Steve McSwain

My journey through The Enoch Factor is complete. Very thought provoking, although I feel like I was waiting for some large experience that never quite materialized. Don't get me wrong, I like Steve's perspective on the whole spirit vs. flesh battle to really be a battle with our egos, without the need for a boogieman who presides over a place where all REALLY BAD (a.k.a. non-Baptists) will go one day. We make our own hells, I think he quotes someone as saying. I believe that. And his assertion that it is our egos which lead us to believe our way is the only way...as he points out and I've been saying for years, if everyone is sure of the one right way, why are there gobs of denominations within Christianity alone?

But..if you are going to throw out the bulwarks of Christian belief (original sin, hell, the need for salvation, altar calls and potluck suppers), you need to replace it with something tangible - or at least as tangible as "the mysterious ways of God". That's where I think McSwain fails a bit. This is the same nitpick I had with John Shelby Spong, that God is "Being" which expects nothing other than that we learn to "listen" to Him/Her/It. We're to divorce ourselves (die to) our egos and just accept/trust, without signs, voices or Billy Graham Secret Decoder Rings. I grok that; an almost Buddhist way of living, looking to the space between our thoughts, turning down the volume on life and cranking up our hearing aids to listen to LIFE. All well and good, but how? Nod off in our car, climb some mental steps and fall backwards into the Infinite? Meditation, perhaps. Guess I'm still too new at this to be able to jump in without a procedure. Sad, but true.

The other "beef" I have with "Enoch" is that Steve seems to bend Scripture to his will a bit, instead of letting the words do the talking. Granted, Biblical verses can be as inscruitable as my underwear drawer, but passages such as "I am the vine and you are the branches" are not the same as saying, "I am the tree, but there are many branches" (Chapter 8 and John 15:5). There are others. He seems to use multiple translations to get just the right spin on things and that bothers me just a little.

All in all, however, I'm more in Steve's camp than not. I just don't know what to do with this ineffable "God thing". I'd be happy to walk with It if I knew the path.… (mehr)