"I am on the fence about nearly everything I've seen
And I have felt the fire be put out by too much gasoline And we're all strangers passing through a place and time, an afternoon Life is but a vision in a window that we're peeking through A helpless conversation with a man who says he cares a lot It's a passive confrontation about who might throw a punch or not We are all transgressors, we're all sinners, we're all astronauts So if you're beating death then raise your hand but shut up if you're not." -Needtobreathe, "Difference Maker" Rivers in the Wasteland I recently wrote about the beauty found when we silence our voices long enough to truly listen. This came after finding myself, completely wrong, creating conclusions in my head- without heed, without wondering further, without listening. Ultimately, completely missing the point. I've personally challenged myself to listen better- to listen to myself, to listen to others, to listen to the echos of creation. There has been an inner toil I've wrestled with for possibly a couple of years now, but lately, I am intently acknowledging it, accepting it, and listening to the nuances within it. That place of toilsome thought is in the collision of my unique sense of God and the culture of faith around me. More and more, the Christian culture has felt like a foreign place to me, and lately, the more I immerse myself in it, the more the internal struggle uprises. And as I seek to understand my personal battle within the faith, I have become widely open to listening to others, whom have or are feeling similar sentiments. There is a podcast, called The Liturgists, which has become the closest thing to healthy church I have found in a while. Hosts, Micheal Gungor and Mike McHargue (Science Mike) consider The Liturgist a "global community working to subvert the barriers our society builds around religion, race, gender, ability and sexuality." They do this through open-minded discussions about art, environment, multi-faith spiritual practices, science, societal progression in light of the Bible and controversial scriptural questions. The multi-dimensional outlook on spirituality found in this podcast has become a healing refuge for many, who are restless with the same old Christian cultural conversations arriving at the same narrow-minded conclusions. The mere fact that an entire faith sub-culture exists to "subvert" barriers within the Christian society, means, on a massive scale, the Christian church has contributed to barriers between this idea of God, or a creator, and people of different, "religion, race, gender, abilities, sexuality," and those on the fringes the people at The Liturgist have existed to create an open space for. When I am in a faith group, say a church meeting, a Bible study setting, or a retreat/conference, we share a contextual language together, referring to Biblical and spiritual-experiential words, like "God's light," "the Blood of Christ," "sacrifice," "calling," "He spoke to me," and so on. Outside of these groups, this language has no contextual meaning. Before I had a relationship with Jesus myself, when I heard people using words like this, it was like they were speaking in a foreign language that I was not a part of, and I couldn't understand even if I wanted to be apart of it. It's like when someone tells you about their job, but using all work-related acronyms that you would have to be a part of their workplace to understand. This is a barrier our faith culture has created because we feel comfortable "in the club," speaking a language one would have to be included to understand. The funny thing about that is, Jesus was more inclusive than any of us. His death was the ultimate representation of "All are welcome," as a conscious choice was made by God to allow His son to die in exchange for those who weren't able to perform a perfect law. And last I checked, not one of us is perfect, therefore, His death, the gift of free love- without a fair offering, exchange, condition or expectation- was given, to all of us. But, the church is busy building barriers between God and man, saying some are included, and some aren't. Churches are finding themselves in the crosshairs of a defining decision when it comes to welcoming homosexuals and transgendered individuals into their communities. "Open and affirming," "Open and non-affirming," "Closed and non-affirming," church denominations are weighing their Biblical understanding, doctrinal values and congregational acceptance in this area. And those who arrive at "Open and non-affirming," or "Closed and non-affirming," refer to specific scriptures like the one in Romans, where Paul refers to men who "abandon natural relations and burn with lust for one another," (1:27) stopping at the oblate references to homosexuality to define their stance on the issue. Meanwhile, author and pastor, Colby Martin, creates an entire ministry out of "clobber" passages like this one, as his book "UnClobber," seeks to unveil the bigger picture, like why Paul wrote to the Romans in the first place. Paul's entire motive all along was to share the news of this Jesus- this new way of living, where love is actually greater than anything else, and more important than any rule or situation. Jesus, the representation of a love that chases