Newsweek Magazine has chosen this Holy Week to feature a cover story with a picture of Jesus dressed in denim with a crown of thorns on his head, standing in the middle of a busy North Amercian street, gazing piously up to heaven.
The headline blazoned beneath the figure of Jesus, suggests the reader “Forget the Church: Follow Jesus”. This advice does not appear in the article. It is the product of the headline writer hoping to appeal to readers jaded with any form of institutionalized religion. The author of the article is in fact a devout Roman Catholic.
Andrew Sullivan has remained faithful to his church. But it has not been an easy or a comfortable relationship. He has not stayed quietly or submissively. Sullivan rages against his church and almost all contemporary manifestations of Christianity in North America today.
Although Sullivan writes pointedly from the perspective of a Christian in the United States, his critique of current institutionalized Christianity is a powerful challenge to all people of Christian faith around the world. We who find our faith sustained in an institutional expression of Christianity need to listen to Sullivan and pray for guidance to respond wisely to his call.
Sullivant begins by describing the process by which Thomas Jefferson went through the New Tesatment and cut out those parts of the Gospels he believed represented Jesus’ true teaching. It is not an exercise Sullivan entirely favours, but it resulted, he suggests, in a vision of Christian faith with which Sullivan has some sympathy. Jefferson discovered that
Jesus’ doctrines were the practical commandments, the truly radical ideas that immediately leap out in the simple stories he told and which he exemplified in everything he did. Not simply love one another, but love your enemy and forgive those who harm you; give up all material wealth; love the ineffable Being behind all things, and know that this Being is actually your truest Father, in whose image you were made. Above all: give up power over others, because power, if it is to be effective, ultimately requires the threat of violence, and violence is incompatible with the total acceptance and love of all other human beings that is at the sacred heart of Jesus’ teaching. That’s why, in his final apolitical act, Jesus never defended his innocence at trial, never resisted his crucifixion, and even turned to those nailing his hands to the wood on the cross and forgave them, and loved them.
Andrew Sullivan goes on to issue a stirring challenge to Christians to recover an empahsis on living the teachings of Jesus, rather than demanding conesnt to a series of abstract doctrines.
Whether or not you believe, as I do, in Jesus’ divinity and resurrection—and in the importance of celebrating both on Easter Sunday—Jefferson’s point is crucially important. Because it was Jesus’ point. What does it matter how strictly you proclaim your belief in various doctrines if you do not live as these doctrines demand?
He then goes on to offer the life of St. Francis of Assisi as a shining example of a person who lived faithfully the doctrines of the Christian faith.
Sullivan concludes by admitting that he is not sure how the church can be liberated from its present bondage to forces that he believes fall far beneath the ideals of Jesus. But Sullivan does suggest some strategies he believes will not work.
I have no concrete idea how Christianity will wrestle free of its current crisis, of its distractions and temptations, and above all its enmeshment with the things of this world. But I do know it won’t happen by even more furious denunciations of others, by focusing on politics rather than prayer, by concerning ourselves with the sex lives and heretical thoughts of others rather than with the constant struggle to liberate ourselves from what keeps us from God.
It is difficult to avoid the fact that something is seriously wrong in much of institutional Christianity today. Andrew Sullivan’s litany of complaints is too compelling to deny.
As we in the church walk with Jesus in this Passion week, along the painful way of the cross, it is to be hoped that we might choose to die to those abuses in our life together that have earned such disrepute for those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ.
We cannot live in community without some form of institutional embodiment of our communal identity. Even Francis of Assissi had to suffer the pain and struggle of communal life as his followers increased in number. But, if the institutions which for some of us have been a source of light and spiritual nourishment will not be reformed, they must be allowed to die.
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For anyone with an interest in the current state of religious life in the west, Andrew Sullivan’s article should be read in its entirety at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/04/01/andrew-sullivan-christianity-in-crisis.html
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April 2, 2012 at 6:00 pm
Christian News
[…] Andrew Sullivan Challenges Christians « In A Spacious Place Whether or not you believe, as I do, in Jesus’ divinity and resurrection—and in the importance of celebrating both on Easter Sunday—Jefferson’s point is crucially important. Because it was Jesus’ point. What does it matter how strictly you … https://inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com/ — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:42:32 -0700 […]
April 2, 2012 at 10:33 pm
Tress
To me .the most compelling statement made in the article was at the end . Quoting Jefferson.
