A giant problem with the purity push: we need dirt. Yes, it is true. We need to be dirty. The more “pure” we try to make our environments, the sicker those very environments become. Consider how the extreme conservatives managed to shut down the US government in 2013. They’d rather massive numbers of people get badly hurt than compromise one of their “pure” conservative principles.
The UMC plays the same game, just on a smaller playground.
The drive for purity wreaks havoc with our physical health just as it wreaks havoc on our spiritual health. We need both bio-diversity and spiritual diversity. We need it to stretch our souls and keep us consistently and carefully testing our stances to see how healthy they are.
If everyone around us agrees with everything we believe, we, as a church, become the religious versions of Fox or MSNBC News. We know that each news source will either ignore or downplay the good coming from the “other” world and exaggerate any possible negative statements or events that would make the “other” look bad or foolish or uninformed or even evil.
We, as a United Methodist Church, have drawn the same lines. Healing dialogue has disappeared. Tolerance for differing opinions, honestly and prayerfully reached, no longer exists in our denomination. Brothers and sisters in Christ are accusing one another of being evil and, in many cases, of not even being Christian.
We may as well prepare for the break-up. But if we think God is directing this split or is going to give special blessing to one splinter self-righteous group over another splinter self-righteous group, we’re all deceived. That is not what Christianity or Methodism is about.
It is about our baptismal and membership vows.
Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?
Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?
Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races?
According to the grace given you, will you remain faithful members of Christ’s holy Church and serve as Christ’s representatives in the world?
As members of Christ’s universal Church, will you be loyal to Christ through The United Methodist Church, and do all in your power to strengthen its ministries?
Will you participate in the ministries of this church with your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness?
These give us the boundaries we need, just as my house needs some boundaries as to who stays there. Sure, houseguests are messy–and they enrich our lives immeasurably.
The church works the same way. The cleaner we try to make it, the closer we get to destroying it. The purity movements now at play will do just that.
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