Thorburn and turning the other cheek

What if Andrew Thorburn is right?

Just suppose Andrew Thorburn, forced to choose between his church and his short-lived position of CEO of the Essendon Football Club was right when he said “The media and leaders of our community … made it clear that my Christian faith and my association with a church are unacceptable in our culture if you wish to hold a leadership position in society.”

Suppose he is right?

What are Christians to do? can I suggest that we should consider “Becoming servants” – that is to accept they may not get to climb to the top in our society. After all, we follow the one who said of himself. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Recorded in Matthew, Mark and John.

Or as St Paul put it, Jesus “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” Philippians 2:7.

Jesus laid aside power and glory to serve us. 

If we are called to be servants – in following him in a society where high positions in society may be denied us – we will have to follow the humble road trod by our saviour.

Dare we complain about that?

We have become used to privilege. The name of Jesus is attached to prestigious schools. Christians have assumed we can have seats at the top table. But our leaders never promised that. 

Our sisters and brothers who have known poverty and worse throughout much of history and in much of the world have known that Jesus never promised wealth or position to his followers.

It is only by a fluke of history that we Western Christians have had it so good.

Although like many I dreamed of advancement, I never thought I would rise to the top of Fairfax the media company I worked for. I was too public a Christian for that. And worse, a Sydney Anglican in that group’s home city, back when they were the favourite target of the sceptical press.

This is not to say we should welcome being placed at the edge.

It is no fun. Many groups in society have experienced it. Jehovah Witnesses during wartime, LGBTQIA people, racial minorities, Hindus a Pakistan and Muslims in India. 

Stephen McAlpine the blogger has commented “I’d be taking sermons offline into the future if I were a pastor committed to biblical preaching. Just for the sake of those in your congregation who might lose their jobs through guilt by association.”

This is truly a weird time when outspoken ministers like McAlpine are much safer than members of their congregation.

 Culture wars are no different from other wars. It is the little people, on the front lines that suffer.

There have already been victims of the culture wars. Up until have suffered. Stephen Chavura, an academic was targeted similarly to Thorburn because he was on the board of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute, which is linked to the Australian Christian Lobby. The culture war is not victimless, and there have been those on the progressive side to pay a price as well.

But zoom out to the wider picture beyond the activists – and viewed through a culture war lens (not the best lens) – we see two communities locked in mortal combat.

Conservative Christians and LGBTQIA people, facing off. The marriage debate was really about a group long marginalised seeking respect from wider society. The conservative Christians seeking in response to carve out sanctuary for their point of view.

Christians have downplayed the discrimination the LGBTQIA communities have faced. The death penalty for gay males was on the books in this country until 1944. Removing laws that jailed gay males was opposed by conservative Christian groups into the 1970s, (later in Tasmania). We were wrong. (Not every Christian actually will agree with that.)

The day after the Thorburn saga played out it seems like a zero-sum game. One side wins and the other side loses.

Does it need to be that way? Will it turn out to be a Martin Luther King jr’s “arc of history is long but it bends towards justice” situation or a pendulum swinging back towards a centre? Too many metaphors.

One almost ignored approach to the culture wars was for Christians to become “good losers” as author John Dickson suggested. “Should we strive to be “men” (excuse the sexism) who demand our rights, or should we learn how better to lose well for Jesus?” he wrote.

“Of course, there is a truth at both ends of the spectrum. No one can deny that God’s word urges us to be bold, never to fear speaking his truth to a world that hates us. Equally, the Bible insists we are to speak and act with ‘gentleness and respect’, always willing to bear scorn cheerfully. Wisdom is knowing which truth applies when, and to what degree.”

Bearing scorn cheerfully, or in other words, turning the other cheek. Taking this approach, to the marriage postal survey – instead of fighting so hard in response to the scorn that came Christians’ way – might mean that we might not be facing what seems to be an escalating conflict today. The message that Christians love LGBTQIA people even those we might disagree was missing then and now.

That’s not to place all the ‘blame’ on the Christian side. The Thorburn outcome and many others before that amount to an overreach by the progressive side. There is a real debate, and negotiation to be had. Respectfully putting the Christian case forward is needed. it’s hard work. It is easy to get wrong and hard to get right.

There has been a tendency to jump to defend Christian or progressives, as though we have to choose to hear one side exclusively. Such is life in Twitterland. But it is possible surely to recognise stress and pain on either side while leaning one way or the other.

As Dickson said, for Christians getting the balance of truth and gentleness right is the key. Advocate gently. Respect the other.

Micheal Bird frm Ridley Melbourne posted “There is no prospect of throwing our hands up in the air, graciously conceding that we have lost the culture war, and then exiting stage left from the podium to some monastery to live out our days practicing prayer and contemplation. Wherever we go our adversaries will follow us and find us.”

So isolationism is no solution. The way forward is for Christians to discover how to be a joyful minority, accepting a lack of privilege, growing the practices and institutions that sustain us. The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher has helpful ideas about thriving as a joyful minority.

But part of the outcome, it seems to this observer, is that Christians will find it harder to climb the ladders of society. We indeed are more likely to be servants. That will be a challenge for us. 

It will be a challenge for pastors, who will find themselves more protected from trouble than their flock.

It will be a challenge for Christian schools that want to exclusively hire Christians, and struggle to welcome LGBTQIA students. To maintain this sort of Christian institutions Christians need to renew their social licenses. Or to put it more biblically  take Jesus’ command “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

Should Christians seek to serve only or mostly Christians in state-funded institutions? Why so concerned about serving ourselves.? This played out in aged care in the Gillard years with nursing homes obliged to serve all comers.

Zoom out and look across the football codes, for every Thorburn there will be the Manly Seven or an Haneen Zreika.

Clubs will have to work out how truly inclusive they can be. It will be a stretch, literally. Christians are not the only group facing a challenge.

The result will be imperfect. Christians may well be the “tolerated” rather than the “privileged”.

It may be the result of growing up semi-fundamentalist, but I have always felt half in and half out of this world. This society. Maybe this is “situation normal” for Christians after all. The Apostles would be amazed to think one could walk in “the way” without cost to reputation or opportunity.

Yes, Christians will miss out like Thorburn. Can we take on the nature of a servant?

Image: Andrew Thorburn the day he was announced as Essendon CEO. Credit @essendonfc twitter