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REYNOLDS |
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L.O.S.E. 3: Forget About the Pro-Life Cause!
by John Mark Reynolds [author,
academic] 9/11/07
Bottom
Line: Christians have spent too much time arguing about the “culture of
life” at the expense of other issues which would make Christians more
attractive to the right people at colleges and universities at which we
would like to work.
Here at L.O.S.E. we argue that the best way to be pro-life is to be
pro-choice in a new pro-life way which eschews black and white thinking
on the issue and instead embraces the greyness of defining every term
precisely before acting.
Background: L.O.S.E. is our new organization (Lovingly Opposed to Sin and Evil) whose plan is to end evil in our lifetime . . . lovingly! Here is our first position paper. Here is our second position paper. Here are Ten Commandments for political involvement (missing the numerologically questionable six).
Contributor
John Mark Reynolds
John
Mark Reynolds is the founder and director of
the Torrey Honors Institute and Associate Professor
of Philosophy at Biola University.His
personal website can be found at www.johnmarkreynolds.com and
his blog can be found at http://scriptoriumdaily.com.
[go to Reynolds index] |
A Manifesto for Change
We here at L.O.S.E. are strongly in favor of life. We see a tree and
we do not see a baseball bat in the making. We see a tuna cutting
through the ocean and do not think it would look better in a can. We
see a monkey in a zoo and we regret the arrogance that makes humankind
think it can imprison any creature for humankind’s amusement.
We recently supported a Clown Ministry for those in clown-free
regions of the Third World knowing that every kid deserves to see a
clown.
L.O.S.E. sent thousands of life affirming “Hello-Kitty” lunch boxes
filled with pencils and other supplies to our friends in the Chavez
government as a sign of solidarity with those brave men and women.
But exactly what is life? Our fellow academics do not agree with
Christians and this has created confusion in all thinking people.
Action without agreement is disagreeable action to any thinking person.
We call for Christians in the academy to exercise the leadership
gifts we have by virtue of being Christians in the academy to develop a
holistic culture of life. We shall do so through the writing of
numerous papers, journal articles, and serious books with print runs of
fewer than one thousand.
This project is so large, our ambitions for it so appropriately
grand, that we must call a halt to all political action regarding
“life” until we are finished.
We must only act when the action is so widely understood to be necessary that there exists an academic consensus for it.
What good ever came of a movement that failed to wait until an
academic consensus developed? It may be a strictly logical fallacy (the
Socratic) to believe that you cannot know a thing until you define it,
but it is not an academic fallacy. Where would the many jobs of
professors be if we did not continuously seek ever refined definitions
of ideas, words, and other things?
We can know things without defining them (as people demonstrate when
they ask for a Coke without being fully able to define what “Coke” is
to our academic satisfaction), but we cannot make laws without proper
academic definitions!
Cowboys or Clowns?
Let us be blunt. Dashing about trying to save “life” when we have no
proper, academically successful definition of life is the very sort of
Cowboy thinking that is ruining our nation.
The Cowboy Christian is always rushing about six-shooter blazing to
save Dodge City from evil. The mature L.O.S.E. Christian first tries to
understand what are the root causes of the evil we all oppose. Why does
Billy shoot people on Saturday night? Was his mother encouraged to use
formula when Billy was a baby?
A Cowboy Christian just wants to stop Billy from killing, but a
L.O.S.E. Christian first wants to know why he kills and is willing to
entertain him in the meantime.
Only after the proper study can we advise any action. Proper studies
often open new windows and perspectives: What might Clown Ministry have
done for Billy? Can a young lad who has just seen Christa the Clown
save a dolphin from the bad guys really go on a shooting rampage?
This is not just a historical problem, but applies to American
foreign policy which bluntly needs less certainty and more studies.
Cowboys look at Castro’s Cuba and cry “Communism!”
But what is communism?
Why is it bad?
Do any of these Cowboys have any idea what the “liberty” they long for is?
They cry “persecution!” but where are their papers in refereed
journals defining what it is to be “persecuted” and why it is bad?
What if instead of marginalizing Castro we study him? Wouldn’t it boost his self-esteem if we wrote more papers on him?
Instead of Cowboy opposition, have we tried the healthy, childish laughter of Clown Ministry?
Imagine Castro watching the Gospel Clowns of L.O.S.E. taking on
global warming and other evils and sharing a hearty laugh at our
expense. We would be giving and not opposing.
