Posted by Helen on: 05.30.2007 /
Today’s local newspaper includes Rev. Lueking’s response to what I wrote last week (The heart of the matter):
Religion: a straitjacket or bright wings?
Here’s part of his response:
Your summary of your last 10 years’ experience - of the stultifying effect of institutionalized Christianity as you experienced it (”I had to turn inwards continually to thank Jesus or ask him for advice”) - is a sad story but true nevertheless. You likened it to having to wear an outfit that did not fit you well, all too constraining, coercive, joyless - the very opposite of freedom.
What you describe is a religious straitjacket, not the garment of beauty, holiness and durability that serves well in all seasons of life and outlasts the vagaries of legalistic religion. Jesus himself had to confront it, and it is the ongoing bane of the church.
Rev. Lueking then went on to share a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. I love that he did that even though our points of view differ. He’s one of the most eloquent Christians (maybe the most eloquent) I’ve come across. What’s not to like about that?
Comment by: Karen
1 05/30/07 2:33 PM | Comment Link |Oooh, “God’s Grandeur,” one of my favorite poems by one of my favorite poets! The Windhover and Pied Beauty are two others of his that are favorites of mine.
He seems like a terrific, and all-too-rare person, Helen. I think you are lucky to have become his friend.
I wonder if Rev. Lueking is aware, however, that Gerard Manley Hopkins was a closeted homosexual who suffered greatly over his attraction to a young student and who burned a lot of his poetry before he died because he was so ashamed? That’s a sad counterpoint to his religious devotion, I think.
Comment by: Helen
2 05/30/07 6:39 PM | Comment Link |Hi Karen, yes, I feel privileged I’ve got to know Rev. Lueking through this dialog.
I don’t know if he knows the personal details of Gerard Manley Hopkins life. Maybe I shouldn’t speak for Rev. Lueking - but from my dialog/conversations with him my sense is that he sees Jesus as setting people free from shame; and so he would be sorry that Gerard Manley Hopkins evidently didn’t experience that freedom.
Comment by: Taylor
3 05/31/07 7:19 AM | Comment Link |I just found this blog and I am excited about all I have read thus far!
I do attend church and consider myself a follower of Jesus, however I understand the questions and problems that many have with the church and Christians in general!
Recently I was discussing with some friends of mine about the church and the problems with it. We came to the conclusion that it is not the church that has problems it is the Christians in the Church. One of the biggest problems we identified was the lack of freedom exercised among church attenders.
According to Scripture, Christ came to set us free from our bondage to sin. But many of us feel constrained when we come to Christ. We have become victims to “straightjacket religion” instead of relying on the death of Christ to set us free! It seems that the reason for this lack of freedom is the terrible habit Christians have developed of acting like everything is “ok” and that there is no sin in our life. I am very guilty of this very habit. I try to hide my sins away so that everyone will think I’m perfect. Evil thrives in darkness therefore, I have succeeded in giving evil exactly what it needs to thrive, a dark hiding place. I need to confess to my brothers and sisters in Christ and to others who are not followers of Christ. I am just as prideful, ambitious and lustful as anyone else on this earth, needing the forgiveness of Christ as much as the next person.
I am tired of hiding. Wouldn’t church be great if it was a place of freedom? Freedom to share with one another, freedom to be one’s self, freedom to praise God in whatever way one chooses and the freedom to dialogue and ask the hard questions!
Comment by: Helen
4 05/31/07 7:56 AM | Comment Link |Hi Taylor, thanks for your comment!
I know exactly what you mean. It takes courage not to hide, which is why I think we need to actively encourage each other in group settings that it’s ok to come out of hiding.
I think some churches come across as more free than others and it’s probably because the free ones have people there who lead the way in making it a safe place to be honest.
Have you read Larry Crabb’s book “The Safest Place on Earth”? As best I recall, the point of it is that Christian community should be the safest place on earth. If a place is safe there’s no reason to hide.
Comment by: Taylor
5 05/31/07 9:37 AM | Comment Link |I have not read the book but I have heard about it. Unfortunately until the church I now attend began to discover this truth over the past year (church being a safe place), I was unaware of how much I needed freedom to appreciate the forgiveness offered to me by Christ. You are right Helen, that some churches are more free then others and it comes from the church leadership. I pray that more church leaders learn what it means to be open and honest thereby leading their congregations to do the same. Would that not revolutionize the way we view church?!?
Comment by: Helen
6 05/31/07 10:24 AM | Comment Link |Taylor, I’d say the leaders and members share the responsibility for making a church safe. If leaders role-model openness and vulnerability but church members don’t, a member will feel baited-and-switched when he/she finds out the people sitting next to him aren’t like the leaders.
But if the leaders aren’t open and vulnerable, members will have an excuse not to be either.
I do agree that ideally, leaders have the role of leading their church members into being better human beings.
But it would be ok - probably a good thing - if a leader said “Hey, this church member has taught me something”. I think it could start anywhere in a church and it will catch on as long as other church members and leaders are open to learning a better way.
Comment by: Mike O
7 05/31/07 11:00 AM | Comment Link |I wonder what would happen if a guy just quit hiding, without worrying about whether or not anybody else did.
Could be an interesting experiment.
Comment by: Helen
8 05/31/07 12:03 PM | Comment Link |Mike, I agree!
In reality a person who quits hiding may well care what others think and part of not hiding is being honest that being honest is a scary thing.
If that person doesn’t admit it, others might keep hiding because they think “oh, it’s fine for them to be open because they don’t care what people think. I do!!”
