June 20, 2009
christian culpability
I like being Christian. I know some people don't like it, you know, being Christian. And some people don't like Christians. None of this is new. There are lots of reasons to not 
like Christians and Christianity. We've kind of mucked it up from time to time. There's no doubt about it.
This morning I seem to be stuck on this dynamic. People are pissed and for good reason. In reading Joshua this week, it's not hard to imagine why. In walking through history, it's a simple conclusion, really. It is no wonder that some people think that people like me are insane for even being a part of this thing.
But then I look at Joshua again. It's revisionist history at best. So, it's probably wise to not ask it to serve as history at all. It's a story, a narrative, an attempt to develop self-understanding and to proclaim where they think God might have been in the process. It's slippery stuff. It's not something you can nail down.
The book is also about how they blow it. The Hebrew scripture contains story after story of how they blow it, how they leave God behind, how they deny themselves and become cruel and destructive, and finally how they themselves fall. It's not prescriptive. It's not moralistic. It's not a guidebook. It's a warning to the rest of us.
Christianity has no such resource except for the Hebrew scripture. Sadly we have overdone the whole "predicting Christ" bit and have missed many of the other points like the one I just mentioned. Our scriptural history ends with the Resurrection. Now, this is a powerful sentiment, but it means we have no sacred stories of blowing it. We have no sacred story that says "Yeah, so this is where we left God behind and became _____."
Some days I wish we did. Then I wouldn't have to do it myself. Then I wouldn't have to say to people "Yeah, we ruined it." again and again as if I were denying the faith in the process. To say we cannot do it, to say we ruined it, to say that the world is fallen and we don't have all the answers is part of being Christian. I have been reminded of this again.
Culpability. That's part of the journey.
"We are a culture without the will to seriously examine our own problems. We eschew that which is complex, contradictory or confusing. As a culture, we seek simple solutions. We enjoy being provoked and titillated, but resist the rigorous, painstaking examination of issues that might, in the end, bring us to the point of recognizing our problems, which is the essential first step to solving any of them..." David Simon ala Scandal of ParticularityPosted by tripp at June 20, 2009 07:27 AM
We have no sacred story that says "Yeah, so this is where we left God behind and became _____.We certainly have the stories. The history of Western Civilization, which every child is exposed to at some point in their education, is the story of the Church. There are many stories about how Christians "left God behind and became ______." We don't tell those stories enough, if at all. There are stories about the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Genocide of the Albigensians and the Cathars, et. al. What about Wounded Knee, or the persecution of the Mormons, or the lynchings in the South during the middle of the 20th Century. The stories are there, but we don't tell them. I wonder why? We must tell the stories. Posted by: Joel Heaton at June 20, 2009 08:45 AM
As Protestants I think you are correct, but if you take note of hagiography's one will note that especially once there not about those who were killed for their faith, its about how the Saint emerges out of how so many Christians clerics etc. got it wrong, messed up etc.
In fact the whole idea of Saints kind of means that most of the time we Christians get it wrong. Saints wouldn't be anything special except that others of us are messing it up. Or so it seems. The need to lift up Saints who exhibit the Grace of Christ to such a great degree means Christians on the whole don't quite live up to that, and thus we need to lift up examples.
My parents use to say that Protestants don't lift up Saints because we are all to be saints, which is true, but some realism please let the record show and the lives of the Saints do, many who should be saints aren't! I wonder if this attitude that we all should be saints, a version of a certain emphasis on the priesthood of all believers makes it more difficult to recognize that we have messed up.
Good thoughts, Tripp. I especially like, "It's not moralistic. It's not a guidebook. It's a warning to the rest of us." Very dense concepts you've posted here. Will have much to ponder for a while. Thanks.
Posted by: Laurel at June 20, 2009 02:29 PMI think the Bible is absolutely hilarious.
I met with a friend Priest Nancy in January.
She told me that we are all flawed. That is how we can deal with reality. We are all flawed.
I just love (I'm being sarcastic) how so much focus is placed on the naughty Christians.
Everybody in reality is screwing up -- Buddhists, Hindus, Hassidic Jews, atheists, believers, rich people, poor people, Yale and Harvard grads.....
There is no discrimination when it comes to an organization, religion, art group having its fakes, hypocrites, killing in the name of whatever.... I mean it is so obvious in reading the newspaper.
Anyway, I think the Bible is such an excellent example of how we as humanity really are. Totally wild and mixed up and doing some things really cool at times.
What about Greek mythology. By the time I finished the Odyssey, I felt like I was Hercules with big muscles. It is so He-Man. And the graphic detail put into describing tearing someone apart or a monster apart. I was so grossed out midway through the book.
I think I just agreed with some of the other comments already made. I think, maybe.
I am flustered with something totally different.
I brought it up at a dinner Alpha meeting.
Why don't ministers preach from really cool passages like in Ezekiel or Hosea? Like in Ezekiel about the boiling pot. Or like last night I read in Hosea about the people being like an oven and a baker. Another passage in I Timothy, the writer says that the people are having "vain wranglings."
I mean, this is like really cool imagery.
The people at my table said that ministers have enough to do with just keeping up with the selected scriptures each week.
I don't know. I would still like some sermons from some really cool passages in the Bible.
Not the same old, same old every year.
Posted by: teresa at June 20, 2009 03:48 PMEven when we manage to do something right, it is still God who causes a good outcome. "So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth." 1 Corinthians 3:7
Posted by: Rachel L at June 21, 2009 09:35 PM