A Bishop's Thoughts for Christians in America

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To Clergy Friends after the Election: Some Thoughts

People talk to me, and I am blessed by friends who have walked many different paths. I am aware that many clergy are struggling after the recent presidential election, and for different reasons. It may help to name some of this.

1. Some of us felt that America was on a path to the kingdom (reign) of God---more inclusive, more just--and this was symbolized by an African-American president and next a female president. The surprising election results to many were a disruption of this progress. Our mistake was fusing together the nation state and the church, as if they were one. This can be seen in some of the discussion around the National Cathedral and the National Prayer Breakfast. The call is to repentance--the church was and is always an alternative community. We are not one of the two political parties at prayer.

2. Some of us with more evangelical temperaments have made an uneasy alliance with Trump. In conversation this group tends to shut down or change the subject, but it was and is really untenable to hold together a Christian evangelical spirit with something like Breitbart. And so the voices of Christianity Today and Asbury Seminary have been quite clear in their critique of many of the developments of the new administration. The older binary of pitting the mainline against evangelicals does not quite work here. There is and can be a Christian consensus on much that is ahead (mass incarceration, for example), if we will seek it. And in the end, one of the great dangers is that collusion with the alt right (and while supremacy) damages the evangelical brand.

3. Some of us are searching for the common good and the core values underneath the partisan divide. There is deep wisdom in both our national creeds and in our scriptures about welcoming the stranger. There is the undeniable history of wave after wave of immigrants. There is the tragic reality of ways we have harmed "the other" in the past. To call people back to who we are---and again, if we listen this is happening across a wide spectrum---is a necessary witness.

4. Some of us are discouraged in that life becomes bifurcated---externally, in our workplace or in our families we present a face that is calm, assured, pleasant; privately, among a circle of friends or in a private Facebook group, people are honest. Positively, this provides support. But negatively, we do not integrate our core convictions with our professional life.

5. As worship leaders and preachers, we often live on two extremes of a continuum. We either say nothing about what is going on, or we do so in a way that is political without being theological. To avoid the subject is to miss the opportunity to minister to people who are sitting in our congregations and wanting to process all of this before God. To simply share what we have heard on our favorite television news network is to offer them less than the gospel. The voices of prophets and the teachings of Jesus surely have something to say about how we love our neighbors, and the cost of not doing so, in this life and the life to come.

6. Many want the Council of Bishops to speak. Most bishops in the U.S. have spoken. The COB is a global group, on four continents, with many national agendas. It is not a U.S. centric body. What people may want is for the COB to tell others what to do, so that their preferred outcome will somehow come to be. The bishops speak to the churches and not for the churches. Adaptive leadership really is about our taking responsibility in our own contexts to interpret the word of God for our people. At our best, we simply speak from where we are and give others some language that they can adapt to their own settings.

7. Following the insights of the Franciscan Richard Rohr, we might reflect on the addictive nature of the political conversation at the moment. Is it dualistic? Yes. Does it stereotype? Yes. Is it blaming and judgmental? Yes. Can we detach from it? This may be more difficult. I have come to the conclusion that I may need to watch no more than one hour a day of news. And many have said to me that they have left Facebook and Twitter because it was unhealthy.

8. We are in need of a spirituality of activism. Our nation is in a time of political chaos. As someone has said, when they go low, we must go deeper. The church cannot take on the role of the government in meeting every human need, but we will need to clarify what we are called to do and be when the market economy will increasingly shape healthcare and education. We can begin by reading and praying the Sermon on the Mount.

9. We will need to avoid all or nothing thinking. Between the individual (who feels powerless) and the national government (which has been demonized in the past and is increasingly now) are a number of mediating institutions--cities, non-profits, foundations, churches, ministries. Leaders will need to think creatively about the common good and the unfinished work to be done, especially with racism, inequality of opportunity and xenophobia. And yet there are significant resources across our nation to do this work.

10. We will need to develop a simple, clear and consistent moral framework. Even if we are increasingly a post-Christian culture, we have (to borrow the language of Rowan Williams) a Christian memory. The parables and teachings of Jesus---the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 or the Great Judgment in Matthew 25---are there to be explored, shared and lived. We will need to find our voice. The good news, as my preaching professor Richard Lischer once said, is that we have great material.

So do not lose heart. Who knows, if God has not called us for such a time as this?

Bishop Ken Carter serves as the resident bishop of the Florida Area of The United Methodist Church. He is one of three bishops serving as moderators for the Commission on A Way Forward, charged with studying divisions in the global denomination and proposing ways to bridge the divide. This post was published originally on Bishop Carter's Facebook page and is republished here with his permission.