Dick asked me at the Longhorn Diner, “When did the Muslim Empire begin to decline?

I stated that it began to noticeably decline about 1400 C.E. after the sinful Crusades of the Church were over. From Mohammed in the early 600’s up to that time they mainly knew victory and advance.

During the Crusades the Europeans learned from the Muslims several things that they brought back to Europe.  The Muslims had a superior medical and scientific knowledge, a great literary and poetry tradition and the idea of romantic love which the crusaders brought back to Europe.  Europe began to awaken intellectually and build nation states and the Islamic world began to decline after the Crusades.

Inherent in the Qur’ an and Islam is the idea that if you follow the prophet Mohammed in serving Allah you will be victorious,  you will be number one.  The Islamic world was more open so long as it was winning in the competition.  But with the decline and retreat began a withdrawal from interfacing with the world because if you were not number one it was hard to hold your head up.

As the Western world modernized the Islamic world stagnated and went backward educationally.  This process accelerated beginning about 1800.  The expansion of the British Empire among many things fueled feelings of insecurity and inferiority that could not be admitted.

In the twentieth century Western politics and greed for Arab oil thoughtlessly mistreated the Islamic world and faith in many ways.  This thoughtlessness in the 1950’s helped create the rage that birthed the modern Islamic Fundamentalist movement .  This rage boiled because of the inherent arrogance in the religion that they should be number one.  This arrogant rage has led to the shouting, “Death to America and Israel!”

This same religious arrogance is found in the Old Testament  in Dueteronomy which says, ” If you keep God’s Commandments you will be the head and not the tail.”  Prosperity gospel TV preachers like to quote this often forgetting that it is balanced by other scriptures like Job, some of the Psalms, Ecclesiastes and the prophets which teach that the righteous often suffer unjustly and this cannot always be explained.  And then there is Jesus who dies an unjust, horribly cruel death as a very poor man.

But the arrogance of Islamic terrorists is not as threatening to our long term well being as the arrogance of the fear mongers in our pulpits, talk shows and political offices.  Recently Dick and Liz Cheney and Newt Gingrich have implied that anyone is stupid that does not recognize American exceptionalism.  They mean that we are the best nation that is or ever was.  We are number one and the world needs to acknowledge this.

But America will only be great as long as it listens to the criticism of itself with humility and moves to correct its great errors of arrogance.  Have we already past the point of no return on doing this?

The above is American civil religion at its worst and it sounds full of rage just like the Islamic Fundamentalists.  Our own arrogance is far more frightening to me than that of our enemies.  A lot of Americans share in this arrogance and it what will destroy us, not that  which is from without.  As Walt Kelly’s character Pogo said, “We have found the enemy and he is us.”

Catholic Christianity developed in the period of 70-312 C.E.  Catholic here was with a little “c”.  It meant simply universal Christianity, not Roman Catholic Church which is a much later development.

This catholic Christianity was a rapidly expanding movement that in this period spread throughout the Roman Empire and probably east all the way to India.  It did this in spite of pagan ridicule and some Roman persecution.

To face the hard challenges of their times the people increasingly turned to their Bishops and their educated leadership.  This led to a church marked by a universal vision, by orthodox (majority opinion) beliefs, and by episcopal (bishop’s rule ) church government.

The church spread so rapidly in this period for many historical reasons.  One was that Jews were present throughout the Empire and their religious teaching permeated the Empire.  This laid a foundation of knowledge and interest that the Christian Church could and did easily build upon.  For this reason you cannot compare the evangelistic success of the early church with any other period because the historical circumstances are so different.  By the reign of Constantine in 312 C.E. every large town in the Empire had a Church.  Rome’s church numbered over 25,000 members by 250 C.E.

Some other major reasons for the gospel’s quick spread are the following.  First, the Christians were gripped by a burning conviction, the Christ event of life, death and resurection had really happened.  Two, the gospel met a deeply felt need for hope in the hearts of the people.  The old religions of the Empire were dead and every where there was a yearning for a new source of hope.

