Diocesan
Life Columns
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Bishop Paul's writes a monthly column for the Diocesan Newspaper, Diocesan
Life, edited by Communication
Minister, Bill Lewellis.
For more features from the life of our diocese, check Diocesanlife....ONLINE; and Bethlehem
News.
Does
God want us to hate anyone on his behalf
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Diocesan Life, October 2003
I am worried about the debates in our Church. Each day I meet people who really
do hate "revisionists," or who really do hate "traditionalists." I
have spent my entire episcopate trying to create an atmosphere where all are
valued, but it is getting harder, not easier. Let me give three examples.
Electronic journalists feeding on the Church have not hesitated to spread wildly
inaccurate stories and to spin factoids in ways that make rational debate very
difficult. No matter how bizarre, once a story is "out there," it is
never possible to correct it entirely.
Without my permission, someone published a private letter I had written to another
individual, knowing it would inflame his audience. Not only did he not have my
permission to publish my letter, he knew for a fact that I had written the letter
partially from a misunderstanding. That did not matter: it served his purpose.
At General Convention the bishop who is public spokesman for one of the political
groups in the Church looked me in the eye and simply lied to me about two dirty
tricks his group had perpetrated in a last-ditch effort to change outcomes at
Convention.
Each of these cases has underscored what is true about our society: what actually
happened is unimportant; what matters is the perception that can be created,
and there are no longer any rules that gentle people may be counted on to observe,
ever.
In my childhood days we had to learn not only the Ten Commandments (in order!)
but also little explanations of them. The explanation for the commandment against
false witness included the instruction, "We should not belie, betray, slander,
or defame our neighbors, but defend them, speak well of them, and put the best
construction on everything."
That is the most inconvenient piece of religious prose I know. I struggle with
it daily and do not always win. When I lose, it is because of fear or reactivity
on my part. The difficulty of the command, however, does not mean it is not worth
thinking about.
It does go against the grain to moderate our attack, not to mention being kind
about those with whom we disagree. When we are hurt or frightened, there is comfort
in talking about how bad or dangerous others are. We do not have to think about
our own shortcomings or doubts if we have a hideous, fire-breathing monster to
fear.
When others want power, or when they want to get people to do their will, they
play to our fears. "There's trouble in River City," was how the Music
Man got people to buy his goods. Religious groups are particularly vulnerable
to the kind of demagoguery that creates and capitalizes on fear. Many private
religious empires in America have been built by religious entrepreneurs who play
to people's fears. The airwaves are full of them.
It is possible to be in profound disagreement with people and remain civil. When
disagreement is accompanied by rage, blaming, bullying, or dishonesty, something
other than the quest for truth is going on. People do get addicted to fear. People
do get addicted to conflict. People do get addicted to power.
We are tempted to believe that if we are defending God (as though God needs that),
anything is fair.
When I am not myself being fearful, I believe just the opposite: when our way
of arguing contradicts the gospel, we betray Christ. When Jesus was arrested,
Peter tried to "defend" him with his little sword, and did manage to
cut off the ear of a man called Malchus. Jesus rebuked him and healed the ear,
we are told.
Why, among everything the passion narrative has to tell us, would the writer
stop to recall this incident? Is it possible that even in the First Century,
people thought that a God who so thoroughly empties himself as to get crucified
still needs us to hate on his behalf?
Our conversation will change if we make the disciplined effort not to assume
that those of differing viewpoints are unintelligent, unthinking, biblically
illiterate, or part of a conspiracy to hide the truth. We may all be wrong, but
truth cannot emerge where people are defensive, suspicious, or fearful. When
we enter conversation hoping to learn, everything is different.
"I believe in God - it's the Church I can't stand," a student said
to me one fall day. I have met too many young people who have turned away from
the Church precisely because our way of dealing with issues, and with each other,
contradicts the message we claim to bear. Perhaps if we work for greater consistency
between our proclamation to the world and our conversation with each other, the
world will once again feel an attraction to Christianity.
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