Quotes from Kissing Fish: Wolsey, Roger (2011-05-20).
It became obvious that a generation of young people who feel drawn to Jesus and his teachings,
are really turned off by, or feel conflicted about being associated with, churches and Christianity.

Calling ourselves “followers of The Way of Jesus” instead of “Christians”
helps keep the focus on what Jesus intended
—off Him and more on the Way and on God,
whom he invited people to experience
and to follow.

The way that the term “Christian” is typically used today
tends to take the focus away from the way of Jesus
and instead places it on the person of Jesus,
which leads to making an idol out of him.

There are two basic forms of Christianity,though each has multiple shades within

Conservative Christianity focuses on the religion about Jesus;
on agreeing with certain intellectual truth claims;
“people are sinners who aren’t right with God”
“Jesus is their personal Lord and savior;”
It asserts that believing these things is the route to eternal life in heaven.

Conservative Christianity is often wary about contemporary science.
Instead it finds solace in established, definable boundaries, including
who God is;
who Jesus is;
the inerrant Bible;
the doctrines of the church,
fixed stances on morality.
Conservative Christianity emphasizes praising God through Jesus and “evangelism”.

Progressive Christianity follows the countercultural teachings and example of Jesus.
Focuses less on the religion about Jesus than the teaching of Jesus,
his actual beliefs,
his teachings,
his practices and lifestyle.

Progressive Christianity views “conversion”
as helping people shift away from the ways of the world
and instead to follow Jesus’ alternative way of living.
Rather than affirming what is right, it points out a path to follow.

Conservative Christianity is identified by an approach to the faith
that seeks to be “right” and to make others comply;
to adhere to firm and fixed belief statements, dogmas, and doctrines.
Fundamentalism takes this to an extreme by declaring five “essential fundamentals of the faith”:
1. The verbal inerrancy of Scripture (there are no mistakes or false statements)
2. The divinity of Jesus Christ (that Jesus is God)
3. The virgin birth of Jesus ( Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born)
4. Salvation through the substitutionary atonement of Jesus’ death.
5. The physical resurrection and eventual bodily return of Jesus

God remains as a Trinity (F,S &HS) in the author's mind,
though he also affirms the Maternal side of God,
previously worshipped as Asherah (consort of El)
and now as Mary, mother of Jesus -
and thus again consort of God.
(It is getting confused.)

CONSERVATIVE THEOLOGY

About 6,000 years ago, from his home in up in heaven,
God created the world and it was good.
Then, just a few days later, the first humans, Adam and Eve (but mostly Eve),
screwed everything up when they ate from the forbidden fruit in that idyllic garden.
Ever since then, people have been wretched sinners who do horrible things.

God created a special race of people called the Jews.
The Jews worshipped Him—but they didn’t really understand Him
and they constantly messed up their covenantal relationship with Him.
About 2,000 years ago, things became so bad that, according to His Divine plan,
God provided a way to help people escape the consequences of their actions.
That way was by Him coming down to earth in the form of Jesus.
This Jesus was born of an actual virgin, (who was possibly immaculately conceived herself)
—and hence, he was untainted by “the genetic birth defect” of human sinfulness.
Jesus grew up, was baptized by His prophetic cousin John,
went out to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil,
resisted the temptations, and gathered a band of disciples and followers.

He taught them about God and God’s Kingdom.
However, His true and primary purpose was to die for people’s sins,
so God (according to God’s plan) had Him killed by the human rulers.
He was nailed to a cross, His blood was shed, and He died
—thus saving all of those who believe in this version of the story.

To sweeten things for Jesus’ grieving followers,
and to help people know that provision of salvation is what took place,
God resurrected Jesus from the dead to show us that death (the “wages of sin”)
and Satan had been defeated and that God’s power is greater than human sin.
We therefore have hope for whatever we may face in life.
We know our sins have been forgiven by what Jesus did.
He died for us as a proxy or substitute for us
so the rest of us wouldn’t have to get what we deserve.
A “just God” requires retributive justice and punishment.
If Jesus hadn’t been killed, we’d all go to hell after we die
and/or after the Second Coming of Jesus.

Now this traditional and popular version of Christianity
has indeed given meaning, life, hope, motivation, inspiration,
and encouragement to millions of people over the years.
Part of the selling point for this story is that it supposedly fulfills
the prophesies about the Messiah that are found in the Hebrew Scriptures
The author of the book of Matthew appears to have had these prophesies in mind,
and structured his story to mirror the prophesies in the tales of Jesus.
A major part of the author’s agenda, it seems, was to help persuade fellow Jews
that Jesus met the criteria for being the Messiah by through the Hebrew Scriptures.

Perhaps the reason this effort was so intentional and necessary
was because Jesus didn’t meet the commonly held expectations about the Messiah
—that he would be a powerful military leader who would overthrow the worldly powers,
and so kick the oppressive Roman “heathens” out of Israel,to reestablish a the Kingdom of Israel.
However, that form of “apologetics” (defending the faith and explaining it to others)
no longer works well in this new day and age.

