{"id":311,"date":"2010-12-06T22:20:32","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T22:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flirtingwithfaith\/2010\/12\/coming-out-of-the-christian-closet-guest-post-by-author-becky-garrison.html"},"modified":"2010-12-06T22:20:32","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T22:20:32","slug":"coming-out-of-the-christian-closet-guest-post-by-author-becky-garrison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2010\/12\/coming-out-of-the-christian-closet-guest-post-by-author-becky-garrison.html","title":{"rendered":"Coming out of the Christian Closet: Guest Post by Author Becky Garrison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"duck.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/81\/import\/duck.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"240\" class=\"mt-image-none\" \/><\/span><font>GRAPHIC: <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/asbojesus.wordpress.com\/2010\/09\/29\/934\/\"><span style=\"color:windowtext;text-decoration:none\"><font>http:\/\/asbojesus.wordpress.com\/2010\/09\/29\/934\/<\/font><\/span><\/a><font><br \/>\n\u00a9Jon Birch<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 16px\"><b>Coming out of the Christian Closet<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 0.75em;margin-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;font-size: 1em;font-weight: normal\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 24px\">By Becky Garrison<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:18.0pt\"><span style=\"font-family:Georgia\">As part of my ongoing pilgrimage to chat up the<br \/>\nthemes I raise in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Jesus-Died-This-Satirists-Search\/dp\/0310292891\">my book Jesus Died for This?<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Georgia\">, I&#8217;ve begun to connect with an increasing number<br \/>\nof folks who seem to be searching for a connection outside of themselves though<br \/>\nthey often wouldn&#8217;t call themselves emergent, misisonal, organic, holy hipster,<br \/>\nor even Christian. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:18.0pt\"><span style=\"font-family:Georgia\"><span>&nbsp;<\/span>Thanks<br \/>\nto my conversations with Karen Ward (www.episcopalvillage.org), Kurt Neilson (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.seekhere.org\/\"><span style=\"font-family:Georgia;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none\">www.seekhere.org<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family:Georgia\">) and other like-minded souls, I&#8217;ve been exploring<br \/>\nmy connection to Celtic Christianity and Anglicanism. On his blog, <a href=\"http:\/\/anamchara.com\/2010\/11\/26\/of-atheists-and-apophatics\">The Website<br \/>\nof the Unknowing<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-family:Georgia\">, Carl McColman reflects how I have begun to<br \/>\ndescribe myself as an <span style=\"color:#333333\">&#8216;Apophatic Anglican&#8217;. The<br \/>\nfollowing excerpt from that piece helps to explain what I mean by this:<\/span><span>&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\">\n<p class=\"Quotations\" style=\"margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:18.0pt\"><i><span style=\"font-family:Georgia\">&#8220;During a <\/span><\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.journeyifc.com\/modx\/is_religion_event.html\"><span style=\"font-family:Georgia;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none\">panel discussion at Journey Imperfect Faith Community<\/span><\/a><i><span style=\"font-family:Georgia\"> <\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-family:Georgia\">, a<br \/>\nnumber of us were asked to explore the faith label we use to classify ourselves.<br \/>\nI said I was an Apophatic Anglican, which I described as follows:&nbsp;&#8220;The more I continue to enter the cloud of the unknowing, the more I realize<br \/>\njust much I cannot know a God that is outside the time\/space continuum But<br \/>\nsomething happens when two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus.<br \/>\nAnd the Anglican part is because I enter into the mysteries through the<br \/>\nAnglican ritual. And Anglicanism is one of those traditions, where I can<br \/>\nactually leave my brain intact. I don&#8217;t have to park my brain at the door when<br \/>\nI come in to partake of the mysteries. I was asked to further describe<br \/>\n&#8220;apophatic&#8221; as the tradition of negative theology by which you define God by<br \/>\nwhat you do not know. (And BTW-and it&#8217;s not apathetic but apophatic. \ud83d\ude42 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"Quotations\" style=\"margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:18.0pt\"><i><span style=\"font-family:Georgia\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"Quotations\" style=\"margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:18.0pt\"><i><span style=\"font-family:Georgia\"><br \/>\n&#8220;The more I continue to enter the cloud of the unknowing, the more I realize<br \/>\njust much I cannot know a God that is outside the time\/space continuum But<br \/>\nsomething happens when two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus.<br \/>\nAnd the Anglican part is because I enter into the mysteries through the<br \/>\nAnglican ritual. And Anglicanism is one of those traditions, where I can<br \/>\nactually leave my brain intact. I don&#8217;t have to park my brain at the door when<br \/>\nI come in to partake of the mysteries. I was asked to further describe<br \/>\n&#8220;apophatic&#8221; as the tradition of negative theology by which you define God by<br \/>\nwhat you do not know. (And BTW-and it&#8217;s not apathetic but apophatic. \ud83d\ude42 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"cloud-of-unknowing.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/81\/import\/cloud-of-unknowing.jpg\" width=\"638\" height=\"461\" class=\"mt-image-none\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">GRAPHIC: <span style=\"color:windowtext;text-decoration:none\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nakedpastor.com\/2008\/11\/13\/cartoon-inclement-weather\/\">http:\/\/www.nakedpastor.com\/2008\/11\/13\/cartoon-inclement-weather\/<\/a>&nbsp;<\/span>\u00a9Naked Pastor<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Quotations\" style=\"margin-top:0in;margin-right:28.35pt;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:18.0pt\"><i><span style=\"font-family:Georgia\">So what do you think? &#8220;What does<br \/>\nit mean to live out a faith where we live out the teachings of Christ while<br \/>\nwalking in the cloud of the unknowing?&#8221;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GRAPHIC: http:\/\/asbojesus.wordpress.com\/2010\/09\/29\/934\/ \u00a9Jon Birch Coming out of the Christian Closet By Becky Garrison As part of my ongoing pilgrimage to chat up the themes I raise in my book Jesus Died for This?, I&#8217;ve begun to connect with an increasing number of folks who seem to be searching for a connection outside of themselves though&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-growth"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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