Author: Teddy Ray

After Polarization: Lines in the Sand and Catholic Spirit

A friend dropped out of a project team this week because of a line in the sand. We actually agree on the issue, just not on where the lines go. He arrived at the point that he could no longer participate in good conscience.

Across the United Methodist Church now, I’m seeing a similar thing happen. People who had been united on a particular issue are dividing on how to handle it. When the question changes from “What do you believe about this issue?” to “What should we fight for and how?” the lines no longer cut so clean. Same for questions like “With whom will you associate and when?”

It would be easy to shake your head at new divisions––proof that settling one dispute only gives birth to three more. But it might get us further to acknowledge that we all have lines in the sand. All of us have some instance when we would say we can’t go along. We all have a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak. But what time is it? That’s often hard to know and a new opportunity for conflict. 

Polarization has made it easier for us to avoid these next questions. We align with our side and reject the other. This is why it’s so easy to put an (R) or (D) behind a name and assume we know everything we need to know. In the UMC, the letters behind the names could be (Prog) or (Trad). With these simple notations, we can identify allies and adversaries quickly.

But when we get to the other conversations, it turns out that you may be at odds with someone you thought was an ally. Sometimes in a surprising and personal way. That’s usually because they’re willing to tolerate less or more difference than you are. This is the even more challenging aftermath of polarization and division.

This kind of next-level division is likely to happen across the Methodist landscape in the coming years. Some people will have a high tolerance for working across the lines of division. Some will have almost no tolerance for it. Already, I’m aware of the potential to lose allies, partners, perhaps even friends—on one side because my lines in the sand are too far and on the other side because they’re not far enough.

After polarization, I expect some of our divisions to become more surprising, more nuanced, and more painful. The first round asked one question of us: “What do you believe about _______?” The next round will ask many. And that will force people still reeling from the first round to try to engage in new battles before the last wounds have even begun to heal.

As I watched that friend walk away this week from something that we had all believed in, I realized that at some point in the coming years, I’ll probably end up in the same position: having to separate from a dearly loved friend or respected partner because we can’t see a way forward together. I resolved that I want my primary stance through those difficult times to be one of grace and respect. Grace, rather than blame or disbelief, when a friend has to take a different course than I do. Respect, rather than scorn, when someone’s chosen path is one I can’t follow.

At some point, I’m likely to make the wrong choice in how I handle one of the many questions to come. I should expect others will, too. And it may take years or decades (if ever) before it comes clear to us what was good and wise. So I want to extend others the same grace and respect that I hope they’ll extend me as we try to make our way through an uncertain time.

John Wesley urged his people to have a “catholic spirit.” This is sometimes mistreated as indifference––tolerate all things and hold no firm beliefs or opinions. That’s nothing to do with what Wesley meant. (He took a lot of time in his “Catholic Spirit” sermon to say so.) What does a person with a “catholic spirit” look like, then? Wesley: “His heart is enlarged toward all mankind, those he knows and those he does not; he embraces with strong and cordial affection neighbours and strangers, friends and enemies. This is catholic or universal love. And he that has this is of a catholic spirit.”

The person with a catholic spirit may not be able to partner with all people at all times. But (s)he will extend grace and love to all people at all times. Though a time may come when we need to part ways, even with people we’ve long called friends or allies, I hope we can maintain this kind of catholic spirit. It may be after the polarization when that spirit is most needed.

Are Christians extremists?

“I can believe in God without being a _________.”

How do you fill in that blank? Maybe you would use a word like zealot or fanatic? Or maybe a less dignified word: freak, weirdo, wacko, nut.

If you’re a Christian, does it mean you’re obligated to stand on street corners with posters and a bullhorn? Or is it okay to be just an ordinary Christian?

Ordinary life presents us with plenty of challenges, long before we need to go to any extremes. Before you consider standing on a street corner with a bullhorn, you have to consider more pressing matters—how to get along with a difficult friend or coworker, how to make ends meet in your budget, how to take care of your children or your aging parents.

I love this verse from a paraphrase of the Bible, because it recognizes those ordinary parts of our lives: “Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering” (Romans 12:1).[note]From THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language.[/note]

These everyday, ordinary parts of our lives can demand plenty from us. I’ll give you a simple example. A friend of mine is a pastor in Tennessee. A woman in his congregation antagonized him from the time he arrived. Nothing he did ever seemed to be right. Every time he made a proposal for something new, she rejected it and rallied others to her side. She had even worked to have him fired. Their relationship was contentious at best, sometimes closer to hostile.

And then her kidneys began to fail.

In difficult times, a pastor should be one of the first people there alongside the person suffering. But how do you come alongside someone and offer this kind of support after the relationship has been so distressed? Should you be there when you know the person doesn’t believe you should be the pastor at all? You may not have the kindest feelings toward her. How do you offer sincere compassion and grace in a difficult time like this?

