Like many Americans, I paid close attention to the public Senate hearings regarding allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. While I could not watch the hearings in their entirety, I watched or listened to roughly half of the proceedings.
That was more than enough to find the entire conversation demoralizing. While many of those involved paid lip service to seeking truth, mostly it was an exercise in political warfare, pitting one side against another. Both Republicans and Democrats railed against the questionable tactics of the other side related to hiding or revealing evidence and rushing or slowing the process.
Others have written extensively about the increasing tribalism in our culture, in politics and beyond. Without question, this tribalism stretches into the church as well. We join our teams and we stick by them. We circle the wagons when others threaten or challenge someone in our own tribe. We minimize suggestions that people we know or agree with have done something wrong, while railing against the misdeeds of people in other groups.
I am part of a denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) whose founding impulse resisted such tribalism in the church. Some of our spiritual ancestors left the Presbyterian tradition disillusioned by how much effort was spent arguing and dividing among themselves. They saw in the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament an essential unity of purpose for Christians and believed that there were more important things that should unite us than divide us.
Of course, even that restorationist movement has split at least three times in the past 200 years, arguing over such things as how connections between congregations should work, the role of music in worship, and the leadership of women. So we clearly haven't always lived up to our own ideals.
In this climate, I wonder the best way to work towards highlighting shared values in both the church and in politics. Unfortunately, the pressure is towards increasing Balkanization in both areas, splitting us into smaller groups that passionately protect their own identity against all others, usually in the name of philosophical or theological purity -- pushing out everyone who disagrees with certain core values, rather than seeking shared values with groups who may disagree with us on other things.
In my heart of hearts, I lament how incapable we are of seeking such basic agreement now. Watching the judicial hearings, I was again frustrated by the seeming inability of people of both parties to simply want a good appellate judge. In their questions and public statements, it is clear that in their eyes a good judge is simply someone who will make rulings that they agree with. Ultimately, though, a good Supreme Court justice is one who can clearly explain what issues are at stake in each case and make a compelling argument, relying on precedent, about which values are most important. Any justice who serves on the federal judiciary for two decades will consider cases that cannot be imagined when they are confirmed. They (with the help of their colleagues and retinues of law clerks) will write opinions that will shape the legal landscape far into the future.
Instead, the conversation today is about winners and losers. Will the president be able to push through his nominee? Will the minority Democratic party find a way to stop the confirmation?
And how does this impact the church? The cultural climate shapes our conversations and actions. All too often, we find the practices of other churches threatening, rather than motivating or a cause for celebration. We circle our own wagons, holding onto the patterns (and leaders) of the past, scared of what might replace them. This makes it almost impossible to find common ground. And we are ever more like the Corinthian Christians long ago -- some of us saying "we belong to Apollos" and others "we belong to Paul" -- rather than experiencing and sharing the radical love of Jesus Christ that is so much bigger than our divisions.
We need to stop suggesting that good Christians are the ones who check off the boxes of certain beliefs (which surprisingly match our own most important beliefs). We need to be more open to the divine wisdom nurtured in other practices, rather than being terrified of them. We need to stop seeing everyone who doesn't immediately identify as part of our team as the enemy and someone to fear. We need to walk more humbly with our God.
The problem right now is that such attitudes don't seem to excite many voters or churchgoers. They don't elect public officials. They don't increase church attendance. Instead fear drives us. We are terrified that "they" might win. And we must do whatever we can to stop "them."
That attitude is undoubtedly human. It just doesn't seem to me to be, in any way, Christian.
That was more than enough to find the entire conversation demoralizing. While many of those involved paid lip service to seeking truth, mostly it was an exercise in political warfare, pitting one side against another. Both Republicans and Democrats railed against the questionable tactics of the other side related to hiding or revealing evidence and rushing or slowing the process.
Others have written extensively about the increasing tribalism in our culture, in politics and beyond. Without question, this tribalism stretches into the church as well. We join our teams and we stick by them. We circle the wagons when others threaten or challenge someone in our own tribe. We minimize suggestions that people we know or agree with have done something wrong, while railing against the misdeeds of people in other groups.
I am part of a denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) whose founding impulse resisted such tribalism in the church. Some of our spiritual ancestors left the Presbyterian tradition disillusioned by how much effort was spent arguing and dividing among themselves. They saw in the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament an essential unity of purpose for Christians and believed that there were more important things that should unite us than divide us.
Of course, even that restorationist movement has split at least three times in the past 200 years, arguing over such things as how connections between congregations should work, the role of music in worship, and the leadership of women. So we clearly haven't always lived up to our own ideals.
In this climate, I wonder the best way to work towards highlighting shared values in both the church and in politics. Unfortunately, the pressure is towards increasing Balkanization in both areas, splitting us into smaller groups that passionately protect their own identity against all others, usually in the name of philosophical or theological purity -- pushing out everyone who disagrees with certain core values, rather than seeking shared values with groups who may disagree with us on other things.
In my heart of hearts, I lament how incapable we are of seeking such basic agreement now. Watching the judicial hearings, I was again frustrated by the seeming inability of people of both parties to simply want a good appellate judge. In their questions and public statements, it is clear that in their eyes a good judge is simply someone who will make rulings that they agree with. Ultimately, though, a good Supreme Court justice is one who can clearly explain what issues are at stake in each case and make a compelling argument, relying on precedent, about which values are most important. Any justice who serves on the federal judiciary for two decades will consider cases that cannot be imagined when they are confirmed. They (with the help of their colleagues and retinues of law clerks) will write opinions that will shape the legal landscape far into the future.
Instead, the conversation today is about winners and losers. Will the president be able to push through his nominee? Will the minority Democratic party find a way to stop the confirmation?
And how does this impact the church? The cultural climate shapes our conversations and actions. All too often, we find the practices of other churches threatening, rather than motivating or a cause for celebration. We circle our own wagons, holding onto the patterns (and leaders) of the past, scared of what might replace them. This makes it almost impossible to find common ground. And we are ever more like the Corinthian Christians long ago -- some of us saying "we belong to Apollos" and others "we belong to Paul" -- rather than experiencing and sharing the radical love of Jesus Christ that is so much bigger than our divisions.
We need to stop suggesting that good Christians are the ones who check off the boxes of certain beliefs (which surprisingly match our own most important beliefs). We need to be more open to the divine wisdom nurtured in other practices, rather than being terrified of them. We need to stop seeing everyone who doesn't immediately identify as part of our team as the enemy and someone to fear. We need to walk more humbly with our God.
The problem right now is that such attitudes don't seem to excite many voters or churchgoers. They don't elect public officials. They don't increase church attendance. Instead fear drives us. We are terrified that "they" might win. And we must do whatever we can to stop "them."
That attitude is undoubtedly human. It just doesn't seem to me to be, in any way, Christian.
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