Religion in the City: Mythos

I received my undergraduate education at Concordia College, a conservative private school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Concordia was perfect for me because of the patient professors which took my opinionated scrutiny and challenged me to back up every liberal thought I thought I had in my head.

I attended three years of a very progressive seminary in Chicago which did not prepare me to work in churches half the way Concordia did. Concordia is a Missouri Synod Lutheran college which taught doctrines of faith based on inherency of scripture. Simply said, they view every story, every word and date as literal and factual.

I had bible commentary classes which forced me to memorize biblical dates, years and times for events. Memorizing numbers such as the length of King Solemn’s Bed and lineages of Israelite kings! But what made Concordia the perfect setting for me was the fact that every word or thought which I wanted to pose in class had to be accompanied by an author, theorist, philosopher or theologian who had held similar belief. My professors basically taught me to research and back up my opinions before I shared them.

My literalist bible classes taught me how to speak the language inherency, backing up my critics’ of an interpretation with other biblical stories or imagery. By my senior year, the dean, who had become a friend of mine– after spending countless hours– over the years, his office over class, out bursts — started sending new radical freshman students to class with me. The dean thought I could walk these students through what it took to survive some of the more theologically conservative classes that were mandated for every student to attend.

One of those new radical students was Bianca, a newly accepted transfer art student from Boston College. Bianca had transferred to Concordia with a full scholarship into the arts program. All that was stopping Bianca from having a full ride through college was two foundation bible classes. Sitting in that Old Testament class, Bianca was doing quite well, heading my advice, “write down your questions, it is okay to disagree, it is okay to question. Just keep a level head, memorize what they tell you to and be ready to spit back to them what you memorized!”

Then it happened. Bianca, listening to the opening Old Testament lecture on Genesis, raised her hand noting the two creation stories and the absence of dinosaurs in either of them. The professor did not miss a beat explaining to Bianca that the two stories should be blended together as two accounts of the same events using different senses for what author was seeing. The professor went on to explain that the myth about dinosaurs bones were simply –cow bones– that scientists had put together to undermine the truth of our gospel faith. As the room of nodding students agreed, I saw Bianca sitting next to me, not say a word, get up from her chair and leave the room and school. Hmmm funny thing, I never really saw Bianca again around campus…go figure?!?

I always think it is strange that the Myths that we religious people hold the tightest often seek to separate our beliefs rather than unite them. So many of my more fundamentalist friends always seem to be caught in a quandary between the truths they can spout out on Sunday morning and the sciences they believe in.

It is not that I think that the stories we pass on through the ages or the myths we carry are insignificant or untrue. I truly believe the stories we pass from generation to generation can shape and unite our communities and families, connecting them with common meaning and significance.

I simply feel the trap we in western religion fall into is that we believe that the truth we share has to be scientifically factual. One of my favorite books of all time, Black Elk Speaks, opens with a mythological statement about the Native American folklore. The speaker, Black Elk, begins his narrative by posing the explanation that “…whether it happened so or not I do not know; but if you think about it, you see that it is true.” Black Elk is making the point that the stories passed along throughout his tribe are meant to shape them as a community. The myths and visions give names and imagery around the hardships and ethics which depict the culture and heritage of their tribe.

When you think about it, is that not what the (Torah) first five books of the bible’s oral tradition imagery is really all about. The Torah shares stories from generation to generation about the truth of God’s love for creation. If our Synagogues and Churches shared with their congregation the myths that depict for them a connection between a loving creator and His/Her/Its covenant with that creation, then the truthful stories they share could build utility in themselves and their communities rather than setting up a separation between science and faith.

I do not mind that I had to memorize biblically literal myths and stories. Those stories are oral traditions shared from generation to generation. But I can also look at the scientific evolution of our world and species and see God’s loving hand in every ring a Dendrochronologist counts in the life of a tree. To understand the story of the Giving Tree does not necessitate me believing in a thinking or talking tree, any more than my faith in a loving creator necessitates me believing in two people (Adam & Eve) as the beginning all of mankind.

I will never know if Bianca ever got to hear the gospel myth about a creator that formed her, loves her and desires to hold all of who she is in His loving hands. But I have faith that just like Noah built a boat, Jacob climbed a ladder and the Tower of Babel fell to create language, if God wants to speak of His love for any of us, She will probably do it through the stories that shape us.