A Different Perspective

I’ve been thinking more and more about politics in this mid-term election year. I hope I didn’t scare you off already.

When I see, time and again, people complaining about how “emergent” (I’m tired of correcting people about Emergent the organization and emerging church the movement) blasts conservatives and if we want to be really open to discussion we wouldn’t be so hard on them, I just want to puke.

That’s putting it bluntly, I know. Probably a bit too harsh considering there are those that bash conservatives unfairly, cruelly, and are not open to conversation. But what I find MOST of the time, and I mean most of the time, is that the conservatives approach us from a sense of privilege. Not wealth, mind you, but that within evangelicalism, you don’t have to apologize for being a Republican (and I’m using apologize in the sense of apologetics… get it?). It makes sense that they’re Republican, so if you aren’t, you’ve got some explaining to do. In the emerging church, there are a lot of people who don’t like what the Republican party has done in aligning with the religious right. In fact, in many cases, we think they are wrong.

We’ve come to believe certain actions are not good for the country, and in some cases, that those actions are inherently wrong. Are we open to discuss these issues just because we have already come to a belief about them? Yes! But that doesn’t mean we can’t state our beliefs. It is the evangelicals who are trying to make us look hypocritical by forcing their understanding of postmodern philosophy on us and saying we aren’t playing fair because we think they’re wrong.

There’s no excuse for degrading a brother or sister in Christ, or anyone for that matter, because of their political beliefs. But having a passionate belief that something is wrong does not mean we are not open to discussing the issues. It doesn’t mean we can’t believe there are good people who believe wrong things about politics. It isn’t directly an attack on their character (though certain beliefs, such as the acceptance of torture do carry moral weight in my opinion).

I for one will not sidestep what I believe to be true in order to have a conversation. That’s not what “conversation” is about. Two people or groups of people can passionately disagree and still have a conversation which benefits all parties and stretched minds. It is how you treat people that affects whether you can have a conversation. If you expect some privilege just because you’ve never had to defend being a Christian and being a Republican before, you will get little sympathy from many (including myself) in the emerging church. If I feel a Republican move is wrong, and I say it, that does not mean I’m cutting off the conversation. Rather, I’m stating clearly what we can have a conversation about… If I never said what I really believed, that wouldn’t be a conversation that would be a nice little chat where nobody really learns anything about what or why the other person believes.

I think this goes beyond politics and into our very conversations about church. We shouldn’t be afraid to disagree. I disagree with a great many people in the emerging church… but we’re friends. We’re friends, because we don’t consider our own positions so privileged you can’t challenge them. If I were so lofty as to say the only way to be an emerging church is to shun the establishment, have no salaries for pastors, be involved in social justice, etc… I could only converse with those who agree with me. Can I believe those things are the best way for a church to function? Absolutely And I can still have a conversation with an established church person about church structure, mission, polity, etc. But the moment I claim privilege, why bother talking? I’ll only be preaching to people my beliefs and making them conform to what I believe.

And I see that time and again from people who are shocked we aren’t all Republicans in the emerging church. Now, I know there are those who get nasty towards Republicans (I’ve been nasty towards our President, but I try really hard to control myself and rarely let that spill out towards individuals supporting the President). I want to say right off the bat, quit being nasty.

But much of what I see being called “nasty” is just a disagreement about what’s right and wrong, particularly in the realm of politics. If you’re a Republican and you want to challenge my political thoughts, feel free to do so. But please don’t approach me like I owe you something just because all of your evangelical friends are Republicans. Don’t approach me like I have to justify my beliefs, but yours are held in privilege until prover otherwise. It just chaps my hide

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 29th, 2006 at 7:08 pm and is filed under Emerging Church, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.