{"id":804,"date":"2012-06-15T13:08:10","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T18:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slowchurch\/?p=804"},"modified":"2012-06-15T13:30:27","modified_gmt":"2012-06-15T18:30:27","slug":"conversation-identity-and-christian-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slowchurch\/2012\/06\/15\/conversation-identity-and-christian-unity\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversation, Identity and Christian Unity."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"I have been keenly following Timothy Dalrymple<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s posts this week about partisan scorn and his critical response to Rachel Held Evans<\/a><\/strong>\u2018 well-traveled post \u201cHow to Win a Culture War and Lose a Generation<\/a>\u201d\u2026\u00a0 Although I\u2019m a bit skeptical of Dalrymple\u2019s choice of Evans as an example of\u00a0 \u201cselling scorn,\u201d I\u2019m not really going to comment on their back and forth, as I don\u2019t have a stake in either side of that conversation.<\/p>\n

What was of interest to me, in light of my concern for our churches as hubs of conversation<\/a> were these excellent three points that Dalrymple offered at the end of his most recent post, <\/a>\u201cScorn Profits the Blogger, but Costs the Kingdom<\/a><\/strong>\u201c:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. When a Christian on the Left sees conservative Christians being caricatured, he or she should (as a general rule of thumb) first of all seek to correct the caricature, and then explain why he or she differs from conservative Christians on that issue. \u00a0And the same goes for the Right. \u00a0We on the Right should defend progressive Christians when they are being misunderstood or unfairly maligned. \u00a0We can except truly exceptional cases where a small sect believes something genuinely evil, of course. \u00a0But as a general rule of thumb, we ought to defend one another against caricature, not affirm the caricature but say it only applies to those Christians.<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. If you find that you cannot explain charitably why your fellow believers come to a different conclusion on this issue, then you should probably not write about the issue until you can. \u00a0Christian charity and intellectual integrity really require us, I believe, to understand fully before we criticize.<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. Let\u2019s be very, very careful in how we use the internet. \u00a0We may think we\u2019re addressing only believers, but then our post goes viral and the world reads it. \u00a0Or we may write something in a moment of anger that soars across the blogosphere and slanders our fellow believers. \u00a0We should bear in mind that the world of online media incentivizes scorn, ridicule, exaggeration and caricature. \u00a0So we should never blog angry, and we should always examine our motives.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I think that Dalrymple is on the mark here, and I cannot help but point out the slowness inherent in these points. The ideologies of Left and Right have coalesced over time around visions of how to expedite the fixing\/healing of humanity, nation, church, etc.\u00a0 The scriptural story, however, reminds us repeated that ultimately it is God who is healing and reconciling all <\/em>humanity and creation. ALL is a key word here, Left and Right will ultimately fade away in the coming reconciliation, and as Dalrymple implies, the Church is the place where we bear witness in the here and now to this coming reconciliation.\u00a0 It has been striking to me, since Gerhard Lohfink pointed it out in his book Does God Need the Church?<\/em><\/a>, but in gathering his disciples from among Israel, Jesus couldn\u2019t have chosen a more diverse ideological lot. Matthew, the tax collector and Simon the Zealot were about as far apart in their visions of the world as the Right and Left are today, and yet they followed Jesus and shared life together in that little community of disciples.<\/p>\n

    Thus, the real issue for me is one of identity. Or, in other words, what is the primary story around which we mold our lives? Are disciples of Jesus, following the example of Matthew, Simon and the other disciples \u2014 denying ourselves and bearing witness to God\u2019s reconciliation of all things? Or are we Conservatives or Liberals, who happen to assent to the Christian faith? Which is our primary identity? If our identity in Christ is primary, then we do need to take Dalrymple\u2019s points very seriously. I\u2019m not saying here that we categorically should not affiliate with Right or Left, just that our ideological identity (just as our sexual identity, ethnic identity, career identity and all the other ways we identify ourselves) should be subordinate to our identity in Christ. This point is the one that Paul seems to be making in Galatians 2:26ff (\u201cThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.\u201d)\u00a0 It\u2019s not that these identities don\u2019t exist, it\u2019s that they are subordinate to our unity in Christ, which I believe was Dalrymple\u2019s point. I should add though that as far as our political ideology goes, I believe there is a place for those Christians who strategically choose not to identify with Right or Left<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    One of the reasons that I\u2019m convinced that our Slow Church work is so timely (and I believe this is true for John as well), is that in an age where Left and Right are increasingly unable to work or even talk together in Washington or elsewhere, and where scorn abounds on all sides, I think there is an important role for Christians to play in demonstrating that there is another way, a way that points to the ultimate reconciliation of all things.<\/p>\n

    I should add to Dalrymple\u2019s points that there needs to be abundant grace and forgiveness on all sides.\u00a0 He offers a lot of \u201cshoulds\u201d here, and as much I wholeheartedly agree that we SHOULD be moving in this direction, we have been deeply formed by the divisive ideologies of our times, and moving in the direction that he has described here will be slow and faltering. We will fall at times, and maybe often, into old habits, but the extension of grace and forgiveness when we do will only serve to draw us deeper into Christian unity.<\/p>\n

    Let us then examine ourselves: what is our primary identity? What is the primary story to which we submit our lives?<\/p>\n

    \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

    Image Credit: <\/strong>Brent Aldrich, Englewood Review of Books, Lent 2011.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I have been keenly following Timothy Dalrymple\u2018s posts this week about partisan scorn and his critical response to Rachel Held Evans\u2018 well-traveled post \u201cHow to Win a Culture War and Lose a Generation\u201d\u2026\u00a0 Although I\u2019m a bit skeptical of Dalrymple\u2019s choice of Evans as an example of\u00a0 \u201cselling scorn,\u201d I\u2019m not really going to comment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,3,43,4],"tags":[297,19,296,25963,294,295],"class_list":["post-804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conversations","category-news","category-politics","category-what-is-slow-church","tag-christian-unity","tag-conversation","tag-identity","tag-politics","tag-rachel-held-evans","tag-timothy-dalrymple"],"yoast_head":"\nConversation, Identity 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