Newspaper Columns by Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Getting beyond our inner reptile
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
November, 2001The lowest part of our brain has a simple method of sorting perceptions: Same -- good. Different -- kill or run away.
In the reptilian brain we share with all vertebrates lies the root of racism, sexism, classism, snobbery, and sectarianism.
The spiritual or moral history of our species could be written as a struggle not to kill or run away from what is different, how we learn to treat those with whom we cannot identify.
"Remember that you were strangers once," Moses reminded Israel.
Writing to the Christians of Ephesus, St. Paul begs that we lead a life worthy of our calling, "with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." The apostle is up against nature, and he knows it.
To be meek and lowly is simply a religious encouragement to be realistic about the fact that our voice is just one of many, that everyone is valuable. It means not assuming that anybody else has motives worse than our own.
It is especially important to be lowly and meek when we know we are right. This is true in part because there are other people in the room who know they are right, too.
Forbearing one another in love is a religious way of saying that because we value one another we don't crush one another. People who truly value people put up with people when people are wrong, irritable, arrogant, whiny, timid, or just not getting it.
Focus on the noisiest, most headstrong person in the room (excepting yourself) and just love them. Love the frightened person inside them who feels they must fight to survive. Love the ignorant person inside them who doesn't know any better than to bully or terrorize. Love the trapped person inside them who has formed such bad habits that they don't even know they are objectionable. Love the parts of them that most remind you of what you fear in yourself.
I suppose most of us don't want to think that people should ever have needed to put up with us, to tolerate us. This is called denial. We are here because God didn't crush Adam and Eve, because our parents didn't throw us out when we were being, well, unattractive. If you really doubt that anyone ever had to just put up with your wackiness, and did it because they loved you, ask around. Start with those who love you most.
Paul wants us "eager" to maintain the bond of peace. The reptile in us doesn't want to do it. That is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
That is one of the reasons Jesus told his disciples to share his body and blood: you can't easily eat with people you reject. It is the spiritual gift that can work with our wonderfully complex brains and inspire creative ways to love, to overcome dissension.
An even bigger gift of the Spirit is to come to difficult discussions eager to help people work things out, to find a way. Such eagerness, for me, is Anglicanism at its best.
My theological roots are in Anglo-Catholicism. This is not about what I wear or the fact that I may invoke a saint or two when I pray to God. The Anglo-Catholic movement was and is primarily about the truth that the Church is not a voluntary society.
The Church is a divine institution, a divine society into which I am called by Christ. I tear or destabilize it at great peril to my soul. Every existing division is the result of human sin.
Have you ever noticed that the story about sin entering the world is about a snake?
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