This was a piece that I had written a couple of weeks ago but haven’t posted yet. But I am prompted to post it because this month’s issue of Connections, a monthly newsletter by Barbara Wendland.
She prefaced this month’s issue by a note indicating that
It’s a statement I’ve thought about and worked on for several months. Throughout those months I’ve kept wavering about whether to use it or not, because I know it expresses beliefs that some readers will find unacceptable.
However, I also know that many churchgoers and “church alumni/ae” have had many of the thoughts I’m expressing here but have assumed they were alone, because they didn’t hear anyone expressing such thoughts. I think it’s important to remind these readers not only that they’re far from alone but also that many Christians are thinking such thoughts and believe they need to be openly addressed in the church. So I’ve decided to send this issue.
I suspect that at a later time, some of the beliefs I’ve expressed in this Connections will have changed. And I’m not claiming that they’re the truth—they’re merely how these subjects look to me at this point in my life. I offer them in the hope that they may help readers re-think their own beliefs. Thanks for considering them.
I find myself in agreement with much of what Barbara had to write in the newsletter this month. But I also disagree with her on some of the points. Before you read my thoughts, I want to encourage you to read this month’s issue of Connections. (And if you are not a subscriber, you really need to think about becoming one; she puts a lot of time and thought into each issue and she is addressing questions that many of the laity and clergy of the United Methodist Church today are asking.)
I have posted some of my own thoughts on this topic in the piece “Why?”
I found out after I started this piece that the title of this piece is also the title of play written by Eric Bentley in 1999. And while my thoughts about the title are related to the content of the play, the search and hunt for communists in 1950’s, I want to take the implications of the question just a bit further.
Of course, for those who are of my generation and the previous one, the question that was asked was “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” For some, refusal to answer the question left them effectively blacklisted in terms of employment; others willingly answered the question and named names. It was a period of time when the fear of communism ran rampant through society and life, beginning when Joseph McCarthy, the Republican Senator from Wisconsin, held up a piece of paper and said that it contained the names of communists employed in the United States State Department. It most likely ended when Edward R. Murrow produced a documentary film that questioned the veracity of Senator McCarthy and those who supported him in his efforts. It is interesting to note that the actual number that was supposed to be on the page was never consistent nor were the names divulged and those who were proclaimed communist were often done so by innuendo and hearsay, with no ability to face those who made the accusations.
Now, you will tell me that such rampant witch-hunts could not occur today; we are a much more enlightened society. But we just went through an eight-year period where one’s patriotism was questioned if you opposed or questioned the Bush Administration’s war plans.
We have become a nation of labels, quick to be affixed and affixed with super glue so that they cannot be removed.
We are called technological luddites if we even suggest that computer-based education is overrated or that on-line education will be the path to the future. Yet, we ignore the fact that every new technological innovation has been applied to education and found wanting as those involved have simply transposed what is being done in one method to the “new and better” way. We are told we are socialists if we even suggest that there be some sort of single-payer option for health care and that such options would be unwieldy and cumbersome bureaucracy; yet we ignore the fact that we are dealing with such bureaucracies already. As Dom Helder Câmara, late archbishop of the Brazilian diocese of Olinda and Recife (Wednesday, Oct. 13 was the 10th anniversary of his death – Source: Guardian) once said, “When I feed the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why so many people are poor they call me a communist.”
But such exchanges are only the tip of the iceberg, as it were. Name-calling has replaced thoughtful dialogue; hate and invective are the basis upon which our public speech is based. No longer are we interested in the resolution in the problem but affixing blame and avoiding responsibility. This can be seen in how we view Christianity.
Somewhere along the line, somewhere in the past twenty years or so, we have also lost the definition of what it is to be a Christian. To say that you are a Christian today is to invite invective and disdain, ridicule and derision. For too many people, to state that you are a Christian and especially an evangelical Christian is to state that you are a “bigot”, “homophobic”, “chauvinistic”, and “reactionary.” But in the same breath, individuals will describe Jesus as “caring, understanding, forgiving, kind, and empathetic.” How can the description of Christ be so different from those who have been asked to tell the story? (From Speaking My Mind by Tony Campolo)
But even amongst many Christians, there is some disagreement as to what a Christian is. As Tony Campolo also noted,
… the last place where I can really quote Jesus these days is in American churches. They don’t want to hear ‘overcome evil with good.’ They don’t want to hear ‘those who live by the sword die by the sword.’ They don’t want to hear ‘if your enemy hurts you, do good, feed, clothe, minister to him.’ They don’t want to hear ‘blessed are the merciful.’ They don’t want to hear ‘love your enemies.’ (Tony Campolo as quoted in Christian Week magazine and reported in SojoMail for 9/10/03)
It appears that Christianity in America is a different sort of religion from what it was meant to be. It is one in which people can live their own lives, not one in which they seek the one given to us by Christ.
We have Americanized Christianity so that it fits our concept of society and our culture. It’s an adaptation of the true truth to fit our materialistic and consumer-driven world.
To say that you are a Christian is to also say that somehow you cannot think independently and freely. To say that you are a scientist is to say that you deny the existence of God and Jesus Christ. And each side of this faith/science divide looks upon those on the other side with a questionable eye. I cannot say for certain but I do know that some schools to which I have applied for a position feel that my openness about my beliefs are a detriment to my ability to present science in a non-judgmental, scientific and logical manner.
We have created a society in which we ignore the role Christianity (and in fact, all faiths) have played in history. We may speak of the atrocities that many religions have committed in the name of faith yet we ignore the role those same religions have played in the maintenance of society and culture.
Where would we be today if monasteries during the Dark Ages had not kept copies of the books from being destroyed? Where would we be today if the Arab countries of that same time period had not developed chemistry, algebra, or the idea of the zero? Where would Starbucks and all other coffee houses be if the Arabs had not created coffee?
The time has come for us to consider what Christianity is, what faith is, and why each one of us has chosen the path upon which we have walked. The discussions that have taken place and are taking place in this land speak to a situation in which many of us proclaim to all that would hear that we are Christians if it is Sunday morning at 10 am but whose words, thoughts, and deeds pronounce a different faith or belief.
Are you now a Christian? Have you ever been a Christian? Now may very well be the time for you to respond because tomorrow could be too late.
