Well, first off, thank you. I am one of those Americans who is, I am quite certain, in the crosshairs of the lowercase-c christian nationalists. When I say it is truly frightening to live in America, I am not exaggerating. The Christ I worship and adore is the Christ who wept on hearing of Lazarus's death and the Christ who, while angry, was also saddened that the pharisees wanted so little, so much less than what He was offering. This image of a Man who is so near and so transcendent is not an attractive image to millions of people who claim to have God on Their Side. Do these people frighten me? Yes, a little. Sometimes a lot. What do I do about them, about their ideology? I do what is hardest for any mortal to do: I remember I am dust. But mostly these people sadden me in their so-little desires. They want their Strongman to lead them. And that is all. Theirs is not a rich and full desire for wholeness nor holiness. They have gotten what they want, but I know (for it is not only written in the Word but it is written in Reality) that it will not satisfy, for nothing outside of Christ himself is able to do so.
But I digress. I have been a Sacred Podcast listener since the Pandemic and have grown to rely (perhaps too much) on it and Theos's voice(s). It is so difficult to find such voices here, now, that I truly treasure them when they speak. Thank you.
Thank you for this insightful post. It bubbled up many thoughts and issues for me. I’m a Brit but long term US resident, thinking of returning to the UK within the next 5 years. Im a mother of three almost adult American boys. I’m a theology graduate did nothing in that field professionally and who finds herself ever increasingly alienated from Christianity. Your article brought both clarity to my concerns and hope for a way to show up. I felt called out for my own bias but in a more positive way. You are probably the only overt Christian (living) writer I currently read. Thank you for providing some threads for me to hold on to and ponder. Please continue. The world (my world?) needs this measured view.
That 'christophobic' turn of phrase from Bretherton was bold and brilliant. It has summed up for me why I have found the whole Christian Nationalism movement so abhorrent and so unlike Jesus in the Gospels who would make conservatives and liberals (and all who come in-between) deeply uncomfortable in equal measure.
Thank you for writing this Elizabeth, it is a vitally important piece. I fear so much of modern western Christianity is burning the bridges over the moat that the seekers and inquisitive may one day tentatively traipse across, all in order to keep our own castles "pure" (and wealthy).
Thank you, this was thought-provoking as always. As someone without that kind of face, I'd love to read any advice you have on how to have more of those kinds of metaphysical conversations!
Hmmm. Maybe I’ll write something. The Sacred is always sort of modelling it. Real, powerful questions and then real listening is all I have really got. Then friendship comes. Then magic happens.
Thanks for replying! I've actually just finished listening to your episode with Sarah Wilson, where you advise becoming the "earnest weirdo" who cares about this stuff. I definitely think that's a big part of it! I also appreciate your point about asking good questions: it seems obvious now you've said it, but I hadn't properly considered the kind of questions that would help foster the discussion. I think I just assumed we could start by discussing the weather and somehow magically move to something deep, meaningful and real...
Yep. When we don’t have the habit of it someone has to make the first move, and a deeper question can jolt the conversation off its well work tram tracks
A brilliant topic, as usual. CS Lewis has a scathing commentary in The Screwtape Letters on "God And..." [God And my political party, God And my particular cause] and he accurately identifies it as a evil choice that leads people away from actual worship of God as God is, and towards God as a back-up singer for their own choices.
That's why there is a big important commandment about not "taking the name of the God in vain." Using God's name to bolster your own fame? Sell your product? Get more votes? Wow. Don't even think about it, says the commandment.
My personal test for danger is whether the action you are taking to show your faith makes you feel even the slightest bit smug or superior. If you can't be made to do evil, you can sometimes be tempted to be smug about how much holier you are than other people ... which is just as fatal.
I am not in the UK, but I follow what is going on through the media. I think that the reason for the overarching narrative of decline was the fact that Christianity was becoming irrelevant. Of course, there were the “Super-Atheists” who scourged Christianity for its past, and its forgetfulness, but I always felt that they were right because they were criticising a form of Christianity that had been addicted to power and was oppressive and ignorant. In fact, the Christianity being criticised was almost the opposite to the Jesus of the Gospels.
