A Generous Orthodoxy in Singapore.
by Miak Siew on Friday, January 25, 2013 at 5:34pm ·...
i have kept silent the past few days, reflecting. i was in conversation with some people who really, genuinely want to engage. i have heard many powerful stories that move me, that inspire me, that reminds me to stay focused, and not let the hate get under my skin.
But it does. It creeps into you in insidious ways. The hate makes me recoil. How and why does who i love cause so many people spew out so much hate? i had some time to think about it. And i remembered a comment i received on my blog about 2 weeks after i entered seminary. We were going back and forth, hurling Bible verses at one another, and finally that person asked - don't you think you are leading your flock to hell? Away from salvation? Then it dawned on me that it wasn't my salvation or my flock's salvation that this person is concerned about. The passion, the fire that drives this person is actually his / her concern for his / her own salvation. Because my very existence - a gay Christian - contradicts his / her beliefs. If i am correct, then i throw his / her whole religious framework into chaos, into disarray. The neat boxes of who is "saved" and who isn't, the absolute certainty of gender roles, the patriarchal structure that enshrines male supremacy and dominance - all these will collapse. This is what the panic is about.
There isn't really any point hurling Bible verses at one another - i have come to the conclusion that some people will always be locked into their views and will not change. It is those people who ask the questions that i would engage with - because they come with a spirit of enquiry and dialogue. Because they are willing to listen. Christians from the very beginning, even before they even called themselves Christians, were fighting over orthodoxy (meaning right belief). Was Jesus human? Was Jesus divine? How are we saved? Through faith or works? This struggle isn't something new. If there are a thousand Christians in the room, there are a thousand Christianities. All of us may not necessarily subscribe to all the doctrines in the Christian tradition. Some of us believe this, some of us believe that. What is happening now, as it has happened before, is determining what is the litmus test for being Christian. Who is a "true" Christian?There was once a fight over the relationship of Christ in relation with God. It was called the Arian controversy - the Arians believed that Christ was a Creature, made from nothing, and he was God's First Production, before all ages. The Council of Nicea in 325, declared that the Son was co-eternal with the Father, and divine in just the same sense that the Father is. That is where we get our Nicene creed. Most Christians don't know much about that debate. They take the Nicene creed to be the truth. Then, the litmus test for being Christian was whether one believed if the Son was co-eternal with the Father.i don't believe that there is a checklist of what you need to believe to be Christian. i do believe, however, there are things you need to do as a Christian. To love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strenght. And loving God with all my mind, to me, means i need to use my God-given brains.
i am very influenced by Methodism, and i use the Wesleyan Quadrilateral as my approach to theological reflection. (and folks, you don't have to be a pastor, or a theologian to reflect theologically. Theology is how we think about God and the world around us) The Wesleyan Quadrilateral of Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason are the sources in coming to theological conclusions. Wesley emphasized scripture as the primary authority, but i feel that very often, people who use scripture as their primary source fail to recognize their own bias and prejudices that comes from their own experiences that colour their reading of Scripture. i have often been accused of interpreting Scripture from my own experience, but i think those people who point that out to me don't realize how their own experiences influence their interpretation of Scripture. Every reading of Scripture is an act of interpretation. The Scripture already comes to us interpreted - and interpreted many, many times over - transmission and translation require some form of interpretation. i personally believe that in being clear about how the other three sources - tradition, reason and experience - influence our reading of Scripture, we can be better at theological thinking. We don't think that the world is flat anymore - but we must remember that there was a time that what we know as true was rejected because it was contrary to Scripture.
