Faith Works 8-1-2025
Jeff Gill
Theological narcissism and other human errors in the church
___
Last month I made a pilgrimage to Memphis, where I encountered a variety of experiences, from yes, Graceland on the southern edge of the city (saw it, didn't take the tour), and the Lorraine Motel just south of downtown, whose story requires a space all its own, but it was a moving experience in its own right.
But I was there for a church gathering of my religious tradition, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). They aren't every year, I ain't getting any younger, and I had an assortment of reasons for wanting to attend, even if in part. I got there late, but made the most of the time I had.
You need to be open to the Holy Spirit in events like this, because with thousands present and hundreds of opportunities in any given day, there's the official schedule and there's what you do with it.
However, I went to a keynote almost against my better judgment, and was glad I did so. Sometimes those formal, official opportunities to learn are so over-prepared, so forced and managed, they become much less than they could be. When Dr. Lee H. Butler, Jr. spoke, it was all I could have hoped for; in some ways, that half hour or so might have been sufficient reason for all my time and expense involved in getting to Memphis, to hear that sermon-slash-lecture.
Dr. Butler is now President of Iliff School of Theology; that's a United Methodist theological school, where he is an American Baptist ordained clergyperson. My previous awareness of him was as Vice-President and Academic Dean for Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma; we overlapped one year as I began teaching for them in their online certificate program, but he left for Iliff in 2023 before I could visit the campus in person (which I still haven't done!).
Plus before Phillips, he taught at Chicago Theological Seminary, which is a seminary affiliated with the United Church of Christ (UCC), a tradition with which my own faith story is deeply entwined. Dr. Butler is a very ecumenical Christian teacher, with special emphasis on the traditions I'm closest to.
He opened with an observation that at least in part had occurred to most of us. I drove up to the convention center dimly aware of, but still startled to see in person, a giant oddly illuminated pyramid across the street. It is apparently two-thirds the size of the Great Pyramid in Giza, a nod to the Egyptian roots of the name Memphis, and now hosts a Bass Pro Shop megastore inside.
Dr. Butler turned to the deeper roots of why a Memphis was here in Tennessee, and the Mississippi River flowing past, known more often in earlier days as "the American Nile." And he began to unpack in detail the history of the American Nile, the image of empire in monumental form, the story of the Deep South which opens downstream in the Delta region, and of course about slavery, and the imperfect end of the era of slavery into the reality of a century of lynchings and terror and injustice, still hanging in the humid air of the river valley, weighed down by the heat of the sun and depth of the nighttime.
All of which he turned, slowly, steadily, into a calm, dispassionate analysis of theological narcissism, and how we struggle in every generation to turn our eyes toward God, even as we have a tendency to make everything about ourselves, our needs, our wants. And he broke it down into some very basic, simple problems.
I hope you can return next week and allow me to share them with you.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's been ecumenical more often than not himself. Tell him how you've learned about your faith while on the road at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads or Bluesky.
Jeff Gill
Theological narcissism and other human errors in the church
___
Last month I made a pilgrimage to Memphis, where I encountered a variety of experiences, from yes, Graceland on the southern edge of the city (saw it, didn't take the tour), and the Lorraine Motel just south of downtown, whose story requires a space all its own, but it was a moving experience in its own right.
But I was there for a church gathering of my religious tradition, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). They aren't every year, I ain't getting any younger, and I had an assortment of reasons for wanting to attend, even if in part. I got there late, but made the most of the time I had.
You need to be open to the Holy Spirit in events like this, because with thousands present and hundreds of opportunities in any given day, there's the official schedule and there's what you do with it.
However, I went to a keynote almost against my better judgment, and was glad I did so. Sometimes those formal, official opportunities to learn are so over-prepared, so forced and managed, they become much less than they could be. When Dr. Lee H. Butler, Jr. spoke, it was all I could have hoped for; in some ways, that half hour or so might have been sufficient reason for all my time and expense involved in getting to Memphis, to hear that sermon-slash-lecture.
Dr. Butler is now President of Iliff School of Theology; that's a United Methodist theological school, where he is an American Baptist ordained clergyperson. My previous awareness of him was as Vice-President and Academic Dean for Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma; we overlapped one year as I began teaching for them in their online certificate program, but he left for Iliff in 2023 before I could visit the campus in person (which I still haven't done!).
Plus before Phillips, he taught at Chicago Theological Seminary, which is a seminary affiliated with the United Church of Christ (UCC), a tradition with which my own faith story is deeply entwined. Dr. Butler is a very ecumenical Christian teacher, with special emphasis on the traditions I'm closest to.
He opened with an observation that at least in part had occurred to most of us. I drove up to the convention center dimly aware of, but still startled to see in person, a giant oddly illuminated pyramid across the street. It is apparently two-thirds the size of the Great Pyramid in Giza, a nod to the Egyptian roots of the name Memphis, and now hosts a Bass Pro Shop megastore inside.
Dr. Butler turned to the deeper roots of why a Memphis was here in Tennessee, and the Mississippi River flowing past, known more often in earlier days as "the American Nile." And he began to unpack in detail the history of the American Nile, the image of empire in monumental form, the story of the Deep South which opens downstream in the Delta region, and of course about slavery, and the imperfect end of the era of slavery into the reality of a century of lynchings and terror and injustice, still hanging in the humid air of the river valley, weighed down by the heat of the sun and depth of the nighttime.
All of which he turned, slowly, steadily, into a calm, dispassionate analysis of theological narcissism, and how we struggle in every generation to turn our eyes toward God, even as we have a tendency to make everything about ourselves, our needs, our wants. And he broke it down into some very basic, simple problems.
I hope you can return next week and allow me to share them with you.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's been ecumenical more often than not himself. Tell him how you've learned about your faith while on the road at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads or Bluesky.
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