Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society

14. New Partnerships in Christian Activism

115 14. New Partnerships in Christian Activism G reat, so you have a new vision for Christian theology. You are learning to blend your life story with the narrative of God in Christ. You can begin to connect the Seven Core Christian Questions with significant events in your life. And, together with others , you’re ready to sketch a theological vision that has the potential to transform the church. That’s a powerful start! By taking these steps, you join a vibrant group of believers who are seeking to think and live the relevance of Jesus’ life and teaching for today’s complex world. But how do Christian believers avoid freezing the results of this exciting work into a set of permanent dogmas? How do we keep the living ecosystem of a relationship with God’s Spirit from turning into a petrified forest? Most urgently, how can we use our new theological visions as the basis for powerful action in society? After all, no matter how significant Christian fellowship may now become, our work’s not done until we’re having a transformative effect on the society around us as well. The Obama Effect Studies of American religious life are showing a new tendency, most prominent among young Americans, that gives ground for optimism. A recent article in USA Today dubbed it pragmatic idealism: “Meet the generation in which idealism trumps ideology, in which pragmatism is the guiding light.”1 Others are calling it “the Obama Effect.” Going back to the Pilgrims, the early settlers, and the pioneers, Americans have always tended to be a “can do” people. Since de Tocqueville’s nineteenth-century classic, Democracy in America, Europeans have often 116 | Transforming Christian Theology commented on the “just do it!” attitude in this country. When the English would analyze, the Germans plan, and the French comment, Americans would roll up their sleeves and get the job done. You might think of the Amish ritual of “barn-raising” as an analogy for this American get-it-done mentality. In traditional Amish society, the extended family would work for weeks or months to prepare all the parts needed to put up a new building. On the designated day, friends and relatives and community members would be invited over to help assemble all the pieces. In traditional Amish society, the roles were assigned along strict gender lines; today we’d blend the roles a bit more. Together, the men put their shoulders under the pre-assembled walls and pivoted them up into place, holding them steady while others hammered in the nails. Women brought food and kept things running smoothly. Children helped as they could and otherwise played around the edges. By the end of the day the community, working as a team, was able to complete the basic structure, so that the rest of the work could be done by the family over the following weeks. We see something of that same barn-raising spirit in the pragmatic idealism that commentators are detecting in American culture today. We saw it reflected in the Obama campaign, for example, and then in the style of presidency that it produced. A lot of us would watch the short videos and then click on the button to donate $10 or $20. Perhaps for the first time, we felt like we were participating in a political movement bigger than ourselves, something that would really make a difference. Stephen Mansfield, author of The Faith of Barack Obama (Thomas Nelson , 2008), wrote recently in USA Today about President Obama’s “big-tent approach” to religion and politics: This is what we can expect [from] a big tent faith-based presidency, rooted in a non-traditional approach to Christianity yet seeking to draw in nearly every religious tradition. For this, [Obama] understands, is how the majority of the people he serves would want it to be.2 Despite the harsh climate of recession (or perhaps even because of it?) this new phase in our history is bringing a resurgence of that traditional American optimism, that willingness to join with others in rolling up our sleeves and making things better. The Obama Phenomenon is both a symptom and a cause. 14. New Partnerships in Christian Activism | 117 Postmodern (Pragmatic) Idealism Now add to pragmatic idealism and President Obama’s “big-tent approach” the postmodern mentality that we considered earlier. For many, especially younger Christians, the old boundaries and...