Living & Serving The Book of Kells Post-Obergefell How to Remain Faithful to Our Mission In a Culture that Often Disagrees with Our Message Lutheran Brethren Seminary January Term 2016 Lectures Tuesday, January 19, 2016 Fergus Falls, MN Roy Alden Atwood, Ph.D.
Lecture One A Preface to Immorality: Losing the Antithesis on the Road to Obergefell Roy Alden Atwood Whirl is king, having driven out Zeus. Aristophanes, Clouds (423 B.C.)
Case Summary: Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) Issues Do same-sex couples have the right to marry in every State? Must the States grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples? Must the States recognize same-sex marriages that were licensed and performed lawfully out-of-state? Holding and Rule of Law (Justice Kennedy) Yes. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that same-sex couples have the right to marry in every State. Yes. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the States must license marriages to same-sex couples. Yes. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the States must recognize same-sex marriages that have been licensed and performed lawfully out-of-state.
What the Obergefell Decision Represents (And Doesn t Represent) A. A legal-political declaration (backed by the power of the state) that Christian sexual ethics and morality are officially not normative in the U.S. It was not a surprise: Obergefell joins other legal judgments (such as Roe v. Wade) and federal and state legislative acts supportive of aspects of the sexual revolution B. A shift in public morality (the moral standards guiding our common life) within the U.S. It was not a surprising moral shift; anyone who experienced the 1960s or watched changes in public education over the past 25+ years recognizes this decision another assault in a long sexual revolution C. An end to the myth of an American moral (cultural) consensus. It was not a triumph of a-religious secularism, but the creedal expression of the new orthodoxy of exclusive humanism (Taylor) D. A clarification of the antithesis between belief and unbelief in personal and public life. It was not a failure of the church s prophetic voice lots of preaching and teaching; rather, it has been the failure of the church s practices and cultural liturgies (Smith) over generations in seeking God s kingdom
How Did We Get Here? The Dissolution of the Ancestral Order (Lippmann) The acids of modernity are so powerful that they do not tolerate a crystallization of ideas which will serve as a new orthodoxy into which man can retreat. And so the modern world is haunted by a realization... that it is impossible to reconstruct an enduring orthodoxy, and impossible to live well without the satisfaction which an orthodoxy would provide. --Walter Lippmann, Preface to Morals (1929)
How Did We Get Here? The Dissolution of the Ancestral Order (Lippmann) Peter Singer: Swallowing the Utilitarian Sexual Ethics Reductio Once it is generally understood that ethics has no necessary connection with the sexually-obsessed morality of conservative Christianity, a humane and positive ethic could be the basis for a renewal of our social, political and ecological life. As long as the consequences of sexual acts fulfill the preferences of those involved and do not harm others, sexual ethics are of little or no importance.
Charles Taylor: A Secular Age Modernity is not about the subtraction of God and religious belief; rather, it is the substitution of a replacement belief exclusive humanism, the belief that one can find meaning and significance without any recourse to gods or transcendence. The modern moral order... requires that "we shouldn't criticize each other's 'values'" (p. 484), in particular on sexual matters. Since "my" religious life or practice is my personal choice, my "link to the sacred" may not be embedded in "nation" or "church." The revolution in sexual behavior has broken the culture of "moralism" that dominated most of the last half millennium. Developing individualism was bound to come into conflict with moralism, but in the mid-20th century, the dam broke. Thinkers started to think of sexual gratification as good, or at least unstoppable, especially as "in cities, young people could pair off without supervision." (p. 501) Now people are not bound by moralism: "they form, break, then reform relationships;" (p. 496) they experiment.
The Church s Cultural Impotence Losing the Antithesis in the Public Square Apologetics-Evangelism: Right living through right thinking/believing Christians are commanded (I Peter 3:15) to be prepared to make a defense for the reason of the hope that is in you. Evangelicalism has elevated this to the defining characteristic and mission of the Christian life: evangelizing and defending the faith. Problems with emphasizing our thinking/believing Humans-as-apologists tends to reduce the gospel to a set of propositions to be embraced and defended, rather than a way of life that entails obedience and faithfulness across all aspects of our existence. It promotes a dualistic view of life: in our minds we affirm certain truths, but in our daily lives we can contradict them by our actions. Discipleship is more than affirming catechetical propositions. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 (ESV)
The Church s Cultural Impotence Losing the Antithesis in the Public Square Doctrinalism: Right living through right doctrine Anselm: Fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding). While Christians have historically challenged the rationalist view of persons as reductionistic and simplistic, we have been too quick (especially since the rise of theological liberalism) to claim belief in God as our most defining personal characteristic, and to elevate those beliefs (articulated propositionally and creedally) to the defining characteristic of the church. Problems with emphasizing our doctrines Humans-as-believers may shift attention away from reason (rationalism) but only slightly to a less clear-cut and potentially less defensible locale. It remains a dangerously individualistic and disembodied (Gnostic) view of persons that gives priority to what we have in our heads more than how our actions embody Jesus. But remember, even the devils believe. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. James 2:26 (ESV)
The Church s Cultural Impotence Losing the Antithesis in the Public Square Pietism: Right living through right loves Augustine s two cities (the Earthly City and the City of God) are distinguished not by ideas or beliefs, but by what their inhabitants love, by their desires. To be human is to love, and it is what we love that defines who we are. Our (ultimate) love is constitutive of our identity... That to which we are fundamentally oriented,... what we desire above all else [is] the ultimate desire that shapes and positions and makes sense of all our penultimate desires and actions. --James K.A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom Problem with defining humans as lovers Augustine s emphasis on our loves or desires is best framed eschatologically. But this side of glory, sin is the stick in our spokes. Even the most faithful Christ-follower remains caught in the tension Paul identified in Romans between our desires and our sinful nature: For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Romans 7:18-19 (ESV)
The Church s Cultural Impotence Losing the Antithesis in the Public Square Kingdom Seeking: Right living through right pursuits Matt. 6:33: Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Matt. 25: 31-46: Right thinking, right doctrine, and right desires must translate into right actions Acts 1:3, 28:30-31: Jesus speaking about the kingdom of God; Paul proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about Jesus Christ Problem with defining humans as seekers Seekers are notorious as those who lack discipline, wisdom, sound teaching (doctrine), etc. Simply pursuing social and cultural goals, without having faith, knowledge, sound doctrine, and piety can easily be reduced to a social gospel, an ungospel of good works. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesian 2:10 (ESV)
The Church s Cultural Impotence Losing the Antithesis in the Public Square Failure to immerse the next generation in the paideia & nouthesia of the Lord (Eph. 6:4) Heb. 12:5-11: Total enculturation of Christ s royal heirs Prov. 1:1-9: Complete, full-orbed education of the King s heirs to the throne J.K.A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom Cultural liturgies Corporate shaping of individual and communal habits, bodily practices, routines, and rituals that grab our hearts and inspire our imaginations through our senses. Christians-as-the-body-of-Christ must not just have right thoughts, doctrines, or loves, but act rightly, seeking body-soul-and-mind the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Conclusion Secular hegemony has been aggressive since the mid-19 th century, but the church must own up to its own failure to be salt and light on sexual and cultural issues. The church s undue emphasis on worldviews the ideas in our heads has conceded the wide cultural field to other faiths that advance their cultural liturgies in more holistic and embodied ways at the mall, online, in popular music, the arts & politics. Christians are often better versed in secular liturgies than our own. The church has been as half-hearted for its mission as the humanists have been zealous for theirs culturally & sexually. The church s own kingdom-seeking is underdeveloped & anemic. That must change.