Thursday Thirteen No. 15: What Have the Faithful Done?

Church life has taught me much and taught me well over the past few years. It has taught me to live in hope, to believe in the very best in others, and more than anything, to trust in my natural-born skepticism. I was once the member of a church the pastor of which saw the end of his 40-year career when his former lover of seven years and another woman brought their relationships to light.

It seemed to me at the time and now that this nightmare presented an opportunity. Though the pastor had done wrong, he had also done a lot of good over the years. This was the heart of the matter for me: he was no different from anyone else--imperfect yet capable of great things. The circumstances put each one of us in that church face-to-face with our own humanity. The point was not to find fault--an activity at which Christians are famously adept--but to find hope by searching our own flawed selves for that something better that could transform a crude and lewd nightmare into a transformative moment of grace. The whole experience was the source of many lessons.

Today, I believe that institutional churches of every hue and variety can be agents of God's grace--but only if we first accept that they are very human, very flawed attempts at reaching toward a divine mystery so much greater than ourselves. Teachers come in every shape and size. Sometimes they come in hellish nightmares. So be it. The gift of these lessons is no less a blessing.

Looking back at 2007, we can see there are many moments in which churches have demonstrated a desire to make right their own mistakes and to be part of an ongoing conversation about the nature of life itself. All are opportunities to learn. Consider these acts of faith--some beautiful, some hellish--as presented by Religion and Ethics:

1. A total of 138 Muslim scholars, leaders, and jurists send a letter to the Pope in an attempt to open dialog.

2. The same Muslim leaders attempt to open dialog with leading mainstream Protestants.

3. The Vatican struggles to decide whether it should broach dialog with Muslims on a theological or a political level.

4. The Roman Catholic Church settles a sex abuse lawsuit in Los Angeles for $660 million, bringing the total payout to more than $2 billion.

5. Outside the courtroom, Catholic bishops in the US publish the "Faithful Citizenship" voters' guide in an attempt to bring the church' peace-and-justice constituency and its pro-life constituency onto the same political page.

6. The Christian Coalition decides to sit out the 2008 presidential race.

7. The Christian right shows an interest in such relevant topics as the environment, global warming, and poverty.

8. Though the Anglican Union expresses its opposition to the ordination of gay bishops and consecration of same-sex unions; many Episcopalians openly disagree with this position.

9. Many Episcopal churches in the US align themselves with churches in Africa that support their conservative theological position.

10. US courts decide against Fred Phelps and his gang of intellectually limited right-wing Christians who hate homosexuals.

11. Buddhist monks in Myanmar peacefully protest the government there, saying the government has lost its moral authority.

12. Jews and Catholics alike return to more traditional modes of worship, including a greater use of Hebrew and Latin, respectively. In the face of so much change and so many challenges, there's nothing like the old and the familiar.

13. Atheists make the best-seller lists, reminding preachers and spiritual leaders worldwide that though the Truth may be a given, it is not always received--and cannot be so long as the integrity of the faithful is wide open to challenge.

PS I wrote and rewrote this post several times over the past week. In one version, I editorialized on each of the above items. Ultimately, I decided against this and simply presented the list as a statement of facts. My point is that all experience is good so long as it inspires (or instigates) thought and conversation and that thought and conversation moves all of us toward enlightenment.

Thursday Thirteen