I am sceptical of public figures who start praising Jesus, because they have every reason to follow trends, and some are very unsavoury figures. This is also the problem with the culture war figures, who I acknowledge as having changed trajectory, but I know very little about their reasons. As you say, the UK is not the US, thankfully I would add, because I hate the showtime religion on display, especially when it is politicised. Heritage is also problematic, because it relies on a historical portrayal that is very often superficial and blends the problems out.
The imagination that Christianity could be a combatant against Islam or Woke triggers for me an alarm bell, and crusades of every type come to mind, and once more, the truth suffers. So, I am just as disturbed as you when this arises. If Christian humanist presence in the public square does address the fundamental questions facing human life and flourishing, then I am with you, but the “isms” of this world are just too frustrating for an old man like me. I recently wrote to a friend in California:
“I think that creating art is, in a way, religious, just as horticulture can be. It is really a question whether we bask in admiration or are pointing to something else, bigger than us. Art is a way to discover form, colour, shapes, and details that we normally overlook. It is a kind of “look again” that artists train us to see. In that way, a gardener is also an artist, and both are saying “look again,” which is what I imagine primal religion was doing. You find it in the Gospel of Matthew (6:26-29):
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.
If we could get around the idea that such pursuits invite us to "look again" and cultivate a deeper awareness, it could resonate profoundly. Art and gardening, in their own ways, direct us toward wonder and an appreciation for the subtleties of existence that we often take for granted. Both practices teach us patience, attention to detail, and reverence for natural forms, which can indeed feel like a spiritual experience.
The Gospel of Matthew is emphasising a way of seeing that transcends material concerns and invites trust in a larger, sustaining force. In that passage, Jesus asks his followers to observe the effortless beauty and provision in nature, highlighting how these elements reflect divine care. In the same way, artists and gardeners participate in a kind of sacred act by uncovering and honouring the beauty that already exists in creation.
I imagine this to align with primal or nature-based religions that saw the sacred embedded in the world around us. In their rituals and practices, these traditions invite a sense of interconnectedness, reminding us to marvel at the simple and extraordinary realities of life. Art and gardening, then, become acts of worship or devotion, gestures that reawaken our sense of awe and reconnect us to the divine in the everyday. If church services evoked the kind of spirit that encourages us to “look again,” I’m sure they would attract more people.”
Wedell Berry is that kind of person. LOOK & SEE is a cinematic portrait of the changing landscapes and shifting values of rural America in the era of industrial agriculture, as seen through the mind’s eye of Wendell Berry. He wrote:
Sit and be still
until in the time
of no rain you hear
beneath the dry wind's
commotion in the trees
the sound of flowing
water among the rocks,
a stream unheard before,
and you are where
breathing is prayer.
It is also why I think your work on the podcast “about our Sacred values and how we can talk to people who are different from ourselves” is admirable.
Keep doing what you do. My friend in California is a fan as well.
"Art and gardening, in their own ways, direct us toward wonder and an appreciation for the subtleties of existence that we often take for granted." I left the U.K for Portugal to do just that - art (craft/sculpting) and gardening (growing food). The future of the world is agrarian - persistent, consistent and subsistence (local community) farming. I am just in the process of donating a geodesic greenhouse to such a project. Thank you for such an interesting comment.
'Showing up week after week alongside people Not Like Me continually complicates the friend/enemy distinction'...yes, somewhat different, but surely, very fundamentally similar or you would not be attending the same service? Aren't you also becoming MORE like each other as time goes on, conditioned by the same message?...OR...is it that despite trying to align under one message, you quickly realise that even after that you remain significantly different, and must learn tolerance or fall apart?
Thanks Laurie. I’m sure there are some churches that are externally homogenous and homogenising, but my experience is of a gathering of people who would never otherwise be in the same room. Perhaps the parish system is most helpful for this. I think you are right though that even congregations that are more self-selecting will be riven with difference and have to learn how to navigate that.
