Category Archives: Connecting

A Divided Church

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From my 2004 book, Moral Values: What I Learned Growing Up in Church [now a free e-Book] – The church today is deeply divided over our understanding of moral values and their biblical roots. Some people define key moral values as abortion and homosexuality, and some say key moral values are larger than that, the values of life and love. Some see black-and-white values taught in scripture, and others see shades of gray in a biblical tradition with its roots embedded in writings spread out over 1,000 years.

The choice is not either/or but both/and. There are some clear black-and-white moral teachings in scripture (though not as many as some people think), and there are many shades of understanding of such concerns as marriage, family life, sexuality, religious life, the sanctity of all life, and the roles of men and women in society, to name just a few.

In a small book like this we cannot consider all the moral teachings of scripture. And this is not an academic study of any of them. It is a personal witness to my faith. I want to focus on the ultimate moral values of life and love, especially love. What does the Bible teach us about love, and what are the implications of love in our concern for those who have yet to be born and our concern for the sacredness of marriage – two areas of moral values argued so vociferously during the 2004 U.S. election?

Will the church survive its deep divisions? Will mainstream denominations in the U.S. find a way to continue to live together despite the seemingly insurmountable differences of understanding about what we believe to be of ultimate importance in our faith? Will the different branches of the church – sometimes characterized as conservative and liberal – be able to accept each other as members of the same spiritual body and family and learn to live together without rancor and with respect? These are the fervent questions in my heart and soul as I write this book.

The Church as Network

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In her book on the Emergent or Emerging Church (The Great Emergence), Phyllis Tickle says: “What is happening is something much closer to what mathematicians and physicists call network theory. That is, a vital whole – in this case, the Church, capital C – is not really “a thing” or entity so much as it is a network in exactly the same way that the Internet or the World Wide Web is…The end result of this understanding of dynamic structure is the realization that no one of the member parts or connecting networks has the whole or entire “truth” or anything, either as such and/or when independent of the others….It employs total egalitarianism, a respect for worth of the hoi polloi that even pure democracy never had….” (p.152)

Churches and their leaders need to understand that the world of Google and Facebook is not simply about changing technology. This is a new kind of world, and the Church is becoming something new and different. Questions of where “authority” resides and who “decides” about beliefs, behaviors, and belonging already have different answers than they had a generation ago – if they have “answers” at all. Our language itself is insufficient for this new world, but we have to keep writing and talking and working through it together.

Connecting

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This new Google and Facebook world is all about connecting – with old friends and new friends, with people we’ve never met and may never meet, with people who know what we want to know or have what we want to have. It’s a world of immediate connections – instant messaging, search results in a fraction of a second, texting, videoconferencing.

It’s a new world where interdependence and the web of networks in our world have become apparent. How can we nurture the fantasy that we don’t need other people or that we can stand on our own without help? Or that other people do not need our help?

In this world that values connecting, the Church can thrive as it nurtures its calling to connect people with other people and with God. We will thrive as we offer the help other people need and seek out their help with what we need. We will thrive if we open up ourselves to the world around us, knowing that we are part of the web of life, an essential, God-called part of all of life.

Cooperation: the spirit of a new age

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A few years ago I went on a 15-day retreat at Loyola House in Guelph, Canada. One beautiful afternoon, I went on a 2-hour walk through the woods, along the creek, through a marsh. I had been praying a lot with questions about the connectedness, the interdependence, of life. As I walked and watched the birds and animals and insects and flowers – all of nature around me – my thoughts turned toward a theme of “cooperation and competition.”

I realized how our culture turns toward competition as the primary model for how we interact, not only with people but with all of creation. The stories of our lives – and the stories of TV, movies, books, songs, and commercials – are mostly about who “wins.” Who is the best, brightest, and most beautiful? The most profitable, most powerful, most popular? Who “dominates the airwaves” and “rises to the top of the polls”? Our language is filled with the metaphors of competition.

As I kept walking, I realized that God’s intention for creation was for cooperation rather than competition. The beauty around me came out of the reality of animals, plants, weather, time – and even people – working together in an entirely natural way. When I got to a particularly moist, damp spot in the woods, and the mosquitoes swarmed around me and settled on my skin to draw some blood, I did wonder about the “beauty” of cooperation. I did not feel particularly cooperative at that moment. Yet it was more their habitat than mine, and I departed quickly.

The Scriptures, especially in the New Testament, speak of a new age, a new creation, that God is bringing to reality. Through Christ Jesus, we are part of that new creation and called to help create this new age. The spirit of this age is cooperation and not competition, recognizing our interdependence rather than claiming an unreal independence, and connecting with one another and with all of creation through God’s Spirit.