Deconstructing / Reconstructing Part 1b: BEING AND BELONGING
A second dimension of deconstruction is being. The question is: what does it mean to be a human? Who is recognized as fully human in the image of God, and who is devalued as less-than? There is a great divide in the church, and in societies generally, between those who recognize UNQUALIFIED FULL PERSONHOOD for all individuals regardless of their national heritage, ethnic identity, sexual or gender identity, and those who feel the need to elevate the value of some or diminish the humanness of others based on one or more of these qualifiers. Based on ethnicity or nationality, some are deemed less worthy or crossing our borders, thriving in our communities, or benefiting from the bounty of our nation’s material wealth. Individuals in the LGBTQ community and those not embracing traditional gender categories are devalued, labeled, excluded and ostracized, and their freedoms and civil rights restricted and denied. These violations, driven primarily by religious doctrines and traditions, are extended across every sphere of life, not limited to the inside affairs of church communities. Many who identify as “deconstructing” can no longer abide this devaluing of the humanness of so many people who enrich our daily lives in a plethora of beautiful relationships and who clearly exhibit the imago dei.
Affirmation vs. judgment - To invite vs. to exclude (see notes)
I argue here that the battle over this divide and the growing acceptance of the full affirmation and equality of all humans (and from the faith perspective, as created in the image of God) constitutes a third great historical wave of expanding BELOVED COMMUNITY in the history of the United States. These “waves” or advances in beloved community are characterized by expanding equal status and full, unqualified, and undiminished personhood in the community of faith to those formerly excluded as not belonging. In the nineteenth century, individuals were treated not as humans but as property in the practice of slavery. Until the middle of the 20th century, individuals were considered as less than, not fully equal, on the basis of race or ethnicity. In this third wave of beloved community, individuals shall no longer be devalued, diminished, or rejected based on any qualifiers or categories related to gender identity or sexual identity.
"In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." Jesus, Matthew 15:9
Each of these “waves” of expanding beloved community included a several decades struggle leading to a major breakthrough (e.g. Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, Civil Rights Act of 1964). The summer of 1969 Stonenwall uprising in New York, commemorated annually in late June, is one of the major signposts of the protest movement for LGBTQ equality. The church has been (with notable exceptions, Note 1) missing-in-action in this movement and in fact perhaps the major force of opposition. But in the 21st century, affirming churches are becoming more numerous and more vocal. Advocacy and legal changes for equity of rights has been a long and slow fight, with affirmation of marriage equity in 2015 being possibly the most significant change in the law on the side of LGBTQ equality. It is the hope and prayer of many that the current growing embrace and affirmation of the unqualified personhood of LGBTQ individuals in many communities of faith and in society more generally will grow and take hold as a universal ethical way of life, even as significant remnants of discrimination and exclusionary practices remain in large segments of the faith community, as well as in many parts of general society. Historically, there was a time when slavery was widely accepted and justified in the U.S. Christian church, as was the case with church sanctioned racial segregation and discrimination which persisted past the middle of the 20th century.
Toward full affirmation of human life itself, without qualification.
These major historical signposts – the ending of legal slavery, the ending of legal discrimination on the basis of race, and the ongoing efforts to challenge legal discrimination and moral qualification on the basis of sexual or gender identity center the affirmation of all humans equally, across ethnicity, nationality, citizenship status, sexuality or gender. These historical movements lead us toward affirming individual human existence in and of itself, and away from devaluing individuals and inhibiting full participation in society on the basis race or of geo-cultural identity or background, of sexual or gender identity, or even of religious or philosophical conviction. This historical arc tends toward the place where the highest moral ethos does not validate attempts to judge, manipulate, or control individuals based on ethnicity, identity or personal conviction. Rather, we advocate that moral judgement should reflect more upon the basis of the help or harm of individual actions that respect or violate the personhood, the value, the rights of other people. (I.e. the second great commandment - "love your neighbor as yourself.")
Centered vs. bounded
Jesus’ teachings and actions indicated a value of inviting, including, and lifting up those who were excluded by the religious institutions of his day. Typically, religious groups form a BOUNDED SET of insiders and outsiders. Many see in Jesus an effort to break down those boundaries, and many Christ followers today choose faith centered on Jesus rather than bounded by approved theological beliefs. This is a dramatic paradigm shift that evangelicals may find foreign if not traumatizing, because it is woven into the fabric of church language and theology that to be a Christian is to affirm a specific set of orthodox beliefs. Those affirming the right doctrines are “inside” of the fold. Those who deviate must be identified with an “outsider” status. It follows from this line of thinking that a conflict motif is engaged to see outsiders a danger to or an enemy of the church. What many are finding, as they study history, is that ORTHODOXY IS A MOVING TARGET as one moves through history and as one moves across churches and denominations. The greater truth that we should recognize is that the moral understanding of the church in relation to society does and should evolve over time. This is an undeniable historical fact.
Notes
Note 1: See the documentary on Troy Perry and the Metropolitan Community Church, an international affiliation of LTBTQ affirming churches with 43,000 members in over 300 churches in 22 countries. Perry founded the first MCC church in Los Angeles in October of 1968.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RD0h7BNIJI