Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Clint Schnekloth

Home
Progressive Christian
“Golden Rule 2020” Is Spiritual Gaslighting

“Golden Rule 2020” Is Spiritual Gaslighting

Last updated on: November 4, 2019 at 4:12 pm by Clint Schnekloth

“Golden Rule 2020” Is Spiritual Gaslighting 2019-11-04T16:12:47-05:00 Clint Schnekloth

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A pastor sits down in a counseling session. One spouse verbally abuses the other, gaslights and shouts at them. The abused spouse attempts to protect themselves, stand up for themselves and maintain appropriate boundaries. At which point the abusive spouse calls foul and accuses the abused of being the abuser.

The pastor, from the sideline, says, “Hey you two, you’re so polarized. Can’t you both just follow the golden rule?”

That’s a mini-parable that summarizes my reaction to the recent press releases on Golden Rule 2020: A Call for Respect and Dignity in Politics.

It’s like that infamous quote from Donald Trump after violence in Charlottesville, “You have very fine people on both sides.”

These kinds of calls for moderation aren’t surprising from religious leaders. Faith communities are fairly notorious for their attempts to remain in a kind of milquetoast middle. But such appeals become deeply problematic when they protect those abusing power and increase the vulnerability of others harmed by such abuse.

I can remember a moment a few years back. I was sitting in the district office of a certain congressman. When we sought better support and protection for vulnerable refugee populations, his response was, “You all live in REALITY. I live in POLITICAL reality.”

Nevermind what was the best thing to do to care for refugees. He had to be politically expedient.

What the congressman meant by the statement was straightforward. He couldn’t just do the right thing, because he has to do what will get him re-elected next term. That’s political reality.

Unfortunately, Golden Rule 2020 is an example of church leaders living in ecclesial political reality. Their call for “civility” is not about doing the right thing. It’s about not losing voters and maintaining the status quo (which in the church context is members all kind of getting along because of their general lack of truth-speaking).

Faith leaders are under the illusion that the most faithful thing to do is to keep as large (if nevertheless dwindling) a community together at the moderate middle as they can.

Golden Rule 2020 is a theology of glory, not a theology of the cross. It calls the bad good, and the good bad.

It fails at the command to let your yes be yes and your no be no (Matthew 5:37). Instead, it tells the community of faith, and apparently everybody else, that they should soften their “no” by building a codependent Golden Bridge.

Golden Rule 2020 redefines the gospel as “equivocation.”

Also… it just gets Jesus wrong, on many levels.

I mean, the Jesus who said “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” also called the Pharisees and Saduccees a “brood of vipers.” This Jesus said he came to cause divisions, at every level, right down to individual households.

“For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household (Matthew 10:35).

Jesus didn’t speak in such divisive ways out of sheer antagonistic demagoguery. No, he spoke this way because he knew the truth he was bringing, the kin-dom he was announcing, would naturally be resisted by those in authority, those with wealth, those with power.

Jesus might say in the context of Golden Rule 2020: “Whoever loves civility more than me cannot be my disciple.”

In a world where the president of the United States rage tweets 20-30 times per day, to such an extent that the New York Times issues a special report on his tweets, the majority of which are attacks, how in the world did the leaders of churches decide the most important statement for them to make was to get everyone to follow the Golden Rule?

Now, admittedly, we do have to find ways to speak the truth in love. I’m reminded of Michelle Obama’s statement, “When they go low, we go high.”

The thing about her statement… she still acknowledges that “they” go “low.” That’s truth. The Golden Rule 2020 initiative isn’t even willing to acknowledge that some in our political discourse are going low. Instead, it’s a broad-brush hand-slap of all parties.

So what do I wish these bishops and religious leaders would be calling for from all of us in 2020?

How about an actual theology of the cross?

Let’s try a re-write. In their appeal, they asked for these two items:

1) pray for the healing of the divisions in our country, and 2) promote the use of the Golden Rule in our own political discussions and election activities in 2020.

I suggest these instead:

1) pray that God’s kin-dom come on earth as it is in heaven, 2) promote always speaking the truth, whatever the cost, in our political discussions and election activities in 2020.

Point the finger in the right direction. Tell us specifically who is the one abusing. Name the abuses of power. Don’t issues statements that are quivering codependent scolds posing as faithfulness. Stand with those being harmed.

Finally, I thought I’d look and see if any of the ELCA’s social statements call for us to be “civil.” Looking at the social statement most likely to address this issue, Church in Society, I did a quick search. The word “civility” doesn’t even appear in the document. Neither does the term “Golden Rule.”

However, I did find statements like this: “As a prophetic presence, this church has the obligation to name and denounce the idols before which people bow, to identify the power of sin present in social struc- tures, and to advocate in hope with poor and powerless people.”

Also this: “Christians need to be concerned for the methods and the content of public delib- eration. They should be critical when groups of people are inadequately repre- sented in political processes and decisions that affect their lives.”

It’s a long document, but those are pretty indicative of the general trend.

In other words, Golden Rule 2020 encourages essentially the opposite of our own social statement. It will have the net result of silencing voices currently speaking prophetically in our church, while those idols they are denouncing will simply ignore what they see as another diatribe from the politically correct liberals.

There are many in our church and world who are saying, “The emperor has no clothes.”

Our bishops just said, “Shush, it’s not nice to say that.”

Uncategorized

Previous Post

October 31, 2019

95 Theses for the 21st Century Church

Next Post

November 9, 2019 Three Reasons I'm Neither Spiritual Nor Religious

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #blacklivesmatter advocacy Avengers baptisms Capitalism church growth clergy silence corporate ethics Creation Care Donald Trump elections Evangelicals Evangelism Friendship hermeneutics Immigration Intersex introverts Jesus Labor Liturgy Lutheran MLK Jr. New urbanism Pentecost philanthropy Poem political theology Post-program church Prayer private devotion Reformation Refugees sacraments Scripture Secularity Sin small church social media Sovereignty Trauma-Informed Theology travel Trump Uncategorized wealth white supremacy Workers worship Youth

Select a Month January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 January 2016 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 May 2014 March 2014 June 2013 January 2013 December 2011 December 2010 February 2005 February 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which principle is taught in "turn the other cheek"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Argue your case Mock your enemy Do not retaliate Fight back

Books by This Author Books by Clint Schnekloth

See All Titles »