"We're just a small community of people who are hosting art events and inviting the community to come in."

I have had my ups and downs with organized religion, let me tell you. I was raised a catholic as a child but left the church by the age of 14. I went through an atheistic phase - couldn't believe that a "Loving God," as he has so often been referred to in churches nation(world)wide could stand by idly while so many people suffered in such great measure.

Sometime around 1976, I took three hits of "personal stash" blotter acid. Now this was back before the paper used to contain the LSD was dipped completely into the solution and instead, it had been blotted on - hence the name "blotter acid." Chemists changed to the full paper dip after a rash of "bad trips" made them rethink the dosage level, and where blots had about 300 micrograms (mcg) per dose, dipped paper was closer to 90mcg. This kept people from freakin, but it also diminished the intensity of the "cid" substantially.

Anyway, I had been slinging that real blotter paper for a year or so and had saved some extra-large blots - you could see them clearly if you held the paper under a black light and I kept the ones that had been so big they actually bubbled beyond the standard circle. Good they were, let me tell you.

So anyway, I went about three weeks without tripping, then one fine summer morning, I took three of those mega-hits; it was probably close to about 1200mcg.

Within 15 minutes, I knew I was in trouble. I was already entering the "visual circus" stage of tripping, as the blood vessels in the eyes dilated and I began to experience the trails and other visual hallucinations so common with acid.

I cannot tell you with any sense of accuracy a time sequence; I just remember certain parts of the trip. I managed to walk across a large field that I knew was flat but was rolling in swells like huge ocean waves and made it back to my bedroom, which was a typical "hippie pad" of the early 70s; walls were black with fluorescent paint used to paint planets and stars on the walls, black light posters and fluorescent mobiles hanging from the ceiling, all that crap. I recall looking down the stairs and they melted continually away, so much so that I just had to look away to get down them.

I laid down on my bed and.....left this world.....


I was a changed man when I came back to reality, let me tell you. It would take me three books to explain what happened to me and even then I doubt you'd fully comprehend and grasp the enormity of the transformation that occurred within my soul and my brain from that experience, but the one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty is that it made me a better person overall, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind whatsoever about that.

It also brought me back to God, but not religion.

Perhaps the biggest thing that happened to me from that experience is that I was able to expand my mind and my views to be much less ethnocentric, cynical and closed-minded when it comes to the way others practice their faith and their existence in general - and many thanks to Alan Watts for his prior influence through his books, which I thought about considerably while visiting the acid-astral plane.


Since that time, I've done a number of things to advance my knowledge of spirituality. I've studied philosophy and religion in college and on my own, I've participated in a year's worth of Native American prayer circles while at Folsom CCF, I studied with the Jehovah's Witnesses, I've lived in abject poverty (mostly because of my stupidity and not so much by choice -but there were plenty of lessons there), and today I'm at a place where I can stand next to different faiths without instantly judging and comparing them against my own. No simple task, as I'm sure you already know.

So when I saw this piece about my friends and colleagues Tom Wills and Pastor Ken Locke, I smiled. I'm proud to know them both, I'm proud that I can enter that church and not feel pressured to become something I'm not. I'm proud to see them helping such a vast and diverse group of people every day. I'm proud to refer people to the church.

And I'm humbled too, because they have taught me to be even more accepting of the diversity within spirituality.

Many thanks to another friend, Bill Friskics-Warren, for putting together such a nice piece....


God and art: Nashville's religious communities bridge the gap | www.tennessean.com | The Tennessean

God and art: Nashville's religious communities bridge the

gap

BY BILL FRISKICS-WARREN • STAFF WRITER • July 13, 2008


When Tom Wills moved back to Nashville with a degree in art from Centre College in the mid-'90s, he immediately started casting about for space that might be conducive to his painting.

His family had attended Downtown Presbyterian Church for generations. Wills knew that the congregation had plenty of room in its Egyptian revival edifice on Fifth Avenue, so he asked pastor John Hilley if he could set up a studio on the fourth floor in exchange for volunteering at the church's soup kitchen.
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Soon other local artists were following suit and the congregation was exhibiting art in its fellowship hall. More than a decade later, the parish is home to six artists-in-residence and hosts regular shows. The work of current and former artists-in-residence is on display throughout the building.

"The arts have really transformed us," Wills said. "It wasn't that we set out to do this. It was something that started and grew from there."

Art and spirituality might have been linked for millennia, but in modern-day culture there has often been a divide between the creative and religious worlds. More and more, though, congregations like Downtown Presbyterian, along with others around town such as Christ Church Episcopal and the Village Church, are reuniting the two.

These congregations aren't just incorporating art into the fabric of parish life. They also are engaging people, and not merely those of a religious bent, in the larger communities in which they are located.

