The eCrozier

Author Rachel Held Evans recently said that it was time for the Church to move “from waging war to washing feet.” She was referring to the culture wars in the Church over human sexuality. I could not agree more, even though I think “war” is too strong a metaphor for what we have been experiencing. Clearly, however, people have taken sides and are bent on their side winning. Maybe a more apt image is one of a circular firing squad. I believe it was G.K. Chesterton who wrote that the Church is the only known army in the world that shoots its own wounded. We are our own worst enemies. In some ways this is nothing new since human nature is nothing new. St Paul dealt with such partisanship in the Church in Corinth (and in other communities) where differing factions insisted that their way was the only way and if there was to be any compromise it would be by others coming to their way of thinking.

This sort of partisanship is steadily disempowering and marginalizing the Church. We are declining across denominational lines by just about every form of measurement one can use. Regular church attendance is in decline and the numbers of people claiming no religious affiliation is growing. The Church does not have much influence in the culture any more, it no longer is respected by a majority of the people outside the Church, and as Kinnamon and Lyons and other researchers have pointed out, two-thirds of young adults see the Church as being too partisan in its political engagement.

Robert Putnam and David Campbell, in a recent article in Foreign Affairs magazine, conclude that this partisanship is an important factor in the Church’s decline. They write: “In effect, Americans (especially young Americans) who might otherwise attend religious services are saying, ‘Well, if religion is just about conservative politics, then I’m outta here.'”

Of course, the Church’s way out of this is not to make religion about liberal politics either. That would be just as wrong and partisan. Nor is it for the Church to become a place offering a privatized religion disconnected from the world. The Church must be political, at least in the generic sense of that word meaning being involved in the lives of the polis (that is, the human community). Jesus was very much concerned with the lives of the polis. One can’t address the plight of the poor, the needs of the sick, the care of those afflicted with wounds of body and mind, or any other challenge of the human community without being involved in politics.

So the issue is not whether we as the Church should be involved in the politics of our communities and nation. The issue is how we do that. The partisan, divisive strategies adopted by factions in the Church are not only turning away young adults, they are not working! After 30 years of the so-called Culture Wars, all we have to show for it is more of the same vitriol and fewer people engaging with the ministry of the Church as we serve God’s mission.

Rachel Held Evans is right. It is time to stop waging war and start washing feet.

+Scott