The third and most powerful cause of the gospel’s success was the practical expressions of Christian love.  They dearly loved one another.  They took care of the poor, the widows and the orphans.  They visited the prisons and the mines which were basically a slave prison.  They showed compassionate help during famines, earthquakes and wars when no one else did.  They provided burial service for the poor and acquired burial grounds.  This earned them tremendous respect in their culture.  How they generally handled persecution helped to publicize their faith to the popular mind.  Even the pagan Emperor Julian recognized the tremenous drawing power of Christian love in practice.

They had many problems and crises.  The majority of the church being from the poor and illiterate people they turned increasingly to their educated Bishops for answers and leadership when facing heresies and persecution.  By 251 C.E. the church had by general consensus granted to the Bishops the power to forgive sins, even the gravest sins.  The Bishop’s power evolved into the power to open or close the door of the church and thus the door of salvation to anyone.  For by this time many Bishops declared that outside the church their was no salvation.  But one must remember that the people gladly consented to power to the Bishops because they were looking for security they could see and feel.

In this time we also see the birth of the Saints which later became strong Roman Catholic doctrine in The Treasury of Merit and the practice of selling indulgences.  In the periods of harsh persecution that occurred, those who were martyred for their faith were held in tremendous awe and admiration by the church.  The martyrs’ birthdays were remembered and celebrated.  In time the people came to believe that those who confessed Christ faithfully unto death had achieved special power from God and could cover with their merits the demerits or sins of those who had lapsed in their faith.  In some areas of persecution such as North Africa nearly 75% of the church members lapsed in their faith during severe persecution.  So in their insecurity and fear they wanted some concrete assurance that their unfaithfulness was forgiven and they could be restored to the church.  Thus the saints were born to meet this need.

Numerous other great things happened and developed in this period of  the Church.  Some were negative and some were positive.  But most all of them are still around influencing Christians today for better or worse.  Only by understanding our history can we choose the good and reject the bad or inadequate.

Join me for a course in church history this fall at Clovis Community College beginning on Monday, Aug. 24, 12:15 to 2:45 P.M.

The genius of the New Testament is its method of reception and transformation.  It received ftom the Old Testament, Classical Greek Philosophy, the Greek philosophical schools such as the Stoics, The Mediterranean mystery religions, the Jewish Apochryphal writings, the universalism of the Roman Empire, the theology of the turmoil and yearnings of the Jewish experience and writings of the Intertestamental period.  It took a large portion of its thought from all of these and transformed these received concepts into the Christian teaching of the New Testament.

The New Testament did not just drop from Heaven.  It is a product of the process of its historical context.  God’s revelatory power is at work in all of history pagan, Jewish and Christian.  If you leave out what it borrowed from the above list you could print the remainder of on the back of the church bulletin.  But keep in mind it did not just borrow from the above list, it transformed what it borrowed into great and powerful genius.  As the Apostle Paul said of himself in Rom. 1:14 we can say of the New Testament, that it is a debtor to Greeks, Barbarians and Jews.

Most of the New Testament authors are a mystery except Paul.  Paul’s 7 authentic letters are the earliest written New Testament material.  The are the only writings composed in the apostolic age.  He wrote them from about 49-61 C.E.  They are Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galations, Phillipians, I Thessalonians and Philemon.

Other epistles often attributed to Paul are written much later than Paul by authors very familiar  with his teaching and style who had some very necessary things to say to the church at that point.  These epistles, Ephesians, Colossians, I and II Timothy and Titus, II Thessalonians and sometimes Hebrews are all written  between 70-138 C.E most probably.

The four gospels are written between 70 C.E. to about 95 C.E. with John being the last one.  None of the gospels even had a name until about 120 C.E. and that was just guessing by one of the Church Fathers.  Most of the New Testament apart from Paul seems to have been written in the period of the Flavian Dynasty of Roman Emperors of Vespasion and his two sons Titus and Domitian.  They ruled from 69-96 C.E.  Along with those books already mentioned in this Flavian period belong Revelation, Hebrews, I Peter, and James.

