I work in both churches and the academy.\u00a0 And, from time to time, people will preface their response to something I\u2019ve said with the words, \u201cWell, if you worked in the real world\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Frankly, all those comments demonstrate is how little people know about the church and the academy, where (as the saying goes) \u201cthe politics are so dirty because the stakes are so small.\u201d\u00a0 Both institutions could really afford to be a little less real, if by \u201creal\u201d what you mean is nasty, divisive, back-stabbing, grasping, or ego-driven.<\/p>\n
But, as Karl Rahner, the great Catholic theologian noted some years ago about the church, those failings are no surprise at all.\u00a0 The church is for sinners, who are in the process of being redeemed \u2014 that is, living ever more fully into God\u2019s good and loving desires for us.\u00a0 But the process is not complete.\u00a0 So, the church, our world, and \u2014 for that matter \u2014 every last one of us are not yet fully what we should be, can be, and (if we are open to it) will be.<\/p>\n
That, however, is precisely the problem with offering up the \u201clife in the real world\u201d excuse.\u00a0 The moment we excuse our failure to do the right thing by referencing \u201clife in the real world,\u201d we foreclose on that process.\u00a0 And that process of growth and virtue cannot begin again until we open ourselves anew to the demands of \u201cthe real <\/em>real world,\u201d \u2014 the real world of God\u2019s desires for us.<\/p>\n To be sure, there are a host of explanations for why our public and private lives are marked by cynicism:<\/p>\n Politicians will and do complain that they live in the real world of getting elected and reelected and, for that reason, can\u2019t attend to true statecraft, be honest about the limits of what government can or should do, or consider facts that lie outside their particular party\u2019s message.<\/p>\n Business people will complain that they live in the world of the bottom line, so the quality of the products that they produce suffers and the accuracy of the financial statements that they offer are sometimes can\u2019t be forthcoming.<\/p>\n Journalists will argue that they live in the ever more complex world of reporting where entertainment and advocacy draws readers and viewers, which is why they can\u2019t report the news in a fair and balanced fashion.<\/p>\n Schools and universities will argue that they live in the real world of budget allocations and means testing, so they can\u2019t be honest about student progress.<\/p>\n Churches will argue that in the real world people will balk at being told that the Gospel demands something of them, so they will avoid preaching anything hard.<\/p>\n And each of us will write off what we hear on Sundays as \u201cnice ideas\u201d that can\u2019t possibly work in the real world of our lives.<\/p>\n The excuses are endless, but the deeper issue is spiritual and the central question is stunningly simple:<\/p>\n Which is<\/em> the real <\/em>real world?<\/p>\n Answer that question and that is the world that will shape the choices we make, the world we serve, the people we become, the legacies we leave behind, \u2014 the men and women they will one day bury.\u00a0 We can scrape through the \u201creal world\u201d of our fears and cynical calculations and teach our children to do the same or<\/em> we can open ourselves to the real-real world possibilities of God\u2019s good desires for us.<\/p>\n It\u2019s your choice.\u00a0 It\u2019s mine.\u00a0\u00a0 No excuses.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I work in both churches and the academy.\u00a0 And, from time to time, people will preface their response to something I\u2019ve said with the words, \u201cWell, if you worked in the real world\u2026\u201d Frankly, all those comments demonstrate is how little people know about the church and the academy, where (as the saying goes) \u201cthe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-perspectives"],"yoast_head":"\n