My friend’s dilemma was nothing extraordinary. It serves as just one simple example. These are the kinds of decisions we all face. How do we take the everyday, ordinary parts of our lives and respond in ways that are appropriate?

What I’ll suggest below is that monotheism—the belief that there is one true God—is more than a statement of belief. It’s a statement of devotion. And it impacts everything about our everyday, ordinary lives.

In the first of the Ten Commandments, God says, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Deuteronomy 5:7). What does that mean in practice—in our everyday, ordinary lives?

No God but One

Are Christians extremists? Can we believe in God without being zealots or fanatics or enthusiasts? Can we just be ordinary people, living ordinary lives, who believe in God?

I don’t think we can.

Any faith that takes seriously loving God with all––all of our hearts and souls and minds––leads to a single-minded devotion, the kind that will necessarily lead to extremism. In a world that has many loves—many gods that compete for some of our heart, some of our soul, some of our strength—those who instead devote all to God will appear extreme.

The word “extremist” is a dangerous word. I was wary of using it at first, knowing that much of our world’s violence and terror are blamed on “extremism.” Our remedy is often to avoid extremes, as if total devotion to anything may be the problem. Look at this great quote to the contrary from Martin Luther King Jr., in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” It’s a long quote, but worth your time:

[T]hough I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Was not Martin Luther an extremist: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.” And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.” And Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.” And Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime—the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment.

The call to love God with all is a call to extremism. The problem with the extremism that has so damaged our world was not extremism itself, but its misplaced devotion. Can you justify violence, hatred, or murder because of your extreme devotion to God? Not if your god is this God, the God who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. Not if you call “Lord” the one who said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). If you perpetrate violence or hatred because of your extremism, the problem isn’t your extremism, but your god.

Extremism: The key to a long and happy life?

But say you get your extreme devotion right. You devote yourself wholly to God—all your heart, all your soul, all your strength. Can we say that’s the key to a long and happy life? Maybe you’ve heard the popular saying: “God has a wonderful plan for your life!”

Note instead the serious consequences that may come with total devotion. Martin Luther King Jr. referenced seven people in that letter from a Birmingham jail. Jesus, Paul, and Abraham Lincoln were all killed. John Bunyan was imprisoned. Martin Luther was excommunicated from the church and his life seriously threatened. The details of Amos’ life are unknown, though one unauthenticated account says he was tortured and murdered. Only Jefferson escaped [relatively] unharmed after he penned the Declaration of Independence at great risk to his life.[note]He has also had many more questions raised about his character in recent years.[/note] And of course, King himself was assassinated five years after he wrote those words.

This shouldn’t be too surprising. Jesus warned his disciples about these things. After he told them that they were blessed for hungering and thirsting for righteousness, for being pure in heart and being peacemakers, he pronounced a more unusual blessing: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me” (Matthew 5:11). These are the likely consequences for anyone who would fully devote themselves to God: insults, persecution, and slander.

Now, let me follow that by saying something that may sound absurd. I still believe “God has a wonderful plan for your life!”

Extremism and the extraordinary

Martin Luther King Jr. called Jesus an extremist for love, truth, and goodness. This is the true calling of all who would follow Jesus. We who claim, “There is no God but one,” can do nothing less than devote all of our lives to this God and what he commands.

In this, our everyday, ordinary lives become something more. A great theologian named Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it this way: “What is characteristically Christian is that which steps away from the world, rises above the world, is extraordinary.”[note]In Discipleship, volume 4 of Fortress Press’s Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works series, p. 146.[/note]

The extremist nature of our devotion to God may even add new options to otherwise ordinary decisions. Remember the friend I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter—the pastor whose church member was experiencing kidney failure? She had antagonized him for years, now how should he care for her in a time of need?

His answer went beyond the ordinary. He gave her his left kidney.

I said above that I believe “God has a wonderful plan for your life!” That wonderful plan could cost you a kidney. It could cost you your wealth. It could cost you your dignity. And it could cost you your life. And yet we can call it wonderful, even if we might also call it difficult, or worse. It’s wonderful because Jesus says, “Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). It’s wonderful because, in that extremist devotion to the way of God, we find true life. Our lives become rich and bold and empowered because we live and die to God alone.

———

Should we evangelize children?

This tweet has received a lot of attention this week.

Should we evangelize children? Our own? Others?

