by Rev. Steve Schlissel
At a 9/11 Memorial Service near Ground Zero in Manhattan, I was challenged by the speaker. No, I wasn’t challenged to become a better person, a more responsible citizen, or even to win friends and influence people. I was simply challenged to remain in the room and feign attention.
The speaker was a police officer, and no doubt a fine fellow. He spoke as a representative of “Cops for Christ,” or some organization with a similar name. I remind you that I was experiencing ADD at the time. I can only tell you that when the speaker began to mangle a perfectly fine experience around a miserably distorted theology—a theology which appeared to be about half his own invention, with the other half something he caught, like a communicable disease, from the carrier, that Christian cultural subset we call Americanity. As he began to relish the role of misplaced pulpiteer and bad theologian, I began to relish the idea of quietly stepping out of the room and onto the veranda. I led myself along the path of my temptation and delivered myself from the evil. Writing poetry in the shadow of a Brooklyn Bridge, which appeared close enough to touch on that still September evening, beat by far my having to further endure the doctrinal beating going on inside.
Later on, I thought of how someone might confront me, asking me if I think I’m so great that I couldn’t learn anything from that no doubt fine fellow. I knew very well that this would have been an invalid criticism, for I not only affirm theoretically the truth of Maimonides’ maxim that we can learn something from everyone, but I rigorously practice it as a religious precept. I enjoy learning from all.
But if that’s so, how do I explain my absenting myself? It took me a few days to be able to articulate an answer, even though no one asked. (Being defensive is best practiced when no one is challenging you, I’ve found.) The problem that night was this: A representative of, say, an organization like “Cops for Christ,” ought to make it his business to tell people how faith in Christ makes for better cops. And failing that, I really don’t know why such an organization can claim a right to exist.
No doubt, the problem of which I speak can be traced to that component of the American Baptist Culture which regards “full-time Christian service” as the specific calling sanctioned by God as special or “worthy.” With preachers as the only members of the Christian community with real distinction (hovering above missionaries, Christian-school teachers, and Sunday School bus drivers, in that order), should you find yourself occupying some other space on the terrain, you will form an organization of Christians unfortunate enough to have missed “the call,” and who find themselves like you, on the outside looking in. Then, the only thing needed is to come up with a name—which is usually as easy as naming your profession and adding “for Jesus” or “for Christ.” Then you look for opportunities for real Christian service, which, of course, means preaching.
But that is as perverted as me being a Police Chaplain, for example, and using my time to teach those I’m ministering to about “Progress in Crime Detection Techniques Since Sherlock Holmes.” That isn’t what I’m there for!
Until American Christians recover the true Biblical teaching about calling, until they know for a certainty that the employment path down which God has led them is God’s providential direction for them to glorify God in that area, then I will probably find many more opportunities to visit the veranda. And what a pity that is.
Before there were unions, we seem to remember, there were guilds. And guilds were concerned not merely with wage and fee-setting, but also with insuring that the highest standards of the craft were maintained, the best techniques employed, by its members. And a result of a recovery of calling will necessarily be that organizations with names like “Cops for Christ,” will be obsessed with proving that Christians make the best cops on earth, and they’ll be able to tell you why. The same will hold true for firemen, accountants, sanitation men, plumbers, truck drivers, toilet cleaners and politicians. To form a Christian organization around these or any professions must always and only be an attempt to let the world know that God is being glorified in those professions by equipping, via His Holy Spirit, His consecrated servants in that area of life, to be the most spectacular examples in the field.
If that isn’t what they are about, then I fear I’d probably have to say (if I would be honest) that listening to them imitate preaching when they are called to be “x”—well, that means I probably would not be learning anything from them, at least until they get over their confusion about callings from God. Until the day they understand what God wants from them as cops, I’ll be on the veranda. How could I not respond when I hear it so clearly calling me?
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Amen!
to me,” Yes, it\’s exactly like what Paddy said in his blog. We can find many good bevoahur or tranditions in Japan, though they seems to learn from us.” After many years of good life, we will, (and we should) value our enviornment like other developed countries, otherwise, we will be punished by the nature. The humonious society is by no means of only the good relations betweem the poor and rich, but the human with the animal and human with the nature. It takes time. In someway, we developed too quickly to enhance our human quality.Nowadays, college education means College English Band 4, 6, computer science certification, students learn for finding jobs, not really understand the differences between knowledge gaina0and cultural quality improvement, so it caused many social problems. We cannot change the world, but we can influence others by our own good bevoahur and etheical ways of doing things in our daily life.
Pastor Steve:
A resounding “Amen” from the Left Coast. What you so aptly describe is characteristic of our compartmentalized culture.
I belong to Officers Christian Fellowship (OCF) which is a military organization of Christian officers. It’s largely led and run by lay Christians in the Armed Forces, although there are Chaplains. OCF focuses on the very thing that that fine police officer should have focused upon–how does one live out the calling as a Christian in today’s Armed Forces.
A Christian who lives out his calling in the military and who is a thinking person will inevitably lead one to questions and conflicts about military service and how a Christian must reconcile them. OCF helps with this very task with officers writing about things like the Just War tradition, when orders can be disobeyed, and a host of other things. It’s all very relevant.
On the other hand, Christian medical organizations don’t do as well. I suspect a lot of it has to do with compartmentalization (there’s that word again) and being so busy *delivering* medical care in ever shortening amounts of time that it becomes impossible or impractical to work out. The medical-legal environment is also tightly controlled and it makes integration of Christianity and medical care challenging. Lots of work needs to be done in this area, particularly reviving Christian healthcare delivery systems that work in creative ways outside of government funding.
Good post and thanks for sharing your observations.
Val
Dear Val,
I’m grateful for your excellent additions and kind words. Someday mankind will learn how you continue accomplishing more in a day than most people consider doing in a run around the sun. Obviously, the discovery will require a committee.
The main problem I see with this post is the length of time separating it from the last one.
Your PA family misses you and your guitar at the camp fire.