not my people?

Jerry Falwell is my brother.

So is Bishop Spong, for that matter.

I don’t do very well at remembering this, but it’s important nonetheless. Last week’s sermon at the Baptist church was on Hosea. The whole book. All at once. The week prior was Habakkuk- another all-at-once sermon, although a bit easier because Habakkuk is so small.

Hosea’s first child with Gomer gets named after a place where the house of Jehu shed blood, and a prophecy is given that the bow of Israel will be broken in that same valley. The next two kids are named more straightforwardly:
Lo-Ruhamah ~ Not-Pitied
Lo-‘Ammi ~ Not-My-People

These are scary names. Even coupled with the promise that those called Not-My-People will eventually be called the children of the living God... these are scary names. As well they should be. Hosea’s prophecies limn a God who is troubled and saddened by Israel’s disobedience, and who only uses such names with redemptive intent. Hosea traces the future history of a people whose experience of being Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-‘Ammi brings them back to be the people of God again, when the bow and sword are broken forever, battle is swept from the land, and Israel is betrothed to God in righteousness, justice, grace, compassion, and faithfulness.

As squeamish as I am at exiling other members of the religious community, and as concerned as I am about demonizing ‘the other,’ I often lose all that sense of pity and fellowship when well-known figures come up in conversation. It’s as though the fact that they’ve become caricatures of themselves absolves me of the responsibility to respond to them as people, rather than as objects of an argument or joke. I talk about their public images as though those images were accurate reflections of the true selves underneath.

Perhaps it was more than mere technological limitation that prevented Paul from listing ‘television charisma’ as a spiritual gift.

Falwell makes an easy example, for me, in part because I often find myself defending him in conversation. Folks who’ve gone to Liberty tell me that he’s a great preacher, a compassionate leader and a caring pastor. I’ve known lots of ministers like that, none of whom I would put on television to talk about politics.

It’s not that they’re conservative, although most of them are. I wouldn’t put a hippie Pentecostal preacher on television to talk up union development, although I’d probably want to watch the show.

Television in particular, and fame in general, just aren’t the right media for communicating the gospel. The power leeches out, and all you end up with is the caricature of the passion that motivates one toward ministry.

The caricatures are unfortunate by-products, but the people underneath are still my people, still people toward whom I need to show compassion. That’s part of what it means to be a Christian- Falwell and Spong, both, are my people, and my reaction to them must be in terms of that imago Dei, rather than in terms of their public caricatures. Otherwise, I'm dehumanizing them, which is particularly troubling since we claim relation through the same Christ.

This is an unfinished idea, so add to it or tear it apart in the comments.