Inspiring Hope

Question: I have been wondering lately if, perhaps, the appeal of Obama's slogan and promises of "hope" (especially to the younger generation) has more to do with people's desire to have something to believe in and something to look to and fill the void in their lives than anything else. Which, as a Christian, is an interesting notion because it's something that the church should be offering people, not a political candidate. So, why is Obama doing such a good job of "marketing" hope, and the church isn't?

Answer: I've been tossing a few ideas around in my head for the last few days, and here is what I have come up with:

I think the problem for the church is that we have gotten the message of Jesus screwed up over time. The church has been so focused on morality (i.e. getting people to behave in a certain way) and getting people "saved" (i.e. just getting people into heaven...I put that in quotation marks not because I disagree with the need for salvation, but because I don't think salvation is just about getting people into heaven). Within these two narratives, I think the message of salvation loses a lot of its potential to inspire hope.

Anna and I listened to a message from Mars Hill Bible Church this morning, given by Brian McLaren. It touches on a number of these issues and is well worth listening to, if you care to...you can listen to it here, it is called "Which Story Do We Live In?"

What McLaren points out is that, throughout history, there have been a number of dominant narratives that have inspired people to action, among them the domination narrative, the victimization narrative, the purification narrative, etc. In this language, I would say the church has fallen primarily into two narratives: the domination narrative and the purification narrative. The first deals with the desire to get people "saved" as I discussed above...it involves an "us vs. them" dynamic that says followers of Christ are one team and everyone else is another team, and we need to convert them by any means necessary. The second is the purification narrative that deals with the morality issue I discussed above and involves the idea that says we can make the world a better place if we just guilt and shame people into acting the way we want them to. It also creates an "us vs. them" dynamic and leads people to form little Christian enclaves that attempts to disassociate with the "heathen" secular world.

This new (and false) story has taken acceptance and replaced it with condemnation, taken joy and replaced it with new laws. Is it any wonder that the story of Christ which has been re-written by Christians who believe they know the way to achieve their misguided goals, is unattractive to the world?

If the church wants to inspire hope in people,
I think they need to learn to break away
from these broken and hurtful stories
and get back to telling God's story.

God's story is about so much more than the desire to conquer the non-believers and free ourselves from this world and get to the next one.

It is about the here and now.
It is about taking care of the poor, the dispossessed and the oppressed.
It is about bringing justice to this world.
It is about curing disease and putting an end to violence.

It's about taking care of the environment.

It's about loving our neighbor and serving the rest of humanity with the love of Christ.

So, I disagree that the "hope of Christianity seems to be for the next world." At least, it shouldn't be. The true message of Christ brought hope to this world, because it sought to redeem this world. As Brian McLaren says in "A New Kind of Christian":

"We hear 'kingdom of heaven' and we think 'kingdom of life after death.' But that's the very opposite of what Jesus is talking about. Remember - he says repeatedly, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, has arrived! It's near, here, at hand, among you! It's not just about after you die; it's about here, now, in this life!"

So why is Obama doing such a good job of inspiring hope in people? I think you touch on a lot of reasons...he is fulfilling a void a lot of people have. They want something to believe in and they want hope and he is bringing it to them. And the way he brings it to them is - by and large - to tell them he can fix their problems and make the world a better place. I think the church could learn something from that...or perhaps I should say re-learn it. Because at one time the church was doing the work of taking care of people, which is why it expanded so rapidly in the 1st century. If we could recapture this authentic view of salvation, we could bring hope to people again.

"The way you modern evangelicals use the word 'saved' is, I think, terribly unbiblical. (How's that for throwing down the gauntlet?) The way you talk about salvation suggests that the only thing that matters in life is getting your butt into heaven, being saved from hell, getting eternal life for yourself...Here's a question: Is getting individual souls into haven the focal point of the gospel? I'd have to say no, for any number of reasons. Don't you think God is concerned about saving the whole world?...We seem to think that the only thing that God really wants to save is "souls." But to me the biblical vision is never a disembodied soul floating in or out of space. No, it's the redemption of the world, the stars, the animals, the plants, the whole show." - Brian McLaren

brokenness turned to numbness

On February 15th, nearly 9 months ago, I (Anna) wrote a post entitled "brokenness" about my job at the time and how I was frustrated that I was unable to help the children who were so obviously in need.

