Pastoral Ponderings
Faith at a Crossroad
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve - Joshua 24:15
When I graduated from Seminary the Pastor who gave the message for the ceremony told the room of aspiring clergy that at times our calling will be to comfort the afflicted and in other moments we will be called to afflict the comfortable. I imagine that the words that follow will be a comfort to some, giving voice to what many in our congregation are feeling. For others, I imagine my words may be hard to hear and may even cause anger. We are at a breaking point and trying to walk a middle path is no longer an option nor faithful.
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Scapegoats and Lies
“Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow” - Duet. 27
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I originally began writing this in response to the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis but had to come back and edit as yet another American citizen has been killed by Federal Agents. By the time I sat down to make the edit, the story the government provided had already been disputed by an additional camera angle. Ultimately, I’m not going to add another voice giving commentary on these viral videos nor am I going to enter into the debate about the incidents themselves. I indeed have strong feelings about both videos, but equally disturbing is how we got here.
We are likely all familiar with the frog in the boiling water metaphor. Over the past decade there has been a clear ramping up of rhetoric and action taken against immigrant populations by the current administration in particular. To be clear, our nation has a troubling history of scapegoating immigrant populations and I am confident that many administrations on both sides have used immigrants as a scapegoat in their own way. Also to be clear, I understand the need for every nation to have an immigration policy and process.
That being said, the deployment of undertrained and overfunded federal agents into American cities is a direct result of intentional lies and twisted narratives. The proclamations that undocumented immigrants are stealing jobs, hurting the housing market, and getting free health care are not good faith arguments. This led to more outrageous claims that undocumented immigrants are eating cats and dogs and somehow illegally voting en masse.
There have been real and horrific crimes committed by undocumented immigrants but these rare occasions are amplified for the sole purpose of painting immigrants as violent and dangerous despite the governmental data showing that immigrants are less likely to commit crime. As a clergy person I have to wonder what it would be like if we were treated the same considering the worrisome high rate of clergy abuse and fraud.
The administration has been turning up the heat and rhetoric concerning immigrants with the hope that we would simply accept that ICE is now masked, heavily armed, and looks like a military force on the front lines. After all, if immigrants are so dangerous, why wouldn’t they be? We were told that the plan was to go after the worst of the worst. And yet we know from personal testimony that citizens have been wrongfully detained. That individuals with active asylum cases who have been faithfully showing up to appointments as required are being rounded up. That immigrants with no criminal records are being targeted. That people’s homes are being entered without a proper warrant and individuals are being stopped for seemingly no reason other than the color of their skin. These stories are everywhere if we are willing to listen and look.
Of course our faith has a lot to say about how we treat the stranger in our land. “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt” (Exodus 22). “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt” (Leviticus 19). Jesus when asked about the greatest commandment famously answers that we are to love God and neighbor and lest we confuse who Jesus means by “neighbor,” He tells the parable of the good Samaritan. Jesus tells this parable so that we cannot get away with trying to narrowly define our neighbors.
The number of outright lies and twisted truths are so overwhelming and constant because that is what powerful people do when they are looking for an enemy or a scapegoat. As the writer and philosopher Voltaire famously said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities” (I would add ignore or defend them). I am uninterested in the arguments surrounding the two viral killings in Minneapolis because there can be no defense when the foundation of the government's actions are built on lies. If people of faith insist on defending the powerful while villainizing the vulnerable they have already lost sight of the gospel.
Defending the Indefensible - The Sin of Certainty
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Perhaps the question I am getting the most these days is why are so many people of faith seemingly desperate to defend the indefensible. I have to imagine that those outside the church are pondering the same thing. While I wouldn’t dare claim to be able to diagnose exactly what is going on I am sadly not surprised that so many Christians are silent or outright defending the violence, lies, and cruelty. This response is predictable because many Christians have built a faith that is more concerned with “being right” than trying to follow Jesus.
Our denomination like so many others has split during this past decade. Those leaving the Church of the Brethren often cite “biblical authority” as the primary reason for leaving. Still, the catalyst had more to do with our ongoing debates about human sexuality. I sat and listened to clergy who left the denomination criticize those of us who understood scripture differently. I have been told that those who labeled homosexuality as a sin were the ones who “truly believed in the Word of God.” Christians need to wrestle with the reality that the bible does not have a good track record for creating unity amongst those who read it.
It has become clear to me as I watched this painful split in our denomination that there is a dangerous temptation that goes along with insisting upon the inerrancy and univocality of scripture. While there are many who are trying to faithfully follow what is found in the bible, many others leverage the authority of the bible to legitimize their own beliefs and gain power. The question remains, what is our primary calling? To have right beliefs or to constantly be discerning how to follow Jesus? What is more important to God?
Peter Enns in his book The Sin of Certainty names the danger of our preoccupation with right beliefs and how it leads us to abuse scripture. He says, “I believe that the Bible does not model a faith that depends on certainty for the simple fact that the Bible does not provide that kind of certainty. Rather, in all its messy diversity, the Bible models trust in God that does not rest on whether we are able to be clear and certain about what we believe.”
When the foundation of our faith is about having the right beliefs, it sets up a worldview where anything that challenges those beliefs is an existential threat. It leads to a faith of grievance and it is exhausting. Peter Enns says it this way, “it reduces faith to sentry duty, a 24/7 task of pacing the ramparts and scanning the horizon to fend off incorrect thinking - too engrossed to come inside the halls and enjoy the banquet.”
Christian preoccupation with correct thinking and belief is making us horrible people. It results in a fragile faith in which we must defend our beliefs with such fervor because that is what we have made faith all about - certainty and being right. It creates a faith in which we quickly judge and condemn those who think differently. It is a house of cards and if we let one card fall the entire thing tumbles down. The irony is that “being right” is pretty much the antithesis to faith. The bible itself talks a whole lot more about trust than certainty.
This leads me to my answer for why some people of faith are seemingly so desperate to defend the indefensible. When your worldview, whether in faith or politics, is built upon the foundation of certainty and the need to be right, you will do and say anything to protect that worldview. To admit that you might be wrong or may need to rethink your beliefs causes everything to come crashing down. For many Christians their faith and politics have become too closely linked and so to rethink one is now a threat to the other. This house of cards needs to fall for the sake of Christianity and our Nation.
The life that Jesus calls us to in the gospels is so radical and risky precisely because it calls us to let go of what we hold so dearly - the need to be right. The invitation is to let go, trust, and follow. As I read the gospels I see Jesus siding with the vulnerable, the outcast, the poor, the sick, and the stranger. Jesus denied earthly power because the world He came proclaiming looks nothing like the powers of our world. Perhaps it’s time for Christians to talk less about what we believe and instead focus our energies on trying to actually follow Jesus.
As we try to make sense of all that is going on in our nation; may God grant us peace in the midst of our anger, hope in the midst of our sadness, and guidance as we discern how we are being called to be a light in the darkness. Above all, may Minnesota and its citizens find peace and safety.
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- Pastor Nathan