The 21st Century Heretic

My friend Dave Gerber, pastor of a Nazarene Church here in Michigan, is in a debate on facebook regarding the Emerging Church. Dave is not your typical pastor. He'd never make it in a Jan Karon novel. Maybe Tom Clancy.

Like a good student and teacher of the bible, he goes in with an open mind, tries to see both sides of the argument, and engage in a calm discussion. My own Methodist church sets the standard for open-mindedness and calm discussions. As Pastor Dave surely knows, keeping an open mind is a good way to get labeled a "heretic."

It's become a popular word in the 21st century American Christian crowd. My handy dandy Google dictionary defines heretic as "a professed believer who maintains religious opinions contrary to those accepted by his or her church or rejects doctrines prescribed by that church."

For those of you outside the church (and I can't blame you if you fear stepping inside), each denomination has a set of defined principles, beliefs, etc. There's a bit of variation, sometimes in the way they baptize (and at what age), the exact wording of your confession of faith, how communion is served, etc. The Catholic church, of course, varies greatest from the large grouping of denominations labeled "Protestant."

However, the "doctrines" of the church as a whole remain fairly simple and surprisingly few. I prefer Paul's 2 step plan: confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that he was raised from the dead. It's so simple anyone can do it. Hey! How 'bout that? It's almost as if God intended that anyone have easy access to heaven. No cover charge, just a simple dress code (a white robe...where do I sign up?).

Like any good organization, though, the church has managed to take a 2 step plan and turn it into something the U.S. Congress would be proud of. And here's the rub: those churches who are trying to reverse the over-regulation of the past hundred years or so and go back to the basic principles are the ones getting the bad press. As far as I can tell, in order to be a heretic in the church, you have to reject Jesus as Lord or deny that he was raised from the dead. We can argue a few more, the virgin birth comes to mind. But let's keep it simple for now.

Let's talk about what a heretic is not. A heretic is not someone who believes that the prophecies in Revelations were fulfilled in the first century. A heretic is not someone who believes that homosexuals should be allowed to marry (please...this is not my belief, but I don't feel someone should be tossed from the church for that particular stand). A heretic is not someone who worships on a day other than the one you've chosen. A heretic is not someone who votes Democrat.

This is not the time to make non-believers feel as if they need a masters degree in churchology to sit in a pew. We are in an age when people have lost all hope in their government, in corporations, even in themselves. They need something to grasp onto. If they look at the church and see us bickering like a roomful of politicians, they'll look elsewhere.

I find, as I get older, I respond to questions about faith with "I don't know" a heck of a lot more than I used to. If you have all the answers, please don't let me know. I've heard from you enough. Jesus had 3 1/2 years to teach his fledgling church all they needed to know. And guess what? After that 3 1/2 years most of them still didn't get it! They disagreed with one another, then later found another victim, Paul, with whom to disagree. So which one of the disciples were heretics, my friends?

I'll let you choose. Because I don't know.

A long long Trail of Tears

My pastor tread on sacred ground this morning. Sacred because it's a subject I struggle with in the privacy of my own vehicle or during some sleepless night, having been kept awake by two cats under the influence of a full moon. It's one of those subjects I fear, because it forces me to confront many of my beliefs, some I've held since my youth.

The subject dealt with the continual build up of arms, nuclear and otherwise, by this nation that I hold dear. The pastor stated that this build up, in our nation and others, is done on the backs of the poor. I bristled at that statement. After all, the U.S. doesn't allow it's citizens to starve while funnelling trillions into a military build up with the intention of invading a neighbor.

Not directly, anyway.

After reflecting upon some of my previous reflections, I've always known that any funneling of a nation's resources for military purposes is a drain on the economy. And any drain on the economy, whether a useless government program, a recession, or military build up, always hits the poor the hardest. That's the natural way of economics, so it's logical. Imagine what we could do if the trillions of dollars that has gone into the military could have gone back to the taxpayers. Think of the humming economy that would emerge from that situation. Jobs for everyone. Billions of additional income for charitable causes. Our one nation could literally feed the world.

Yes, I know what you're saying. And I'm saying it, too. That simply would not happen. If we were to hit the "off" button on our military and simply lay our guns on the bar, we'd be overrun by our enemies. In fact, if we'd followed the directives of Christ 200 years ago, we may not have even taken up arms against England. After all, we were told to submit to authority.

So the million (or trillion) dollar question is this: is it the Christian's place to remain passive and accept whatever oppression comes with it? Let's be realistic now. If we follow the commands of Christ to the letter and listen to what He's saying, the church would always suffer persecution. Or has America found the magic solution? We can worship Jesus and be free of any persecution. Freedom of religion. That's America! Except that the church in America enjoys this freedom from within a wall of nuclear warheads. Ouch. I mean, really, ouch.

