In a Facebook post, I wrote that I “was learning to love admonition”. This may seem a curious thing to fall in love with. However, I have come to realize that repentance begins in me before any call to Christian unity can be valid. I wrote that status while in a class called “A Generous Orthodoxy”. Allow me to say a word of disassociation before I continue:
Brian McLaren’s book A Generous Orthodoxy is heavy on generosity, and light on orthodoxy. I feel that in this way, McLaren has hindered the ecumenical movement by unnecessarily offending those with which he has grown weary. I still appreciate McLaren for the freedom with which he explores difficult questions that are largely ignored or issues that are sometimes even contributed to by Christians (which is why he and I are arm and arm in my profile pic).
I came to appreciate admonition while sitting in the first night of our class. I’ve stated something similar in other blog posts. I want unity in the body, but I do not want to cause further contention and schism in order to acquire it. I had repressed the sense that this was in fact what I was doing, yet I knew not how to do it any other way. I knew that I myself had become guilty of the very same things I was seeking to convict others of. For this, I repent and embrace a different approach to a generous orthodoxy. There are deeper reasons for having this contentious approach to orthodoxy. I will try not to spare myself from shame in order that I might better articulate them:
1. A pecking order: I believe there is a an attempt among peers to establish a sort of rank or pecking order. In my mind’s eye I am thinking about twenty-something’s behaving this way. However, I have seen this type of behavior taking place at almost every level (I have seen seminary and Bible College professors engaged in this kind of rivalry, and I have been very disillusioned by it.) While it might seem petty and immature at a personal level, it is the thirst for superiority and power that has and will continue to divide us. As John Chrysostom stated: “Nothing will so avail to divide the church as love of power.”
2. Superiority: We were taught superiority. When I look back as a younger man in my faith I reflected often on my paternal grandparents as a vicarious model for what I wanted to strive for in my own ministry. My grandfather is Irish Catholic, my grandmother was Methodist. Why was it that they could not rejoice over the core of their faith in Christ? Rather, their differences created a great tension. Something happened to me though, as I pursued a theological education. I became an anti-catholic. Where did I learn all of my anti-catholic rhetoric? It certainly wasn’t nurtured in my upbringing! I learned it through poor historical scholarship, and a hermeneutic of perspectival superiority (which claimed absolute objectivity, thus magically rendering it from any and all criticisms). John H. Armstrong says it best:
“Often people tell me that catholicity doesn’t matter anymore. They argue that what matters most is right doctrine, and we get right doctrine by a proper exegesis of the Bible. These folks will sometimes go on to insist that their church is right since they truly follow the Bible. Yet in many cases their church is less than two generations old. (Incidentally, this provides one reason why really important doctrines [the Trinity, for example] are not practically important in many American churches – they are not understood historically (Armstrong 82).”
Concerning poor historical scholarship, I was often taught that the Roman Catholic Church held antithetical views of protestant theology. As Professor Mangum pointed out, if we are to plum down into these debates we find out that many of the sides had a lot in common. So for example, we Protestants, in affirming the five Solas of the reformation wrongly believe that the Roman Catholic Church does not hold to “Sola Fide”, “Sola Grate”, and so on. This simply isn’t true. As Dr. Mangum stated in class, much of the concern from the church was this: “Brother Martin, if you go down this road of “sola-scriptura”, you will splinter the church into a thousand pieces. Each man will become his own interpreter, and each man will become a law unto himself.” The testimony of history has revealed that the concerns of the Church were correct.
3. FALSE: Becoming generous in one’s orthodoxy means setting aside one’s own theological convictions.
To once again quote John H. Armstrong in speaking about the Apostles’ Creed as a means of unification he says:
“When we fail to utilize it as a basic guide for teaching the essentials of our faith, we practically invite disunity. Those who ignore the creed are generally left to focus on the truths they prefer to major on rather than the essential beliefs that have been universally believed and taught by all Christians (79).”
Many of the arguments and contentions that I have initiated, perpetrated, executed, and participated in were foolish and outright sinful. In receiving my own admonition, I offer a word of caution to those who are very much like me in this way…
4. Theological debate for the sake of theological debate is not a fun past time, it is forbidden.
Titus 3:9 “But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.”
I know that quoting a verse solves nothing, but hearing this verse being unpacked, as well as this one…
1 Thessalonians 5:14 “And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.”
left me feeling admonished… and in a good way! “Fights and quarrels” arise from the “desires that battle within you (James 4:1-2).” These fights are not about doctrine, they’re about us:
“This unfortunate idea – that the basis of spiritual unity must stand in uniformity of doctrine – has been the poisoned spring of all the dissensions that have torn Christ’s body. – John Watson
If I have frustrated you, if I have been contentious, factious, and/or quarrelsome, then I ask that you forgive me. I have realized that my behavior is a perversion to God. Let us, in one accord, affirm the nucleus of our faith, for our enemy hates a united church, and our Father longs for us to be one:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.
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