Christianity in the U.S. is a house divided. In some ways it's split into a thousands camps. In other ways of figuring it, it's divided into just a few.
But the division I hear about most today is between people who consider themselves conservative and those who refer to themselves as progressive. The problem is that both groups often get labeled simply "Christian," and it causes heartache in both camps, as this 2018 piece reveals.
Two-plus years after this was published, it still reads as if it had come out yesterday.
The author, John Pavlovitz, identifies himself as someone who has "been a Christian for most of my forty-nine years, a pastor in the local church for twenty-two of them."
He adds this: ". . .on far too many mornings recently, I’ve woken up, checked Twitter or watched the news or walked away from family conversations or church gatherings, and thought to myself, 'I can’t Christian today.'
"I can no longer be tethered to this thing that is so toxic and so painful to so many. I can’t wade through any more bad theology and predatory behavior from pulpit-pounding pastors, who seem solely burdened to exclude and to wound and to do harm. I can’t sift through all this malice and bitterness masquerading as Christianity to try to find what of it is left worth keeping."
The Christianity he describes is the faith tradition that confuses patriotism with theology, that ignores or denies what some theologians call God's preferential option for the poor, that reads -- in literal ways -- portions of the Bible that seem to agree with its positions but ignores those portions that challenge it.
Many who belong to that tradition would say that they are the ones who are the Bible-believers, who stick closely to God's word, who don't get swept up in secular political movements, who keep their eye on the prize -- heaven.
Neither group wants much to do with the other group. Which may be understandable, but such division is a terrible model for the world. It's not a unique or even a new model. Other religions, after all, often are at least as divided as Christianity. But it's still a bad model that makes membership in this or that group seem unsavory, something to avoid.
Pavlovitz writes: "I can’t apologize anymore for people who are willfully hurting other human beings in the name of a God they preach is love. I can’t align myself with the human rights violations and overt racism and rabid nationalism that is defining Christianity in America."
I think he need not apologize for such people. Nor does he need to align himself with them. Rather, he and Christians who think he's speaking needed truth need simply to make it clear what their own values are and how they think God calls them to live. Words matter, to be sure, but actions often matter more. What Christians like Pavlovitz (and I'm pretty much where he is) need to do is simply live out their convictions through their words and actions, not silently slink away in passive aggressive anger. Some people will notice. As will God.
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HOW TO PRAY FOR A PRESIDENT
Lots of American pray for whoever is president, even if it's someone with whom they almost always disagree. But what's the best way to do that? This RNS column suggests some good ideas for accomplishing that task. The ideas include this: ". . .we can remind ourselves that the same God who cares for us also cares for him and also has the same desire for him to do well, just as he does me."
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P.S.: If you missed my USA Today column a few days ago about the need to resolve the question of 9/11-related and other prisoners still held at Gitmo, you can read it here. The column makes reference to my new book, Love, Loss and Endurance: A 9/11 Story of Resilience and Hope in an Age of Anxiety. If you want an autographed copy, email me at [email protected] and I'll tell you how we can work that out.
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