Faith’s balancing act: Tradition and progress

Last week, the Episcopal Church for the first time elected a woman bishop as its leader, potentially triggering a fight with the worldwide Anglican Church. This is not the first time the Episcopal Church has been in the news for such “progressive” decisions, nor is it the only one that struggles with its place in contemporary society. How should religious leaders ? not to mention the faithful ? balance progress with tradition?

Change is inevitable ? except from vending machines.

Given that revolutionary or evolutionary change is ineluctable, what is religion’s response? A religious faith is often more associated with eternity than modernity, and changes, though they come, are glacial in their movement. Pearl Buck said, “You can tell your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come into contact with a new idea.” If so, then hoary religions find new ideas excruciating.

It is important to remember, though, that not all change can be associated with progress. Just because something is new does not mean it is an improvement, as was demonstrated by New Coke, the Nehru suit, telemarketing and HMOs.

Consistency is often a laudable quality of religion. Yet, the perpetuation of old forms for their own sake will not extend our reach heavenward or expand our spirits. Bowing to new realities and insights, religions may well determine that change is to their benefit.

It is told of a traveling Jewish man who found himself in a synagogue where he noticed an intriguing custom. Whenever a worshipper would walk from his seat to the Ark on the altar, or back, he would bow his head at midpoint, walk three steps, and then raise his head again. Puzzled by this peculiar choreography, the visitor questioned his seat mate on the rationale for this gesture.

“I have no idea,” replied the man. “But my father did it, so I do it.”

Then he turned to another worshipper who gave an even less persuasive answer: “When I first came to this town, I saw all the people do it so I do it too!”

Finally, the curious traveler engaged an aged member of the synagogue and asked him why congregants bowed when walking from the seats to the Ark.

“That is easily answered,” he responded. “That’s the precise place where there used to be a chandelier hanging quite low.”

There was no purpose any longer to the bowing. It was simply a thing to do, though devoid of any content or substance. How much more are we reflexive and how much less are we reflective!

It is said that the only one who likes change is a baby with a wet diaper. But like it or not, religion must confront demands for change, either with principled opposition, wholehearted embrace, or grudging acceptance. Wisdom lies in the ability to distinguish between what change to accede to, what change to resist, and what change ought to be considered more thoughtfully before doing either. There are no guarantees that the change we resent today may not prove to be a blessing tomorrow, or that the change we rush after would have been better left far away.

At the least, religions should consider proposals for change, even if they are later rejected. The willingness to challenge why we do what we do and why we believe what we believe can only have a salutary effect.

Minds, like parachutes, are valuable only when they are open.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

Continuity and change are core characteristics of all faithful journeys in life. Finding their balance is a constant challenge. Struggling to do so, I try to remember to do the following:

1. Show compassion and hospitality in relationships. Consider others as sacred guests, just as Abraham’s hospitality to three strangers in Genesis 18 became an encounter with God. Seek out what is unique in others, for ultimately this strengthens and enriches my own faith, religious beliefs and life.

2. Value myth and symbolism. Live with allegory as the ancients did rather than wanting everything to have literal meaning for each individual. The power of collective story in a different group or community, time and place relives earlier events anew as in communion. This opens us to our limitations.

3. Pursue self-reflection and introspection. In our chatty world, silence helps us to keep our mind and heart anchored in the future world and allows us to speak a creative and re-creative word to the present world. Buddha said it is all right to think highest of yourself provided you also think highest of the other person. Rabbi Hillel said, “The summary of the Torah is how you do unto others. The opposite of the ego is where you find God.” Do not just reflect for your own benefit, reach out to the world. Reach out to what can be!

4. Do not write off more than half of the world: Value the role of women. Contemporary author Karen Armstrong (“The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism”; “The Great Transformation: The Beginnings of Our Religious Traditions”; “History of God ?”) says that none of the great religions do this well, that the Muslim Koran gave more rights to women than any other world religion, and that fundamentalists still see women as being a source of evil. Women were certainly among Jesus’ most beloved disciples but written out of our Christian story by patriarchs of the early church.

Currently, Christianity is too hung up on sexuality and gender issues to see that others (poverty, hunger, education, health, environment) are essential goals. The election of a woman as first among equals in the Episcopal Church is a sign that modernity requires an emancipation of all women and that those in privileged modern societies need to help oppressed women.

5. Maintain a realistic view of the future. Spend time doing good. Christians consider what Jesus would have spent his time on and ask “What matters eternally?” Relationship with one another, especially when we disagree, is primary. After all, who are we within eternity? When we draw lines to exclude others, the grace of God reveals that we will find Christ on the other side as well as on our side.

(THE VERY REV’D CANON)

PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

Ironically, I am in Uganda as I write this ? St. James Church in Newport Beach has placed itself under the authority of the Anglican Bishop of Luweero here because of the kinds of decisions the Episcopalians have been making recently. The issue of choosing a woman as bishop is not an issue compared with the larger issues of the deity of Jesus and the role of Scripture.

Congregations that value tradition over Scripture will always be out of touch with the times. Scriptural mandates are timeless and do not clash with “progress” and therefore do not need to be balanced. When humanity sinned, God sent Jesus (God in flesh) to bring humanity to reconciliation. He was murdered, buried and raised to life three days later. These are the truths that Scripture holds as undeniable and can never be balanced with progress. Questions of the role of women in the church, the types of music we listen to, etc. are questions of tradition, not Scripture.

If the church is not relevant, it presents Jesus as irrelevant to a world that desperately needs to know his message. We must always hold tradition loose and Scripture close. If tradition stands in the way of the message, then it stands in opposition to Christ and must be done away with.

The church is the only institution that exists for the benefit of its non-members. Tradition places a greater value on the members than non-members. We must be about the work of lowering the walls of separation, not raising them.

RIC OLSEN

Senior Associate Pastor

Harbor Trinity Church

Costa Mesa

“The baby is being thrown out with the bathwater!” In so saying, those who are opposed to changes claim that the very essence of their faith tradition is being lost, diluted or corrupted by fellow believers who have been deceived by mainstream social values rather than holding fast to religious teachings. Unfortunately, this concern is all too often limited to issues such as abortion, gay marriage and the role of women rather than war, poverty, racism and immigration.

Those in favor of making changes remind us of the appalling failure of religions to challenge slavery or inhumane dictatorships. Eventually, reformers ? often influenced by movements outside their denominations ? helped their religious organizations find their footing and to fulfill their mission. Every faith group has had its prophets, saints, heroes and reformers who corrected, improved and revitalized the tradition.

It is the nature of traditions to progress. Spiritual teachings that are taken to heart will inevitably be influenced by the time and place of those living them. Religious traditions adapt and develop in response to each generation and culture.

How does a Zen Buddhist tradition rooted in Chinese and Japanese monasteries relate to families living in Orange County? How will the lived experience of Zen practitioners in the United States for this past 50 years enrich the Zen tradition, adding to the wisdom of the Asian ancestors? It’s an adventure to be on a spiritual journey with reverence for a tradition’s past and responsibility for its future. There is no central organization, creed or outside authority to impose its views ? each person must make his or her own decisions about moral and social issues based on his or her Zen meditation practice.

I have no doubt that organizations that do not presently accord women equal rights and opportunities with men will eventually do so, thanks to the devoted reformers within their ranks as well as the inevitable march of history since the suffragette revolution.

I’m glad to see that a woman has been chosen to lead the Episcopal Church. I don’t believe I will see a woman pope in my lifetime, but I do hope to see a woman president.

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center of Orange County

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