Taking sides

Imagine living at the time of the English reformation - the first one. Imagine deciding whether to stay "Papish" or to join that new, hip Anglican crew. Or, to take it a step further, imagine if, once you decided to join the latter, you found yourself on the wrong side of Mary Tudor's quest to uphold the former. Imagine how you might have felt, reflecting on your choice while you faced death.

Not an easy choice, of course, but for most at the time their decision, either way, would have been very much one of conviction. Or was it? Many historians from Lytton Strachey onwards will suggest that such decisions were as charged with political as with theological implications. Perhaps you just hated Rome and wanted England to govern her own church. Perhaps you cared little about the actual articles of faith pertaining to either side of the debate.

Many Christians today like to think that they have choices of similar gravity to make: to emerge or conserve; to be Calvinist or Arminian or, dare we mention it, Open Theist; to ordain or refrain. And who, can someone tell me, is actually right?

Being part of a church that is at some sort of cross-roads, I know some of how all this feels. Yet, to make it more complicated, I have been brought up to respect views that I may not myself hold. I have also been taught to see both sides to the debate. This makes me fairly tolerant, I suppose, and sometimes unwilling to take a stand, unless I'm completely confident on which side is "right". Add to the mix the fact that I care about how our traditions appear to outsiders - a bad thing when focused on pleasing too many people, and a positive when channeled into being more inclusive - and you get a sense of what I am - a semi-emergent, soft-charismatic, liberal-conservative evangelical Anglican who likes to question the Anglican way of doing things (I couldn't think of a snappy way to describe that last one). In short, I'm a bit of a mix at the moment.

Is that such a bad thing? I'm not sure it is. Because, while I'm not exactly taking sides, I doubt that any of us is necessarily facing decisions that are as grave as we think they are. After all (and you'll have to excuse the pun), the most significant grave any of us is going to face has already been triumphed over. Besides, we have living in us the same Spirit that allowed that grave to be overcome. Perhaps tuning into him a bit more, and a bit less into our own hang-ups, would help us make the right choices - when choices need to be made.

More on this as it comes to mind.