Happy Sunday!

In seminary this month we are studying Christianity. Each month my cohort dives deeper into the religions than what is provided in our required reading. This month a classmate shared a movie about a Protestant minister who wrote some books that researched major topics of his Christian beliefs. On this recommendation I watched the movie ‘Hell and Mr. Fudge’.

What was poignant for me in the movie was how Mr. Fudge was an exhaustive researcher of scripture and when he provided to the local congregations in Alabama the scriptural proof that God’s grace is for everyone, the people not only could not hear his evidence but became aggressive against him. I thought that scripture was the authority for Protestant denominations and yet there was no change in the people from the proof Mr. Fudge provided directly from the New Testament of the Bible. This really lingered in my mind.

I thought about this over the Easter weekend so I told a few people about the movie and of my cognitive dissonance. I said that I was surprised that people could be so tribal as to not hear the scripture that was supposed to be their religious foundation.

As I continued to think about this, the lessons from my seminary textbook came to mind. I thought of the sects of Judaism that differed as some use tradition as authority and some use scripture. These two terms became yard-sticks I could use to measure my ideas about the story of this movie. I saw the church community in the movie as basing their beliefs on traditions and Mr. Fudge using the authority of scripture.

On Monday, I was going through my morning ritual of my daily lesson (L91) in the Course in Miracles (ACIM) workbook. As in many lessons, a practice period is requested. This one asked for time in silence to ask, ‘If I am not a body, then what am I?’ It went on to say, “You need a real experience of something else.” I had a experience of love and light greet me, so I then went on to my journaling about the lesson.

The tricycle.

The pieces came together in my mind: experience, tradition, and scripture. I recalled Fr. Richard Rohr using the metaphor of the tricycle, so I looked it up on cac.org to see if my memory of his teaching was correct. Yes! I found that Fr. Richard had posted a Daily Meditation on 2-3-2023 entitled, ‘The Holy Balancing Act.’

The post describes a teaching tool that they use in the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) Living School program. They teach that to find balance in their Christian beliefs, for students to think of a tricycle that gains balance from three wheels. They define the two wheels in the back as outer authority of tradition and scripture; the front wheel is experience or inner authority. Fr. Richard wrote that Christian religions have not taught people of experience but he questioned how it could be avoided when all information filters through our experience. (He added that the promotion of prayer may have filled some of this role, in some denominations. (He always likes to see more than one side to things – his practice of non-dualism showing. 😊))

As I reflected on this metaphor, I could see how the tricycle idea could bring balance to those raised in Christian religions. We have so much history of tradition and scripture put into our psyches from a young age that adding experience to our belief reevaluation process seems like a good tool.

ACIM

A lot of ideas poured through my pen into my journal. I saw that ACIM teaches through experiences in our daily practices. And that miracles are certainly experiences. I saw that ACIM, like Buddhism, provides tools for the undoing of tradition. Then I considered ACIM’s use of scripture, on occasion ACIM refers to gospel scripture (words of Christ Jesus) for validation. (Can I be so bold as to think that the scriptural part is the ‘new’ scripture that ACIM brings to the world???)

As I sat back from my journal, I thought about what is going on with me this month with Christianity. I expected that I would identify myself with it but have not found myself motivated by the lessons. Perhaps the ACIM ‘undoing’ of traditions has had an effect and were a cause of my aversion to visiting a Christian church in person for my seminary assignment. I know that scripture holds little importance for me with New Testament translations manipulated to support empire, colonization, and patriarchy, and Old Testament stories of violence having me more believe ancient alien theories than of them being stories of God.

Going deeper.

I thought back to the movie with Mr. Fudge’s argument for grace and wrote in my journal, ‘receiving God’s grace does not require outside authority based on past experience. Living and loving are NOW. Our experience of light and miracles are NOW.’ (The capitalized ‘NOW’ references my thought about Eckhart Tolle’s teachings of living in the present moment.)

Is the one wheel of inner experience enough for me to be in balance? I sense, not.

(I just had the thought that ACIM provides a new scripture so that perhaps it is using the idea of replacing one habit with another. I wonder often why it must be so wordy when Christ Jesus was able to teach so much in short parables.)

(Another thought regarding ACIM just came: Overcoming tradition, clarifying scripture, teaching true perception. Perhaps three wheels of balance will become clear. I am open to what the future may reveal.)

An unsettled feeling.

Later that day my mood changed. When I had the insight on the tricycle I felt some excitement, but by evening my mood lowered. The next morning, I spent time reflecting to understand what I was feeling. Here is where my thoughts took me:

Back in December I visited my office that I had retired from three years earlier. I talked with my old supervisor, some co-workers, and met the person who is in my position. When I left from my visit, I felt closure after having had three years of regular dreams about still working. I recognize that a sense of obligation was released. This is what I was feeling about Christian religion this day. What I saw the day prior was that the tradition I grew up in and the scripture that some people see as so important do not serve me. Therefore, I have no obligation to it. I can move forward clearer. My heart then felt lighter.

The desire for seeking and growing in Christ consciousness has not left me. Jesus is still my guru. This path, I have chosen. I have dropped the baggage of the past.

What’s next?

I think my new understanding of the tricycle of balance can aid me in the future. It gives me a lens to understand how someone’s Christian belief may strongly lie in one aspect of faith which can take my judgements away from the individual and onto the environment that they were raised in. The door is open for more compassion when my vision can see the fear and pain originated from the bigger system.

AND, I am curious to observe if the tricycle metaphor works for other religions or other aspects of life.