Home September 2021 - The Raven Foundation

the RAVEN FOUNDATION

unlearning Islamophobia

Lindsey Paris-Lopez

Unlearning Islamophobia and Building Interfaith Friendships

Lindsey Paris-Lopez brings her experience of converting to Islam then returning to Christianity to guide us in unlearning Islamophobia.

exodus from hell

Exodus from Hell: Unlearning What You’ve Been Taught About Salvation

Pastor Adam Ericksen begins with the word Sheol to lead an exodus from hell so we can unlearn what we've been taught about salvation.

What Is Your Belief On Original Sin?

Lindsey Paris-Lopez

Question: What Is Your Belief As Far As Original Sin?

Interpretations of original sin often lead to judgment, separation, and violence. Lindsey Paris-Lopez guides us to escape original sin on the path of Love.

Unlearning Christian Homophobia

While some Christians uses passages in the Bible used to harm and exclude our LGBTQIA siblings, Pastor Adam Ericksen reveals how the Bible naturally leads Christians to be open and affirming.

unlearning violent christianity

Unlearning Violent Christianity

There is a longing in every human heart to be loved for exactly who we are. Many of us yearn to belong within a community that recognizes our potential and helps us live into it.

Blogs

All Flesh Shall See Salvation

Raven ReView Religion

All Flesh Shall See Salvation

Pastor Adam Ericksen ponders the Advent peace candle, its message that all flesh shall see salvation, and our current reality.

How Would Jesus Interpret the Scriptures: The Way of Love

Raven ReView Religion

How Does Jesus Interpret Scriptures? The Way of Love

Lindsey Paris-Lope illustrates how Jesus interprets the scriptures through the way of love and mercy, not sacrifice.

Why It’s Okay To Pray for Yourself

Raven ReView Religion

Why It’s Okay To Pray for Yourself

Adam Ericksen explains why it’s okay to pray for yourself and, if you're a fan like he is, the Portland Trailblazers.

Why I Support Satanism

Raven ReView Religion

Why This Pastor Supports Satanists

After encountering a Satanist Uber driver and getting support from Satanist TikTokers, Adam Ericksen sees Satanism in a new light.

Podcasts

roll the stone from our heart

Jesus Unmasked Raven Radio Religion

Rolling The Stone Away From Our Hearts (John 11:32-44)

Adam Ericksen and Lindsey Paris-Lopez examine Jesus' response to the death of Lazarus and the miracle of his resurrection.

Faith that heals

Jesus Unmasked Raven Radio Religion

Faith That Heals, Not Faith That Harms (Mark 10:45-52)

Adam Ericksen and Lindsey Paris-Lopez admire the faith of Bartimaeus and the compassion in Jesus' healing act.

ravenfoundation

You cannot serve God and White Supremacy. Black Li

You cannot serve God and White Supremacy. Black Lives Matter.

#blacklivesmatter #blm #godislove #christianity #progressivechristianity #toxictheology #unlearnandrelearn #unlearning #unlearningracism

First, as we contemplate how we are saved, we need

First, as we contemplate how we are saved, we need not worry whether or not we are saved. Because God is Love and we are all children and reflections of Love, we are all in the process of being "saved." Love embraces us, guides us into our truest selves, and works with and through us to restore wholeness, beauty, justice, and joy to the world. That's what salvation is.

The question of "What saves: faith alone or faith plus works?" is usually asked in a context that limits salvation to those who meet particular criteria. Then it becomes a matter of defining the criteria. Often "faith" is reduced to assent to a particular belief, like "Jesus is the Son of God who died to save us from sin." There's debate over whether "right belief" is a ticket to heaven or whether that belief must be combined with good works. A more nuanced take is that right belief produces good works. But even with nuance, the premise is flawed.

Faith isn't intellectual assent; it's trust and commitment. And Love (God) trusts in and commits to us. Knowing all our flaws and mistakes, Love still knows our truest selves and has faith in us. Love steers our hearts toward compassion and mercy and justice. Love moves and shapes us and the world, whatever our religious beliefs may be. It's not our faith that saves, but Love's.

Love saves us by moving us to participate in Love's work. Love saves us from our impulses to live over and against others. Love saves us for a world in which we work with and for one another for the greater good of all. Salvation is the transformation of a world shaped by violence and exclusion into the Beloved Community, where everyone values and cares for one another.

Love saves us by helping us recognize the dignity of the marginalized so that we work for systems that don't exclude anyone. Love saves us by gently helping us recognize our mistakes and prejudices so we may correct them without denial or shame.

Love's faith in us – all of us – puts us to work! Love working through all things will make all things new and beautiful.

