Song: Singularity | Katie's Canon |

Friends,

Achilles healing continues!

I've worn a shoe (with the heal cut out), driven around the block, and gone to a show. All with mixed success.

Tomorrow I plan to keep my foot up and rest.

-Elizabeth

Elizabeth's Canon

Katie Cannon, an ethicist, and a womanist theologian, wrote Katie's Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community (Fotress, 25th Anniversary Edition 2021), and made the point that we each develop our own canon, our list of what is essential to our faith. For womanists not only the scripture, but each black woman's personal story, and their experiences of a racist and patriarchal church, are part of the canon.

Everyone has a canon, that is, the things we identify as essential to our faith. It is the items we turn to over and over again. The bible is big and unwieldy and none of us studies all of it. Even conservative Christians who have memorized large swaths of the text have sections that their canon.

For me, the foundation of my faith is the first creation story, that we are created in God's image. My first year of preaching was all repent and believe the good news, the kingdom of God is at hand (Mark). I did a study of Joel during grad school and wander to that text again and again. I like Acts 6:1-7 (the women complaining about not getting a turn to serve at table) and Matthew 25 and the sheep and the goats.

And the center of my faith is in my conversion story: Jesus told me I was okay, just the way I am. There is no scripture or theology that can be canonical to me and yet override this truth.

There is nothing wrong with this reality. The bible is the story of many people in many different ages, each describing their perspective on who God is, what is our covenant with God, and how our lives are influenced by our God. Each generation, and each community identifies texts and experiences that become foundational, canonical to our faith story.

But because of that, two faith communities, each using the bible as their foundation, each believing in one God, and one covenant, these two faith communities may have little in common. We start with different texts to make our arguments.

I've heard tell that us mainline and progressives are better than the conservatives because the lectionary requires us to read the broad sweep of the scriptures.

Except we don't.

Churches that use the Revised Common Lectionary read only Nehemiah 8:1-10, and none of Ezra in the church year. Conservative churches situate their entire immigrant theology (build a wall) and much political theology on these stories of creating a new community, while we don't even know what is in them.

I've never taken a class or engaged my congregation in a study or read even a bit of commentary on any text in either of those books. I don't know if there are progressive or even middle-of-the road commentaries on either of those books, because I don't even know what is in them.

The idea of a strict and singular understanding of the bible comes from these books. The idea of defensive boundaries to keep outsiders on the outside comes from these books. (Nehemiah 8). The books are used to support a heavy emphasis on biblical inerrancy, literal interpretations, and expository preaching. Nehemiah physically rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem to keep out foreign influences (Nehemiah 2–4).Creating parallel institutions (Christian schools, media, subcultures) to keep secularism out. The idea of purity, and the need to purge foreign elements from our church, and our nation, come from these books. (Nehemiah 13) Rigid church discipline, excommunication, and denominational splitting over doctrinal shifts are situated in these stories.

Ezra and Nehemiah offer stories of rebuilding of the nation after a generation in exile. They are how a people who have suffered find new pride in their essential identity. They include also how the leadership which went into exile, came back to overpower the ordinary people who had been maintaining the land under Babylonian rule.

We must study these books, and others (Revelation, Daniel) that drive conservative theology and lead to christian nationalism. We have left the interpretation of these books to the conservatives world view. That is dangerous.

Our parishioners don't know what to do with the misinterpretations they hear from their friends because we never mention them in church. It is like our churches have two different bibles.

We do, in fact, have two different canons. Both our life experiences and the scriptures we prioritize are very different. I don't suggest that we make the conservative canon our canon. But I do think we need to know what is in the Christian Nationalist canon. That is how we can make the theological arguments against it.

And perhaps we are in exile, and we find that we cannot understand what is going on. We don't speak Babylonian. It is time to learn the language of the captors so that we can engage. Not to affirm the theology, rather we must learn the language so that we can refute the ideas that are not part of a gospel of love. A gospel that starts with every person accepted by God, just as they are.

What is your church doing, or thinking about doing these days? How are you being here in your particular place? Just reply to this email to let me know what's happening. ​
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Katie Cannon's book on womanist theology.

Provoke Wonder offers a scientific view of God's creation with their song Singularity. (2:26)

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