I, II and III John are probably written after this period.  They are concerned with infighting among Christian groups.  Their focus is narrow but their context is cosmic.

The latest of all the New Testament writings are the pastoral letters of I and II Timothy, Titus, Jude and II Peter.  These also are focused on in-group concerns.  They reflect a second century church setting.  They are concerned with divisions among Christians on matters of belief, practice and leadership.

They depend heavily upon Pauline and Petrine traditions, while reflecting the well past deaths of these apostles.  These and all the other writings are very useful for instruction in God’s way of life.  But they are all a product of the process of their historical context and must be interpreted in accordance to that context.

You are all invited to join my Church History class this fall at Clovis Community College.  It will meet on Mondays at 12:15-2:45 P.M. starting Aug. 24, 2009.

Fundamentalist Christians and others who take the Bible  literally are guilty of over exalting the value of words.  They usually become guilty of Biblicism which is worshipping the Bible instead of God.  And that is idolatry.

This idolatrous concern with the text, the words alone, often ignores the context.  Teachers of communication insist that nearly two thirds of what is communicated is by context and non-verbal messages.  Much of scripture is also communicated by context and what is written between the lines instead of just the actual words.  This is ascertained only by by listening to the scripture and hearing the stirrings of the Divine Spirit from it, from between the lines and from our unconscious.

Paul taught in Corinthians that the letter of the scripture alone kills but the Spirit of the scripture gives life.  Thus I Cor. 2:13 says, “We must teach not in the way philosophy is taught (words alone), but in the way the Spirit teaches us: we must teach spiritual things spiritually.”  Scripture’s purpose is transformation not primarily information.

Buddhism is growing in America in part because it is a religion of greater humility than current Christianity.  It does not feel that it has or has to have all the answers.  But wherein current Christianity over exalts words it is prone to arrogance thinking it has so many of the answers, unaware of what it does not know.

The great monotheistic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism have always been prone to arrogance and intolerance because they have the words of faith.  This is one reason it is important to remember that the Word of God (the reson and speech of God) became flesh in Jesus the Christ.  In him the Word of God is expressed in compassion, power, warmth and flexiblity of The Spirit.  Thus the guidline for interpreting all saced words is the Spirit, the attitudes, warmth, compassion, insight, actions in their historical context, flexiblity of Jesus.  The Word made flesh is never rigid, static words that give us all the answers but transforming, uplifting power that warms and guides our heart in ways of humble goodnees.

Two different Christian groups arose in the 40 years after Jesus’ death.  They had different geographical locations and different theological understandings of Jesus.  But both experienced him as alive from the dead.  Both remembered Jesus, loved and honored him and sought to follow his way.  Both experienced God’s saving grace and tried to live righteously.  Both left their influence in the New Testament.  But sadly they came into conflict and  wrongly rejected each other.  They also developed some erroneous thinking here and there which entered the New Testament.

As David Chidester suggested in his Global History of Christianity the two groups were Jesus movements and Christ congregations.  Those groups outside of Palestine in northern Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece emphasized Jesus as a deity come into the world and gone back to the heavens.  Jesus’ death was regarded as a special redemptive event.  And his vindication by God raising him from the dead was also thought redemptive.  One was saved by grace through faith in the death and resurection of Jesus and by their faith participating in Jesus death and resurection as a way of dying to selfishness and coming alive to God and righteousness.

The Christ congregations were more Greek thinking and Gentile.  They saw Jesus as risen Lord who was founder and head of the church.  And God had made him head of a new body of humanity.  By believing in Jesus as one’s Lord (master) one was baptized (placed into) this new humanity which was a new world (creation) that God was creating and transforming.

This group was more Pauline for Paul  started it.  It developed the Lord’s Supper as we know it today as a memorial of Christ’ death.  The Jesus movement group kept the Lord’s Supper more as a rememberance of Jesus’ life.

