pastorpoet

prag·ma·tism

/ˈpraɡməˌtizəm/

noun

an approach that assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application.

Anybody who knows me, know that I have great respect and admiration for Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  His classic works, Life Together, and the Cost of Discipleship have been and continue to be a great part of my personal spiritual formation.  As with most things that I find inspiring or encouraging, I’ve given away several copies of each to friends and family members who I thought may find similar encouragement.  For several summers at the Zion Spring church, we’ve read Bonhoeffer together.  The outcome has been fruitful.  While difficult to access, initially, with time and discipline, our Wednesday nights were turned into feasts of reflection.  Who knew that Bonhoeffer could have such an impact on a small, black, Baptist church in the middle of the projects in Birmingham, Alabama?!

When Dietrich Bonhoeffer traveled to the United States one of his greatest critiques of American theology was that there was none.  Bonhoeffer suggested that the American church offered Protestantism without reform – a shallow theology more akin to pragmatism than to any real Christianity.  This was his disappointing assessment until he met a black man named Albert Franklin Fisher.  Albert (Frank) was the son of Charles Fisher, the Pastor of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. While attending Union Theological Seminary in New York, Bonhoeffer often visited the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. There, he heard Rev. Dr. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. proclaim the Gospel alongside a poignant prophetic protest of the violence and wickedness bred of the racism that stained America’s national identity.

Bonhoeffer was deeply affected by the spirituality he encountered in the black Church.  Many believe that it was this experience that altered the course of Bonhoeffer’s life and informed much of his activities after he returned to Germany prior to and during the Third Reich.

So then, what’s the problem with pragmatism? It is, after all, an American way of life.

“Git’er done!”

“By any means necessary!”

And the quintessential –

“The ends justify the means.”

The problem is, each of these expressions represent the opposite of what our faith mandates!  While costly and likely unpopular to say so – what we do, why we do, and how we do, is just as important as what we accomplish, when we arrive, or whether or not we win!

²³ Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, ²⁴ knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. ²⁵ For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. ^[1]

In many ways, the shallowness that has come to define much of American Christianity is a direct result of her unquestioning embrace of pragmatism.  It worked.  It must be right, so let’s keep doing it!  It is this misguidedness that allowed (allows) the American church to be complicit to slavery, genocide, manifest destiny, segregation, imperialism, pre-emptive military strikes, naked aggression and violence!  An economy that demands poverty in the name of progress, a political system polluted by the filthy lucre of corporate interests, careless industry that destroys the environment for profit, a society that mortgages the futures of its children – leaving them to inherit a world that is worse – all these things are the outworking of good old-fashioned American pragmatism.  Baptized and sanctified in pulpits across the country, we declare sentimentally, nostalgically, patriotically – we are rapt by pragmatism!

America, America, God shed His grace on thee… And crown thy good?

Questioning our motives, examining our methods – these logical and decidedly Christian approaches – are jettisoned for an “all money is good money, so long as we get it done, something is better than nothing,” philosophy.  This obscenity is further perpetuated by its greatest proponents who dare invoke the sovereignty of God to justify their means.  That is to say, “God allowed it, so God must have wanted it this way – His will be done, let’s do it again!”

The great shame is that if Bonhoeffer were to visit America today, he would encounter even a greater dearth of spirituality and theology in the American church.

The sometimes slow walk towards freedom that once embodied the ideals of the black church have now become a short cut to prosperity and respectability!  Dignity and substance forsaken are for popularity and style. Significance is measured by size and sheen. Get ready, get ready, get ready!  The pressure of living in the margins that once produced a stalwart and redemptive hopefulness – this hopefulness has been auctioned for the promise of an American dream.  All for the low, low, low cost of our souls…

Friends, I submit to you that our ‘ends” is our ‘means’ – the wrongdoer will be paid back.  Our motives must be pure, our methods informed by the wisdom of God; every action must be filtered through the lens of our love for God and our love for those made in His image and likeness.  Our foundation must be sure, lest the entire house be ruined.

All money is not good money.

The end does not justify the means.

Not by any means necessary.

We live and die by our hows and our whys.  If not for love, then not at all.  Even our salvation, then, is not just a destination – it is a journey!