In the same way i draw on multiple sources for my theological reflection, i draw on multiple disciplines in my life. We cannot look at what is happening without drawing from the other disciplines - like sociology, psychology, economics (yes! economics!), medicine. Everything is connected. The anxiety around homosexuality isn't just about homosexuality, it is about sex. The reality is this - teenagers are having sex. It is happening, whether we approve of it or not. Churches are not equipped to talk about it beyond the standard "Thou shalt not" rhetoric, and i have to admit, it is a difficult topic to grapple with. Recently, Alvin and Vivian have reemerged with more sex advice. How should Churches react? If you respond, you are pointing out the forbidden fruit and giving prominence to the forbidden fruit and the youths in church would just google and watch their videos. If you don't respond, you are not teaching morals and values you want to instill in the youth in church. So part of why this is happening is, in my opinion, a way of venting some of the anxiety around sex - by directing it towards something they have very little connections with - the LGBT community. They are not really talking just about homosexuality - they are really talking about sex - particularly heterosexual premarital sex. This is sex panic.
i have also been told that there was a straight ally who had an outburst at a church service when a guest speaker from Love Singapore was talking about the homosexual agenda. She stood up in the middle of the service and challenged the speaker and she left the service. i am very moved by this act of solidarity - that people who are not LGBT understand the prejudice, harm and hurt that is being done here. So many voices of allies have spoken up in the past week. But while i am moved, i do not support such acts of disruption. It is a form of violence, and i am against all forms of violence. (Someone reminded me of Jesus' cleansing of the temple, but i have to tell him - i am not Jesus) Neither do i support filing a police report against Pastor Yang of Cornerstone Community Church. After all, he has taken down the offending statements on Monday 21st January noting that his statements can be misconstrued.
i repeat myself again - this is what i have learned. There will always be some people who are stuck in their mindsets. Nothing is going to change their minds. Then there are some who are willing to listen. Those are the ones i want to enter into conversation with - because even if at the end of the day we do not agree, we build bridges when we engage in dialogue, when we listen to one another. It is this generous Orthodoxy that Brian McLaren, one of the most influential Christian leaders in America writes about in his book "A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN"
And that is perhaps why people are trying to shut me up, delete my comments and posts. Because they don't want those who are willing to listen, listen, and those willing to dialogue, dialogue and those willing to engage, engage.
by Miak Siew on Friday, January 25, 2013 at 5:34pm ·...
i have kept silent the past few days, reflecting. i was in conversation with some people who really, genuinely want to engage. i have heard many powerful stories that move me, that inspire me, that reminds me to stay focused, and not let the hate get under my skin.
But it does. It creeps into you in insidious ways. The hate makes me recoil. How and why does who i love cause so many people spew out so much hate? i had some time to think about it. And i remembered a comment i received on my blog about 2 weeks after i entered seminary. We were going back and forth, hurling Bible verses at one another, and finally that person asked - don't you think you are leading your flock to hell? Away from salvation? Then it dawned on me that it wasn't my salvation or my flock's salvation that this person is concerned about. The passion, the fire that drives this person is actually his / her concern for his / her own salvation. Because my very existence - a gay Christian - contradicts his / her beliefs. If i am correct, then i throw his / her whole religious framework into chaos, into disarray. The neat boxes of who is "saved" and who isn't, the absolute certainty of gender roles, the patriarchal structure that enshrines male supremacy and dominance - all these will collapse. This is what the panic is about.
There isn't really any point hurling Bible verses at one another - i have come to the conclusion that some people will always be locked into their views and will not change. It is those people who ask the questions that i would engage with - because they come with a spirit of enquiry and dialogue. Because they are willing to listen. Christians from the very beginning, even before they even called themselves Christians, were fighting over orthodoxy (meaning right belief). Was Jesus human? Was Jesus divine? How are we saved? Through faith or works? This struggle isn't something new. If there are a thousand Christians in the room, there are a thousand Christianities. All of us may not necessarily subscribe to all the doctrines in the Christian tradition. Some of us believe this, some of us believe that. What is happening now, as it has happened before, is determining what is the litmus test for being Christian. Who is a "true" Christian?There was once a fight over the relationship of Christ in relation with God. It was called the Arian controversy - the Arians believed that Christ was a Creature, made from nothing, and he was God's First Production, before all ages. The Council of Nicea in 325, declared that the Son was co-eternal with the Father, and divine in just the same sense that the Father is. That is where we get our Nicene creed. Most Christians don't know much about that debate. They take the Nicene creed to be the truth. Then, the litmus test for being Christian was whether one believed if the Son was co-eternal with the Father.i don't believe that there is a checklist of what you need to believe to be Christian. i do believe, however, there are things you need to do as a Christian. To love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strenght. And loving God with all my mind, to me, means i need to use my God-given brains.
