Baggage
Fr. Tony’s Letter to the Trinitarians
May 2016
All of us come to church with a certain amount of
baggage. Some people, raised Roman
Catholic and hurt in the process by excesses or abuses, are very sensitive to
anything that reminds them of the abuse, however vaguely. Some, raised Protestant fundamentalist, are
similarly put off by any talk that sounds vaguely like the words of those who
took advantage of the need for faith and desire for certainty of their younger
selves. Some, raised with prejudice
against any group, be they Jews, African-Americans, Roman Catholics, women, or
gays, are sensitive to things that remind them of any of these groups, and this
even if they have recognized and disavowed their earlier prejudice. People who have suffered from the inhumane
expectations of traditional sexual roles end up on occasion over-reacting by
thinking that no man, no woman, or no hetero-sexual can truly be fair and
welcoming, even though this is manifestly untrue. We are talking here about how we feel, not
how we think or reason.
It is important that we recognize such habits of the heart,
even if it is hard to get rid of them all at once. Following Jesus means being
open to the Spirit’s work, changing us suddenly or gradually. And the Spirit leads us to overcome prejudice
of all sorts. The Spirit helps us get
rid of baggage.
My own baggage from growing up Mormon is mixed. On the one hand, I am very impatient with
fundamentalism of any sort, and of expected social roles enforced by religion. Yet, at its heart, there is a liberal streak
in Mormon theology and history: God is
seen as an exalted Man, human beings as Gods in embryo, and there is no real
doctrine of original sin. People are seen
as completely morally free, and can achieve perfection through force of will by
following the commandments. But when a
person suffers from obsessive or compulsive issues, they are out of luck as a
Mormon: it stems from a moral flaw, not
from a defect in their makeup. It is
general very hard for Mormons to take the First Step in any of the 12 Step
Programs: “We admitted we were powerless, and that our lives had become
unmanageable.”
When I became a traditional Christian, the doctrine of
Original Sin spoke to me. It took the
pressure somewhat off of me for my failings.
Together with most modern theologians, I recognized the excesses and
flaws of St. Augustine’s morbidly anti-sexual form of this doctrine. But the basic idea—that we are flawed and
need God’s help to remedy things—to my mind was a great liberating
revelation. Similarly the idea that the
early Church Fathers were the students, successors, and followers of Christ and
the apostles was liberating. St. Ignatius’s
words explaining what “catholic” means spoke to me: One Christ, one Church, one bread, one cup,
one body and one blood, one baptism, and one bishop (in an area). It was
this continuity in trying to follow Christ and Christ’s chosen shepherds that
led me to accept the Creeds and, ultimately, to become Episcopalian.
So I can get a little touchy when I hear people say that
they can’t accept the idea of original sin at all, or when they praise the 4th
century English monk Pelagius, who bore the brunt of Augustine’s wrath for
saying we can work out our salvation on our own by a free will choice to follow
God. I can get a little touchy when
someone belittles the Creeds and says they simply cannot accept them.
I accept the freedom of belief we have in the Episcopal
Church. In fact, I embrace it. I think that everyone needs to start
approaching Jesus from where they currently are, not from some hypothetical
point where they are supposed to be. But
given my own baggage and freight, I fear they are throwing the baby out with
the bath water if they close their hearts and minds to ideas that they find
challenging simply because they are too “traditional” or “authoritarian.”
It’s all about openness to Jesus and the Spirit. Maybe I need to be a little less touchy on
these issues. Maybe all of us need to be
a little less touchy on our own issues.
Being Church means being together and learning from each other. It means changing. It
ultimately means all of us learning from Jesus.
Grace and Peace, Fr.
Tony+
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