Christianity Repents
Part Four: WeCreating the Future of Christianity & the World
The vision of WeCreating is a spiritual development into not just a new way of being, but a new way of becoming, of creating in the world, in our communities, and in ourselves. This is, as we avow in our purpose statement, “for the loving evolution of Christianity and the world.”
We’ll focus on the Christianity part of that statement here and in part five, and then look at the world later on in the series.
In ICN, Christianity is one of our foundational identities or living lineages. This does not mean that everyone in our community must personally identify as a Christian, for we hold it as a dynamic participation in pathways of spirituality rather than boundaried, tribal markers of separation.
We also hold our Christian heritage in a way that draws upon its mystical roots of spirituality much more than as an institutional religion. When referring to our work and our community, we also rarely use the word “Christian” by itself because of the many wide-ranging associations and connotations people bring to it. Rather, we seek to express an evolving, integral Christianity that both differentiates from what has come before and reintegrates the best and healthiest aspects of the tradition.
And in the spirit of necessary differentiation, the time has come for Christianity to repent.
“Jesus Weeps” – image by Dalmo Mendonça
Repenting of a Great Sin
Of course, it would be entirely audacious to think that I—or any one person (even a pope)—could repent for the whole of Christianity.
“Repent” is a loaded word in and of itself, but what it means in its roots is to turn around, to stop going in the direction you have been and return back. In the language Jesus spoke, Aramaic, it would have held a connotation of returning back to God.
And where is God?
How have we left God and moved away in the wrong direction?
Given the vast and wide-ranging scope and expressions of Christianity, there are certainly many ways.
But if I may be so bold, there seems to me to be no greater singular change to Christianity, no more profound and powerful repentance that would shift everything in an entirely different direction than one single turning.
We repent of making it all about us.
I don’t mean a simple selfishness, but rather a pervasive and underlying energetic force that has infiltrated Christianity to move in an insular way.
Rather than a way of living and giving in love, instead of pouring out into the world with creativity and compassion, the way of “the Christian life” has all too often become about building itself up, “growing” the kingdom by adding more members, guarding the boundaries to either keep people in or keep people out, and more.
There are many ways this sin manifests and plays out in any given church or denomination. But underneath the behavior is this energetic undercurrent that has poisoned the well and made Christianity what it has come to represent for so many, a hypocritical, outdated, and destructive institution.
Of course, this is entirely different than the way of Jesus shown in his life and teachings. And we can’t say that all of Christianity has fallen into this “sin” (which is to miss the mark, in this case, wildly, about who we truly are and what our lives are all about), for there are certainly some forms and expressions amidst the countless ways of following Jesus that do not fall under this self-indictment. We could also say that this sin is not unique or confined to Christianity, but just because everyone else is doing it…
I’d like to look at a few ways that this deep pattern has expressed collectively and personally, to whatever degree we might apply and recognize them in our own experience, so that we may better understand what must be turned away from.
Of course, it would be entirely audacious to think that I—or any one person (even a pope)—could repent for the whole of Christianity.
“Repent” is a loaded word in and of itself, but what it means in its roots is to turn around, to stop going in the direction you have been. In the language Jesus spoke, Aramaic, it would have held a connotation of returning back to God.
And where is God?
How have we left God and moved away in the wrong direction?
Given the vast and wide-ranging scope and expressions of Christianity, there are certainly many ways.
But if I may be so bold, there seems to me to be no greater singular change to Christianity, no more profound and powerful repentance that would shift everything in an entirely different direction than one single turning.
We repent of making it all about us.
I don’t mean a simple selfishness, but rather a pervasive and underlying energetic force that has infiltrated Christianity to move in an insular way.
Rather than a way of living and giving in love, instead of pouring out into the world with creativity and compassion, the way of “the Christian life” has all too often become about building itself up, “growing” the kingdom by adding more members, guarding the boundaries to either keep people in or keep people out, and more.
