2017 - A GENEROUS ORTHODOXY
It is the end of the year, and everyone is making lists of their favorite movies, books, and music.
2017 has been a crazy year for me. I transitioned into the role of Pastor of Mobilization at Brick City Church - my first experience getting paid full-time to be in ministry. I have also experienced some closure and healing after failing to raise support to be a missionary in Slovenia. Part of that recovery has been shifting theological views that have caused me to encounter the Holy Spirit in unexpected and deeper ways than I have experienced before.
In terms of year-end-lists, I am not sure anyone would care what my favorite books or albums were. But given the crazy year it has been, I feel compelled to say that the Generous Orthodoxy episode of Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History might be the most profound ideological thing I have experienced this year - although Brian Zahnd's Water To Wine might be equal... Year end reflections are hard...
In this episode, Gladwell talks about GENEROUS ORTHODOXY as a means of challenging a systematic power in a CONSTRUCTIVE way, and compares it to non-constructive ways to challenge that power.
The phrase comes from theologian Hans Frei stating the need to find a middle ground between ORTHODOXY + GENEROSITY because orthodoxy without generosity leads to blindness, and generosity without orthodoxy is shallow and empty. Gladwell states, "you must respect the body you wish to heal."
A few weeks ago I was a crappy example of GENEROUS ORTHODOXY when I posted an article about Trump and the RNC endorsing Roy Moore as candidate for Senator in Alabama due to the need for Republicans to hold on to power in DC, despite multiple accusations of child molestation. This was a final blow separating me from that party going forward. I reacted in anger at the relationship between the Church and the Republican party and stated that the idea of Republicans being somehow morally superior to Democrats was delusional.
I think this anger at the Republican Party's use of the Church is warranted and the right perspective, but it was expressed poorly in a way that does not allow others to hear my convictions or to come alongside them.
That is the key.
My post started a dumpster fire of useless political debate, which is embarrassing. Perhaps it was the last moment of reckless youth before turning 34 the following day? That sounds nice.
To simply express anger at a situation or a system only serves to unite you with people who agree with you against people you see as the opposition. The only way for that group to bring change is to mass together and overthrow that opposition.
That was essentially the strategy of the Trump campaign, and it was effective at least in getting him elected. That method has not allowed him to effect the kind of change he stated he wanted to bring, though, because the people he needs to pass laws are not the angry body that pushed him into the White House.
(I could also write a really good analogy about the French Revolution here, which was propelled by that method and succeeded in overthrowing the monarchy but failed in replacing it with a stable representative government... but I'll skip it.)
IF the goal is not to WIN your argument or FORCE change, then this tactic is not the way FORWARD.
As a minister, my purpose is GOSPEL RECONCILIATION THROUGH RELATIONSHIP. My theological world view is that this is how God relates to us and intends for us to relate with one another:
"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us." (2 Corinthians 5:18-19 NRSV)
I help shepherd people into that life.
But I CANNOT ignore social issues and just "preach the Gospel." To do that would mean to ignore injustice and delegate everything to a spiritual realm that has little consequence in daily living. Bonhoeffer wrote some pretty strict warnings about that kind of "gospel." To talk about the life of Jesus, the crucifixion, resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit but ignore the racial hurt and injustice being felt all around me is useless and possibly dangerous because it excuses those complicit in injustice. That is a theology that views the purpose of the GOSPEL and SALVATION as a means for reunification with God in some future existence, and I believe that is a snow globe view of God's kingdom.
The simple fact is that systematic inequality and injustice are happening all around us, practiced and endorsed by our government and economic structures (whether we would label them Right, Left, Capitalist, Socialist, or otherwise - in this they are unified). The evidence is overwhelming. To ignore this is to ignore the healing power and justice of the Gospel.
We cannot reconcile what we will not recognize.
I don't long for a world in which the weak and persecuted have overthrown the powerful, and it is now they who lord over their abusers. I long for a world in which the powerful have been lowered and the weak have been raised by the healing power of Gospel reconciliation. It is not about being a "social justice warrior" bringing down the system. It is about responding to the hurt and pain of the world created by the system by stating, "This is wrong. I am not okay with this. There is another way."
The Gospel of Jesus is the other way.
The Gospel recognizes the image of God in all people above flags, agendas, and ideals, and seeks to join one another at God's table in community.
Jesus condemned the religious elite and corrupt government for preying upon and taking advantage of those they were meant to protect. He was very direct in this. But he was also clear that his actions were meant to bring about restoration for the oppressor as well as the oppressed. He recognized that which needed to be reconciled. He was willing to give his life for this. The Holy Spirit has come so that we may carry on this work.
When I see religious organizations and government in the United States still taking advantage of those they are meant to protect - bringing harm to the poor, to women, to different races, to outsiders - I mean to be direct in pointing out this injustice. But, it is necessary to have eyes to see the root of these systems are people like me. People who are capable of being reconciled to God and of being part of that reconciliation process rather than its obstacle.
People capable of posing danger to other people BECOMING people posing danger to antichrist systems that harm to God's creation.
What this concept of GENEROUS ORTHODOXY has meant to me this year is resistance to the ideas of "change or die" or "if you don't agree with this I have nothing to do to you." I am fighting this "stay out of the way" mentality.
When I see someone refusing to acknowledge injustice, or condemning those who are tying to do something about it, or supporting corrupt systems in the name of Christ... instead I contemplate and pray: "What would it take to bring this person along? How can this be communicated so they have ears to hear? What is at the heart of their resistance?"
This, for me, is a much more helpful approach that protects me from self-righteousness and unhelpful rants, and allows me to make room for the Spirit to do the work of shepherding people into reconciliation with God and one another.
Here is a link to the podcast: http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/09-generous-orthodoxy
Merry Christmas,
-joshua (2017)