“10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Christ the Wisdom and Power of God 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”” (1 Cor 1:10-31 ESV)

Probably the wading pool of Doctrine taunts us, because it is said, you followers of Christ… why do you have lawsuits or disagreements with each other? Why does this one say, “I follow the conservative church” and the other, “I am a liberal”. Truth is stranger than fiction, and for a Body which claims to Know what is best, which claims to be All Things for all people, which claims to Reckon Mightily with the malaise: for such a Body the only prescription is, dive deeper rather than wade in; go bold rather than hem and haw; go diligent and straight-laced rather than mocking and frustrated.

All that shall one day be moot, as the wheels of time turn the fact is that this precious few—Gideon’s three hundred people, for instance—were persevering to the end. They somehow found labors under the sun that silently evaded so much mocking foolery. The took up their spiritual arms somehow unweakened, still Evangelistic as in Bold, and Liberal as in Patient. To the conservative perhaps for instance, a moment of Decision is required, and to the liberal there is no judgment on each other as to whether we are “Converted”, “Deserving”, “Ingrained”. 

And all this rewards those who, as the battle intensifies, simply forsake all—not even really thinking of it in these terms—forsake All for the privilege of following Christ. He had handy notes about Life on this principled planet, that Persecutions would come… this no Christian exclusive or caveat, no concession to the naysayer, but rather a Plain truth of life, that good people are naturally slandered and looked at askance, fretted over and troubled, misjudged and hated. So Christ was just giving the corporate boardroom—fancified with all the tradition of Israel, as persecuted as she was and coping with Rome—a plain talk, that the nice chandeliers and long oak desks and spacious windows peering out over who-knows-what, that all these things are to be held lightly: sacrifice is called for; lives of service are called for; Truth is to be sought, even as we hear in the pleading sadness of His voice that it will be difficult.

To be Religionist is to worry first over many things that in truth we rarely get up to: that our personal inventories are rock solid and sound, assessed with integrity. That our honorarium is unto Him, unto His honor. That our politics are delightfully malleable, rather, that either way, whatever side you’re on, you can respect the distinction between politics—whose side is this—and soul; a few steps in the other direction and see our worldview change, but respect across the aisle… respect… because the Soul wants both the bite and the sweet. The soul hates rightfully the weakened concessions, because what is called for is Deep Appreciation that aspects of our lives in community, our Sacramental, our who knows what, are definitively Effective. If we are wishy-washy on this point… well that offends our Taste and sense of Propriety. We want bite, but Jesus gives us sweet. We want luscious and Jesus gives us Mandate. Sometimes the best resolution involves simply embracing the opposition, trying out the Other Mandate, weeping through the wild-eyed Appropriateness.

But what is the proper place for political dispute? Not in those blogs or streams of spirit called Holy, where it is no glib nor tongue-in-cheek Claim… that we are Post-political because in any case there is a war to be gotten up to around here. That we are not weakened by the liberal and not frigid from the evangelical, but are Discovering true nature of Sin within, as non-sexualized and has the Answers… writ Large… writ for all time. If this Inspiration is in you, then take a moment to write out what you feel… such are the instructions to some. Because it is a zany Discovery to find peace and Resolve that isn’t crimped by one platform or another. And by going Deep, we go Safe and Comforted, even as that boardroom missive has sent us out to be wronged and persecuted. Such were angels throughout history. Such were prophets of any Religion. Such were some of our finest friends… and did we blanch or Question their affinity, or did we boldly love and cherish, remember and Honor their dastardly bouts of service?