Accommodating away…

I’m an accommodator naturally.  That’s what I do.  It’s my own social fluidity.  And here’s what it means to me—if someone has a strong perspective, I back off mine.  Sometimes they don’t even have to have a strong one…I just back off…  In some ways this is a great thing; frankly I think people are too rigid about their “internal compass”, being real is, as cliché as it sounds, often just another way of being rude.  I have to wonder with some people, is it worth it?  Is this particular battlefield the one you want to die on?  So, like I said, this internal ebb and flow of being invested in a particular system of beliefs has come in useful.  It also has its disadvantages…distinctly.  And, I’m sure that we can think of about a thousand of them, but the most gripping personally is this…sometimes it leaves me wondering, “But what DO I believe?” 

 

Let’s step away from me for a sec. and look at the last 100 years in the protestant Christian community.  On one side you have the fundamentalists.  Certain words come to mind that have negative overtones for myself: dualistic thinking, rigid, low level process, either/or, dogmatic, isolationist, etc… Many of those groups have emphasized an esoteric system of believing—right thinking—in order to be a part of their club.  Any one who’s thought life diverges finds themselves teetering towards the tropical end of pre-eternity.    

 

Compare that with the liberal, often mainline, denominations.  In general a perception of them is an absolute refusal to speak with conviction on any subject.  It sometimes feels like they can almost be down right apologetic about being Christian…as if it is simply the stream they flow in because of tradition, if for no other reason.  And, many have complained that the mainline scholars out there currently are essentially “dressed up” atheists—advocating from the inside of Christianity for a church beyond belief.  The final analysis for many of the critics of such congregations is that they become accommodating to the point of annihilating their belief…in the end simply social action groups with very little reason for actually existing together since their over arching stories have been eroded. 

 

There are conversations now among mainline congregations about how to emerge from that stereotype.  Many are wondering how to speak with conviction, how to have a degree of certainty that isn’t simply willfully self imposed but is also truly believed.  This new type of thought suggests that there is a middle of the road, a third way, between dogmatism and denial. 

 

And it feels like I’m in that conversation…or at least personally that’s the conversation I want to be a part of and to hear. 

 

Because…it may just be possible to accommodate one’s way out of any faith at all…it probably wasn’t the intention…it probably just…well…happens in one of those ebb and flow conversations where the “other” says their story…and you no longer do.