We at L.O.S.E. are fools for Christ, not Cowboys.
Pro-Lifers: All Cowboys, No Clowns
The situation is far worse in the so-called pro-life movement where
people are satisfied with historical consensus, medical facts, and
Thomistic philosophical arguments.
If any idea could be settled so easily, what would happen to the power of the University?
We demand that groups like the Family Research Council stop acting
when they should be studying . . . and when studying do so in a manner
that will lead to more studies and not to temptation to action. The
only good research leads to more research and not to so called “useful”
data (Cowboy data!).
Perhaps the most telling fact is this: the entire Family Research
Council has researchers, activists, politicians, pastors, but not one
Clown Ministry.
Some research brings the false clarity of facts or moral suasion to
a topic, while good research should lead to the helpful academic fog in
which any good student lives. In the area of life, Christians have too
long had the courage and clarity of conviction when we needed the
posture of confusion which is so helpful in causing secular academics
to take us seriously.
Our opponents are offended by our clarity and might be amused by a Clown Ministry.
Would you rather have our opponents offended or laughing at us?
Constantinean Cowboys
To attempt to define “life” or “where life begins” runs the risk of
“Constantinean” thinking. This is perhaps the worst sort of thinking
that ill informed Christian can do. As many highly respectable
academics such as Cornel West have pointed out, Constantine was a very
bad person who helped save the Roman Empire by ending the persecution
of the Church. He also had the temerity to favor Christianity in some
of his public acts.
As anyone knows the very act of agreeing with the Church meant
Constantine was bad. It would have been better for him to allow the
entire Empire to fall to barbarians than to have “saved” it by favoring
Christianity. Some will prate about the culture that was preserved, but
we see through such Western centered logic chopping. Who is to say that
the pagans of the barbarian invasions were worse than the “civilized
Romans?”
Who is to say that saving the works of ancient philosophy and literature were worth the temptations of power that occurred?
When the desire to support political leaders who agree with us
(Constantineanism) is combined with Cowboy tendencies (acting without
proper academic definitions) this Cowboy Constantineanism ends up
pressing for action precipitously.
We here at L.O.S.E. are only in favor of a culture of life when we
know what life it is about which we are talking. We are not even sure
of the definition of “of” let alone “culture” and “life.” We shall
begin to see a “culture of life” when we have a clear view of “of.”
Of course anti-intellectuals in the Church will demand action
(Cowboy spirit) without conferences, papers, and monographs. We respond
that no great movement in the Church, no real revival (What is
revival?) happens without them. Charisma is in the footnotes of
history.
We must support a culture of life gently. To do this we must accept
the possible validity of any definition developed by someone with
proper academic credentials. We must explore these ideas through
numerous academic conferences and through the production of endless
academic papers.
No More Republicans!
The good news is that this will have positive social result immediately by disassociating the Church from the Republican Party.
One regrettable aspect of Cowboy-Constantinean Christianity and the
pro-life movement is that only one party in American politics is
remotely pro-life. This is sad, but true. We have already demonstrated
that God is “neither a Republican or a Democrat” and that any position
where only one party agrees with the Church is a position we must abandon in order to avoid becoming partisan.
By refusing to rush to a hasty decision on how to define “life,” we
can vote for Democrats like most persons of academic background if we
wish. Of course, by saying this we are not saying anyone should vote
for Democrats (God is not a Republican or a Democrat!), but that people
with reason will be able to do the reasonable thing (if they freely
choose to be reasonable) and vote for Democrats. Or not, if you really
wish to vote for Cowboys and Constantine.
What is the “Of” in the Culture of Life?
Today we announce our quest for a thoughtful pro-life movement will start with a conference at Saint Chad’s Progressive Episcopal Church next
month entitled: What is the “Of” in the Culture of Life? We anticipate
publishing papers from this conference and beginning the Decade of Of
following this big moment. Within thirty years, if all runs according
to our plan, the Church might be ready to start talking to other
academics about starting a conversation regarding the pro-life
movement.
Until then L.O.S.E. urges fellow believers that the best way to be
pro-life is to forget about the pro-life cause. Meanwhile, we urge our
members to give the world a much needed belly laugh and join us in
bringing Clown Ministry to the forefront of our opposition to evil. ExileStreet
copyright
2007 John Mark Reynolds
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