Exactly 3 months after that day, I started a new job thinking that as a Children's Services caseworker I would finally be able to fix the world and help these children.

I could not have been more wrong.

My hands are so tightly bound by laws and regulations I wouldn't have a chance in the world to give a hurting child a hug, or even a pat on the back. I am caught in a web of time lines and deadlines that prevent me from taking the time to truly learn about the family which I must create a plan which is supposed to "fix" them.

I am surrounded by so much hurt, so many years of abuse and neglect which have created whole generations of people who don't have any idea what a family is supposed to be. I am surrounded by so many stories which should make my heart ache within me, but I can just turn to the next page to learn what other hideous acts were taken against these children who had their innocence ripped away from them at such a young age.

Being so surrounded by so much brokenness, more often than not, I forget to hurt.

I forget to let it get beneath the surface. I forget I should cringe when I hear about a fifteen year old girl who just went home with a thirty-three year old man she met on the street and had sex with him because he said he would buy her supper at White Castle. I forget it's not normal for children to be born positive for marijuana and methadone. I forget it's not right for a woman to be pregnant with her twelfth child, with the other eleven already placed in foster or adoptive homes.

I don't mean to forget,
I really don't.

But, at the same time, it is required for survival. If I took a moment to mourn for each injustice, I would never have time to turn to the next page of the file. So I must construct some sort of a barrier between my heart and the world I step into every morning and struggle to leave behind every evening.

While I can go through most days and keep the necessary distance from my work for me to maintain a finger hold on my own sanity, sometimes something happens that gets me...

- I saw a co-worker leading two children who appeared to be about 2 and 4 through the hallway. The four year old ran ahead and the worker said "yup, the same room we were in the last time." There's a room on my floor that's designed to be a place where children who suddenly come into our custody can go and play while we search for a home for them. A four year old is not supposed to know what this room looks like. A four year old is certainly not supposed to remember where the room is.

- The look in the eyes of a twelve year old girl as she stood in the door way watching her first foster mom sign a "30 day to vacate" notice, stating the mom did not want the girl in her home anymore. This was less than three weeks into the placement and I've had to move this girl 7 times in two and a half months. And this was after her legal guardian had signed a “voluntary agreement of care” which gave custody of her to us. Oh, and her mom had voluntarily given up custody ten years prior.

I guess I don’t have much more to say. I realize I don’t have a point to this random blurb. I guess the moral of the story is I have learned that if my goal is to protect children and families, Children’s Services is not the way to do it, at least not as long as the current laws and current court system stands over us and tells us exactly what to do.

On one final note, I must say, for the sake of all child welfare workers in the world: We are not “baby snatchers”. We do not like to take children away from their homes. Let me repeat that, we do not like to take children away from their homes. It is not something we look forward to, it is the last resort on our list of things to do. Certainly, if it is a very unsafe environment we will do whatever is necessary to protect the child, but foster care is not our first choice. Not only do we know that children are usually better off with a less than perfect birth family than with a perfect foster family, but, to be honest, it’s far too much work for us to take a child into custody. In my county it means filling out a 36 page document which must be submitted to the people who search for foster homes. Then a many page court complaint must be completed and submitted to the court, followed by at least 3 days of court spread over the next month. But, regardless, if it’s the one thing you remember from anything I’ve ever said, know that child welfare workers will do whatever it takes to protect a child, but we do not like to take them away from their homes.

Courage does not always roar.
Sometimes courage
is the small quiet voice
at the end of the day saying,
"I will try again tomorrow."