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20 Sep

A Community of the Stumbling Hopeful

In

Mountain Views, Fall 2019

A COMMUNITY OF THE STUMBLING HOPEFUL

 

By Barry Casey

Jonathan Franzen, author of multiple best-selling novels, including The Corrections, found himself as a young writer feeling distinctly ill at ease in American culture. Although he was successful, his marriage was falling apart and he couldn’t seem to concentrate enough to finish the book he was working on. He felt cut off—or more honestly, he felt hehad withdrawn in frustration—from his friends, his peers, the people he loved and respected, and the literary world.

In an essay for Harper’s Magazine titled, “Why Bother?” he says, “Not only did I feel that I was different from everyone around me, but I felt that the age I lived in was utterly differ- ent from any age that had come before.”1 He felt alienated and uneasy, cursed with the perception to see the damage being done to personal relationships as people retreated behind their computers. He wondered if there was still a place for a literate audience in a world in which everything seemed an artifice, a show, done for commercial reasons and lacking authenticity. He felt himself to be in a darkness that he called “depressive realism” where everything he saw seemed to contribute to his sense of alienation. He realized he had given up on the possibility of an imagined world, practically a necessity for a novelist. All he could see was the glittering superficiality of this one.

Eventually, he arrived at what he called “tragic realism,” and what he meant by “tragic” was fiction that raises more questions than it answers and that serves as a counterfoil for the rhetoric of inevitable optimism that pervades American culture. He says, “For me the work of regaining a tragic perspective has therefore involved a dual kind of reaching out: both the reconnection with a community of readers and writers, and the reclamation of a sense of history.”2 And he found that in its insights into the darkness and unpre- dictability of life, as well as the beauty and clarity of it, tragic realism has an intensity that is almost religious.

I read Franzen’s essay with appreciation, not only for the penetration of his insights and the skill of his writing craft, but also because it spoke to my experience as a mem- ber of a religious community. As a Christian, I believe in an imagined world too, the Kingdom present in spirit and still to come. Like Franzen, my individuality and humanity spring from an appreciation of history and a deep regard for the intellectual legacies of writers, thinkers, artists, and musicians. As an individual and a Christian, I am convinced that an authentic search for Jesus enlivens and ennobles my humanity. Like Franzen, I am temperamentally inclined to tragic realism, to its acceptance of the light and dark of life, and to the intuition that our very finitude creates a longing for transcendence. Christians know something about tragic realism, living out of the crucifixion and with the continuing presence of evil.

Franzen’s dis-ease with our times and our culture is echoed in the paradox of being a spiritual pilgrim who nevertheless loves this Earth. One pole of this creative tension for me is my appreciation of the goodness of humanity and what it has achieved in its cultures and religions. The other pole revolves around a keen awareness of the disparity between the transcendence of God and the hobbled finitude and misery of humanity. A tragic realism finds a workable way forward between hope and fear.

But as a Christian of the Adventist variety, I am also at odds with the position of those in my religious community who seem to value perfectionism over grace and conformity over a willingness to be led by the Spirit. It seems to me that an authentic Christian experience widens its scope to be as inclusive of others as it can be, while becoming, through prayer and action, as focused on Christ’s life as it needs to be. Grace gives us the liberty to work within our human limitations as we aim to follow Jesus. This is not cheap grace. It is to recognize that God is with us at all times, especially when we fail, to be there and to say, “Well, that didn’t go too well, did it? Let’s try it again!”

Like novelists and poets, people of faith learn, through necessity, to become masters at handling ambiguity. Most situations in life are not binary; we must be wary of those who sell the either/or model when both/and is more often the case. Tensions arise between our roles as members and as individuals. Organizations, churches included, aim to accomplish their mission with the least amount of internal friction possible. But as individuals, we are constantly called to find our way around, over, and yes, through conflict. It teaches us patience.

Most situation in life are not binary; we must be wary of those who sell the either/or model when both/and is more often the case.

A lot of us are ambivalent about who we are as Adven- tists, and we spend quite a bit of time struggling with it. Are we still a movement? Does a movement have assets in the billions, properties around the world, and thousands on the payroll? Even more critically, are we the hinge of history or just another Protestant denomination? The questions point to our sense of mission and that, in turn, to our identity.

