I’m too sick to write anything, but I looked back in the archives and found this Riff on an outstanding post by Dan Edelen that fits in nicely with “Ted the Loser.”
I noted that I was talking about the effects of a major economic downturn on evangelicalism in this piece, written two years ago. I guess we’ll get to see.
Dan Edelen is an outstanding writer and blogger, and he’s also one of the more thoughtful voices in the Christian blogosphere on issues of economics and community.
Maybe this can hold over the reading public till I can get some thought in my head other than “Ugh.”
READ: Riffs: Dan Edelen and a Gospel That Speaks to Failure.
The Internet Monk Archives 
Tough subject. I think we all feel like we have to put on the got-it-together act or mask, which is textbook hypocrisy. I really blame American culture – not just Christian legalism. That’s the danger of cultural relevancy: Christianity takes on the negative connotations of the culture to the point that it is viewed as the source of the problem. Anyone who preaches “Come to Jesus and be a better parent/more successful businessman/hotter spouse etc…etc…etc” is endangering the faith. Success and holiness are different, but the culture wants nothing to do with holiness if it doesn’t produce success and prosperity. In the words of Chesterton:
“For when once people have begun to believe that prosperity is the reward of virtue their next calamity is obvious. If prosperity is regarded as the reward of virtue it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue.” – G.K. Chesterton, from “Introduction to Job”.
From the previous post, I really believe much could be learned from Wesley, not that he got it 100% right. The serious problems with revivalistic notions of perfection and instant sanctification can be blamed on Charles Finney and Phoebe Palmer, but Wesley always seems to take the blame instead. Finney and Palmer did not teach a Wesleyan view of holiness. He taught sanctification as a work of the Holy Spirit and the continuing need for forgiveness. He credits Bishop Frederick Taylor for his teaching on perfection, which was a perfect intention to follow Christ, not perfection in every practice (yes, there are still problems with this).
Unfortunately, many Wesleyans mistakenly teach Finney and Palmer rather than Wesley.
The part that is hard to square with either Calvinism or Lutheranism is the role of the will in sanctification.
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Hold on a minute. This is not the Middle Ages. Success means something, especially in our society where social, economic, and educational mobility is possible and commonplace. Of course, every member of the community has true spiritual gifts that we can benefit from – I know this is wonderfully true. But to expect leadership skills, e.g. public speaking, financial skills and discipline, or organizational gifts from someone who may have not finished high school might be setting that person up for alienation from the community. I have seen this first-hand, when a person was given trust and responsibility beyond their means.
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Jenna:
Blessings to you and your husband. What a sacrifice made for your son. It is inspiring.
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What is your definition of success. Mine used to be how most Americans define it – money, climbing the corporate ladder. But over a period of time I saw the strain I was putting on myself, my family, others around me. So over more time I changed my focus and some bad patterns, gave up the corporate climb, and developed my own definition of success (I think I just saw this in a Nicolas Cage movie):
My marriage to my wife has survived in spite of me.
I have seven healthy kids even though I did a number of things that were not good for me in my early adulthood.
My kids are relatively well adjusted (excluding teenage hormone peaks) and I am not babbbling in a corner somewhere.
My faith matters to me.
I volunteer in the community.
God, wife and family are still number one.
I love coming home at night.
Don’t get me wrong – I still work hard and sometimes long but it no longer defines me.
Jenna – The great thing about getting older (I am in my 40’s now) is that you become more comfortable in your skin. How that has translated for me is that I no longer really put a lot of stock in how others view me – in fact I tend to try and take a more humble approach (OK – sometimes). You and your husband are doing the noble thing – and keep that front and center. Others may never fully understand since they do not walk in your shoes.
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Wow.. I loved this post and I think its so true. The American church places so much emphasis on success that just doesn’t seem to embody the values that Jesus lived for. I think that there is a gendered component to this focus on success. To be a “godly man” one needs to get into a very sucessful job earning enough to support a stay at home wife and children – never mind if such a lucrative job requires some ethical ambiguity or so much stress that it damages family life.
I guess this relates to the SAHD thread a few weeks ago but my family doesn’t look like this image which I have felt implied criticism from others for. My husband and I are both very young and chose industries that have both been destroyed by this economy so we are starting all over. We have a medically needy son. My husband gave up pursuing his ‘dream job’ to care for our son all day giving medications, tube feedings, driving to doctor appointments, etc. while I work at a job that I love that provides excellent benefits – taking care of children at a hospital. Then on my days off, he does part time shop work to supplement our income. He has a lot more on his plate than your average working father or the average stay-at-home mom, yet whenever we tell anyone, particularly friends in the church that he’s primarily a stay at home father, we get these strange looks or subtle comments as though there is something wrong or as if I am being forced to pick up his slack, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Anyways, I hope this economic downturn will at least have a positive effect in humbling us all and seperating the image of prosperity and “happy families” and lead us as a society to value those things that make us more like Jesus.
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Both this post and the post on Ted Haggard as a “loser” brought to my mind the novels of Japanese Christian author Shusaku Endo. One of Endo’s main themes is failing for God, if you will, and he certainly writes in a culture obsessed with success as the world sees it. Read “Wonderful Fool” if you haven’t. Highly recommended. My hope is that some American Christian writer or communicator will take up this theme in earnest. The American church needs the witness of the meek and the broken and the losers far more than the noises of the victorious, the triumphal and the culture warriors.
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Heh, I love your first paragraph there, iMonk:
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