Politician for Christ: William Wilberforce

A politician for Christ? Surely, I must be joking. Such is the collective state of our culture that even believers, much less our good-willed friends of other faiths and none, roll their eyes at the very idea. The idea in question, a politician who takes her or his faith seriously, usually stirs images of suit and tie prayer breakfasts and perhaps most of all: of specific voting records on a handful of controversial topics (and maybe, also, some hypocrisy). 

The slave trade in the 1780s was becoming a controversial issue. For a large majority of the population is was part of the status quo of society. It was accepted as a fact of life. This “fact” was being challenged. William Wilberforce at this time was a young man of independent wealth and growing power. He was elected to his first seat in the British Parliament at the age of twenty one when he was still a student at St. John’s, Cambridge. 

Wilberforce was the son, nephew, and grandson of prosperous freemen, who had made their fortunes in business. As a boy he had been influenced by his aunt who was a committed Anglican Christian of the evangelical sort. However, this influence faded and he grew to be a popular boy: partying, drinking, and gambling in high society. He was known for his wit, his cheerful manner, and his singing voice. 

He was also known as a man endowed with impressive gifts of persuasion and oratory. Wilberforce was a slight man, not physically impressive, and plagued by a variety of health problems for his entire life. Yet, one contemporary, observing him in the House of Commons said, “I saw what seemed a mere shrimp mount upon the table; but as I listened, he grew, and grew, until the shrimp became a whale."

Near the beginning of his political career he had a conversion experience. He seriously considered dropping out of politics all together in order to dedicate himself to a life of prayer and reflection. His former pastor, John Newton, and his friend, William Pitt, urged him to remain in politics. Newton in particular urged him to bring his faith to his work. For the next forty years that is what Wilberforce did.

This striving is most famously known and celebrated in his tireless work to end the slave trade in the British Empire as portrayed in the inspiring 2006 movie, Amazing Grace. However, Wilberforce’s reforming interests were many. He manifested the daily challenge of every Christian who works in the world: discernment. Whether politician, farmer, scientist, plumber, actress, or accountant, every Christian has to practice and exercise discernment.

How can I with my particular gifts, resources, and limitations best live out Jesus’ Great Command to “Love God and neighbor?” What can I generously allow? What must I speak out against? What can I say or do that will make a difference? What can I refuse to say or do that will make a difference? If I feel called to make a stand or challenge the status quo am I doing it out of love or out of self-righteousness? Is this about me or the common good?

William Wilberforce’s life, celebrated on July 29 in the Episcopal Church, powerfully illustrates that to be a Christian is not a Sunday only activity and that real Christian impact is not limited to Church circles. Christian witness is not only about inviting the world to Christ, but about bringing Christ to the world’s problems, global and local. What are you doing with your influence? Who are you helping? Start with something small. In small things faithfulness is grown and shown. 

Poet-Priest With 12 Kids: John Donne

John Donne is remembered as many things: lawyer, priest, and poet. The last designation is probably the one he is most well-known by. In his earlier days, he wrote erotic poetry, and then and later, religious, and is perhaps most famous for penning the phrases, “no man is an island” and “any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.” Among students of literature he is hailed among the metaphysical poets for his wit, depth, and vernacular use of language in poetry. 

He lived in the 17^th century which was known for its terrible religious debates and persecutions (of Roman Catholic Christians in England and of Protestant Christians in France). He was destined for a career as an ambassador, but because his family was Roman Catholic and he was initially unwilling to join the Anglican Church (which was required in England at the time to be a diplomat) he and his wife Anne lived in a constant state of poverty and destitution. Anne gave birth to 12 children (as was common place then, not all of them survived). 

Eventually, he was persuaded by the King to seek Anglican ordination and eventually was appointed Dean of St. Paul’s, Cathedral, London, which was and is (click here) a church of considerable influence. His eloquent preaching drew many to St. Paul’s and resulted in his wielding a considerable influence near and far. Donne had experienced an array of life’s experience from being a courtier on the rise, a romantic lover and traveler, a father trying to provide for a large family, and a devoted husband who deeply grieved his wife’s death.

Donne is not the poster-boy for the stereotypes that people often have of priests and more generally speaking, Christians. His life reflected very human interests and very human troubles. These served him well in the task of preaching the Gospel which he did ably in the pulpit but also ably with the pen. It is a shame that poetry is not cultivated, shared, and published more widely in our local churches. Both the poetry of the greats, Christian and otherwise, and the poetry of the people of our congregations and local communities. 

John Donne’s commemoration in the Episcopal Church, falls on March 31, which makes for a nice prelude to April’s National Poetry month in the United States and Canada. Regardless of where we live, the remembrance of John Donne the priest-poet should stir us to remember that words can express the heart of the human experience and that God Himself choose to become The Word and live among us (John 1). In this way, not only are preachers and priests kin to poets in their sacred speech, so are all Christians when they speak a word of faith.

