The Pastoral and the Prophetic

[yrieithydd]

I've been thinking about the tensions that can arise between the pastoral and the prophetic. The pastoral focusses on caring for people in the world as it is, while the prophetic speaks about how the world is not how it should be. Last night, the issue that brought this up was war. Pacifism is prophetic -- war should not be. Army chaplains are pastoral -- war exists and armies exists and people are in them and have spiritual needs. Some Christians emphasise the prophetic and speak out for peace and campaign against nuclear weapons -- such as those protesting at Faslane at the moment. Others, happier with the idea of a Just War, emphasise the pastoral and work within the system as it is. It seems to me that we need both, but too often one side or the other thinks the other is letting the side down.

I think there is an element of this split in the discussions about sexuality. To the liberals, care for people is most important. There are people who feel attracted to their own gender and why should they be penalised for something they cannot help. If a loving committed relationship with someone helps them live out their faith what's the problem? To the conservative, the prophetic is important. Christianity has a distinctive sexual ethics -- it's not just about sleeping with whoever you happen to be attracted to today -- and any change to the traditional teaching is a threat to that. Neither seems to listen to the other.

How do you promote the ideal (a lifelong committed relationship) while acknowledging that people are fallible and don't live up to that? Too often, it seems to me the church has become the `pure club' and those who don't make the grade are kept out. But that's how the pharisees worked while Jesus was alongside the tax-collectors and sinners.

TBH, I think the church needs to stop focussing on the negative (no sex before marriage etc) and focus on the positive -- the value and the joy of a committed relationship, which is about more than sex.

Comments

[cathedral-life.livejournal.com]

Well, I reckon Christians should find some saints who embody the ideal and find some saints who fall short of the ideal but who strive for godliness and ask the church to venerate both sets of saints. I'm sure we already have lots of these saints any way!

I was really surprised to read about the life of Dorothy Day the other day and to see how little she fell into the "ideal" of saint, but despite that, what good she did and how she's remembered.

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem with the conservative is that it's all or nothing, hence the rise of born-again virgins.

Some of it is down to difference in greek and hebrew thought about repentance.

broadly speaking, in greek thought it seems that there is one street, and how you progress down it depends on your attitude/disposition. Sometimes there are two. There are degrees of 'rightness' in how you progress down that street, and degrees of wrongness.

In Hebrew thought there are two streets, and you need to go down the 'right' street, the 'law/love' street.

With sexuality there is also an issue about the Kingdom, whether it can be seen in this life or the next. For some liberals, the Kingdom is at hand in this life, while for some evangelicals the Kingdom can only be in the next life.
The kingdom being in the here and now allows for greater openness to who people are - 'God created me this way'. The kingdom being later allows for clearer guidelines for 'the way'.
It feels as if there could be no compromise - I heard one thing that said "God wrote 6 things about gays and 300 about straights in the bible: guess which group gives Him more trouble..."

[ukcanuck.livejournal.com]

"God wrote 6 things about gays and 300 about straights in the bible: guess which group gives Him more trouble..."

I've heard that one before, too. What's wrong with that, in my opinion, are the first two words: "God wrote". Having thought through what I was taught to believe as a child, I've concluded that we must always remember that Men, inspired by God, wrote the bible through the filter of their own, finite languages, social constructs and oral myth/history tradition.

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

It's used specifically with 'bible-believing' evangelicals who want to think that God gives dictation...

[curig.livejournal.com]

I would be reluctant to draw the distinction between pastoral and prophetic approaches on doctrinal lines. It seems to me that it is possible (more or less) to take any doctrine in a prophetic or a pastoral way (or maybe both). For example, in your war one, there may be those who would see a Just War as a prophetic action, fought for a moral cause which was about furthering what was right on earth. You probably wouldn't have to scratch too hard to find some Conservative American Christians who would take that sort of line about Iraq (though they'd probably not use Just War terminology given its Catholic provenance). Similarly, I think you could have a pastoral pacifism; think of those conscientious objectors in WWI who went to the front as medical orderlies and so on.

In the sexuality debate I think the same is true. A conservative could be pastoral to someone who felt themself to be attracted to inappropriate* sexual activity, recognising and supporting them in their struggle, and even extending forgiveness to someone who had fallen short of the perceived ideal. A liberal view could be seen in strong prophetic justice terms - rather like the way we look at gender justice. It seems to me that there is a very strong case that, if one accepts that sexuality is a part of a person's being created by God, then those who are not heterosexual have as full a place in the life of the church and society (including in relationships) as those who are. It becomes a matter of justice and equality before God, which I would suggest is very capable of being seen in prophetic terms.

*As defined by the conservative's belief system.

[ukcanuck.livejournal.com]

"Yo, Moses! Fill your inkpot and sharpen your quill. And arrange for a steady supply this time. You should know by now that I never get writer's block."

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

[bitchy]
I don't think conservatives are that discriminating
[/bitchy]

I'm in a Kill Will mood today...

[curig.livejournal.com]

Do tell...

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

There's more to it than that. I wouldn't want to clutter up yrieithydd's journal, so I'll leave it for now.

[curig.livejournal.com]

*resists temptation to say 'that's why God gave you your own journal'*

:p

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

*grins*

slytherincess != God