When I read the honest, poignant words of Brian McLaren, I feel like he has the ability to take the swirling thoughts running around in my head and compose them into clear, beautifully crafted prose.
Tonight I got home to the latest edition of Sojourners, and opened right up to read this short but fantastic article by Brian...a response to the recent Manhattan Declaration. With such simplicity, he responds to the (faulty) assumption out there that in order to be "good Christians" we must all believe the same way on the "hot button" issues. I especially loved this part:
Happily, there are places where the Declaration’s framers acknowledge that “there are sincere people who disagree with us.” But sadly, the sentence doesn’t end there. It continues, “and with the teaching of the Bible and Christian tradition ... ” By making that statement, they lose the chance to understand why some of us believe that, in differing with them, we are differing not with the Bible itself but with their interpretations of it. Throughout the document, a “we” acknowledges the existence of a “they,” but the “they” are, through simplistic refutation, presented as unreasonable, immoral, unenlightened, and even dangerous.
In this statement, McLaren hits on the hardest thing for me to deal with when grappling with tough religious issues - people out there who are so convinced they are "correct" in some black and white (often akin with literalist interpretation) worldview that they can't see beyond any interpretation of the Bible other than their own. And I have to believe that this inability to open up and let any other ideas in is based primarily in fear. It is truly disheartening.
Thanks to McLaren and Sojourners for lifting my spirits a bit tonight, serving as today's tangible (and so very needed) reminder that the Religious Right isn't taking over the world...
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