Jerks All Around
Recently, a fellow blogger wrote a post about his frustrations with organized Christianity and its least tolerable and most vocal adherents. In his post, he sums up much (not all) of his frustration in the fact that so many Christians are jerks.

Ironically, he is a follower of Christ (although he despises the word "Christian") and he also admits his own capacity to be a jerk.

I identified strongly with his post.
- Immediately I agreed that lots of Christians are jerks. I can think of too many discussions about theology that ended in name calling, accusations of unbelief, and weakened friendships, and sometimes even I would even get angry. Jerk-Christians are jerks to other Christians when they think they are safest. Jerk Christians are jerks to the outside world when they just don't care.
- Then I realized my own propensity to arrogance and selfish, irrational judgment. I am often a jerk, and it wouldn't take me too long to find other people who know me mostly as a jerk. I like to think that I have become better at understanding and communicating with people, but I still fail at that.

It seems that there would be three competing theories:
i) Graham is wrong and his opinion is altered because of a few bad apples that have ruined the reputation of the rest of the batch, because Christian faith lowers ones jerk-potential
ii) The world is full of jerks, and as a cross-section of the population, Christians will have their fair share of representation
iii) Graham is right and there are specific reasons why Christians are jerks sometimes by definition.

Here are the reasons Graham gives:
1) The Power legacy of Christendom
2) The doctrine of justification by faith alone
3) A particular understanding of the nature and function of Scripture
4) A combination of missionary zeal and a modernist and foundationalist understanding of truth
5) Christianity-centric understanding of Church and the Kingdom of God

I firmly believe that the teachings of Jesus impact people's lives for the better(ie. more understanding, less selfish, less judgmental and more self reflective). At the same time, I tend to sympathize with Graham's points, some of which could use some theological unwrapping. These points very often justify Jerk-Christian behaviour, and they create an environment where one's supposed interpretation supersedes Christ's call to humility and self-reflection. However, I feel that I most closely support theory ii) from above.

I wrote in a blog post a while ago how our society too easily declares everyone a 'nice guy' (ie. when someone dies, it's always too bad because they were really nice, or when a criminal's identity is revealed, it's always a surprise because they were so nice). Not to contradict myself (moreso to reaffirm the chaos that is our post-modern society), but I think we also live in a world where everyone is also, at the same time, all jerks.

Dictionary.com defines a jerk as "A foolish, rude, or contemptible person." So someone living outside of proper conduct would then be a jerk. In a pluralistic setting, we each have our own personal comfort and lifestyle affirmed. So when someone's lifestyle infringes on someone else's comfort, it's natural for them to be irritated, and suddenly they are both jerks, both the offender for infringing on the other's comfort and the victim for making a big deal about it. It's pretty tough not to be a jerk. If I drive too fast, I'm a jerk. If I drive too slow, I'm a jerk. If I don't quiet my kids in the mall, jerk. If I discipline my kids too harshly, I'm a jerk. I cheer for the wrong sports team, I bring the wrong beer to the party, I don't recycle enough, I eat the wrong kind of food. Jerk. Jerk. Jerk. Jerk. In some Christian circles, aggression and ideological firmness is praised and anything hinting of pluralism or post-modernism is forbidden. In those circles the definition of jerk than it is in Graham's emerging church culture, among others.

I try not to be a jerk, and I bemoan the times when I am a jerk, but it is almost impossible to avoid being labeled as a jerk by some group of people that I'm offending. When someone thinks that I am a jerk, I take that very seriously (which begins to explain my neurological condition), but we can't validate everyone's critique of our behaviour.

Part of the "solution" is to utterly avoid all generalizations. If someone is a jerk and they are a Christian, that is an accountability issue. If someone is a Jerk-Christian, that's a theological discussion needing to happen (as Graham has initiated). If you are a Christian, keep being a Christian. If you are a jerk, stop being a jerk. If you think all Christians are jerks, you don't know enough Christians. If you don't think any true Christians are jerks, you don't know enough Christians.

   [ posted by William @ 5:32 PM ]