#Methodism

[writerbuddha]

On George Lucas identifying as "Buddhist Methodist" and why that's perfectly fine

So, recently I encountered with someone on Tumblr who insisted on the idea that George Lucas identifying as "Buddhist Methodist" is a form of white-washing and that he is just picking up the things he likes from Buddhism and by doing so he is disrespectful to a more than two thousand year old spiritual tradition and if these claims are coming from an Asian then that means it's true. In general, I avoid participating in discussions like this, but I think these assertions should be addressed.

Buddhism is essentially a set of methods that helps us to develop our full human potential by understand the true nature of reality. It is a practical doctrine, addressing the problem of human suffering and it doesn't insist on a single solution - since human beings differ greatly in their needs, dispositions and abilities, Buddhism acknowledges that the paths to peace and happiness are many. Buddha showed us a path we can follow in order to free ourselves of life's problems and develop the good qualities of our minds, love, compassion, kindness, non-attachment, mindfulness, generosity and wisdom and more.

Although there are many different traditions within Buddhism, non-sectarianism is very much a characteristic of it: practitioners are encouraged to receive teachings and explanations not just from the tradition they follow but all the other traditions as well, and to put them in practice, so we will have a better understanding of different teachings. Giving exaggerated importance to one or another of the different schools and traditions within Buddhism can end up being harmful to the goal of the Buddhist path itself. 

The Buddhists teachings on how to develop good qualities of our minds are open to everyone – regardless of cultural background or religion. All spiritual and religious traditions are essentially teach the same practice: love, compassion and tolerance. For this shared core, it's all right to adopt some methods from Buddhism and keeping your original tradition, whether it to be Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Hindu - some Buddhist explanations, particularly those based on reason, can be very beneficial to practitioners of other traditions.

You're encouraged to "cherry-pick." For example, a Christian would likely find the Buddhist methods of non-attachment, mindfulness and meditation to be very beneficial, but in the same time, they would most likely be confused about the non-theistic absolute in Buddhism. Thus, it's best to study and use the methods that they deem to be useful to evolve as a follower of the Christian tradition.

Furthermore, if calling yourself a "Christian Buddhist" or a "Muslim Buddhist" or a "Hindu Buddhist", or a "Taoist Buddhist", or a "Wiccan Buddhist", or anything, really, benefits to your spiritual practice and helps you to evolve, you're perfectly free to do so.

The Buddha gave many instructions. If some of them help you live to better, to solve your problems and become kinder, then you are free to practice them. You do not have to be a Buddhist to be able to practice what the Buddha taught and there is no need accept the Buddha as your guide or to become an actual Buddhist or to call yourself Buddhist. The purpose of the Buddha's teachings is to benefit us, and if putting some of them into practice helps us live more peacefully with ourselves and others, that is what's important.

When it comes to Buddhism, the notions of race and ethnicity must be reconsidered. Probably the best example of this is the fact that Tibetan Buddhists are recognizing a number of Western children as the reincarnations of highly elevated Tibetan Buddhist teachers (for example, Tenzin Ösel Hita). There is the example of Alan Watts, who was influenced by all kinds of religious and spiritual traditions and interpreted many of them to Westerners, including Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism, and who was called "a great bodhisattva" by one of the greatest Zen masters, Shunryu Suzuki.

There are some who may be very opinionated, may have very strong feelings about what disrespects Buddhism and what the fact that it originates from Asia means. In the same time, they don't practice Buddhism, don't have any idea about what Buddhism is and why the Buddha gave his teachings. They might go as far to assert, it belongs to a particular group of humans or to a particular location on Earth, that's it's somehow intellectual property which is copyrighted or whatnot. They can actually end up undermining, if not assaulting Buddhism itself. So, if you have questions about what is and isn't compatible with Buddhism, you should look to those - Asians like the Dalai, Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Shunryu Suzuki or Western Buddhists like Tenzin Palmo or Thubten Chödrön - who dedicate their lives to practice, study, preserve and teach the Buddhist path, to bring the Great Healer to as many beings as possible. And not to those who - regardless to cultural, racial, ethnic, religious etc. background - latest hot take is "gate-keeping Buddhism is woke."

[m0thmancore]

a different post about religion and queer praxis

Let's talk about this. specifically because one anti-theistic asshole on a forum pissed me off enough to write a fucking essay post about the subject.

