strange negotiations: an open letter to everyone

these strange negotiations, 

man they really are getting me down.

these strange negotiations

i feel like a stranger in my hometown.

 

Somewhere, the Christian world is blooming.  I just know it.  I feel it in my bones, like a change in the weather.  

But I can't see it.

I can't see it because I can't lift my head out of the small corner of evangelicalism where I reside due to the tweeted bullets whizzing past, the blogpost bombs dropping ever closer, ever faster.  This is to say nothing of the closeted conversations of which I am constantly a part, here, and there, and everywhere.

Of course, I'm upset again by more fallout from this insatiable need felt by so many within evangelicalism to "defend" everything all the time. The more I hear these strident defenders blasting out their war calls, the more I picture them constantly yawning like Sarlacc, hoping for a "heterodox" whipping boy to stumble into their jaws in order that they might feed their unending hunger to play knight in shining armor. 

And yes, I'm beginning to feel like a stranger in my hometown.  The more I look around the old neighborhoods, the less I want to stay in town.  I'm not leaving the faith or anything, and my ecclesiology is too robust to sit at home and play church online, I guess I'm just sighing in public.

But here's the problem, boys.  My people read what you write.  They listen to what you say.  They track your tweets.  What may take you a matter of minutes or hours to posta controversial video clip, a dismissive tweet, or a fear-mongering blog, takes me months of sidetracking discussion, confusion, and chaos.  You're creating dissension and dischord in the body, a trait which is much more akin to the false teachers noted in Scripture than any of the theological musings you so obstreperously condemn.

Rather than feed my people something they need in their local context, I'm forced to interact with your prophecies of doom.  Rather than interact with my agnosti-buddhis-atheis-indifferen-tical neighbors and build relationships and start conversations well, I'm forced to answer questions that you have put in their minds.  You put them on edge and drive the conversation into a canyon from which it can barely emerge.

The point is, Christendom is over, and some of us are trying to get on with the mission of Jesus in light of that. In short, what that means is that in the trenches, not only do we not shoot those that uphold the Apostles' Creed, but we count them as sisters and brothers, comrades.

So please, just stop.  Your open letters have become open sores.  Deal with heretics, if they are truly heretics, in your own local context, and just get on with the mission.