I want to point you to an episode of This American Life called "Heretics." It focuses on the experience of Carlton Pearson a "rising evangelical megastar" who, due to a change in his personal beliefs, lost his congregation and became a heretic.
You can stream the episode for free here.
Jun 1, 2010
Freedom is Slavery and Weakness is Strength
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8, New American Standard Translation)
This passage, from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, is believed to be quoted from a first-century hymn. “Emptied” is the Greek word “kenoĊ” which denotes self-abnegation and sacrifice.
In some translations, “bond-servant” is translated as “slave”. What’s troubling is the fact that Christ’s “taking the form of a slave” is so directly related to his “being made in the likeness of men.” I don’t think Paul is suggesting that slavery is our natural human state, though. Christ is (among other things) the perfect human, not the natural human. This means that submission, being like a slave, is something we are to strive for to achieve like-mindedness with Christ.
But choosing to be like a slave is even more upsetting than discovering that slavery is our natural state. I’m the product of an American youth, which means that submission is something I’ll accept only for a little while, until my personal Easter comes in the form of self-salvation in revolution and rebellion. Luke Skywalker, Patrick Henry, and all that.
Voluntary submission, on the other hand, is either the expression of a Saint’s ascetic disposition, (in which case it has very little to do with me,) or plain perversity; social and political masochism and the irresponsible deferment of my civic duty in favor of a disgusting, self-debasing quietism.
This is partly true: the way of Christ is plainly perverse by almost any widely accepted standard. But this perverse self-debasement is anything but the deferment of civic duty. The choice between political engagement and kenotic submission is a false choice.
Submission is a subversive act. The submissive refuses to seize or exercise power, and refutes the popular myth that pursuing power is a high and noble pursuit. The submissive offers a dramatic example of what happens when the powerful are not restrained by a fear that their victims will retaliate, allowing the oppressor to publicly vilify himself. The submissive offers a strange new approach to power structures, a loving response so bizarre that it can’t be ignored, and so counter-intuitive that it has the potential to change people’s hearts.
In the gospels, Jesus has no political or social capital. He has no legal authority and does not participate in the guerilla warfare of the Zealots. He is an innocent and virtuous man when he is executed, and by going to his death without a fight, he proves and exposes the moral posturing of the powerful and pious. He prays for his persecutors, not only demonstrating that the way of life he taught was actually livable, but also demonstrating a profound love for the misguided people who possess political power. That profound love has lasted for centuries in the collective imaginations of millions.
We are told in the Gospel that the greatest expression of love is laying down life for a friend. And we are also told that while anyone can love their friends, we should even love our enemies. Should we lay down our lives for our enemies?
If we do, we will not escape our Coliseums and crosses. What will happen to us will not be pleasant or pretty, but we will offer a dramatic example that is hard to ignore. It’s easy to hate tyrants. Everybody hates tyrants. But what will people make of those odd women and men who despise tyranny but love the tyrants? With this vivid example burned into our collective imagination, how can hatred be a tenable option? The impulse to kill for our liberty (an impulse which tends to annihilate the liberty of others) is obsolete. Our revolutions, which so frequently offer only temporary relief from oppression, are exposed as transitory.
This sounds pretty unrealistic, but we might as well give it a shot. What have we to lose? Our lives? The lives of a few measly Christians seems like a pretty small price to pay for even the possibility that humanity can abandon this trajectory of self-destruction.
Of course, a charge of conservatism can be raised here. Or a charge of pusillanimousness. To the former I’ll say that this kenotic submission has been so rarely attempted that is radical by definition. To the latter charge I will say that it takes some serious guts to willfully take the form of a slave.
In some translations, “bond-servant” is translated as “slave”. What’s troubling is the fact that Christ’s “taking the form of a slave” is so directly related to his “being made in the likeness of men.” I don’t think Paul is suggesting that slavery is our natural human state, though. Christ is (among other things) the perfect human, not the natural human. This means that submission, being like a slave, is something we are to strive for to achieve like-mindedness with Christ.
But choosing to be like a slave is even more upsetting than discovering that slavery is our natural state. I’m the product of an American youth, which means that submission is something I’ll accept only for a little while, until my personal Easter comes in the form of self-salvation in revolution and rebellion. Luke Skywalker, Patrick Henry, and all that.
