LAND OF CONFUSION

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I liked the song “Land Of Confusion” a lot when I was a teenager by the group Genesis.  Good music video too.  

But confusion is not good when it comes to our sense of what it means to be human and making pivotal decisions.  Thus many ask questions for clarity.  That is hard enough when it is only in the domain of factors one can personally control. 

But what about confusion in information when confusion is of a larger field, there is minimal personal choices and some decisions are permanent? This could happen if there were heated political controversies or a global pandemic where there is a lesser sense of both control and what is the correct narrative to go by.  

Such a “Land Of Confusion” does not have such a pleasing feel after all if confusion replaces truth. That is how that song rings maybe more true today than in the 80’s where confusion of the person and the community runs amok.  

Now, did you read the news today?
They say the danger has gone away
But I can see the fire’s still alight
They’re burning into the night

There’s too many men, too many people
Making too many problems
And there’s not much love to go around
Can’t you see this is the land of confusion?

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we’re given
Use them and let’s start trying
To make it a place worth living in

Oh, Superman, where are you now?
When every thing’s gone wrong somehow?
Men of steel, these men of power
I’m losing control by the hour

Consider that last line, “I’m losing control by the hour.” Let that sink in by the context that it sinks in to many in the world through COVID and its socio-economic effects.  When learned helplessness dominates the mind, the persons surrenders the natural gift of skepticism first in confusion. After confusion can come cynicisms and/or unquestioned compliance.  

So for the times that someone is in a confused status and then vainly struggling to get out of it, a an internal inventory and skepticism can be in order.  

An inventory I do on occasion with my clients is on values or strengths.  This is individualized each time on the answers because they have a lifetime of personal experiences, cultural memory and fixed world views they utilize without thinking about it.  Then I ask, “Imagine you on a good day where you have taken responsibility for life and been more true to yourself, those around you and the roles you need to play. What words come to mind that are natural to you about what made you motivated to have such a day?”  Their answers that come out are the stuff of our collaboration and hopefully a part of their emerging clarity.  

Next some skepticism is in order on what has been in their knowledge and control.  I want to emphasize that it is in the positive and not on what they cannot know or control.  The thin line that distinguishes those paradigms is a sense of one’s design and personal responsibility.  This can be catalyst for arriving at decision and without a sense of learned helplessness. This is because you have talked yourself into an ability to know more, even if not all, for the decision and affirm your drive to make decisions consistent with your potential and values.  

I would imagine some of this may have operated in Admiral Stockdale who created the “Stockdale Principle.”  He was the highest ranking US military officer every to become a prisoner of war in Vietnam.  The principle was a realism about all of the bad details on the ground with an overwhelming perception and belief to overcome.  Those who embraced his vision thrived.  Despair was not an issue because confusion for him was not an option. Or at least if it happened it was a temporary state while he drew from his internal and then external resources.  

Last I would add that confusion can have a good context. I have told clients as individual and groups about some of the clashing rivers in my native Oregon.  The white foam happens because they are both powerful.  If each is powerful then they both have a source and direction worth noting.  If one is in unmanageable behaviors, like addiction or compulsion, there is little confusion because your conscience and awareness of what can be your best self is a stream verses the Columbia River.  

From a more clinical perspective about confusion there is the Stage of Contemplation.  This is part of the Stages of Change developed by Prochaska and DiClemente in the 1970’s. They are Precontemplation (“I don’t have a problem”), Contemplation (see below), Preparation (“I am making plans to deal with my problem”), Action (“I am in action against and away from my problem”) and Maintenance (“I am habitually now engaging in a post-bad behavior life yet with intentionality”).  

From Action on, this is good news but the good yet tough part is Contemplation.  The questions may be “Am I worth it?” Then it can be “Is the change worth it?” Then it can be “Do I have what it takes to make the change?”  Confusion has a natural infusion to Contemplation. The first internal inventory has “no” as the answer to all three.  But the holistic inventory can give you the “yes” that is from you and not imposed on your.  

So are you in your own “Land Of Confusion?” Look for your passport.  It may be more accessible than you think.  

[Dear reader, if you stop here, I hope this has been good for you up to this point. The following are conclusions that can be considered outside of the body of the post above but continuing some of its ideas.  I separate it because I draw out my points above for a faith-based audience. Especially those who are spiritually aligned to the Christian view.]  

There is a lot of joy that comes with the statement “I have the answer!”  There can be an embarrassment to admitting in work or school that you were wrong.  You did not have the answer or solution to the problem.  Now you know you have not arrived and there is more to go in development in some facet of what it means to be human or have your specific role. 

