This week I speak with Sir Lloyd Geering, New Zealand theologian and pioneering Christian post-theist. In 1967, Geering was charged with heresy by the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand. He successfully withstood this challenge and has continued writing and speaking about religion and holy texts as a human constructions and words like “God” and “faith” as referents of human self-understanding and growth. He is the author of many books and articles, a few of which can be found in the links below.

“The secret of attraction is to love yourself. Attractive people judge neither themselves nor others. They are open to gestures of love. They think about love, and express their love in every action. They know that love is not a mere sentiment, but the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe.”

Shortly after Reza Aslan and Hasan Minhaj’s, “An Open Letter to American Muslims,” was first published on RD this past Tuesday, it became clear that it had launched a critical discussion across the United States.

Beyond the rain the sun,

Beyond the tears the fun,

Within the silence the One.

For me and for the many who no longer hold those stories as sacred, the cost is simply too high. The potential for posthumous reward or damnation has too often drained life of its beauty, wealth, diversity, and joy and the norms of civil society that are reinforced are often not in the best interests of humanity or, at least, significant swaths of it. So we need a way forward.

May the fire in us nurture the Earth and not consume its life.

May the fire in us consume our greed and save this sacred Earth.

Holy is my birth and sacred is my mother.

Shalom, Shalom, Shalom, Shalom.

Give me warmth in my loving,
Strength through forgiving,
Peace in my being,
Today and all my life.

Leader: Creator God to you we pray; –
All: Help us hear your children’s cry.
Leader: Most joyful God to you we pray; ‑
All: Help us share your children’s joy.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

We give thanks for the plants,
Give thanks for the creatures
Whose flesh supplies this meal.

In silence now we join to pray
Listening to the God within.
May rich discernment shape our prayers
As we learn from cosmic laws.

To You, O God, we offer
Our life force and its power,
Your liveliness within us,
Our spirit’s fragrant flow’r.

I am dancer, I am free,

I am see-er and I see,

I am mystery, I am me.

We eat and drink these fruits of earth that love may grow

between us all, between us all.

God the One forever making
All the old into the new,
Source of all creative passion
Found in each emerging view,

From the womb of Mother Earth
We are brought by God to birth
With creative tenderness
Through God’s loving life caress.