I love what you've written here. I've only recently reacquainted myself with Jesus. We're currently reading the gospel of John at my church and it's clear to me that Jesus challenged tribalism wherever he saw it. He also challenged dogmatism and he again and again emphasised the importance of being awake to the spiritual, while acknowledging that we live in the material world. I admire some of the people you mention in your article but I also see the dangers of wielding Christianity as a weapon against civilisational decline. I fear that we may lose sight of Christ in trying to protect and deploy Christianity as a cultural/political device. I really appreciate your article and Paul Kingsnorth's lecture.
There is a lot of wisdom in this article. As someone who is broadly conservative (in faith, political view, and temperament!) I recognise the need to listen and learn from progressives - especially on issues like caring for the planet, alleviating poverty, and peacemaking. Whilst progressives may not always have the right solutions for these areas, too often conservatives overlook them. As always, looking beyond our tribe and engaging in dialogue can provide shared ways forward.
When I was 11 years old, my parents enrolled me in a parochial school, thinking it would protect me from "the world." At 14, I was already disillusioned by the fake religiosity surrounding me. I begged my parents to return me to public school so I could live out my already-genuine faith in an environment where it could truly flourish. It was the right call.
Now, in our mid 50s, my husband and I have recently sold everything we own and built an off-grid adventure truck so we can leave everything behind and wander the world. Like the school of my early teen years, the Christianity of our American culture is stifling and fake. We need to get out. We need to wander the bigger world so we can live out our Jesus-centered faith in places where it still means something revolutionary.
This is challenging and interesting and insightful as ever, but but but... Chesterton's old saw was that Christianity is a religion of contradictions and this felt like half the gospel. We get friendship from Jesus *and* we get the sharpest condemnation. If our "What would Jesus do?" doesn't include saying "Woe to you [...] You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?" then I worry we've not really faced into how terrifying austere one face of the gospel is.
Thanks Luke - I always appreciate polite challenge. Chesterton is right it’s full of paradox right, and we all have strands we are more comfortable with. I also see the reason the gospel is good news is that we need help. Our darkness is real and denial about that leads to death. However, the context of these verses you quote seems to reinforce my point (though I know we all read the Bible/everything looking for reinforcement for what we already think and I may be doing that here). It is precisely to the externally most *religious* people of the day Jesus is speaking here. The brood of vipers are the ones showing off to each other with their piety and neglecting “justice, mercy and faithfulness”. My perspective is that the “austerity” of the gospel as you put it is something we can only hear for our own hearts, not something we are supposed to beat other people with. He gets to call us snakes when we are mired in hypocrisy (and also friends, and sons and daughters, and priests and saints and children and sheep), we don’t get to call other people that. Is my read. “Austerity” is for us, to call us to repentance, our neighbours we are called to love, bless, serve, pray for, feed, welcome, shelter, live such good lives among that we might provoke them to ask for the reason for the hope that we have.
1Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: 2“The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy, burdensome loadsa and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues, 7the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed.b
8But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ. 11The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.c
15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of helld as you are.
16Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred? 18And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’ 19You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes it sacred? 20So then, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it. 22And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the One who sits on it.
23Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.e
25Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish,f so that the outside may become clean as well.
I read your generous reply yesterday morning and the BCP lectionary gave me James 2 ("mercy triumphs over judgement") and John 8, so that's me told!
I guess we each face our own temptations and for me it is easy and affirming to practice hospitality, but also far too easy in the context of a corporate career to be silent in the face of evil. My suspicion is that this temptation will only grow, at least in the UK, as society moves further from a Christian understanding of good and evil.
As an evangelical-christianity-survivor, {now religiously sober for 30 years, and still in recovery :)) }, I found your posting absolutely fascinating. It brings me neatly and very eloquently up-to-date on all the hand-wringing brou-ha-ha of christianity-meets-politics I've been thankfully missing all this time. Nailing my colours to the mast, I inhabit the area somewhere between Panpsychism and the Gospel of Thomas.
