Keep Right — Column by Ralph K. Ginorio
The hardest thing to hear, for any of us, is something that we don’t agree with.”
This axiom speaks to our desire to be proven right. When arguing that our personal conclusions are self-evidently true, we often succumb to the temptation to mold objective reality to fit our own predetermined shape. In our intensity to demonstrate our rectitude, we can harm truth.
This temptation, to “reframe” the truth to suit our own sense of proportion, is common among people who step into the arena to fight for ideas. After all, why else would we risk the scars of intellectual and spiritual battle if not to share our insights with a world hungry for meaning? Those of us who tilt at windmills actually believe that we have discerned something worthwhile, something that could benefit others.
However, those very qualities that make us effective can often invoke our own nemesis. If we are bold, we will likely overreach. If we are eloquent, we may come to believe that saying something prettily will actually make it so. If our will is strong, we may become destructively stubborn. If we are learned, we may begin to assume that we have an innately superior understanding.
It is through our God-given strengths, talents, and desires that we are most susceptible to being tempted into corruption. As we want our lives and choices to have meaning, we may too often embrace shortcuts which undermine the legitimacy of any good that we are trying to achieve.
We also, in our eagerness to make a significant contribution, risk embracing a prideful vainglory. We can easily begin to believe that we have some kind of special quality that sets us apart from and above others.
For my part, I try to remind myself that genuine and transcendent truth belongs to God. Like the life He has given me, my talents and intuitions are temporary gifts bestowed for me to use on His behalf in the many struggles of my human life. As Rush Limbaugh used to say, any talent that I have is on loan from God.
Tragically, deeply dedicated people often claim ownership not only over their personal talents but also of the institutions in which they participate. Consider the example of a church community that has been hemorrhaging membership for decades. A new member or a new Pastor introduces a new idea about how worship or business might be conducted; an idea at variance with recent practice. “Not in my church!” people say, rejecting it.
To be clear, this above example is not necessarily about a progressive novelty being introduced to a staid and reactionary church. These days, it is at least as likely that such a new idea may be a recommendation to revive an old way of doing things in place of a modernist practice adopted sometime in the 1960s or 1970s.
The heart of the statement is “my church”. I know what it is like to be an active participant in a vibrant church community. The time and energy devoted by the membership brings all participants together. To the extent that this inspires our best efforts, we cannot help but take some ownership of the results.
However, the church belongs to God and not to us. We are stewards who inhabit and perpetuate a holy institution dedicated to God’s truth. It would be best for each stakeholder to pause before acting and speaking and remember in whose name we are convening.
In Medieval times, Thomas a’ Kempis wrote, “The Imitation of Christ”. In it, he advocated that Christians ask themselves what Jesus Christ would choose to say or do in the moment; in modern parlance, to ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do?”
It should be self-evident to people of faith who are operating within ecclesiastical circles that their every word and deed should originate from their best and most prayerful guess about what God might want from them moment-by-moment. Sadly, most modern church disputes are instead rooted in very human ideas, particularly Fundamentalism and Liberation Theology.
Can and should this notion, that we are stewards of something precious that originates from beyond us, be applied beyond the wranglings of church affairs? In certain ways, and properly considered, yes!
Our American Republic was constituted well before we were born. What we allow or ban in our generations, and what we consider both normal and obscene, will shape the future health of the USA. If we are good stewards, America will persist long after our demises.
On the other hand, if we shape everything we touch to serve ourselves at the expense of eternal truth and objective reality, we risk debasing the integrity of our Constitutional Republic. Were we to be so selfish and short-sighted, then the great experiment of American freedom would end within our lifetimes and because of us.
To be worthy of the gifts we have been given, and to bequeath those blessings to future generations, we must not indulge in the deadly delusion that truth is ours to do with as we wish. The truth is not ours! At best, we can associate ourselves with it.
