Chris Miliken comments (with some enthusiasm) on a recent post in which I quoted a short excerpt from Tony at theoblogy. I thought the original quote was worth repeating along with Chris’ comments… for the sake of dialogue…
Tony said:
"More and more of us are now convinced that something new cannot happen within the existing organizations and institutions. They are irredeemably reified into patterns of institutional conservatism and survival; they are irredeemably sold out to market forces and have thus commodified the radical, liberating message of the gospel."
His complete post can be found here.
Chris replied:
"I mostly disagree with Tony. I appreciate that he can see the problems of the heirachical, man-honoring system of the establishment and its sometimes stifling effect on the Message of Jesus. There are problems. I agree. But his blanket statements using words like "irredeemably" are misguided. His tone is harsh and blinded by his own judgement of his narrow experience. I sense he thinks he is following Jesus in doing something like overturning the money changer’s tables in the temple. I’ve heard a lot of this kind of thing. But to say a group of people are disqualified from God doing anything new among them is base ignorance…"
His complete comment can be found here.
Chris added to his comment here.
Anyone else want to chime in?
Comments
2 responses to “An Interesting Controversy”
I don’t agree that “to say that a group of people are disqualified from God doing anything new among them is base ignorance”. Tony didn’t actually say that, but I think Chris interpreted pretty closely. It is harsh. There were times Jesus was very harsh. Perhaps it is time we “turned over the money changers tables”. Being a nice, neat, obedient Christian is what we are taught to be – by teachers of the law. The ministry of Jesus Christ is radically profound. It shatters all our preconceptions about God and religion. Where is that message? We hear so much gospelly gook that the true Gospel is just another “awesome” sermon if we do hear it. We are conditioned to “get the tape” and put it in the tape drawer or maybe pass it on to a friend. We need to be shaken! We have “commodified the radical, liberating message of the gospel”, as Tony discerns. Are we truly sold out to Jesus or to the ideology of Christianity? – An idol by any other name, just as the Pharisees had made their religion. They were called whitewashed tombs. What are we?
I really like what John wrote above. We’re all growing and to condemn others is a mistake. God uses everything. I’m 44 and after seeing a few things I realize that we’re all just trying to make sense of things and we want to be important to God. We think we can find out every way to be the best for Him, but really, we’re just in a constant state of imperfection. That’s how Paul can say to get the speck out of our own eye first. When you live your life being authentic; that is, living the best way you know now, God can use you in some very dramatic ways. When He has your heart, it’s all a wash. You’re covered. It’s very difficult to leave an institutional church. There are so many facets to the process and it took me over 2 years to do it. I look at the whole thing as more of growth than the IC being a sin. It would be like telling a person when they come to know Jesus that instantly upon reading the entire Bible they now know everything. You just can’t–not in a lifetime. I think it would be wonderful to just forget about complaining or putting down the IC and just breath and live out simple church living. Spread the enthusiasm, the joy, and all the wonderful benefits. There’s no need to put down. Just live it. I am so happy to be free of the bondage of it all. Thanks for reading and God bless.