Voluntary submission, on the other hand, is either the expression of a Saint’s ascetic disposition, (in which case it has very little to do with me,) or plain perversity; social and political masochism and the irresponsible deferment of my civic duty in favor of a disgusting, self-debasing quietism.
This is partly true: the way of Christ is plainly perverse by almost any widely accepted standard. But this perverse self-debasement is anything but the deferment of civic duty. The choice between political engagement and kenotic submission is a false choice.
Submission is a subversive act. The submissive refuses to seize or exercise power, and refutes the popular myth that pursuing power is a high and noble pursuit. The submissive offers a dramatic example of what happens when the powerful are not restrained by a fear that their victims will retaliate, allowing the oppressor to publicly vilify himself. The submissive offers a strange new approach to power structures, a loving response so bizarre that it can’t be ignored, and so counter-intuitive that it has the potential to change people’s hearts.
In the gospels, Jesus has no political or social capital. He has no legal authority and does not participate in the guerilla warfare of the Zealots. He is an innocent and virtuous man when he is executed, and by going to his death without a fight, he proves and exposes the moral posturing of the powerful and pious. He prays for his persecutors, not only demonstrating that the way of life he taught was actually livable, but also demonstrating a profound love for the misguided people who possess political power. That profound love has lasted for centuries in the collective imaginations of millions.
We are told in the Gospel that the greatest expression of love is laying down life for a friend. And we are also told that while anyone can love their friends, we should even love our enemies. Should we lay down our lives for our enemies?
If we do, we will not escape our Coliseums and crosses. What will happen to us will not be pleasant or pretty, but we will offer a dramatic example that is hard to ignore. It’s easy to hate tyrants. Everybody hates tyrants. But what will people make of those odd women and men who despise tyranny but love the tyrants? With this vivid example burned into our collective imagination, how can hatred be a tenable option? The impulse to kill for our liberty (an impulse which tends to annihilate the liberty of others) is obsolete. Our revolutions, which so frequently offer only temporary relief from oppression, are exposed as transitory.
This sounds pretty unrealistic, but we might as well give it a shot. What have we to lose? Our lives? The lives of a few measly Christians seems like a pretty small price to pay for even the possibility that humanity can abandon this trajectory of self-destruction.
Of course, a charge of conservatism can be raised here. Or a charge of pusillanimousness. To the former I’ll say that this kenotic submission has been so rarely attempted that is radical by definition. To the latter charge I will say that it takes some serious guts to willfully take the form of a slave.
There's a catch: If every human being submits in this way, it would mean ruin for everyone outise the tyrant's palace.
This kenotic ethic is a special obligation for Christians. Other people will fill other roles. Of course, this means that it is absolutely necessary that there be engaged citizens who are not Christians. And so the evangelical impulse must be abandoned.
Anna Mercedes has written an essay (anthologized in The Sleeping Giant Has Awoken) called “A Christian Politics of Vulnerability” that extends the implications of kenotic life into the realm of doctrine:
This kenotic ethic is a special obligation for Christians. Other people will fill other roles. Of course, this means that it is absolutely necessary that there be engaged citizens who are not Christians. And so the evangelical impulse must be abandoned.
Anna Mercedes has written an essay (anthologized in The Sleeping Giant Has Awoken) called “A Christian Politics of Vulnerability” that extends the implications of kenotic life into the realm of doctrine:
If Christians are to be in continuity with the kenotic life of God…we will have to empty ourselves even of our grasp on the one incarnation of Christ in Jesus. Our own doctrines will need to reflect an ontology of weakening; we will need to become comfortable with a loosened grasp on truth… Christians immersed in a politics of vulnerability are never able to arrive at one permanent truth claim about God or faith, nor are they able to make one steadfast political claim based on their theology. (The Sleeping Giant Has Awoken, pages 47-49)Now, if the True Believers in American exceptionalism (welded as it is to American Christianity, sadly) shudder and recoil from submission, this universalism will give them one hell of a migraine.
Jacques Ellul once wrote that Christians are not people to whom a special reward is given, Christians are people to whom an extra responsibility is given. Following Christ hurts. If it doesn’t hurt, we’re doing it wrong.
Loosing our grasp on truth is painful, but maybe we have to lose our doctrine, like our lives, in order to find it.
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