Failed Hermit becomes Best Seller: Walter Hilton

March 24 (in the Church of England) and September 28 (The Episcopal Church) is the feast of Walter Hilton. He lived in 14^th century England. He ended his life as an Augustinian priest in the priory at Thurgarton, which today remains an active parish church. Hilton had studied canon law before exploring his spirituality more dramatically. At the time, a number of individuals had embraced a solitary form of Christian living as a means of attaining holiness and union with Christ. The most famous of these solitaries today is Hilton’s near contemporary, Julian of Norwich. 

After a time, Hilton abandoned the solitary life of a hermit and joined the community life of the Priory in Thurgarton. We aren’t told why he choose community life over solitary life, but one can speculate: loneliness, the blessings of common prayer and Eucharist, opportunities to serve Christ through love of neighbor, better Wi-Fi, and so on. The fact is, we cannot be certain. What we can be certain about, is that Hilton, went on to write about the spiritual life in a way that captured the imagination of the people of his time: clergy, religious (monks, nuns, etc.), and laity alike.

His two most popular and well known works, “The Scale of Perfection” and “The Mixed Life” were best sellers in the 14^th and 15^th centuries. These works drew upon earlier sources from the deep wells of the Christian Spiritual Tradition, but also reflected his own experience of seeking God and in providing direction to others. They reflect theological rigor, but also a gentle and Christ-like common sense, sensitive to the weakness of the human condition even under the restoring and reforming effects of the Holy Spirit. 

On one occasion, a man of some importance, with considerable worldly responsibilities, wrote to Hilton asking whether he should abandon his duties (and presumably his family) in order to enter a monastery. Hilton encouraged him to seek God where he was in the midst of his busy demands and responsibilities. In other words, Hilton acknowledged that a spiritual life of weight, depth, and profundity could be graced to a man in the world; that while desirable for some, entrance into a monastery was not necessary to achieve the way of Jesus. 

This message hit a chord with women and men, priests and monks, the married and the unmarried in Hilton’s time. Hilton’s writings point to a deep immersion in the truth, presence, and love of God, which requires climbing a spiritual ladder from height to height. This tells us that there are higher hills in the Christian faith that we have yet to climb. With Christ’s grace and the advice of good spiritual trail guides, like Walter Hilton, may we carefully hike out from the easy flats to the rugged heights of God’s love.

A Slave before a Saint: Patrick of Ireland

March 17th is Saint Patrick’s Day. A day when people wear green, drink beer (Guinness, please) and engage in some good old fashion mischief (there are also others who use it as an excuse for some old fashion not so good mischief!). Even those with Irish ancestry and/or Christian faith (here I am) often know little about the man whose day inspires celebration; save a story or two, like Patrick using the Shamrock to teach about the Trinity or Patrick running the snakes out of Ireland (in fact, there never were rolling reptiles in the emerald isle). 

There are endless legends about St. Patrick. On one occasion he and his companions were being hunted down by a local ruler. When the ruler with his warriors hustled to where Patrick and his disciples had run off, all he saw was a herd of deer. Of course, they were Patrick and his followers transformed by God’s miraculous intervention. Unfortunately, God never changed them back and they had to hoof about from that day forward (just kidding). There are spiritual lessons in these sorts of stories, but the actual events of his life, inspire tremendously more. 

Patrick was born sometime in late 4^th Century England. He came from a well to do family with a strong Christian heritage; his grandfather was a priest, and his dad was a deacon and a minor official in the declining Roman Empire. For most people in the 4th Century life was rough, but Patrick enjoyed a much easier life because of his family’s reputation and wealth. This all ended for Patrick around the age of sixteen when he was captured by Irish raiders. Upon arrival in Ireland he was sold as a slave, made to tend sheep and live among people he did not know. 

During this time Patrick’s faith came alive. In his Confession, he writes, “And there the Lord opened the consciousness of my unbelief so that…I might turn with a whole heart to the Lord my God, Who turned His gaze round on my lowliness and took pity on my adolescence and ignorance and kept watch over me before I knew Him.” Somehow, many years later, Patrick escaped his enslavement and made his way back to England. He sensed a calling to the priesthood, and while he struggled with the academics, he was eventually ordained. 

This story alone would be a wondrous one, but the power of St. Patrick’s life is that he could not put the Irish people out of his mind. He had a vision where an Irish youth bid him return and preach the Gospel. If you had been kidnapped from your people, enslaved away to a foreign country across the sea and somehow managed to escape, what are the odds you would return at great personal sacrifice to preach a Gospel of love? That is what Patrick did! He convinced the authorities in England to send him as a missionary bishop to the Irish.

