Category: Michael D
Segregated by . . .
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr is said to have observed that the most segregated hour of a Christian America is Sunday morning. He was working to shame white clergy and community leaders by appealing to their identity as practicing Christians and with a morality that has welcomed the stranger in their midst. His Letter from a Birmingham Jail, is the best example of King’s prophetic witness to a Christianity too comfortable with its segregation. But, that is part of the Christian narrative. A majority of Christians agree on the object of faith, some version a confession of faith, “Jesus is the Christ. The son of the living God and I accept him as my personal savior.” Oddly, Jesus always pointed to God rather than himself as the object of faith. But, Christians disagree on what Jesus’ example means for what I call “how to be gospel” for each generation, for the outcast, in war zones, for the refugee, through governing, and for the “blessed” in every culture. It is hear where Christians struggle with one another and with “culture” to be gospel.
Back on October 19, Martin Marty’s, Sightings, observed in the opening paragraph:
Cynics, but not only cynics, like to observe, not always inaccurately, that Christians are never happy unless they are fighting—each other. Certainly, their scriptures have notes of militancy. Most of these signal fighting—evils at a distance or evils within the self.
There are good people on each side of the argument, it’s probably ok to characterize it as a “fight,” within Christianity about what a faithful response is: for immigrants that entered the country legally and illegally; the change in the law that allow same-sex couples to marry; acceptable levels of destruction to the environment and workers in the advance of capitalism, energy, and consumerism. These seem the popular topics of the day.
Christians Fighting Christians
Martin Marty | October 19, 2015It is not the business of bystanders in Sightings to say how these conflicts will finally be resolved or to predict whether they can be moderated “globally.” It is on our agenda to observe “religion-in-public-life,” a safe place from which to observe that there seems to be “no place to hide” from this century’s conflict-of-choice in the global church.
Relationship & Identity, Not Apostolic Ecclesiological Authority
Even when I have issues with our GMP [that’s General Minister and President – we Disciples love our shorthand], I have an appreciation for how difficult it is to be “in charge” without having any organizational power. Rev. Sharon Watkins, our GMP, is tasked with representing our brand of Christian witness in the plurality of Christianity, and in interfaith dialogue, and with the growing populations of the de-churched and the ‘nones’ as well as clarify an identity of who the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is, and what our shared mission and witness is. The GMP does this while managing the relationships between our theological factions that believe “they” represent what “true” discipledom is all about.
And now to chase a rabbit. I’m not a fan of our denominational vision statement that adapts Micah 6:8 for our own purposes. It was a pretty good little piece of scriptural wisdom before we added our adjective markers like corporate America does. And, even though it says, Our Confession, on our home page, Disciples in fact don’t have a denominational “confession” like our apostolic siblings in faith. Individual disciples make a confession of faith, but it is not creedal, not an acceptance of a particular doctrine, nor an “Affirmation of Faith.” Disciples don’t do that nor require that. That’s what made us a “liberal” frontier movement years ago: open communion without a creedal assent to faith, nor denominational specific baptism often rooted in geography. Can you guess where I fall on the theological spectrum?
Now, back on to main trail. For the past twenty years, our movement for wholeness has struggled to keep the family together, and intentionally assimilate new family members into a Disciples ethos. That ethos, I think, is an embrace of an evolving theological conversation informed by education, experience, and exegesis of the whole biblical witness. Our movement is struggling with changing culture, changing demographics, more choice in the drink cooler labeled “Christian,” and a revival of the idea of separate, but equal. Discipledom, like our Nation, has become more mulligan stew than melting pot. Our relationships and identity were the authority that kept us at the table, together. There was a place set because I claimed Jesus of Nazareth as Christ in my life; and I lived in covenant with other Disciples to be accountable about the consistency of my belief and my living. It is the mulligan stew that our GMP stirs, adds spice, and tries to keep at a simmer rather than allowing it to boil over. For some, the inclusion of LGBTQ persons into congregational life, ordained leadership, and equality through marriage has turned up the heat on the stew. Rev. Sharon Watkins, and our Regional Ministers, share something in common with the Archbishop of Canterbury who is dealing with a family that is not sure they want to share the same name, interpret their history and scripture through different lenses, and feel like the family name is being denigrated. It is happening in many expressions of religion most notably in, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. It is a question of authority and power. It is also a question about what is essential with little thought of charity or liberty.
The Archbishop of Canterbury: Dissolving the Anglican Church to Save It
David A Graham, The Atlantic, Sept 15, 2015“We have no Anglican Pope. Our authority as a church is dispersed, and is ultimately found in Scripture, properly interpreted,” Welby said in his statement. That’s essential for understanding what’s happening now. The archbishop draws his authority as much from tradition and an Anglican sense of propriety as any formal role.