Some writers’ opinion I respect so much that I will read whatever they publish. Even if I might not agree with everything they say, I feel like it is important to know what they are thinking. One such person is Diana Butler Bass. While we seem to have quite a bit in common, she is younger than I am and has had different kinds of experiences in life. So she offers fresh perspectives. She recently wrote a short piece about contemporary events, which leads me to share some of her thoughts and my commentary on those.
I like the title of her little essay. “The God of love had a really bad week” is her take on recent events. I like how she is introducing her image of God into the current affairs of our country. I share with her the idea that God’s basic nature is love. Of course, this is not a contemporary discovery. The Hebrew Bible suggests this is true. John’s Gospel and letters are explicit that God is love. Other major religious traditions insist as much.
It is easy to say God is love. We can make it a theological doctrine and say we believe it. But the real test of ourselves and our theology is a willingness to act on our beliefs. If God is love, am I willing to act lovingly? Am I willing to act lovingly in all cases? This gets hard. And maybe for some of us, it seems impossible. Our own prejudices get in our way. Our own shortsightedness obscures our doctrinal clarity.
Bass is alarmed at the divisions in our country and our political life. I would have to agree. The discussions have become uncivil. Hate seems to have crept into the conversations. Accusations and ridicule seem easier to muster than understanding and compassion. People become depressed and drop out of the conversations. Despair threatens hope. Bass created a great phrase to describe it.
Bass says that Christianity “right now is a dumpster of discord.” I would have to agree with her analysis. Of course, she recognizes that she represents one perspective as a Christian. She is making a judgment without trying to be judgmental. I like how she frames her analysis. She reflects on those who represent a very different version than Christianity than her own. She puzzles that some of the folks with whom she grew up went to the same Methodist Church and sang the same songs.
She singles out the kids’ song, “Jesus Loves Me.” To reference this song hooks into her theology that God is love. She feels like the kids’ song should lead to the action of turning out really loving people. No doubt, the most challenging form of love is compassion. Probably no Christian would deny that Jesus was a person of compassion. It seems impossible to deny that he showed compassion to the sinner and the outcast. He talks about how easy it is to love our friends and those who like us.
Compassion gets tested with those who are not our friends. It is tested by those who are not like and are not likely to become like us. We can apply this to a whole range of people and issues. Right now a hot spot in American politics is the immigration issue. This issue quickly drags religion and politics into the same arena. Each and every one of us tries to figure out how to be religiously and politically consistent.
The problem is diversity is built into the Christian system. People can go to most churches and either “hear” different things or intentionally be exposed to different things. Some churches do present a variety of different perspectives. In these cases, it is difficult to know what folks actually “hear.” Other churches may even claim to be Bible-based. But as Bass acknowledges, diversity still can emerge. “Same Bible. Different gods.”
Different gods would not be a big problem if it did not lead to widely diverse actions. And the actions of the various diverse groups lead to sometime contradictory actions. Sometimes this even leads to conflict and even worse. Rather than creatively solving problems, we find ourselves in the dumpster of discord. Instead of working together, there is too much yelling and worse.
Maybe it is difficult to know what a loving God would do. Maybe I am naïve and think that committed, sane spiritual folks would be clear about discrimination and so forth. Maybe I am not operating from a fear-based approach to diversity, etc. But I recognize that is merely my opinion, as some would have it. And there you have it. We open our eyes and discover we are in the dumpster of discord.
The good news is God is in the dumpster, too. I recognize this is a faith statement. I can’t prove it. But I am confident the God of love will prevail. The God of love will have bad weeks, but that loving God does not want any of us spending time in the dumpster!
I like the title of her little essay. “The God of love had a really bad week” is her take on recent events. I like how she is introducing her image of God into the current affairs of our country. I share with her the idea that God’s basic nature is love. Of course, this is not a contemporary discovery. The Hebrew Bible suggests this is true. John’s Gospel and letters are explicit that God is love. Other major religious traditions insist as much.
It is easy to say God is love. We can make it a theological doctrine and say we believe it. But the real test of ourselves and our theology is a willingness to act on our beliefs. If God is love, am I willing to act lovingly? Am I willing to act lovingly in all cases? This gets hard. And maybe for some of us, it seems impossible. Our own prejudices get in our way. Our own shortsightedness obscures our doctrinal clarity.
Bass is alarmed at the divisions in our country and our political life. I would have to agree. The discussions have become uncivil. Hate seems to have crept into the conversations. Accusations and ridicule seem easier to muster than understanding and compassion. People become depressed and drop out of the conversations. Despair threatens hope. Bass created a great phrase to describe it.
Bass says that Christianity “right now is a dumpster of discord.” I would have to agree with her analysis. Of course, she recognizes that she represents one perspective as a Christian. She is making a judgment without trying to be judgmental. I like how she frames her analysis. She reflects on those who represent a very different version than Christianity than her own. She puzzles that some of the folks with whom she grew up went to the same Methodist Church and sang the same songs.
She singles out the kids’ song, “Jesus Loves Me.” To reference this song hooks into her theology that God is love. She feels like the kids’ song should lead to the action of turning out really loving people. No doubt, the most challenging form of love is compassion. Probably no Christian would deny that Jesus was a person of compassion. It seems impossible to deny that he showed compassion to the sinner and the outcast. He talks about how easy it is to love our friends and those who like us.
Compassion gets tested with those who are not our friends. It is tested by those who are not like and are not likely to become like us. We can apply this to a whole range of people and issues. Right now a hot spot in American politics is the immigration issue. This issue quickly drags religion and politics into the same arena. Each and every one of us tries to figure out how to be religiously and politically consistent.
The problem is diversity is built into the Christian system. People can go to most churches and either “hear” different things or intentionally be exposed to different things. Some churches do present a variety of different perspectives. In these cases, it is difficult to know what folks actually “hear.” Other churches may even claim to be Bible-based. But as Bass acknowledges, diversity still can emerge. “Same Bible. Different gods.”
Different gods would not be a big problem if it did not lead to widely diverse actions. And the actions of the various diverse groups lead to sometime contradictory actions. Sometimes this even leads to conflict and even worse. Rather than creatively solving problems, we find ourselves in the dumpster of discord. Instead of working together, there is too much yelling and worse.
Maybe it is difficult to know what a loving God would do. Maybe I am naïve and think that committed, sane spiritual folks would be clear about discrimination and so forth. Maybe I am not operating from a fear-based approach to diversity, etc. But I recognize that is merely my opinion, as some would have it. And there you have it. We open our eyes and discover we are in the dumpster of discord.
The good news is God is in the dumpster, too. I recognize this is a faith statement. I can’t prove it. But I am confident the God of love will prevail. The God of love will have bad weeks, but that loving God does not want any of us spending time in the dumpster!
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