What the world needs now … yes, is love, sweet love.
But what the world also needs now … is some Presbyterian, intelligent, paradoxical, ambivalent, nuanced thinking.
What IS Presbyterian, intelligent, paradoxical, ambivalent, nuanced thinking?
Let’s start by contracting that into an acrostic: PIPAN. PIPAN thinking is the ability to see issues in multifaceted ways without losing one’s mind in the process. It can hold together affirmations that at least appear to be contradictory and yet are true only if each affirmation is retained.
For example, PIPAN thinking affirms that God is one, and that God is three.
PIPAN thinking affirms that Jesus is fully human, and that Jesus is fully divine.
It proclaims that God is totally sovereign, and that humans are held responsible for their thoughts, words, and deeds.
It declares that those serving in the church are free to follow their consciences, but that such freedom is limited by church teachings and standards.
It states that, due to the image of God in us, humans are capable of doing enormous good, and that, due to total depravity, we are capable of producing evil and destruction.
It affirms that God’s special grace redeems the elect, and that God’s common grace promotes peace and justice for all.
In other words, PIPAN thinking sees more than one side of a story. It recognizes that, truth be told, truth is more than the recitation of a select few facts.
For example, PIPAN thinking knows that the Jews are God’s chosen people. It also knows that Palestinian Christians are grafted into the vine of God’s elect. Accordingly, we Presbyterians feel a filial affinity toward both peoples, and we plead on behalf of both that they be allowed to live in peace, security, and justice.
PIPAN thinking understands that Jesus’ command to love our neighbors requires us to share our resources with the suffering, not only in New Orleans but also in Darfur, Phuket, and Beirut. It also understands that effective sharing with them requires us to serve as their partners not colonize as their overlords.
PIPAN thinking grasps how the church’s mission to proclaim the gospel can mutate into “Repent or perish” fundamentalism — even a fascist fundamentalism that has in times past arisen within Christian communities as well as Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and others. We know that such fundamentalists need to be reminded that God loves all people, not just them. On the other hand PIPAN thinkers are not naïve to the fact that such fundamentalists’ militancy may need to be quelled by the strong hand of the law, lest they destroy life and limb.
For the protection of human lives, PIPAN thinking understands that governments need to utilize their best resources for intelligence gathering while at the same time refusing to engage in the torture of prisoners of war, at least as outlined in the Geneva Accords.
Our nation needs PIPAN thinking.
The two political parties have become PIPAN-thinking-resistant. The Republicans have effectively cut out the tongue of John McCain. The Democrats have effectively cut the legs out from under Joseph Lieberman. Those two men have challenged their parties’ polarized groupthink, and the exercise of discipline on them has further exaggerated the hard-line, party line, sound-bite rhetoric that wins votes but exercises poor judgment.
All the nations need PIPAN thinking in order to break out of their widespread jingoistic hostility toward those peoples that are being dismissed as sub-human and, therefore, expendable.
For generations, our PIPAN thinking has helped guide many important decisions around the world. Do we — today — possess sufficient Presbyterian, intelligent, paradoxical, ambivalent, nuanced thinking to share some of it with the rest of the world?