Of course, this is entirely different than the way of Jesus shown in his life and teachings. And we can’t say that all of Christianity has fallen into this “sin” (which is to miss the mark, in this case, wildly, about who we truly are and what our lives are all about), for there are certainly some forms and expressions amidst the countless ways of following Jesus that do not fall under this self-indictment. We could also say that this sin is not unique or confined to Christianity, but just because everyone else is doing it…
There are many ways this sin manifests and plays out in any given church or denomination. But underneath the behavior is this energetic undercurrent that has poisoned the well and made Christianity what it has come to represent for so many, a hypocritical, outdated, and destructive institution.
I’d like to look at a few ways that this deep pattern has expressed collectively and personally, to whatever degree we might apply and recognize them in our own experience, so that we may better understand what must be turned away from.
Repenting of Tribalism
Perhaps the most apparent way we can observe this is through what Soren Kierkegaard called “Christendom.” The distortion of the way of Christ into a religious institution that seeks to grow in power and influence, that becomes wedded to empire or creates its own religious empire.
More subtly, we can recognize the cancer of tribalism wherever belonging becomes primary and ultimate. Healthy belonging is necessary and beneficial, but Christianity has often weaponized and leveraged our deep need and desire as humans for belonging. The markers of acceptance and behaviors required to fit in and grow, often in service to maintaining the strength and power of the institution or control of the members.
The boundaries are firmly established, be they necessary beliefs or behavioral requirements. Much energy goes to reinforcing and guarding these boundaries, knowing who is “in” and who is “out.” There is a need for more and more certainty of how the walls are defined and marked out. The borders of the collective group identity become barriers, keeping those inside “safe” in a spiritual or psychological sense. Fear of the “others” grow, and they must be saved and brought into conformity inside the walls—where God is—or left out. Inevitably, wars ensue, be they ideological, national, or spiritual. The work becomes to “grow the kingdom” over and against other competing tribes like secularism, communism, etc. or even more tangibly and subtly, to outgrow the church across the street.
In the most pernicious and bastardized forms, distorted or co-opted Christianity can even turn to persecuting “the outsiders” with violence and oppression. This usually happens when power overtakes authentic (if misguided) faith, either in the institution itself or in conflation with the state. Though less the focus of this writing, for we’re looking at sincere expressions of faith that can repent rather than insincere exploitation and corruption of faith, these must be rejected and denounced (rather than repented of, for we need not identify with these false forms).
In many varieties of expression, energetically the movement is the same: the force is polarizing—used to push away and keep out, while also drawing the tribe further inward. Rather than outgrowth and evolution into greater inclusivity, expanding our horizons and our belonging, the force becomes extractive, taking in all that it can, provided those crossing the line adhere to all the tribal requirements. This keeps us competition rather than collaboration, excluding others rather than engaging in partnerships and common work.
At the heart of it, this sin is about an underlying, often unspoken belief that God is only “in here” and not out there. Or God can only be reached inside the walls of our own beliefs, understanding, behaviors, etc.
We repent by turning to a God who is everywhere.
We find the freedom to live, move, and dance with the divine in Mystery and beyond the bounds of our own understanding, our own group, our own markers of identity. We are liberated to a great interflow of divine spirit moving all throughout the world and beyond.
“WeCreating with the World”
Repenting of Authoritarianism
Another defining way that Christianity has made it all about itself is through an authoritarian approach to power. Trading out the servant Jesus who washed his disciples’ feet for a great king who rules the heavens from a throne upon high, much of Christianity has adopted the vision and way of empire.
In many Christian religious systems, access to God is held by authority figures, mandatory rituals, or privileged knowledge. The gatekeeping is systemic, requiring priests and penance. Knowledge of God is given to those who have been officially ordained and trained, and the “laity” are simply passive recipients. The “common folk” are infantilized and disempowered. They are made subject to manipulation through shame, guilt, and coercion, keeping people in fear and servitude, ultimately insulated from authentic encounter and engagement with God.
This systemic dependency on privileged knowledge and access is being unraveled. And more and more people are leaving the institutions because they are coming to believe in themselves. They are discovering that God is not only held “up there” by the authorities, but is moving in and through all things, including themselves. We might even call this a mystical revolution!
We repent by turning to a God who is within us.
We find the freedom to trust ourselves and divine spirit moving in and through us. We are liberated from needing to look outside ourselves for permission, for approval, for the right to own our spiritual life and receive a great calling and charge from God for our lives—however that may look.