In religious contexts the pressure can be harder to rest on “the answer” but there should not be.  For Christians, you know who the perfect human is, Jesus Christ, and see his holy and fully realized humanity.  You know his divinity.  You know he has redeemed you.  And yet today you yelled at your kid, had too much to drink and got fuzzy on your work documentation to put yourself up.  

The deposit of the Christian faith should see these examples of moral confusion in the Christian as neither unexpected nor hopeless. But without clarity, the confusion of identity and worth persist.  

Thus I will bring up the same questions in light of the Gospel.   

“Am I worth it?” God so loved the world, including you, that he sent Jesus for you to believe in him (John 3:16). 

Then it can be “Is the change worth it?”  Yes again.  There is an engrafted word of God meant for Christians in an ongoing conversion of the soul (James 1:21).  

Then it can be “Do I have what it takes to make the change?”  Yes.  “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). 

In that inventory, it is not only the values of you as an individual that makes the difference but the relationship with Christ who is your “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).  

If you are still not convinced while confused about the ideal of Christ and your failures then look at Paul.  

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin (Romans 7:21-25).

Now we see the Christian equivalent to the Stockdale Principle for those stuck in the existential confusion of sin.  That is the worst form of “Land Of Confusion” in a dark world with a clash of confusing narratives. A moral and strength inventory can only take you so far in in clarity of identity and direction.  So for eternal clarity headed in a river flow of that is good, Christ is not just a passport from The Land but the exodus out called the Way.  

MLK, CHRIST AND SOCIAL WORK

As I write this, I am looking forward to MLK day.  It is a holiday that commemorates the life, words and work of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  Questions come up from the general public about what a younger person would have done for change if they had been alive in his days or what he would think of progress for justice today.  

As a licensed clinical social worker who is also a committed Christian I can at times feel conflicted in some conversations about the subject and means of substantive change. This is due to accusations that my Christian faith is irrelevant on its best days and harmful to the dignity of the person in its worst.  

My response first should be in honesty: many of those past and present-based criticism of Christians against humanity are valid.  Sometimes there are criticisms that are false about the behavior of Christians and sometimes I have to say, “I have to give it to you.  In fact, you forgot to mention this atrocity.  I’m sorry about that.” It is just to say that if my faith lifts up the good but does the bad.  Honesty is key to any hope of regaining credibility.  

A second response is to draw a distinction between behavior of many Christians from the deposit of faith of Christianity.  That latter term, as a Catholic Christian, means the sum total of Sacred Scriptures (the Bible), Sacred Tradition and, where needed, an authoritative magisterium.  With that distinction I can point to how that deposit works in its own terms and where used correctly.  Is there good criticism about a diet? It depends on if the example is where it is used correctly.  

Ongoing issues and isolated incidents are chief in taking up oxygen in the culture wars.  The more inflammatory they are regarding identity politics, grievances and personal anecdotes the more heat than light there may be.  

Before getting into what traditional Christianity thinks on issues and incidents, a further need in dialogue with my social work brethren is to explain how it thinks.  

First, in the most simple and profound way one can, we can point to Jesus Christ as the personification of truth in his life, crucifixion and resurrection.  He is called in Christianity the Logos which implies an underlying law.  To love and emulate Jesus is to love truth.  To love truths in the world is natural because he anchors a sense of order in the universe.  

That order in the universe can be called the Book of Nature.  There is order in the universe including the human person and where there is disorder there are consequences to violating it.  Christians and non-Christians may address the needs of humanity through sciences.  Consider Logos in the logoi.  The Word and the little words so to speaks.  This includes geology, biology and psychology.  The etymology works well.  

The clash that happens between a Christian social worker like me and others is foundationally in the inquiry though faith and reason do not have to contradict.  “Faith and reason are two wings by which man takes flight” (Pope John Paul II, Fides Et Ratio, 1998).  

The inquiry I bring with faith and reason will have some premises on thought and approach that I hope will be effective.  Here are some principles on how that will look.  

Affirmative orthodoxy is important both for Christian dialogue and intervention.  Orthodoxy means “right teaching” and to affirm is to life up the design and dignity of the person.  How that looks is to emphasize the greater yes rather than a series of negatives.  The greatest commands in this vein is to love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  Martin Luther King’s messages were always tied to the commands directly or indirectly.  

Continuing with affirmative orthodoxy leans on the principle of telos.  A way to define it is as a principle in working to an end.  A right understanding of the design of the person means supporting choices towards the end or design of the person.  An example would be affirming that one should make themselves vomit if they accidentally ate poison but doing that in bulimia is gravely disordered.  

While this can be told in love and respect by my Christian perspective and in my social work perspective in the right context, other issues will be in contention about the choices of the human person.  