The Jesus movement groups were located in Palestine and Southern Syria.  They were baically Jewish.  They centered more around remembering Jesus by collecting his sayings and following them in the way that Jesus called the Kingdom of God.

This group produced the early accounts of the miracle stories of Jesus and they understood Jesus more in the context of being like Elijah and Moses.  They saw Jesus more as the righteous teacher of wisdom than as divine.  They stayed connected to the synagogue and a broadly Jewish environment.  They too were saved by following the way of Jesus by dying to their selfishness and coming alive to God’s righteousness by obeying the teachings of Jesus.

They are largely responsible for giving us the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  These gospels and John were all written between about 70 C.E. and 95 C.E., well after the Pauline Epistles which were completed about 61 C.E.  Very probably the Epistles of James and Hebrews come from this group.

By the 50’s and 60’s C.E. the Jesus movement groups seem to have become disillusioned by rejection from their peers of their new social experiment.  They demanded repentance and began to prophesy judgment and destruction of their “evil generation.”  They developed an apocalyptic end of the world scenario and reinterpreted Jesus as a precursor to the “Son of Man” who was coming soon to bring destruction upon this “wicked generation.”  The Son of Man soon bringing judgment sayings in the gospels come from this group and not from the lips of Jesus.

There was a great deal of conflict between these two Christian groups which was sad and unnecessary.  Each represented a great element of the truth of Jesus.  The faith of one and the good works of the other are different sides of the same coin of transformed life and union with God.

Luke in the book of Acts seeks to smooth over these groups’ differences.  He tells how Paul came to confer with the elders of the Jerusalem Church.  The first church council was called and it was wisely decided to treat each other as Christian brothers and sisters and Paul was recognized as legitimately heading up the work of the Christ congregations and Peter, James and John were to continue working with the Jewish Jesus movement groups.  This was a wonderful Christian decision of unity and compromise, but it was not long abided by.  Sometime in the second century C.E. the Jesus movement groups died almost entirely out leaving us with the predominant Christ congregation viewpoint.

However, the Jesus movement influence remains a rich part of our New Testament and it is easily incorporated with, unified with the Christ emphasis in transforming lives and bringing them into union with God if only we will do it.  Doing it keeps the balance between our heavenly faith and our earthly good works. That balance is the only way to live wholesomely in Christ.

(For more onthis sign up for my course on Church History at Clovis Community College this fall beginning Aug.24).

Grace is God’s acceptance of us all as though we are perfect children of his, now.  This is God’s attitude towards all humanity great and small.  Thus, potentially, every human is already saved.  But though this is God’s loving attitude towards every person each person must realize and believe in this acceptance in their inner depths for it to be effective, transformative of personality and saving of life.

Grace is held by many Christians as an intellectual concept and it does not do them much good.  One must experince grace, feel it in his mental, soul depths as one experiences the taste of excellent food and feels its exquisite pleasure all the way down his gullet, into his stomach and gastronomical tract, exploding and emanating pleasurable feeling throughout his body.  Grace alleviates the burdens of our psyche and gives a lightness of heart when we experience it because we are accepted by the Divine as we are as though we are perfect now in spite of our sins.

This kind of grace is the basis of Dr. Thomas Harris’ book on Transactional Analysis, a classic written in 1969 titled, “I’m OK; You’re OK.”  It is based on St. Paul’s preaching of the gospel of the grace which we have just described.

Realizing that one is OK is becoming aware that one’s worth is already present within us placed there by God when he created us. It and our life are a gift.  Nothing can take this worth away from us.  When we become aware of this acceptance it will burn within us with cleansing fire.  It will through a process of our learning to accept our worth enable us to do all things necessary with a sense of peace and power.

Many spend their lives trying to earn a sense of worth from sources outside themselves and they never find lasting peace.  Our worth is a gift within us already, there by God’s grace.