“no man can conform his faith to the dictates of another.”
“The life and essence of religion consists in the internal persuasion or belief
of the mind”
Everything else must follow.
April 2, 2012 at 10:52 pm
jaqueline
pick your poison, your place of staunch righteousness:….emphasise sexual morality or emphasise helping the disadvantaged; that seems to be the dividing line of the political agenda.
Jesus ate with prostitutes and hung with the poor.
‘nuf said.
April 2, 2012 at 10:54 pm
kimgye
As I read this post, I am once again reminded of how my God is working through others in my life. I would like to add further praise to your already insightful vision in my life through this blog Christopher, but alas, I am learning that you are simply part of his plan for me. 🙂
It is working in me bit by (little) bit. But always in the direction of acceptance and understanding. Even that others here are not necessarily in agreement with me. Even the possibility that I may be wrong. When these have their place place in my thoughts, moment to moment, I feel well (that is an understatement).
My default position used to be that I was always upset by contrary opinions in my life. It meant that I was wrong. Wrong has always meant bad. I am trying to re-learn this position
People (and institutions) have come into my life at times to convince me to try something new.
I recognize my own courage at the time to try a “workshop” that went against my current view of my life. All I can say is, it is rare to put your intention upon who you truly are for hours on end, days at a time. But if you are willing to risk the state of your heart as it is this day, it can be life altering. I am grateful for loved ones that risked my friendship against who they truly new my heart to be. When they saw the potential for who I am. In the end it was a weekend and a few hundred dollars from me.
When I am me, I am in my heart. When I am in my heart, I am me. This feels like having the arm of Jesus around my shoulders. I am hoping to feed this wolf!
This blog and all of us here is a daily affirmation of Jesus for me (amongst other things!).
Thanks all.
April 3, 2012 at 12:42 am
lindsay
Kim, ***BIG LIKE*** your comment 🙂
You know when you say you used to get upset by contrary opinions in your life, that it meant that you were wrong and wrong always meant bad … I guess for me it’s a little bit different … Of course it’s nice to get affirmation and to be heard … but there are often times when I get flumoxed by words … don’t know how to express something … and it’s a relief to have someone listen and paraphrase in a way that makes sense to me … even advocate on my behalf …
But I have to admit it does make me a bit nervous (okay sometimes a lot nervous) when someone actually agrees with me 100%. I’m guessing maybe it’s because I don’t believe that any single opinion at any particular time is 100% the full picture … or that I’ve expressed it adequately enough, and if someone takes my words as truth it means I also have to take responsibility for misleading the other person … and, sadly, then I find it hard to trust what the other person is saying or doing … because what the other person is saying is not what they really, actually believe themselves … yup, it’s happening again .. I’ve written this last paragraph and am already questioning the veracity of what I’ve just said ….
I guess that’s a reason why I like this place, Christopher’s blog, and everyone’s comments so much, because it gives me an place to get my bearings and explore ideas without getting too lost in them ….
April 5, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Diane M Davis
I said it for years, that most Christians do not live by Jesus’ rules of the “Sermon on the Mount”. Instead, they prefer “interpetations” by reverting to Romans or the Old Testament. Jesus never said anywhere “if you don’t agree with me, feel free to have my words interpeted, The reason there are a 1000 different Christian beliefs. Evangelical/Pentecostal and the Religious Right/Repubicans disregard, Jesus, the Meek…, Love thy enemies….Judge not….Build not up treasures/easier then a camel….Bare not false witness…..and When you PRAY, go into the closet & pray in SECRET…..! Possibly if Christians had followed Jesus’ rules from the very beginning, the world would not have had all the wars and killings of billions of innocent humanbeings over the past 2000 plus years.
April 6, 2012 at 10:21 pm
jaqueline
Just quietly, there were actually far many more millions killed by non Christendom than there were by Christendom in the last two thousand years…. not that anyone is using that to put people off Christianity or anything, right?
April 9, 2012 at 6:03 am
Jesus Projection « In A Spacious Place
[…] On April 2 I commented on Andrew Sullivan’s important Newsweek cover story critique of the contemporary Christian church. (https://inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/andrew-sullivan-challenges-christians/) […]