Lots of love,

Lindsey Paris-Lopez
Theologian-in-Residence

#christianity #progressivechristianity #godislove #faith

One last stop from Pastor @adamericksen’s trip:

One last stop from Pastor @adamericksen’s trip: the Areopogus in Athens.

St. Paul was here around 2,000 years ago!

#bible #biblestudy #christianity #progressivechristianity #godislove #athens #greece

Another peek into Pastor @adamericksen’s travels

Another peek into Pastor @adamericksen’s travels! 🗺 Visit the Acropolis with Adam!

#athens #athensgreece #acropolis #christianity #progressivechristianity

This week Pastor @adamericksen has been traveling!

This week Pastor @adamericksen has been traveling! ✈️ Join him here for a moment at the Holy Temple of St. George in Athens!

Answer: If Christians couldn't marry non-Christian

Answer: If Christians couldn't marry non-Christians, I wouldn't exist! I'm grateful my Christian mother and atheist father married.

But I've still wrestled with this verse, which reads: "Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness…"

This sounds like a warning against marrying or forming any kind of partnership outside of one's faith. But Paul wasn't talking about faith in terms of theological formulas that had yet to be written. He was talking about trusting that abundant life comes from following the path of love and service beyond boundaries. The belief that God's love for some must come at the expense of God's wrath against others crucified Jesus. Faith in Jesus means faith in universal, unconditional love.

What if we read Paul's words as: "Partner with those who don't believe life, wealth, or joy must come at another's expense. Partner not with those who wish to exclude or fight against others, but with those who seek the good of all."

Today, we might say, "What partnership can antiracism have with racism? Or affirmation with homophobia? What partnership can compassion have with dehumanization?"

Paul is warning those who follow Jesus not to fall in with those who persecute others, even as he himself once persecuted the church. Don't partner with those who hurt others. Love and serve everyone, but don't fall into crowds that hate or exploit or dehumanize.

Paul isn't saying "Don't partner with those whose faith fails sometimes" because that happens to all of us! We need to help each other when we stumble along the path of compassion. We just need to make sure we're not following or leading others down paths of hate.

Interfaith partnerships, friendships, and marriages are wonderful when these relationships help us explore depths of compassion, learning, and respect. A mismatch of faith has less to do with what we call God or even if we use the word "God" at all, and more to do with whether we put our trust in ways of exclusion or ways of compassion.

Lots of love,
Lindsey Paris-Lopez
Theologian in Residence

#progressivechristianity #toxicchristianity #toxictheology #christianity #godislove

Repost from Pastor @adamericksen: Jesus was woke.

Repost from Pastor @adamericksen:

Jesus was woke.

The prophets before him were woke.

Jesus wants you to be woke.

#christianity #godislove #progressivechristianity #progressivechristian #unlearnchristianity #toxictheology #toxicchristianity

What questions about God, faith, and religion do y

What questions about God, faith, and religion do you have? 🤔 Drop them in the comments below!

And be sure to tune into GodTalk on our Instagram Live, where Pastor @adamericksen and Theologian-In-Residence Lindsey Paris-Lopez tackle these questions!

#godislove #theology #religion #faithjourney #christianity #progressivechristianity #spirituality

Answer: That thought once disturbed me too, but I

Answer: That thought once disturbed me too, but I don't see it that way anymore.

I believe in universal redemption because I believe we are all children of Love. God is Love, and we are made in Love's image. Love eventually guides us into being our best and seeing the best in one another. When that happens, heaven will be manifest on earth.
To get to that point, though, we have to recognize and repent – turn around – from the ways we hurt each other. Recognizing we're loved helps us realize we're more than the worst we have been, helping us break free from the false haven of denial and live into our better selves, repairing damage when we can. Remorse and bearing fruit of repentance isn't painless, but Love gives us strength and courage to go through it into joy. Love comforts, heals, and restores even beyond death and destruction, and we follow Love into the Beloved Community.

For a serial killer, I think this would be a long, hard process, not at all a simple matter of a lip-service bedside confession. But when I think of all the damage done not just by serial killers, but by people who believe they are doing good (war, bigotry that masks evil as good by demonizing the victim, etc.), I'm grateful that we can all find our truest selves in Love, repent, and heal. That's the only way cycles of violence – hell on earth – can be broken and transformed.

Hell is human-made; we put ourselves and others through it with our fear, hate, violence, and greed. Heaven is Love-made, and Love welcomes us all as we live into love.

