On one hand this is a rules versus common sense argument, but it has deeper implications about the conversation between theological rightness and the application of our beliefs. It is an argument between faith and practice, or in academic circles, the way in which theology and ethics often contend with one another. I’m not against right thinking, I simply want to see it applied in the ways we live our lives. That makes me a contextual ethicist, most of the time.
At the General Assembly this July a number of overtures and reports carried us into the domains of theology, ethics, and polity. The dilemma will be do they align with one another, or not. If history is any measure of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), it confirms that more times than not we can’t quite find that “Age of Aquarius.” We get stuck around rightness more than on action. We’re among the best at polity and theology, but never quite so good at defining our actions based on “Christian” common sense.
The thing that precipitated my discussion with my friend was the nFog report. I favor it because I think the fewer rules the better. He doesn’t like it because he would like more clarity and a few more rules in the Book of Order.
If no one else has noticed, it seems the reading of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Moral Man, and Immoral Society has made a comeback. It’s still a must read for anyone who is fascinated by the contrast between individual morality and the mentality of a crowd. GA meetings certainly qualify as “a crowd.” What some of us hunger for, though, is a priority on the virtue of common sense. The nFog report bears the chance of getting back to the basics, but leaves those who are anxious about rules in a quandary.
There’s a built-in contradiction for either side. Though my preference is for less governance and more mission, I have to acknowledge that it takes rules to make a just society whether it’s inside the church or in secular government. I think we need more laws to oversee Wall Street and the banking industry. My friend, who is a free enterprise capitalist, feels the opposite. The nFog report? I say yes. He says no. More government oversight of our financial markets? I want more rules, and he wants fewer.
So who’s right and who’s wrong? Neither of us is right and the other wrong. Regardless of which side you may be on as our denomination faces tough issues, there is a way of love that transcends everything else.
What I hold of value in sitting through a tiring week of meetings usually doesn’t happen in committees, or on the GA floor. It happens outside of the assembly hall in making friends — some with whom I disagree. They help stretch my thinking and my practice of faith. Here’s a word of advice to anyone going to General Assemblies as commissioners, or observers. Try making some new friends, and pick a few who see the world and the church differently than you do. You’ll learn a lot about how our form of government works, but you’ll also learn a lot about yourself!
PHIL LEFTWICH is executive presbyter, Presbytery of Middle Tennessee, Franklin, Tenn.