The undertone of your post suggests to me a deeper question of "why do good ideas become bad ideologies?" This question has been well addressed by Bob Goudzwaard in "Idols of our Time" (IVP, 1984). {ref also Aldous Huxley's "Ends and Means", 1946]. One aspect is that there is a gradual growth of evermore outrageous means justifying the (oh-so-important) ends - a logical impossibility since means-and-ends are 'one-thing' ("A violent war begets a violent peace" Gandhi). The creation of false enemies is also a natural part of this.
My take is that the way forward is small resilient communities, based on the land (which is why I moved from U.K to Portugal to do just that) - and to create art, and useful tools (for basic survival) such as hand-weaving looms. The future is small-scale, agrarian, community. Which means (I think) I agree with much of what you write (and thank you for doing so, so well).
(PS: Three questions I have found useful when trying to discern the value of so much writings available nowadays are: (1).Compared to what? (2).Says who? [evidence], and (3).Is it kind?)
Wonderful perspective and analysis. The description of our metaphysics seems to be at the foundation. We, in the US are presently "chrsitophobic", which is why even the words of Jesus in Matthew 5-7 are anathema to the Christian nationalist project. They view Jesus as having become a Joshua-like dominionist, claiming their god-given seven mountains. In this, the politically driven metaphysic drives not only their view of the other among them, but very ability for biblical hermeneutics.
I've long struggled with trying to understand the political implications of the gospel while also understanding there is no political map that precisely matches the gospel's cartography. I'm convinced that Christian faith can be both deeply personal and profoundly political, but what that looks like in any given culture at any given historical moment may vary.
As to Wendell Berry he once wrote that "being a contrarian is not the only way to the truth, but it is one way."
Well, first off, thank you. I am one of those Americans who is, I am quite certain, in the crosshairs of the lowercase-c christian nationalists. When I say it is truly frightening to live in America, I am not exaggerating. The Christ I worship and adore is the Christ who wept on hearing of Lazarus's death and the Christ who, while angry, was also saddened that the pharisees wanted so little, so much less than what He was offering. This image of a Man who is so near and so transcendent is not an attractive image to millions of people who claim to have God on Their Side. Do these people frighten me? Yes, a little. Sometimes a lot. What do I do about them, about their ideology? I do what is hardest for any mortal to do: I remember I am dust. But mostly these people sadden me in their so-little desires. They want their Strongman to lead them. And that is all. Theirs is not a rich and full desire for wholeness nor holiness. They have gotten what they want, but I know (for it is not only written in the Word but it is written in Reality) that it will not satisfy, for nothing outside of Christ himself is able to do so.
But I digress. I have been a Sacred Podcast listener since the Pandemic and have grown to rely (perhaps too much) on it and Theos's voice(s). It is so difficult to find such voices here, now, that I truly treasure them when they speak. Thank you.
Thank you Gabrielle.
Thank you for this insightful post. It bubbled up many thoughts and issues for me. I’m a Brit but long term US resident, thinking of returning to the UK within the next 5 years. Im a mother of three almost adult American boys. I’m a theology graduate did nothing in that field professionally and who finds herself ever increasingly alienated from Christianity. Your article brought both clarity to my concerns and hope for a way to show up. I felt called out for my own bias but in a more positive way. You are probably the only overt Christian (living) writer I currently read. Thank you for providing some threads for me to hold on to and ponder. Please continue. The world (my world?) needs this measured view.
Thanks Andi that means a lot. I appreciate your encouragement!
That 'christophobic' turn of phrase from Bretherton was bold and brilliant. It has summed up for me why I have found the whole Christian Nationalism movement so abhorrent and so unlike Jesus in the Gospels who would make conservatives and liberals (and all who come in-between) deeply uncomfortable in equal measure.
Thank you for writing this Elizabeth, it is a vitally important piece. I fear so much of modern western Christianity is burning the bridges over the moat that the seekers and inquisitive may one day tentatively traipse across, all in order to keep our own castles "pure" (and wealthy).
