WE MUST CHANGE THE WAY WE THINK

We must of course think rationally, logically, and responsibly, and I have written along those lines in recent years, emphasizing that the mind matters, but I have something else in mind in this piece. I am now saying that we must think differently about the way we see ourselves in reference to the world at large. One who has grown up in Churches of Christ and at last discovers “the world out there” may conclude that as a people we have given little critical thought to social ethics, global problems, or international issues. Our thinking has been far too provincial and parochial.

That perhaps is the essence of what I wish to say: we must cultivate the catholic mind rather than the parochial one. We must learn to think universally rather than provincially. One more big word might prove helpful, if I explain myself: we must learn to think magnanimously. To think provincially is to think as if we have never been out of Texas or Tennessee; to think parochially is to think with what some call “the Church of Christ mind,” which is to think too much in terms of well defined parameters where white is white and black is black with no in between variations. To think magnanimously is to be large-souled, to be more concerned with doing good than in “being right.” To be magnanimous is to be eminently Christian: forgiving, forbearing, gracious, compassionate. It was one of Aristotle’s great ideas. To him the magnanimous person was one who was excellent in heart as well as in mind.

We must become catholic and magnanimous in our view of the church in the world. I read a column in Theology Today, an eminent Protestant quarterly, with the title “The Church in the World,” which serves to give the reader some insight into behind-the-scenes events of the church universal. Such information is mind-expanding. Glancing back over old issues one can read of how 129 years of missionary activity by the U. S. Presbyterians found fruition in union with the Church of Christ in Thailand with its 20,000 members in a land where only 1% are Christians (1957), a report on how the Roman Catholic Church is losing its hold in Latin America, even having to import personnel from other countries (1966), and a report on the growth of Christianity in Africa, from 4 million in 1900 to 97 million in 1970, with a projection of 251 million by 2000, making it the most Christian continent in the world (1971). In 1984 I myself wrote one of the columns, telling the rest of the Christian world of the origin and significance of the Stone-Campbell Movement.

As we think from a broader perspective we will come to see how all professed Christians, of whatever name, are but a small minority in this troubled world and badly need each other. While 1.3 billion “Christians” may appear large, it is no more than 25% of the five billion that occupy this globe. Even more significant for our mindset is that the majority of Christians no longer live in what we call “the Western world.” Christianity’s center of gravity has shifted to the so-called “Third World,” with more than half of all Christians living in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific islands.

This means that in this century over half the Christians live in nations whose heritage is not Christian but pagan and heathen. While it is hard to believe, the old classical Christian tradition, with its reformers and cathedrals and its Graeco-Roman roots, is now a minority tradition. This means that most of our sisters and brothers in the world see the world’s problems from an entirely different perspective from our own, and so we all are going to have to think more globally.

This should make us sympathetic with all ecumenical movements and with the World Council of Churches in particular, even when we have misgivings. There are now over 300 denominations from more than 100 nations in the WCC, representing some 400 million believers, and many of these are from the Third World, referred to in ecumenical circles as “the young churches.” One can appreciate the bewilderment these churches faced when the Metropolitan Community Church, a denomination for homosexuals, applied for membership in the WCC. Even though supportive of the radical diversity of the church around the world, the WCC could not go so far as to accept an avowed homosexual church, a decision determined in part no doubt by the threat of a walk-out by many of the Third World churches.

We must come to think in terms of “a geography of needs,” which is to view the world in terms of peace and justice. In this context peace can be defined as the commonweal of all mankind or the wholeness of mankind in general, which means freedom from want as well as freedom from war. Justice on the other hand would be the way individuals and communities within larger society feel toward each other and treat each other. Racism, for example, is injustice even if the general conditions are peaceful. So all of us Christians in the world, many of whom suffer the injustice of poverty, must work for both peace and justice in the world. It is to the shame of considerable modern missionary efforts, including “Restoration” churches, that they have given little serious thought to global peace and justice.

It was the WCC, for example, and not the fundamentalist-evangelical denominations (and not ourselves!) that passed this resolution in Vancouver a year or so ago: We believe that the time has come when the churches must unequivocally declare that the production and deployment as well as the use of nuclear weapons are crimes against humanity and that such activities must be condemned on ethical and theological grounds. The Roman Catholics did however issue a similar resolution.

It has been easy for us to reject the WCC out of hand, but who is more sensitive to the spirit of Christ in a world at the brink of disaster, the WCC or ourselves, when it goes on to proclaim to the world: “Nuclear deterrence, as the strategic doctrine which has justified nuclear weapons in the name of security and war prevention, must now be categorically rejected as contrary to our faith in Jesus Christ who is our life and peace. Nuclear deterrence is morally unacceptable because it relies on the credibility of the intention to use nuclear weapons. We believe that any intention to use weapons of mass destruction is an utterly inhuman violation of the mind and spirit of Christ which should be in us.”

Christians will differ on how is the best way to achieve peace, and they will differ on the above statement. But at least the WCC is attempting to bring the massive build-up of nuclear weapons, which now number 40,000 on both sides (In 1947 Truman said six nuclear bombs should be enough to deter the Soviets!) to the judgment bar of Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all the earth.

The world in general may be ahead of the church in regard to the moral hazzards of nuclear build-up. A university study reveals that fully 92% of Americans believe that a bigger U. S. nuclear arsenal will only cause the Russians to increase their arsenal, and so the proliferation will continue. If much of the world is eventually destroyed in a nuclear holocaust, the survivors may ask in the aftermath What was the witness of the church? If the church around the world cried out as one man Stop this madness!, and if we prayed with like passion, it might go far in bringing world leaders to the negotiating table. Disarmament is possible and Christians are the ones that can make it happen.

We are really talking about freedom, which is the only way to peace and justice, and freedom begins in our thinking. We think freedom and then we do freedom. And this is our great need among Christian ChurchesChurches of Christ, to think freely. Only then will we seriously and critically think about our nation and our world. No one can give us freedom, not even on such documents as the Magna Charta, and we cannot give freedom to others, whether in Vietnam or in Central America.

Freedom has to be claimed by those who would be free. As we see in Poland where freedom is being claimed. And that is another illustration of what I am saying. Poland! Think Poland! And pray fervently for such a world, the kind of world our Lord died for. Many, many of the Poles are our sisters and brothers, too. —the Editor