The last of the presentations

The first thing to say is that everyone should cut Carla’s sentence about the course—the one that reads “I am incredibly glad I took this class” —and paste it into their IDEA forms. Mostly because I’m sure you all feel that way.

Although it has been tedious for you, I do appreciate the work all of you have done on these presentations, and I hope that you learned some things about the common drive within mainline Christianity (and beyond, I think) to address social needs and improve the lives of all, both near and far. Kudos to Liz for going solo; I was prepared to back her up, but she didn’t need my help.
Joking aside, I was pleased to read from Carla (and to get a growing sense from others) that the world needs Christians who can live with their essential similarities and get on with the jobs of feeding, clothing, and providing shelter to those in need. In the words of a Rabbi Irwin Kula, whose words I sometimes use in other classes: “it is about love; it really is no more complicated than that.” Of course, Kula knows how complicated that can be. Nevertheless, the statement offers the essential corrective to all who act as though “church” authority rests someplace other than with love.

I did have the strong sense at times (in these and other posts) that you all believe we can find common ground between Christian traditions. But I also have noticed that many of you value what Ed calls “sticking to your guns.” It would be very interesting for me to know if you think this desire for more confidence and certainty is a defining characteristic of our age. I tend to think that people never develop such clarity, that instead we simply renegotiate the contradictions by which we live our lives. In this case, the contradiction would be between a quest for certainly and the recognition that love is essential; after all, from my experience, love is anything but certain.

An interesting term introduced by the Bishop’s statement (and mentioned by Joe) is “participation.” I suppose this term lies somewhere between “sticking to your guns” and “love.” If you keep inviting people into the conversation and revising your ideas based on what they say, maybe you discover both love and the guns worth sticking to. I think that the recent crop of bishops believes they have found that territory in their willingness to place abortion at the center of all such conversations. As Meghan (and others) suggest, however, they may be missing the mark in that limiting or preventing abortions are acts that need to happen within the context of providing for children who are born.

See you all tonight. jw