Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Spiritual Libertarianism = My Mind Blown
“As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.”
It may be more common these days to not register with a particular political party, Libertarianism is officially the third largest political party in the US. (Which itself is a bit ironic that those who elevate individual rights over the groups rights would even desire to bend their values to that of an official party platform, but that is not the point.) Regardless of the official numbers, anecdotal evidence suggests that the USA has a very strong populist leaning toward Libertarianism (at least here in the South and West).
As taken from the wikipedia entry, Libertarian thought this is the philosophy that "upholds liberty as its principal objective. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and freedom of choice, emphasizing political freedom, voluntary association and the primacy of individual judgement."
These values are not "bad" but the values of Libertarian thought seem very much in direct conflict of Christian life.
The Christian life is one that we bend our will to that of Christ. We die to self so that Christ may live in us. It is a life that does put personal values to the side for the benefit of others. It is a life that upholds service to others. It is a life that seeks to maximize the submission to authority of Christ. It is a life that replaces the individual as sole authority of their life for one that places Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason as the authorities of our life.
And yet we seem to live in a time when the interpretation of Christianity is one that is less and less interested in the group or whole and more and more interested in the will of the individual. It is a Christianity that when someone does not like a few teachings of the Church that person leaves. The UMC is now seeing local churches withhold global giving as a way to make a point about an internal church issue. We have communities of faith set up to meet the needs of the individual to the detriment of creating communities of faith that demand service of the members. We live in a time where we choose the course of action we are going to take rather than do what an outside authority might ask us to do.
While there are many who might argue that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is the major threat to the Christian Life, I might suggest that the issues facing the Church are less about what we believe and more about where we place authority.
What is authoritative in your life? Are you your own authority or is your authority outside yourself.
Spiritual Libertarianism can slowly kill communities of faith because if we do not bend our values to those of Christ's then we are just creating a community that is a reflection of our own current selves rather than a community that challenges us to greater than ourselves.
Drive Thru Baptism = Selfish
Clergy are asked to perform the ritual of baptism. These are high holy moments that most, if not all clergy, embrace and love. I do not pass up the opportunity to participate in a baptism of any kind except one. The Drive Thru Baptism.
The Drive Thru Baptism usually beings as a phone call to the church asking if the clergy will "baptize my child sometime. Having never met this person calling and this person having never entered into the community of the church we engage in a conversation about what baptism means. Frankly I am not one that believes baptism is "fire insurance" or that you have to be baptized to be "saved". (Because I think we are saved by Grace not by baptism, but that is another post.) What I do affirm is that in baptism the person being baptized is making promises/vows to be in relationship with God and with God's people. To serve God through the mission and ministry of a local church and that to make these vows without any intention to live them out in a faith community (to join a church) cheapens the ritual and promotes that baptism is less a religious act and more of a social rite of passage (like the wedding ceremony has become).
Ultimately, I see the Drive Thru Baptism - having a person baptized but never seeing that person again - is selfish. It is selfish to ask a community of faith for guidance, courage, support, help and grace but at the same time not provide any of those same things for any other in the community. It is like getting married and promising to love your spouse but as time goes by you don't show acts of love but expect your spouse to do so.
So, no I will no baptize you or your child unless you are serious in living out your vows that you are making to live in community: to die to self, to live for others and to follow Christ. If you are more interested in getting your family together to have a party for a rite of passage, then might I suggest this is why we have birthdays, graduations, girl/boy scouts, and other social markers.
Trivia Crack the American Dream and the Gospel
Trivia Crack is a game that is like words with friends but with trivia questions. You answer questions to get "crowns" and the first to get six crowns is the winner of the game. The game gives you a sense that the smartest ones among us will win and that, theoretically, if you study you will win the games you play. This game is, in many ways, the American Dream in game-form. Those who work harder than others will win and those who lose are less deserving of the top prizes. Underlying the game, and the Dream, is that there is mobility that can be achieved.
What is less obvious is the inherent advantages some people have in both Trivia Crack and the American Dream that make it easier to "win". In the game, you can use coins to increase the odds you can answer the question correctly and thus gain crowns faster. The way to get coins is by winning games (or by using real money to purchase them!). You see the feedback look that is created. Those with coins tip the game in their favor to win and those who win get coins to tip future games in their favor to win more coins, ad nauseum.
This should sound similar to those who see the feedback loop that America has. Those who are successful get advantages, but in order to get those advantages you have to be successful. For instance, a college education can boost lifetime income by a lot. But to get a college education these days also costs a lot, outpacing all other sectors. Additionally, the average college graduate has about $30,000 of debt which, by the most estimates takes 15-20 years to pay off. That is 15-20 years of potential savings growth that is lost. Those born into money, who can graduate debt free, have a massive advantage in wealth accumulation over time to their peers. And the gap between rich and poor widens exponentially faster with each generation.
We are surrounded by images, stories, and even games that feed into the notion that we live in a meritocracy and that social mobility possible and that we are all playing by the same fair rules. The Gospel of Christ confronts this narrative in a way that say it is all an illusion. In fact, in the Kingdom of God the first will be last and the last will be first (Mark 10:28-31). Those who have little will be given more and those with enough will be given less (Luke 6:24–26) . Those who worked all day will get the same pay as those who worked an hour (Matthew 20:1-15).