We began as a movement set against much of nineteenth- century America. We opposed slavery, ostentation, and the accumulation of wealth; we were pacifists and believed that the body was the temple of God. Because the first Adventists had stepped out of existing denominations, they tended also to define themselves by what they were not—a kind of via negativa of church polity. That energy carried them for years and sustained mission work around the globe. As they trained to be servants, they benefited from their education. Their institutions thrived—education, health care, hospitals, publishing—and they became prosperous. Movements through time evolve or die, and we evolved.

We are far from the agrarian, self-sufficient, and experimental movement that survived through tenacity and God’s grace.
A curious thing happened on the way to the twenty-first century: for many Adventists in North America and Western Europe the church’s identity as a nineteenth-century millennial movement smacked into our experiences in our post-modern societies.

If Adventism asks itself what makes its identity unique and distinct from other Christian groups, it asks the wrong question.

Jonathan Franzen went through a period of silence as an author, expecting that his novels and essays would speak for themselves. Alas, nobody noticed. Franzen says, “Silence, however, is a useful statement only if someone, somewhere, expects your voice to be loud.”3 If we opt out of the culture, will anyone notice? And do we opt out so that they will notice? Is that our reason to be a movement, to be known as singular, what we liked to call “peculiar”?

Speaking to Southern regional writers, Flannery O’Connor noted that, “An identity [as a Southern writer] is not to be found on the surface . . . It is not made from what passes, but from those qualities that endure, regardless of what passes, because they are related to truth. It lies very deep. In its entirety, it is known only to God, but of those who look for it, none gets so close as the artist.”4

If Adventism asks itself what makes its identity unique and distinct from other Christian groups, it asks the wrong question. The question that gets at our authentic identity is not what makes us different from other religions or even other Christians. It is, “Are we being faithful to the vision of Christ as we understand it?” O’Connor thought that Southern identity in its clearest form was often found in the extremes. In religion today, extremes are part of the problem.

A better word, at least for now, is “radical,” referring to that which goes back to the root, radix, from the Latin. Asking whether we are faithful to Jesus’ message is radical simply because Jesus was radical then and His message, still today, is extremely radical. If we still want to be unique in our society, even peculiar, we need only align ourselves with Jesus’ radical message of love conquering hatred and prejudice.

Franzen pulled himself out of his dis-ease with the realization that he was not in this world alone. All of us are muddling our way through life; we are a community of the stumbling but hopeful. He quotes Flannery O’Connor who said, “People are always complaining that the modern novelist has no hope and that the picture he paints of the world is unbearable. The only answer to this is that people without hope do not write novels.”5

Neither, it could be said, do Christians write their life stories without hope. In a fractured world like ours, hope is the path toward our true, authentic selves. RMC

Barry Casey taught religion, philosophy, and communication for 37 years in Maryland and Washington, D.C. He is now retired and writing in Burtonsville, Maryland. More of his writing can be found on his blog, Dante’s Woods. Email him at: [email protected]

References

1. Franzen, Jonathan, “Why Bother?” in How to be Alone. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002, p. 93. 2. Franzen, p. 93. 3. Franzen, p. 87. 4. O’Connor, Flannery. “The Regional Writer” in Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose. Selected and edited by Sally and Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969. 5. Franzen, p. 92.

20 Sep

Are You for Real?

In

Mountain Views, Fall 2019

Are You for Real?

 

By Reinder Bruinsma

In many developing countries tourists are constantly urged to buy “expensive” articles at ridiculously low prices. When I lived in West Africa, I could buy La Costa shirts on the beach for two to three dollars. Of course, they were fake. And so were the Rolex watches. They looked very real and did have the name Rolex, or some other exclusive brand name, but that did not make them genuine. They were made in China rather than in Switzerland. Sometimes, the fact that they were fake was not even denied. I remember seeing a market stall in Turkey with “genuine fake watches.” Most of us do not like it when cheap things are given expensive brand names. And, in fact, this is a form of deception and a crime.

