Lucy- A Sad Story of Loss

I recently heard the story of Lucy on NPR.  The story broke my heart so be warned the story that follows is a sad one.  Lucy the chimp (1964-1987) was a raised by Maurice K. Temerline, Ph.D., a psychotherapist and professor at the University of Oklahoma and his wife Jane.    Lucy was raised as a human.  She was taught to eat like a human, look through magazines, and live as a human.  She was able to learn sign language and even was caught lying at one point!  She learned 140 signs.  She became popular and found in magazines and gained some popularity.  Her desire to be human was strong.  At one point they decided to mate her with a male chimp but she was having no part of that.  The doctor treated her as his child and their story is amazing.

At the age of 12 she like many chimps raised in this way became violent and was kept in a cage.  In time they had to do something with her and this is where the story gets really sad.  They take her to a chimpanzee rehabilitation center in Gambia with a graduate student, Janis Carter.  Lucy lived with other chimps and was very upset.  She didn’t want to live in this very wild type island.  She was being forced to be in nature and she was used to living as a human.   Lucy and the chimps there needed help to adjust and Janis stayed for years and spent all of her time trying to help them to adjust.  Listening to all this dedicated woman did was amazing.

Lucy just never got it. She signed that she was “Hurt” and she wanted to be with humans.  She had no desire to be wild.  In time Janis had to leave her.  She stayed away for a year and visited again.  Lucy was confused when she came back and the photo below shows their final hug goodbye.  When Janis came back she found Lucy’s skeleton missing head, hands and feet indicating that perhaps poachers killed her.  She would have approached them and been happy and they would have taken advantage of her and killed her.

Look at the photo at the bottom of this blog.  It breaks your heart.  I am amazed at how ‘human’ like Lucy became and yet at the same time the animal was within her and she was confused and torn.  She couldn’t live in both worlds and yet she was drawn to both.  Thinking about her struggle and longing for love and companionship and knowing that her human parents had simply left her there and then finally her friend left too.  It just breaks your heart.

What’s this got to do with a theological blog?  Perhaps nothing.  Perhaps everything.  It’s just moving.  Lessons that what we do impact others and the power of loneliness and despair abound in this story.  What does it mean to be human?   How do we relate to God’s other creatures?  And the fact that loneliness is a terrible enemy.  I see this photo and I see a creature in pain.  If only she could have remained with her real chimp family and not been taken by force (as she was done).  This created a chain of events that led to her demise.  And yet I’m also amazed at how intelligent she was and how she actually could communicate!  Amazing.  So look at this photo and ponder it a bit.  You should be moved.  I was.

Do We Need the Book of Revelation?

The book of Revelation is a wild and confusing read.  Throughout history it has led to many crazy ideas.   Martin Luther didn’t care for it and went from seeing it as not being worthy to being Scripture to later changing his mind.  John Calvin didn’t like it.  One agnostic in the 1800s called it “The insanest of all books.”  Thomas Jefferson omitted it from his Bible.

How to read Revelation has never been universal.  Many camps have exited to whether the book is past or future or a bit of both.  The rich symbolism in the book has led to many diverse interpretations.  Dispensationalism was born in the 1800s (under some rather strange origins) and this  would evolve into the current “Left Behind” book series craze.  Folks holding that view see the book to be addressing events yet to happen and have developed a detailed futuristic theology.  Many Christians have held to the views that this book is mainly about the Christians of the first century surviving under Rome.  And folks like the authors of “Left Behind” want to see it in current politics.

So what’s a believer to do?  Do we even need this book?

I admit I do not hold a “Left Behind” view.  I’ve written on this topic in my blog and you can read about them in my archives.  I don’t want to rehash my old arguments on that.  But I do wonder- what good does this book do?  Would we be better off if we just ignored it or paid little attention too it?

I have to say that I think we need the book of Revelation and would miss this book if we did ignore it.  There are many reasons why I love this book (despite the many wild interpretations that have led to strange theology).

1. I do believe it is holy scripture.  We may disagree on interpretation but I would agree that it is holy scripture so we obviously need this for our faith and practice.

2.  It’s beautiful.  The imagery and writing in this book is ‘out there’ but beautiful.   The passage of praise are breath taking.  The praise is powerful.  Rev. 21 is some amazing writing.

3.  It’s basic message- not matter your interpretation is that God will over come evil.  This book is not a scary book but a hope filled book.  No matter what you do with it the message is that God wins the day and that there is victory!