Much more could be said about the most well-known of Ireland’s three patron saints (the two others being Saint Columba and Saint Brigid), from his openness to Irish culture and spirituality, which in many cases was woven into the new faith, to his missionary zeal and humility. Patrick’s story is a reminder that whatever your circumstance or mine, God can find us and God can use the blackest moments of our lives to bring light and salvation to others. That by itself, parades and shamrocks aside, is worth celebrating. 

Is the term Non-denominational Misleading?

Let’s start with a dictionary’s definition of the term, “open or acceptable to people of any Christian denomination.” This definition gets at both the usual meaning of the term, but also its difficulties. Before looking at the difficulties, let’s consider some other ways the term is used. One way is to highlight that a particular worship service, church, or even Christian is not formally tied to a particular denomination of the Christian faith (e.g. Southern Baptist, Roman Catholic, or United Methodist). Sometimes, the term means that a particular resource or curriculum or book is meant for all Christians and not just for one particular group of Christians.

Some Christians, who wish to stress their allegiance to Christ first and foremost, and are hesitant about denominations and the divisions they seem to cause, identify as non-denominational. Often, but not always, these individuals are from or have been greatly influenced by Evangelical or Fundamentalist expressions of Christianity. Others still, who identify as Christian, but are not particularly active in their faith or in the life of the Church will also sometimes use this identification. Often these individuals have a general sense of connection to Christ and His teachings, but have no particular connection to any denomination.

All this is understandable and generally works on the surface level, but when you go below the surface, difficulties can emerge. For example, to be a member of a specific Christian denomination situates an individual with a particular framework of the Christian faith with its own approach to worship, congregational life, and distinctive beliefs. Each denomination is also rooted in a particular historical tradition that makes it both similar to and different from other denominations. Every Christian and every Christian church has been influenced by one or more particular frameworks of the Christian faith (whether they know it or not). 

The person who is explicitly a member of or attending a denominational church is aware of this. They know that the Roman Catholic Church has a particular understanding of the Christian faith and they can research that understanding, read about its history, and study its teachings. A person who identifies as non-denominational runs the risk of not knowing the particular framework of Christian faith they influences them. Sometimes non-denominational Christians will claim they are only following the teachings of the Bible. However, the reality is that every understanding of the Bible is influenced by a particular framework or perspective.

Those perspectives may be Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist, Anglican, Nazarene, etc. with various ways of nuancing those terms (e.g. a liberal Roman Catholic perspective). To state it another way, a person may claim to be non-denominational, and indeed not hold official membership in a denomination; yet, their understanding of Christianity, how they read the Bible, how they practice their faith in daily life, etc. match up almost entirely with a particular denomination or tradition of Christianity. Again, the danger here is that these persons may not be aware of this and thus blind to what is shaping their faith in Christ.

In the same way, a church may identity itself as being non-denominational, but in almost every other respect (how they conduct worship, how they govern themselves, how they approach the Bible, what they believe about X and Y issues), are like a Baptist Church. Christianity has a rich and venerable history. Whether denominations are good or bad is another question (click here), but to pretend that any Christian or Church stands outside of a wider stream of influence or Church history or differing ways of understanding Christianity is to choose to be blind about the richness of Christianity and one’s personal understanding of it.

So what should a Christian do? 1) Choose a denomination; this should not be done lightly, but after a rigorous period of discernment 2) At least recognize what traditions/denominations are most similar to your own understanding of the faith or which of them have shaped your understanding of Christianity the most. A person might say, “I’ve attended a number of churches. I guess I’m officially non-denominational, but my understanding of Christianity is very Pentecostal (or Lutheran, or Baptist, etc.). 3) You could say, “I’m a Christian, but I’m not really sure where I fall in the Christian spectrum, so right now I identify as non-denominational.”

Are hostile atheists actually helpful to Christianity?

The answer is a fair helping of yes and a fair helping of no.

Before we proceed further it must be said that most atheists are not particularly hostile to Christianity or any other world religion. Most atheists simply do not believe in the claims of religion and go about their lives accordingly. Most are not on a personal campaign to attack, discredit or otherwise give religious people a hard time. Further, there are many atheists whose lives of compassion, service and moral integrity exceed that of many Christians. This should remind us that atheists and Christians (and all people of good will) should partner together for the common good; indeed, for Christians, our faith demands this of us (Matthew 22:35-40).

Let’s start with a fair helping of no.

The attacks on Christianity from hostile atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher, and others have encouraged an acceptance of a negative view of Christian faith in wider society. Is there plenty of misbehavior among Christians to warrant some criticism; of course! But much of the attacks are directed toward one particular understanding of Christianity and very often a caricature of Christianity and not Christianity at its best or even in its usual expressions. Knocking down straw men is not very difficult and when bringing a critique against a belief system or way of life it’s wise to critique it as its best, not just its worst. 

