This week, thanks to an invitation from Russell Brown, I had the privilege of appearing as a panelist for Media Take on Maori TV to discuss NewsLeads within the framework of a show on the place of religion in media and society. It was an interesting show. I’m honoured to have been a part of it and personally I’m really grateful for the connection with Russell.

There was one point in the conversation when Russell, Toi, and Rev. Hirini Kaa were discussing the interplay between Maori spirituality and Christianity. It was a great little bit of conversation. Russell noted that as an atheist he feels more comfortable with Maori spirituality than the judeo-christian approach, viewing the former as poetry. That caught my interest, and I need to say that I get it.

I feel a certain tug when I call to mind what you talk about in a mihi (introduction). I’m pulled back to thoughts of growing up and going fishing with my friends in the Waihou river, spending weekends in the Kaimai ranges, and climbing Mt Te Aroha. The latter is something I claim as my maunga. I learned a lot about myself while spending time in those ranges. It carries a sense of connection and pull that no other place on earth ever will. There is something sacred and divine in that.

Maori culture and spirituality are also grounded in story. The culture (and I speak very naively here as an observer with much appreciation for what I see) is shaped through the telling and retelling of central stories. They shape a sense of identity and ground the individual with a community that is both present and historical. It was this that I picked up on in the conversation on Media Take.

With that in mind I expressed the thought that maybe part of the problem with the engagement people have with Christianity is that it has been reduced to a set of ideas that you either agree or disagree with. By extension (I don’t think I said this) if you don’t agree with the ideas, or set of supposed rules that come out of those ideas, then you feel like you don’t have a place within it and it has no place within you. So I proposed that Christianity, as with most religions, is more about stories. To be clear, I didn’t say that to negate the ideas that come out of it, but to give a sense of something deeper that can speak to many people of varying worldviews. That thought is certainly reflective of the narrative/story culture that the Bible was born out of and that Jesus had his place in. God has a big story playing out, I have a story, you have a story, and so maybe it’s more about what all these stories have to offer to each other. I had a couple of private messages on Twitter asking me to explain that a little more.

Allow me to say up front that I hold to the ancient beliefs succinctly expressed in the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. I’m a person who believes that Jesus was divine (God and human in one), that he died and bodily rose from the dead. I understand that in an age of enlightenment this can seem like a very strange thing and I understand (though obviously disagree) why people would liken it to believing in fairies, but it grips me and I can’t shake it off even though I have regular doubts and sometimes feel like an idiot for believing it. I can’t shake the sense that the Jesus story has profound implications of hope for the world and in everything I’ve been through and seen in life I find that belief increasingly relevant in the face of the human experience…. when framed well.

Part of the problem we’ve had in communicating Christianity is that it’s often seen as something that says either you believe it or you don’t and if you don’t, you’re damned (yes, that is a huge generalisation). I don’t find that at all satisfying as it has reduced the whole thing to a succinct set of ideas that has nothing for you if you don’t believe it. In this day and age the all or nothing approach just doesn’t cut it in my view. Sure, I’d love for everyone to believe that core story as I do and I’ll happily take people on that journey if that’s where they want to go, but you have every right not to and if you don’t, I’m still interested in helping you experience life as I believe it was intended to be experienced with all its ups and downs, and you know what, even if you don’t hold it to be true, I still think it’s got something profound to offer so let’s talk about it as story and see if anything resonates.

Believe what they say or not, the scriptures are full of stories that resonate and have something to offer. It’s there in the confusion of Job’s suffering in the face of an outlandish wager, his anger, frustration and hurt, and his conclusion that he can’t control these things and there is no great answer to the whys and wherefores of suffering. It’s there in the events of Jesus’ life that ultimately leads to a shunning of the need for humans to shed blood to make things right, it’s there in the darkness and pain of Gethsemane, the moment of utter loneliness on the cross, the call of Jesus for his persecutors to be forgiven, the despair of Easter Saturday when his disciples would have felt they had lost everything and it’s there in the hope that smashes through in the story of the resurrection. Are there confusing and gut wrenching things in the Bible? Heck yes! There’s plenty I just don’t get, and there’s stuff that confuses and offends my moral sensibilities in the 21st century… but the whole thing is dripping with stories that speak to the blood, sweat, tears, and the joys of humanity and it’s there throwing the divine into the mix. It’s gritty, it’s guttural, it’s raw and time and time again it grabs me, holds a mirror up to me and calls me to something more.

I’m dedicated to taking people on a journey. I’m (mostly) over just trying to win arguments… though in my weakness I still sometimes give in to that. I can’t explain every bit of the Bible or make it make sense, but I want to sit with people in the middle of their own story. I want to listen and see if there is something of my story and the stories I know that may offer something into where they’re at whether it be in a moment of laughter, grief, joy, anger, confusion, whatever. I don’t expect people to believe the things I do, but my hope is that who I am, what I am, and what I have to offer may just offer a glimpse of something that allows hope and something better to break through the cracks of our lives so we live with a little more colour. I hope that what I have to offer may, in some way, feed your soul. And I have no doubt that in those times, your life and your story, whether we agree on everything or not, will add a richness to mine and food for my soul that only you can give.

For me, NewsLeads (as a very young entity) sits squarely within that framework, carrying a desire to connect and relate, and it specifically does so with the media in mind as the place I wish to serve and offer myself in the hope that just maybe I can give a glimmer of something half decent.

That’s what I meant in that little segment of the show.