I was raised agnostic and still am. I don't consider myself any more culturally Christian than living in the States would make me by exposure. Obviously, a lot of Christians are horrible, bigoted people. No one's saying they're not. (note: I'm just talking about Christians here because I thoroughly do not know enough about other religious ones – very Christian area here. This isn't scholarly in any way it's just based on my own experiences with religion)

I've had Christians – good, humble servants of the Lord's word – spit at me in public, threaten to hurt me, splash my friends with holy water for the crime of being visibly disabled. The group of insecure, bigoted losers – because that's all they are – attempting to legislate people like me out of existence are by and large predominantly devout Christians. I have every single justified reason someone could ask for to hate Christians as a group.

but I don't.

(my high school english teachers would yell at me for starting a sentence with a conjunction)

I don't, and here's why. My mother is Catholic. Every Christmas morning, we open presents together and then she goes to service – her one act of worship a year. She's never misgendered or deadnamed my openly nonbinary cousin, who is infinitely braver than me. I'm not out to her, but I know if I came out she would hug me and go take me to get ice cream while apologizing for ever making me feel unsafe enough I had to wait this long. When she had a student she suspected was trans, I never heard her deadname them either. She's been in my corner my entire life, and yet she's a Christian.

I don't hate them all because of the local nondenominational church near me who has repeatedly been the main organizer and benefactor of my town's Pride every June for years, standing strong and refusing to cancel the event in the face of six dozen other local churches writing and signing a letter to my town government telling them this event goes against the word of the Lord. That church flies pride flags next to their sign, and replaces them and raises them higher every time they get stolen to be burned and pissed on. That church has a nonbinary reverend, who is absolutely delightful company and approaches good-natured non-queer people with love in their heart to explain gay and trans issues to people 60-70 years old and older, who all listen eagerly and acceptingly even though they themselves are also pious servants of the Lord and have been since the days of Stonewall and the AIDS crisis. When that church was partially firebombed over hosting a drag brunch, they built back and stood strong in the face of the threats, because they understood that abandoning queer people when threatened gave power to those threats. That church provides Christian services, but also worship spaces for Jewish and Muslim people who live here, since we're very isolated from any temples or synagogues, and have received pushback for this as well. (i think these are the right words – again, i really don't know much about those religions) They have a sign above the door that says welcome in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. When I walk in there, I do feel welcome. That church gave me the first place I felt comfortable to present openly to strangers as a woman, and yet they're predominantly Christians.

I don't hate them all because of the Lutheran church I pass on the way to work, whose sign is lit with queer and trans flags in the shape of hearts, captioned by "God's love is for all." I don't go to worship. The only verses of the Good Book that I know are the ones that bigots level against me. And yet, I cry a bit every time I drive by that church because of how good it feels to know someone is listening and willing to stand with people like me right now, and the people listening are Christian.

I don't hate them all because of the Methodist church I worked Sunday food service as a volunteer at because I was desperately in love with one of the non-binary volunteers, of which there were five or six. The mostly older people who came through the line for omelets after the early service were respectful of these visibly trans line cooks and wait staff, even occasionally asking for names and pronouns and curiously and openly discussing gender with if we had the time. When one pastor gave a sermon about how queer people were made in the image of God as well as non-queer people that I sat through as a not-yet-out agnostic girl, I felt loved, even as half the church left in a rage and the pastor forgave them, understanding they had been misled. All of those people were Christians.

I don't hate Christians, I hate bigots, and there is a world of difference between those two categories, even if they do overlap frequently. Painting all Christians as frenzied, screaming queermisic pundits ignores the work that some of them do for people like me, who live in places where the church is the best safety net there is.

I don't believe in the Lord or his word. When I reach out and show love to people who don't necessarily understand me but will show me the same courtesy, it's because I believe it's the right thing to do, not because I was told it was. And yet, some of those who were told that and believed it as I did have been my greatest allies.

(if you made it this far, thanks for reading my emotional ranting lmao)

[aprilthewriter]

I just wanted to give some encouragement to any LGBTQ+ Christians out there who are feeling lonely on their journey and like they don’t belong anywhere. It took some time and a lot of navigating my faith and my queer identity and the pain of leaving the church I grew up in, but I’ve found several churches (all progressive UMCs, but there are lots of other churches that affirm LGBTQ folks--and I know not all UMCs do) I can call home, and I’ve found lots of virtual spaces too where I can bring my full self and my gifts. I just led a song during worship today, and the music director and a bunch of church ladies complimented me afterwards. And they all know I’m a lesbian. And there are rainbow flags in the church and we do a bunch of cool service projects and drives for the community. The focus is on loving God and loving neighbor, and there’s no other place I would rather be. 

