I have been out of touch in the blogosphere lately, attending the General Assembly of my denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I haven't had regular internet access (wifi ain't free at our hotel), and honestly, I have been too busy catching up with friends and colleagues from all over the country. I enjoy General Assembly. I love the fellowship. And the worship is usually inspiring. And the workshops very often challenge me and empower me to go about making a difference in the world. And for the most part, I enjoy the business sessions, where we as a church hold ourselves accountable and discern our public witness in the world.
But today, I am angry. We have a business item before the assembly, calling for our Church to finally take a public stand on the war in Iraq. It's about four years too late. It's thousands of lives too late. And honestly, in my opinion, it's a pretty weak statement. But you know what the assembly did? They voted to send it back to committee to water it down even more!!! Because we have some disagreement. And you know, as much as I love our polity, sometimes, our desire for "unity" hinders our prophetic witness. We want to create a benign document with which everyone agrees, and we end up creating a statement that is meaningless mush and makes nobody happy. We are so concerned with protecting our precious church unity, that we fail to be a credible voice calling for peace and justice in our world.
I have said it before and I'll say it again: the church needs to get out of this self-preservation mode and once again become a movement working for peace and healing in our world. Otherwise, we should just stop calling ourselves "Disciples of Christ". If we are truly to be followers of the one we call the Prince of Peace, then we need to actually start following. Otherwise, we won't be disciples, just church people. And church people suck.
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3 comments:
Rachel,
This post and its companion/sequel pretty much sum up what it means to be a mainline liberationist church kid these days. By which I mean, I hear what you're saying, and hear a lot of my own journey here as well.
peace,
David
somefolks.blogspot.com
Although I must be in a tiny minority, I feel strongly that any resolution referring to support of or opposition to any governmental policy should be out of order. Activists for every imaginable cause have innumerable groups through which to organize and express their views. The cause unites them. If you agree with the platform of the Democratic Party, then go be a Democrat – more power to you. If you’re pro-life, then support your local chapter of National Right to Life. If you want to express opposition to the war through a DOC organization, then go join the Disciples Peace Fellowship and campaign in the exhibit hall at General Assembly to persuade fellow Disciples to your point of view. My problem is, none of these things define us or unite us as Disciples, so why are we forced through a General Assembly resolution to go on record with our disagreement?
I agree that being faithful can’t be compartmentalized – faith impacts every aspect of our lives. But the Christian Church was founded on the recognition that sincere people of faith can and do come out in different places on all of the controversial political, social, and theological issues of the day. Why do the very people who claim to celebrate diversity insist that we take a stand on issues that alienate that very diversity?
Unity is our polar star and so we have from the beginning intentionally chosen NOT to fight over our differences, but rather to celebrate the bare essential things we have in common. We are united in following Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We are united in the Lord’s Supper. We are united in proclaiming the Good News about Jesus. We shouldn’t need a skillful moderator to keep a lid on things at General Assembly. We shouldn’t need to celebrate that we know how to have a fight that alienates a substantial portion of our denomination and then sing “Blest Be the Tie that Binds” in a noble effort to soothe the raw wound we just self-inflicted.
At General Assembly, let’s have workshops and forums on every issue of the day. Let’s have exhibit hall booths and pamphlets and fliers and buttons. But let’s restrict the business sessions to doing the essential business of the denomination: financial oversight, approving structural changes, electing leaders, and so on. I realize these things can also be divisive, but unlike the sense-of-the-assembly resolutions, we can’t have an organization without them.
I should have also said that it was great to sit at the table with you at Joe T. Garcia's, even if we don't agree! :-)
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