“Spiritual Empowerment”
Repenting of Spiritual Narcissism
On the other side of this movement toward greater personal empowerment can be another sin of Christianity (and beyond), which is to make it all about ourselves alone. The spiritual center of gravity is reclaimed in our empowerment, but then all too often can turn into a singular insulation of our own individuality.
In so doing, we are reenacting the same systemic patterns in our personal life. Setting ourselves up as the ultimate authority or overly dividing from our participation with the outside world. We become the siloed self, the king or queen of our own castle, holding court within.
In rejecting systems of externalized authority and power, we do ourselves a great disservice if we discount any power which is beyond us or found in others. There are those who have grown and developed along their journey more than us. There are those who know more than us and can offer us guidance, wisdom, and support in areas of growth. We don’t have to discount ourselves to look to them. And we can trust ourselves to discern those who hold their power with humility and open invitation, rather than with privilege and restriction.
There are many ways spiritual narcissism spreads as an inner cancer, dividing us not only from one another but from ourselves. In Christianity, we see this regardless of power or position, expressing in forms like spiritual consumerism, spiritual co-dependency, spiritual esotericism, and more.
The point is not to look to all the ways others are being so selfish and self-consumed, but rather to accept with humility our own limitations and self-centeredness—which may be hard to see, veiled in our own shadow. Crucially, we can’t do this alone. We need others to guide and support us in this work (not just teachers).
This process need not be a return to spiritual authoritarianism, giving away our power. It can be a dynamic participation into the We, holding the I loosely, enfolded by All. We are each invited into a calling to devotion beyond the self—as explored in part two.
We repent by turning to a God who is with us in ways greater than ourselves alone.
In owning our empowerment and inner divinity, we can’t confine it to our individuality. The first-person face of God is not God-Being-Me but God-Being-Us. It cannot be insulated in the singularity of solo centrality.
We actually find a further liberation in unseating ourselves from the throne. A freeing release from putting ourselves in the position of God (trying to be God rather than have God be us). From this ground of humility can sprout the many shoots of life emerging from deep participation with the entire forest, not just our own singular plant.
“More than Myself”
How else have you felt or experienced the cancer of religious insulation?
Where else might we be called to repent from moving in the wrong direction?
And what does it look like for us to WeCreate the new realities and ways of being to which we can further turn toward?
Where else might we be called to repent from moving in the wrong direction?
And what does it look like for us to WeCreate the new realities and ways of being to which we can further turn toward?
What does this have to do with WeCreating?
In repenting and releasing the force and pull of this vast energy that has so often and for so long taken us in the wrong direction, spiritually insulating Christianity rather than flowing forth in blessing and fruition to a thirsty and dry world in need of love and new life, we are unbound to move in a new energy of freedom and creative outflow, nurtured and intensified through intentional interflow and support that knows it is meant to move out, to express, to create anew in divine flowering across the earth.
We repent not in shame but into liberation, turning toward a more holistic, divine way of being in the world.
No longer captured by the pressure to convert and bring in, we are free to live and create beyond and between the divisive borders and barriers that confine creative potential and the flow of life.
No longer held down by disempowering religious imperatives given from on high or even our own projected superego compulsions, looking outside of ourselves for what we “should” do, giving away our power, we are free to live from the inner divine power of love we are, discovering the inner inspiration arising from the Source of life becoming through us.
No longer caught in the games of self-seeking affirmation or lost in the self-referential hall of mirrors, we give up acting—even “righteous” acts—from unconscious, self-serving energetic motivations, instead inhabiting the healthy divine dance of I, We, and All in our lives together.
In truly repenting, we can now move in our sacred attending with greater wholeness and freedom.
We can live into creative actions taken for others out of the true and deep well, the outpouring of free-flowing and inexhaustible love and divine vitality—which is an energy source rooted in the pure joy of participating in abundant and effervescent life. In all the many holy and beautiful ways that expresses and comes forth.
This is a WeCreating way of life, profuse and ample with gifts and graces pouring forth from the divine, emerging through us, together. The sacred, creative work of God in the world.
If we dare, we might even call that the ultimate Source, the spiritual womb of real Christianity.
“Jesus, the Way of Life & Joy in the Truth of our Being” – image by Dalmo Mendonça
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