The UMC disaster: we are self-destructing instead of splitting. Intentionally over-simplifying the situation, there are two general positions. Each side stands firmly in its own bubble, not respecting the legitimately reached perspectives of the other.
Note: this is the third of a three-part post. Part One: Reflections One Year Post Retirement: Out of the Christian Bubble. is here. Part Two: Into the Sapphire Bubble is here.
Let’s move momentarily from this very personal and private experience to public problems facing The United Methodist Church, my denomination. Although it probably won’t formally split–restrictive rules, property and pension issues, the complexity of the organizational structure make a formal split nearly impossible–we have split over belief lines.
The UMC disaster: we are self-destructing instead of splitting. Intentionally over-simplifying the situation, there are two general positions. They are called Traditionalists and Progressives (some mutual respect), or Orthodox and Heterodox (far less mutual respect), or Closed-minded vs. Open-Minded (moving to insult there). Each side stands firmly in its own bubble, not respecting the legitimately reached perspectives of the other.
What these “sides” are doing to one another can hardly be called “Christian,” although each is absolutely sure they have the only right handle of the truth. Each hears primarily from those in the same bubble of beliefs and reasonings, putting layers of impermeability onto the bubble rather than letting it thin and dissipate as bubbles are supposed to do.
Like many of my fellow progressives, I vote primarily Democratic, have this tender, bleeding heart for the chronically disempowered of society, and believe human sexuality spans a spectrum rather than a discrete binary. Great.
But . . . I also know that without a strong consumer economy–and that is what our democratic institutions stand on–we can do little to help the chronically poor. And in the agrarian societies that dominated the world when the Scriptures were being written, human fertility was the number one concern. Non-fertile relationships hurt the entire societal structure and needed to be religiously enforced.
All of us have the correct point of view.
We can hold our correctness in generosity toward one another. Or we can say, “You ‘others’ are not worth the trouble. I no longer want to see you.”
As for me, I do enjoy my forays into the Sapphire bubble–I simply know I must not stay there indefinitely. I let the opposite point of view, heard with respect and admiration, inform my own. I know my own view is not complete because I am just one human being in an infinitely mysterious cosmos, and can only know in part.
And I think this is what Jesus (and all other religious traditions) mean when saying, “Treat others in the way you want to be treated.”
On this one, I stand firmly unmoved. And, believe it or not, my rich, white, Republican male friend is in total agreement.
Part One: Reflections One Year Post Retirement: Out of the Christian Bubble
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