1 post tagged “radical living”

Recently, two teens attacked their own school in Littleton, Colorado, killing over a dozen people.  As I listened to the reports pour in, I became struck by how much emphasis was placed on school access and safety.  Here in Chicago, the news emphasized metal detectors and unarmored guards with handguns, as if these could deter a commando-style assault with shotguns and bombs.  The Episcopal priest who presided over the memorial service that night was quoted as saying something like, "There is no place that is safe."

It seems to me there were much larger issues on the stage that day, such as racial hatred, alienated youth, and easy access to weapons.  Only toward the end of a local Chicago newscast was a gun control group quoted.  Even the Pope showed a greater perceptivity when he wired the Bishop of Denver that he was praying for "greater respect for life."

It further seems to me that the dark legacies of this country, spirits of greed, violence, lawlessness, and hatred, have matured and begun to choke our society.  In the face of this, is the proper response of the Church likewise concern about safety?

I believe, in its preoccupation with safety, much of the Church is missing its calling.  Jesus never promised his disciples safety in this world, but, on the contrary, betrayal and violence.  In fact, he purposefully sent them out into that environment, "as sheep among wolves," charging them to act as the salt and light of the world and to "make disciples of all nations."  What, do we expect sheep among wolves not to get bitten, or people who are not yet disciples to act Christ-like?

In the world, there are institutions like the NRA that, in its rejection of government control, plants a deadly seed of lawlessness.  Far from opposing that spirit, some "believers" have fallen completely under its influence and used weapons in support of "Pro-Life."  The truly sad part of this is that these instruments of Satan have not been as loudly condemned in the popular eye by the Church they slander.  Rather, it appears much of the Church holds political safety above God's good Name and washes its hands of such "worldly" affairs.

Similarly, the Church does less to reverse the secularization and mediocrity of the public schools than to take its children "out of this world" and train them at home or in private schools.  Granted, a few believers can't make a difference versus a mammoth bureaucracy such as the Chicago Public Schools, but if all the effort and money spent by Christians in the Chicago area on private schools and home-schooling were directed instead at changing the public schools, the mammoth would move.  Instead, much energy is spent obtaining tax breaks for these expenses.  It seems the priority is on financial safety.

The cumulative effect of these and other concerns about safety is to reduce Christian impact in the world.  If, out of concern for safety, a believer flees the world, he or she also won't encounter anyone to have to tell about Jesus.  Such modern monasticism may be more properly thought of as evangelistic safety.

The joke, of course, is that such flight is imaginary.  The Episcopal bishop spoke truth -- there is nowhere to flee, and any attempt to do so is fantasy, mere escapism.  Just because Christians choose not impact the world does not mean that the world, under the malevolent forces that still influence it, will fail to impact Christians.

Just where is true safety?  Once a former roommate of mine ruminated about how I survived a potentially deadly situation.  He used process of elimination:  "Street smart?  Nah.  Intimidating?  Get real!  Got a brain?  Maybe, but he doesn't necessarily use it."  He concluded that I lived only by God's will.

If we are kept safe only by God's will, how then should we live?  We should live primarily to remain in God's will, then to be safe.  With such a priority, we are certain to suffer loss, but it is worse to suffer loss while denying Christ.  The reason why heaven honors true martyrdom and faith is that these should be familiar to each of us.  Let us struggle together, then, encouraging one another especially in times of loss, to live in that "spirit of power, not of timidity."

September, 1999