Alien Nation

You probably wouldn’t guess it by my easygoing demeanor, but I actually have a bit of a rebellious streak in me. When you’re a Christian all this really means is that you wear jeans and Converse to church, smuggle snacks into movie theatres, and occasionally disagree with the politics of FOX News. Oh yeah, and you listen to David Bazan.

To those uninitiated, David Bazan is a critically acclaimed solo artist in the indie music world whose songwriting is heavily influenced by his Christian upbringing while also being beautifully interlaced with the darker aspects of life and faith. The result is songs containing such hefty topics as infidelity, murder, alcoholism, suicide, lust, and doubt. Not the kind of tunes your apt to hear on your local “always upbeat” Christian radio station, nevertheless real and honest topics found scattered throughout the Holy Scriptures within the lives of our spiritual heroes.

On his latest album Curse your Branches, Bazan boldly dares to take God to task on the disconcerting aspects he wrestles with in the Christian “story” or at least mans best interpretations of it. No stranger to controversy, Bazans new album has ignited some pretty heated, albeit predictable debates, especially within online forums and blogs.

Which is precisely where I encountered a comment that began by clarifying that although he liked the album he didn’t “agree” with Bazans particular commentary on the Christian faith.
Despite his “fringy” songwriting, I had honestly never really given much thought to whether I should agree with Bazans theology or not, I just simply understood. What I understand is the places of questioning and doubt from which he poses his questions. So I never necessarily felt compelled to pronounce whether I agreed with him or not as much as I felt obligated to at least attempt identifying with him.

Whether its simply clicking like/unlike or airing our views in 140 characters or less, we love to make ourselves heard don’t we? We especially enjoy interjecting our own personal “critiques” into any and all conversations. Honestly, isn’t the most entertaining part of American Idol watching the judges argue and disagree with one another? The fact is many of the most popular shows and personalities on television (Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, Glenn Beck and The View) simply offer us their highly opinionated views on varying topics.

Can, or maybe a better question is should every component of life be thoroughly scrutinized (or judged) before being so simply classified and categorized into being either agreeable or not, good or not, beneficial or not? And although my young, brash generation of disgruntled churchgoers would love to spotlight all the ways in which the church arrogantly does just this, I have to humbly confess that we are (I include myself) equally as guilty as we nit pick every nuance of the Sunday morning service.

Obviously utilizing a healthy amount of discernment is wise, however, when we consider that most everyone’s value systems vary whether the subject matter is family, religion, education, the arts or politics, sometimes the things that we believed could only fall into a neatly packaged category of either black or white actually begin to merge into a more complicated gray. What we are left with is not always universal truths, but simply many unique and varying personal convictions.

Take the Christian church for example, which has such a wide range of differing beliefs, ideas, doctrines and theologies about how God, the church and believing people are supposed to function. And the varying views go beyond simple doctrinal matters and into childrearing, women’s roles, birth control, marriage, divorce and so on. My point is that even within Christianity there is a divide on many spiritual and practical life issues. If a faith with common core beliefs can be so messy, how are we to come together civilly when the topic is seemingly something more complicated?

Interestingly enough many religious and political people approached Jesus with questions hoping to identify where he stood on “the issues”. More often than not, however Jesus skirted around the questions being posed refusing to give in to their games. On occasion he actually offered an alternative viewpoint altogether which threw a wrench into the whole idea surrounding “two-sided” debates.

Sure, there is a time and place for debate; however, we also need to have moments of peace from all the noise of dogmatic chatter. We need to have moments of understanding and if nothing else discover some harmony within our “sacred beliefs” to level enough common ground upon which to stand together. It is imperative that we have such places of safety where we can relate to one another and come to understand each other as people and not just as puzzles to be solved.

Mark Driscoll in his book Religion Saves + nine other misconceptions, writes that there are a few nonnegotiable doctrines within our faith that we must hold tightly to with a closed hand, while in the other hand there are those doctrines that are important but secondary that we must hold more loosely and graciously. Although Driscoll is addressing differences in spiritual teachings and beliefs, I believe this advice can be applied to varying areas of dissention. However, it is counsel that is, sadly, unheeded as we often hold stubbornly with white knuckles to certain beliefs that we are convinced are so important even at the risk of alienating ourselves from friends and family.

If we look to the scriptures we find that the Apostle Paul selflessly focused much of his energies into finding ways in which he could relate to others in THEIR world, on THEIR turf and where THEY were comfortable in order to make meaningful relationships. Jesus was a perfect example of this as well, spending much of his time seeking out relationships and accepting invitations into other people’s homes and worlds, many of whom were cast out from “important” religious circles for being “unagreeable”. Jesus asked questions, began meaningful dialog and most importantly he listened.

Listening is essential to understanding. When we give someone the opportunity to speak while also attentively listening it affords him or her the proper respect they deserve. In effect, we validate that person by listening. Nothing turns (or ticks) people off quicker and sours their opinion of you more than if you are someone who talks without listening. All too often various matters escalate from simple conversations into debates and arguments because both sides would rather speak than listen and empathize with one another.

Although perhaps our family, friends, church or pastors cannot come to grips with the ugly circumstances surrounding our life we can rest assured that God does understand. And not in a shortcut kind of way being that He is a God of infinite wisdom. God took no shortcuts or easy ways out when He sent Jesus to this earth; He in effect put himself in our shoes and in our situations. He faced everything we have had to face and more, rejection, temptation, betrayals from friends, false accusations, sickness and death. The real miracle of Jesus’ life on earth is not just that he accomplished it without committing a sin. The real miracle is that God would choose to experience this life right along side of us, forever making any accusation that He doesn’t understand sound rather foolish.

The scriptures also reveal that on several occasions Jesus was moved with compassion for people. This compassion was not a matter of pity, but a sincere concern for people’s well being. Which stings because most often it is not compassion that stirs us when we offer our judgment…uh, I mean, advice to those who may or may not have come looking for it in the first place.

Having our own convictions and beliefs is important, however we need to remember that is all they are, our own. Each one of us needs to decide for ourselves how much of the surrounding world we wish to weigh according to those convictions and beliefs. More than anything else I encourage you to humbly make an effort to understand and relate to those you interact with on a daily basis. Maybe then we might begin to see people as more than simply those we disagree or clash with, perhaps we might begin to see them as God does, as His precious creation who are just a little misunderstood at times.