It is even worse when Christians are “fake” rather than “real.” Often Christians do not have a good reputation. For many, especially among the millennials, the word Christian tends to be synonymous with hypocrisy. Ask many of the younger generations in the Western world what they think of the church and the answer will most likely include terms like “politics,” “power-play,” “greed,” or, at best, “irrelevant.” In many countries the reputation of the church has been tarnished by endless cases of sexual abuse by the clergy.
In the eyes of many Muslims the people in the Christian world are immoral, for is it not the Christian West where immorality is rampant?

Authentic

What are non-churched people and, in particular, those who have given up on the church, looking for when they look at us? What do they expect to see? They may know we are Seventh-day Adventist Christians, but are they primarily interested in whether we know and support all twenty-eight fundamental doctrines of our church? Do they expect to see people who are perfect, who have all the right answers, and who never have any doubts?

No, when they look at us, they want to see who we really are, deep down. Their question to us is not so much, “What do you believe?” It is not even, “What do you do?” The question is, “Who are you?” Not when you are in church or among like-minded family or friends. Who are you when no one is looking?

People want to know: Are we for real? Are we authentic?

If not, why should they listen to us? People today, especially young people, can smell phoniness from a mile’s distance. If we are not real, forget it!

And, let’s be honest. There is also a lot of window dress- ing among Adventist believers. We all know the principles that are supposed to govern our lives. But do all of us live according to these principles, even when no other church members are in sight? I have noticed (and many of my pas- toral colleagues have confirmed this) that often those church members who act and talk most piously are the ones with serious behavioral problems. Often those who always speak about the loose morals of others are the ones who need to clean up their own lives.

We must never forget that we can perhaps fool people around us for a while, but we can never fool God.

But what is new? Jesus did not mince words when addressing some of the religious leaders of His day. In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 23, He repeatedly calls the Pharisees and teachers of the law “hypocrites.” He says: “You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean” (Verse 27).

And remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira in the Book of Acts, Chapter 5? They appeared to be very gener- ous people. They decided to sell a piece of land and pre- tended that they were donating the full proceeds to the church. But they were phony. They wanted to look good; they gave to enhance their own reputations and the story clearly indicates that this was not acceptable to God.

We must never forget that we can perhaps fool people around us for a while, but we can never fool God. When looking at people we may like what we can see. But “the Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”
(1 Samuel 16:7).

Becoming Authentic

So, how does a person become “authentic?” I cannot offer a concise ten-step program or an Authenticity for Dummies guidebook. It is not really about learning, or knowing, but about being. Here are a few aspects that are essential for being or becoming real.

Total Honesty

Being genuine presupposes that I am brutally honest, not only in my dealings with others, but also with regard to myself. Many of us are clever in the way we handle our own PR. We take great care with the image we project. But some of us may be quite different from this image. We may not be such a considerate husband as we want others to believe, or the caring mother we hope people think we are. We may not be so spiritual as our pious words in Sabbath School suggest. The reality, however, is that sooner or later the truth comes out. Somehow people can smell it, if things
do not add up in how we present ourselves.

If you want to be authentic, start with being totally hon- est. Look in the mirror to discover who you really are. If you do not like what you see, work for change. Ask God to give you the strength you need to face your fakeness. It will earn you respect when people see you struggle. Living a lie does not bring you respect but only disillusion.

Admit Your Doubts and Mistakes

Admitting that you have doubts does not make you weaker. All of us have doubts, that is, all of us who do any thinking. The question is what we do with our doubts and uncertainties. Do we cultivate them and suggest to ourselves and others that our doubts and questions simply reflect
our superior intelligence? Or do we prayerfully search for answers? Are we trying to deal with our questions—one
by one—even if it takes a long time?

Be Vulnerable

Most human beings like to talk about themselves. But usually we tend to emphasize the things we do well, the skills we possess. We may exaggerate our role in the organi- zation that employs us—a little (or not so little). We extoll the virtues of our children and may somewhat stretch the social status of some of our relatives. We tend to drop the names of important people we happen to know (even if that “knowl- edge” is extremely flimsy). People notice, and, as a result, they will not take us seriously.

