Ministering in a Post-Cartesian World

Jason, in the comments to my last post, asked this question: "Of course, it's not my discussion and it's not my blog, but may I suggest a direction from here? What practical steps could preachers, seminar leaders, congregations as a whole take if such insights were implemented?"

Well, Jason, you are going to have me break one of my cardinal rules: Never be relevant. One of my favorite quotes, a sentiment that goes deeply to the heart of this blog, comes from Thorstein Veblen:

"The sole end of the truly inquiring mind should be irresponsible scholarship, idle curiosity, and useless knowledge."

And, if you know me, you know I live by that creed.

Which means, at the end of the day, you should go with Mike Cope's views on this topic (see my last post). Although we differ on psychological models of the mind, he's the one out there changing lives. Recall, he's the shepherd and I'm the sheep. And I am a recalcitrant sheep.

However, I do want to demonstrate the "applications" of my position, so I'm going to get practical.

I can't get systematically practical, I haven’t thought too much about this, but I can offer a menagerie of converging observations:

1. The Civil Rights Museum
I blogged about this a while back. A few years ago I visited the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. Here's what I wrote about that experience:

Last spring I took some students to Memphis for a conference. Late one afternoon a student and I wandered over to the National Civil Rights Museum. What an amazing experience. It is housed on the spot where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. In fact, the tour ends on that fateful balcony. At one point in the exhibit you get to sit on a Montgomery bus next to Rosa Parks while the bus driver (this is all simulated) screams at you to move to the back.

Needless to say, I was emotionally changed. Right now, as I write, I'm looking at the poster I bought at the end of that day. It is a picture of the Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. I look at that poster every day.

Why do I tell you this? Because to be a good person I must attend to my moral emotions. And the Civil Rights Museum was good therapy. It tuned both my empathy and my moral indignation. I haven't been the same since.

2. Tony Campolo
A student at ACU made a comment to my last post along the same lines as Jason's comment. Here's what I wrote in response:

When Tony Campolo came to ACU a few years ago he recounted a typical exchange he has with parents of college students. The parents ask, "How can we get our kids passionate about following Jesus?" Campolo's response, "Send them to the Third World." The point being is that once you expose yourself to the plight of the poor your emotions are profoundly changed. This is what happened to Bono. But you don't have to go to the third world to find people to help. We can find those places right here in Abilene.

3. Invisible Children
Awhile back thousands of people participated in an evening sponsored by the makers of the documentary Invisible Children, the Global Night Commute. During the same evening across the country people walked the same distance that these African children must walk to find a place to sleep in safety. Then, having arrived at their destination, people slept outside for the night. It was a powerful evening in our city. What was the point? To mold empathy and compassion via identification/participation.

4. Reducing Racism
How do you reduce racism? In strong volitional models I guess you could say "Racism is a choice. Love is a choice. So choose love!" I doubt this will work. But psychologists do know how to reduce racism. It involves "cooperative equal-status contact." Let me unpack this:

i. Contact: The racial groups must come into contact.
ii. Cooperative: The groups must work together on a common goal.
iii. Equal-status: The groups must be on a level playing field.

It is known that when these three things are in play racism attenuates. Lets' now apply this to a common church intervention: Benevolence.

Benevolence, a common church ministry, is often not very transformative. Why not?

First, benevolence typically has only (i), contact. But the contact is not cooperative (ii), rich and poor are not working toward a common goals (The rich are cooperating with each other on behalf of the poor, but not cooperating with the poor). Further, the contact is hierarchical, with the rich (generally White) feeding the poor (generally Black or Hispanic). That contact is not equal status (iii).

The point being, psychologists know how to reduce racism. The church just has to take those insights and apply them.

5. Liturgy
I'm currently reading a book by Peter Rollins called How (Not) to Speak of God. I will blog about this book in the future because it is the best book on Christianity I have read in some time. Rollins works with a faith community called Ikon in Ireland. The first half of the book gives Rollins' articulation of emerging Christianity. In the second half of the book Rollins walks us through some Ikon liturgies.

In one liturgy the goal is to confront the participant with our consumerism and "health and wealth" notions which are related to our feelings and apathy toward the poor. In this liturgy, after hearing a "testimony" aimed at articulating this kind of consumerism and selfish approach to Christianity, the participants are asked to come up and take the Lord's Supper. But here's the rub...

On the Lord's Table is chocolate cake and champagne.

Obviously, no one wants to go up and partake. And as you sit there uncomfortably refusing that kind of table, you must emotionally confront what exactly the Lord's Table is calling you to: Brokenness and death. Not cake and champagne.

Summation:
In short, I think the applications are endless. We are only limited by our creativity and willingness to experiment.


Now, back to my irresponsible scholarship...