"We live in a country where people get mad about the wrong things and seem to care less about things that matter."
--Rob Bell
Or something to that effect, anyway. I woke up pissed this morning, to be frank. It didn't help that I had a somewhat challenging rehearsal last night. (I missed a rhythmic figure because I was so busy doing administrative work that I didn't take the time I needed to prepare the music for rehearsal. Lesson learned. When there's a mist in the pulpit there's a fog in the pew.)
Every now and again the low level rage that hides out in my soul rears its head and today is that day (I wish I could say that it wasn't there, but it is). So I woke up mad because of the combination of two conversations I participated in the last two weeks. The first conversation was in a small group where we were talking about the Kingdom of God. In essence, the entire concept of the Kingdom of God was like a big truth bomb that was dropped but never detonated (forgive the Tracy Morgan reference: I realize its a bad mixture of metaphors, or at least probably an inappropriate mixture). The concept (you know, the one that Jesus was talking about in his ministry: the main point) was, while not missed, exactly, well it seemed to fly over every one's head. I imagine that's just part of the trouble with the Kingdom! Think Jesus ever ran into this problem? :)
Now, understand, it's not their fault. These folks are wonderful people who love God and love one another! It's not their fault their church has, in many ways, abandoned them and left many of them with little more than a third-grade theological education. (I must say that these folks are doing better than third grade for sure, but the majority of American Christians are not.) In fact, to look at my own tribe, it's partly our fault. By ours, I mean the clergy. We've been so concerned with slipping numbers in our churches, our loss of relevance and prominence in the contemporary American culture, and by our own intramural arguments that we have forgotten the Kingdom work that Jesus calls us to. It IS about making disciples for Jesus Christ, but it's about transforming those disciples into what God had in mind for them: to be transformed, redeemed agents of the Kingdom. I believe that God so desperately wants Creation to become what He had in mind for it in the beginning that God must be irritated with the majority of God's church's failures to teach about the Kingdom, the Reign, the New World, that Jesus died for. Yes, Jesus' work on the cross was about personal salvation but it's about so much more than that! It's about defeating evil and transforming the powers and principalities, it's about recreating the world with God. I guess that's why the Christus Victor theory of atonement speaks to me in the way that it does.
The second conversation involved a vote by the school-board in the community that I serve. In a 5-2 decision they decided to not "allow" (as it was related to me) prayer before the school-board meetings. Some folks in our community are really mad about this. Let me be clear about where I am on this: I believe that one's faith should absolutely inform their political decisions: it's vital not only to our nation but also to the full coming of God's Kingdom. However, we DO NOT live in a Christian nation. Let's just be real honest about that. The majority of the founders were deists. Couple that with the facts on slavery and manifest destiny and I think it's pretty impossible to make a claim that we ever really were one. At least, we were never one that I would want to hold up as a model of the "perfect Christian nation."
I think the separation of church and state is a good thing not only for the state but also for the church. I also believe that, unless you can pray in an appropriate way in a public forum, that you should refrain from doing so. I love and value diversity. I want to be the kind of Christian that does not condemn people who don't believe the things that I believe. Now, honestly, I recognize that I struggle with that but mostly my struggle lies with my fellow Christians. (Sounds vaguely Wesleyan, God put me in the right tribe after all!)
Back to the second conversation. I really respect the folks whom I was engaged with in this conversation. But...what I found to be so difficult to understand was that they were really flummoxed by the school-board's decision, because they know most of the members on the board and they know them to be good, God-fearing people of faith, if you will. They seemed to be genuinely puzzled by the decision and, perhaps a bit angry about it.
Frankly, we live in a culture that gets angry about the the wrong things, and sits on the sidelines emotionally about the things that are worth getting angry about.
Really, we're angry because a group of seven people decided not to allow public prayers before a school-board meeting.
Please don't tell me, as someone so recently said to me, that this makes you an oppressed person. I struggle to believe that a Caucasian person, who makes a six-figure salary, who lives in a beautiful home in the burbs, who isn't truly persecuted for their faith, who honestly doesn't have to sweat how they are going to pay the rent, or where the next meal is coming from, please don't tell me that you are oppressed because of this decision. Now, you may be marginalized by your wealth and your community but you certainly aren't oppressed.
Really, we're passionately angry about a school-board decision that affects their meetings?
We're not passionately angry about the fact that 35,000 children WILL die today because they don't have enough to eat?
We're not passionately angry about the treatable pandemic of HIV/AIDS that's wiping out a GENERATION in Africa?
We're not passionately angry about Darfur?
We're not passionately angry that our country is now reviled?
We're not passionately angry that we've sold out human rights and the best parts of ourselves and used that capital to buy into a culture of fear?
We're not angry that the church is losing relevancy everyday because it refuses to get outside of itself and take a stand on issues that really matter?
REALLY?
Nah, we're pissed about the school-board.
You know, Rob Bell is right: some people are looking for a fight because they aren't deeply engaged in one that matters.
How much longer will we wait?
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