God have mercy on us for embracing this pragmatism and extolling American mythology – such idolatry.

Have mercy on us all.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Col 3:23–25). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society

To provide context – here’s is the link to article that precipitated my response:

http://m.wbrc.com/story/38079857/church-of-the-highlands-announces-new-campus-in-heart-of-crime-ridden-area-of-birmingham

Mayor Woodfin,

Many black churches have survived and served our communities despite the obstacles that have been hurled at us.  We continue to preach, teach, make disciples, and demonstrate God’s grace in practical ways.  We don’t have trumpets blaring.  We don’t do media blitzes.  We don’t often wear matching t-shirts.  We don’t have elaborate programs and huge budgets… but, what we do have is a history that teaches us that when we share our ‘little’, it can become ‘more than enough.’  We have subsisted on scraps that we turn artfully into soul-food.  We have endured under circumstances (evil economic policies, destructive legislation, racism and discrimination in all of its machinations, the unequal application of justice, etc.)  that were created to destroy us.  We are poor but indeed we are rich…

So then, it is with particular consternation that we receive your remarks and those of Chris Hodges of the Church of the Highlands.  The remarks made this week reflect what we perceive to be a lack of effort in attempting to really understanding the people and the places in the 99 neighborhoods that are Birmingham that you seek to transform.  Your remarks demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the black community and a mischaracterization of the black church that relied more on stereotypes than truth and experience with real people.  Your remarks also seem to reflect a gross miscalculation of resource.  It appears that your assessment of resources is defined by dollars and cents rather than people and their voices – the wisdom of their experiences.  The campaign promise of ‘people first’ seems to be ‘people with money first.’

While understanding the zeal of the new administration to appear strong against crime and violence in the most vulnerable communities that we serve, we would suggest that our Mayor realize that our communities did not get this way accidentally.  Economic segregation, over-criminalization of black people, white-flight, real-estate red-lining, failing schools – we could certainly go on – these are the methodologies employed whereby black communities and black families have been systematically crippled and destroyed.  The myth of black-on-black crime is a diversion.  The crime in our communities is not so much an indicator of the immorality of black people, inasmuch as it is a byproduct of poverty and proximity – a poverty rooted in an old system that specialized in the exploitation and commoditization of our bodies.  Violent crimes, and other self-destructive behaviors, are rooted in self-hatred and perpetuated by the gross miseducation of a people. The old ways are not gone.  They are subtler which makes them more dangerous.   This old system, disrobed of old robes and sheets, has the vestiges of his poisonous message still pervading the halls of our governments, our schools, and our sacred spaces!  Mr. Mayor, you are a problem solver.  Let’s deal with the source and not simple the symptom!

Mayor Woodfin (Pastor Hodges) – we suggest that you review our history. Your present mindset seems to overlook how white communities, and yes the white church, have been complicit in creating the circumstances that the black community and the black church have been forced to deal with. Again, whether through bad legislation and public policy, apathy, ignorance, or bad theology – the same folks so moved to “save and clean-up” our communities are culpable for these conditions!  The same folks so moved to ‘save and clean-up’ our communities are often found voting in ways that belie their good intentions.  The superficial charity applied to our communities, though well-intended, is a salve that anesthetizes but does nothing to dislodge and eradicate the cancerous root that will eventually destroy us all.  This poisonous charity does more to assuage the unnamed undefined guilt of the one who extends it, than it benefits its recipients.  It is the proverbial bandage over a gaping bullet wound!  Beyond this, the combined clumsiness and arrogance of these efforts make it even harder for the long established black churches in these areas to make progress.

We are laboring faithfully with limited resources – most of us do not have the money that these large white churches have.  We have the passion, the understanding, and the access – but we cannot compete with the shiny beads and free-stuff – the bribery that gives some access to our neighborhoods!    Consequentially, we are left having to defend ourselves against false accusations of ignorance, ineptitude, and insensitivity to the needs of those in our own communities!  We are assailed by insults rooted in stereotypes and false narratives coming from people who’ve never been to our churches and never put a dime in a collection plate.  “What are you doing; what have you done, what have you given away in the community?’