If we are perfectly honest with ourselves and not use our highlighted bible (you know, the one where you've highlighted all the verses that apply to you and your way of life), we have to come to the conclusion that there really is no such thing as a Christian soldier, not in the literal, secular sense anyway.

And if we are perfectly honest and not use the John Wayne version of history, this country did not win it's freedom without committing certain atrocities, those same atrocities that we fled Europe to avoid. Ouch again. Darn, this is getting hard.

In fact, if we follow this long trail of tears for several thousand years, we'll find that the only country that can say it's free of any guilt is...none of 'em. Not a single nation on this earth exists without horrific abuse of another people's basic human rights. As another matter of fact, the only nation that has been mentioned in the Bible as having received God's special blessings is Israel. Ain't that a blip? If we were to vote on the country most likely to be wiped off the map in the last sixty years, and the next sixty, it would be Israel. So if God allows that kind of pounding to be continually prescribed to His chosen people, what makes us U.S. of Americans think we're getting off with a free pass?

Are we destined to be a persecuted lot? Has all this freedom come at the cost of our own humanity? Believe you me, I'm not suggesting I've got the answer, nor did my pastor. His job is to make me step outside the old comfort cube and take a good hard look at myself and my beliefs. Doggone him, he's doing a good job. I love him, but he can be really annoying that way.

And here's the punch line: If we do come to that conclusion, that we are to remain passive and accept our fate, we know, at least we should know, that we will still find absolute joy in the fact of our salvation. Because, we know in our heart of hearts, that we are sinners, just as much as the guy holding a gun against our temple, demanding that we renounce our faith. After all, the guy with the gun is sending me home at last. Unless we manage the world's quickest evangelistic maneuver and get this guy on his knees, he's the one in trouble, not us.

During the sermon this morning, then during a long walk outside my home after the sermon, and while I've tapped out this blog, I've managed to answer zero questions and plant a couple hundred fresh questions, each one of which could result in a blog posting of it's own. Each one, no doubt, resulting in another large planting of questions. The harvester, the guy with the answers, unfortunately, is still biding His time, waiting for the moment when He's pretty sure that not one more soul will be saved.

Until that time, I'm afraid, we'll continue down this trail of tears. Killing so we won't be killed. Our enemies killing us so they won't be killed. We can all agree to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, we just can't agree on who will go first.

Washing off the Ash

A very good friend of mine e-mailed me yesterday and asked what exactly I'm doing these days. He wondered if I'm blogging while on the treadmill (working on it), writing a novel, and performing some sort of service at my "real job." What struck me is that he referred to my blog postings as "religious." I guess there's no other way to categorize it, but it still struck me as funny. I've never considered myself religious and still don't. Let me explain.

I'm a fairly intelligent person, though I have my moments of self-destructive idiocy. My favorite method of self-destruction is food. Love food. All kinds, man. My wife and I have this fantasy of going to Disney World without the kids and eating our way through Epcot. I can (and have) consumed an entire batch of chocolate chip cookie dough without breaking a sweat. You are now, no doubt, picturing me as a contestant on his first day at the Biggest Loser Ranch..."Why, yes, Allison, I do enjoy the occasional snack of vanilla frosting and graham crackers...no, no, the whole can...what's that? Oh, all the crackers, baby...are you going to be pregnant every season? Sorry, my blood sugar is low...got any of your prego-stash Twinkies around?"

But it's not quite that bad. I have struggled with my weight since I was ten years old but have never been obese. I have my ups and downs, like most, but I can never just give up and coast along. I've been on various diets and exercise routines and, for the most part, have held together and survived 42 years on this planet.

Stay with me. I'm going somewhere with this. Until groups like Weight Watchers turned the corner some years back, weight loss plans were often very regimented. Rules had to be adhered to, calorie counting followed precisely. It was, and often still is, a religion. I hated it then, I hate it now. That's not living, brother. If a hot piece of apple pie hits my plate, it's go time.

The plans that did work, and still do, are those that give me some freedom. The aforementioned Weight Watchers lightened up some years ago and provide a lot more flexibility in my eating plan. My exercise schedule is fairly loose, but I stick to it. All this means that I'm dieting, but not on a diet. I'm dieting in the way that we were meant to diet, by returning to a normal lifestyle, not the McDonald's mentality that we've attached ourselves to over the last fifty years or so. What we call a diet, our recent ancestors called living.

Let's bring this analogy home. Religion, to me, is a set of rules that I have to follow to gain God's grace. Many of my Christian friends are nodding in agreement. Oh, really? Take a look around, many of our brothers and sisters shout "heretic!" at every one they don't see in a mirror.

