Approaching The Story from a Different Angle

In a world where conflict and division have seeped into Christian communities, “humility, curiosity, and kindness” are often overshadowed by “arrogance, certainty, and acrimony.” How can embracing these virtues lead to deeper faith and unity in times of disagreement and challenge?

It is no shock that we live in times that are contested and rife with conflict. Sadly, this has spilt over into our Christian communities. Coming out of covid, it feels like “arrogance, certainty, and acrimony” have colonized much of our spaces of discourse. In fact, it feels like “arrogance, certainty, and acrimony” have laid a beating on “humility, curiosity, and kindness.” Let me explain. Now, when people share their opinion of politics, vaccines, theology, (insert controversial topic here), they do so with a certainty that often does not befit their training or experience. I have heard statements like: “we disagree theologically,” when, in fact, neither person is a theologian, and the disagreement might be more connected to their Christian sensibilities than any rigorous theological study they have done. Invoking the word “theological” elevates the argument, bends towards taking God’s name in vain, and smacks of certainty and arrogance. How about this one? “I have done the research on a ‘fill-in-the-blank’ topic,” which usually means surfing some websites that are already biased in the direction of said surfer and does not usually mean spending years in an epidemiology lab or conducting graduate work in political science. Hear me clearly: what I am not saying is that each of us does not have the right to question, ponder, and test ideas, opinions, laws, and rules. I would even say it is our responsibility as followers of Jesus, who are being transformed by the renewing of our minds, to do so (note, “being” transformed as opposed to “already” transformed) (Romans 12:2). But the arrogance involved in the above statement implicitly dismisses anyone else’s view as having not done “the research” and elevates the speaker to the top of the heap.

There is the acrimony, wherein friends have disconnected, family members are at odds, and brothers and sisters in Christ have broken communion with one another. All while the world watches us, and all while we are called to be known by our love for one another (John 13: 34-35).

My belief is that “arrogance, certainty, and acrimony” have overtaken “humility, curiosity, and kindness.” The way forward as communities of faith is to foster “humility, curiosity, and kindness” in ourselves and in our communities as we continue to be faced with challenging and potentially divisive issues. Let me suggest a path toward such a posture.

First, we need to start with an honest realization of who we are and what we bring to the table. None of us come to the text of Scripture or an issue at hand with objectivity. All of us bring our whole selves to the table. We are shaped by our stories. My own story is one of a child of a sponsored refugee who married a prairie girl who grew up in the Great Depression. Work was the core of being a Christian for my parents: working, saving money, and reusing everything. For my father, there was also a deep fear of this thing called “Canadian culture.” I did not grow up in a neutral home. My upbringing shaped me for good and ill, faithfully and unfaithfully, and to this day, I act according to those family norms and react against them. We all bring our story to our faith and our response to challenging topics. None of us come to our faith with 100% objective truth, free of human error and interpretation. That position alone belongs to the Sovereign God. Let’s be careful not to conflate ourselves too far in His direction. And the Spirit guides and reveals the Truth of God’s word to us, but never to the point where we are all-knowing! We continue to see through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Secondly, I think it is essential to recognize that we all are culturally situated. That means we do not exist in some objectively neutral realm where all the social norms, customs, language, and practices have been perfectly vetted and are 100% aligned with God’s will for human social interaction. 1) We live at the beginning of the 21st century with its technological innovation, specific international conflicts, philosophical debates, artistic interpretation, and rich and evolving theological contributions. 2) We live in Canada, a religiously and culturally pluralistic society with a strong social safety net and a high standard of living, and 3) We live in our own communities, full of stories of immigration, industry, success and failures, fears and hopes, and pressures to fit in. All this reality shapes us. We react against some of it. We comply with some of it (sometimes unknowingly). We question other parts of it.

Why do I make this point so directly? Because I believe it should give us cause for humility; a full realization that, while I have strong convictions, I might grow in my faith and understanding by listening to a fellow Christ-follower with whom I disagree. Knowing that I bring my whole self to the text of the Scriptures and challenging issues should make me humble. If it makes me certain, then it means I have a much-inflated view of myself, and, I would argue, one that might be forgetting the necessity of the grace of God needed to function as a follower of Jesus.

American Evangelical biblical scholar Michael Gorman makes the point in his powerful book Cruciformity: Paul’s Narrative Spirituality of the Cross that many of us have forgotten that, as followers of Jesus, we are a cruciform people, marked by the death of Jesus on the cross, and called to follow Him. We have not arrived at this Christian story by our own merits or accomplishments, but by the sovereign grace of God in our lives. Remembering this enables us to walk in the world with a posture of humility. That kind of cruciform humility should make us kinder towards those around us as we see them as people like us, far less than perfect, but trying to walk faithfully in a world full of challenges and distractions. I think the one who is genuinely humble and kind will be curious. Rather than engaging others with a mind to defeat them, saying, “tell me more” in a spirit of curiosity allows the opportunity to learn from a fellow believer who may be different but still has something to enrich and enliven your faith. May we approach The Story as a people saved by grace, embodying a posture of humility, curiosity, and kindness.

Dave Loewen
SCSBC Executive Director