Non-Anxious

Being non-anxious might be the hardest thing in our culture.  Our culture and economic system is driven by anxiety.  I’ve attended seminars and workshops that teach persons how to be a “non-anxious presence” in conflicted situations where you are the ambassador, ombudsman, or peacemaker.  It is also an important attitude to embody, rather than skill, when one is immersed in changing a system, involved in argument, or feel threatened.  (As an aside, have a gun at the fingertips does not make one non-anxious.)  I am not very good at being non-anxious when I perceive that my companion or immediate family is being bullied, threatened, or taken advantage of by a system.  I’m not very good at being non-anxious when those I advocate for are being taken advantage of by a system.  I’m learning to be non-anxious about serving in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in ministry, this vocation I’ve given my life.  The table in our expression of Christian witness is open to everyone, fundamentalist to humanists, as is the call to love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  There are days that I don’t feel welcome even though I know the table is open to me.  I imagine that is how some of my colleagues and some of our congregations feel about our denomination’s continued evolution that is theological, practical, and social.  I know that is how I feel when, from my perspective, our denomination “devolves.”

I imagine anxiety about change, status, and the power to decide is driving much of conflict and division in our denomination as well as our Nation.  White patriarchy, as the dominant system in our country, is battling to retain power as the melting pot is turning over.  The idea that our country is more like a “stew” than a melting pot divides rather than unites.  The patriarchy in our nation is, right now, making it harder to vote for people of color, for 18-30 year olds, and for the elderly in many places in our country and much of the 4th Estate is owned by corporations that need the patriarchy to maintain power so the evening news no longer critically reports on such things.  It’s bad business.  Better to cover the words of a woman that cooks southern food than shine the light on the system.  When a Republican official in Pennsylvania can openly talk about changing voter laws to ensure that the Republican candidate for President will win elections, and yet SCOTUS removes important provisions of the voting rights act, it makes me skeptical about the intentions of these seats of power.  I know they are working to balance the scales.  That might be the best lens through which to view the work of SCOTUS right now.

Anxious times for many, but not those that hold elected office in DC nor Oklahoma right now.  Many that call themselves Republican can quote scripture, but cannot love their neighbor as themselves enough to craft humane immigration law, fair tax law, nor grasp the concept that healthcare in the 21st century, and the last, is an important part of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  That matters no matter the faith you proclaim or not.  That is the uniqueness of America’s character that our elected officials govern together and don’t “reign.”  Reign, is the only word that seems to fit when I see the work of Republican legislatures from Texas to Virginia.  Fighting, sometimes hiding in the night to do their work, to “reign” and alter our system to slow the turning over of the melting pot.  That is what it appears the patriarchy is doing.  I don’t know what minority allies are promised, but my guess is it will not alter life for their communities as much as enrich their own holdings.  Why isn’t anyone in the mainstream 4th Estate asking what is the intent behind the new voter laws in so many states?  Why isn’t anyone in the mainstream 4th Estate asking what is the intent driving state legislatures to close health clinics that serve women?  Because we are acting like a stew rather than a melting pot.

Enter this guy, Seth, a marketing professional who sends pithy emails, that I subscribe to receive, each day.  This morning it was titled, The Opposite of Anxiety.   A paragraph and a link to read more.

With disappointment, I note that our culture doesn’t have an easily found word for the opposite. For experiencing success in advance. For visualizing the best possible outcomes before they happen.

Writing yourself fan mail in advance and picturing the change you’ve announced you’re trying to make is an effective way to push yourself to build something that actually generates that action.  Click here to read more.

, 08/02/2013. Category: Culture, DOC Thoughts, Michael D.

Decline . . .

I understand the concern.  Declining participants in a corporate or consumer driven model smells like fatigue, out of date, need to upgrade, or flat out failure.  Many Disciples of Christ congregations are a shadow of their numerical highs when Discipledom was expanding between 1972 and 1985.  Context and culture matter, but in crisis mode those questions rarely are asked.  Martin Marty offers some good thoughts from a Sightings email.  If you are not on his email list, I suggest if for weekly reading.