Mayor Woodfin (Pastor Hodges), these heavy-handed, misguided efforts along with your careless words have turned what should have been compliment into competition.  Please hear me, what is written here – is not divisive or negative.  We are simply compelled to tell the truth. We are hopeful as this is necessary step in any efforts toward real progress.

Mayor Woodfin (Pastor Hodges), I’m sure you already know this.  Before there can be unity, there must be a process of reconciliation.  Reconciliation is impossible without truth-telling. And this truth-telling must be fueled by a genuine love for the other.  So while you may perceive these words as harsh and overly critical, understand that they are spoken out of love.  The tension we are now encountering can, if managed properly, become the friction that enables motion.  This conflict is necessary and should be embraced as constructive.  We must not turn from it in embrace of some uneasy peace that is no peace at all.  This process, though slower and more deliberate than what you may have envisioned for your first one hundred days, will lead to lasting and meaningful change across our city!

Mayor Woodfin, listen to your electorate.  Listen to the activists and community leaders that campaigned hard and bet on your potential to be a transformational and progressive leader.  Revisit the promises you made during your campaign.  It is still early and it is entirely possible that you can have an amazing impact on this city. You may well live up to the lofty standards expressed in your campaign – and for the good of the city, we certainly hope you do!

So, with sincerity, I ask you again.  Mayor Woodfin, can we talk?

This letter is actually a continuation of a post that I made on social media (that text is below) at the beginning of this week.  Shared publicly, as that post made its rounds, it received tremendous feedback and was shared broadly.  In an attempt to elaborate on some of these thoughts and initiate some contact with the Mayor, I have tried to further distill my thoughts and encourage a constructive discourse… If it seems redundant – I apologize in advance.

Adam Mixon

May 1 at 9:39pm ·

Warning – long post – but please read!!

I’ve been pastoring in a poor community in Birmingham for 17 years… We are not ignorant… We DO the work of the ministry in North Avondale… We serve the children and families in Tom Brown Village… We survived when our sanctuary burned… It would’ve been easier to leave the community- but we chose to stay – we were compelled to be salt and light! We’ve ducked bullets and stretched our resources to the hilt… when we grow it strains us, because we serve people with real needs… we don’t have wealth to insulate us against human brokenness and pernicious suffering… I work every day so as not to tax the church… As long as I’ve been called – I’ve worked, served the church, and pursued religious training- largely at my own expense and that of my family! I’ve cobbled together resources depending on the grace of God and the generosity of other Christians in this city and across the country who possessed a genuine desire to walk with us… I haven’t purchased air time, blown trumpets, or hung billboards- but I am here, we are here, and we’ve been here, and we are not alone…

That is why the language used in the recent articles that flood my timeline is so hurtful… that is why it is even more painful when I hear my own folks berate our church and other churches in similar situations… to belittle our efforts… while withholding any personal investments of time, talent, or resources in our communities…

Do you know how difficult it is to get young black professionals to invest and attend the churches that big mama raised them and their parents in? Demanding so much, holding such high expectations, while offering so little… Makes sense why these other ‘High’ places are so attractive… I digress…

To all those who’ve passed judgment and leveled indictments, highlighted the failures of the ‘black’ church- take care as to how you use your broad brushes… take care… we are not ignorant and we are not a monolith…

To those who scoff at the drugs and violence that infest our communities- these are mere symptoms of a broader evil that has deep roots in far ‘nicer’ places than our run down communities… learn your history… while you rage against the symptom – you would do well to deal with the source…

I know I’m rambling now, but I beg your pardon… my cup runs over…

Assimilation is not integration… black businesses failed because of integration… our neighbors were robbed of an economy… drugs and guns filled the gap – crime is the construct of an absent economy…And now (and again) the black church is in the crosshairs of a host of well-meaning, paternalistic, Bible-quoting gentrifiers with dreams of taming the savages and healing our dark lands… oh wait, I’ve heard this story before… we know how this ends…

I’ve been watching this for years now and I guess it is come to a head – these folks know my name… we’ve chatted over sandwiches…

Mayor Woodfin – can we talk?

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton