Eugene Cho at Sojourners on Anne Rice’s shirk of Christianity:
Let’s be honest. It’s easy to take shots at an institution — especially Christianity and the church. For Christians, it’s our family and that gives us license and permission to speak constructively or critically about our own family.
We all do it. Men, women, children. Poets, singers, skeptics, believers, cynics, liberals, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Presbyterians, Baptists, Calvinists, Arminians, and even you and me. In fact, it’s become the somewhat cool, hip, and edgy thing to do … because you are more [wait for it ... wait for it] — authentic.
Ahhh. Authentic Christianity.
And while I can’t argue that Anne’s descriptions are entirely inaccurate, I really do wonder if we’ve allowed these assumptions, judgments, and descriptives to become the totality of Christianity. Is it possible that we’ve given these descriptives so much press that it has grown bigger than reality? They have grown to be such that many — perhaps including ourselves — have come to believe that Christianity is all about being anti-gay, anti-feminist, and anti-artificial birth control (anti-science)?
- Are those descriptives realities for some and in some communities? Yes.
- Are they the totality of the movement of Christianity? No.
Christ died for an imperfect church.
(h/t Becky Garrison)
3 comments
Beth says:
Aug 5, 2010
I have and have had my own problems with the Christian church and my own denomination — and probably always will have.
Interesting that every time I’ve been on the verge of ‘leaving’ I meet someone within the body of the institution who makes staying both possible and worth it.
It’s not about “me” anyway – and good to remember that.
I always like Leonard Cohen’s responses to questions about him being a Buddhist. He would say he had a perfectly good religion, that he was Jewish. That fact didn’t prevent him from becoming a Zen practitioner and a monk.
Donal says:
Aug 5, 2010
I just want to echo and underscore the comments of Eugene and Beth. I have struggled with the gap between the substance and teachings of my faith and the ways that my faith (for me, biblical Christianity) are described, practiced and proclaimed by fellow believers, esp. who have mixed a political ideology that I don’t even know what to call any more because the language has become so loaded. I am referring to words like “right wing”, “conservative”, “neocon”, “fundamentalist”, etc. that to me only take their advocates away from the basic teachings of Jesus Christ.
I am not sure how to describe my own Christian faith, which is rooted in fundamental tenets of the Gospel, at times “conservative” in comparison to liberal individualism that dominates our culture, and always directed at reforming our world to bring it closer to what I see as consistent with the norms of peace, love, compassion, and justice held by many current faith communities.
Despite all the legitimate criticisms of the Christian church, it is my faith that demands I not turn my back on the potential and the hope that springs from this faith that we can work together to promote these values. Is it a frustrating walk, definitely. Does it make me discouraged and disillusioned with institutional expressions of contemporary religion—for sure. But I believe that is what believers are called to do, each day as best we can. I see no meaningful alternative.
Beth says:
Aug 5, 2010
To me, the heart of the Christian message is that we are called to live in paradox. It is in the tension that our own growth occurs. I am a bodyworker , and know that this is healing and life on planet earth. The body is our expression of dynamic tension which brings about growth, change and establishes us in relationship with the axis mundi. * Living in that tension is tricky – I’ve had my temper tantrums and walked away but I’ve ended up walking it back. I guess my feeling is that that’s what grownups are called to do. I don’t necessarily LIKE it but, there you go…