. The Church has a sordid history of compelling others to follow its dictates, its own version of political correctness: theological correctness.

Moralism is when the moral code that naturally flows from religion is substituted for God or faith. When religion becomes first about the morality first, and not about God.

The end result, combining authoritarianism with moralism, is a Christianity that compels its followers, and others, to abide by a set of laws that often don’t make sense – that’s compelled legalism. The morality, the religious code, becomes more important than the people themselves.

There is no freedom in that type of Christianity, is there? For anybody – and it is a type of darkness. The dark side of a religion becomes a perversion of the light, something good becomes the devil.

The other religions have their dark sides, too. In Islam – the concept of jihad, which I understand is not meant to dictate war, taken to its illogical extreme has become license to murder. This perversion has destabilized the balance of world order.

In Judaism, the gift of the Promised Land has become an excuse to treat the Palestinians, who are God’s children, as enemies, to see them as non-human, a clear perversion of the bright side of Judaism. Judaism is, in so many ways, the most human of the religions, not at all inhuman.

According to the Dalai Lama, happiness is the goal of the Buddhist, and you might say, happiness means becoming One with the Universe. Square on, the bright side of the religion, touching something deeper than yourself. However, seeking happiness at a superficial level becomes narcissism, disconnecting (rather than connecting) you from the universe, very dark indeed.

I’ve told you my joke about the Zen Buddhist, haven’t I? He walked up to the hot dog vendor on the street corner, and said, Make me One with Everything!

Buddhism is strong, here in Marin. Frankly, nominal Buddhism – meaning those who confess to being Buddhist – is probably more prevalent than authentic Christianity.

One reason Buddhism is growing in Marin is that thinking people here reject Christianity because of its dark side. Rightly so.

But what I find most interesting, is this: many people have simply traded the dark side of one religion for the dark side of another religion. Seeking happiness in the form of material possessions is rampant in Marin. Which is why I poke fun at the Marin Mantra, I’m spiritual but not religious,

To be sure, many, many sincere and devoted people have become good Buddhists; they have abandoned the dark side of Christianity and found the bright side of Buddhism. Look at Spirit Rock, and all they’ve accomplished. Good for them; they, too, are children of God.

But, if my observations are correct, many people have abandoned Christianity in favor of a pseudo-Buddhism, and others have just left. They have no God, no sense of place in the soul or universe.

Unwittingly, these people are prisoners of the dark side.

Sister Joan Chittister, in her book, The Ten Commandments, identifies the one common objective of all religions (my paraphrasing): to fill your deepest longing, to connect at some deep level to the meaning of life, to sate the thirsty soul, to find your home in God.

Which is why this seemingly arcane commandment is actually quite important: Thou Shalt Not Covet.

You see, coveting – longing for, pining for, lusting for -- physical possessions precludes you from finding your home in God. For in the end, the soul needs, longs for, one thing only – to touch God. The SUV can’t do that for you. The 50 inch Plasma can’t do that for you. Position, power, money can’t do that for you. These items aren’t bad in and of themselves, but the excessive lust or desire squeezes God out.

In God, you find sufficiency – enough-ness.

Baptism. Funny thing about baptism is this: we imagine it to be primarily about sin, and its forgiveness. It isn’t, not primarily.

Speaking of sin, have you heard about the priest who spoke with one of the older ladies in his congregation about the woman’s cousin? The cousin had joined the church after a lifetime of riotous living. The woman asked the priest, Will my converted cousin’s sins be forgiven, Father?

Oh, certainly, yes! he replied. Remember, the greater the sins, the greater the saint!

The woman thought for a moment, and then said, Oh, Father, I wish I’d known this 50 years ago!

But baptism is not first about the little sins we commit. Baptism is about the positive, not the negative. It is about the good you will do, not the good you will fail to do. It is about the faith you will engage, it is about your life of faith.

After all, Jesus wasn’t baptized to wash away sins. He didn’t have any sins to wash away. Jesus was baptized as a matter of faith, it represented the life he lived connected to the Father, and that for him was enough.

How fanciful, that moment when Jesus came out of the water, and the same dove that hovered over the deep at creation descended as new creation to Jesus, and a voice spoke to anyone listening, to everyone listening, This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.

These are the same words Isaiah spoke centuries earlier, which mean – my soul delights in him. Like two lovers, whose spirits dance at the sight, one of the other. Their hearts beat faster, their stomachs tie-up, their heads flit and float.

It is that love that God the Father had for Jesus at baptism, and God still has for you, in your life of faith. The very Author of the Universe, is deeply in love with you. Here is my servant, in whom my soul delights –

Baptism is about your life of faith – anticipated in one brief moment in time.

There was an exchange program, not long ago, in which clergy in the United States were asked to help in Russia. The Russian Orthodox churches had been dormant for 75 years of communist domination. They needed help.

One American Bishop, Mark, traveled to ST. Petersburg, Leningrad. One Sunday, after the service, the Orthodox priest walked outside, into the street. A young man saw him – the young man looked like he was a member of Hell’s Angels. Black leather jacket, bandana tied on his head.

This man approached the priest, and the priest noticed he carried a baby in his arms. Father, the young man said, I want you to baptize my daughter.

The priest was surprised, and asked, Are you a believer?

No, answered the man. I can’t believe. But I want her to, and he nodded to the bundle in his arms.

The priest took the child and her father into the Church, and baptized the girl. Later he told the visiting Bishop (Mark), That’s how it is all over Russia.

People have felt robbed of faith for 75 years; they wanted it, but they just couldn’t manufacture it, will it, but they want it for their children. They saw purpose in those who believe, they saw hope in them, when they had no hope.

I cannot help but wonder whether Marin is going to be like Russia in 75 years, so many people having abandoned God,, the light of God. And what will be the ultimate cost of no religion? To our children?

Have we traded God, here, for the promise of intimacy with an SUV?

I love it here, in this place – I really do. I love that this is a thinking place, and that people demand truth from Christianity, truth from us as Christians.

At the same time, I’m completely taken aback that so many people have turned completely away.

The Epiphany is about the appearance of a Messiah for all people. The Magi from the East, did not convert upon seeing the child, but they were changed. Their souls expanded, and the joy of God became starlight dancing. The people who walked in darkness, saw a great light.

It is therefore incumbent upon us, now more than ever, at this dark hour, to become as starlight dancing, to live a genuine Christianity. A walk of faith, as the antidote to a dark and false Christianity.

We can do that. We can do that.

Amen.

Copyright 2008