2 minute read
Shortly before his death in 1997, William S. Burroughs quipped, “If you’re doing business with a religious son of a bitch, get it in writing; his word isn’t worth shit–not with the good Lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal.” Speaking of quotes I wish I’d heard before my ordination process from hell. Seriously though, I’m sure many Jesus followers would find that quote overly harsh or even sacrilegious. In my experience, however, it perfectly captures a lifetime’s worth of consistently duplicitous and passive-aggressive behavior that’s inevitably baptized with piety.
The problem is Christian culture‘s abject poverty when it comes to conflict resolution. I don’t know how, when, or why this became the social norm, but Jesus followers are enculturated to value superficial, social niceties over deep reconciliation and interpersonal connection. The goal is passive détente rather than active shalom. It’s not about healing the brokenness within people or restoring the fissures that develop between people, but keeping things fairly congenial and maintaining public appearances. Any other expectation is regarded as unrealistic and uncouth.
Here’s the thing: As a matter of theological conviction and personal conscience, I no longer give a flying fuck about what they find uncouth. As just one example, I find it utterly reprehensible how many clergy and laity alike have told me to be careful about publicly discussing my childhood sexual abuse because it doesn’t make the Church look good. Holy sociopath behavior, Batman! That is not The Way of Jesus. Here I was hurting–desperately trying to cling to the Lord–while these dipshits had the audacity to focus their attention on the Church’s P.R.
Jesus followers need to stop qualifying this behavior as merely an unfortunate expression of the human condition. Likewise, we need to stop downplaying the severity of these problems, dismissing each and every anecdote as an outlier instead of illustrative of systemic issues, and denigrating those who dare give voice to the abuse and injustice they’ve endured. More than anything, Jesus followers have got to stop accepting Christian culture’s inauthenticity and superficiality as an acceptable way of Being and Doing. You may dispense with the pleasantries.
The original beatniks believed in authenticity. Burroughs and the rest of the Beat Generation valued their critical edge toward religious hypocrisy and had no patience for the social etiquette demanded by Christian culture. As the aforementioned Burroughs quote suggests, they carried themselves with a deep suspicion toward anyone who tried to conceal the truth beneath piety or justify abhorrent behavior with appeals to divine revelation. Yup. No longer am I trying to smooth out that particular sharp edge. I’m a Beatnik Christian because I value that sharp edge.
