Tony Jones has been receiving heat and attention for his comments on denominations and ordination in several spots on the web. What bothers me is that there appears to be two groups that have emerged from the clutter. One is deeply confused and even offended at the notion that in spite of a situation like Adam's, that he would persist with the PCUSA and further that there are those who support this persistence and even recommend it. The other group are those who are deeply committed to their denominational traditions and even defensive of maintaining the integrity of their denomination in spite of its relative failings. Tony appears favor the former position. For example, in response to Adam's public disclosure of his own circuitous ordination process, Tony replied in comments:
(T)hose of you who leave comments trying to help Adam negotiate the sinful, dehumanizing system are complicit in the sin.
In a further rejoinder, Tony says:
But maybe, just maybe, your loyalty to the system is blinding you to the abuses in your system and thus mitigating your ability to reform it.
The part where I find no disagreement is that denominations are sinful. It is part of the paradox of Christianity which Luther summed up perfectly in simul justus et peccator. There is no individual who does not live within this paradoxical tension and thus, there can be absolutely no human organization that can claim immutability in terms of its organizational structure, dogma, doctrine, etc. All fall short from the glory of God because all of this is simply not God. For those who place the social structures of any kind of human organization as somehow specially ordained to be the only place to receive God in effect does place God within the human organization itself. In the Hebrew bible this was symbolized by the Temple and the revolution that God was not literally located in the Temple, but outside of it too in the tabernacle. Now my Catholic friends and family may find this a bit offensive, and if it sounds reasonable, then a better understanding of Catholic ecclesiology may be in order.
However, two areas that are problematic are first, the label of "sinful" to denominations in particular. If the above holds true, it does not matter what organizational structure (or lack thereof) we appeal to, they are all sinful. Since we as human must organize, then all kinds of ways we organize ourselves are inherently sinful. We simply cannot favor or disparage a structure just because it is an organization to which people feel drawn and attached. Such is very normal human behavior. Humans require organizational structure even as the image bearers of God who, to use Barth's term describing the Trinity, "being-in-community." In the past, the movement against denominational identity did not result in some kind of meta-organization that got rid of denominational boundaries. Rather, the Disciples of Christ became one more religious choice for Americans.
Second, using "-ist" to describe a one who belongs to a denominational church couches it in ideological terms (e.g. an "ism") which may or may not be true. For example, I am not PCUSA because it suits a specific ideological need of mine. As with most Americans who are in denominations, it is a function of my shared past with my family, communities that shaped me, and so on. Upon learning more about the roots of the denominations and the core of it expressed in the Book of Order and the Book of Confessions, I found that it made sense to me. And by the time this happened on an intellectually satisfying level for me, I had already formed a network of strong, salient, and important relationships with those who were in the PCUSA and I enjoy continuing to cultivate those relationships – even in spite of those people in the organization that make we want to run away. Such people are everywhere no matter where you go.
The point is that denominations for most people, as numerous studies have revealed over the past 20 or so years, remain important influences because those organizations continue to work for them and nourish faith. People affiliate with denominations and are not affiliating with an ideology, they are affiliating with people in what is more and more a provisional expression of what God intends for humanity as post WWII generations continue to be persistent church switchers, hoppers, and shoppers.
It is important to remember is that all human beings are social animals. All social animals build social worlds with structures. Living without some kind of implicit or explicit organizational structure is the same as saying that one is not a normal human. Those who negotiate with the sinful are not complicit with sin, even Jesus had dinner with sinners and washed their feet. For if we are all sinners, we are all complicit since we are all social animals and must function together as a people. Running from one sinful human organization will lead you into the bosom of another, even if that organization of people intentionally eschews an organizational identity. The polity in the end should not matter and should only be useful to the church's function. Thus, what matters is that those in that polity strive to make their form follow their function which is to serve the Kingdom of God which is revealed through all of those who proclaim Christ as Lord.
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