Thank you, this was thought-provoking as always. As someone without that kind of face, I'd love to read any advice you have on how to have more of those kinds of metaphysical conversations!
Hmmm. Maybe I’ll write something. The Sacred is always sort of modelling it. Real, powerful questions and then real listening is all I have really got. Then friendship comes. Then magic happens.
Thanks for replying! I've actually just finished listening to your episode with Sarah Wilson, where you advise becoming the "earnest weirdo" who cares about this stuff. I definitely think that's a big part of it! I also appreciate your point about asking good questions: it seems obvious now you've said it, but I hadn't properly considered the kind of questions that would help foster the discussion. I think I just assumed we could start by discussing the weather and somehow magically move to something deep, meaningful and real...
Yep. When we don’t have the habit of it someone has to make the first move, and a deeper question can jolt the conversation off its well work tram tracks
A brilliant topic, as usual. CS Lewis has a scathing commentary in The Screwtape Letters on "God And..." [God And my political party, God And my particular cause] and he accurately identifies it as a evil choice that leads people away from actual worship of God as God is, and towards God as a back-up singer for their own choices.
That's why there is a big important commandment about not "taking the name of the God in vain." Using God's name to bolster your own fame? Sell your product? Get more votes? Wow. Don't even think about it, says the commandment.
My personal test for danger is whether the action you are taking to show your faith makes you feel even the slightest bit smug or superior. If you can't be made to do evil, you can sometimes be tempted to be smug about how much holier you are than other people ... which is just as fatal.
Ugh that is a very exposing test. Healthily painful
I am not in the UK, but I follow what is going on through the media. I think that the reason for the overarching narrative of decline was the fact that Christianity was becoming irrelevant. Of course, there were the “Super-Atheists” who scourged Christianity for its past, and its forgetfulness, but I always felt that they were right because they were criticising a form of Christianity that had been addicted to power and was oppressive and ignorant. In fact, the Christianity being criticised was almost the opposite to the Jesus of the Gospels.
I am sceptical of public figures who start praising Jesus, because they have every reason to follow trends, and some are very unsavoury figures. This is also the problem with the culture war figures, who I acknowledge as having changed trajectory, but I know very little about their reasons. As you say, the UK is not the US, thankfully I would add, because I hate the showtime religion on display, especially when it is politicised. Heritage is also problematic, because it relies on a historical portrayal that is very often superficial and blends the problems out.
The imagination that Christianity could be a combatant against Islam or Woke triggers for me an alarm bell, and crusades of every type come to mind, and once more, the truth suffers. So, I am just as disturbed as you when this arises. If Christian humanist presence in the public square does address the fundamental questions facing human life and flourishing, then I am with you, but the “isms” of this world are just too frustrating for an old man like me. I recently wrote to a friend in California:
“I think that creating art is, in a way, religious, just as horticulture can be. It is really a question whether we bask in admiration or are pointing to something else, bigger than us. Art is a way to discover form, colour, shapes, and details that we normally overlook. It is a kind of “look again” that artists train us to see. In that way, a gardener is also an artist, and both are saying “look again,” which is what I imagine primal religion was doing. You find it in the Gospel of Matthew (6:26-29):
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.
If we could get around the idea that such pursuits invite us to "look again" and cultivate a deeper awareness, it could resonate profoundly. Art and gardening, in their own ways, direct us toward wonder and an appreciation for the subtleties of existence that we often take for granted. Both practices teach us patience, attention to detail, and reverence for natural forms, which can indeed feel like a spiritual experience.
The Gospel of Matthew is emphasising a way of seeing that transcends material concerns and invites trust in a larger, sustaining force. In that passage, Jesus asks his followers to observe the effortless beauty and provision in nature, highlighting how these elements reflect divine care. In the same way, artists and gardeners participate in a kind of sacred act by uncovering and honouring the beauty that already exists in creation.
