Monday, December 11, 2017

Boston Declaration: A Personal Declaration in Response




A friend brought The Boston Declaration to my attention. It was part of an email from the Indiana Annual Conference on November 30, 2017, apparently promoting it as worthy of our theological and political consideration. My friend wrote that he considered responding to the Declaration. That comment began the process that has resulted in this brief reflection. I have respect for many of those who signed the document. Since I have read the books of some, they surprise me that they have signed a document like this. It will probably help any potential reader to read the declaration first. Rather than analyze the document, I have written my own declaration. I have embraced the flow of the Boston Declaration. However, I have used it as a foil for my declaration. In doing so, please understand that I am giving the Declaration great respect. I hope my response is respectful, seeing some common ground but acknowledging large areas of disagreement. 

I am just one follower of Jesus, whom I believe to be a Jewish prophet and teacher of wisdom, as well as the promised Jewish Messiah, the hoped for Son of Man, and therefore Son of God and Savior of the world. The Christian community needs to hear in a new and powerful way his message of love for the neighbor, love for the enemy, and his beatitude upon those who make peace.

We live in a cultural setting in which outrage against inappropriate sexual behavior has become highly politicized. People have what appears to be moral outrage at private behavior when it conveniently advances their political agenda but turn away when it becomes politically expedient. Such selective outrage at private moral failings reveals the importance of the political issues involved. Voters have too often had such difficult decisions forced upon them by the political process. 

We live in a cultural setting when people rightly express outrage against the small numbers of those who advance white supremacy, (one is too many) while conveniently ignoring the rise of violence and the shutting down of free speech on campus and other settings, simply because such intimidation and violence advances the progressive cause and beats opponents into silence. We can celebrate the advances made in race relations in America. Racism is the birth defect of this nation. If we have the eyes to see, we will see the influence of the Civil Rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as evidence of correcting this defect. The changes in legal, political, economic and cultural standing of racial minorities are a celebration. Yet, too many persons, organizations, and political parties, depend upon alienating races rather than bringing them together. 

Christians as individuals and communities need to have boldness and courage to resist the forces that divide and alienate. Such a path is a risk. It involves costly discipleship. It might mean our preferred tribe, which is that collection of people and organizations who think like us, will disassociate from us. It might have to embrace the fact that in this cultural climate fellow Christians will judge and exclude us. Following Jesus today involves reminding people that their political opinions ought not to become idols. Jesus has become the property of a tribe. Jesus is greater than their political agenda. Jesus did not have a political or economic agenda. In fact, if we have come to political opinions, we need to hear Jesus in the voices and ideas of our political opponents. We need to hear the voice of Jesus outside our tribe. Christians agree that the poor need always to before us as we contemplate our political and economic views. We must always oppose the forces that separate and alienate on superficial grounds, such as economics, social status, religion, or race. We must also be mindful of the forgotten men and women in a free enterprise system that have the vision and passion to use their talents in a way that finds and creates needs among people and devise plans to fill those needs and desires. Such creativity requires faith and hope in the future, as well as love for family, community, and nation. It has led to improving the material lives of all persons, including the least of these. We need to have a rebirth of respect for the pursuit of happiness and respect for private property, both of which are important for the economic well-being of all.

We can be grateful for the biblical challenge to choose life (Deuteronomy 30). The West has inherited a tradition of philosophy and religion, of politics and economics, which provides the intellectual and practical resources that will improve life. The diversity of cultural setting is impressive, whether from eastern and southern Europe, from the Middle East and North Africa, and eventually from northern Europe and America. These resources encourage openness to learn from and tolerate views that derive from other cultural traditions. Such resources have advanced the cause of freedom in such a way that they encourage on-going social reform. For that reason, the economic advances made by all persons, regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation, is one that all Christians can celebrate. “Following Jesus today means choosing life, joining the Spirit-led struggle to fight the death-dealing powers of sin wherever they erupt.” The Holy Spirit, the giver and sustainer of life, bids us to choose paths that lead to life for self and for others. Too many people choose death. We see death in the too many abortions. We see death in the sexual obsession of so many. If we have the eyes to see, we see death in the abuse of drugs. We see death in the political decision to stifle free enterprise and the use of private property through federal taxation, bureaucracy and regulation that leads to economic stagnation rather than creativity and growth. We see death in locating sin among the wealthy and powerful, making them the object of envy and hate, instead of recognizing our common bond with them in sin and potentially our common bond of faith. Too many who profess Christ are actually part of the alienating forces in America today, as they focus upon the superficial differences of race, gender, sexual orientation, social status, and economic status. Such differences, while important, do not define us as human beings or as believers in Christ. Christians who fire the flames of suspicion and alienation between such groups do nothing to advance the ministry of reconciliation God has given the church (II Corinthians 5:18-20). Too many Christians adopt a stance of critique toward a tradition and toward a political and economic tradition while at the same time participating fully in that system. They are enjoying the benefits of freedom and relative economic well-being while supposedly advancing an alienating critique from a morally self-righteous position. Their critique, offered from what appears to be the moral high ground, is in contrast to their lives, which rely upon participation in the system they profess to critique.

