The Conservative/Liberal Divide: Narrowing?

For more years than I like to remember, conservatives and liberals in the church have been going at each other with toxic combinations of calumny, caricature, and contempt, pitting true believers against thoughtful ones, rejecting theology for ideology, and making a mockery of oneness in Christ and fools of themselves in the bargain. If God had had any idea that "reasoning together" (Isaiah 1:18 --- better: "arguing it out") would lead to such spirit-numbing impasses, I doubt that he would have ever issued the invitation in the first place. Taking him up on it in the ways that we have seemed most wont to do has made for some very ugly disputes that cannot fail to turn off a lot of genuine inquirers into the faith, and to make them wonder whether they might be better off for now and maybe forever in somebody else's sheepfolds.

Could it be that these rancorous and decidedly unenlightening debates might, finally, be taking a turn or two toward light instead of heat? They just might be. Consider, for instance, how difficult it has been for religious extremists on either side of this ideological divide to get even an initial, much less a sustained hearing in the current political debate for positions that until recently have kept their constituencies frothing at the mouth.

Instead of the same-old-same-old conservative fulminations against gay sex, abortions, illegal immigrants, and estate taxes, we are getting serious and credible rhetoric protesting environmental pollution, genocide, world hunger, and inadequate health care. And instead of the not-so-old but not-very-helpful liberal ranting against a racist America, the greedy wealthy, free trade, and security at the expense of freedom, we are getting serious and credible rhetoric on --- you guessed it --- eliminating pollution, genocide, world hunger, and disease. It is almost as if it has crossed the minds of our most dug-in conservatives and liberals that working with each other just might get us further after all than will their continuing to challenge each other's rationality, morality, and maternal lineage.

There are at least some signs on the horizon that a similar process of crossing enemy lines may be underway in our churches. One is that the generations-old, much respected, but thoroughly indefensible dichotomy between getting our souls right with God and meeting our neighbors' needs on his behalf may be softening more than a little. Many conservative Christians have been out-doing even more liberal ones for quite some time now on well-doing for others, not the least reason for which, I think, is that more liberals than in a long time have been about the also proper business of seeking a personal relationship with Christ in fellowship with others whom Christ has already found.

Another sign is a growing willingness to recalibrate the thermostats on hot issues, so that we can touch their buttons without getting burned so badly. A good example is the discussion on abortion in Adam Hamilton's admirable new book, Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White. Hamilton, founding pastor of one of the largest United Methodist churches on the planet, argues that while abortion still should be viewed as a remedy of last resort, it is on some occasions the only reasonable remedy, and that there is no justification for removing it either by statute or by social or ecclesial condemnation. What is significant about this argument is that it comes from an extraordinarily competent pastor who is arguably one of Christian conservatism's most eloquent voices.

At the other end of the theological spectrum, the recent Jeremiah Wright flap also proves instructive. Barack Obama's political fortunes aside, the reaction to the revelation of Rev. Wright's pulpit wrong-headedness from most Christian liberals with whom I have talked offers a good bit of hope that the radical, throw Momma from the train brand of liberal Christianity may finally be sliding over the edge itself, and good riddance. I take it as a good sign that very capable African-American pastors chose to offer only perspective on, rather than agreement with, the good Reverend as their own response to his blatant and long espoused racism.

Of course, a book and a few tapes do not a cultural trend make. But behind Adam Hamilton's latest contribution there are also new efforts stirring among editors to seek out for publication less polemical and more unifying discussions of healing a polarized church and society, just as there are sermons being preached every Sunday in a new mode of bridging racial, ethnic, and gender conflicts exacerbated for decades by mean-spirited pastoring, groundless theology, and overzealous axe-grinders everywhere. Let the new genre of books and sermons abound.