It Makes Sense to Me

I asked for some response to my last blog. Boy did I get it. This blog will make more sense to you if you read that one – "An Astute Observation of the Obvious."

That blog was my take on Christopher Hitchens' comment on the different and sometimes painful definitions we in the Christian camp often give for what it means to be a believer. I loved the comments I received. Many were very thought provoking. After reading some of those comments, it became clearer to me why I so appreciated Hitchens' straightforward response to an interviewer's attempt to distance herself from a certain "brand" of Christianity she didn't particularly approve of or consider herself a part of.

Here is what is becoming clearer to me to more I think about it. To many of the people outside of the faith, when we begin defining ourselves and our beliefs, what we say makes little or no sense to them. It makes little difference if we are liberal, progressive, conservative, Pentecostal, fundamentalist or legalistic. No matter how we attempt to present our belief system, and/or ourselves, we tend toward sounding like goof balls. We don't intend to sound bad, but the Apostle Paul's take on the whole talking faith to none believers still rings true. He said that our God-talk just makes no sense to them and it won't until they start to think with spiritual minds.

Another dynamic in the deal is that we set ourselves up for such an interpretation of our thinking because of our systems of community and our need for acceptance. Let me try to explain.

I am fortunate in that I am able to spend time with all kinds and strains of those who claim to be Christian – progressives, conservatives, Pentecostals, fundamentalists, and just about everything in between. I love them all. But they all drive me nuts. I hang out everywhere and fit in nowhere. I love being a Christian and I love Christians. But I never feel really comfortable with any particular group of Christians. No matter the group, I just don't quite fit in with the thinking that particular group espouses.

We who are wont to label ourselves Christian, tend to live in self imposed ghettos. Those who inhabit our ghettos are those who think like us. We meet together in our little groups and regurgitate the party line on each other over and over again. We repeat our belief systems to each other so often and so clearly that we begin to believe they make sense. We talk and talk the party line and then knowingly nod our heads and sagely agree with each other.

Those of us who are progressive truly believe that we are the open minded Christians in the mix. Reality is, we are only open to those who believe as we believe. Unless, of course, you can come up with a take on Christianity that is new and different. Old and used is bad. New and different is good. But if your theology is not progressive, we pretty much dismiss you. Our reasons for dismissing you are that you are narrow-minded (Just like we are only different) and not very intelligent. Our dirty little secret is that if you don't believe like us, you are just not very smart. Only smart people think and believe like we do. Don't think like us – dumb. We gather in our very intelligent circles, repeat our gobbledygook until we have ourselves convinced we have it right, and believe we have it all figured out. We are so convinced that when we speak our "truth" to someone outside of our little circle, we are amazed that they think we have said something that makes no sense – such as a progressive Christian's definition of Christian to an atheist (Sewell to Hitchens).

A great example of something stupid repeated enough that it is accepted as intelligent came from the liberal part of the church in the late 1960's. I couldn't count the number of progressive (then called liberal) pastors who, with knowing nods of their heads, informed me that, "It doesn't make any difference what you believe, just so you believe something." Wow, that is amazingly stupid on many levels. But some seminary professors with great academic credentials had told them that latest popular "truth" and insinuated that to not believe what they were being told would mark them as not very intelligent. It is the old "The Emperor has no cloths" scam. If you don't agree with us, there must be something wrong with you.

The problem with this approach is when you say those things that are completely accepted by those in your group to people who either don't have an investment in being a part of your group or if you say some of these things to people in your group who have a solid enough self image to not need your approval, you are likely to hear feedback much like Mr. Hitchens'. "What you just said makes no sense."

On the other end of the theological spectrum the same game is played but with a different stick. Instead of the intelligence measuring stick, the conservatives and the fundamentalists use the" righteous" measuring stick. They meet in their closed and secure little groups, repeat to one another the "true" gospel and all of the rules and regulations that go with being a true believe until there is no doubt in their minds they have got it. It is rarely spoken aloud, but it is clearly communicated that if you believe as they do, you are okay with God and if you don't, you have had your ticket punched and are on the fast track to hell. When they attempt to speak to those who are not part of their circles of belief they come across as narrow-minded, mean spirited, legalistic and not the least bit appealing. And so their brand of Christianity also seems pretty senseless. They too are likely to hear feedback saying, "What you just said makes no sense to me."

So we find ourselves coming from all over the theological spectrum, pretty darn sure we have it right and others have it wrong. Occasionally we attempt to share our faith with others. The progressives say things like, "The stories in the Bible are not true but give us some spiritual thoughts and Jesus didn't intend to be seen as the Messiah but was cast in that role by those who came later to the church and Jesus' death was a political happening that was twisted by some church comers into being a sacrifice for our sins and the resurrection of Jesus is an allegorical story and the Bible was written in and for another time so what the Bible calls sin no longer applies and you can pretty much believe and act as you please and if it is socially acceptable you can still call yourself a Christian.

The fundamentalist say things like, "The Bible is absolutely true word for word (And the only correct Bible is the King James Version) and if you don't believe every word you are not a Christian and to be a real Christian means you can't smoke, drink (The wine in the Bible was really just grape juice), cuss, dance or go to R rated movies and there is only one way to be baptized that God approves of and it has to be in our water and a woman's place in the church is in the kitchen and it is extremely important to know in what order of the end of the world will come.

So, whatever "gab group" we come from, when it comes time for us to speak spiritual truth to the world as representatives of the church it comes out sounding so senseless and/or meaningless that the general response we receive is much like Hitchens' to Sewell – "What is the hell are you talking about?" We have trotted out the emperor, bragged on his new outfit, and the unbelievers have often responded by telling us that he has no clothes.

Again, I believe our differences are driven more by our emotional needs than by our theological understandings. We need to worship a god we are comfortable with, a god who thinks like we do, a god who won't embarrass us in front of our friends. We need a god made in our own image.

We have a powerful human need to be accepted. We need to be correct, to be right. On the progressive side of the church, this correctness has to do with seeing that the ultimate evil is to be narrow minded and exclusive. This is a very difficult act to pull off and hold much of a meaningful belief system. For the fundamentalists, their correctness plays to the ultimate evil of failing to cling to an exact and exacting list of beliefs and rules. This act is difficult to pull off and still cling to any shreds of Gospel message of love, grace and redemption.

I guess I liked Hitchens' comment, not because he nailed a liberal, but because he said what has rolled around in my mind as I have interacted with people from all segments of the church. "I know you are comfortable with what you just said, but, to me, it made no sense at all." Many of the people I know from all parts of the church are nice people, smart people, and sweet people. But when it comes to religion, we say some of the most senseless things I have ever heard.

Perhaps we would do well to get out of our ghettos, start really talking to and learning from each other, show each other the respect that is due and necessary for any meaningful conversations to take place. Let's quit playing the "I am smarter than you" or "I am more holy than you" games and realize we are all working on this Christian thing and can use all the help we can get. I know I can.

Copyright © 2010, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved