Welcome to Grace and Space, a weekly newsletter from the Deconstructing Mamas Podcast! GRACE for who you have been, are now and SPACE for who you are becoming and will be!
Sign up to make sure it pops right into your inbox HERE.
Biblical Sin And My Toddler (an excerpt from our guest's book)
Adam and/or Eve did not disobey God. This idea might be hard to swallow if you grew up believing otherwise. (Especially if you were brought up Catholic or certain types of fundamentalist.) Nonetheless—and no matter what you previously were told to think—neither Adam nor Eve disobeyed God.
Stick with me.
Adam and Eve couldn’t have disobeyed God. Because they didn’t know better. Lemme explain. We start with the parallel Greek creation story with Pandora and Epimetheus.
According to this, evil didn’t yet exist at creation. The box the two original humans were told not to open was the very thing that would open their eyes to deceit. How could they know they were doing wrong? In the Bible, it’s the same with the fruit. It’s hard to think you are sinning before sinning exists.
I didn’t punish my almost-toddler when he crawled to and tugged a tablecloth in an attempt to pull himself up to stand. My calls of “Don’t! Stop!” didn’t make sense to him. Why? Because most other times he had pulled himself up to stand, I had been proud. Was he being disobedient, not listening to me? No. He just didn’t understand. I rushed in to save him from the Steuben crystal bowl that could have hit him on the head or smashed on the ground. I got there in time. We didn’t punish Emmett. He wasn’t wrong for his actions. He was just trying to pull himself up.
Adam and Eve didn’t know not to listen to the serpent. How could they know the serpent was lying? They didn’t know the difference between good and evil. They didn’t have that knowledge. They weren’t disobedient. Nothing shameful for all time. It’s innocence—a lack of understanding.
Except for pinning the blame on women for birthing evil into the world. That shit is not innocent. It’s just plain wrong. Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer
Our Podcast This Week:
With regard to the question, “Do you believe in God?” I do not care much about your answer. But if I were to ask the last five people with whom you’ve interacted if you were kind, about those answers I care very much. (Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer)
Our episode this week is with Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer, dad, author of the brilliant book, Highly Unorthodox Gospel, (also known as HUG), French Horn player and our very first Rabbi. On this episode, we talk with rB (as he refers to himself) about all things related to kindness, compassion and love when it comes to our ever-evolving faith. We chat through these questions: 1. Tell us about the word “spiritualigiuos” on your website called “Religion Outside the Box.” We are so intrigued. Can you tell us what this means to you? How is it different from mainstream practice?
2. We love the title of your new book with the acronym HUG (not lost on us), Highly Unorthodox Gospel. What’s your gospel like and why is it highly unorthodox?
3. One of your reviews on the book said this: “Hi rB, You had me at page fricking one!! I absolutely loved the book and couldn’t put it down. I finished it in one day. I am going to read it again and again. Loved the bacon cheese burger on matzah during Passover.” Can you just indulge us with this taste of what your book might be like for those who might be just a bit skeptical?
4. We are a parenting podcast. The themes of compassion, kindness, and love are central to the book. How can parents incorporate these values into their daily lives with their children that may be different than the way they might have grown up in high-control religion? Why these three?
5. How do you think we can challenge the idea of "right and wrong", “black and white” , what we might deem as orthodoxy in our faiths while still raising children with values that matter?
6. In what ways can we nurture both our own spiritual growth and our children’s spiritual development in a world full of competing beliefs?
We found rB to be hilarious, genuine, knowledgable and humble. We laughed a lot and also dove deep into some difficult questions. You can find rB here: Websites: rabbibrian.com rotb.org Instagram: @rabbi_brian_af Facebook: Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer Newsletter: https://rotb.org/subscribe/
Latest News:
We wanted to let you know that we have come to a very-hard decision NOT to provide extra content for those of you who support us.
We have lots going on in our lives (Lizz has two young kids and Esther just finished her Spiritual Direction training and has four kids all over the country) and no matter how hard we've tried to do it, we just can't seem to make it work within our bandwidth.
For those of you who support us, we are so grateful! You are the reason we can keep the podcast going! We don't take any of it lightly and know your money is valuable and will do our best to steward it well.
We get it if you need to drop support from us, but we would gently ask you to consider sticking with us!
Resource Alerts:
If you haven't been to our website page with tons of resources for you, check them all out HERE!
One last thing. We want to remind you that we are so glad you are here. We wouldn't be the same without you. You will always find GRACE for where you've been and who you are now, and SPACE for who you are becoming and will be.
Carry on, our new-found friends. Welcome to the twisty-windy, full -of-adventure faith path that's laid out before us all. Love,
Lizz & Esther
P.S. SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER HERE!
Comments