Salvation can be pictured by the the Zen image of a man riding on an ox looking for an ox and finally realizing he has an ox already. You are a child of God already, accept and live the implications of this.

The great commission of Matt. 28:18-20 has an internal as well as an external meaning.  External:  Go to all nations and teach them the good news, yes. Internal:   But at the same time take this good news of the gift of God’s loving acceptance to all your inner selves bringing them peace because you do not have to earn your worth and acceptance

(I am thankful to John Claypool’s “Opening Blind Eyes,” p. 59 and 61 for the ox and great commission illustration, Abingdon Press, 1983.)

Recently, our family physician suggested that my wife and I become vegetarians.  He said it would add years of better health to our lives with the problems that we have.

We had been thinking of doing this and his encouragment made us take the leap to a vegetarian lifestyle.  We are sticking with it and enjoying it.  We feel better.  Our heart health, diabetes and arthritus are all better managed under this regimen.

Our grocery bill is lower, cooking time is shorter, meals out cost significantly less and surprisingly our taste buds and sensual enjoyment of eating has been enhanced.  But we are experiencing some woes from other people.  We are being persecuted.

Some waitresses are shocked when we do not order meat.  Some men’s look and tone convey that I have lost my masculinity. Others suspect we are unamerican if we do not eat beef.   And that if John McCain had been elected we would not have to endure such peccadilloes as this.

Some lean away from us for fear it is catching.  Some white males express pity saying with the deepest conviction that they could not live without their meat.  “How do we eat without meat?” , they want to know .

But by the grace of God we are laughing our way through these persecutions.  And we plan to continue our vegetarianism for the following reasons.

It is improving our health and probably will add some healthy years to our lives.  St. Paul taught that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we are to keep them as healthy and whole as possible (I Cor.).

We just feel better physically and we feel better psychologically because we are masters of our appetite.  We feel more in control of our lives.

It helps us to be a little stronger financially as we are spending a little less on food.  And did you know that if everyone was vegetarian the world would be considerably better food wise because an acre of land devoted to grain or fruits and vegetables feeds scores more people than an acre devoted to raising animals for food.

We like the sense of spiritual freedom vegetarianism gives us.  Many say, “I just could not live without my meat.”  How sad.  We believe the less attached you are to material things, even beef for dinner, the more you are able to really enjoy all that you do have.  And there are many like us for whom eating meat means a loss of years of good healthy life.  But folks prefer to live in a fantasy world thinking that the things they love will never hurt them.

Giving up meat also makes us feel we are doing a little something to save our environment.  If every American went totally vegetarian (vegan) it would lower greenhouse gas emissions by 6%.  It would do this by closing the massive factory farms where pigs, cows and chickens (especially cows) release methane gas and nitrous oxide (farts in the vulgar).  These gases pound for pound are 30 times more damaging environmentally than carbon dioxide.

There is also the humane element.  Proverbs says, “The righteous man takes good care of his beasts.”  Having grown up raising cows, chickens and hogs I feel pity for the poor creatures crammed into the massive factory farms.  I believe they would be happier, certainly cleaner, healthier and more drugfree at home on the range.  And I think we would be the same in the long run.

I am not saying everybody should do exactly as we are doing.  This is simply our testimony as to the joy we have found in doing a new thing.  I do believe imitating us would be very helpful  to some people, especially to those with health issues similiar to ours.

I also believe that everyone should think, discuss and address the issue of global warming that we might save our world and ourselves from self-destruction.  Once upon a time there was a man named Noah.  Everybody thought he was a liar and a fool.  But a flood did come to the chagrin and destruction of many.

That mythic story exists to teach us that if we live in denial, pride and selfish arrogance similiar self-destruction can and will come upon our world.  We are our own worst enemy.  I suggest we enjoy life by playing safe instead of sorry.

In the Bible there is a balancing of two traditions everywhere.   They are the traditions of knowing and not knowing.  Sometimes they are metaphorically called light and darkness or mountaintop and desert or presence and absence.  To be a balanced follower of Christ you must maintain a proper balance of both.