Most importantly, the faith that "saves" us is the faith Love (God) has in us, not the other way around. The Love that guides us is recognized by many names and no name at all. Without faith, we cannot help build or come into the Beloved Community, but as faith embraces us all, we need not worry. All will be well.

Lots of love,

Lindsey Paris-Lopez
Theologian-in-Residence

#christianity #progressivechristianity #theology #unlearning #unlearntorelearn #unlearnchristianity #godislove

I affirm your soul-searching. Soul-searches cataly

I affirm your soul-searching. Soul-searches catalyzed by compassion are gifts of the Spirit, even when they're difficult.

And you're right. God is Love. Love doesn't condemn anyone to hell.

It wasn't God's wrath that killed Jesus, but humanity's.

Jesus loved beyond boundaries, and boundaries make people feel safer. Jesus' boundless love -- to lepers and demoniacs, to those deemed sinners, to enemies -- challenged those whose sense of identity was over and against those deemed "other." Jesus also challenged religious and political corruption which exploited and impoverished the people. And in preaching the Kingdom of God, in which all are welcomed and valued, he directly challenged the Kingdom of Caesar and the logic of sacrifice which deems that for some to thrive, others must suffer; for some to live, others must die.

In a world where identity is formed against others and wealth is acquired through force and exploitation, universal love threatens the status quo. That's why Jesus was killed.

When Jesus died on the cross, he showed God's solidarity with the outcast and "criminal." He showed that when we harm people, especially in the name of God, we actually harm God. "Whatever you do to the least of these…"

Jesus shows us that the ways of violence lead not to safety or righteousness, but death. But in answering violence with forgiveness, Jesus shows us how to stop violence in its tracks. In the resurrection, Jesus shows that Love is not bound by death. Rather than asserting ourselves against each other, we can find our belonging, security, and identity in Love.

In Christ, God was reconciling the world to God's self. At-one-ment is not about saving us from a nonexistent hell of God's making. Rather, it's about freeing us from the hells we put ourselves and others through when we live by violence and exclusion. Jesus doesn't assuage God's wrath, but disarms ours with forgiveness, helping us to live "at one" with each other and God in Love.

Lots of love,
Lindsey Paris-LopezTheologian-in-Residence

#unlearnchristianity #christianity #progressivechristianity #unlearning #toxicchristianity #unlearnhell #unlearning

From Pastor @adamericksen: God created the world

From Pastor @adamericksen:

God created the world and called it good.

Like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Christians should passionately support efforts to help reduce the impact of human induced climate change to protect God's good earth and the creatures within it.

Climate change is causing disastrous effects, including increased fires, intense storms, and melting ice caps. These events often effect the most vulnerable among us.

Let us follow the science and the command to love our neighbors and work to end human induced climate change.

#climatechange #globalwarming #desmondtutu #quoteoftheday #qotd #progressivechristianity #godislove

God bless you in your new marriage. While the tea

God bless you in your new marriage.

While the teachings attributed to Jesus on divorce and remarriage strike me as difficult, here are 4 things I know for sure: God wants everyone to love and be loved completely and wholeheartedly.God wants to relieve and heal the suffering of everyone trapped in violence.

God forgives, and calls us to forgive, in order to relieve us from cycles of resentment and pain, not to trap us in them. Forgiveness does not mean anyone is required to stay in abusive relationships. When you are not valued or loved, shake the dust from your feet.Marriages of love, following divorce or otherwise, are blessings.

Jesus is speaking at a time when women were particularly vulnerable. Divorcing a woman could leave her destitute. Jesus wants us to understand that our responsibility to care for each other is built into us and doesn't disappear with a certificate of divorce.
But sometimes, compassion requires divorce and support for divorcees.

In the case of domestic violence, Jesus is abundantly clear. Just before the passage on divorce in Mark, he tells people to cut off their own limbs rather than harm someone else. Few people take those instructions literally, but the overall message for caring for the vulnerable and avoiding harm is unmistakeable. If the Church or anyone else tells someone suffering that they should continue to suffer, they contribute to suffering too. Then it's better for a millstone to be put around their necks.

Jesus uses extreme language to awaken us to the truth that when we hurt others, we're already hurting ourselves. There may not have been a scenario, at the time, in which divorce could be seen as the more compassionate path (making any discussion about remarriage moot). But we know those scenarios exist today.

Jesus guides us in creating a world where we love and care for each other. That requires refusing to take divorce lightly, but also understanding the need sometimes for divorce and the blessing of remarriage.

Lots of love,

Lindsey Paris-LopezTheologian-in-Residence

#marriage #divorce #theology #christianity #progressivechristianity #godislove #religion

Load More... Follow on Instagram