Subversive Christianity

Last week I spoke at the "all-school devotions" at my school, which is a private Christian university of the sort that dot the Midwest like a pox.

I basically proposed three models which stem (I propose) from three different understandings of the Kingdom of God. The first was the reclusive/substitionary model, which presumes that we have to keep ourselves as untainted by the world as possible so that when Jesus returns and brings God's kingdom with him, we'll be prepared to receive it. I mentioned monasticism here, as well as fringe Christian groups like the Bruderhof, etc. The second model was the transformational/legislative model, which attempts to turn the broader society into a Christian one with or (more likely) without its consent, on the basis that Jesus left it up to us to create the Kingdom of God on earth. This is the medieval Catholic church, and this is liberal protestantism today.

Then I mentioned that the Evangelical church itself is difficult to qualify, because it shows elements of both of these. Trying to create a Christian subculture outside which we never need to step (Christian clothing lines, Christian bookstores, Christian coffee shops, Christian private schools/homeschool, etc.), while at the same time trying to legislate morality on the assumption that America is a Christian nation, etc. I didn't mention Focus on the Family specifically, but I think everyone caught my drift.

Then I proposed what I think is the best model, what I call the subversive/redemptive model, which sees the Kingdom of God as a present spiritual reality - being understood as the rule of God within the community of believers - that stands in contradistinction to the kingdoms of this world. The task of the subversive Christian is to present this attractive alternative through being a community defined by love, acceptance, redemptive storytelling, hospitality, etc., and to take these facets into the broader world with them.

What I wish I had time for then was to make a few concrete examples, which I will instead do over the next few days and post here:

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In regard to sexual ethics the reclusive or substitutionary church has the stance that they will do everything they can to keep their members from unhealthy and immoral sexual behavior to avoid the issue altogether. If a member of the community does become pregnant outside marriage, for instance, she is sometimes cared for very well, with the community becoming her collective husband. Perhaps more often, she is sent away for the duration of the pregnancy and the child given up for adoption before she is quietly returned, and nobody speaks of it. Perhaps rarely, but certainly sometimes, she is excluded from the community altogether.

The transformational/legislative church may do any of the above actions when a member of the community is in such a position, but in addition attempts to reorder the wider society so that such situations are rarer across the board. They may lobby for an overturn of Roe vs. Wade and/or protest abortion clinics, or put pressure on agencies like Planned Parenthood who refer women who want abortions to clinics. They may put pressure on public schools and text-book publishers not to teach safe sex but rather to teach abstinence. They may put pressure on television stations and/or movie production companies to "clean up" the media, and make an organized effort to boycott the shows and films deemed too sexual.

The subversive/redemptive church will for the most part leave the broader society to its own devices, not because it believes that prostitution, promiscuity, abortion are all "just fine," but because it realizes that its task is to be salt and light on the earth, and realizing that "a little yeast will leaven the whole batch." To this end, the redemptive church welcomes those "living in sexual sin" to come and see the redemptive way that God works within and through their community. The redemptive Christian will not judge those outside the church, remembering the words of Paul in I Corinthians that, "It is for God to judge those outside the church," and in Romans, "Who are you to make yourself judge of another's servant? It is before their own master they will stand or fall, and their master can uphold them."

Therefore the redemptive church will focus its efforts not at changing legislation on abortion, but on creating a community that will make abortion a less necessary option for those the community is in contact with. When the burden of paying for medical costs, taking care of herself as she is pregnant, and raising a child without a father is supplanted by the community of God (without even forcing her to take a membership class!), much of the problem resolves itself.

(Clearly, this redemptive model requires a watchful eye and a nuanced understanding of socio-cultural motivations. Is abortion common because it is legal, or for some other reason, for instance? Clearly, I believe the failure of the family is a part of the reason, though my answer is not to re-strengthen the family through legislation, but rather to do what Jesus taught and to form a church that in many ways replaces the biological family.)

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Well, I don't want to overstate this all at once. (I'd rather take a long time to overstate it.) So more examples will be forthcoming.

Ideas? Comments? Critiques? Thank you.