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Posted by jameson ( May 06 2008, 09:32:29 AM EDT ) Permalink

Can you quit your church?

People who think presidential candidate Barack Obama should leave his church if he doesn't agree with the radical statements of his pastor do not understand the intimate and intricate ways a person's life intertwines with his or her community of faith.

Many elements attract and keep a person involved with that community well beyond the pastor and what the pastors says or doesn't say. In Baptist life, the common phrase for a person dissatisfied with his pastor but staying rooted in his church is that, "I was here before he came and I'll be here when he's gone."

Jeremiah Wright is Obama's suddenly controversial pastor, who, over a couple decades, led a declining and discouraged church of a few people to a membership of 8,000, the largest church in its denomination. His rabid pronouncements on race issues and condemnation of America have cost his most famous member dearly.

While Obama tries to say America is ready to deal head on with the great racial divide that has separated us consciously for centuries, and subconsciously for 143 years, Wright is driving wedges.

Although Obama has rejected and disavowed the comments of his pastor, he can neither disown the man nor the church, any more, he said, "than I can my white grandmother."

Why is that?

Your church, especially in our transient society, is your family. The persons in your Sunday school class or cell group are likely those you hang out with or call when you have a free evening and want to do something with a friend. Your children's friends are there. You make connections that carry into your everyday working world. These are the people who rally to your needs.

You've probably worked hard to find the church you're in, visiting others until you are weary with being a stranger, looking for the right fit and feel. Sometimes you join a church and the pastor leaves shortly thereafter. That doesn't mean you will leave too; there is so much more there for you than the pastor.

How uncommon is it for you to hear something from your pulpit that doesn't sound just right; or with which you outright disagree? Of course if it happened every week you have a problem. But likely those occurrences are rare. You give him the benefit of the doubt and shake his hand afterward and appreciate his ministry among you.

A couple years ago the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina nominating committee made a church's association with the Alliance of Baptists a litmus test for whether or not a member of that church was qualified to serve as a trustee for any BSC institution or agency. Some men and women who had faithfully served for decades in that role were denied the opportunity to continue service because a new pastor or church action had led their churches to that new, additional affiliation with the Alliance.

It mattered not whether the trustee agreed with his or her church's decision; whether they supported or opposed it. The trustee was guilty by association.

I heard in meetings and hallways during that time, when good men and women earnestly discussed the predicament that the nominating committee's parameters thrust people into, that a trustee disqualified for further service by his church's affiliation "ought to join a different church."

Those trustees, like Barack Obama, felt the awful tear between fealty to a family of believers they love and the opportunity to serve in a larger arena. Before you suggest a person dissatisfied with his or her pastor ought to "just leave" that church for another, consider the broader array of issues that involves.

Quote: "I am reminded of a group of Catholic parishioners who visited a young priest from their parish jailed for a protest at the Pentagon. 'He may be a crazy priest,' one of them said, 'but he's our crazy priest.' -- David O'Brien, professor of Roman Catholic studies, College of the Holy Cross

Posted by jameson ( Mar 22 2008, 09:34:30 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [6]