Even if you’re in an area where affirming churches are scarce and you don’t have the resources to start one, there are online communities (DM me and I can send a bunch of links) and there are so many LGBTQ+ Christians out there, using our gifts to serve the beloved community of God. You are loved and you are not alone, and I know that you will shine in whatever ways you participate in spirituality/religion.

[fuzzysparrow]

The Hymns of Charles Wesley

Whilst John Wesley is famous as the founder of the Methodist movement, his brother Charles was equally important. During his life, Charles Wesley wrote around 6,500 hymns, many of which are familiar today.  Charles Wesley was the eighteenth child of Susanna and Samuel Wesley, born on 18th December 1707 in Epworth, Lincolnshire. Wesley followed in his father’s footsteps to become a rector and was…

[thisis-an-original-name]

Why have you abandoned Jesus

[bethetiesthatbind]

(Image from Christianity Today Vol. 40, Iss. 13,  (Nov 11, 1996), essay: "Revelation & homosexual experience: What would John Wesley have said about this debate in the church?" -- for anyone who follows up on this essay, love how Don Thorsen was structuring it, hate the overall execution and misuse of Wesley's "theology of love", but who knows, maybe almost 20 years later Thorsen doesn't like what he wrote either. Image is dope tho.)

ANYWAY. Happy 320th Birthday, John Wesley!!!! At my core being I am and always will be Wesleyan in what I believe you were aiming for in your theology of love or hermeneutic of love even when you, as one of my all time favorite weird lil guys, let your bigoted snootiness show instead. None of us are perfect, and I love what you've done for the tradition anyway.

You exemplified devotion to God; dedication to social justice and staunch belief that to be Christian means you are absolutely compelled to community justice and social service; insistence in the accessibility of education and literacy and healthcare for all persons; awareness of the evils of money but how to best live in community to understand what is enough and the rest is to be shared; celebration of an OPEN TABLE where all are welcome no matter where they are on a faith journey; and so much more.

Happy birthday, Johnny Wes, and happy Pride.

[riverkwai404]

Things I heard at confirmation this morning:

“TRANS JESUS???”

“And THATS on how to anger conservative Christian’s”

“Jesus is 100% an alien, he descends and gets zapped back up”

“1+1+1= 1”

“Person to the power of three”

“Jesus would 100% support strippers, the dude hung out with SO many prostitutes”

“Jesus was 50% woman and 50% who knows what, definitely not a man”

[wanderlustfulmaniac]

[sheepskinnedgoat]

I grew up in high church Anglicanism but have been reading up on Calvinism vs Methodism and I can't believe I never heard of the doctrine of unlimited atonement. It's an eye opener! Do people not see the mental break between being a Christian, and believing in an elect? I'm surprised because I always thought mainstream protestants all believed in unlimited atonement! Denying it could be the starting point for a whole host of backwards thinking, us Vs them nonsense.

I don't know anything about Methodism and I don't personally believe in atonement theology. Not really my bag. I think Universalism is overall a better way to go. More importantly, I don't really fully understand what you're saying here or what spurred this ask.

Honestly, I am more familiar with Midwest Baptism and am only vaguely aware of what I'm doing when I actually attend Episcopalian church. I am extremely heterodoxic.

Edit to add: I do agree unlimited atonement 10x better than the weird "only died for SOME people's sins" thing that's got some denoms acting silly. God isn't limited by human laws and such, so why would the merciful death of Christ be limited?

[kontextmaschine]

Methodists banning dancing like "we need perfection, not body rocking"

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The math just adds up!

[blueskittlesart]

sharing mana

[catilinas]

THEY FUCKING DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

[narwhalsarefalling]

my mother taught me to crochet when i was young. she was left handed, so she taught me how in the bathroom mirror so her hands would be in the right position.

she learned to crochet from her grandmother, who was right handed. her grandma was the one that originally used the bathroom mirror to teach her granddaughter properly.

i find something poetic about that. here in this bathroom mirror, through generations, we adapt to our young who have a different way of learning and interacting with the world

[a-method-in-it]

You know that Chris Fleming line that goes "Call yourself a community organizer even though you're not on speaking terms with your roommates"?

I honestly think every leftist who talks about the "revolution" like Christians talk about the rapture needs to spend a year trying to organize their workplace. Anyone who sincerely talks about building a movement so vast and all-encompassing that it overwhelms all existing power structures needs the dose of humility that comes with realizing they can't even build a movement to get people paid better at a badly run AMC Theaters where everyone already hates the manager.