MainlineDecline, Decline-Talk, and Decline-ism
by Martin E. Marty | Monday | July 22 2013

Published in late 1959, my first book, The New Shape of American Religion, cited several mainstream commentators and spotted numerous trends to suggest that the then-much-noticed “revival of interest” in religion had crested in 1958. It’s bad manners for authors to cite their own writings, but… Religious institutions, e.g., in suburbia, were prospering, but the culture, ethos, and spirit of religion in America were changing. We did not speak of ‘Mainline Decline” in part because the “mainline” in America’s then-majority religion, “Protestantism,” did not yet have a name. But decline soon began, in “the Sixties,” observers observe.

I mention this after having reflected on “Mainline Decline” in a recent Christian Century blog-post. Today, one could speak of a virtual link between the two words, as in “Mainlinedecline.” Readers of Sightings can test this trend by using their search engines to confirm how headlines routinely refer to decline.

I played the game of typing “decline” alongside other entities. Thus: “declining Catholic” linked with “number of” “worshippers,” “priests,” “nuns,” “seminarians,” and “parishes.” “Declining Jewish” linked with “number of members” reveal statistics that make ‘Mainline’ or ‘Protestant’ or ‘Christian’ appear comparatively healthy.

We are only getting started: type “decline” and link it even to “Fundamentalist,” “Evangelical.” “African-American” or “Black,” “Suburban” or “Megachurch” or—be startled!—“Brazilian Catholicism.” We find “decline-talk” associated with almost every “institutional” (at least nominally) population cohort. Currently, “Latter-day Saints” or “Mormon” plus kinds of “Pentecostalism” are the only exceptions.

Why point out decline among the religions when Sightings’ role is to spot and explore religion in outstanding events? What goes on here with “decline?” A fad? Maybe “decline” is not occurring. This claim is hard to support. Maybe headline writers are concentrating on the wrong aspects of religion. Maybe they are exhibiting the old “be-the-first-kid-on-your-block” syndrome, seeking to be a jump ahead, to get a scoop. Maybe enemies of religious institutions of all sorts are enjoying mass Schadenfreude, enjoying the misfortunes of others. Whatever else is going on, noticing this phenomenon should be liberating: we are henceforth allowed to yawn when one more headline-writer tries to play catch-up.

I’ve been on this beat since the above-noticed year of 1958, and thus have been chronicling the ups and/or downs in religious participation and institutional life. Like others, I’ve seen good reason to prefix certain terms with “post-“ as in “post-Protestant,” “post-Christian” (not “post-religious,” however). The writers and doers that I respect ask what succeeds and replaces something like “the Mainline.”

Notice: millions of citizens are not “bowling alone,” (Robert Putnam’s appropriate analogy in his book, Bowling Alone), or being “spiritual” on their own, in splendid entrepreneurial isolation.

We observe them instead in tens of thousands of parishes and temples where, in difficult places and against cultural odds, old faithful and new faithful people pray, give for, and through, “institutional religion,” serve their God, serve others, and, yes, are interesting. They all notice that the needs they serve are not declining in numbers or weight, and they draw inspiration for that service from the resources of their particular faiths.

References:

Marty, Martin. “Rough Treatment.” The Christian Century, July 17, 2013. http://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2013-07/rough-treatment.

Dickerson, John. “The Decline of Evangelical America,” The New York Times Sunday Review (The Opinion Pages), Dec. 15, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/opinion/sunday/the-decline-of-evangelical-america.html?pagewanted=all.

Wiener, Julie. “Study: Shul Affiliation Rising, but Jewish Population Declining,” The Jewish Federations of North America, Feb. 27, 2013. http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=29185.

Sullivan, Amy. “Pope Benedict and the Decline of American Catholicism,” National Journal, Feb. 11, 2013. Updated May 30, 2013. http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/pope-benedict-and-the-decline-of-american-catholicism-20130211.

Ram, Alessandra. “In Changing Neighborhoods, Black Churches Face an Identity Crisis.” The Atlantic, Oct. 12, 2012. http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/10/in-changing-neighborhoods-black-churches-face-an-identity-crisis/263305/.

, 07/29/2013. Category: DOC Thoughts, Guest Column.
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