I imagine this to align with primal or nature-based religions that saw the sacred embedded in the world around us. In their rituals and practices, these traditions invite a sense of interconnectedness, reminding us to marvel at the simple and extraordinary realities of life. Art and gardening, then, become acts of worship or devotion, gestures that reawaken our sense of awe and reconnect us to the divine in the everyday. If church services evoked the kind of spirit that encourages us to “look again,” I’m sure they would attract more people.”
Wedell Berry is that kind of person. LOOK & SEE is a cinematic portrait of the changing landscapes and shifting values of rural America in the era of industrial agriculture, as seen through the mind’s eye of Wendell Berry. He wrote:
Sit and be still
until in the time
of no rain you hear
beneath the dry wind's
commotion in the trees
the sound of flowing
water among the rocks,
a stream unheard before,
and you are where
breathing is prayer.
It is also why I think your work on the podcast “about our Sacred values and how we can talk to people who are different from ourselves” is admirable.
Keep doing what you do. My friend in California is a fan as well.
This is making me think I need to get off social media and back into my garden (which needs winterising)
"Art and gardening, in their own ways, direct us toward wonder and an appreciation for the subtleties of existence that we often take for granted." I left the U.K for Portugal to do just that - art (craft/sculpting) and gardening (growing food). The future of the world is agrarian - persistent, consistent and subsistence (local community) farming. I am just in the process of donating a geodesic greenhouse to such a project. Thank you for such an interesting comment.
Wendell Berry...poet, tobacco farmer :-)
'Showing up week after week alongside people Not Like Me continually complicates the friend/enemy distinction'...yes, somewhat different, but surely, very fundamentally similar or you would not be attending the same service? Aren't you also becoming MORE like each other as time goes on, conditioned by the same message?...OR...is it that despite trying to align under one message, you quickly realise that even after that you remain significantly different, and must learn tolerance or fall apart?
Thanks Laurie. I’m sure there are some churches that are externally homogenous and homogenising, but my experience is of a gathering of people who would never otherwise be in the same room. Perhaps the parish system is most helpful for this. I think you are right though that even congregations that are more self-selecting will be riven with difference and have to learn how to navigate that.
I love what you've written here. I've only recently reacquainted myself with Jesus. We're currently reading the gospel of John at my church and it's clear to me that Jesus challenged tribalism wherever he saw it. He also challenged dogmatism and he again and again emphasised the importance of being awake to the spiritual, while acknowledging that we live in the material world. I admire some of the people you mention in your article but I also see the dangers of wielding Christianity as a weapon against civilisational decline. I fear that we may lose sight of Christ in trying to protect and deploy Christianity as a cultural/political device. I really appreciate your article and Paul Kingsnorth's lecture.
There is a lot of wisdom in this article. As someone who is broadly conservative (in faith, political view, and temperament!) I recognise the need to listen and learn from progressives - especially on issues like caring for the planet, alleviating poverty, and peacemaking. Whilst progressives may not always have the right solutions for these areas, too often conservatives overlook them. As always, looking beyond our tribe and engaging in dialogue can provide shared ways forward.
Thank you for this excellent analysis.
When I was 11 years old, my parents enrolled me in a parochial school, thinking it would protect me from "the world." At 14, I was already disillusioned by the fake religiosity surrounding me. I begged my parents to return me to public school so I could live out my already-genuine faith in an environment where it could truly flourish. It was the right call.
Now, in our mid 50s, my husband and I have recently sold everything we own and built an off-grid adventure truck so we can leave everything behind and wander the world. Like the school of my early teen years, the Christianity of our American culture is stifling and fake. We need to get out. We need to wander the bigger world so we can live out our Jesus-centered faith in places where it still means something revolutionary.
This is challenging and interesting and insightful as ever, but but but... Chesterton's old saw was that Christianity is a religion of contradictions and this felt like half the gospel. We get friendship from Jesus *and* we get the sharpest condemnation. If our "What would Jesus do?" doesn't include saying "Woe to you [...] You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?" then I worry we've not really faced into how terrifying austere one face of the gospel is.
