I Have Seen the Enemy....
When I was a kid, I wished that I had a yearbook from the future that listed what everyone was going to be doing in 10, 20 years. Where people were going to end up living. What jobs people were going to end up doing. Who was going to go to college, and drop out to start their own online flower delivery service and make so much money, they retire by the time they're 35.
That kind of stuff.
I really wanted to know, for example, who I was going to marry and whom, and what job I was going to have. When you're in your teens, you desperately want to figure out your own life and where you're going. I just wished sometimes God would give me a 20,000 foot overview of my life, kind of like troops do when they get briefed.
"Okay, you're going to go to this beach, fight here and then march to this forest and wait."
You get the idea. The older I get, the more I kind of start to see what it is I'm here for. Mainly, I see it in the things that make me so angry, I can barely think straight. This honestly doesn't happen that much, but I think it's a clue to where my passions really are.
At least, partially, I think I was born to fight for the heart of the church, to make sure the community I am a part of never loses sight of the goals and the sight of Christ, to create vibrant, radical, counter-cultural communities of love and grace where healing, hope and joy can always be found and people feel connected to God and to each other. A place where we are introspective and fight to follow the tough, difficult teachings of Jesus Christ.
I think I was born to fight for the heart of my church, and for The Church at large.
In short, I was born to fight against this.
posted by David Tieche at 7:37 AM
2 Comments:
Oh my goodness, I am completely shocked at the site which you linked to. I cannot believe it! Are you sure this is real? This is so bad that it almost makes you think it was started by someone who actually hates the Church and wants to give it a very bad name and reputation...to make it even more hated in the world.
At any rate, the Evangelical Church has to, no it must take stand against such things. I don't even know what else to say.
1:07 PM
Hello David,
I don't know if these comments get emailed to you. I hope they do. Either way, I imagine you'll be quite surprised to see this comment, both because of who sent it, and because it's a comment to a post several months old.
So yes, I have been reading your blog lately. I was just looking for things to read online, and decided to look up your blog again. I started with the most recent posts, and began working my way backwards. There were a number of times I thought about commenting, but none of them were strong enough to actually get me to follow through.
This post, however, about how you are driven to fight for the heart of your church, and against things like the Westboro Baptist church finally moved me. We disagree on a great many things, up to and including the nature of our world, and our lives in it. We've had discussions about it in the past, and I suspect that some of those conversations have made you uncomfortable or unhappy with me. The same, of course, goes for me. There have been many times, both on this blog and in person, where you've said something that I strongly took issue with, but I bit my tongue -- partially because I felt that whatever my difference of opinion was, it wasn't enough to start an argument of any sort, but mostly, and most importantly, because I love you as my brother. Whatever our differences of opinion or belief, none of them are more important than my love and respect for you.
I also suspect that my beliefs and outlooks on life, along with the way I've chosen to live my life are enough to quell any desire you might to engage me on the subjects you most love to discuss. It sometimes saddens me, but I'm self-aware enough to realize that I don't always put my best face forward, and that I don't always choose the best or most pleasant ways to put forth my views.
That being said, this post moved me to finally comment to you, because in this area, we are in almost complete agreement. I see a lot wrong with the world, a lot of evil at work. I'm sure you and I would disagree on what some of those evils are, and in some cases, what is evil and what is not. I also know that there are some areas where we would, in fact, agree.
But one of the places I feel evil is at work in the world, and in this country in particular, is in the church itself. It is that evil that I find most troubling, and most dangerous -- evil cloaked in the guise of righteousness. I also think it is far more common than most people would expect. Nobody thinks of themselves as the Bad Guy. Nobody is really the evil villain, twirling his moustache and cackling away. Everyone is the hero of their own personal story. Everyone is the main character. As a friend of mine once pointed out, Nazis love their kids, too.
I have found myself at once attracted to and avoidant of any kind of deep, serious conversations about God, belief, life, and the world with you. Attracted to, because I think that, despite our differences, we could still have deep, enriching conversations, from which we could both take away something real and meaningful, even if neither of us ever changes the other's mind in any substantial way. Afraid, because of a question I find myself asking from time to time, not just about you, but about all of my Christian friends.
You know that I do not share your belief. I make no illusions about it. I also sometimes think that the reporters, whose article on the conference of religious broadcasters you referenced in another post, is probably right -- that within my lifetime, I will be fighting against Christian facism. It is a fight I find myself thinking more and more likely as time goes on. It is also a fight that I would not be able to walk away from, and a fight that I would gladly lay down my life for -- not in violent, direct conflict, but (as you talk about in yet another post) by placing my body between those who would do violence, and the target of theri wrath (even though that target may be me). It is a fight that I would have to show up to unarmed, ready to simply die so that others could see the horror and wrongness of those I opposed.
I don't know for sure that this fight is coming. I hope with all my heart that it is not. I don't want to be in a battle. I want to live a peaceful, ordinary life, shared with those I love. But if it comes down to it, to that battle I will go.
The question that has haunted me, that I refered to above, is simply this -- if it ever did come to that, if it ever did come to facsim, horror and bloodshed, where would you, David, stand? Would you aid me, hide me, stand by my side? Or would you stand with those who would force faith from the barrel of a gun, simply because they too believe in God and Christ?
It is a horrible question, unfair in every way to you or anyone I'd ever wondered it about. I hope it was not a mistake to pose it here. But I was moved to share it with you after this post, where you loudly and clearly stood up and said that your purpose in life, your purpose in your faith and in your church was to oppose Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist church. After reading this post, I am no longer afraid of the answer to that question. I am sorry I ever thought that way about you. Forgive me, I despaired.
You may not know this, but in addition to that web site, Westboro Baptist also runs a website called godhatesamerica.com. In addition to picketing the funerals of homosexuals, they have now taken to picketing the funerals of American service men and women who have died in Iraq, saying that those soldiers deaths are the righteous punishment of God, for America's permisiveness of gays and lesbians. (As a side note, if they think that this country is permissive of gays and lesbians, I dread to think what their version of intolerance is)
So, I hope this comment finds its way to you, and I hope that I have not offended you by it. I hope I have not overstepped my bounds, or made you think any less of me than you already might. I hope that I have been able to articulate something meaningful, and reach out to you in some way that I was previously unable to. Whatever your reaction, please know that I do love you, as husband to my sister, as father to my nephew, and as a brother to me.
Peace be with you always, David.
Sean
5:49 PM
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