"We don't have a big institute that studies these things or is developing a think tank," explained Wills of what's happening at his church. "We're just a small community of people who are hosting art events and inviting the community to come in."
Transforming lives

"A lot of artists are people who say, 'You can't trust religion. You can't trust the institutional church,' " said Ken Locke, pastor at Downtown Presbyterian. "What we've done is create a venue for people who distrust the church but who find themselves saying, 'Wait a minute, I can ask my questions here and it's OK.' "

This has certainly been the experience of Beth Gilmore, an elder and artist-in-residence at the church. "I think that I have always believed in God, but I have not always believed in church," she said. "Here at Downtown Pres I feel welcomed . . . not just in Sunday dress with brushed hair and clean hands. I'm embraced when I'm covered in paint from working up until a deadline.

"The whole person is invited here, baggage and all, with whatever gifts they bring to put to good use. I need that. I think that everyone needs that."

Locke calls Gilmore "a case study in transformation," someone who was drawn to his church for artistic reasons but who found meaning and community that extended well beyond that.

"She's brought in friends who had real animosity toward organized faith, who had gone to church for years but had always been snarky about it," Locke said. "But they come to DPC and they see the meals for the homeless happening, they see the parenting classes for abused women.

"We're not serving the homeless with this closed idea about who they are and what God is like," continued Locke, noting that the current exhibit at Downtown Presbyterian features drawings and other work done by homeless Nashvillians. "We're trying to grow ourselves through this creative process of engaging with art."
Spiritual, not sectarian

Something akin to Downtown Presbyterian's spirit of hospitality and inclusion — as opposed to seeking converts — lies at the heart of the Sacred Space for the City program at Christ Church Cathedral, said Susan Dupont, a member of the Episcopal congregation's vestry.

Established in 2003, the series, she explained, "was envisioned as a way of bringing people into the Cathedral who were not interested in a religious relationship with the Cathedral. We felt that with our beautiful architectural space we had an opportunity to marry the visual setting with hearing and being moved by music and theater and art."

A classically trained singer and art historian, Dupont believes that all artistic expression is inherently spiritual.

"The arts are manifestations of how God works in us," she said. "It doesn't have to be quote-unquote religious content. The ability to move people and in some sense alter them is not something that any human being can take complete responsibility for. Being able to express the ineffable — to say things that can't be said through words alone — is a gift."

A year-round affair, the Cathedral's Sacred Space for the City program has been host to everything from the church's now-annual BACHanalia music and arts festival to the productions of local drama companies and workshops on the likes of fiber art and floral design. A series on icon painting is scheduled for the coming year.

"It's been amazing to see how the program has resonated with people," Dupont said. More than 800 people, including 220 musicians, she added, participated in last year's Bach fest.

"Our vision was to be more of a Cathedral, to be more open and welcoming to the community. The art series has become a big part of our identity."
Inclusion a priority

The Gordon Jewish Community Center in West Nashville is yet another place people of disparate religious backgrounds and experiences converge around art.

"When I started working here nine years ago, the rule of thumb was we just need to put Jewish art on the walls," said Margot Layland, the Center's Adult and Cultural Arts Director. "My response was, 'There's only so much quote-unquote Jewish art to go around. We allow non-Jewish members. Why don't we also bring in art from outside?'

"A lot of people think that the Jewish community center is for Jewish people only. That's a false statement. A lot of our programs are open to anyone who wants to participate."

The monthly art openings at the center's Janet Levine March Gallery, for example, are free and open to the public. "We serve wine and cheese and have had anywhere from three to 300 people," said Layland, who has a bachelor's degree in fine arts.

In June, the center exhibited Haitian artist Camille Torchon's verdant landscape paintings of his deforested homeland. Up this month is Nashvillian Garry Hornbuckle's innovative mix of photography and digital image manipulation.

"All of us at the center pride ourselves on working with the outside community and making sure that everyone feels welcome," said Layland.
Art connects us to God

Achieving unity through diversity is central to the mission of the Village Church, a Presbyterian congregation, with roots in East Nashville's James Cayce Homes. The church is working to bridge the gap between spirituality and art.

"Authentic diversity affirms the beauty of God expressed in significantly different ways," said the Rev. Andrew Stephens, the church's pastor.

While Stephens' parish is strongly Afrocentric, particularly when it comes to the performing arts and the clothing and styles native to them, he speaks with relish of his congregation's cultural and artistic exchanges with Temple Ohabai Sholom and with Koran Presbyterian Church on Franklin Road.

"We know there's a distinctiveness to what we're doing, but we're mindful of the distinctiveness of what they're doing; that's why it's important for us to spend time together," he said.

"Art is one of the ways that people envision or imagine God. Through our art, in its particular forms, we affirm our connection with God."

Reach Bill Friskics-Warren at 726-5957 or at bfriskicswarren@tennessean.com.