Thanks Luke - I always appreciate polite challenge. Chesterton is right it’s full of paradox right, and we all have strands we are more comfortable with. I also see the reason the gospel is good news is that we need help. Our darkness is real and denial about that leads to death. However, the context of these verses you quote seems to reinforce my point (though I know we all read the Bible/everything looking for reinforcement for what we already think and I may be doing that here). It is precisely to the externally most *religious* people of the day Jesus is speaking here. The brood of vipers are the ones showing off to each other with their piety and neglecting “justice, mercy and faithfulness”. My perspective is that the “austerity” of the gospel as you put it is something we can only hear for our own hearts, not something we are supposed to beat other people with. He gets to call us snakes when we are mired in hypocrisy (and also friends, and sons and daughters, and priests and saints and children and sheep), we don’t get to call other people that. Is my read. “Austerity” is for us, to call us to repentance, our neighbours we are called to love, bless, serve, pray for, feed, welcome, shelter, live such good lives among that we might provoke them to ask for the reason for the hope that we have.
1Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: 2“The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy, burdensome loadsa and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues, 7the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed.b
8But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ. 11The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.c
15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of helld as you are.
16Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred? 18And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’ 19You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes it sacred? 20So then, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it. 22And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the One who sits on it.
23Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.e
25Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish,f so that the outside may become clean as well.
I read your generous reply yesterday morning and the BCP lectionary gave me James 2 ("mercy triumphs over judgement") and John 8, so that's me told!
I guess we each face our own temptations and for me it is easy and affirming to practice hospitality, but also far too easy in the context of a corporate career to be silent in the face of evil. My suspicion is that this temptation will only grow, at least in the UK, as society moves further from a Christian understanding of good and evil.
Yes, that makes a lot of sense
As an evangelical-christianity-survivor, {now religiously sober for 30 years, and still in recovery :)) }, I found your posting absolutely fascinating. It brings me neatly and very eloquently up-to-date on all the hand-wringing brou-ha-ha of christianity-meets-politics I've been thankfully missing all this time. Nailing my colours to the mast, I inhabit the area somewhere between Panpsychism and the Gospel of Thomas.
The undertone of your post suggests to me a deeper question of "why do good ideas become bad ideologies?" This question has been well addressed by Bob Goudzwaard in "Idols of our Time" (IVP, 1984). {ref also Aldous Huxley's "Ends and Means", 1946]. One aspect is that there is a gradual growth of evermore outrageous means justifying the (oh-so-important) ends - a logical impossibility since means-and-ends are 'one-thing' ("A violent war begets a violent peace" Gandhi). The creation of false enemies is also a natural part of this.
My take is that the way forward is small resilient communities, based on the land (which is why I moved from U.K to Portugal to do just that) - and to create art, and useful tools (for basic survival) such as hand-weaving looms. The future is small-scale, agrarian, community. Which means (I think) I agree with much of what you write (and thank you for doing so, so well).
(PS: Three questions I have found useful when trying to discern the value of so much writings available nowadays are: (1).Compared to what? (2).Says who? [evidence], and (3).Is it kind?)
Helpful questions thank you! Glad you are here.
Wonderful perspective and analysis. The description of our metaphysics seems to be at the foundation. We, in the US are presently "chrsitophobic", which is why even the words of Jesus in Matthew 5-7 are anathema to the Christian nationalist project. They view Jesus as having become a Joshua-like dominionist, claiming their god-given seven mountains. In this, the politically driven metaphysic drives not only their view of the other among them, but very ability for biblical hermeneutics.
PS Thanks for citing Richard Beck. Everything he writes is a gem. I hadn't seen that recent piece.
This is really, really good.
Thank you for writing!
I appreciate you and what you bring.
I've long struggled with trying to understand the political implications of the gospel while also understanding there is no political map that precisely matches the gospel's cartography. I'm convinced that Christian faith can be both deeply personal and profoundly political, but what that looks like in any given culture at any given historical moment may vary.
As to Wendell Berry he once wrote that "being a contrarian is not the only way to the truth, but it is one way."
Peace to you,
Ric