The chief field of controversy is about the body.  In ongoing trainings I hear about White bodied, Black bodied etc.  I also hear many other ideas in the name of tolerance in gender and sexuality ideology with an emphasis on fluidity in ones identity. This plays down characteristics on gender and sexuality that Christianity calls immutable.   

A response to this is Theology of The Body which is also called The Catechesis.  This was encapsulated in the teachings of Pope John Paul II but was a summary of 2,000 years of doctrinal development in articulation. Principles of The Catechesis include that I should say I am a physical person and not that I merely have a body.  Next the physical traits of gender are signs that speak to eternal realities with one being that God wants to have a pure relationship with us.  

A mirror of this invisible reality is in marriage between a man and a woman. Any completed acts that are contrary to the telos of unity and procreation are called gravely disordered.  This is not to be confused as calling a person gravely disordered and should never be conceded that way.  

Another crucial principle, and this one potentially clashes with some social worker thought, is the principle of subsidiarity.  What this means is that systemic change starts at the most local level first before the highest level. Have you heard of the Good Federal Intervention program?  Which one? How much paperwork?  Have you heard of the Good Samaritan?  Even many atheists know that one.  Wherever you also find a family of good structure and disposition, there is a key point in that subsidiarity.  Whenever a healthy family can be supported Christianity can move.  Likewise so it can in an unhealthy one. 

With all that said, I suggest the following scenario.  I am about to be shipwrecked with 1,000 people.  I have the choice to have my Bible and related faith materials or lots of social work and clinical psychology ones.  I can choose one set and still go off my memory about the other.  

I choose faith because I will draw from my social work training in the good areas that do not contradict faith.  The logoi is in submission to the Logos known as Jesus Christ.  The Christian agenda is to save, heal or comfort every part of the person.  The Church Christ founded, when consistent with it teachings albeit imperfect, does this better than my “deposit” of social work ever could.  

As a social worker with my Bachelors in Social Work foundational coursework being very post-modern, the accusation of what I think and how I think is about “White Supremacy.”  In some toxic interactions with those of my same education track I have been told I am in the wrong profession and told I need to check my privilege because of where my thinking takes me.  

This is ironic to me since I can infer truths in dialogue through what is seen in telos or natural law. 

At times morally based “black and white thinking” is called White Supremacy.  I can point to moral absolutes elevated in many cultures all over the world.  

Another accusation is that Christianity is the rich, poweful, patriarchal, colonial White Man’s religion which is also inaccurate. Christianity started in Jerusalem by an olive-skinned ex-carpenter who died naked on a cross.  It was not legalized until the 300’s.  

Yes, woman cannot become priests but there are many teachings that point to each Christian as prophet, priest and king.  One woman, St. Catherine of Sienna, rebuked the pope of her day for an act of omission. She was canonized as a saint and declared a doctor of the Church.   

So where does this leave me in my disposition to dialogue? I want to be professional in those difficult conversations and project where appropriate how my faith is to be a proposition and not an imposition to anyone. Instead of more heat than light which is really pathos, I point to the Logos as imperfect I may be.  

THAT THEY MAY BE ONE

As I write this it is New Year’s Day 2022 and we are approaching the international Week of Prayer for Christian Unitycoordinated by the World Council of Churches. 

Another year has gone by with another year of division, yet not without opportunities for this to change. 

Dr. Peter Kreeft repeatedly says in his talks that, “brother tend to stop fighting when there is a madman at the door.”  These last two years has been very difficult for Christians.  There has been horrible persecution of Christians in China by the CCP with Catholics and Protestants suffering together.  For them the madman at door is called CCP.

In America the last two years there has been coercion with ridicule, professional sanction and fines for Christians who do not comply with mandates. Some of the time the mandates have been restricting church services while allowing big box stores to be open.  Sometimes there are Christians who discern their convictions against the vaccines.  The madman at the door here is government intrusion “for your safety.”  

When we look across the divide amongst us, are we really in a time to debate if Luther’s theology was godsend?  I can only hope for the day we have that luxury.  

So with this in mind, I want to throw in my two cents to Christians of good will among the Christian branches of Catholics, Coptic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant.  I appeal to the conscience formed in you by the Holy Spirit.  

Just by listing all of these groups as valid Christian branches I may be in trouble with someone reading this.  To some it is “so clear” that one or more of these groups are marginally Christian or not at all.  On this too, allow the possibility that Christ is actively saving outside of your group.  

All four have martyrs. 

All four agree on at least 66 books of the Bible.

All four affirm that Christ is fully God and fully man. 

All four look to Christ’s return.  

With that said, I will offer some suggestions on what Christians can prayerfully consider this week. 

