Anti-(fill in the blank)

I realize some people say things just to get a rise out of others.  Sometimes a person will say something from a defensive, ignorant position.  Still others open themselves to a certain element of transparency, but they seem to always be thrown back into the pot of saying-it-just-to-get-a-rise kind of folks.

Below, I’ve posted an excerpt from the formerly Christian author Anne Rice.  Now, I don’t know too much about her, but as I mentioned in my post last week, I relate to many of her sentiments.  I am also firmly convinced that she doesn’t fall into the group of saying certain things just hoping to rub someone raw, but of course we could probably say that is at least partially true of Jesus.  But, as last week, I’ll save that for another post.  Possibly next week.

All that to say, below is Anne’s quote.  I contend that it’s worth some serious consideration for those of us who claim we fall under the Christian umbrella.

Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.

As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

Now, I know all the arguments, because I’ve heard them before.  ”That’s a brash generalization.”  ”Not every Christian is like that.”  Both arguments, if we stretched them out a little bit are probably at least partially true, but that’s the problem.  Us evangelical  Christians are awesome at pointing the finger at other people and making brash general statements, so this one really isn’t too far out of the park.

So, there’s quite a bit to say on this matter.  I’m rather interested in what others have to say, so feel free to offer any thoughts, experiences, feelings sentiments that might help us move more toward being more fully human and making our short existence here a better one for everyone.

As the prophets of scripture were known to do, I’d like to offer a bit of a scathing commentary.  I along with Anne, would argue that if indeed God created, and it was good, he’s likely not going to be anti anything.  Besides that, if anyone can name anything that Jesus was “anti,” as it pertains to the realm of God being realized here and now, for everyone, feel free to clue me in.  I also feel somewhat immobilized by evangelical Christianity and I am convinced Jesus didn’t live as he did, teach as he did and socialize as he did to found a new institution to imprisons its members, binding them in a biblical straight jacket of rules.  I much prefer living life to its fullest than moping around worried about the last twenty sins I committed, or better yet, the sins everyone else around me is committing because they haven’t set up camp next to me…

More on this as the conversations continue.

Faith

Just a couple thoughts this morning.  I’ve let them stew for a while, so hopefully they don’t come out burnt and crispy.  Regardless of the final product, I feel like some things just ought to be addressed for the sake of avoiding stagnation and eventual spiritual decay.

Now, as I dig into the stew pot of thoughts, my wonderings this morning are as follows; what is faith?  And what does it mean to trust in God?

Here’s the premise by which I am asking these two questions.  I am convinced that as a follower of Christ, my life MUST be a life of action.  Thus, if I stand on that conviction, I find a disconnect within the language and behavior of the majority of the population that claims a Christian label.  Bear with me as I attempt to clean up the assertion a bit.

In addressing the first question, what is faith?  If this question was to be pointed anywhere near a child of the evangelical movement, most certainly, this verse would be quoted:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain what we do not see.  Hebrews 11:1

Often, that’s how we define faith, yet we have great difficulty defining it in physical and active terms.  The following verses in Hebrews highlight the lives of a host of biblical personalities that “by faith” lived differently.  Here is the first disconnect: We don’t equate faith with action as did the saints in Hebrews.  Faith, in western Christianity is an irrefutable definition by which we believe the right things. Faith has no bearing on the way we live our lives from day to day.

I would also argue that the same is true when we throw around the etherial concept of “trusting in God.”  Quite often we assert that we are to trust God’s will.  Yet in our way of defining that trust, we load all responsibility for the condition of our lives on a God to whom we believe will intervene for poor me, taking away the duty I have as a follower of Christ, to ACT for good in this world.  Moreover, we often say things like, “we need to trust God and avoid distracting ourselves by trying to figure it out on our own.”  But, what does a statement like that really mean?  Are we to assume that making a conscious decision to believe differently is really going to smooth out all the wrinkles?

What if God is hidden within our struggle to figure things out?  Disengaging the critical thinking centers of our minds, whether trusting God or not, seems to be a step in the wrong direction.  Furthermore, if we step back and make an honest assessment of ourselves,  isn’t it true that we inevitably decide to heed certain things and avoid others, taking one path over another?  So, why is it that God isn’t allowed to work in our struggle?  There are so many instances in which our fixation on an intervening God freezes us in complacency.  The best we can do is sit and wait for him to do his stuff.  When, I would argue, there’s something sacred happening all the time and it’s a waste of time to sit and wait.

As I reflect on this post, it’s difficult for me to accept the fact that what is most likely happening is that as I work through all these difficulties, I am probably projecting my own insecurities onto people around me.  I’m upset with the way things are, and so I point the finger at someone else because it’s much easier to do that than to make the necessary change in my own life.

That being said, and unfortunately, as I’ve said many times before, I aim to live differently.  There’s a song that says something like, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin through.”  This world may not be my home, but I firmly believe that God, however we want to understand him/her/it, has a desire for us to join the sacred work that is already happening.  I believe I have been given the opportunity to make this world what it is intended to be.  No longer will I believe that is true, but I will LIVE like it’s true.