4.  It’s a book of comfort.  Revelation is often read at funerals and the language of God redeeming all things is awesome.   The language of a holy city, crystal sea, and so on is very comforting (no matter how literal or symbolic you go with it).

5.  It’s a book of challenge.  Read the 7 churches and the messages they received.  Wow!

And so we do need this book.  It is a book that will never bring uniformity of understanding but it is a book that is part of our faith and we would be much poorer without it.

Blessings,

Derik

Do we Need the Apostle Paul?

The Apostle Paul has had his share of ups and downs. In his own life he went through persecution, ship wreck, arrest, and eventual death.  The churches he worked with sometimes loved him and other times drove him crazy.  He had to defend his reputation at several points.

And yet Paul wrote much of or inspired much of the letters of the NT. Traditionally he is credited to 13 letters.  Many scholars today question that he may not have written all 13 credited to him but even if he didn’t many believe he is the inspiration behind any of those letters that are perhaps written by disciples/students of his.  Paul helped launch the church and bridge the gap to the Gentile world.  His theological writings have shaped Christianity.  Many things we talk about and debate come from Paul.

Some would see Paul has repressive. He talks about slaves obeying their masters and some passages are not very liberating to women.  Paul gets some bad press by many.  Some folks seem to distance themselves from Paul and want to focus on the gospels and Jesus.  Is this necessary?  Has Paul received a bad rap?  Was he an angry fundamentalist?

Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan believe Paul was very progressive and the letters they believe he wrote point to this. They believe that some of the later letters were not written by him and represent a movement toward a more conservative/legalistic bent as the church moved into history.  In their book “The First Paul” they see “Three Pauls.”  The first would be the actual Paul and he would be represented by those letters universally accepted by scholars to be Paul’s (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, Philipians, and Philemon).  This “First” Paul is a “radical” Paul and they believe is progressive.  The “second” Paul are those that many think he personally didn’t write (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus).  They believe this Paul is a “reactionary” one and these letters are countering the radical Paul.  The “Third” group would be those that these two authors believe are strongly not his (Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians).   This author would be the “conservative” Paul and takes a more strict view of issues.

Other scholars would not agree with Borg and Crossan. Some would hold to Paul personally writing all 13.  Some might think he didn’t (due to the style in Greek and other issues) but would not quite see different views held in those letters and see more uniformity in thinking.

If you accept Borg and Crossan you have your answer.  Paul was a revolutionary guy who wanted to reach Gentiles and help women and was a progressive.  The church had to tone it down and therefore some stricter material found its way into the later texts.

What if you don’t agree with Borg? Many do not agree with different views in these letters and believe the letters are not at odds.  Some hold to Paul has the author and some don’t but many would simply disagree with this Borg view.

For me I would say that the traditional Paul needs a break too. The non-traditional Borg view aside let’s defend Paul the man if all these letters represent him.

1.  Context! When someone pulls a verse out of context you can say just about anything.  But if we look at each letter and realize that they are letters and that means there is an author, audience, and reason for writing.  We also realize that we don’t know all the details.  Some letters encourage women to speak and lead and others to be quiet.  So context needs to be considered!  These are different letters written to different churches in different contexts.  And this means that in one church an issue existed that didn’t in others!  Perhaps in one church a particular group of women were trouble making (Corinth) and Paul was speaking to those women and not telling all women in all time to be quiet!!!!!  Reading Romans it is clear that women were deacons, leaders, and co-workers with Paul.

2.  Don’t judge a 1st century man by 21st century realities. Paul could not be a man of the 21st century.  He was a man of his time.  But in his time he was way ahead of his time.  He treated women better than others in his day.  He may not have said, “Set the slaves free” but how he addressed slavery was revolutionary.  We know for example that George Washington had slaves yet for his time he was ahead of his time.  And just because Paul didn’t say let them go doesn’t mean that he didn’t want them free.  Paul thought history was about over and perhaps this was not a central issue.  But the way he treated slaves was very freeing.

3.  Take the Bible together.  Again we can’t just take one verse.  We have to read the Bible as a whole and see the work of God at work in the entire 66 books.  Paul is part of the story but not the entire story.

Imagine a world without Paul!  We would be in trouble.  Paul has given us so much to help us as a church today to be who God has called us to be.  He was inspired by God’s Spirit.  Paul was a good and strong follower of Christ.  Paul himself was not sinless but God used him in amazing ways.  He was not a caveman beating his chest but a man who experienced God and brought us more to the story then we would have without him.  He was ahead of his time and he was part of God’s story.  So need Paul?  You bet!!!

Blessings,
Derik