This applies to Christian disagreement among themselves and with others (atheists included). This encouragement of hostility and misrepresentations of Christianity has discouraged the faith of large numbers of Christians, deterred many truth seekers from seeing Christianity as a worthwhile option to explore, and has, perhaps, contributed to some walking away from faith, which necessarily involves participation in the community of faith. Atheists are free to argue against the faith, just as Christians are free to argue for the faith. Debate and criticism can be intense, but it should be conducted fairly, truthfully, and with the best intentions of good will. 

And now, for a fair helping of yes.

Hostile atheists do an incredible amount of good for Christians and Christianity in general. Some atheists have had terrible and sometimes tragic encounters with Christians in particular (who likely manifested behavior that contradicted Jesus’ teachings) or the Christian Church in general. Christians need to be reminded of the immense weight that our actions carry. We need to apologize for our own sins and failures and those of our sisters and brothers who carry the name Christian. When atheists bring these examples up, it’s an opportunity for us as Christians to own our faith, to grow in our faith, and admit to the wrongs done in Christ’s name.

Not all atheists have had some terrible encounter with a Christian; rather, many atheists object to Christianity on intellectual grounds. This is often true of the hostile atheists who get lots of “screen” time in our society. They object to “blind faith” and to claims that don’t seem to have evidence or logical warrant. These guys do a wonderful service to Christians, because they force us to think more clearly about our faith. Often the beliefs, practices, and conception of god they are attacking are not actually reflective of the mainstream of Christianity. It’s a shame that our fuzzy thinking is not addressed more regularly in the lives of our congregations and families.

God can and does work through whoever God wishes to accomplish the good, the beautiful, and the true; however, beyond the Spirit’s direct intervention, much of the “good” that atheists can do for Christians depends on our response. Sadly, whether talking about religion or politics or anything else, we seem increasingly less able as human beings to disagree agreeably and to maintaining goodwill and even friendship with those whom we passionately disagree. If we are open, the hostility of a small number of atheists can force us to be more humble, to live lives that reflect our stated beliefs, and be clearer about what those beliefs actually are. 

Another Mary: Saint Brigid of Kildare

Today is the feast of Saint Brigid of Kildare, one of the three patron saints of Ireland (the other two being Saint Patrick and Saint Columba). Her day also falls on the ancient (and still observed, especially by neo-pagans and some Celtic leaning Christians) feast of Imbolc, which is one of the four festivals that fall between the four major seasonal feasts (spring and autumn equinoxes and summer and winter solstices). It has many associations, but is seen as the half-way point of winter in the northern hemisphere, a time to anticipate the coming of Spring, even in the midst of dark nights, cold days, and snowy landscapes (Canada, eh?).

Brigid, in the great Tradition of Celtic saints, is reputed to have been a nun, a miracle worker and healer, a teacher to many other male and female saints, as well as an abbess and keeper of the flame at the important monastery in Kildare (which has been re-established, click here.) Many charming and insightful tales surround her life. For example, one Easter Sunday a leper came to Brigid looking for assistance. After some conversation, she offered to heal him but he stated that he received more from people in his leprous condition than he would in a healthy one. The abbess convinced him otherwise and through a blessed mug of water healed him.

There is some controversy and uncertainty about all of the historical details of Saint Brigid’s life. It is often pointed out that Brigid was the name of an important goddess in pre-Christian Ireland and that many of the goddess’ attributes can be found in the saint of the same name. Some see this as clever infiltration by the pre-missionary pagan tradition in Ireland continuing under Christian disguise; others insist on historical argument that Brigid was a real person and in her person embodies the unique elements of what some call: Celtic Christianity; others say her life and or legend was a sign of the failure of the Church to purge itself of a pagan past.

Others still, see her veneration as an example of the Church at her best, taking the God given best of a particular culture and its spirituality and bringing it into conversation and relationship with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Saint Brigid embodies a historical tradition of wise female teachers and healers of the faith, who exercised extraordinary spiritual influence over men and women, sometimes surpassing the influence of their male counterparts. We know such communities of nuns existed in Ireland and still do today. We can thank Saint Brigid, in part for this reality, for her life and legend continue to inspire people to follow Mary’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Speaking of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Brigid herself, is often referred to as the Mary of the Gaels. This makes her a sort of second Mary in traditional Irish spirituality. Whether referring to the Blessed Mother or St. Brigid, it must be said that while Christianity has a rich history of saintly, feisty, and dynamic women of faith, they often receive less of a hearing than their male counterparts. This impoverishes our individual spiritual lives, our congregations and ultimately our witness to the wider world. May the observance of St. Brigid’s day inspire us to change this dynamic, as together, we look and labor for the Spring, which will shortly be, now and forever.