“…..AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS”

When Christ spoke of forgiveness he meant it for our good and for our salvation which is to the exclusion of revenge mentality.  There has been wrongs, even atrocities done in past generations.  Forgiveness is not an injustice of saying the wrong was right but that there is room for redemption for the wrongdoers.  Such is the application of righteousness in its fullness.  And if the wrongdoers are long dead, and you allow it in your theology, pray for their souls too. 

To live this out is Christianity 101.  

SEMANTICS BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT

Even when the language is the same, groups may need a translator still. Because of doctrinal distinctives some words take a life of their own and then the ecumenical dialogue breaks down needlessly.  So to be sure, ask what a troubling term means to the person you are engaging with.  Without the metaphorical translator it takes hard work to listen and not assume.  So listen carefully and respond slowly.  

ECUMENICAL WORK

Dialogue can be much more complex than action.  Action often does speak louder than words.  We should look for opportunities for both because each may enhance the other towards Christian unity.  

Even so, barriers sometimes exist out of a collective muscle memory of “us vs. them.”  One example was when I was on Facebook in a group for mostly Group A (I wish to write as neutrally as possible).  Someone asked if it is alright for Group A to work with Group B in prolife work.  I am in Group B and chimed in asking, “Good question.  One should ask the unborn baby 20 years later how they feel about being saved from abortion through the teamwork of A and B groups.  

There is a great example in acts of charity.  It is hard to do acts of charity to the world without loving each other.  Christ said the world looking at us would know we are his disciples in that we love one another.  I could call this a love loop in the best way.  Serving the needy does not require a theology degree from any Christian branch.  

Another example is in a work of art.  Since art can contain beauty, and beauty leads to goodness and truth, Christians can set themselves up for God’s blessing of unity in joint projects.  It is like we disarm ourselves while picking up a joint painting. 

An example is in the TV series called The Chosen.  The creator of it is a Protestant and son of a co-writer of the Left Behind series.  The actor who plays Jesus received his Christian baptism as an Eastern Orthodox, was confirmed Catholic and is in the Catholic sphere.  The actor who plays St. John is the son of an Orthodox priest.  The actor who plays Judas is Coptic.  Their theological advisors are Catholic, Messianic Jewish and Protestant. 

What they have created in the first two seasons is beautiful, true and good.  

BLUR THE TITLES

We can get caught up in the title of the group we belong to and fail to see truth embedded in the identities of the others.  

We should all be Catholic.  Literally the word means “according to the whole.”  Figuratively, it means universal.  God wants to save all parts of us not just some.  And he wants to save the world if they will just believe (John 3:16).  

We should all be Protestant.  We should all be willing to speak truth to power where it is needed.  And I write this as a Catholic who knows that both Sacred Scriptures and canon law allow rebuke even to a pope.

We should all be evangelicals.  The word euangelion is the word for the gospel.  It means a message of systemic change for a great victory.  We should all be messengers of the gospel that saves. 

We should all be Messianic.  We should see how “the New is concealed in the Old, and the Old is revealed in the New.”  Christians together should plumb the depths of God’s covenantal layers of work that point to Christ as the fulfillment.  

We should all be Orthodox.  Orthodox means “right teaching.”  All of the groups I have named affirm the Nicene Creed with differences on what “one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic” mean in their fulness.  But 95% agreement is pretty good for a place to start. 

VALID AND LICIT

Perhaps you have a loved one who has left your branch of Christianity and report they have had a great encounter with Jesus Christ where they are now.  To summarize Marcus Grodi, a Catholic who helps non-Catholics become Catholic, say “That’s great!”  

Such a perspective goes with discerning valid and licit.  If someone calls on Christ as Lord they will be saved (Romans 10:9).  Someone could in good conscience believe that their group is the most in line with Sacred Scripture. But something valid can happen in Christ still.  For your fellow Christian to come over to your side which you believe to be licit is ultimately God’s business and up to you to dialogue respectfully at the right time and place.  

MIX AND MATCH

A Christian can enjoy teachings and art of other branches.  I am a Catholic who listens to a mix in my podcasts.  80% of the podcasts or Youtube channels I consume are Catholic but the other 20% are Orthodox and Protestant.  For Orthodox I listen to Hank Hennegraff- – Hank Unplugged and Lord of The Spirits with Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick and Fr. Stephen De Young.  I recently got a book from the same tradition by Fr. John Behr. For Protestant there is In The Studio with Michael Card, The Ten Minute Bible Hour, and Alisa Childers to name a few.  I do not lose my connection to my grounding as a Catholic and am sentimental about the Protestant material since I used to be one. 

There is a liberty in finding truth in the other branches including the following phenomenon: “This teaching does not contradict my branch, but my branch fails to go to this direction.”  That is liberating while humbling at the same time.   Try it.  You just might like it.  

“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me (John 17:20-21).