The most recited words in all of history would disagree with Cindy Wang Brandt. You’ll find those words in Deuteronomy 6, in what’s known as the Shema. It begins with “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”[note]Deut 6:4[/note] Young boys would learn these words as soon as they could speak.[note]See Sukkah 42a of the Babylonian Talmud: “If he is able to speak, his father must teach him Torah and the reading of the Shema.”  “What [in this context] is meant by the Shema? The first verse.”[/note] Jews from ancient times to the present have recited this verse and those that follow twice a day, morning and evening.[note]The recited Shema includes three parts—Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41[/note] And these are the traditional final words of Jewish believers as they die. From earliest speech to final words: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD, our God, the LORD is one.”

Some of the greatest and most important implications for our faith come from this simple declaration. There is one God! Nothing that follows would make sense or have the same sense of urgency attached if there were more gods than one, or if the true God were not this particular God.

But if God is one—if this God is truly the God of all the earth—then what we’re about to consider is much more than a set of commands. It’s life according to reality. It’s life lived the only way we would choose to live it if we truly believed these words.

The charge that follows gives the most important statement about home life in Israel:

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9

Do you hear the urgency in these instructions? If God alone is God, pass this faith down to the next generations! Teach it at home and on the road, as you’re going to bed and as you’re waking. These words, on hands and foreheads and doorframes and gates, serve as a witness not only to the children in the household but to everyone around. Pass this faith along!

Cindy Wang Brandt wouldn’t like this. And some parenting philosophies today would reject this idea, as well. Parents talk about raising their children to “decide for themselves” when it comes to faith. Parents don’t want to force their faith on their children. And when it comes to those outside our own families, we claim even less right. Who are we to tell others how to live? And so we choose not to meddle, to “live and let live” or “think and let think.” We may have chosen to follow the God of Christianity, but that was a personal decision, one we shouldn’t expect of others.

When we say things like this, we’re acknowledging something that’s a reality, regardless of our wishes: Others will make this choice for themselves. Our children will one day choose for themselves when it comes to their faith (and all else, as well). We can’t force these decisions. Not forever, anyway.

But let’s acknowledge something else, too: we pass down many loves. We pass down to our children our love for certain sports and sports teams. We pass down political stances and important traditions. We try to impress upon our children values like integrity and respect and gratitude, and we train them with certain life skills that we think are essential. Some parents require their children to know how to change a tire or jumpstart a battery before they can get their driver’s license. Others have insisted that their children learn to do laundry and cook before they move out of the house.

And we do the same with others besides our children. Have you ever convinced someone to watch a certain show or movie, or read a certain book, because it was so good? Because you believed that it would improve their lives—or give the two of you something good to share together?

If any of this applies, you could call yourself an evangelist. You’ve attempted to convert someone, to get them to believe a certain way or do a certain thing. Why do we do this? Because we believe in the cause. We believe enough in the sports team or the political stance or the book that we want others to share in it with us. Or we believe that life skills like jumpstarting a car or cooking are important enough that our children must have them to do well in life. So long as these are honest pursuits to improve someone’s life (or even more, our world), they’re good pursuits.

And if God alone is God, wouldn’t our greatest pursuit be to impress this faith on others? Sports teams, political views, traditions, good movies and books will all pass away. But if God alone is God, nothing is more important to pass down than this faith. If we say “God is one,” that statement carries a great urgency to share it.

To be sure, this doesn’t justify any tactic. It doesn’t justify force or threats. It doesn’t justify rude or self-righteous badgering. And it doesn’t justify intolerance for those who don’t conform, whether about faith or any of the other things here. (Have you met someone who can’t have a happy friendship with a fan of the “wrong” sports team? It’s miserable and silly.)

We cannot, we must not, treat anyone with less respect or dignity because they have different beliefs than we do. But this doesn’t mean we should treat them with indifference, as if faith in God would do anything less than radically transform their lives.

Inter-religious faith gatherings are becoming more common. In some of these, people who represent different religions come to share about their faith. Tim Tennent, a world Christianity scholar and now president of Asbury Theological Seminary, writes about his experiences at these gatherings. He describes people of various faiths who come with a whole-hearted belief in their faith, even a hope to convert him. We should expect nothing less from anyone who believes that they know God, the true and only God. Look at what he says about when these go wrong:

What is heart-breaking is when I arrive at an inter-religious dialogue event and meet these full-orbed Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists all beautifully representing their faith and the millions of followers who stand in these traditions, and then the Christian stands up and blathers on endless nonsense about how we are all really the same and how all religions lead to God and we are all really saying the same thing.

from “Two Kinds of Pluralism,” posted on February 19, 2015, at http://timothytennent.com/2015/02/19/two-kinds-of-pluralism/

Can you see the difference between tolerance and respect, on the one hand, and indifference and apathy on the other? We can respect others’ beliefs and opinions, but this is far from conceding that they’re unimportant. We aren’t all really saying the same thing.

Pass these down—at home and on the road, at dawn and at dusk! Impress them on your children! If we truly believe that God alone is God, we can do nothing less.