Re-membering Christianity

I try, in all of my writing (which includes my social media) to continually share the thoughtful and profoundly inclusive religious imagination of all faiths I have contact with. Lately, given the extreme Islamophobia permeating the US, I have maybe spent more time doing that with Islam, than with other faith traditions.

But this morning I read something one of my colleagues posted. Dr. Najeeba Syeed wrote:

I am sorry but it's not enough for Christian scholars to say they don't rep the ways Christianity is being used for hate. I am asked everyday about my Islam and to justify its existence in order to save my own existence. I am not asking the same actually of Christian scholars....I am asking empathy for our position but also calling on the best of your tradition to speak up, stand up and play the prophetic witness I know your tradition and scripture embody. I will stand with you. It's no longer about standing up against something it's about defining what we stand for....separately and together. Many of you are already doing this, this post is in response to some I've seen who seem happy to just say "that's not me" using Christianity for hate and leave their statements at that. If the learned of each religion who know these beautiful traditions do not speak up for what sake has God granted us this sacred knowledge?

I think she’s right, and it has spurred me not only to share the positive pieces, but with respect to my own home in Christianity, to share some of what recent theologians are helping us come to understand about the ways in which Christianity has been distorted to advance vile and toxic beliefs.

So for the next span of time, I am going to try to return to this blog more regularly and share the writing of these wonderfully thoughtful contemporary theologians. I’ll just share brief excerpts, but I hope it will entice people to read more of them. I’m going to do so using the subject line “re -membering Christianity” — so that we literally, bring back into family, re-member, all of what Christianity has been, so that we might grieve, seek forgiveness, and move towards repentance and reconciliation.

Christianity has a lot to answer for, and with political candidates such as Trump in the public eye, we need, all the more, such critical engagement.