Yesterday on my walk home I listened to a podcast of Nation Public Radio's
“On Being" with Kristin Tippett”. From December 22, 2011 Tippett
interviews Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann. I have seen Franciscan Father
Richard Rohr reference Brueggemann many times and actually call Brueggemann his favorite theologian so it is no surprise to
find Brueggemann in the same club as Rhor approaching the non-dualistic contemplative Christian mindset. With the current argument by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops against the
controversial Health and Human Services contraception insurance rules for religious institutions and then the Catholic hierarchy's
criticism of Catholic nuns attitudes and behaviors within the Leadership Conference of Women Religious I find it interesting to
see various interpretations on biblical teachings about handling
issues. At times I have struggled with my feeling that on the surface the
Catholic church has lost some of the mystical and transformative messages of the Gospels
and we are caught in a cycle of dualistic opinion making where either/or thinking abounds.
Brueggemann in his interview with Tippett gets to the core of what I see in
scripture, something that is greater than mere ideology. Below I paraphrase part of
the conversation between Brueggemann and Tippett that struck a chord with me on this radio program.
Brueggemann: “We see in the Old Testament prophets hardly
ever discuss an “issue”. They don’t discuss issues of their time as we discuss
abortion and same sex marriage for example, rather they go underneath the issues that
preoccupy people to the more the foundational assumptions that only can be
gotten at in elusive language. The institutional church has been preoccupied
with issues", Tippett then interjects "which automatically puts you on one side of
an issue or the other”, Brueggemann responds: which robs you of transformative
power because it is ideology verses ideology which never ends up good for
anyone”.
Similar to what Brueggemann speaks of concerning issues, I
love a reflection I found by the late Catholic priest and writer Henri Nouwen in his
book “Mornings with Henri Nouwen”. In the book Nouwen states, “I have the impression that many of the
debates within the Church around issues such as the papacy, the ordination of
women, the marriage of priests, homosexuality, birth control, abortion, and
euthanasia take place on a primarily moral level. On that level, different
parties battle about right or wrong. But that battle is often removed from the
experience of God's first love which lies at the base of all human relationships.
Words like right-wing, reactionary, conservative, liberal, and left-wing are
used to describe people's opinions, and many discussions then seem more like
political battles for power than spiritual searches for the truth”.
Personally for me it is as Brueggemann says, "Going
underneath the issues that preoccupy people to the more foundational", that
intrigues me. I do find myself in a
struggle with the appropriate way to wage a non-judgmental fight for justice. It seems to be difficult not to divide people into camps of good vs. bad during
the process of seeking justice. I do think that the God
of the bible does know intimately both the victim and victimizer , the just
and the unjust all while maintaining an unconditional love for both, yes paradox
everywhere, but we humans really don't know how to grasp that or really what to
do with it.