In the late 1900s, the threat of Modernist (liberal rationalist) approaches to the Bible,
generated a Fundamentalist approach which insisted on a literal understanding
of the Bible and of God, rejecting modern discoveries.
The fundamentalist approach of conservative Christian evangelism
and apologetics wrongly assumes that people grant authority to the Bible
and that if they do read it, they do so in a literal manner.
This conservative approach also wrongly assumes
that the “substitutionary atonement” model of the atoning work of Jesus
is the only valid, right, and true approach.

Both Liberal and Fundamental Christians try to prove their opinions
using a logical approach, which doesn't fit with post-modern man.
Postmodernists who accept Jesus as their savior
do so with an intentional choice to align themselves with Jesus and his ways
rather than because they believe x, y, and z (doctrine and beliefs) about Jesus.
They do it because they love what he stood for.

Jesus introduced what has become known as the “Way of the Cross.”
It is the way of living that rejects the status quo and the dominion of worldly powers.
It may lead to getting executed but it’s so much better than living a dominated, conventional life.

Jesus proved that it is possible for others to live in this way.
It is not the specific means of Jesus’ death that matters.
He could have been nailed to a cross, or strapped down to receive a lethal injection.
What matters is that he led a life that challenged and subverted the dominant worldly powers
The ones competing with God executed him by whatever means they chose,
and God redeemed that hateful, humiliating tragedy by resurrecting Jesus,
to show us that nothing can separate us from God’s love.

The good news of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus isn’t a dogmatic teaching.
It’s a call to live a new life in utter Communion with God.
It calls for our repenting from all that binds us and holds us back
from the fullness of who we can be as individuals and as a people.
It promises that the Holy Spirit will help us as we seek to live this new “Kingdom-living” way.
The kerygma is an appeal for us to give up our former self-understandings,
and to accept ourselves as lovingly accepted, fully worthy, children of God.
The resurrection is the disclosure of God’s power over the powers of sin,
the powers of oppression and injustice, and our fear of death.
It is the basis for our confidence in the possibility of a life
free from the dominion of these powers.

Yet there are freedoms beyond these ideas,
Concepts which discard this religious patina of Godliness,
bounded by the primitive imaginings of ancient writers.
There are depths into which the the author of Kissing Fish
has not yet dared to lead us.

The Evangelicals require others to think the way that they do.
Much effort is put into such persuasion.
Such a need comes from a place of insecurity and anxiety, not faith.

GOSPEL OF WEALTH
Other churches that operates under the guise of Christianity are:
the “gospel of wealth and prosperity”
and “churches of positive thinking.”
These have a large presence on television,
but these are not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

JESUS STORY
The way that Jesus taught rejected the powers that be,
any powers or principalities that dare to usurp God’s power in God’s world!
Those false powers were the ones who created systems
that put all of the property and farms into the hands of a few.
They oppressed the masses by turning them into tenant farmers
who ended up beholden to debt collectors.
They created a system where women had no voice or legal standing,
but were instead treated as the property of men;
and where humans were enslaved to other humans.
They justified oppressing and exploiting the poor,
and forcing young people to fight in wars of expansion.
They said worldly leaders and worldly powers are god instead of God .

The way of Jesus was a non-violent way. He didn’t fight fire with fire.
He didn’t use the world’s ways against the world.
He simply said that the worldly powers are impotent. They have no power.
The real power is with God and in the Kingdom of God!
And then Jesus demonstrated that power
by reaching out to the people who society had rejected.
He told people to repent.
He told them to change their way of thinking and living so that they could break free
from ways that collaborated with the empire so that they could start living freely
and abundantly in deep community and communion with one another.
He taught them to share all that they had and turn away from the domination system.

And then, the “empire struck back.”
The domination system had him arrested, beaten, and executed.
End of story?

The traditional view is of physical resurection!
God amazingly and graciously resurrected Jesus back to life!
Traditionally, and as eventually reported in the Gospel stories,
this is seen as a physical resurrection
A man who died had been raised from the dead!
The tale has been taken and embellished
and become central to the traditions of Christianity.

Yet truth may lie in a more realistic, more practical, description.
Maybe it was the concepts of Jesus that did not die, that lived on, and lives on.
Those disciples on the road were paramount witnesses to the “risen Lord”,
but did not recognise a physical presence only the teachings
and the behaviour of the one who walked with them.
The women at the tomb, in Luke's account, were merely made to realise
that the heart of their movement was in Gallilee, not in a graveyard.

Of course such a viewpoint undermines much of traditional doctrine,
has been attacked by all in the evangelical arena,
but may, even so, be more realistic
than the doctrine of the churches,
and so, perhaps,more truth-filled.