The Fickleness of Gatekeeping
Gatekeeping can be a very fickle enterprise. Most gatekeepers only focus on certain ideologies or even singular ideas. There is an interesting story about gatekeeping in the Gospel of Mark that I feel is relevant. I will give the passage and then explain the context so we can engage this text in our context.
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ 8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” 9 Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God)— 12 then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.” 14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” 17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mk 7:1–23 NRSV)
With our modern understanding of hand washing, we can easily miss the point here. The disciples were not ignoring what we understand to be safe hygiene, but were not observing a cultural tradition tacked on to their faith and religion. The other point we may miss is the context of tradition within this passage. Evangelical protestants often use this as a counterpoint to traditions of the Church, but it is more about those traditions which hamper or harm faith. Tradition is not a bad thing when it centers us into a historic faith. But, tradition can be terrible when it creates unnecessary barriers or loopholes to right living. Jesus clarifies that the traditions, which included the ritual hand washing, were being used to misuse actual commands of God. The gatekeepers were creating barriers to God that God did not desire or demand. But that is the way of gatekeepers.
Jesus then goes deeper and points out how the ritual tradition of handwashing had no effect on actual religious purity. He shows how those things we consume simply go out of us into the sewer. If we focus in this as about food rather than a metaphor, we can get caught up in the harm of toxic microorganisms, but Jesus' point is about the source of impurity. He shows how it is not the things outside of us, but our own hearts that produce impurity. It is our very hearts that can betray us rather than outside influences. Yet, the outside is continually what gatekeepers focus upon. Gatekeepers construct gates in open fields trying to avoid their own fears. They also create loopholes for their own rank hypocrisy. Elaborate and convoluted ideologies allow them to police the wider world as they ignore genuine threats and bad actors.
An example is found in my own denomination. There has been an unceasing pursuit of a church and pastor who never broke the official rules. Yet, that is not enough, and that pastor and church finally decided they were tired of the pursuing and have chosen to leave. This “win” by the gatekeepers is intensely sad and is leading to greater sadness. But even sadder is that this has happened in a geographic area in which multiple abusive predators have been protected over the years. This spawned at least two lawsuits and welcome rules for how our denomination handles accusations of abuse. However, the latest report of abuse happened in the near past and after those rules were put into place. The gatekeepers have been silent on these instances of wrongdoing. Or, more pointedly, have called for caution and allowing the legal process to work itself out. The problem is that there was a fundamental failure on the part of multiple leaders to handle abuse with care. That continued when the news inevitably broke and the protectors were defended.
I ask myself if this lack of concern is due to the fact that the abusers look normal to the gatekeepers. Is the attitude that allows the sweeping away of abuse allegations normal? These questions are uncomfortable for me and yet maybe we need to be asking why abusers and their protectors are given more latitude and grace than pastors attempting to shepherd the complexities of our current time. That’s the fickleness of gatekeeping. It creates dissonance and inconsistency. The gatekeepers miss the wolves who they have allowed through the gate because they appear correct on the outside. The wolves are better at hiding than the shepherds the gatekeepers typically target (mainly because shepherds don’t hide…).
I have written about gatekeeping before as it impacts all levels of our lives. Pop culture, hobbies, neighborhoods are full of self-appointed gatekeepers. This is an excerpt from a post entitled “The Gate Who Needs No Keepers” and it is just as relevant to the topic of fickleness.
Jesus condemned the Pharisees for making the path to God harder than it was supposed to be. They had added gates and mazes galore to a covenantal relationship. Israel herself forgot that she was to be a shining family of priests with lamps lighting the way to a God who is with us. They had become a human kingdom with extra burdens placed upon the people, which no longer pointed to a relational God. This is one reason that the keepers of the gates completely missed who Jesus is. Their gates had obscured the very nature of the Messiah they longed for and caused them to miss the birth of the kindom of God. Much like the gatekeepers of today who seize power and find ways to exclude even those who follow the doctrines, polity, doctrines, and dogmas which they claim to be protecting. This is because gatekeepers typically find more and more barriers to the gate in order to protect their idea of the gate rather than the truth of the gate.
In other words, gatekeepers are fickle at best or, more likely, hypocritical.
