MORE ON THE FINE LINE BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE. Telford Work on hating your family and committing adultery in your heart (woo-hoo!). First my confusion, then some excellent statements rejecting “interior emotion/exterior action” dualism.

I’m not entirely sure I understand his response specifically about Christ’s statement about hating one’s family. I’m not sure I “get” the analogy he’s drawing in which the apostles’ and Mary’s treating “their relationships with Jesus as means of social leverage over him,” which Telford analogizes (?) to “justification by works,” leads Him to “hate” them, whereas His unconditional love for them is analogized (??) to justification by faith. (Also, I’m pretty sure the Catholic/Lutheran agreements on justification do NOT extend to [what Luther meant by] “simul justus et peccator,” and so depending on how much Telford intends this as an analogy and how much he intends this as straight description that might be one reason I’m not understanding him–perhaps I’m trying to make us agree more than we do, and ignoring ways in which “simul justus et peccator” shapes his thinking here. Not sure.)

Maybe if I explain more clearly why I asked about how Christians should respond to non-Christian family members it will help? I asked because in his previous (second) post on this subject, Telford (how’s that, Professor? ;)) distinguished between the social/biological family (the locus of power relations) and the theological family (in which we are brothers and sisters in Christ). This worked pretty well in context, since he was discussing Mary, who is in both kinds of family for Jesus. But it seemed to me like Telford was saying that we move from “Christian hate” (if you wig out here, btw, be assured that this phrase is an artifact of the exchange between me and Telford, and DOESN’T mean what it might sound like) to “Christian love” by moving from social family to theological family. That leaves social-family members who DON’T become theological family rather out in the cold.

For my own part, I don’t think this is really all that complicated. I honor my father and my mother. I work to keep familial, etc. loves from turning me away from God, but also work to preserve all those loves, including, unsurprisingly, loves of non-Christian friends and relatives (and strangers, and…). In fact, I think Telford put the matter very well when he wrote of “love that never makes our dinner table an alternative to the communion table, not even a little, but only points the former toward the latter.” So I was really asking because I wonder if Telford wasn’t overcomplicating this question with the social-family-vs.-theological-family distinction. Maybe I’m just missing the point, since at this point I’m pretty foxed, which is a good sign that there’s some big thing I’m not seeing.

Now on to the excellent statements, since once Telford gets into the issue of lust in the heart I think I agree with everything he says. Here are some samples to whet your appetite:

“Modernity has trained us to not just to distinguish inward from outward actions, but to dichotomize our inner and our outer selves. The modern dualistic form of interiority draws on but finally overturns the earlier Christian holism of inner and outer self.”

“As one created in the image of God, your personality is not something God wants you to move away from. You are a gift to all God’s creation. Whatever healing you need (like whatever healing I need) restores you in Christ’s image rather than replacing your image with his.”

“Even if these mental sins were involuntary in the short run, Jesus would be prescribing training in order to prevent them, which means that they would ultimately be voluntary.”

“One of the reasons I think this point is so important is that, e.g., it frees women from having to be responsible for keeping men pure. Jesus does not tell women to wear burkas; he does not tell men to become hermits; he shows his whole audience a way of life in which they can control themselves.”

“Another reason I think the distinction is so important is that it frees each of us from having to be other than we are in other to find favor with God. Jesus does not expect anyone to stop being human. Indeed, he is interceding to restore our humanity: inwardly, outwardly, emotionally, physically, mentally, socially, personally, familially, culturally.”

So what are you hanging around THIS blog for?

Also, that Billy Graham line is right-on.