A Talk Given in Christchurch, to Anglican Schools Staff

4. Christian Identity in a
Multi-Faith World
Anglican Schools, New Zealand

6. Can there be peace among
passionately faithful people?

9. humor
anti-humor

16. Why did the chicken cross the road?
Albert Einstein: Did the chicken really cross the road, or
did the road move beneath the chicken?
Sir Isaac Newton: Chickens at rest tend to stay at rest.
Chickens in motion tend to cross the road.
A nun: It was a habit.
Hamlet: That is not the question.
John Donne: It crosseth for thee.
Colonel Sanders: Did I miss one?

17. Why did the dinosaur cross the road?
(2 answers)
What is the chicken’s deepest dream?
Why did the Texas chicken cross the road?
Why did the chicken go to the seance?

18. Can you imagine Jesus, Moses, the Buddha,
and Mohammed walking together ...
If they could cross the road together, might it
be possible for us to follow them?

19. Starting Point:

20. We already know how to do 2
things quite well:

21. We already know how to do 2
things quite well:
1. how to have a strong Christian
identity that is hostile toward
people of other religions.

22. STRONG-
HOSTILE
We have the only way.
You are going to hell.
We are God’s chosen.
You worship false gods.
resistance is futile.
you will be assimilated -
or eliminated.

23. We already know how to do 2
things quite well:
1. how to have a strong Christian
identity that is hostile toward
people of other religions.
2. how to have a weak Christian
identity that is tolerant (benign)
toward people of other religions.

24. weak-benign
it doesn’t matter what you
believe.
all religions are the same.
all roads lead to god.
only sincerity matters.
doctrines divide.
keep religion private.

25. We haven’t yet learned ...
to have a strong Christian identity
that is benevolent
toward other religions.

26. strong-
benevolent
Because I Follow Jesus, I love
you.
I move toward “the other.”
I break down walls of hostility.
i stand with you in solidarity.
you are made in God’s image.
i am your servant.
I practice human-kindness.

27. Strong: compete,
conquer, convert
Weak: least common
denominator,
minimize difference

28. The (strong) colonizing option:

29. The (strong) colonizing option:

30. The (weak) LCD option:

31. The (weak) LCD option:

32. The secular option:

33. The secular option:

34. Is there a strong & benevolent
option?

36. A Popular
Misconception:
Our religious differences
keep us apart.

37. Actuality:
It is not our religious
differences that keep us apart,
but rather one thing we all
hold in common:

38. Actuality:
We build strong religious
identities through hostility
toward the other.

39. Give people a common enemy, and you will
give them a common identity. Deprive them
of an enemy and you will deprive them of
the crutch by which they know who they are.
- James Alison

40. Hostility has had survival
value ...
but it may now
threaten our survival.

41. "Historically, the amity, or goodwill, within the
group has often depended on enmity, or hatred,
between groups. But when you get to the global
level, that won't work... That cannot be the
dynamic that holds the planet together... But
what would be unprecedented is to have this
kind of solidarity and moral cohesion at a global
level that did not depend on the hatred of other
groups of people."
(Robert Wright, Nonzero: The Logic Of Human
Destiny, quoted in Evolutionaries: Unlocking The
Spiritual And Cultural Potential In Science's
Greatest Idea, by Carter Phipps)

42. Can Christians today build a new
kind of identity ... based on
hospitality and solidarity, not
hostility, to the other?
strong-
benevolent

44. Four Challenges
1. Historical
2. Doctrinal
3. Liturgical
4. Missional

45. A fifth ...
spiritual

47. Four Challenges
1. Historical
2. Doctrinal
3. Liturgical
4. Missional

48. Must doctrinal differences
always divide us?

49. From Follow the Sacredness, by Jonathan Haidt
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/forget-the-money-follow-the-sacredness/
Despite what you might have learned in
Economics 101, people aren’t always
selfish. In politics, they’re more often
groupish. When people feel that a group
they value — be it racial, religious, regional
or ideological — is under attack, they rally
to its defense, even at some cost to
themselves. We evolved to be tribal, and
politics is a competition among coalitions
of tribes.

50. ... The key to understanding tribal behavior is
not money, it’s sacredness. The great trick that
humans developed at some point in the last few
hundred thousand years is the ability to circle
around a tree, rock, ancestor, flag, book or god,
and then treat that thing as sacred. People who
worship the same idol can trust one another,
work as a team and prevail over less cohesive
groups. So if you want to understand politics,
and especially our divisive culture wars, you
must follow the sacredness.

51. “Sacred groupishness” often makes a
“centering idol” out of a list of doctrines.
Doctrines provide a loyalty test ...
helping us test others for membership in
our safe group.
Doctrine is not simply about “truth” - it’s
about loyalty, safety, security, and
groupishness.

52. But doctrine can have another
meaning ... another purpose:
Doctrine can mean
“a healing teaching.”

53. What might happen if we
took a second look at
our core doctrines -
not as centering
idols, but as
healing teachings?

54. healing teachings
intended to bind
together what has been
torn and broken
(re-ligion)?

55. The Healing Teaching
of Creation

56. The Healing Teaching
of Original Sin

57. 2 trees ...
be as gods
good and evil
us and them
male and female
Cain and Abel

58. The Healing Teaching
of Election
(or chosen-ness)

59. The Healing Teaching
of the Deity of
Christ

60. The Healing Teaching
of the Holy Spirit

61. The Healing Teaching
of the Trinity

62. Us.
Them.

63. Us.
Them.
Neighbor?
Enemy?

64. Us.
Them.
Neighbor?
Hostility? Hospitality?
Different? Same?
Enemy?

86. From Catherine Maresca (Catechesis of the Good Shepherd) -
Finally, [Maria] Cavalletti emphasizes the importance of being
specific. You can’t teach children language without teaching
children a language. She writes, “Wishing to stay on a vague
level without any specific content is the same as wanting a
child to talk without using any particular language.” Some
parents say they don’t want their children to learn a particular
religion because they want them to be free to choose their
own. But these children are missing the opportunity to become
spiritually literate.
To be initiated into the signs of their religious tradition creates
the possibility of grasping the signs of many traditions, and of
respecting the integrity of each of those traditions. So we need
to be religious in a particular way, true to the faith we affirm
for ourselves, in order to foster the spiritual and religious
literacy of our children.... this is a service to our children. We
have to be specific.

87. While we don’t reject other traditions, a particular
religion has to be our starting point. To say, “I’m
spiritual but not religious” is like saying, “I’m
linguistic but don’t speak any particular language.”
Everyone has innate linguistic capacity that gets
activated as one learns a particular language or
languages. Likewise, everyone has spiritual capacity
that gets activated and mobilized through becoming
religious in a particular way. Becoming religious in a
particular way is foundational for relating to the
religious other.

88. Children who have learned their native language well are
poised to learn new languages with greater ease. Children who
learned the language of their religious tradition are likewise
poised to grasp the sacred signs of another tradition. As we
nurture the spiritual life of young children with sacred signs,
we simultaneously build the foundation of respect and
understanding for others’ beliefs. With spiritual literacy, faith
and interfaith formation work hand in hand, promoting in turn a
more peaceful world.
Children, Signs, and Spiritual
Literacy: An Interfaith Experience
By Catherine Maresca

89. A
Are

90. you

91. ready

92. to

93. cross

94. the

95. road?

97. www.brianmclaren.net