What do you call a bunch of battles? (part 1)
Tom Krattenmaker's editorial in the USA Today has some very good points, but it's deeply flawed. It's flaws are rooted in the fact that he writes with wreckless abandon when he speaks of American Christianity. He mentions "conservative" Christians and "right-wing" Christians, but those labels are used more as political lightning rods than as carefully chosen designations of groups within the diversity of America's milieu of religious expression.
Making distinctions is very important since there are many Christianities that exist in America today, all of whom are battling their surrounding culture...the problem is some are at odds with the socially liberal forces and others are at odds with society's conservative forces.
I'm going to oversimplify things here, but given that my oversimplification will be 100 times more complex than the portrait Krattenmaker paints, I don't feel like I'm pandering to people's ignorance...at least I'm doing less than he Krattenmaker.
The people Krattenmaker is talking about in his article are people who are obviously unnerved by the liberalizing that is occurring in some segments of Western society. All of the people he mentions in his article would probably all be comfortable being identified as "Evangelical Christians."
The other group of Christians which I'm guessing would not like Krattenmaker's portrayal are those I will call "Peace and Justice" Christians. This group should be offended by Krattenmaker because they have been working hard over the past decades...and I'll use their terminology here...to de-marginalize gays and ensure women aren't oppressed by others who say what they should do with their bodies. They have also been hard at work trying to change public policy so improve stewardship of natural resources, end the death penalty, and restore race relations, among other things.
Confusion often exists since many Christians who are not part of the modern Evangelical movement carry the banner "evangelical" before themselves...the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) immediately comes to mind. Conversely, Evangelical Christians are concerned about peace and justice issues too. They just tend to view the plight of the poor through the eyes of the book of Proverbs which commends responsible living rather than the compassion invoking Beatitudes.
Evangelicals have traditionally spent more of their dollars on ministries which are designed to explicitly tell people about Jesus so to bring about personal conversion. "Go and make disciples" is the hallmark of Evangelicals. Whereas "Be doers of the Word" is the hallmark of the Peace and Justice crowd.
At this point one thing must be made clear: These groups are not mutually exclusive. This is best evidenced by the existence of a third major group within American Christianity: Roman Catholics. The word "Roman" is very important here since by its inclusion I mean to refer only to those Catholics who are loyal to Rome's (more accurately, the Pope's) social agenda. There are many "Peace and Justice" Catholics out there...but with very few exceptions, they fall into the "Peace and Justice" group I described above. Roman Catholics are beneficial to Christian dialog in America today for many reasons, not the least being that they prevent American Christians from being pigeon-holed into either "Conservative" or "Liberal" camps.
Although the Roman Catholic church in America would probably be best characterized as Christians motivated by the "Be doers of the Word" mantra, they have many similarities with both Evangelicals and Peace and Justice Christians. Roman Catholics find themselves on the same side of many issues as the Evangelical Christians (pro-traditional marriage, traditional role of women in family and society), but groups like Catholic Charities and many parish priests' work on behalf of the poorest Americans looks a lot more like what the Peace and Justice Christians are working on, i.e., lots of dollars are sent to support soup kitchens, prison ministries, legal advocacy for the poor, etc. Conversely, they are against abortion, but they are also against the death penalty, a policy many Evangelical Christians do not have a problem with.
The Roman Catholics demonstrate that there is a viable third way in American Christianity that needs to be addressed whenever someone wants to make broad sweeping statements like Krattenmaker does. I could go on and identify other major sub-groups of American Christians. Groups like the Eastern Orthodox churches and even Mormons are major groups who long to be considered as part of what it means to be Christian in America, and they have their own unique distinctions.
But the vast majority of Americans fit into one of these three groups: Evangelicals, Peace and Justice, and Roman Catholics. Even if these were the only three Christian traditions in America it would be enough to conclude that before you can say whether or not Christianity is at war in America, one must identify which Christianity you are talking about.
Making distinctions is very important since there are many Christianities that exist in America today, all of whom are battling their surrounding culture...the problem is some are at odds with the socially liberal forces and others are at odds with society's conservative forces.
I'm going to oversimplify things here, but given that my oversimplification will be 100 times more complex than the portrait Krattenmaker paints, I don't feel like I'm pandering to people's ignorance...at least I'm doing less than he Krattenmaker.
The people Krattenmaker is talking about in his article are people who are obviously unnerved by the liberalizing that is occurring in some segments of Western society. All of the people he mentions in his article would probably all be comfortable being identified as "Evangelical Christians."
The other group of Christians which I'm guessing would not like Krattenmaker's portrayal are those I will call "Peace and Justice" Christians. This group should be offended by Krattenmaker because they have been working hard over the past decades...and I'll use their terminology here...to de-marginalize gays and ensure women aren't oppressed by others who say what they should do with their bodies. They have also been hard at work trying to change public policy so improve stewardship of natural resources, end the death penalty, and restore race relations, among other things.
Confusion often exists since many Christians who are not part of the modern Evangelical movement carry the banner "evangelical" before themselves...the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) immediately comes to mind. Conversely, Evangelical Christians are concerned about peace and justice issues too. They just tend to view the plight of the poor through the eyes of the book of Proverbs which commends responsible living rather than the compassion invoking Beatitudes.
Evangelicals have traditionally spent more of their dollars on ministries which are designed to explicitly tell people about Jesus so to bring about personal conversion. "Go and make disciples" is the hallmark of Evangelicals. Whereas "Be doers of the Word" is the hallmark of the Peace and Justice crowd.
At this point one thing must be made clear: These groups are not mutually exclusive. This is best evidenced by the existence of a third major group within American Christianity: Roman Catholics. The word "Roman" is very important here since by its inclusion I mean to refer only to those Catholics who are loyal to Rome's (more accurately, the Pope's) social agenda. There are many "Peace and Justice" Catholics out there...but with very few exceptions, they fall into the "Peace and Justice" group I described above. Roman Catholics are beneficial to Christian dialog in America today for many reasons, not the least being that they prevent American Christians from being pigeon-holed into either "Conservative" or "Liberal" camps.
Although the Roman Catholic church in America would probably be best characterized as Christians motivated by the "Be doers of the Word" mantra, they have many similarities with both Evangelicals and Peace and Justice Christians. Roman Catholics find themselves on the same side of many issues as the Evangelical Christians (pro-traditional marriage, traditional role of women in family and society), but groups like Catholic Charities and many parish priests' work on behalf of the poorest Americans looks a lot more like what the Peace and Justice Christians are working on, i.e., lots of dollars are sent to support soup kitchens, prison ministries, legal advocacy for the poor, etc. Conversely, they are against abortion, but they are also against the death penalty, a policy many Evangelical Christians do not have a problem with.
The Roman Catholics demonstrate that there is a viable third way in American Christianity that needs to be addressed whenever someone wants to make broad sweeping statements like Krattenmaker does. I could go on and identify other major sub-groups of American Christians. Groups like the Eastern Orthodox churches and even Mormons are major groups who long to be considered as part of what it means to be Christian in America, and they have their own unique distinctions.
But the vast majority of Americans fit into one of these three groups: Evangelicals, Peace and Justice, and Roman Catholics. Even if these were the only three Christian traditions in America it would be enough to conclude that before you can say whether or not Christianity is at war in America, one must identify which Christianity you are talking about.
posted by Eric at Monday, March 27, 2006
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