i am very influenced by Methodism, and i use the Wesleyan Quadrilateral as my approach to theological reflection. (and folks, you don't have to be a pastor, or a theologian to reflect theologically. Theology is how we think about God and the world around us) The Wesleyan Quadrilateral of Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason are the sources in coming to theological conclusions. Wesley emphasized scripture as the primary authority, but i feel that very often, people who use scripture as their primary source fail to recognize their own bias and prejudices that comes from their own experiences that colour their reading of Scripture. i have often been accused of interpreting Scripture from my own experience, but i think those people who point that out to me don't realize how their own experiences influence their interpretation of Scripture. Every reading of Scripture is an act of interpretation. The Scripture already comes to us interpreted - and interpreted many, many times over - transmission and translation require some form of interpretation. i personally believe that in being clear about how the other three sources - tradition, reason and experience - influence our reading of Scripture, we can be better at theological thinking. We don't think that the world is flat anymore - but we must remember that there was a time that what we know as true was rejected because it was contrary to Scripture.
In the same way i draw on multiple sources for my theological reflection, i draw on multiple disciplines in my life. We cannot look at what is happening without drawing from the other disciplines - like sociology, psychology, economics (yes! economics!), medicine. Everything is connected. The anxiety around homosexuality isn't just about homosexuality, it is about sex. The reality is this - teenagers are having sex. It is happening, whether we approve of it or not. Churches are not equipped to talk about it beyond the standard "Thou shalt not" rhetoric, and i have to admit, it is a difficult topic to grapple with. Recently, Alvin and Vivian have reemerged with more sex advice. How should Churches react? If you respond, you are pointing out the forbidden fruit and giving prominence to the forbidden fruit and the youths in church would just google and watch their videos. If you don't respond, you are not teaching morals and values you want to instill in the youth in church. So part of why this is happening is, in my opinion, a way of venting some of the anxiety around sex - by directing it towards something they have very little connections with - the LGBT community. They are not really talking just about homosexuality - they are really talking about sex - particularly heterosexual premarital sex. This is sex panic.
i have also been told that there was a straight ally who had an outburst at a church service when a guest speaker from Love Singapore was talking about the homosexual agenda. She stood up in the middle of the service and challenged the speaker and she left the service. i am very moved by this act of solidarity - that people who are not LGBT understand the prejudice, harm and hurt that is being done here. So many voices of allies have spoken up in the past week. But while i am moved, i do not support such acts of disruption. It is a form of violence, and i am against all forms of violence. (Someone reminded me of Jesus' cleansing of the temple, but i have to tell him - i am not Jesus) Neither do i support filing a police report against Pastor Yang of Cornerstone Community Church. After all, he has taken down the offending statements on Monday 21st January noting that his statements can be misconstrued.
i repeat myself again - this is what i have learned. There will always be some people who are stuck in their mindsets. Nothing is going to change their minds. Then there are some who are willing to listen. Those are the ones i want to enter into conversation with - because even if at the end of the day we do not agree, we build bridges when we engage in dialogue, when we listen to one another. It is this generous Orthodoxy that Brian McLaren, one of the most influential Christian leaders in America writes about in his book "A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN"
And that is perhaps why people are trying to shut me up, delete my comments and posts. Because they don't want those who are willing to listen, listen, and those willing to dialogue, dialogue and those willing to engage, engage.