It is only when we are willing to share—at some appro- priate moment and with the right person(s)—that not all went well in our lives, that we made some serious mistakes, that our family situation is not always ideal, and our career had its ups and downs that people accept us as genuine.

If we say we are Christians, the million-dollar question is whether our everyday choices reflect those beliefs.

It took me quite some time to learn this. One of the great tragedies for many who work in the church is to see that their children have not followed the same path. When people asked me whether my children were “in the church,” for a long time I tended to answer vaguely. Now, I openly acknowledge that my children have not become Adventist church members. I have experienced that most people do not judge me but rather sympathize with me. Many have the same experience and they appreciate that I dare to make myself vulnerable by also telling about some things that did not go so well in my life. In fact, often they are more willing to talk with me, knowing that I have some of the same problems they are facing.

Tell Your Story

We must realize that most people have a need to tell their story. They need to be listened to. But we must also keep in mind that people want to know our story. Knowing who we really are behind our professional or social facade, where we are coming from, helps to make us into real, authentic people.

Live Authentically

If we say we are Christians, the million-dollar question is whether our everyday choices reflect those beliefs. Has following Christ made us a nicer and more compassionate person? Can people see that we care? Can they see our integrity and honesty? Do we model inclusiveness when
we interact with those who are “different?” Do we graciously extend forgiveness and accept forgiveness when we need it ourselves?

We must constantly ask these questions: Have the things
I talk about to others become, at least to some extent, a reality in my own life? Can people see that I am living a
life that matters? What do people see when they look at
me? A faithful steward? A real disciple of Christ? A Christian is his or her relationships? Someone who is transparent and can be trusted? Not just occasionally but 24/7?

Christ: Our Model of Authenticity

Becoming authentic remains a work in progress. But in essence it is about gradually becoming more like Christ.
He became truly human. He was not afraid to make Himself vulnerable. We do not become like Him overnight. In
fact, we will never be at His level. But He can help us in
our life-long commitment to authenticity. In His footsteps we can become real! RMC

Reinder Bruinsma has served the Adventist Church in publishing, education, and church administration on three continents. He writes from the Netherlands where he lives with his wife Aafie. Among his latest books are In All Humility: Saying “No” to the Last Generation Theology, and a daily devotional, Face-to-Face with 365 People from Bible Times. Email him at: [email protected]

20 Sep

Playing Nice with Diverse Opinions in Our Churches

In

Mountain Views, Fall 2019

PLAYING NICE WITH DIVERSE OPINIONS IN OUR CHURCHES

 

 

 

By Ron Price

When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new. —Dalai Lama Have you ever noticed how upset people can get when speaking with someone who holds an opinion different from their own? I’m sure you have, but have you ever wondered why this is so common?

Why should I be threatened because you believe some- thing that I don’t, and vice-versa? I always strive to grant others the right to be wrong whenever they choose to go against my “wisdom.”

OK, now that I have disengaged my tongue from my cheek (do we even use that expression anymore?), let’s get serious again. So many disputes occur when people take it personally that others do not agree with them. Well, if you haven’t discovered it by now, let me break it to you gently—no one will ever agree with you on everything all the time. And, if they did, you likely would get tired of having them around.

While it may indeed be easier to say than to do, I strongly encourage you to resolve not to take it personally when others differ from you in some way. You are not the Holy Spirit. It is not your responsibility to “straighten out” a fellow believer, or anyone else. As I heard at Western Slope camp meeting several years ago, “I want to be very conservative when it comes to leading my own life, but very liberal when it comes to how other people lead theirs.” Also, at the risk of offending some of you, might I suggest that a common reason you might get upset at another’s contrary opinion is that you are not secure in your own? If you know what you believe and why you hold to it, why should it bother you if someone else feels differ- ently? Why would you want to change them or have them come around to your way of thinking? If it is a matter of salvation, or an issue of church welfare, you might have to advocate strongly for your position.

Most arguments, however, do not concern such lofty matters. Another common source of arguments or “heated” conversations in the church is that each and every one of us has a deep-seated desire to be understood. This desire starts at birth and does not stop this side of the grave. If you don’t believe me, observe a toddler who is trying to be understood but is failing in his or her objective. Trust me; it is not a pretty sight!