But faith, as I prefer to call it, is simply letting go. Letting go of what? I'm not sure. Pride, selfishness, greed, and gluttony...especially gluttony (I recommend Weight Watchers). Faith is more like the diet that is simply a return to normalcy. This is what God wanted from us in the Garden. Just trusting in Him and enjoying the life He's provided for us. Know what happens when we try to improve on the life He's provided for us? Please refer to the newspaper stories in section A on any given weekday. Just like trying to improve on our natural diet leads to reality shows where people actually compete to turn around the morbid results of their eating habits.

I shudder to think that anyone refers to me as "religious." I'm sure it happens because that's the tag society has created for those of us who go to church every Sunday. I don't like rules. I'm still me. But I'm me without the excess baggage. I'm free, unhindered by sin or rules. When I came home last night from Ash Wednesday services and washed the ashes from my forehead, I wasn't any less a follower of Christ. It's just ash. Underneath was flesh, blood, and a spirit I'm still trying to understand.

And I'm looking damn good in my 32 waist Levis.

Fighting Rome

Like most Christians in American, my political leanings are conservative. I was a conservative before being a Christian. At that time it had nothing to do with abortion, religious freedom, lax restrictions on the porn industry, or any of the other reasons normally associated with the so called religious right. It began with my military upbringing and then my understanding of economics.

It's extremely tempting to launch into an argument against big government and for a more conservative platform. Trust me, it's taking everything in me to stay off my soap box. That is not the intent of this blog and I must remain true to that or start another blog.

I say all that so that you'll understand the depth of my passion for the conservative movement. If I were an extreme liberal, explaining that would serve the same purpose. Because what I ponder, what every student of the New Testament must ponder, is the Christian's place in a very secular, political world.

Jesus made it clear that neither the Jews nor his followers (who were, of course, also Jews) were to defend themselves against Rome. He never spoke out against Caesar or even Herod. Every minute of his time on Earth was directed at focusing on our spiritual well-being. Prayer, giving to the poor, humility, self-denial. And loving our enemies.

Paul reinforces these aspects of the Christian life later in his many letters. Never does he rally the faithful to speak out against the oppressive rulers of the day. Though Jesus and Paul both speak out against injustice. Which seems to be the gray area here. Are they speaking about injustice on a national scale? Or the daily injustices doled out among individuals? It's tough to say.

While Jesus and Paul certainly saw the futility of taking a stand against Rome, would we have advised William Wilberforce to keep silent his views about the slave trade in England? I'll hazard a guess that no one reading this thinks so. If, in certain cases of extreme human suffering, we are to take a stand against the powers that be, where is the boundary line between real suffering and simple disagreements on policy?

I write this because I have no answer to that question. I write this because, like many of my brothers and sisters in Christ, I wonder where the Lord would prefer I spend my energies. I could make the case that big government could eventually lead to outright socialism, which leads toward government abuse of power, lower standards of living for all, and poverty on a mass scale.

My liberal friends would say I'm overreacting. Our system of government would never allow things to go that far and our Constitution allows for the reversal of such extremes. It's happened in Europe, after all, and several countries have reversed a trend toward socialism. This I can grant you. Unless the Constitution is completely overthrown, we can undo any harm done by a wildly socialistic government. I'm not sure I believe that, but for the sake of the argument, I'll concede to it.

Which brings me back to my quandary: is it the Christian's place to expend his or her time, talent, and energies fighting for a political stance, be it conservatism, liberalism, or any other ism? Are we better serving our Lord by helping the poor, visiting prisoners, and reaching out to a lost generation, one person at a time?

There is no easy answer to this. The Church is expected to continue its mission despite the economic and political circumstances in which it finds itself. After all, China now has a larger population of Christians than the U.S. The Chinese church doesn't seem to be waiting for a more agreeable human rights arrangement with its government before they enter into service to the Lord. While they get imprisoned for holding unauthorized church services, we protest the removal of a nativity scene from the courthouse lawn. Has the U.S. church gotten a little soft or are we realistically heading off a plunge into a socialist, anti-church America?

To some that seems preposterous, something only found in the minds of the most fanatical conspiracy theorists. But let me leave you this: there is a bill floating around in Washington called the Fairness Doctrine. While the title says fairness, it is obviously an Orwellian attempt to silence the conservative majority in talk radio. If something like that is possible in America, how far will we go? And I still haven't answered my question. Do I speak out and spend hours writing congressmen or do I keep my attention focused on things I have more power to control, like giving a homeless man a coat or volunteering in a soup kitchen?

If anyone has an answer, I'm listening. I believe God has an answer, so I'll spend more time listening to Him and less time screaming at the headlines.