A Different Kind of Life

In this episode I welcome my friend Martha Johnson to the podcast to talk about her very different Christian faith upbringing.  Martha is a new friend who has generously shared herself with me over the past 6 months.  She is an amazing human with an amazing life story and in this episode she shares just a fraction of that amazing story - the story of growing up in liberal Christian spaces and what that looked like for her.  

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen today. The life of our soul is a journey with many twists and turns. This journey has times of discovery, growth, disruption, examination, perplexity, and harmony. Soul Sojourn is a podcast that plans to explore this journey of the soul; considering the different segments of the journey, the different stops we make along the way, and the divergent paths that we can take as unique people with distinctive life experiences. Soul Sojourn hopes to provide room for diverse expressions of faith and welcomes questions and doubts about the journey of the soul. It recognizes that so often there is mystery in life and faith, questions that have no answers, and deep levels of uncertainty and precarity that are present in our lives. I look forward to what is to come, what future stops we’ll take along the journey together. I’ll see you at the next stop.

To connect with me visit https://www.facebook.com/soulsojournpod/
https://www.instagram.com/soulsojournpod/ or https://twitter.com/soulsojournpod

Transcript

Episode 8 - Progressive Christianity

Intro - The life of our soul is a journey with many twists and turns.  This journey has times of discovery, growth, disruption, examination, perplexity, and harmony.  Soul Sojourn is a podcast that is exploring this journey of the soul;  considering the different segments of the journey, the different stops we make along the way, and the divergent paths that we can take as unique people with distinctive life experiences.  Soul Sojourn hopes to provide room for diverse expressions of faith and welcomes questions and doubts about the journey of the soul.  It recognizes that so often there is mystery in life and faith, questions that have no answers, and deep levels of uncertainty and precarity that are present in our lives.  

Welcome - Welcome to Soul Sojourn and I’m Jenn Pedersen. I’m so glad that you’ve joined us today for another episode of Soul Sojourn, another stop on our journey together. Today I am happy to welcome my dear new friend, Martha Johnson to the podcast.  Martha and I met about 6 months ago and she has become a wonderful friend and collaborator.  Martha has generously offered me support and input as I was starting the podcast for which I am very thankful. And I have been absolutely fascinated by her life story - which is quite different from mine.  Just one part of the difference that is fascinating to me is her religious background and upbringing and the types of church communities she has been a part of. And that will be the focus of our conversation today.  Martha and I can talk for hours without much of a pause, which I love, but we’ll try to steer this conversation away from our typical spider web dialogues. 

Jenn:  Martha, I’m hoping you will be a recurring guest - you have many interests and experiences.  But today we’re going to focus on what it has been like to be a part of progressive Chrisitan spaces. So to begin today I’d like you to share a bit of your own soul sojourn 

Martha:  Yes, I was baptized and raised in the church.  My father was a United Church of Christ pastor for much of his career and then added a Presbyterian twist when we were in rural North Dakota and he served a small Presbyterian congregation as part of his “circuit.” 

Both my parents were PK’s (preacher’s kids). They were also from educated families and that was a big source of pride.  Both my grandmothers had college degrees with majors in science.  We have the microscope from the 1920’s that one grandma used in class.  So, lots of education – and educated women.  Being in a pastor’s family means that you don’t have much money but you have education.  So, I was raised to be very proud of degrees and diplomas. But, I have to say, that leaves you juggling your position in society a bit – where do you belong?  Poor - yes? Highly educated - yes? 

My parents met as missionaries (both were teachers) in Beirut, Lebanon in the 1940’s.  We had stuff in the house from the “new east” -  rugs, instruments, bowls.  My mother often dragged out all her things to do Sunday School classes on life in Bible days – clothing, food, things like that.  She wanted to expand everyone’s ideas about the world. 

I was a teenager in the 1960’s and everything about our society and the news was quite fraught. I was confirmed and joined our church at about 13 as an adult member.  

My father saw to it that I knew about what the activist church was doing on issues like civil rights, women’s rights, poverty, and the environment (and this was before Earth Day and that consciousness!).  

He lobbied the National Council of Churches and got funding for a start-up organization that was focused on preserving the land in North Dakota from exploitation, poor environmental practices, and degradation.  It still exists and has spread to other states:  “Dakota Resources Council”.  

He also organized for some students to come and live on the reservation and develop church curriculum for kids that would reflect the lives of the Mandan and Arikara nations in these days – not in some distorted past.  

AND, he worked with the Job Corps in town – young, mostly African American kids who were shipped up to a terribly cold post in ND to learn new skills.  I have found letters he wrote to their parents saying he had met their son and he was doing well. 

So, that’s what I thought a pastor did.  My uncles did similar things. 

My mother held equally strong liberal views but she left him to those activities.  She was the artist and musician, as I said,  and, of course, more involved in raising us.  If I learned about the emotions of religion, it was from her.  But it was through music.  When she directed the choir she had a serenity about her that we NEVER saw elsewhere.

Jenn:   So, yours was a progressive home.  You talk about being surprised and curious about my stories of my evangelical upbringing, and progressive attitudes seem to have been engrained in you as part of who you are.  Is that a fair description?

