"We must somehow be a Church growing in resistance. Faith and resistance must be reconnected in our hearts and in our corporate decisions. Otherwise we are always drawn into passing fads and cultural biases." (R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 112)
Some of the brightest moments in church history is when the church has gotten itself involved in changing for the better the world in which it finds itself. Most of the great movements in our country's history have been led by religious folks. The great leaders of the civil rights movement were all of course people of faith. Throughout the world people of faith are often the one's calling dictators to task and toppling oppressive systems.
Of course there are also less shining moments when people of faith have been used and allowed themselves to be used to oppress others. When they've wedded themselves to the government rather than being the conscience. Usually this happens out of fear and self preservation.
In our own day and place it seems that faith communities have bought into the current climate of division. Both conservative and liberal causes have their supporters in faith communities. Each one believing they are being the voice of resistance to the current cultural fads and biases. And both failing to realize that each has something to offer in resistance to those cultural biases. Or even better would be to put a time out on the those issues each seems to believe are matters of life and death and put a unified front against the things that actually are. I'm not sure I have much hope for that because that would mean having to admit the other might have some level of truth to offer.
Maybe the first step to reconnecting resistance to faith, would be to resist needing to feel right all the time and resisting the urge to demonize those I disagree with.
Blessings,
Ed
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