Woman. . .

(from Born of a Woman by John Shelby Spong)
". . . Few people stopped to realize that the woman who was being hailed as the ideal mode was a woman who had been totally defined by men.  That a permanent virgin can be an ideal woman only to a celibate male did not appear to be  obvious as the values of the church were presented as objective revealed truths. Theological discussions continued to rage around Mary in the male citadels of theological learning. Without exception all of these discussions led to the further erosion of Mary's humanity.

The more evil the flesh was thought to be, the more Mary's virtue needed to be protected. She became not just the virgin but the perpetual virgin and then the postpartum virgin. It became an issue of great import to prove that Mary retained her unbroken hymen throughout childbirth. The male theologians were equal even to that task. They searched the Scriptures in a paroxysm of wild exegesis to find texts to undergird postpartum virginity. The prophet Ezekiel had once written (ca. 580 B.C.E.) , "This gate shall remain shut, . . . and no one shall enter by it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut" (Ezek. 44:2). Without so much as an apology, this text was fastened on to prove the now-popular claim for postpartum virginity. It had been, the fathers shouted, preshadowed even in the prophets! Midrash separated from the Jewish tradition that created it had become absurd. . ."

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OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Stain . . .

(from Born of a Woman by John Shelby Spong)
". . . When I listen to Easter and Christmas sermons, I hear time after time a still-vibrant neoliteralism even in those mainline churches that would be embarrassed is someone suggested they were fundamentalistic. Likewise, the official documents, studies, and pastoral letters issued by ecclesiastical bodies or groups or bishops are often buttressed by straightforward appeals to the literalism of Scripture. One bishop was quoted in the press as asserting that in seven specific passages of the Bible homosexuality was condemned, as if that somehow guaranteed it to be so forever. Every movement to end oppression in any form in Western history has had to overcome the authority of a literal Bible. Christianity, with is Scriptures intact, persecuted pagans and spawned a vicious anti-Semitism that fueled everything from the Crusades to the Holocaust to the defacement of synagogues. That demonic gift from biblical literalism plagues us even today. A literal Bible still sees the Jews as those evil people who killed Jesus. "His blood be on us and on our children" (John 8:44), and they are defined as possessing a God-given stupor: "eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear" (Rom. 11:8). There are times that I literally shudder when I hear the Good Friday read and realize once again that the biblical use of the words 'the Jews' in that narrative will once more feed that dark stain on the historic soul of Christianity. . . "

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Our own. . .

. . . creations. . .

(from The Fourth Gospel:  Tales of a Jewish Mystic by John Shelby Spong)
". . . How difficult it is for religious people to embrace an unbounded God.  We have through our history sought to define God as a particular being, albeit one possessing supernatural power.  With God defined as a being, we then had to locate God in a place.  Ultimately that place was thought to be somewhere above the sky in a three-tiered universe.  Then we had to build for this God earthly dwelling places that we called "houses of worship."

Next, we began to assert that God's very words were captured in the words of our sacred scriptures.  Then we convinced ourselves that God's very nature could be defined in our creeds, doctrines and dogmas.  We then built mythologies around each of these human creations, assuring ourselves that God was content to live within our developed theological and liturgical limits. 

When these "sacred idols" began to be destroyed by the expansion of human knowledge, we acted as if God had died.  The God who lived above the sky was rendered homeless when we began to embrace the infinity of space; yet we continued to address God as "our Father who art in heaven."  Next, the scriptures, which we once thought of as God's literal words, began to be understood as tribal tales and as human interpretations; but when we read then in public worship, we still asserted that "this is the word of the Lord."  Then the creeds, the doctrines and the dogmas-which, we asserted, had captured God's revelation-began to be understood as political and cultural compromises; but we, in our fear, had in the past invested these human forms with such authority that those who questioned them were burned at the stake as heretics, and we claimed the word "orthodox" for our own human formulations. . ."

What do you think?
Tell me at  
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Real change . . .

. . . we are all evolving. . .

(from THE SINS OF SCRIPTURE by John Shelby Spong
© 2005 John Shelby Spong)
". . . if change is the tactic to be adopted, the change cannot be simply cosmetic, an adjustment around the edges of our faith story. It has to be so total and so radical that many will think such a change is either impossible or will result in the death of the patient. It would be easier, some say, to start over by building an entirely new religious system than it would be to seek to reform this one so totally that continuity might be strained to the breaking point. . . Our task is not to build tomorrow's church. That is something into which we have to live one day at a time. Our task is rather to face the need for radical change and take the first, probably tiny step necessary to erect a totally new foundation. That step is found, I believe, in acknowledging our evolutionary origins and dispensing with any suggestion that sin, inadequacy and guilt are the definitions into which we are born. This also means that we rid ourselves of the idea that the world was created for the benefit of human beings, or even that the planet earth is somehow different or special in the universe. . . "




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Literally speaking. . .

. . . The execution squads would have to work overtime to keep up with the number of texts from the Bible that call for the death penalty. Violating the Sabbath (Exod. 35:2), cursing (Lev. 24:13-14) and blaspheming (Lev. 24:16) are among them. Such judgments would fall most heavily on athletic locker rooms used in preparation for Saturday or Sunday football games! But of course no one should be playing football anyway, for Leviticus also prohibits touching anything made of pigskin (Lev. 11:7-8)! Perhaps this great American fall sport should be played with rubber gloves! Even stubborn and rebellious children are at risk of capital punishment, according to the Bible. If children do not obey their parents, if they overseat or drink too much, they are to be stoned at the gates of the city (Deut. 21:18-21). That is a bit stricter than even right-wing biblical moralists and ideologues care to go. Yet if one wishes to search the scriptures sufficiently, this rather bizarre list of texts can be expanded almost endlessly. . . "

(from The Sins of the Scripture, by John Shelby Spong
©2005 John Shelby Spong)





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ANOTHER SHOT
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