after us no matter where we stand, who we are, where we're from or what we do. Jesus, a God without barriers. Spiritual leaders like writer and pastor, Jen Hatmaker spoke out for the inclusion of the LGBTQ population in the church, and her books were banned by LifeWay Christian Stores, and an impactful portion of her fans aggressively rejected her message and her. Though, she took Jesus' message of inclusion seriously, many thought she went too far. Christian rapper and musician, Lecrae, released an honest account of the complex realities of the Christian faith, especially through the eyes of a black male, in his last album "All Things Work Together," at the end of 2017. The words of this album were stripped of faith-based cliches and "church language," if you will. It was a raw account of doubt, depression, anger within the church, failures, numbing pain, embracing individuality and culture, seeing God outside of the white westernized context, speaking truth and justice without catering to common opinion. It is a bold and honest, "coming out" album, almost as if the real Lecrae was released. "Now these people swear they own me, sendin' out threats Told me keep my mouth shut, told me be a Step-in Fetchit I will not oblige to your colonized way of faith My Messiah died for the world, not just USA." -Lecrae, "Facts" All Things Work Together "Ah man now their acting like I'm suddenly political, told me shut my mouth and get my checks from evangelicals." -Lecrae, "Facts" All Things Work Together "I love Jesus, the one out of Nazareth, Not the European with the ultra-perm and them soft eyes and them thin lips." -Lecrae, "Facts" All Things Work Together Threaded through this album was a proclamation and ownership of Lecrae's black culture, met with underlying frustration in the western-white view of Jesus the church has created and expected Lecrae to represent. His adamant language in every song reveals the weariness he's carried from holstering a singularly dimensional image of Jesus. And like Hatmaker, Lecrae's choice to embrace the diversity and inclusiveness of Jesus seemed to go against the Christian culture's expectation. Two individuals speak for inclusiveness for those on the outskirts of society- and the Christian church turns against them, however, Donald Trump runs for president in 2016, blatantly representing the exclusiveness of people groups of different religions, races and undermining the value of women and other minorities, and 81% of Christians vote for him. 81%. And since then, we idly stand by as our President gets away with degrading comments towards under-developed countries, a campaign built on excluding those of different religions, races and backgrounds, promises of physical exclusivity and separation of the US and the people of Mexico, sexist comments and alleged reports of scandalous behavior undermining the value of women, careless conversations over major topics of war and weapons of mass destruction, fleeting relationships and inability to partner with those of opposing views in the U.S government leading to public (not personal) firings and replacing with one more partisan to his personal interests, and potential deceit and meddling in the sacredness of our nation's democracy. All the while, prominent spiritual leaders are silent. There is no disagreement, no calling out the president and our 81% for behavior that is against the nature of Jesus and the values our faith culture should represent, according to the character of God we seek to be examples of. Even the spiritual leaders who have risked discomfort, going against major church opinion, and said something against Donald Trump, ended up later retracting their comments to a more neutral stance at a later time. This compliance is concerning because this is not even an abstract matter of opinion or side, there is a right and wrong according to Biblical truth, and our president has been wrong too many times for the church to remain compliant and accepting. When Lecrae and Hatmaker support inclusivity, the church loudly speaks against it, when Trump represents exclusivity time and time again, the church remains silent. I am not sure when I began feeling a disconnect between my own spiritual understanding of God and the norms of the Christian culture, but the dominate Christian vote for the character and values of Donald Trump largely contributed to the foreign place my faith culture has become. Have I been lied to all along about the culture of the church? Did the values of the church change? Or have I just been too blind to see, not listening to disagreement within myself? I know Jesus well enough to know that these behaviors and disappointments aren't because He is not a good God. It's our interpretation and assimilation of Him that's creating damaging barriers between Him and us. If we could just shut up for a minute and listen to the aching of a Creator to be reunited with His entire creation, we might just see our greater connection to one another and the unifying planet we share. And this faith culture might become a much more welcoming and peaceful place for all.
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AuthorKatie Elizabeth: Writer, Wonderer, Wanderer. Archives
November 2019
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