Make it a personal priority to fully understand others before judging in any way.

In my coaching and mediation practice, I often find people engaged in the “shoot and reload” method of communication. This happens when people are having two separate monologues rather than one dialogue. While very common, this practice is fraught with peril and unlikely to result in effective communication or problem-solving.

In “shoot and reload” communication, the goal is to persuade the other person that you are right and they are wrong. You may practice pretend-listening while the other person speaks, but in reality, you stay in your thoughts about how you will correct them if they ever have the decency to stop talking.

There will always be differing points of view within any organization, and the church is no exception. My strong recommendation is that you ask God’s help for you to:

●  Not take it personally when others think differently than you do;

●  Resolve to know what you believe and why you believe
it so strongly that you do not feel threatened by opposing views;

●  Make it a personal priority to fully understand others before agreeing or disagreeing or judging in any way; and

●  Adopt an attitude that everyone you meet knows something you do not, and if you listen well enough, you are bound to learn something new.

Please note that listening and understanding does not necessarily mean you agree with what is being said. It simply means you respect the other person enough that you want
to understand them. I like the sentiment expressed by psychologist Carl Rogers: “I have found it of enormous value when I permit myself to understand another person.”

I like what Jesus said even more: “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.”

Ron Price is a member of the RMC executive committee from Farmington, New Mexico. Email him at: [email protected]

20 Sep

Church. Bastion of Honesty and Openness

In

Mountain Views, Fall 2019

CHURCH. BASTION OF HONESTY AND OPENNESS

 

By Ed Barnett

When I think of a word like authenticity and apply it to life and the witness of the church, a mix of emotions fills me. May I share some of my thoughts on authenticity and the church?
To start with, I believe the church ought to be a place where authenticity runs supreme. If we can’t be authentic in church, something is wrong! If you have to question what the church says, then where would you turn? The church has to be transparent and authentic in whatever it says and does.
As a leader in the church, I firmly believe we must be honest. There are situations, however, where complete transparency is not warranted. In fact, we could put ourselves in a legal bind by sharing too much. For instance, if we let someone go because of sexual immorality, we don’t advertise that, but we don’t lie about it either.
When people think about our church, I want them to know it is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, as recommended by the Apostle Paul to the church in Philippi.

Authenticity and honesty should be the way Christians endeavor to live their lives.

The problem is that sinners run the church. We all fall short of God’s ideal. In the Rocky Mountain Conference, my desire is to know that we are doing everything we can to be honest and transparent in our dealings with every church, every school, and every church member. I believe everyone who works in our office feels that way. If I found out someone felt differently, we would deal with them and the situation!
Today, we live in a world where we hardly know what is true or false. It doesn’t matter what political party you are involved with. Wherever you stand, you find yourself questioning everything that is said on either side. But it should not, it cannot, be that way in the church.
In 2015, at the last General Conference Session, it concerned me that a number of divisions in the church allegedly told their delegates how to vote. The delegates were told to use voting cards rather than using the electronic voting machines so their administrators could see how they voted.
If that was true, and I heard it from enough of our leaders in the North American Division that I believe it, I’m disheartened. Such actions are not transparent. They are manipulative and controlling, not the way Jesus dealt with people. Neither should they ever be seen in the church.
Authenticity and honesty should be the way Christians endeavor to live their lives. The church should be a bastion of honesty and openness. It should be a place where manipulation, name-calling, and strong-arming are absent.
Authenticity means that we are open and honest in sharing our true thoughts and feelings. Love, anger, loneliness, hurt, and pain are all authentic feelings. We need to share those feelings honestly and openly and constructively. In contrast, we can’t become haters, always angry and upset with everyone and everything.
The church should exemplify what the Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 4:8. He says: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.”
That is what the church ought to be! And when the church is operated in that fashion it will be a place where people want to be.
It’s my prayer that our conference office, along with every church, school, and every member would operate with that kind of authenticity!

Ed Barnett is RMC president. Email him at: [email protected].