Letters from the Exile – ¡Viva la Revolución!

Last updated on: September 17, 2014 at 2:33 pm by Mark Sandlin

Letters from the Exile – ¡Viva la Revolución! 2014-09-17T14:33:02-05:00 Mark Sandlin

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letters from the exile, new generations, dogma, change, progressive, Christian

Dear Church,

There is, by the nature of culture, always a gap between the younger and eldergenerations within a society. The arts have almost always been the first to pick up onthis reality whether it is Bob Dylan noting, “Come mothers and fathers throughout theland and don’t criticize what you can’t understand. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command. Your old road is rapidly aging. Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand for the times they are a-changing.” or Dar Williams with the simple plea, “Teenagers, kick our butts.” However it is named, there is little reason to question the gap that exists. That being said, in this time in history and in this place in the world, there can be little doubt that the previous generation has totally let down their children’s generation and the time has come for those of us of the children’s generation to cast off the absurd expectations of our parents and live in radically different ways. That casting off should begin in the place that has the potential for the most radical change, the church.

First, dear sisters and brothers, let me talk a bit about the manner in which the previous generation has let down the younger. Within the church, the older generation, keenly aware of their own mortality and their impending loss of life and power, has sought to codify the movement of the Spirit within the doctrines and dogmatic assumptions of history. Religion, rather than being the cheerful work of moving with the Spirit to better bring about the Realm of God in this broken world has become a barrier and a burden to those who practice it. Rather than being a time of celebration and inclusion, those in the older generation have increasingly walled off the distinction between the sacred and the secular until the only one’s allowed in the door must look and believe painfully like everyone else
in the room.

We pray using the words of our forefathers while ignoring the still small voice that demands that we seek new and creative ways to call upon the Divine. We have “Hear I Stand” moments around complex issues of sexuality rather than reaching out to the some 30,000 persons who die each day from preventable diseases and hunger. We refuse to take strong positions on warfare or drone strikes while arguing about access to contraception for working women. We arrogantly argue about whether God could possibly accept faithful Muslims or Hindus while allowing passively allowing our country to become more discriminating about the very presence of members of other faith traditions within our individual communities.

And we wonder why people are leaving our numbers in droves.

The Church, not unlike culture itself, grows stagnate with the passing of time without the passing of power. This passing is especially painful in these days of the culture of greed and corruption that has been bequeathed by the older to the younger. This culture, in which poverty is on the rise, even while the wealth accumulated by those at the top has also risen. This culture in which sexism, racism, credalism, heterosexism dominate our politics and our pulpits. This culture in which the environment is considered an afterthought to production while the church, charged with protecting God’s creation, remains devastatingly silent.

But all is not lost.

But time is running out.

Never before has a generation of young leaders both within the church and outside her walls been so called to wipe clean the slate of the previous generations and speak a prophetic word to a world in desperate need of it. Never before has a generation been so called to stand and be counted in the face of gathering clouds of war and hatred. Never before has a generation been so called to stand for faith, hope, and love in the midst of arrogance, avarice, and antipathy. But it is now. And it’s time to get to work.

Until next time, I am…

Your humble brother in Christ,
Rev. Zinn

P.S. “The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

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