In virtually every episode of Law & Order I’ve seen, a lawyer will toss out something about the witness that they know will be stricken from the record. However, they do it regardless in hopes that the heinous nature of the implication will stick in the jurors’ minds. In Community's pitch-perfect homage to L&O last week, one of the “lawyers” accused a witness of being a “Holocaust-denying 9/11 pedophile”—which makes no sense—and immediately said “Withdrawn” with a smile.
It’s dirty pool. Ideally, you’re supposed to make an argument through reason or moral uprightness. But the hope here is that the label you throw around your opponent’s neck will drag them down in the eyes of whomever you are trying to persuade. It’s mirrors and smoke. It also seems to be the first shot fired in every political debate and—this is where it’s most difficult for me—most church disagreements.
That’s why I propose we stop using these two words: liberal and conservative.
What the heck do those words even mean? It depends on who you ask. Are there differences between the two? Yes and they are fairly big differences. But if a conservative uses the word “liberal” and a liberal uses the word “conservative,” you can almost guarantee that what they mean is “Holocaust-denying 9/11 pedophile.” It makes no sense and yet people eat it up.
When we use these words, we are throwing up monstrous projections of the people with which we disagree and, in most cases, they’re not monsters. But that’s a lot easier than dealing with complex and complicated issues. It’s lazy. It’s unfair to those needing dialogue. And it shows a lack of respect for another individual.
When prominent leaders in the church do this—which happened in a blog I just read that spurred this post—it makes me furious. And it happens all the time with people that I know my friends admire. The word “liberal” is shorthand for “heretical Christianity” in a lot of circles. In others, “conservative” is code for “bigoted, backwards Christianity.”
Instead of talking together as the Church, we’re just throwing grenades from our heavily-fortified camps. We’re not coming together to talk, fellowship, or reason together. When we do this, we’re implicitly saying we know it all except the only problem is we don’t. We might as well just call each other “Holocaust-denying 9/11 pedophiles.”
So let’s stop labeling others liberal and conservative. Let’s explain our ideas, clearly and civilly mark out our disagreements, and not vilify each other. I think it’d help the Church a great deal.
I have a new office in our home and one of the things I am enjoying is decorating the space. I have placed books, Lego sets, and Funko Pops on the shelves. My wall has photos of family, places that I have traveled, artwork my siblings have given me, diplomas, etc. Across from my desk on the wall, hangs a cross that we got from a church in Reykjavik and a small colorfully-painted tile depicting Assisi. On the floor beneath them is the one item in here that I haven’t yet put up: my certificate of ordination.
I was ordained as a minister ten years ago today. It was a step with which I struggled for awhile. My Baptist roots fostered in me a firm belief in the priesthood of all believers. If you say that you are a follower of Jesus, then you are a minister. So the hierarchy implied by being called “Reverend” made me feel a little uncomfortable. I did not use the title for myself often unless I was writing my Congressperson. Despite these qualms, I did ultimately pursue ordination. I am glad that I did. I am just not totally sure what to make of it now.
I don’t serve as a vocational minister anymore; not in a church, not as a chaplain, not in some sort of parachurch organization. I am an Administrative Assistant in a hospital Spiritual Care department. In fact, I haven’t even attended a church service in maybe a year and a half save an Ash Wednesday service that I snuck off to at the beginning of Lent. I did officiate a wedding in a church over the summer; an experience that I loved and was very meaningful for me. But I don’t really know what to do about that ordination certificate. Or church.