Protestants have not done this very well.  With their emphasis upon the Word, they often arrogantly claim to know too much or teach the Christian life as all sunshine if only you have enough faith.  Especially is this ludicrously so among many evangelical Christian groups.  But Christian humility demands we remember the unknowable aspects of life and theology.

In our study of God we as the Israelites coming out of Egypt are guided by both a pillar of fire (knowing) and a pillar of cloud (not knowing).  Both are good and you must not have one without the other.  To claim one without the other is to become a braying ass.

Look at two parallel mountaintop religious experiences of the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Moses on Mt. Sinai receives the law , God is somehow manifest (knowing) but He dwells in thick darkness (not knowing).  (Ex. 20:21).

In Mark 9: 2-10 you have Jesus and three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration.  In this history like myth we are taught many things about Jesus and his way of life.

Moses and Elijah, the great representatives of the law and the prophets, appear there with Jesus and the disciples from the Spirit World beyond this world and talk with Jesus.  Jesus is presented in dazzling light (knowing).  But a cloud appears and surrounds them (not knowing).  Out of the cloud of not knowing a voice speaks, “This is my son, whom I love.  Listen to him!”  We can never fully know God but following the way of Jesus’ life leads us on in the knowledge of God.

Quickly, mysteriously it is all over, all gone and Jesus purposely leads them down the mountain to the plain and desert of ordinary life.  There without the dazzling light of God they as well as we must discover our spirituality by doing the ordinary things of life extraordinarily well while we live humbly under the burden of knowing and not knowing.  There is no other way.

(I am thankful to Richard Rohr and his book, Scripture as Spirituality, for many of the above ideas.)

My wife and I voted for you in the last election.  We support your administration wholeheartedly.

We pray for you and your family.  I am a United Methodist minister.  We admire the wisdom of your leadership style and what you are trying to do on all fronts.

Please, be safe, you and your lovely family.  Give your family priority.  For the long term good you hope to accomplish, they are your greatest asset.  Never forget this.  Take time to play, laugh and relax a lot.  Enjoy your presidency and you will do more to make the world a better place.

I think your Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP; Geithner Plan) is a wise and bold move.  I believe it is working and will save us from a far worse depression.  Though I accept it as necessary in this situation it is fraught with ethical danger and provides an Achilles’ heel for your administration.

I perceive that you are trying to solve the toxic bank assets problem by folowing the principle of  “using a thief to catch a thief” which in this case was offering a rather grand financial opportunity to people such as hedge fund managers and the like if they buy up these toxic assets. But they did much to get us in this recession with their greed.  It is like offering a pardon to hardened criminals so that you may use their expertise to stop further criminal activity.

As this plan works we all shall benefit. But as soon as our system recovers I urge you to quickly put the screws of regulation and proper taxation upon these Wall Street pirate types so as to make them scream in rage because they cannot indulge their greedy fantasies as before.  It is a shame that should profit now  although for the sake of the common good I hope they do.

If you fail to do this, I fear that any success in the bail out will be just another American quick fix that does not solve anything for the long run.  And your administration shall lose the ethical high ground which is essential to maintain.

Greed and a selfish sense of privilege are America’s greatest enemies.  They are the Terror that shall ultimately destroy us unless we boldly and constantly address it with surgery.

May God bless you in these endeavors.

Respectfully, Rev. Alvin Petty.

Jesus and the prophets felt that religion must always be being reformed.  Jesus’ very practical test of a healthy religion or poor religion is , “Does it bear good fruit or bad fruit?” (Matt. 7:15-24).

In the Bible true orthodoxy is never a matter entirely of the intellectual understanding of right ideas.  It is rather a thing of the heart that happens in right relationships, in right doing with God and man.  In healing and everything else Jesus never questioned peoples’ belief systems but rather their relationships.  So in the scales of judgment what you do and your relationships are more important than what what you claim to believe.