In reflecting upon such matters theologically, the identity of God becomes important. This God asks people to do justice, to love kindness, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). This God asks of all people to honor God and to do what is right (Acts 10:34-35). God has created humanity in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), regardless of the superficial differences humanity has created. Behind the diversity in which humanity lives, moves, and has its being (Acts 17:28) is the unity humanity has as creatures of God. The path of following Jesus involves recognizing the blessing of God upon the poor, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the meek, those persecuted for the sake of righteousness, and the merciful (Matthew 5:1-10). Uniting with the people of Israel, following Jesus involves loving God with all that we are and loving our neighbors as ourselves (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Leviticus 19:18, Mark 12:28-34). As Jesus received the Spirit in his baptism by John, as the Spirit empowered him in his teaching, healing, and exorcism, as the Spirit empowered the early church and the first believers, the Spirit will lead us in the world today. This means willingness to discern the places where evil shows itself in this world, the courage to oppose it, and the willingness to suffer for the sake of righteousness. The spiritual danger is always present that those who oppose evil will find that evil overcomes them. Resentment against the existing order of democracy and capitalism, for example, can become a secret poison. Such resentment can become its own form of slavery that people carry with them wherever they go. No one has the right to hold the possibility of a new world brought by human action, even if we delude others and ourselves into thinking Jesus is with our brand of politics and economics. Even if successful, such a proposal will become another oppressive existing social order that will inspire resentment and opposition. Evil is not the answer to evil. Discontent, hatred and insubordination toward the existing social order forgets that every human system lives in the shadow of evil (Karl Barth, Romans, p. 480-1). In opposing evil, we run the risk of becoming like what we oppose. The revolutionary who fights oppression too often becomes like the oppressor (George Orwell, Animal Farm). 

As a follower of Jesus, I find in him my rest, peace, and salvation. I mourn the coarseness of our politics. I mourn the disrespect Americans show to their political opponents. I have a particular concern with how people are bringing Jesus into their political ideologies. Far from honoring Jesus, such attempts actually reveal the idolatrous attachment we have toward our politics. We reveal our desire to have Jesus to serve our political ideology (Karl Barth, Romans, p. 378). I lament the broken lives and homes of this nation. I lament the alienation that so many people feel from a nation that has steadily grown its respect for the worth and dignity of its citizens. I lament the alienation some citizens feel from an economic system that has created so much opportunity for people to pursue happiness. I lament the sometimes-justified feeling of alienation people have from the police, military, and others who defend this nation devoted to freedom. I lament the failure of so many Americans to understand that we live in a dangerous world and that therefore the nation needs to defend itself. I lament a divided church in its understanding of the role of the Bible, the teaching of the apostles, the classical teachings of the church, and the role of the political views of its members. The failure to show honor to other Christians has been a failure of immense proportions in terms of their witness in the world. In particular, bringing Jesus into our particular vision of the responsibility of government brings dishonor to Jesus. It suggests that the only thing that matters is politics and economics. It fails to see the spiritual issues that afflict humanity and which only the risen Christ can heal. 

America is full of false ideologies. Among the deepest is the failure to recognize that the ideas that established America, especially its devotion to liberty, limited government, and constitutional rights are the best hope for the world. Such ideas have shown that political and economic freedoms are beautiful partners in expanding the wealth of a nation, the freedom of its citizens, and the respect that institutional life offers individuals. Such ideas do not isolate the wealthy as particularly evil or the poor as particularly virtuous. The more people can feel their worth and dignity finds respect in the political and economic spheres of cultural life, the healthier the nation can become. Respectful participation will always lead to healthier individuals. The ideas that founded America have become increasingly part of the world, not only in Europe, but also in Asia and Africa. The false ideology in America places at the feet of America exploitation, racism, sexism, and empire that more accurately lays at the feet of communist and fascist movements, as well as other forms of totalitarianism. Today, the greatest danger to those who love liberty is militant Islam. We live in a violent world. We show love to the neighbor when we defend them. In particular, opposition to the hateful ideology that we find in militant Islam deserves the full support of the church and individual Christians. The willingness to give hateful labels to such concerns (homophobia, islamophobia, racist, and so on) betrays its own bigotry and unwillingness to engage reasonable discussion and debate. Such rhetoric attempts to put one on a moral high ground that one does not hold while shaming any opposition to a particular view of the role of government in this nation. Such an approach is the path to its version of fascism. Such an approach will never acknowledge that it may have much to learn from the opposition.

As one who worships the God of Israel and seeks to follow Jesus in this world, the invitation is always present to choose today whom I will serve (Joshua 24:15). As a call to action, I am just one person. I want to do my part in this setting. I want any reader to know that I choose to make political and economic commitments that are life-giving. As such, I will treat the stranger with love. While respectful of the differences human beings have created, I also recognize that beneath the differences are common humanity and our existence as creatures God has made. I look forward to the spread of regard for the worth and dignity of all persons. I long for a time when Christians can be with each other in the way the risen Lord is with us today through the presence of the Spirit. I want to work with others for a reasonable care of the earth. Instead, so many people seem to use the language of care for the earth as a mask for a socialist and anti-capitalist agenda. I hear in the deep divisions in our world a call for my feeble efforts to bring healing. I will work against anti-Semitism. I will work against any effort to dehumanize the Muslim. I gladly open myself to the wisdom that will come in our global setting from religions differing from my own and from those who have no religion.

No comments:

Post a Comment