Richard Rohr’s talk was a bit harder to follow for me, and my chickenscratch was even worse by then, but I still came away convicted.
He started his talk by discussing how many cultures have initiation rituals for boys which involve powerlessness. It is only when they experience complete powerlessness that they are able to be trusted with power as men.
Next he talked about the fact that religion and politics are corrupt without each other, but even worse, religion has become corrupted by the “bad power” of politics. This bad power, unaccountable power, distorts morality. The gospel is in the business of reforming the world, yet middle class American Christianity is unable to critique power.
This inability to critique is seen in both politics and religion. On the political side, there are certain questions politicians simply cannot ask because their special interest task masters will not allow them. Likewise, in the church, there are certain issues which cannot be addressed for fear of losing the church’s financial base. An example of this was the war in Iraq, where only 3 percent of churches had any criticism before the war began.
He then asked the question - how did we get here? His answer is that for the past century, the church has become concerned with belonging systems. The “almost perfect crime” took place, and the gospel was replaced with identity religion. In identity religion, the group becomes the substitute for inner experience with God.
Next came the crux of his talk for me - belief systems in any church are there to get us started in our faith. But once we mature, our inner authority must take over and help us to follow Jesus more simply. In his words, the truth really boils down to only 2 or 3 things, not the long list of doctrines that every church has. But for many of us, we couple those belief systems with our external power and use it to justify ourselves at the expense of others. The point, though, is that only by giving up our external power can we have internal power.
This giving up power to gain power cannot be proven, but only known by going on the journey of transformation and even suffering. But on the flip side, in his words, saints don’t burn out because they know they are being used. It’s not about their own worthiness, but simply about their participation in God’s plans.
The danger is that religion seeks power by seeking moral superiority, a well disguised narcissism. He calls it “Jesus wallpaper” - using our self-righteousness to put people in their place, spiritually.
Finally, he summed up by discussing the 3 types of power the scriptures caution us against. When Satan tempted Jesus, he asked 3 things:
- Change stones to bread = misuse of economic power (i.e. politicians lowering taxes and thereby giving immediate gratification)
- Throw yourself from the temple = misuse of religious power (i.e. using religion to maintain control over others)
- Bow down and gain kingdoms of the world = misuse of political power (i.e. seeking the perpetuation of power and worshipping the political system itself - selling out)
His final point was that we must reframe our world view and develop practices which will help us sustain them. This conference is about giving us the tools to keep our reframed worldview.