Anyway I suspect the way it works is that each interaction a person has influences them one step closer or one step further away from honesty. How I react to people today is giving them evidence about whether it’s worth being more honest or not.
Because most people do care what others think.
The picture of Jesus I get from the gospels is that he’s someone would would make me feel ok about being me. That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t challenge me to be the best me I could be. I think he would. But not in a way that makes me feel bad about who I am. r/or.
Comment by: Taylor
9 05/31/07 2:05 PM | Comment Link |Helen, I think that you are right. Mike, it would be an interesting expirement, although a scary one at that!
I think that my problem is that I want to be led and have a role model to follow. I realize that my model must be Christ and that as a Christian I should strive to be like Him. In spite of knowing this, putting it into practice is a lot harder than it seems. I guess part of me is still scared…
Comment by: Helen
10 05/31/07 2:41 PM | Comment Link |Taylor, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with looking for people you aspire to be like - in other words, people you consider to be like Jesus in the ways you want to be more like him. Paul wrote in 1 Cor 11:1 “Imitate me as I imitate Christ”.
But what if you see something in Jesus and want to be that way but you don’t see others being that way? Then you might have to step out first.
I agree that it’s scary - I think it is for most people. Bear in mind that you don’t have to tell everyone everything. I would choose a few close friends you can trust and share who you are with them. You don’t need to share that much with everyone else.
Also, I think there’s a balance between “you are my friend so I am trusting you with who I am” - which makes your friends feel respected and honored and “I’m going to make you listen to everything about me” - which makes them feel bored ;-)
Comment by: Eliza
11 05/31/07 8:48 PM | Comment Link |Helen,
What a lovely letter from Rev. Lueking - thank you for continuing to share your dialog with him, with us and with the readers of the newspaper.
There must be people following along, among the readership of the newspaper, as there are here. It’ll be interesting to see if there are any letters to the editor in response to Rev. Lueking’s most recent letter.
I’m glad for him that he’s had a chance to retire - though it sounds like he’s using his time to continue good works! On the other hand, it’s too bad he’s not still in active ministry - I’m sure there are alot of people who would like to have him as their minister.
Comment by: Helen
12 06/1/07 4:03 AM | Comment Link |Hi Eliza, yes it’s very lovely!
Lots of people in my community know Rev. Lueking and everyone who has spoken to me about him has clearly thought very highly of him. He was a pastor for about 40 years and apparently well-loved. My neighbor stopped when she saw me yesterday to remind me he had been her pastor. (She said that his speaking is even better than his writing, which impressed me given how good his writing is!)
I think Rev. Lueking is still very busy in ministry. He travels overseas often, meeting with Lutherans (and other Christians) around the world. He mentioned to me that he teaches a class overseas for World Vision staff.
Last time I got together with him he showed me his photos from a day spent in a village somewhere like Africa (I forgot if it was there for sure). They had a Lutheran service while he was visiting. So I learned that a Lutheran service can be outside in the open air, with the aisles marked out on the ground in flowers. And that the local people can write their own worship music.
And Rev. Lueking told me about how happy he was to be able to appeal to one person he knew for help on behalf of another. The other had asked for help in the official ways but was not being heard as he should have been heard.
I don’t know how we got onto those topics but I think we were talking about things which are meaningful to us - like enjoying time with people from a completely different culture or being able to help someone in need. Plus he wanted to show me his photos from his most recent trip :)
Comment by: Pete S.
13 06/5/07 9:30 PM | Comment Link |The part of the original post that peeked my interest the most was the poet he quoted: Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins was an amazing poet. I have appreciated his poetry for the past 30 years since I was in college. I remember my first introduction to his poetry was “The Windhover”. I then sought out a volume of his poems and enjoyed reading an edition edited by Charles Williams. Another favorite author of mine, Wendell Berry, refers to Hopkins’ environmental/nature poems with great respect and admiration.
I am not the least dissuaded to read his poetry or appreciate his genius when I am reminded that he was or might have been homosexual (as was mentioned in one of the above posts.) I wish that such things were not brought up, as if that fact should somehow color our appreciation of his artistic ability, mastery of the English language, and adeptness communicating truth and spiritual insight. Just as I would find it distracting to continually point out whether one was heterosexual, celibate, or promiscuous, I don’t think one’s sexual orientation needs to be invoked when it doesn’t matter….
My guess is that Rev. Lueking doesn’t care if Hopkins is gay or not in regards to his poetry excellence.
Comment by: Helen
14 06/6/07 7:25 AM | Comment Link |Hi Pete,
Actually I like to hear the backstories of authors and poets. For me it doesn’t detract from the quality of their writing. Rather, I find it interesting to think about the relationship between their personal experiences and their writing.
I think it’s inherently interesting (as well as sad) that a person would uphold a belief that causes them personal suffering so I can see why Karen mentioned that. In the time in which Gerard Manley Hopkins lived I would think it was socially unacceptable to be gay - in which case it wouldn’t just have been his faith which caused him to suffer because of his sexual orientation.
Based on what I know of Rev. Lueking, his response to hearing Hopkins was gay and suffered a lot of shame over that would be compassion for a fellow human being who had a difficult life. I highly doubt he’d think any less of his poetry because of it.
Pete, I agree it’s unfortunate that backstories might prejudice people. Rather than responding by saying “let’s not bring up backstories” I wish we could set aside the prejudice so we can enjoy the unique backstory each human being has.