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Primitive Christianity Revived, Again

Jesusphobic

Have you noticed the amount of Jesusphobic behaviour that surfaces this time of year? there is so much of it that you will find it hard to buy a Christmas card that has the name Jesus on it. Among Quakers it's common to use the word Light for the Divine or our "Higher" Power but even among those who cling to the Christian nation myth there is a reluctance to say the name Jesus.

Years ago when my dad was still alive he was subjected to listening to one of my songs -Geezers 4 Jesus - that repeated the name Jesus continuously. Being a true blue Catholic he ended up commenting that he was getting a sore neck from bowing his head everytime he heard the name Jesus in my song (If you were raised Catholic you were told that you had to bow your head everytime the name Jesus was used). Naturally it was easier not to use the name Jesus than to bow your head and it was common for Catholics not to use the name of Jesus outside of "mass".

Fast forward to today and try to find a Christmas card that mentions Jesus. You'll find that: the LORD has come; HE has come; Unto us a SAVIOUR is born; - and those are the truly religious ones and there's nothing wrong with them in themselves. But someplace on the card they could say who HE our Saviour and Lord is. Did I forget Emanuel, God with us, or the Christ Child?

Sometimes you'll see mention of the little Baby Jesus, but there's no reason why if you are going to send a Christmas card you can't send one that mentions Jesus, the reason for the Season, except of course you might not be able to find one as you are more apt to see the name of Jesus on a men's lavatory restroom wall than on a Christmas Card.

Of course if you have spent anytime at all in a Pentacostal Church you will hear the name Jesus belted out in song. There are great contemporary Christian songs like Jesus friend of sinners that magnify the name above all names. We just have to get people who have been touched by Jesus in the tradition of George Fox to acknowledge that there is one Christ Jesus who can speak to our condition without leaving out the Jesus part. Once again if you haven't experienced the Christ Jesus of George Fox, the living Christ, than this isn't meant for you, but if Christ Jesus has spoken to your condition then focus on how often you substitute some other word rather than utter "JESUS", who after all is the reason for the season and if like me you believe everyday is Christmas than you have reason to say Thank you Jesus everyday or play Geezers 4 Jesus (http://www.geezers4jesus.com/music.html) until your head falls off a worn out neck.:)

3 members like this

Comment by James C Schultz on 12th mo. 27, 2013 at 12:48pm: Stephanie: Pentacost is deserving of a full weekend of our attention in a gatehered setting just to find a starting point for discussion.:)

Comment by Forrest Curo on 12th mo. 27, 2013 at 1:13pm: Pentecost happens. When you wait for God's time to do what God intends... What you planned doesn't happen; what you rightly yearned for may not look like what you'd expected... but as in many of Jesus' parables, God's fruit ripens and we call that 'gifts of the Spirit.' These are neither 'individual' nor 'communal' -- but in a community that God calls together and guides, they nourish themselves through everyone's gifts.

Comment by Michael Kingsbury on 12th mo. 27, 2013 at 3:19pm: One God, one Light, one Life, one Spirit, one Seed calling us each individually and all of us together into that Holy Oneness which is our Hope and Salvation here, now and always, to the beyond of time. I call it the Inward Christ, that which was manifest in Jesus of Nazareth, and occasionally, in a small way, in me.

Don't care much what you call it. Words fail before it. I pray all may find it.

I'm surely glad I found this site, and thanks to thee Friend Martin Kelley. It must be a great deal of work to keep it going. Keep on keeping on.

Comment by Stephen Petter on 12th mo. 28, 2013 at 3:04am: At risk of changing the subject of this thread (Jesusphobia) I must say I was surprised, amused, a little hurt by William's aside: "I don't refuse to call myself a Quaker because leftist and extremely liberal Friends have co-opted that label." We have not co-opted it! We've owned it as long as have all Friends. Is this 'liberalphobia'?

Comment by William F Rushby on 12th mo. 28, 2013 at 10:17am: Hello, Stephen!

I guess I've gotten myself into trouble again! I apologize for hurting your feelings.

Let me offer an explanation. Many liberal Friends give the impression to the public that their version of Quakerism is all there is. If you find this hard to believe, I'll spend a little time finding some cases in point on the Internet.

We need to avoid giving the impression that our version of Quaker faith is all that there is.

Let me know if you think I need to give some examples. It wouldn't be hard to do!

Comment by James C Schultz on 12th mo. 28, 2013 at 10:45am: Stephen: I don't think anyone owns the Quaker label. Like Paul I think Quakers are as close to being all things to all men as we can get. I just tell people that it's a very big tent and that's not a bad thing as the one thing this world needs is someone to love and fellowship with their neighbor without having to agree with them on Theology. Now to get back to the topic, I have many quaker friends who don't believe that Jesus is the son of God but they love the Jesus they see in the Gospels. They don't belittle my belief that He is and I don't try to convince them that He is. Mark 9:38 -9:40 tells of an instance where the Apostles complained that someone used Jesus' name but wouldn't join them and Jesus said if he wasn't against them he was for them. We have enough enemies in the world to love without unnecessarily adding to them.

Comment by Lori Paton on 1st mo. 2, 2014 at 6:11am: I am Christocentric too. Love it that God among us came as a baby-what else have we known on earth that inspires such perfect love? even my friends who are atheists agree that Jesus' radical example is worth following. as a woman, I am made worthy by Jesus' affirmations, although society still has not caught up.

Comment by Barbara Smith on 1st mo. 2, 2014 at 8:49am: Lori - Can you tell me why you say "Christocentric" instead of Christian? I don't understand the term and wonder, again, why Quakers are "Christian-phobic". Or do you mean something different by that?

thanks, Barb

Comment by Petros on 1st mo. 2, 2014 at 10:39am: I'm not a Quaker, but I often refer to myself as 'Christic', since 'Christian' is often equated to the set of dogmas developed within the various councils after 300 CE. 'Christic' includes the whole range of responses to the person of Christ, whether approved council or not.

Comment by Stephen Petter on 1st mo. 2, 2014 at 3:45pm: I agree with William's comment. I would go further and point out that many members of each Christian denomination (or subset of one, for example: liberal Quakers) and indeed the subdivisions within Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism tend to believe that the variant with which they are accustomed is the norm or at least the dominant form. Often they believe theirs is the only true one. ("How does the Truth prosper amongst them?") Liberal Quakers are no exception. Nor are other Friends. I have attended several international Quaker conferences and have experienced the shock of discovering fellow Quakers with very different traditions than that to which I had been accustomed. We need to tackle this ignorance.

In answer to Barbara's question (why "Christocentric" instead of "Christian"?) I think the reason is that different Christian groupings emphasise different aspects of Christianity. For some the Bible is central, and one can call them Bible-centred. Others (e.g. true liberal, unprogrammed Friends) one could call Spirit-centred, and others whose emphasis is on Jesus Christ are Christ-centred or Christo-centric. As to "Christian-phobic" I have not encountered that term, but here in Britain one hears mention of 'refugees from Christianity' applied to those who have been unhappy in other Christian churches. Liberal Friends traditionally avoided being didactic or authoritarian on the assumption that newcomers would allow themselves to be guided by God's Spirit, with the result that newcomers do not find those features they disliked. The problem that concerns me is that many never discover, or refuse to accept, the essentials of Quaker Christianity.

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