Of Cryptids and Credibility
There’s been a lot of metaphorical ink spilled within Western Christian circles over our decline. I truly believe most of those concerns miss the point. This is mostly due to the fact that we cannot seem to understand the world has changed. But, we are also our own worst roadblocks to the wonders of God. The constant differences between our claims about who we worship and what the Christian life entails versus how we conduct ourselves in public, speak about those we are trying to reach, and whine about a culture that never really existed is striking. We may as well be running around trying to convince people about the existence of Bigfoot or The Loch Ness Monster than a God who loves.
The gulf between what we claim and what we actually do is often so large that I wonder if we even believe the former. What is it about hate, anger, and fear that seduce us into embracing them rather than love, peace, and kindness? Newsflash, whatever it is we are afraid of, it isn’t contagious. I keep thinking about the Gospel of Mark when I hear Christians worry about imagined fears. Twice in that Gospel Jesus mentions that only things from within can defile us. That things on the outside cannot defile us. Even if we are influenced, it is because we are already open to the outside influence. Maybe we are not as attuned to Jesus as we claim.
I recently attended an event in which myself and several other pastors heard from and engaged with Dr. Richard Beck. In his discussions of joy and hospitality I felt something tickling the back of my mind. In his book The Shape of Joy, Dr. Beck argues that joy cannot come from within us; it is only something that comes from without. In the context of Jesus’ claims, that means that the joy of others cannot cause us harm. Dr. Beck also talked about the difference between the way we think of things making us unclean and the way Jesus made things clean as a “holy contagion.” Christians say that true joy is found in Jesus. For us Wesleyan-Holiness folk prevenient grace allows for the joy we encounter in the world when others might reject that joy. All joy comes from God, but it is not exclusive to Christians in other words.
Yet, we act like we are arbiters of joy. We even police the ways that people experience joy. Too many times we appear to be a people of holy sourness rather than holy joy. Beyond that simple attitude, I continue to wonder at our language and behavior because it often has no likeness to the way Jesus spoke or acted. In fact, we too often act like pharisees demanding purity of thought and deed beyond that which is illuminated in scripture. How in the world do we expect people to be drawn to our message when so much of that message is about how horrible they are for existing? I’m not even talking about the grand Calvinism/Arminianism divide, but simply calling those who disagree with us evil. demonic, satanic, and using the language of dismissal.
Is it any wonder Christians are thought of as hateful? We literally use the language of hate and we very vocally support others who speak this way. In our drive to be not like the world, we have instead wrapped the ways of the world within Christian imagery. Ironically, we end up defiling the things of God by embedding the things of Old Creation within supposed Christian thought. We are walking and talking contradictions. We are incarnate credibility gaps. All the talk of multiplication and growth doesn’t matter if lives are not being changed.
Even though decline is slowing it is leveling out at about one convert to six people leaving the faith. (Pew) There was much rejoicing in my own denomination when the numbers showed a slight uptick in attendance last year. But, the underlying numbers still show a steady decline in members. That points to more spectators than participants. But I also wonder about attendance. We try to create algorithms to measure online attendance, but those numbers may be inflated. So maybe we did not really see an increase in attendance.
Are we making disciples? Attendance doesn’t tell us that. Discipleship is transformed lives living like Jesus. That’s hard to measure. So many of the people within churches are discipled more by influencers and politicians than pastors and teachers and it shows. Add to that is our own penchant for throwing up roadblocks. We spend so much energy trying to prove God exists that we have failed to show who the God we believe exists truly is. We demand sacrifice not mercy while God is continuing to demand mercy not sacrifice. Like I said, we may as well be trying to convince people that cryptids like Bigfoot or Nessie exist.
American white evangelicals have an unwritten list of things you must add on to Christianity to be a TrueChristian™. These include embracing Republican politics without question, supporting violence when it is being perpetrated by those they support, and believing some fairy tales. This may be controversial, but ideas like the Rapture and pseudo science are not a part of scripture. Rapture is a fairy tale told by those for whom power is ascendant rather than love. It is a grand conspiracy of epic proportions and completely misses the true meaning of Revelation in scripture. But is really makes for good drama and captures the imagination. Rapture theology is the theology of violence writ large. Violence that misses the point of the cross.
The Gospel is not about God’s violence, but humanity’s violence. The cross is the fire God promises to use after the Flood. In light of the fact that the Flood does not accomplish the removal of humanity’s love of violence, God shows us the end result of our violence in the death of the incarnate logos. We make Jesus bleed, that act is not God’s act. That’s the real scandal here. But wow do we keep missing the point of fire and of the cross.
We harm our own claims when we insist upon a literal reading of obviously poetic liturgy in passages like Genesis chapter one. And we harm our faith when we insist that God brings violence. We continue to layer roadblock upon roadblock. Is it any wonder we are not people who attract those who could be transformed by an encounter with New Creation? We keep trying to sell Old Creation.
Come to think of it, I understand this better. Many Christians are taught a conspiratorial and cryptid like version of faith. No wonder our claims ring as hollow as the fiction of cryptids. Bigfoot and other stories are fun and interesting, but they are only stories. If we want to show who God is, maybe we need to start living like people who believe in God rather than being a people of cryptids.