In a nice segue from the post below, I just came across this piece about disgraced former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey’s newfound vocation…as a (potential) priest in the Episcopal Church. The writer links this up with his local paper’s interviews with leaders of the Religious Left in Tulsa, including the pastor of Trinity Episcopal, who’s eager to make it clear that he’s not all uptight about minor details like, y’know, the reality of the resurrection of Christ:
“When asked if he believes Christ was resurrected in the literal, bodily sense, McKee responded, “To answer that question is not important to me–’resurrection,’ to me, is, because we believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, a life of following the resurrected Jesus is a life of caring about the things he cared about. Another is that, when God gives life, he gives it forever.” As for the traditional notion of a literal, bodily resurrection, McKee said, “I just can’t believe it. There may have been a physical resurrection, and I would be very happy if there were, but it’s not that important to me.”
Yeah–it’s really no big deal.
Unsurprisingly, John Shelby Spong makes an appearance, and his comment is just too perfect not to quote:
” Spong was asked: Without a literal resurrection, a personal God and the Bible as an external standard for belief and conduct, in what sense do your beliefs qualify as “Christian”? Why not just do away with Christianity altogether?
“That’s a question that reveals a profound ignorance,” answered Spong.
“I don’t know of a single biblical scholar who takes the Bible literally or who believes in a literal, bodily resuscitation of Jesus,” he said.
It’s all just symbolism, after all, right? Part of a Mediterranean myth-structure (based on ancient fertility cults) that uses imagery of resurrection to illustrate the regenerative power of hope and forgiveness and compassion for the individual “believer.” Sure, Jesus is “risen” in that sense–he “lives on” in the hearts of those who, as Father McKee puts it, “care about the things he cared about.” Like global warming! I don’t know, though. Somehow I tend to be slightly skeptical of anyone who claims to understand Christianity more deeply than St. Paul did: “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” The logic of that statement seems solid, and brutally honest, to me; I suppose Bishop Spong would say that it reveals “profound ignorance” on the part of that cranky old Paul of Tarsus.