• Progressive vs. liberal
  • We didn't say "progressive" but yes, it was a "liberal" home.
  • That meant being politically Democratic. It wasn’t explained – and  I didn't view it – as a description of my church or faith.
  • Being liberal meant being for education, civil rights, and social services. It had a tinge of anti-business.  If you wanted to be all about money, you were a Republican.
  • There was a church culture in our extended family – all the pastors (eight by one count).  That was about being liberal but in a church context.  
    • That was about activism and giving witness to those who had no voice
    • It was also sort of a reaction to what my father called “Bad Theology” For example, one of my grandfathers took his family to Appalachia as part of the mission board during the Depression - of all times.  He and my grandma built Sunday Schools there.  He saw himself as liberal in that context:  he was providing an alternative to the folks that handled snakes.
    • My other grandfather was a missionary to Japan in the 1920's and then turned his back on the idea of converting people. Never went back.
    • So, there was a thread that “liberal” was about pushing back on conservative views. 

JENN:  What did this mean for you growing up?

• As I’ve said, the liberal church I was raised in was about education and social issues.  In fact, the two collided a lot with me.  
  • Dad took me to hear Ceasar Chavez testify before a Senate Committee holding hearings in California.  Things like that led me to a career that was in part in government where I was keen on making a difference. 
  • When we had a health unit in 7th grade about alcoholism; he took me to an AA meeting so I could see what it was like. The messages I took from that were that I wasn’t to be shielded; I was invited to learn; I was treated with respect as if I was an adult. There are a lot of gender messages in that sort of thing, too. My dad was right beside me. 
  • But, my dad’s activism was also costly for our family.  One of his churches pushed him out because he was too much an activist in the mid 1960’s.  He, frankly, didn’t manage the fall-out of his prophetic style.  For example, there were big fruit growers who were members of our church who, for obvious reasons, weren’t keen on hearing about oppression of farm workers. 

JENN:  Did you develop liberal beliefs as a result of all this? 

• I have one story that sort of answers that for me. 
  • I told my Dad as a kid that I didn't believe anything.  Not God or any of the other stuff.
  •  He said, "Well, let me ask you one thing.  Do you believe any baby that is born deserves the same opportunity as any other baby?"
  • "OF COURSE," I said. "Duh".
  • His response:  "Well, that is enough to believe in. That shapes how you see the world. "
• There were, however, many things that did NOT happen which reflect the “liberal” world I grew up in. 
  • There was absolutely  no "sin" talk.
  • I think we did have a strong sense of right and wrong but we were never told we were sinful. We were “children of God.”
  • "Cost and joys of discipleship" was the language that was in our creed and was almost a casual comment in the home. We had responsibilities. 
  • And, I got a lot of pressure about responsibility -- especially as the first child.  My father once said that “the church needed me.” But, I never heard about it being evil if I turned my back on the church.
  • Take notice that this was about “The Church” – the institution, the community, the collective, the PEOPLE of God. 
  • We heard absolutely nothing at all about a personal relationship with Jesus, being saved, calvary, and a lot of the evangelical language I am learning about today.  I simply do not know it.  Can’t even give examples. etc. I had one friend in my 30’s who talked about her relationship with Jesus and I thought that was just plain weird.
  • There is one nuance to this that I want to add. As I said, one part of the family had been missionaries to Japan; we also had ties/experience in China. The individualistic notions of America - in my family’s immigrant/arrival story here – was tempered with the Asian notions of the collective.  
    • So, there’s a notion that you go to church to pray together; to do things collectively.  If you want to have a personal time with Jesus that would be something to do on your own - in contemplation, prayer at home, nature enjoyment, etc. 
    • But, at church, we are together.  We pray corporately, if you will.  We listened to the Scriptures together. We sing together. Yes, we attend to individuals in need and in joy.  But, we are moving as a flock.  Why sit together on Sunday and work your personal relationship of sin and redemption? IInstead, it’s a time to be heartened by each other and find the strength and wonder of community.  The Tribe of Israel. 
• ·      The Role of Music/ART
  • Church was about music as much as theology:  the Requiems, the anthems, the hymns.  Mom was a choir director and when she directed she moved into a serenity that we NEVER saw anywhere else.
  •  Dad sang as well - beautifully.  Music would make him weep.  He only sang, however, in choirs.
  • So, the activism was coupled with a community and with artistry and those things together were the magic and continue to be my bond with a church. 

Jenn:  Martha - thank you so much for joining me today and sharing your story - a story of a faith journey of a very different kind than the one I’ve been on - but one that I find beautiful and lifegiving.  I’m so thankful for you and your friendship - you truly came into my life at the perfect time.  Thanks for just being who you are and sharing yourself so generously with me and so many others in your life.

And thank you listeners for joining us today.  I hope that you were encouraged to think about some things in a different way and expand your own perspective just a bit. I hope you’ll come back again next week on Soul Sojourn as we continue to explore the journey of soul. I look forward to what is to come, what stops we’ll take along the journey together.  I’ll see you at the next stop.